How might this event – which triggered a global health crisis – reach across a century of technological progress, social engineering, and medical advances, to shape the country and its people? Will the lessons of the pandemic have been learned? Will the people’s trust in science have been repaired?

 Covering a range of contexts, from transhumanist performance art to lawless dystopia, these stories use the prism of the future to inspect both intergenerational repercussions from the 2019 outbreak and imagined future pandemic scenarios. Along the way, we encounter concrete-devouring super-fungi, deep-space outbreaks, slum clearances dressed up as ‘quarantine measures’, and science-defying rumours spreading faster than any virus. However, at the heart of each story, lies the unique Chinese temperament, acknowledging the loss that the entire country experienced, and a resilience formed over generations of disasters and conflict.