"Neo-China Arrives From the Future:" On Nick Land's Sino-Futurism (The Meltdown Lectures) cover art

"Neo-China Arrives From the Future:" On Nick Land's Sino-Futurism (The Meltdown Lectures)

"Neo-China Arrives From the Future:" On Nick Land's Sino-Futurism (The Meltdown Lectures)

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

In this episode, we analyze the sentence "Neo-China arrives from the future" from Nick Land's 1994 essay "Meltdown." For Land, Capital is an autonomous intelligence from the future and China is the privileged site of arrival due to its lack of Western moral constraints. We cover China's Special Economic Zones, Land's predictions of Western decline versus Eastern acceleration, and the concept of Sino-futurism. Looking at the data, we find that Land's concept here is surprisingly prescient and accurately predictive; given the mention of China in "The Dark Enlightenment" and his own move to to Shanghai, this idea is arguably one of his most serious, long-term, and high-conviction ideas. I offer one counter-hypothesis on why I think China might not remain the privileged site of technocapital acceleration in the medium-term.

00:00 Intro
01:45 "Arriving from the future"
04:02 Why China? Western Moral Drag
10:15 Why this sentence is underrated
14:08 China in "The Dark Enlightenment"
18:08 A closer look at Chinese Acceleration
22:15 Sinofuturism

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:45) - "Arriving from the future"
  • (04:02) - Why China? Western Moral Drag
  • (10:15) - Why this sentence is underrated
  • (14:08) - China in "The Dark Enlightenment"
  • (18:08) - A closer look at Chinese Acceleration
  • (22:15) - Sinofuturism
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.