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Regrowing Divine Trees: Zhai Yongming's "The Eighth Day" as a Reflection on the Intellectual and Ethical Ecosystem of Posthuman Eden

Abstract:Published in 2009, "The Eighth Day" is a poetic sequel to the Biblical myth of creation. Zhai sketches a landscape of the posthuman world in which "scientists replaced God" and continue His work populating the earth with transgenic species, cyborgs, and humanoids. Inviting readers for time travel to a future society, the poet prompts them to reflect on the most fundamental big questions concerning ontology, epistemology, and ethics of the newly emergent "natureculture," to use Donna Haraway's term, including problems such as the relationship between science and religion or between matter, intelligence, consciousness, and conscience. This study unpacks these big questions and traces possible answers to them in other works from Zhai's oeuvre and beyond, mobilizing cultural contexts inspired by her poem "The Eighth Day."