What would a post-apocalyptic China be like?

Think The Walking Dead, or Mad Max, but set within a Chinese culture.

What would such a setting be like?

Why would it be all that different from the depictions of human behaviour in those films/series? When everything has gone to hell and there is nothing left that matters but survival, I think people will behave largely the same irrespective of their culture or race.

Without society to impose order and punish bad behaviour, people will just revert to their base selves. Most will just try to work hard to survive, some monsters will prey on those weaker to survive or just because they can, some heros will step up to try and stop them, and you will also have a load of crazies or mentally disturbed people running around to mix things up.

The truth is I don't think anyone can truly say with full confidence what they themselves will do if thurst into such an extreme situation and hostile environment. We might all hope to or aspire to behave honourably and decently, but fear, starvation and desperation have changed people since the dawn of our race, and I think most of us would be amazed at what we ourselves are capable of if pushed to the edge. Because of that, I think trying to predict what a group as large and diverse as an entire race would do would just be an exercise in futility and stereotyping.

Post-apocalyptic fiction isn't so much a realistic analysis of human behavior as it is a projection of a culture's values and beliefs.

Take the "Walking Dead", for example. A central theme to that series (TV show or comics), is the existence of safe but tyrannical communities. It is contrasted with Rick's group, who are good decent folk, but are constantly struggling to survive.

There's also Stephen King's classic "The Stand". The "good guys" are disorganized but democratic. The "bad guys" are well-organized, but live in fear.

In Resident Evil (the movies), every form of civilization has collapsed, except the Umbrella Corp, who continue their nefarious experiments in vast underground complexes. This is an obvious reflection of the fear of a powerful corporation in a consumerist society. I'm not sure "evil mega-corp" has as much of a resonance to Chinese audiences.

Obviously, it would be entirely speculative to try to predict what people would really do in the event of an Extinction Level Incident. After all, nothing says "Walking Dead" is an accurate portrayal of post-apocalyptic Americans.

So the real question is, what would a Chinese writer, or a writer with a Chinese mindset, come up with for a post-apocalyptic world set in China?

Or rather, how would *YOU* create such a setting?

add one part day of the dead to two parts battle at red cliff flavor with Mao, pink floyd's another brick in the wall and mad max, beat until mixture is smooth. toss in large helpings of north korea, and george orwell. crack and beat one egg. mix and pour into china shaped bowl. preheat nuclear fusion to temp, serve when desert brown.

by the words "post-apocalyptic", that means sh!t has already hit the fan in china. with that said, if it's disease related, i'd think that china could be hit very very hard, depending the spread of the disease. if it's quickly-spread like zombie infections, and if the ground zero is in an urban center we'll be looking at a very potential raccoon city-style infection. the PLA and PAF would come in and put the entire area down heavy-handed. martial law and curfews would be imposed all over the entire country. this can be very disastrous in the beginning, but possibly a better outcome scenario.

if it takes a day or 2 to turn into zombies, then there stands a chance of the disease having spread across the country, and that's actually a lot worse.

and finally if it was really a post-apocalyptic world where significant damage had been done, i won't be surprised if local corrupt governments took up on their own governance, and the central authority might have either have to go out there and take over again. i totally don't rule out the possibility of warlordism and factions breaking up like in the old days.

i guess i hold a rather dismal view towards china and the larger countries. on the other hand, smaller countries like singapore, the holy see, etc, may manage slightly better.

I joke with my friends that in the TV show Revolution people in their 20s and 30s should be near-extinction in that world because today's generation of kids would not survive in a world without electricity. No video games, no smartphones, no social media, etc... I'm amazed how many people literally don't know or do anything that does not involve using electricity. Revolution should have been a world of only older people, teenagers, and children.

Air's post reminded me of something.

One of the central themes to any post-apocalyptic setting is the breakdown of technology, and how that affects people.

In China, we have this weird mix of high-technology side-by-side with people who live in caves. Literally.

So you'd have one group of people for whom the world has really ended, while for villages in remote mountainous areas, the only thing that's different is all the TV shows have been canceled.

So instead of dwelling on how the breakdown of technology affects people, we would be seeing people learning how to live off the land again.

Of course, this is assuming only one kind of "apocalypse".

If the apocalypse were caused by a realistic event, China would be no different from what you see from a more underdeveloped China of the past. If it were a zombie apocalypse, I bet the Chinese would think of a 1001 ways of how to use your zombie. Let's remember the black plague struck China too. The reason why you don't hear about it was because it didn't have the same result due to the Chinese figured out how to manage it.

AssassinsMace said:

I joke with my friends that in the TV show Revolution people in their 20s and 30s should be near-extinction in that world because today's generation of kids would not survive in a world without electricity. No video games, no smartphones, no social media, etc... I'm amazed how many people literally don't know or do anything that does not involve using electricity. Revolution should have been a world of only older people, teenagers, and children.

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I think the post-90's would have more trouble adjusting. I at least remember a world without internet or cell phone, lol.

solarz said:

I think the post-90's would have more trouble adjusting. I at least remember a world without internet or cell phone, lol.

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Sometimes I missed the non-internet days where I can actually get things done. Of course the downside would be no video porn.