East Meets West in a Discussion of Humanity’s Future | “Xuemo in Dialogue with International Scholars” (Episode 1)

 

East Meets West in a Discussion of Humanity’s Future | “Xuemo in Dialogue with International Scholars” (Episode 1)

Scholars and sinologists from China, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Iran met online on February 8, 2026, for the first International Dialogue on Suosalang. The World Literature Union and the Xuemo Foundation organized the event to discuss Xuemo’s eight-volume epic and the questions it raises about literature, philosophy, and the future of society.

Yanjin Chen, a senior editor at People’s Literature Publishing House and Xuemo’s longtime editor, moderated the discussion. She said the series would bring scholars from different countries and disciplines together to examine the literary and cultural significance of Suosalang and consider how the work might be read outside China.

Literature, Science Fiction, and the Search for Another Way of Living

One of the day’s main subjects was the relationship between Suosalang and science fiction.

Xuemo said that he did not write Suosalang as a conventional narrative epic. He wanted the work to ask whether humanity could build a kind of society different from those it already knows.

He contrasted his literary project with Elon Musk’s pursuit of technological innovation and space exploration. While Musk looks outward through science and technology, Xuemo said, he works through literature and art. The several worlds called “Suosalang” in the epic represent different ways in which human civilization might develop.

Professor Qiong Wang of Guangxi Minzu University asked whether artificial intelligence could create a new world if the present one were destroyed. She also asked Xuemo to identify the epic’s main literary theme.

Xuemo suggested that artificial intelligence might one day be understood not simply as a set of algorithms but as a form of intelligence with some agency of its own. Even so, he said, AI should remain a means of inquiry rather than an end in itself.

The epic’s main direction is inward. Xuemo contrasted this with what he sees as the Western tendency to conquer and control the world outside the self. Suosalang turns inward insteadand asks how people might strengthen their capacity for love and wisdom.

Wang related this idea to philosophical discussions of immanence. She also noted that the search for an “eternal light” runs through the epic and that light appears as a spiritual symbol in many religious and cultural traditions.

When asked which character he admired most, Xuemo named Shengle. He said the character does not simply suppress desire but learns to face and transform it. Through trials and tribulations, Shengle finally awakens to the true nature of himself and the world.

Xuemo said the book rests on one claim: each person can draw on love and wisdom to create a utopia, a “Suosalang” of his or her own.

What an Inward Search Might Offer Contemporary Readers

The discussion then turned to what Suosalang might mean to readers from different cultural backgrounds.

Italian sinologist Riccardo Moratto placed his question in the context of the Western epic tradition. At a time when technology is weakening familiar sources of meaning, he asked which part of Suosalang’s inward search might speak most directly to Western readers accustomed to mastering the external world.

Xuemo replied that the more people investigate the world around them, the more they may recognize the role played by the perceiving mind. He argued that people must reclaim their inner sovereignty, grounded in love and wisdom, if they are to avoid being ruled by money and desire and learn to live together peacefully.

Professor Helen Wu asked how people living in large Canadian cities might read the book.

Xuemo answered with the image of a cup. City life, he said, can confine a person’s experience to a narrow vessel. By portraying the landscapes and everyday life of western China, Suosalang can enlarge that vessel. It can give readers a wider measure by which to judge their anxieties, ambitions, gains, and losses.

Dr. Lianyi Song of SOAS University of London asked Xuemo about an image that often appears in his writing: “a lamp within the heart.”

Xuemo said such a lamp should bring four things: love, wisdom, health, and happiness. A belief that fails to produce these results should not automatically be treated as a source of guidance. Some convictions lead people toward violence or destruction and must be questioned.

Dr. Elham Mirzania approached the book through Persian Sufi writing, in which suffering can lead to spiritual change.

Xuemo called suffering an integral part of life. It may become a gift, he said, but its meaning depends on the choices a person makes when facing it. Pain alone does not transform anyone; the response to pain does.

Dr. Huan Xia of the Macau University of Science and Technology, along with Dr. John Edward Stowe and Dr. Mirzania of Toronto Metropolitan University, raised further questions about belief, spiritual strength, the writer’s state of mind, and the survival of civilizations.

Xuemo answered by describing five elements that, in his view, give strength and direction to a person’s life: dao, the underlying way or principle; de, moral character; fa, methods and rules; shu, practical skills; and shi, the force created by circumstances. These elements, he said, help turn inward understanding into conduct.

Literature and the Future

Although the meeting began with a single literary work, the conversation ranged across science fiction, philosophy, city life, Sufi writing, technology, and religious belief. Again and again, the speakers returned to the same question: Can changes in the human mind keep pace with changes in the tools human beings create?

The discussion also considered whether literature still has a part to play in an age increasingly governed by technology. For Xuemo, its task is not to supply ready-made answers but to help readers examine their desires, fears, and responsibilities more honestly.

The session ended with an online group photograph. It left two questions for later meetings: whether technological progress can be matched by moral and spiritual growth, and whether literature can help people imagine a future governed by more than wealth, power, and efficiency. The forum marked the beginning of an international discussion of Suosalang and the view of human life presented in its pages.