ABSTRACT
Weaving together Bildungsroman studies, feminist posthumanism, and environmental criticism, this chapter examines the female coming-of-age experience depicted in Chen Qiufan’s science fiction novel Waste Tide (2013), in which a female teenager is transformed from a victimized migrant worker to a rebellious cyborg and is later retransformed from cyborg back to human. Mimi’s coming-of-age experience reveals the dominant theme of the novel: The e-waste recycling industry has caused irreparable environmental and occupational damage to China’s largest recycling hub and its residents. More importantly, the novel sheds new light on chengzhang xiaoshuo (coming-of-age fiction, the Chinese counterpart of the Bildungsroman) by placing the protagonist in a posthuman scenario and explores how advanced science and technology have reshaped the coming of age of Chinese youth.
