The Art of Folding

Folding Technique is a highly distinctive collection of novellas and short stories by the writer Chen Chongzheng, whose core appeal lies in its deft stitching together of the magical realism of the Chaoshan region with a sober meditation on a technological future. The book is neither simple regional narrative nor science-fiction allegory; through the central image of "folding technique," it constructs a literary field in which the real and the illusory generate each other and time and space are dislocated. The "Bihe Town" of the author's writing is permeated with the folk customs and clan texture peculiar to the Chaoshan region, yet is continually penetrated and "folded" by外来 technology, bizarre events, and mutations of the human heart, forming a unique narrative tension. Chen Chongzheng's prose is cold and precise, skilled at planting subversive foreshadowings in seemingly ordinary daily life, letting the absurd grow naturally and giving the reader continuous reading stimulation between the familiar and the strange. In terms of literary value, the book is a successful practice of combining "southern narrative" with "philosophical science fiction" in contemporary Chinese literature, demonstrating the author's maturity in narrative craft and depth of thought. For the reader, it offers not only strange and wondrous stories but also repeated journeys of reflection on identity, the authenticity of memory, and technological ethics. The meticulous depiction of local knowledge in the book gives fantasy a solid texture, making its "magic" more credible and more chilling than much empty imagination.