Flights of Fantasy discussion

The premise of Xuya is that China discovered the Americas before the West, and that the exploration of this new continent prevented China from sinking inwards (not to mention being invaded by the Manchu, who later founded the ill-fated Qing dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty).

You’ll notice this is only partially filled (one of the most glaring omissions being the 20th Century): there’s a lot of corners of this universe where I haven’t quite decided what happened yet, and I’m basically leaving blanks until I can firm up the timeline.

A couple keypoints worth noting in this new chronology: the early arrival of the Chinese brought smallpox much ahead of schedule, devastating the native populations about a century before our timeline. By the time Colombus arrives on the scene, most of the Mexica are considered to be already immunised to the pox.

Also, due to the success of maritime expeditions, the Chinese capital does not move back to the isolated, northern city of Beijing, but remains in Nanjing, a town much closer to the sea, where the Emperor can keep an eye on the maritime traffic.
A stronger Chinese empire means one that is much less vulnerable to Western predations: though the 19th century isn’t conflict-free, it’s not quite the disaster that it was in the real world. As a result, the Empire survives the turn of the 20th century, though it becomes more equalitarian (notably admitting women into the ranks of its officials in the middle of the 20th century and authorising polyandry).

Xuya is used in the beginning to refer to the whole continent, but after the independence it becomes the name of the new country of Chinese Ancestry on the West Coast. The government is modelled on that of the motherland: an emperor, a Grand Secretariat, and a meritocracy of scholars recruited through state-wide examinations. The capital of Xuya is Dongjing (Capital of the East), but the most dynamic city is Fenliu (roughly in the same location as today’s San Francisco).

Greater Mexica covers today’s Mexico and a large northern part overlapping Texas, Arizona, Lousiana, Florida and New Mexico. Its capital is Tenochtitlan (in the same location as Mexico City). It’s more of an oligarchy than an empire: though it has a supreme ruler in the person of the Revered Speaker, the position is only semi-hereditary, the new Revered Speaker being chosen by the highest officials from those of imperial blood.

The US is much smaller than today, amputated of its western and southern regions. In the 20th-21st Century, it underwent a period of economic depression and isolationism, with an overt racist policy prohibiting mixed-race relationships. (and, uh, yes, there is still a United States, mainly because the Chinese don’t make much progress moving eastwards, just as the English didn’t make much progress westwards in the first decades of the colonisation process. There are still English ships landing in Virginia, and the history of the United States is pretty much the same, barring minor details, at least up to the end of the 18th Century).

Other major players in the region include Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire (which, again, is larger than its 15th-century counterpart), and the Mayas, who hold the bit of Central America the Mexica haven’t conquered (south of Mexico’s current location).

You’ll be wondering about Asia. So far, the only thing I’ve worked on is the history of Vietnam/Đại Việt, which goes pretty much on schedule till the 18th century (mid Tây Sơn period). The one thing that happened in history and which doesn’t happen here is the rise of the Nguyễn in 1802, Vietnam’s last dynasty: China is still strong enough to send invasion troops, which are not defeated, while the French, desperate for a colonial empire of their own, are keen to occupy Đại Việt (instead of supporting the first Nguyễn Emperor Gia Long with money, men and guns, as they did in our time period). There is thus a brief period when the South of Đại Việt is occupied by France, and the North by China–both countries fighting each other by proxy at the boundary. This ends through a combination of events–internal and external troubles, which lead to the rise of a new Việt emperor. This new dynasty spearheads Việt independence: the country will never again be subject to Chinese rule, though it is a loose part of the Chinese influence sphere. It also marks a departure from the strict Confucianism that had marked the court till then–which prevents Vietnam from closing up like a clam.
In the 20th Century, Đại Việt, like the rest of Asia, goes through a period of poverty and political instability, which leads to the arrival of many Đại Việt in Xuya. You can see a few of those in Foreign Ghosts, the unpublished Xuya novel (and their descendants in The Shipmaker).