An open-source sci-fi novel by China's tech geeks, The Morning Star of Linggao, has endured for 20 years, attracting attention in the US while remaining outside the Chinese mainstream. The story follows an overworked, underpaid salesman in modern China who discovers a wormhole transporting him and over 500 others back more than 300 years to the late Ming dynasty in 1642, where they settle in Linggao, Hainan, to spark an industrial revolution and alter history.
The Morning Star of Linggao is an open-source sci-fi novel created by China's tech geeks that has been going strong for 20 years. It has attracted attention in the US but has remained outside the Chinese mainstream.
The plot opens with an overworked, underpaid salesman at a poorly run foreign company in modern China who discovers a wormhole that transports him – and eventually more than 500 others like him – back in time over 300 years to the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644) in 1642. The time travellers settle in Linggao, in today’s southern island province of Hainan, where they set out to ignite an industrial revolution, build infrastructure, establish a military base and alter the course of history to “make China great again”.
The late Ming dynasty setting was a deliberate choice, with its rampant corruption and weakened regime increasingly sealing the country off from the world through isolationist policies. While Chinese civilisation was in steep decline, Europe was on the cusp of the early breakthroughs of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. The story’s characters seize this pivotal moment of vulnerability, hoping that by injecting modern knowledge and industrial capacity they can reverse China’s historical backwardness and prevent it from lagging behind the West during the Industrial Revolution.
Keywords include The Morning Star of Linggao, Europe, Ming dynasty, Artificial intelligence, Industrial Party, AI translation, Freiburg University, Linggao, DeepSeek, China, Jessica Imbach, Liu Cixin, Industrial Revolution, US, Hainan. The article was published on 2026-02-18.