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* IllegalReligion: Jews and Muslims are simply extinct, as explained in the prequels. Christianity and other religions are illegal, though people call on [[Kuan Yin]] all the time, and she is a Buddhist deity. OddJobGods show up sometimes in household shrines; Wang Ti seems to be comforted by her religion.
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* IllegalReligion: Jews and Muslims are simply extinct, as explained in the prequels. Christianity and other religions are illegal, though people call on [[Kuan Yin]] Kuan Yin all the time, and she is a Buddhist deity. OddJobGods show up sometimes in household shrines; Wang Ti seems to be comforted by her religion.
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* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: The whole future of Chung Kuo follows the wholesale murder of the black and brown races of the world: Africans were excluded from the City and simply driven before its construction to die; Latinos and Natives of various kinds were exterminated wholesale. Despite the existence of the Osu on Mars and the handful of surviving Japanese in space, the Chinese and European whites are the only surviving human cultures in the books. This is incredibly disturbing, to say the least.
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* BookBurning: All books, artifacts, etc, not allowed into Tsao Chun's City were destroyed, except in the Shepherd family's Domain. And on Kalevala. And Mars. And so on.
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* IllegalReligion: Jews and Muslims are simply extinct, as explained in the prequels. Christianity and other religions are illegal, though people call on [[Kuan Yin]] all the time, and she is a Buddhist deity. OddJobGods show up sometimes in household shrines; Wang Ti seems to be comforted by her religion.
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Two years now it\'s been FIRST on the Permanent Red Link Club. It\'ll be three soon. How do people still not know this??
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: Weapons-grade lasers don't simply bounce off a mirror; no mirror is 100% effective. The British accents on American characters, especially in the former US South, are jarring.
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*DidNotDoTheResearch: Weapons-grade lasers don't simply bounce off a mirror; no mirror is 100% effective. The British accents on American characters, especially in the former US South, are jarring.
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* BilingualBonus: Though you have to be able to read Mandarin in Wade-Giles romanization to benefit. This borders on the obnoxious: tea is always referred to as ''cha'', and when a character is called "lao jen", when means simply "old man", why not use English?
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* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Endless characters, mostly women and girls; this series' quantity of rape and murder has aroused the ire of many reviewers and has lost Wingrove readers, as he mentioned in an interview decades ago.
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* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: DeVore's doing, as he invades.
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* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Or ''Go'', in this case, referred to as wei-chi/weiqi.
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* SendInTheClones: DeVore's invasion from space.
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* Well-IntentionedExtremist: Emily and Mach.
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* Well-IntentionedExtremist: WellIntentionedExtremist: Emily and Mach.
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* Well-IntentionedExtremist: Emily and Mach.
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* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Especially true for the ''Ping Tiao'' rebels, for whom the morality of their actions becomes a big issue both within and without the group
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* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Especially true for the ''Ping Tiao'' and ''Yu'' rebels, for whom the morality of their actions becomes a big issue both within and without the group
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* BuryYourGays: Edmund Wyatt is bisexual and taken to a brothel where he sires Kim; he has male lovers and is later killed. In the original series a group of gay men are killed at one point, and even the joke that Haaviko is gay is taken as insulting. In fact, ancient Chinese society was quite relaxed on the point of bisexuality.
* CallToAgriculture: A police major fits this trope, as he moves from the City to the farming fields in Eastern Europe
* CallToAgriculture: A police major fits this trope, as he moves from the City to the farming fields in Eastern Europe
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* BuryYourGays: Edmund Wyatt is bisexual and taken to a brothel where he sires Kim; he has male lovers and is later killed. In the original series a group of Likewise, An Sheng is gay men are killed at one point, and even the is a traitor who is later killed. The joke that Haaviko is or Hans Ebert are gay is taken as insulting. In fact, ancient Chinese society was quite relaxed on the point of bisexuality.
* CallToAgriculture: A policemajor major, Kao Chen, fits this trope, as he moves from the City to the farming fields in Eastern EuropeEurope with his wife.
* CallToAgriculture: A police
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* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Pei Kung when she gets domineering, horny and nasty.
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* ScienceMarchesOn: Tapes? It's 2207 and everything is on "tape", even in the last of the rewritten novels (The White Mountain, 2014).
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* AndIMustScream: The workers trapped in 'ice' on more than one occasion.
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* BuryYourGays: Edmund Wyatt is bisexual and taken to a brothel where he sires Kim; he has male lovers and is later killed. In the original series a group of gay men are killed at one point, and even the joke that Haaviko is gay is taken as insulting. In fact, ancient Chinese society was quite relaxed on the point of bisexuality.
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* {{Cyberspace}} An entertainment system called the Shell
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* {{Cyberspace}} An entertainment system called the ShellShell; the webdancers in the prequels also fit this trope. The sims and the Shell are more VirtualReality than they are Cyberspace as such.
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After [[''The White Mountain'']] was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After [[''The White Mountain'']] ''TheWhiteMountain'' was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The [[''The White Mountain]]'' Mountain'']] was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
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----
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.http://www.books.
[[http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
----com/gp/pdp/profile/A2Q06G7L6A0RKZ/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp]]
[[http://www.amazon.
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the [[http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
publishers stated]] that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
publishers stated]] that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
to:
The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the [[http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
publishers stated]] stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the [[http://http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the [[http://http://www.[[http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the [[http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
to:
The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the [[http://www.[[http://http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
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The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
to:
The series was reissued from 2010 to 2014 including two new prequels and a plan for a total of twenty volumes. After ''[[The White Mountain]]'' was published as volume 8, however, the publishers stated that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.http://www.[[http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Deep-Chung-David-Wingrove/dp/0857898272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423764433&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Wingrove+Monsters+of+the+Deep
publishers stated]] that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
publishers stated]] that poor sales were the reason for releasing no more. As of February 2015 there is no further news of reissued Chung Kuo books.
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Over the next few years, beginning in 2010, there are plans for a massive rewrite of the series, adding at least ten new books that go into more detail on the background of the setting and flesh out other details.
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ZCE that belongs here: Trivia.Chung Kuo, and must be expanded upon there.
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* BannedInChina: You betcha
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* WhyMaoChangedHisName: Chung Kuo is the obsolescent Wade-Giles romanization of 中国. Modern pinyin would be Zhōngguó. Wingrove does at least usually get his Wade-Giles right, including the all-important (and not at all [[DecorativeApostrophe decorative) apostrophe]].
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* WhyMaoChangedHisName: UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName: Chung Kuo is the obsolescent Wade-Giles romanization of 中国. Modern pinyin would be Zhōngguó. Wingrove does at least usually get his Wade-Giles right, including the all-important (and not at all [[DecorativeApostrophe decorative) apostrophe]].
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* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: The series includes the deceased characters in the list of characters as a separate section. It's by far the longest one.
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** David Wingrove explicitly states in the appendix that he knows of the more commonly used pinyin today, the use of which he is well familiar with, but that he prefers the Wade-Giles romanization for this series.
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** David Wingrove explicitly states in the appendix that he knows of the more commonly used pinyin today, the use of which he is well familiar with, but that he prefers the Wade-Giles romanization for this series. Mostly because the Wade-Giles was designed with English speakers in mind and so sounds closer to the actual pronunciation of the words even when the reader tries to pronounce the words with the English pronunciation of the letters. Some of the Pinyin letters are mapped to sounds that would confuse a westerner (i.e. q sounds like ''ts'').
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moved to namespace
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A science-fiction series of eight novels by David Wingrove, where Earth in the 22nd century is in the iron grip of a Chinese empire run by the Seven T'ang. This world is called the Chung Kuo, the Middle Kingdom. Mankind's 36 billion people live in one vast City, which is actually seven cities: City Europe, City West Asia, City East Asia, City Africa, and so on. The lowest city levels, called the Net, are cut off and run by Triad mafia. Famine and poverty loom in the near future, while a group of wealthy Hung Mao (whites) in Europe plan to bring Change back to the world. The result is a back-and-forth war of assassinations that increasingly weakens the City financially and politically. And that is only the beginning.
The series is known for being a rich and complex vision of a Byzantine future where no sides are completely good or bad; for having a long list of characters on both sides of the conflict; and for its graphic descriptions of both sex and violence. The complexity (and length) of the series can be attributed to David Wingrove's background. In 1982, having left his career as a bank Associate, he obtained a First Class Honours degree in English and won one of only ten research grants given by the ''UK Department of Education and Science'' that year, which began three years of a doctorate appraising the works of leading British literary names such as William Golding. He would also co-author the heavy-duty study ''Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction'', earning a Hugo Award for best non-fiction work in the SF genre in 1986, among other honors. In short, it is not his habit to compromise when setting pen to paper.
Over the next few years, beginning in 2010, there are plans for a massive rewrite of the series, adding at least ten new books that go into more detail on the background of the setting and flesh out other details.
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!!''Chung Kuo'' provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: The world-spanning Chung Kuo was built after a global war that ended the old way of life.
** It's revealed in one of the redone novels that it was due to the collapse of a heavily-digitized world economy TwentyMinutesInTheFuture followed by full-scale war, shattering societies around the globe. [[spoiler:And it's also heavily implied that the Chinese instigated the whole thing to facilitate their eventual takeover.]]
*** A bit of a RetCon. The original books heavily imply that there was also ethnic strife within Western nations, to the point where many Russians and North Europeans viewed the Chinese conquerors as the better alternative.
* AlternativeCalendar
* AnyoneCanDie: Don't get too attached to a character
* ArrangedMarriage: Jelka Tolonen is arranged to marry the son of her father's lifelong friend, not a happy thought.
** Also the norm for all members of the High and Low Families
* ArtificialHuman: Servants created by the Gen Syn Corporation
* ATasteOfTheLash: Being a maid to a sadistic prince has its disadvantages, as Little Bee discovers
* AttemptedRape: Really not the right trope to try on Jelka
* BannedInChina: You betcha
* BreakTheCutie: Sweet Flute, a young and inexperienced prostitute in a high-end brothel, is sold as a concubine to a man who does not have her best interests at heart
* BrotherSisterIncest: Ben Shepherd and his sister.
* CallToAgriculture: A police major fits this trope, as he moves from the City to the farming fields in Eastern Europe
* TheChessmaster: Howard deVore - although he is actually a ''Go master'', explicitly comparing being a leader to placing pieces on the board.
* ChinaTakesOverTheWorld: The basis for the series
* TheCityNarrows: The levels below the walls called the Net
* CivilWar: [[spoiler:Eventually the T'ang of City Africa launches a scheme too obvious to be blamed on terrorists, and Africa is invaded.]]
* TheConspiracy: The secret and unnamed ''Ministry'' is tasked with hiding the truth about the past by all means necessary
* ConspiracyTheorist: Kim in his teens turns out to be the world's most successful conspiracy theorist
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Several, and no one bats an eye
* CulturalPosturing: ''"Three thousand years of unbroken civilisation - that was the heritage of the Han. Against that these large-nosed foreigners could claim what? Six centuries of chaos and ill-discipline."''
* {{Cyberspace}} An entertainment system called the Shell
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Wang Sau-leyan
* DeathIsDramatic: While [[spoiler:Wang Sau-Ieyan, T'ang of City Africa]] is a bastard, he knows how to die. Since he so naturally acts [[spoiler:like a T'ang]] until the very end, the enemy soldiers find it almost impossible to fire at him.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: So, so much. Holding up a frozen human head to your business associates to reminisce? They will only be bothered that you are stalling the meeting.
* DividedWeFall: So much. The ''Ping Tiao'' rebels, the splinter-faction ''Yu'' rebels, the group of businessmen in Europe and later the Young Sons in North America, the Black Hand, and of course Howard deVore's operations, and later Stefan Lehmann's going at it himself as he rises in power in Europe's criminal underworld. Then again, it's a big world, so various different groups of rebels is not surprising.
* DomedHometown
* TheDragon: Howard deVore, although he later gets a promotion
* {{Dystopia}}: With its dictatorship, overpopulated slum levels and ban on Change this world qualifies as a dystopia, although not as bad as many other examples out there
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Hidden in the Alps, the only uninhabited part of Europe
* TheEmpire: Chung Kuo
* EndOfAnAge: The last years of the world-spanning empire. Li Yuan, the T'ang of Europe, has made it his life's work to forestall the end.
* EvilAlbino: Although not ''evil'' as such, Stefan Lehmann is merciless in achieving his goals, and doesn't hesitate to kill innocents when needed. To his underlings he appears to be without emotions.
* TheEvilPrince: Wang Sau-leyan has to wait for his father and three older brothers to die before it is his turn on the throne for City Africa. But why wait?
* EyeScream: In the first novel, a kidnapped child is returned with his eyeballs gouged out, his eyelids sewn shut and the eye sockets filled with maggots.
* TheFettered: Marshal Knut Tolonen
* FrenchMaid: Several maids working for the T'ang or their sons
* FreudianExcuse: Wang Sau-leyan, ugly, fat and clumsy, was treated as a poor sequel to his brothers while he grew up. This is not presented as an excuse for his behavior, but it helps explain it.
* GlobalCurrency: Not surprisingly, the Chinese ''yuan'' is now the only currency
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Gangster boss Whiskers Lu has had half his face scarred by acid
* TheGovernment: The seven T'ang Lords even seriously discuss wiring the brains of the world's population (all 36 billion of them) in order to achieve total control: track anyone who is present at a riot or rebel attack for example, and send out pain signals as crowd control. Now ''that's'' state power.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The world is led to believe that the Han conquered the Roman Empire and have been in control ever since. Not as impossible as it may seem. The false history was enforced by the death penalty and massive propaganda for two generations, and the City destroyed all physical traces of the old world.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Both the Council of Seven and the European rebels have their good and bad sides
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Hans Ebert]] in book five, after having lost everything
* HonorBeforeReason: Early on, members of the House (the parliament) have the son of the T'ang of Europe killed. Knowing where this could lead, the T'ang decides to let matters be. The leader of his army, Marshal Tolonen, does not obey orders. Instead he marches into the House in session and slits the throat of one of the plotters. This sets the stage for everything that comes after.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: China in the redone novels weren't immune from the global turmoil that followed the collapse of the global economy. [[spoiler:Subverted in that not only were they responsible for it, but that they had the resources to rebuild themselves, although it took them some time to do so.]]
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Mu Chua, former prostitute and now Madam of her own high-end brothel, is protective and caring toward her girls, to the point where she will eventually make a great sacrifice for their safety
* HugeHolographicHead: Surveillance system scanning random people in the lower City levels
* IDidWhatIHadToDo
* InherentInTheSystem: The world is simply a big, corrupt, spirit-crushing prison for both the Europeans and the Han (most of them). The world-encompassing City was created to fulfill the promise of having as many children as you want, a fundamental wish for the clan-oriented Han society. The drawback: you don't get to see the sky and the sun, all birds are in cages, the very nature of the City makes it impossible to improve without physically tearing it down. Which in a world of 36 billion people would mean mass death.
* InterserviceRivalry: A more politicized police detail sometimes shows up to suppress the truth about a terrorist attack (e.g. the message left at the scene of an assassination by the rebels, or the fact that a massacre of higher-ups took place at a depraved orgy establishment), causing no small bitterness among the more honest police.
* KickTheDog
* TheLancer: Karr, for the T'ang of Europe, or (early) Howard deVore, depending on how you look at it
** Marshal Knut Tolonen for the T'ang, most of the series
* LaResistance: A group of European businessmen and officers, but also the ''Ping Tiao,'' rebels from the lower city levels
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: From the second novel and onward, there is a helpful character list added
* LoveAtFirstSight: Happens to [[spoiler:Kim Ward]] and [[spoiler:Jelka Tolonen]]
* LoveHurts: Yuan, T'ang of City Europe, falls for the wrong woman early on
* MadeOfPhlebotinum: "Ice," the material by which the City is built
* MadArtist: Ben Shepherd makes excellent drawings but often with disturbing symbolism; this is due to being highly intelligent and also schizophrenic
* ManchurianAgent: A servant is brainwashed into attacking a high-ranking officer
* TheMentor: Li Yuan's son is saved from softness when an old officer is assigned to training him
* MillionairePlayboy: Tsu Ma, T'ang of City West Asia, fits this trope
* MoralityKitchenSink: One of the T'angs has a whole team of physicians executed when his wife dies in childbirth; many of the rebels, having grown up in this world, are not so much better
* NobleSavage: The Osu, in isolated settlements on Mars
* OldRetainer: Nan Ho, Master of the Inner Chambers to the T'ang of City Europe, remains in the same position for his son Li Yuan. He enjoys considerable trust. He is even tasked with choosing three wives for Li Yuan, who accepts his choices without question.
* OneWorldOrder: Chung Kuo
* PenalColony: The convenient use for the levels in the Net
* ProfessionalKiller: Jyan and Chen, definitely of the "poor hitman" side of the trope
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil
* RebelliousPrincess: Jelka Tolonen borders on this, because of the ArrangedMarriage trope above
* RichBitch: Ebert
* RoyalBrat: Also Ebert
* ScienceFiction: On the hard side of the trope
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Yes, Ebert again
* SiblingYinYang: Li Han Ch'in and Li Yuan, sons of one of the T'ang Lords
* SinisterSurveillance
* SonOfAWhore: Stefan Lehmann's mother has been the concubine of many wealthy men
* SpaceAmish: The Osu
* SplitPersonality: Happens to some of those who were rescued from living as savages in the Clay when under pressure.
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: The fate of some of the unfortunate Clayborn. Followed by swift execution.
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: Triads rule the Net
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: A common view among both defenders and rebels in the City, although not all-pervasive
* WhatTheHellHero: The T'ang Li Yuan is one of the main protagonists, seeking to stave off the inevitable end of the empire. His pet idea for doing this is to insert electronics in every citizen's brain, so that they can be easily tracked and punished, even killed, by the push of a button in the case of crime or rioting. Bear in mind that there are 36 billion citizens.
* WorldWarIII: China conquered the world when it was engulfed in conflict
* {{Ubermensch}}: It is revealed that Howard deVore's motivation for seeking the empire's destruction is to a large degree about allowing a stronger and better kind of human to be developed.
* TheUnfettered: Howard deVore and Stefan Lehmann
* UrbanSegregation: Planned and explicit, with different city levels offering different living conditions
* WhyMaoChangedHisName: Chung Kuo is the obsolescent Wade-Giles romanization of 中国. Modern pinyin would be Zhōngguó. Wingrove does at least usually get his Wade-Giles right, including the all-important (and not at all [[DecorativeApostrophe decorative) apostrophe]].
** David Wingrove explicitly states in the appendix that he knows of the more commonly used pinyin today, the use of which he is well familiar with, but that he prefers the Wade-Giles romanization for this series.
** As for apostrophes, there are 101 names of characters listed in the second novel, of which an overwhelming three (3) have apostrophes. Actually reading the novels helps in finding this out.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Some of the characters who start out as children in the first novel
* WomanScorned: The beautiful but volatile Fei Yen is furious after finding out that her husband Li Yuan, the future T'ang of City Europe, has brought back the two servant girls that he slept with as a teenager. It gets worse from there.
* WrongSideOfTheTracks: Those born in the Net
* YellowPeril: One might think this would be the case, but the Chinese are not a peril; the founder of Chung Kuo saved the world from a time of great chaos, which is not questioned by those who know the real history - although his methods were certainly not praised. The peril is in what Chung Kuo has become. Chinese and European dissenters cooperate, and in some cases they belong to the same rebel groups.
** This was made more explicit however in the 2010 reworking, where the Chinese are revealed to be [[spoiler:responsible for causing the complete breakdown of the global economy and subsequent wars. All as part of a plan to TakeOverTheWorld.]]
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Especially true for the ''Ping Tiao'' rebels, for whom the morality of their actions becomes a big issue both within and without the group
----
The series is known for being a rich and complex vision of a Byzantine future where no sides are completely good or bad; for having a long list of characters on both sides of the conflict; and for its graphic descriptions of both sex and violence. The complexity (and length) of the series can be attributed to David Wingrove's background. In 1982, having left his career as a bank Associate, he obtained a First Class Honours degree in English and won one of only ten research grants given by the ''UK Department of Education and Science'' that year, which began three years of a doctorate appraising the works of leading British literary names such as William Golding. He would also co-author the heavy-duty study ''Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction'', earning a Hugo Award for best non-fiction work in the SF genre in 1986, among other honors. In short, it is not his habit to compromise when setting pen to paper.
Over the next few years, beginning in 2010, there are plans for a massive rewrite of the series, adding at least ten new books that go into more detail on the background of the setting and flesh out other details.
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!!''Chung Kuo'' provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: The world-spanning Chung Kuo was built after a global war that ended the old way of life.
** It's revealed in one of the redone novels that it was due to the collapse of a heavily-digitized world economy TwentyMinutesInTheFuture followed by full-scale war, shattering societies around the globe. [[spoiler:And it's also heavily implied that the Chinese instigated the whole thing to facilitate their eventual takeover.]]
*** A bit of a RetCon. The original books heavily imply that there was also ethnic strife within Western nations, to the point where many Russians and North Europeans viewed the Chinese conquerors as the better alternative.
* AlternativeCalendar
* AnyoneCanDie: Don't get too attached to a character
* ArrangedMarriage: Jelka Tolonen is arranged to marry the son of her father's lifelong friend, not a happy thought.
** Also the norm for all members of the High and Low Families
* ArtificialHuman: Servants created by the Gen Syn Corporation
* ATasteOfTheLash: Being a maid to a sadistic prince has its disadvantages, as Little Bee discovers
* AttemptedRape: Really not the right trope to try on Jelka
* BannedInChina: You betcha
* BreakTheCutie: Sweet Flute, a young and inexperienced prostitute in a high-end brothel, is sold as a concubine to a man who does not have her best interests at heart
* BrotherSisterIncest: Ben Shepherd and his sister.
* CallToAgriculture: A police major fits this trope, as he moves from the City to the farming fields in Eastern Europe
* TheChessmaster: Howard deVore - although he is actually a ''Go master'', explicitly comparing being a leader to placing pieces on the board.
* ChinaTakesOverTheWorld: The basis for the series
* TheCityNarrows: The levels below the walls called the Net
* CivilWar: [[spoiler:Eventually the T'ang of City Africa launches a scheme too obvious to be blamed on terrorists, and Africa is invaded.]]
* TheConspiracy: The secret and unnamed ''Ministry'' is tasked with hiding the truth about the past by all means necessary
* ConspiracyTheorist: Kim in his teens turns out to be the world's most successful conspiracy theorist
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Several, and no one bats an eye
* CulturalPosturing: ''"Three thousand years of unbroken civilisation - that was the heritage of the Han. Against that these large-nosed foreigners could claim what? Six centuries of chaos and ill-discipline."''
* {{Cyberspace}} An entertainment system called the Shell
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Wang Sau-leyan
* DeathIsDramatic: While [[spoiler:Wang Sau-Ieyan, T'ang of City Africa]] is a bastard, he knows how to die. Since he so naturally acts [[spoiler:like a T'ang]] until the very end, the enemy soldiers find it almost impossible to fire at him.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: So, so much. Holding up a frozen human head to your business associates to reminisce? They will only be bothered that you are stalling the meeting.
* DividedWeFall: So much. The ''Ping Tiao'' rebels, the splinter-faction ''Yu'' rebels, the group of businessmen in Europe and later the Young Sons in North America, the Black Hand, and of course Howard deVore's operations, and later Stefan Lehmann's going at it himself as he rises in power in Europe's criminal underworld. Then again, it's a big world, so various different groups of rebels is not surprising.
* DomedHometown
* TheDragon: Howard deVore, although he later gets a promotion
* {{Dystopia}}: With its dictatorship, overpopulated slum levels and ban on Change this world qualifies as a dystopia, although not as bad as many other examples out there
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Hidden in the Alps, the only uninhabited part of Europe
* TheEmpire: Chung Kuo
* EndOfAnAge: The last years of the world-spanning empire. Li Yuan, the T'ang of Europe, has made it his life's work to forestall the end.
* EvilAlbino: Although not ''evil'' as such, Stefan Lehmann is merciless in achieving his goals, and doesn't hesitate to kill innocents when needed. To his underlings he appears to be without emotions.
* TheEvilPrince: Wang Sau-leyan has to wait for his father and three older brothers to die before it is his turn on the throne for City Africa. But why wait?
* EyeScream: In the first novel, a kidnapped child is returned with his eyeballs gouged out, his eyelids sewn shut and the eye sockets filled with maggots.
* TheFettered: Marshal Knut Tolonen
* FrenchMaid: Several maids working for the T'ang or their sons
* FreudianExcuse: Wang Sau-leyan, ugly, fat and clumsy, was treated as a poor sequel to his brothers while he grew up. This is not presented as an excuse for his behavior, but it helps explain it.
* GlobalCurrency: Not surprisingly, the Chinese ''yuan'' is now the only currency
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Gangster boss Whiskers Lu has had half his face scarred by acid
* TheGovernment: The seven T'ang Lords even seriously discuss wiring the brains of the world's population (all 36 billion of them) in order to achieve total control: track anyone who is present at a riot or rebel attack for example, and send out pain signals as crowd control. Now ''that's'' state power.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The world is led to believe that the Han conquered the Roman Empire and have been in control ever since. Not as impossible as it may seem. The false history was enforced by the death penalty and massive propaganda for two generations, and the City destroyed all physical traces of the old world.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Both the Council of Seven and the European rebels have their good and bad sides
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Hans Ebert]] in book five, after having lost everything
* HonorBeforeReason: Early on, members of the House (the parliament) have the son of the T'ang of Europe killed. Knowing where this could lead, the T'ang decides to let matters be. The leader of his army, Marshal Tolonen, does not obey orders. Instead he marches into the House in session and slits the throat of one of the plotters. This sets the stage for everything that comes after.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: China in the redone novels weren't immune from the global turmoil that followed the collapse of the global economy. [[spoiler:Subverted in that not only were they responsible for it, but that they had the resources to rebuild themselves, although it took them some time to do so.]]
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Mu Chua, former prostitute and now Madam of her own high-end brothel, is protective and caring toward her girls, to the point where she will eventually make a great sacrifice for their safety
* HugeHolographicHead: Surveillance system scanning random people in the lower City levels
* IDidWhatIHadToDo
* InherentInTheSystem: The world is simply a big, corrupt, spirit-crushing prison for both the Europeans and the Han (most of them). The world-encompassing City was created to fulfill the promise of having as many children as you want, a fundamental wish for the clan-oriented Han society. The drawback: you don't get to see the sky and the sun, all birds are in cages, the very nature of the City makes it impossible to improve without physically tearing it down. Which in a world of 36 billion people would mean mass death.
* InterserviceRivalry: A more politicized police detail sometimes shows up to suppress the truth about a terrorist attack (e.g. the message left at the scene of an assassination by the rebels, or the fact that a massacre of higher-ups took place at a depraved orgy establishment), causing no small bitterness among the more honest police.
* KickTheDog
* TheLancer: Karr, for the T'ang of Europe, or (early) Howard deVore, depending on how you look at it
** Marshal Knut Tolonen for the T'ang, most of the series
* LaResistance: A group of European businessmen and officers, but also the ''Ping Tiao,'' rebels from the lower city levels
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: From the second novel and onward, there is a helpful character list added
* LoveAtFirstSight: Happens to [[spoiler:Kim Ward]] and [[spoiler:Jelka Tolonen]]
* LoveHurts: Yuan, T'ang of City Europe, falls for the wrong woman early on
* MadeOfPhlebotinum: "Ice," the material by which the City is built
* MadArtist: Ben Shepherd makes excellent drawings but often with disturbing symbolism; this is due to being highly intelligent and also schizophrenic
* ManchurianAgent: A servant is brainwashed into attacking a high-ranking officer
* TheMentor: Li Yuan's son is saved from softness when an old officer is assigned to training him
* MillionairePlayboy: Tsu Ma, T'ang of City West Asia, fits this trope
* MoralityKitchenSink: One of the T'angs has a whole team of physicians executed when his wife dies in childbirth; many of the rebels, having grown up in this world, are not so much better
* NobleSavage: The Osu, in isolated settlements on Mars
* OldRetainer: Nan Ho, Master of the Inner Chambers to the T'ang of City Europe, remains in the same position for his son Li Yuan. He enjoys considerable trust. He is even tasked with choosing three wives for Li Yuan, who accepts his choices without question.
* OneWorldOrder: Chung Kuo
* PenalColony: The convenient use for the levels in the Net
* ProfessionalKiller: Jyan and Chen, definitely of the "poor hitman" side of the trope
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil
* RebelliousPrincess: Jelka Tolonen borders on this, because of the ArrangedMarriage trope above
* RichBitch: Ebert
* RoyalBrat: Also Ebert
* ScienceFiction: On the hard side of the trope
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Yes, Ebert again
* SiblingYinYang: Li Han Ch'in and Li Yuan, sons of one of the T'ang Lords
* SinisterSurveillance
* SonOfAWhore: Stefan Lehmann's mother has been the concubine of many wealthy men
* SpaceAmish: The Osu
* SplitPersonality: Happens to some of those who were rescued from living as savages in the Clay when under pressure.
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: The fate of some of the unfortunate Clayborn. Followed by swift execution.
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: Triads rule the Net
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: A common view among both defenders and rebels in the City, although not all-pervasive
* WhatTheHellHero: The T'ang Li Yuan is one of the main protagonists, seeking to stave off the inevitable end of the empire. His pet idea for doing this is to insert electronics in every citizen's brain, so that they can be easily tracked and punished, even killed, by the push of a button in the case of crime or rioting. Bear in mind that there are 36 billion citizens.
* WorldWarIII: China conquered the world when it was engulfed in conflict
* {{Ubermensch}}: It is revealed that Howard deVore's motivation for seeking the empire's destruction is to a large degree about allowing a stronger and better kind of human to be developed.
* TheUnfettered: Howard deVore and Stefan Lehmann
* UrbanSegregation: Planned and explicit, with different city levels offering different living conditions
* WhyMaoChangedHisName: Chung Kuo is the obsolescent Wade-Giles romanization of 中国. Modern pinyin would be Zhōngguó. Wingrove does at least usually get his Wade-Giles right, including the all-important (and not at all [[DecorativeApostrophe decorative) apostrophe]].
** David Wingrove explicitly states in the appendix that he knows of the more commonly used pinyin today, the use of which he is well familiar with, but that he prefers the Wade-Giles romanization for this series.
** As for apostrophes, there are 101 names of characters listed in the second novel, of which an overwhelming three (3) have apostrophes. Actually reading the novels helps in finding this out.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Some of the characters who start out as children in the first novel
* WomanScorned: The beautiful but volatile Fei Yen is furious after finding out that her husband Li Yuan, the future T'ang of City Europe, has brought back the two servant girls that he slept with as a teenager. It gets worse from there.
* WrongSideOfTheTracks: Those born in the Net
* YellowPeril: One might think this would be the case, but the Chinese are not a peril; the founder of Chung Kuo saved the world from a time of great chaos, which is not questioned by those who know the real history - although his methods were certainly not praised. The peril is in what Chung Kuo has become. Chinese and European dissenters cooperate, and in some cases they belong to the same rebel groups.
** This was made more explicit however in the 2010 reworking, where the Chinese are revealed to be [[spoiler:responsible for causing the complete breakdown of the global economy and subsequent wars. All as part of a plan to TakeOverTheWorld.]]
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Especially true for the ''Ping Tiao'' rebels, for whom the morality of their actions becomes a big issue both within and without the group
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