The ‘art of naming’ space projects in the PRC: a perspective from Chinese traditional culture

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s spacecraft nomenclature from the perspective of Chinese traditional culture, presenting and examining a corpus of 137 space mission names used in China between 1970 and 2020. The assignation of names to space missions is put in the context of the revival of tradition in contemporary China, and it is argued that this specific naming is in fact a technology-focused version of a more general, long-established practice that is deeply rooted in Chinese culture – the so-called “art of naming”. In conclusion, this essay looks at space project names as a sign of the PRC’s search for a national astroculture, a set of space related cultural artifacts and practices used to promote na tional cohesion and to enhance the country’s soft power.