Why an open-source sci-fi novel by China’s tech geeks is going strong after 20 years
South China Morning Post
by Sylvie ZhuangFebruary 18, 2026
Years before China’s DeepSeek stunned the world with its powerful open-source AI model, Chinese tech geeks began experimenting with the openness ethos through a collaboratively written open-source novel, still going strong after nearly two decades.
With millions of words spanning nearly 3,000 chapters, The Morning Star of Linggao has been crowd-written by thousands of contributors – mostly tech geeks, engineers, military enthusiasts and STEM professionals – who insert themselves as characters in...
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Originally published on South China Morning Post on 2/18/2026