Life and Leisure

Writing in the future perfect

By Guo Shuhan and Chitralekha Basu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-17 08:06

The year 2010 turned out to be particularly eventful for Chinese science fiction writing. International attention was evident at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where French publishers and Japanese sci-fi magazines showed strong interest, the latter carrying special reports on the evolution of science fiction writing in China.

Chinese science fiction and fantasy writing is being compiled and published in Italian (Shi Kong: China Futures edited by Lorenzo Andolfatto). The upcoming fall issue of the Hong Kong-based Renditions will feature a selection of Chinese sci-fi stories translated into English.

"The Chinese sci-fi industry has boomed in the recent years," says Yao Haijun, vice editor-in-chief of the magazine Science Fiction World, China's most popular periodical of its kind, published from Chengdu in Sichuan province, which has maintained an average monthly circulation of 300,000 copies through the past decade.

The science fiction genre was introduced to China by the noted intellectual and academic Liang Qichao (1873-1929), in the last years of the 19th century. Lu Xun (1881-1936), possibly China's biggest literary stalwart, carried the tradition forward. The genre fell out of favor during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Science fiction was discouraged because it was out of step with the emphasis on social realism.

It wasn't until China's reform and opening up in 1978 that science fiction emerged once more, though it drew a mixed response.

This skepticism changed to unbridled enthusiasm only after the Beijing International SF Conference held in 1997. Partly funded by the government, the meet helped showcase some of the country's finest sci-fi writers - Wang Jinkang, Yang Xiao, Xing He, Han Song - and inspired a mushrooming of magazine articles, fanzines and competitions around sci-fi writing.

"Since then an increasing number of foreign writers have tried to enter the Chinese market and more foreign scholars have looked closely at our stories," Yao remarks.

Han Song, a prolific writer of science fiction, as well as the author of several critical appraisals of the Chinese science fiction scene, thinks the increased international attention is an offshoot of the world's interest in what China is up to. It is as if science fiction produced in China is a code for what Chinese scientists and leaders might be thinking about the future of the planet.

Science Fiction World has certainly boosted the profile of science fiction within the country. The Horizon Project, in which 25 sci-fi books, either in the original Chinese or translated works by noted foreign authors, are published every year, has proved to be extremely popular. Two to three mature works by a younger generation of writers are being published as part of a series titled Xingyun.

While science fiction in China today reflects more social realities than it did two decades ago, it's the business of sci-fi "to show an interest in the future of human civilizations", Yao says. He feels Chinese sci-fi stories will, increasingly, address real-life concerns, like advanced agricultural methods, exploring space and environmental pollution.

When it comes to depicting social reality, Han says sci-fi has at least two advantages over regular fiction. By setting a story in the future, the writer can review contemporary reality from a distance - a perspective that arguably makes it more incisive. The exaggerated situations of such novels (a way of viewing reality in extreme forms) can help expose and underscore the problems that, being routine, often do not stir readers in their everyday lives.