These differences manifest themselves in age, region of origin, professional background, social class, ideology, cultural identity, aesthetics, and other areas. “Contemporary Chinese science fiction writers form a community full of internal differences.

At the panel, someone asked: “What makes Chinese science fiction Chinese?” Xia Jia’s article in response explains that: What makes Chinese science fiction different besides its original language? Immensely talented author Xia Jia (who we will talk about more further down) addressed this at a panel some years ago. “What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?” How can we only have societal critiques from the West? We need global perspectives to further the ongoing conversations happening throughout science fiction and on the planet as whole. And it contributes to the worldliness of the genre as a whole, one whose strengths rest in societal critique and philosophy. It opened a door for me to read more global literature, for one, but, specifically, now my favorite subset of global lit is Chinese Science Fiction.Ĭhinese science fiction is a diverse, undeniably unique type of sci-fi. The Three-Body Problem is the start of my favorite science fiction trilogy, and never once felt stilted or obviously translated. But Chinese science fiction changed all that. Translated works had always felt stilted and slow to read in English, and I felt like I was missing a large swath of context and understanding from the original language. I was cutting myself off from a literal world of literature not written in English.

Before then, I had truly never read a translated book that I enjoyed. The day I picked up The Three-Body Problem was a momentous day in my reading life.

Invisible planets ken liu