Is China approaching the golden age of science fiction?

China Plus/China Daily Published: 2017-11-08 16:32:48
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[Photo: from VCG]

[Photo: from VCG]

The country's scientific achievements have helped foster what is being hailed as the start of a golden age for Chinese science fiction, according to China Daily.

Many youngsters today tired of daily routine work turn to science fiction writing for entertainment. Some of them, organized by Future Affairs Administration, a company trying to seize the opportunities created by the growing popularity of science fiction over the past three years, regularly meet at the workshop near the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, submitting and revising their own stories.

Ji Shaoting, a former journalist with Xinhua News Agency, founded Future Affairs Administration as a loose group of sci-fi aficionados in 2013. She incorporated it into a company in 2016, with the aim of paving the road for Chinese science fiction to enter a "golden age".

"The number of sci-fi writers in China is still too few," Ji says. "And established writers are not so diligent in producing new works, as most of them only write part time."

Now, the company has around 20 employees. They maintain an online daily newsletter called Non-Exist, publishing original Chinese sci-fi works and translated works, sci-fi criticism, and popular science articles.

Right now, their online accounts on various social media platforms, such as Sina Weibo and WeChat, have gathered more than one million followers.

They also keep contact with around 70 sci-fi writers at home and abroad.

Ji said, "The golden age of science fiction in the English speaking country was from 1930s to 1950s, and accompanied the rapid development in science and technology in the West. Now technology is marching at fast pace in China, so there is a high possibility that many good Chinese sci-fi works will be born in the years to come." 

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.] 

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