The return of ‘golden age’ science fiction — made in China
Like many, many people across China, I had the pleasure of watching the movie version of Liu Cixin’s The Wandering Earth during Spring Festival.
I love science fiction, but, with a few exceptions, the recent movies and books from the United States have been such insipid stories and so philosophically empty that I had almost given up on the genre. Many current sci-fi novels in the US are unreadable, shallow and politically correct dystopias.
As in classic science fiction, the hero and heroine of The Wandering Earth find inner strength as they struggle to achieve something great. Much current US sci-fi clearly doubts the very idea of personal fortitude.
The words that summarize the old science fiction that I miss is “thought-provoking”. It’s hard to imagine many thoughts being provoked by the current brain dead Star Trek and Star Wars shoot’em ups. I was embarrassed to have taken my wife to see the latest Star Trek film.
In Liu’s speech accepting a Galaxy award for The Wandering Earth in 2001, recently translated on Reddit, he said: “Contemporary sci-fi literature itself in the US is already deep in the twilight — full of works applying complex techniques to express dense metaphors, completely devoid of the youthful energy of the ‘golden age’. And many magnum opuses in recent years already have an air of death about them. Many of those under 25 in the US these days basically don’t read sci-fi; I don’t see what’s to be envied about that.
“We should be most envious of ourselves: our current sci-fi readers are the 8 or 9 am sun, or even the 6 or 7 am sun. Chinese sci-fi is a market full of youth and hope, and this is what gives sci-fi writers like us confidence and strength.”
I miss the engaging stories and philosophical musings of Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clark, who, along with H.G. Wells, Liu said were the authors who led him to write sci-fi.
Even 20 years ago, my favorite sci-fi TV series, Stargate SG-1, was still on US television. Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5, also playing at that time, were also great stories that gave us a lot to think about. Today’s big Hollywood movies don’t come anywhere close to the depth of thought behind these older shows.
I also miss the stories of exploration and combat by Jerry Pournelle, who died in September 2017. I was lucky enough to get to know him a bit in the 1990s. Like all good sci-fi writers, he was interested in everything and bubbling with ideas and opinions. Every so often, I would get a call in the middle of the night — “David, this is Jerry. I have an idea I couldn’t wait to discuss with someone.”
Among recent works, I can recommend James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse, Andy Weir’s The Martian, and Steven Baxter’s imaginative retelling of H.G. Wells’ novels.
So, all is not lost.
Liu’s famous The Three Body Problem series draws on Chinese history, though reportedly some of the history was deleted from the English translation for fear that foreign readers would not be able to understand it. I hope this does not happen in future translations.
I’m looking forward to reading young Chinese sci-fi writers who incorporate Chinese history into thinking about the future. In particular, mixing the historical themes found in the martial arts novels of Jin Yong (Louis Cha) with science fiction could be the start of a new fundamentally Chinese sci-fi.
Since Liu’s breakthrough hit with The Three Body Problem, more Chinese sci-fi is being translated into English. I’ve recently been reading and can strongly recommend stories by Bao Shu, Han Song, Xia Jia and Hao Jingfang — though I’m sure there are others I’ve missed.
Who would have thought that Chinese writers, looking at the future of their country and the world, would revive the genre I love?
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