Global contributors be a part of a sci-fi themed music dwell efficiency on the 2025 Galaxy Science Fiction Convention on September 20, 2025 in Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province. Photo: Courtesy of the organizers
For sci-fi fanatic Zhai Keyan, China’s science fiction conference in Chengdu nonetheless captures his consideration because it gives an opportunity to see the event of the style which formulated his childhood goals.
“The Galaxy Awards embody the evolving spirit of Chinese science fiction,” Zhai instructed the Global Times.
For 40 years, the Galaxy Awards, initiated by Chinese sci-fi journal Science Fiction World, have stood as a mirror to the shifting goals and aspirations of Chinese science fiction.
In this 12 months’s Galaxy Awards, the Best Long Novel prize went to Yang Wanqing’s Jintao, or Golden Peach, however extra broadly, on-line literature is being acknowledged as a brand new supply of vitality for sci-fi.
As China’s sci-fi reaches an ever wider international viewers, many writers are asking: the place does it go from right here?
Prominent amongst these fascinated with that is Han Song, who has gained the Galaxy Award seven occasions. He urged that whereas Chinese science fiction has made vital strides, there’s nonetheless room for enchancment.
“Compared with many foreign science fiction works that are able to propose new worlds and worldviews, Chinese science fiction, though it has made progress, is still more about reprocessing, absorbing, and recreating existing materials, hence there is room for further breakthroughs,” Han instructed the Global Times.
He additionally requires young writers to transcend surface-level fascination with know-how and have interaction deeply with each science and society.
“To truly understand the changes and current state of cutting-edge science and technology, one must go beyond the surface and engage in in-depth study,” Han mentioned.
“It is also essential to gain a deeper understanding of society and human nature. Learning from and emulating outstanding works around the world is a path worth continuing to pursue.”
Development issues
Beyond technological creativeness, veteran writers additionally hyperlink sci-fi to social and cultural developments.
Wang Jinkang, one other veteran whose Galaxy Awards tally is among the many highest of Chinese writers, locates China’s sci-fi trajectory in relation to nationwide growth.
“The progress of Chinese society is first reflected in the broadening of knowledge, especially as the younger generation’s knowledge threshold has risen,” Wang instructed the Global Times.
“The expansion has widened the scope of both readers and writers of science fiction, forming a fundamental condition for the genre’s development.”
Wang added that if science fiction have been restricted to concrete technical concepts, it could primarily be the work of scientists, not the core job of science fiction.
“Science fiction literature should encompass the stimulation of thought, aesthetic experience as well as social warning,” Wang mentioned.
“The development of science fiction is proportional to a country’s level of science, economy, and cognition. Unlike pure literature, which can flourish even in times of disaster, science fiction depends on these conditions,” Wang mentioned.
Liu Cixin, Hugo Award-winning creator of The Three-Body Problem and thought of a pioneer mixing cosmic creativeness with reflections on humanity’s destiny, acknowledges the challenges for sci-fi literature.
“Technology becomes ubiquitous in everyday life, what once felt miraculous can seem ordinary nowadays,” Liu instructed reporters.
“In that context, science fiction must find new expressive forms commensurate with living within, not outside, a world already shaped everywhere by technological change.”
The dialogue has additionally taken on a regional dimension. South Korean awarding-winning sci-fi author Kim Bo-young, a visitor on the conference, mentioned that Asian sci-fi typically adopts a “circular” narrative model, contrasting with the extra linear and binary constructions widespread in Western traditions.
“Western science fiction tends to follow a more linear, binary approach, whereas our Eastern science fiction narratives are more like a circle, which allows us to fill in gaps that Western works do not cover,” she instructed reporters.
A robotic on the principal corridor of the Galaxy Science Fiction Convention Photo: Courtesy of the organizers
International attain
As Chinese sci-fi positive aspects international recognition, questions on worldwide attain and cross-cultural communication come into focus. The Galaxy Award additionally acknowledges the significance of worldwide attain of Chinese sci-fi works.
The US-based science fiction journal Clarkesworld gained the Best International Communication Award this 12 months, in recognition of its lengthy‐operating work in publishing Chinese sci-fi works since 2015.
Neil Clarke, editor-in-chief of the journal, recalled that the preliminary success made this system an “easy process.”
“It started with the help of Ken Liu [English translator of The Three-Body Problem], who sent us the first couple of translations that we did. That caught some attention,” Clarke instructed the Global Times.
“We had people clamoring for more, and the whole program started as a result of those initial successes. It’s been a very easy process to maintain because the stories have all been fantastic.”
Since then, Clarke famous, Chinese tales have turn out to be an everyday half of the journal’s choices, not as a result of of the place they arrive from, however as a result of they stand as robust works of science fiction in their very own proper.
“Some people try and use these stories as a gateway into the mindset of a country, but that’s unnecessary. We publish Chinese stories alongside English-language stories because we feel they’re equals,” he mentioned. “By spreading them out, we’re making a statement of our belief in the value they bring, because they are good science fiction, not because they come from a specific place.”
It comes out to be a singular commentary for Clarke that although movies and TV applications have an even bigger viewers than literature, sci-fi world has passionate followers for each. “It doesn’t matter which one is bigger. Movies and TV count on literature. If you get rid of one, it hurts the other.”
Clarke emphasised that the longer term of the style will likely be more and more worldwide, with boundaries of language and notion slowly breaking down.
“The future of science fiction is international. We have a lot of language barriers that need to come down, and they’re coming down now,” he instructed the Global Times, earlier than stressing the necessity for extra exchanges just like the conference.
“Preconceptions can be removed once people actually have the experience of the convention. We need more cross-communication at a fan-to-fan level, which we have a little, but not nearly enough.”