Why Chinese sci-fi is having more than just a moment beyond Netflix’s 3 Body Problems

Waste Tide The author says Chen Qiufan is a “science fiction realist”. He borrowed the term from Zheng Wenguang, lauded as the father of Chinese science fiction, but his writing approach has as much in common with the stylish British writer JG Ballard, who believed that science fiction should be set in the future, not two thousand years in the future. but two days.

“What interests me most in science fiction is how reality can be transformed into a futuristic narrative,” Chen says.

The Guangdong province-born Beijing resident likens science fiction’s view of the world to looking at an amusement park’s hall of mirrors: “It’s like you’re looking back at yourself, but in a distorted, distorted way.

“And this kind of transformation helps you see more clearly what our current position is: our climate change, the failures of our political system, artificial intelligence, all of this I call science fiction realism.

“Science fiction can be a narrative tool for exploring the possibility of reality. I think this is very important for people like me to navigate, to explore social issues. Ecological problems are serious problems not only in China but all over the world. “Science fiction not only reflects reality, but also reshapes and intervenes in this reality in a way that changes people’s mentalities.”