Chinese Science Fiction

[zhwj]

Have you done anything with the Han Song piece, natra? I think Wu Yan and some SF fans are looking to get an anthology of English translations together, and that'd be a great one to include.

Huss's article can be found at the Science Fiction Studies back issues archive.

More recent stuff: to self-link, I recently drew up a reading list in conjunction with a podcast on Chinese SF featuring Chen Qiufan (陈楸帆).

[Gleaves]

Great post and links, zhwj. I will be delving into them further.

From the recommendation earlier in this thread, I read 星雲組曲 by SK Chang/張系國 a little while back. I enjoyed it very much. There were some particularly China-oriented themes (e.g., child policies), but the stories mostly covered what you would expect from science fiction - characters dealing with brave new worlds/technologies.

I have a book of 刘慈欣 short stories (流浪地球) that I hope to get to soon. If I like it, then I'll probably tackle the 三体 books and/or 球状闪电. I've also been reading 断断续续 a translated book of short stories from Ted Chiang called Stories of Your Life and Others (你一生的故事). I have enjoyed it, but I keep getting stuck for some reason. I think the vocab is just too dense for me, at this point.

[natra]

Have you done anything with the Han Song piece, natra? I think Wu Yan and some SF fans are looking to get an anthology of English translations together, and that'd be a great one to include.

Huss's article can be found at the Science Fiction Studies back issues archive.

More recent stuff: to self-link, I recently drew up a reading list in conjunction with a podcast on Chinese SF featuring Chen Qiufan (陈楸帆).

Hrm.. I do not think that my translation was written well enough to be published anywhere. :wacko: It would need some revision and editing, but I am interested if you have more information on that.

Thanks for posting a link to that article.

[Friday]

Are there any science fiction novels suitable for students such as myself who only know the most about Chinese 2,000 characters? (I.e. something targeting first year primary school students so it is down at my reading level?)

[frankfire]

For those who are interested in Chinese-language sf, you're warmly invited to visit our website:

http://www.chinesescifi.org/

I actually have done some research of Han Song. If you would like to talk with me about him, please feel free to write to frankfirepku@gmail.com!

[Gleaves]

I just finished reading 秀哉的夏天. I picked it up after seeing it on zhwj's blog. It is about a huge earthquake that rocks Shanghai. It is definitely not hard science fiction, but the scope of the earthquake makes it a post-apocolyptic tale, which I think falls roughly under the banner of sci-fi. The story follows a young man (秀哉 from the book's title) and a yong boy as they deal with the eathquake's aftermath.

I really liked the book and would definitely recommend it. It manages to be funny, sad, and horrific, all without feeling too heavy-handed. Despite the apocolyptic backdrop, it's a simple tale that focuses on the relationship of the two characters. The book is a short 222 pages. In terms of difficulty, there are some parts more challenging than others, but most of the book is pretty easy.

frankfire - I've checked out your site a few times. There are some interesting discussions there.

[Gleaves]

I finished reading Cat Country 《猫城记》by 老舍 a few days ago. I think I picked it up after reading about it in the thread on 盛世, but I figured I would post about it here. It is very much science fiction since the story is about a guy that crash lands on Mars and finds a race of cat people. But like 盛世, it is also satire, so the whole story is a set up to critique the cat people's society (and in turn China). The story starts out pretty interesting and adventurous, but once the main character makes his way to cat city, it is basically scene after scene of him trying to find something redeemable about the utterly depressing society of 猫国. It is only 160 pages, so it is easy enough to get through, even though some of it is rather slow and preachy. Still, I enjoyed it.

What intrigues me about the book is that it is from the 1930s, a time when I am guessing there was little to no science fiction being produced by Chinese writers. Folks must have thought this was a truly bizarre book.

I picked it up from bookseed.

[Gleaves]

I just finished up 蓝血人 by 倪匡。 I agree with all of roddy's comments up on post 13. The main difference for me is that I really like pulp fiction, so this was right up my alley. It reminded me a little of Clive Cussler, but instead of Dirk Pitt, we have 卫斯理 ("Wesley") as the hero. Wesley is a busy guy, he stars in about 140 倪匡 novels. I think it has been mentioned elsewhere on the forums here, but 蓝血人 is a two-parter. The second part is called 回归悲剧。 The first book ends as any chapter would, there is not even a cliffhanger, so you really need to read both if you want anything close to an ending. The copy I picked up (book.com.tw) thankfully had both. The basic plot involves a bunch of interested parties (foreign governments, Interpol, Japanese Mafia, our hero) trying to get their hands on one mysterious, blue-blooded "man." There is not much sci-fi in it, really, it is more action/adventure. I really enjoyed it in a B movie kind of way. It is a very easy book.

Anyone have other 倪匡 recommendations? If not, I'll probably just continue on in the series. I plan to keep reading this kind of pop/genre fiction simply because it is easy, so I might start a separate thread on Chinese dime novels.

Any other new Chinese sci-fi recommendations?

[PineWu]

三体/三體 is a great sci-fi work by 刘慈欣，glad someone mentioned it. It's really a great work.

[Cang]

Here is my suggestion:全频带阻塞干扰 by 刘慈欣， 地铁 by 韩松，大角,快跑! by 潘海天， 上海堡垒 by 江南，伤心者 by 何夕，一日囚 by 柳文扬，过年 by 那多，生死平衡 by 王晋康

[roddy]

刘慈欣‘s 三体, or if you prefer, Liu Cixin's Three Body Trilogy, is getting translated, by some fairly familiar names. Little bit of a wait yet though...

[imron]

It's interesting that they chose a different translator for each of the three novels. @zhwj, how much collaboration do you expect will happen between the different translators?

It was also a pleasant surprise to see Ken Liu mentioned there.

[zhwj]

Quite a bit of collaboration, I expect, particularly on terminology. The publishers, for their own reasons, have elected to put out the translation on a breakneck schedule, which pretty much demands a division of labor. It's unusual but not unprecedented (1Q84 did it recently). The challenge will be to maintain a consistent voice across all three volumes -- Liu Cixin self-deprecatingly says he doesn't have a style, but there are a variety of ways his methodical, precise narration could be rendered. (Ken and I have both done a Liu's short stories in the past, and I think the voice came out a little different.)

[imron]

Thanks. I'd be interested in hearing how it all went down once things are finished.

[laurenth]

I'm over *seven* years late at the party, but I wanted to mention that I've read 张系国's 未来的孩子, as discussed on the first page of this antique thread. Here are my findings (in chronological order):

 

- The link given by Roddy is not dead

- It's excellent stuff

- It's an eerily believable depiction of a society in which assisted reproductive technology, as part of population engineering, has become the norm - and a lucrative business. Interestingly, the end of the story definitely smacks of Borges' lottery in Babylon (don't click on this link if you've never read either of those stories), and the 人口计划局 of 张系国 looks like it's a subsidiary of the Company in Borges' short story. There's also a touch of very dark humour towards the end.

- It made me want to discover more Chinese sci-fi.

 

Thanks for this find.

[Lu]

Literature threads never die. They just fade away and are then dug up again.

Thanks for the recommendation! Will go on my mental list.