Ken Liu - Invisible Planets - Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation

Chinese science fiction consists of stories that are not just about China. For instance, Ma Boyong’s “The City of Silence” is an homage to Orwell’s 1984 as well as a portrayal of the invisible walls left after the Cold War; Liu Cixin’s “Taking Care of God” explores the common tropes of civilization expansion and resource depletion in the form of a moral drama set in a rural Chinese village; Chen Qiufan’s “The Flower of Shazui” spreads the dark atmosphere of cyberpunk to the coastal fishing villages near Shenzhen, where the fictional village named “Shazui” is a microcosm of the globalized world as well as a symptom. My own “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” includes fleeting images of other works by masters: Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, Tsui Hark’s A Chinese Ghost Story, and Hayao Miyazaki’s films. In my view, these disparate stories seem to speak of something in common, and the tension between Chinese ghost tales and science fiction provides yet another way to express the same idea.

Science fiction—to borrow the words of Gilles Deleuze—is a literature always in the state of becoming, a literature that is born on the frontier—the frontier between the known and unknown, magic and science, dream and reality, self and other, present and future, East and West—and renews itself as the frontier shifts and migrates. The development of civilization is driven by the curiosity that compels us to cross this frontier, to subvert prejudices and stereotypes, and in the process, complete our self-knowledge and growth.

At this critical historic moment, I am even firmer in my faith that reforming reality requires not only science and technology, but also the belief by all of us that life should be better—and can be made better—if we possess imagination, courage, initiative, unity, love, and hope as well as a bit of understanding and empathy for strangers. Each of us is born with these precious qualities, and it is perhaps also the best gift that science fiction can bring us.

The Three-Body Problem (by Cixin Liu)

Death’s End (by Cixin Liu)

Ken Liuis a writer, lawyer, and computer programmer. He translated The Three-Body Problem and Death’s End, the first and third volumes of Cixin Liu’s Three-Body trilogy. As a writer, his short story “The Paper Menagerie” was the first work of fiction ever to sweep the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. His first novel is The Grace of Kings, and his short-story collection is The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories . He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

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All text reprinted by permission of the authors.

“The Year of the Rat” by Chen Qiufan.First Chinese publication: Science Fiction World, May 2009; first English publication: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2013, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2013 by Chen Qiufan and Ken Liu.

“The Fish of Lijiang” by Chen Qiufan.First Chinese publication: Science Fiction World, May 2006; first English publication: Clarkesworld, August 2011, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2011 by Chen Qiufan and Ken Liu.

“The Flower of Shazui” by Chen Qiufan.First Chinese publication: ZUI Ink-Minority Report, 2012; first English publication: Interzone, November-December 2012, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2012 by Chen Qiufan and Ken Liu.

“A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” by Xia Jia.First Chinese publication: Science Fiction World, August 2010; first English publication: Clarkesworld, February 2012, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2012 by Xia Jia and Ken Liu.

“Tongtong’s Summer” by Xia Jia.First Chinese publication: ZUI Novel, March 2014; first English publication: Upgraded, ed. Neil Clarke, 2014 (Wyrm Publishing), translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2014 by Xia Jia and Ken Liu.

“Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse” by Xia Jia.First English publication in this volume, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2016 by Xia Jia and Ken Liu.

“The City of Silence” by Ma Boyong.First Chinese publication: Science Fiction World, May 2005; first English publication: World SF Blog, November 2011, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2011 by Ma Boyong and Ken Liu.

“Invisible Planets” by Hao Jingfang.First Chinese publication: New Science Fiction, February–April 2010; first English publication: Lightspeed, December 2013, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2013 by Hao Jingfang and Ken Liu.

“Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang.First Chinese publication: ZUI Found, February 2014; first English publication: Uncanny, January–February 2015, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2015 by Hao Jingfang and Ken Liu.

“Call Girl” by Tang Fei.First Chinese publication: Nebula, August 2014; first English publication: Apex, June 2013, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2013 by Tang Fei and Ken Liu.

“Grave of the Fireflies” by Cheng Jingbo.First Chinese publication: Science Fiction: Literary, July 2005; first English publication: Clarkesworld, January 2014, translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2014 by Cheng Jingbo and Ken Liu.

“The Circle” by Liu Cixin.First English publication: Carbide Tipped Pens, eds. Ben Bova and Eric Choi, 2014 (Tor Books), translated by Ken Liu. English text © 2014 by Liu Cixin and Ken Liu.

“Taking Care of God” by Liu Cixin.First Chinese publication: Science Fiction World, January 2005; first English publication, Pathlight, April 2012. English text © 2012 by Liu Cixin and Ken Liu.

“The Worst of All Possible Universes and the Best of All Possible Earths: Three-Body and Chinese Science Fiction” by Liu Cixin. Tor.com , May 7, 2014. English text © 2014 by Liu Cixin and Ken Liu.

“The Torn Generation: Chinese Science Fiction in a Culture in Transition” by Chen Qiufan. Tor.com , May 15, 2014. English text © 2014 by Chen Qiufan and Ken Liu.