After reading the world of the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, I ended up becoming thirsty for more works of science fiction made by Chinese authors. As I mainly grew up consuming aspects of this genre mainly told in the eyes of the Western and Japanese perspectives. And me being a crazed sci-fi addict, I needed to know more about the Chinese perspective of the genre after experiencing Liu Cixin.
So, with this new found thirst for them, I started digging and doing some deep search to find more Chinese sci-fi authors to quench my immense thirst that I had. However, after doing much heavy digging for quite some time. I found myself in square zero with nothing to show for. Which to be frank, I was extremely baffled.
I mean, how does the most populous country in the world, (at the moment I am writing this), can have no result for what I am looking for? What’s going on? There is no way all billion people within that country can be all uncreative and untalented in the field of the arts. I mean, all humans have thoughts to create things. Especially storytelling.
I just couldn’t comprehend why it was so difficult to find other authors or works of sci-fi from China.
Then I realized I was doing this whole search wrong. As fictional works made by Chinese people, (in this case sci-fi as this is how this whole journey started), where mostly released on websites. As I realized that their country’s isolation after turning communist really didn’t make the physical book market that big over there. Especially when it came to the business of publishing fiction. As creativity and standing through works of art was considered treasonous in those early modern times of the 20th century within China.
And they only started to pick up on their fictional game with some freedom, in this case sci-fi, once a certain Chinese ego maniac was out of the picture within that country. For damn obvious reasons.
So, once I realized this I began my search again in the correct way this time. Which lead me to find many results unlike my previous search. And the one result that I came interested the most was this website called Webnovel. A Chinese owned site that contains many genres of stories that extend not just from Chinese works, but from many other East Asian countries. Such as Korea and Japan.
Point is, I had found what I was looking for. And by all things holy, I am glad I had found this. As it really contained many works of Chinese writers within the sci-fi genre that I was so desperately craving.
I was no longer stuck with just two nation perspectives for my sci-fi addiction. Which overall, is a win win for me.
Which to be fair, if you are reading this. I am not the only one open with this new perspective anymore. And I have a feeling is only going to be the beginning of a great thing. As new bound ways to bypass governmental and company policies are increasing nonstop all around the world thanks to systems such as VPN.
Making Chinese authors/writers to write their creativity with some peace of mind within their hearts from the anonymity those systems offer. Since China is still very iffy about what is shared within their society. Fiction or otherwise.
Meaning, we are bound to experience a whole generation of Chinese writers. A new age of fictional writing. And for my case, a new dawn of sci-fi discovery thanks to the rising big nation of the East. Something I am really happy for.
Thanks for reading and stay safe everyone.
LEETHALCORE 