In conversation with sci-fi wunderkind Fei Dao
Fei Dao is a Chinese science fiction writer, born in 1983. The characters for Fei Dao (a pen name) originally meant “flying dagger” (飞刀), but he later changed the second character to 氘, a chemical element also pronounced dao (deuterium, to be exact). He is the author of three collections of sci-fi short stories, including The Storytelling Robot, and received his PhD in literature at Tsinghua University. He currently teaches comparative literature and sci-fi at Beijing Normal University. The interview was conducted in Chinese, and a translation of one of his stories will follow tomorrow (you can also read another story, ‘End of Days Story,’ at Read Paper Republic). This interview was conducted by Alec Ash in Chinese in 2013 and has been updated.
When did you start writing science fiction?
When I was at middle school, 16 or 17, I started to read a lot of sci-fi. I read the magazine Science Fiction World and became more familiar with sci-fi literature. I liked it because there was a lot of imagination and novelty in it. At that time, my dream was to become an author. When I started out, I didn’t think at all about writing science fiction. Back then I felt sci-fi was very difficult to write, and needed some knowledge of science, so I could only appreciate it but not write it myself.
Like many post-80s authors, I started out writing campus stories about young people in school. But I couldn’t get them published. Until one day in university I wrote a science fiction story on the side, and sent it in to Science Fiction World. I was just giving it a go, I had no idea that that first story would get published in 2003. A year later, I had another idea, and that second story also got published. So that encouraged me, and I started writing sci-fi.
How popular is sci-fi in China?
In my opinion, it’s mostly popular among young people. This has a big connection to Science Fiction World, because a lot of students at middle school and university buy that magazine. It has a very large readership. But after people graduate and start to work, most people don’t read science fiction. They think it’s just youth literature and that grown-ups should read more mature stuff, not childish stuff.
What do you think?
Of course I don’t think it’s childish literature. But Science Fiction World is, after all, for young readers. The whole feel of the magazine is like that. So while there is lots of mature science fiction for grown-ups, the readers are still mostly young.
I feel lots of people are prejudiced against sci-fi. They think that if you’re a certain age and still read sci-fi, that’s immature and unrealistic, like you are letting your fantasies run wild. So I think that prejudice is a problem. But now that Three-Body (San-ti 三体) by Liu Cixin has been publicly praised, I hope that is slowly changing people’s opinion.
Who are the Chinese authors we should read?
The most popular authors now are Liu Cixin, Han Song and Wang Jinkang. Those three are the most famous at this time. Some people jokingly call them “the three generals.”
What is unique or particular about Chinese science fiction?
Chinese sci-fi has about a hundred years of history. When it started, in the late Qing dynasty around 1902, it was chiefly concerned with the problem of bringing ancient China into modernity. At that time, Liang Qichao translated sci-fi because he thought it would be beneficial for China’s future, as something that could popularize scientific knowledge. And Lu Xun thought that if you gave ordinary people scientific literature to read, they would fall asleep. But if you blended scientific knowledge into stories with a plot, it would be more interesting, and the people could become more modern.
So at that time science fiction was a very serious thing to do in China, that could allow ordinary people to get closer to modern scientific knowledge, and serve as a tool for transforming traditional culture into modern culture. It played a very important role, and had a serious mission to accomplish.
Today, there is a commercial publishing market for sci-fi, and people don’t have such weighty expectations of literature, yet authors are still discussing serious topics. Three-Body by Liu Cixin or Subway (Ditie 地铁) by Han Song both have many reflections about the direction of this country and of humanity. So this kind of writing can convey concerns about the future, or discuss the current situation in China.
For example, Han Song’s Subway is about a subway station. In China, subway systems are an emblem of modernization. Many cities in China are building huge subway systems, because to have one or not is the standard of a city’s modernity and development. So in discussing this symbol, Han Song seized on a sensitive point. After publishing Subway, he wrote another book called Highspeed Rail (Gaotie 高铁), another emblem of technological innovation. So Han Song is consistently concerned with the potential catastrophes of the process of modernization.
Liu Cixin, on the other hand, is expressing a grander feeling of the universe in the tradition of Western sci-fi. In doing so, he wants Chinese people to look up at the sky and not just be concerned with earthly matters. The mainstream of Chinese literature is about real-world subject matter, such as the countryside or urban life. Very few people are concerned with the fate of humankind, the future of the universe, or even aliens. These things are themselves alien to Chinese readers, but can be introduced through this kind of writing.
I think that the key theme of Chinese science fiction, no matter how it develops, is how this ancient country and its people are moving in the direction of the future.
What is the relationship between Chinese sci-fi and the culture and censorship authorities?
I’m an author, not a magazine publisher, so I’m not sure precisely what the relationship between them and the censorship department is. But in China, no matter what the subject matter of literature is, you have to communicate with the censorship department. For example, if you write realistic fiction about a sensitive subject, you’ll also come up against objections. It’s the same for sci-fi.
Is there a big Western influence on Chinese sci-fi?
Science fiction is a new variety of literature in China. Before a hundred years ago, it had no frame of reference, so it just studied Western works. Of course there were native influences too, but in the end the learning process was from the West. Chinese sci-fi writers today have also read a lot of Western sci-fi. They’re very familiar with it, and it’s given them a lot of inspiration. For example, Liu Cixin emphasises his admiration of Arthur Clarke.
What are the other main influences?
There’s also a big influence from Japan. Historically there were a lot of Japanese [sci-fi] stories translated into Chinese. Jules Verne was also first translated from Japanese into Chinese. And contemporary Japanese sci-fi, for example Japan Sinks (Riben chenmo 日本沈没) by Sakyo Komatsu, is very popular in China. Anime and manga are also an influence, but only starting from the post-80s generation, because that is the generation where TV shows began to become popular.
Another big influence on Chinese sci-fi is Soviet sci-fi. Especially after 1949, when China had less connection to the West and more connection to the USSR, the most famous Chinese sci-fi authors were most influenced by Soviet sci-fi with communist themes. So there are three big influences: the West, Japan and the USSR.
Who are your biggest influences?
I’ve been influenced by a lot of non-science fiction writers, and I’ve read classic Western sci-fi such as Arthur Clarke and Isaac Asimov. But when I was young, one of the works that most subtly influenced me a novella by Ted Chiang (Jiang Fengnan 姜峯楠) called ‘Tower of Bablyon.’ That story gave me a new understanding of science fiction – i.e. that it doesn’t have to be just about technology.
In the story, they built a high tower in Babylon that became a world with different floors and people living inside. They built it bit by bit, until it reached the top of the sky. Then they burned through the sky, and the protagonist entered into the heavens, where there was water and a sandy shore. So this world was cyclical – you arrive in the heavens and it’s like the seabed. It’s hard to explain, but this was a very serious science fiction or fantasy story, and it opened up a large imaginative space for me.
Do you think sci-fi is important?
I do. I think that imagination is very important. People must preserve a curiosity about the future. Many people, because of everyday pressures, don’t have the time or the energy to care about things that don’t seem to be about everyday reality. But I think that to be curious is very important, and so is sci-fi. ∎
