讲好中国故事: 不断崛起的中国科幻小说（上） [美国媒体]

FACTOR DAILY（2019.1.12）:
Telling the China Story: The Rise and Riseof Chinese Science Fiction
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讲好中国故事: 不断崛起的中国科幻小说



“Science fictionis as rare as unicorn horns, which shows in a way the intellectual poverty ofour times”, wrote Lu Xun, one of China’s most towering and revered literaryfigures, writing about science fiction literature in China in his preface tohis 1903 translation of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon.

"科幻小说像独角兽的角一样稀有，在某种程度上反映了我们这个时代的知识贫乏," 中国最杰出、最受尊敬的文学家之一鲁迅在1903年翻译儒勒 •凡尔纳的《从地球到月球》的序言中写道。（原文为“于科学小说，乃如麟角。智识荒隘，此实一端”）

The beginnings of modern Chinese sciencefiction first took root during the period of the Late Qing Dynasty, not justthrough translations of western science fiction but also with Chinese authorssuch as the scholar and reformist, Liang Qichao’s 1902 futuristic tale,TheFuture of New China, which was set in 1962 and depicted a world in whichShanghai hosts the World’s Fair, and a geopolitically dominant China hasdeveloped a multi-party system and westerners study Chinese in hopes ofimproving their life. The other significant science fiction story that isconsidered by many to be ‘Chinas first true science fiction story’ was Colonyof the Moon by an anonymous author, known only by his pseudonym, HuangjiangDiaosou. The purpose of all these stories of those times was simple, topopularise science and spark imagination and critical thinking.

中国现代科幻小说萌芽于清朝末年，这不仅得益于西方科幻小说的译入，中国本土作家同样功不可没。比如，着名学者、改革家梁启超1902年发表了未来主义小说《新中国未来记》，故事发生在1962年，那时的上海将举办世博会，西方人纷纷学起汉语以期改善他们的生活。另一部影响深远的科幻小说是荒江钓叟所着的《月球殖民地》，许多人认为这是“中国第一篇真正意义上的科幻小说”。当时这些科幻小说的创作目的都很简单，就是为了传播科学、激发想象力、培养批判性思维。



Once again, it wasn’t till years later – inthe late 1970s – that science fiction would flower again in China. a large bodyof SF emerged during this period, most notably Ye Yonglie’s Little Know-It-allTravels the Future, archaeologist and anthropologist Tong Enzheng’s Death Ray on a Coral Island and ZhengWenguang’sFlying to Sagittarius (also translated as Forward Sagittarius).

20世纪70年代末，科幻小说再度在中国复兴。当时涌现了大批科幻小说，其中代表作品有叶永烈的《小灵通漫游未来》，童恩正创作的《珊瑚岛上的死光》，以及郑文光的《飞向人马座》。

It was only to be in the early 1990s whenChinese science fiction would enter an uninterrupted golden age, and leadingthe charge would be writers: Wang Jiankang, Han Song and Liu Cixin, the authorof The Three-Body Problem, the novel that was instrumental in opening thefloodgates of Chinese SF to the English-speaking (and reading) world and thewriter of The Wandering Earth, on which the film billed as China’s breakoutsci-fi blockbuster is based on. A name most often added to this list is that ofHe Xi, the pseudonym of an as-yet-anonymous author, to make it the ‘Big 4’ of Chinese science fiction.

上个世纪90年代，中国的科幻文学步入了一个不间断的黄金时代。王晋康、韩松、以及《三体》和《流浪地球》的作者刘慈欣扛起了科幻文学的大旗。《三体》为英语世界读者打开了中国科幻小说的大门，而根据《流浪地球》改编的电影则被视为中国科幻电影元年到来的标志。此外，何夕的名字也常在其列，他们四人合称中国科幻界的“四大天王”。



As the writer Chen Quifan said in a speechat the eighth Chinese Nebula Awards in November 2017, saying that one of thepurpose of Chinese science fiction was to, “advance the establishment of thepower of the international spread of the culture of socialism with Chinesecharacteristics, in order to tell the China story.”

正如陈楸帆在2017年第八届华语科幻星云奖颁奖典礼上所说，中国科幻小说创作的目的之一便是“推动中国特色社会主义文化在国际上的传播，向世界讲好中国故事。”

Jerry2
Cixin Liu's 'Remembrance of Earth’s Past'trilogy are the greatest sci-fi books I've ever read. I still remember when Ipicked the first volume and than patiently waited for a very long time fortranslations of the next books to arrive. The wait was well worth it. Hemanages to put his characters into seemingly insurmountable situations and itfeels like he won't be able to write his way out of them but somehow he managesto achieve the impossible. His world-building skills are second to none and heintroduced so many novel and interesting technologies into his universe.

刘慈欣的《地球往事》三部曲是我读过的最伟大的科幻小说， 我仍然记得当我看完第一部，然后耐心等待下一部翻译出版时候的心情， 等待相当煎熬，但等待是值得的。他常常把他的角色放在看似不可逾越的高度上，我们读者感觉不知道下一步该怎么写，但不知何故他总是能在不可能中找到可能，他构建世界的技巧绝对首屈一指，能将许多新奇有趣的科技融入进他笔下的世界。



I’ve been told it gets better after thefirst book, but why would I subject myself to another book after my experienceof the first?

有人告诉我，在读完第一部之后，情况会有好转，但我为什么要在第一部不好的经历之后，还要再去读另一部呢？

Anyway, to each their own, but as a hugesci-fi fan, I generally love the Hugo winners and nominees. The Chinese sci-fithat’s been nominated has all left me cold.

不管怎样，每个人都有自己的体验，作为一个科幻迷，我通常很喜欢雨果奖的获奖作品和提名作品，但被提名的这些中国科幻小说都让我感到失望。

Jerry2
I was not a huge fan of the first bookeither but saw the potential. Second book, The Dark Forest, is the greatest ofthe three (IMO anyway). Third book isalso amazing. Definitely 'endure' reading through the first one and then you'llbe rewarded with 2nd and 3rd.

我也不是第一部的超级粉丝，但我看到了它的潜力， 第二部《黑暗森林》是三部中最伟大的一部 (至少在我看来是这样)， 第三部也很棒， 一定要坚持读完第一部，然后你会得到第二部和第三部的奖励。



The game-theoretic aspects of the book, onthe other hand, and the final comeback of aforementioned nerd, are something Ilike to point out when summarizing this book.

另一方面，这部书里关于博弈论的内容 （猜疑链），以及前面提到的书呆子最终的回归，是我在总结这一部时喜欢列出的内容。

ethbro
I enjoyed that part, but he could have doneit in a 20 page short story.

我也很喜欢这一部，但他完全可以写成一个20页的短篇小说。

I'm not sure if Liu Cixin is emblematic ofChinese science fiction, but the services of a more aggressive editor seem tobe missing. Imho, it would have vastly improved the series, and possibly cut itdown to a single volume.

我不确定刘慈欣是否是中国科幻小说的象征，但他似乎需要一个更强势的编辑，恕我直言，三部删减到一部可能更有看头。



erinnh
You described like 90% of Chinesewebnovels.

你描述了中国90% 的网络小说。

I still read some of them from time totime, but they’re all basically the same.

我仍然时不时地会阅读其中的一些作品，但它们基本上都是一样的。

the_af
What's a webnovel? Fanfiction? Or like anonline Japanese visual novel?

什么是网络小说？ 同人小说？或者像日本的在线视觉小说？

throwanem
Guessing, but maybe an original novelpublished freely on the web? That’s what the name appears to imply.

我猜，也许是在网上免费发表的原创小说？ 这似乎就是这个名字的含义。

_0ffh
Yep, it's novels published online in achapter by chapter format. You'll also find translations of some of them, butbeware that some sites provide automatic translations, which are naturally abit wonky. Here's an example site, specialized in the wuxia genre:https://www.wuxiaworld.com/

是的，它的小说以一章一章的形式在网上出版， 你也可以找到其中一些的翻译，但要注意有一些网站提供的是自动翻译，这自然有点不靠谱， 以下是一个武侠类网站的站点: https: / /www.wuxiaworld. com /

da_chicken
> I couldn’t stand the first book ofthis series. Interminable, I never built any empathy for any of the characters.

“这个系列的第一部我就读不下去， 没完没了，其中任何一个角色都不能让我产生共鸣。”



Maybe the culture in China is different andperhaps filters out the genuinely curious for those who produce definitiveresults? I'm only asking, not claiming.

也许中国的文化是不同的，也许它会过滤掉真正有好奇心的人，不会让这些人来做决策性事务？我这只是瞎猜，不算数的啊。