When Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem was published in English in 2015, it became the first Chinese sci-fi novel to win a Hugo award. President Obama took it on holiday. Mark Zuckerberg recommended it on Facebook. Yet even as his reputation spread, Liu, 53, continued to work in a power plant in Shanxi Province.
"I've been working in that power plant for nearly 30 years," he says. "I'm relatively lucky, because my work is not busy and I've got lots of time for writing."
Set in post-war Communist China, The Three-Body Problem tells the story of an alien civilisation which learns of the existence of Earth. Facing destruction, the aliens invade (a clash detailed in the sequel, The Dark Forest). Death's End, the trilogy's concluding volume, which was released on September 20, explores the two societies' attempt to co-exist, despite apparently irreconcilable differences.
"The last volume is far grander in scope and ambition," says Liu's translator - who happens to be the award-winning fantasy author Ken Liu (no relation). "It literally covers a time period that lasts until the death of the universe."
Liu, who is known to his fans and friends as "Da Liu," an affectionate nickname meaning "Big Liu" or "Liu the Elder", grew up during the Cultural Revolution, when sci-fi was almost unknown in China. His first encounter with the genre came via Jules Verne. "I thought what was written was true," he says. "Later I knew that it was not, but that made me fall in love with sci-fi."
Liu's taste for "hard" sci-fi – he often says that his novels are poor imitations of Arthur C Clarke's – puts him at odds with the genre's recent trend towards bleak, contemporary themes. He attributes this difference to the positivity of China's recent technology-enabled acceleration.
"With the rapid development of China these years, the way of thinking of the Chinese people, the new generation in particular, is undergoing profound changes," he says. "They have broader horizons. They view themselves as part of humanity instead of being just Chinese. They also start to think over ultimate questions concerning the whole universe, which the Chinese seldom think about before.
"It seems that today’s Western sci-fi, US sci-fi in particular, has gradually lost the vitality of sci-fi's Golden Age in the past century."
Liu's blunt answers echo his style of writing. "His prose is usually described as 'robust' and 'direct'," says Ken Liu (who Chinese fans call “Xiao Liu” or “Liu the Younger”), "though there’s also a great deal of poetry in his phrasing and sentence structure, especially when he’s describing the ordinary lives of individuals, the wonders of technology, and the grand mysteries of the universe."
Cixin Liu himself hopes that he is read for these human qualities, rather than his Chinese background. "I’d prefer my work to be read as interesting sci-fi, not just a way to learn Chinese mindset today," he says. And there is one question that concerns him above all – if only his audience will see it.
"While President Obama reads my story for a pastime," Liu says, "I hope that he will attach more importance to the possible engagement of the U.S. and humanity as a whole with alien civilisations. After all, this is the greatest uncertainty facing the world today."
Death's End by Cixin Liu (Head of Zeus) is out now
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
