Chinese creators win three Hugo Awards Liu Cixin: Chinese science fiction has moved from the edge to the spotlight
Author/Xu Tan
On the evening of October 21, the most prestigious 81st "World Science Fiction Convention" Hugo Awards in the science fiction industry were announced in Chengdu, a total of 17 Hugo Awards and 2 non-Hugo Awards were selected, and the "2023 Hugo Awards" The heaviest "Best Novel" award was won by American female writer T. Kingfisher's "Nettle and Bones".
Unusually, this is also the most Hugo Award winner in China's science fiction industry, with three people in the science fiction community winning the award - science fiction writer Hai Zhang won the "Best Short Novella" award for "Time and Space Painter", Zhao Enzhe, who has repeatedly created covers for "Science Fiction World", won the "Best Professional Artist" award, and "Zero Gravity News" won the "Best Fan Magazine" award.
From October 18th to 22nd, this is the first time that the "World Science Fiction Convention" will be held in China. Robert Sawyer and Cixin Liu, two of the world's most well-known science fiction writers, were honorary guests of honor at the conference, both winners of the Hugo Award.
The weight of the "World Science Fiction Convention" is that the Hugo Award, which is called the "Nobel Prize of science fiction", will be awarded at the conference. In 2015, when Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" won the Hugo Award for "Best Novel" at the World Science Fiction Convention, Liu Cixin was not present. Because he didn't think "The Three-Body Problem" would win in a "non-mainstream" writing style, he learned about it from a taxi when the Hugo Award was announced. This time, Liu Cixin attended the meeting as the host.
Why did Chengdu try to win the right to host the World Science Fiction Convention? So much so that it defeated Nice in France, Memphis in the United States, and Winnipeg in Canada, and the process was full of twists and turns.
One possibility is that science fiction has become a symbol of national soft power. In the context of the rejuvenation of science and technology, science fiction has become a literary and artistic genre that plays a positive role in the development of science and technology. On the other hand, in 2022, the total revenue of China's science fiction industry will reach 87.75 billion yuan, and the industrial imagination space is huge, which is a pulling effect on the regional economy.
However, the science fiction industry has an embarrassing reality, although science fiction has attracted much attention, how to develop industrial value seems to lack mature business paths and templates.
On the afternoon of October 20, one of the most jaw-dropping scenes at the World Science Fiction Convention was the signing of Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem", with more than 3,000 fans present and a team of hundreds of meters long.
At present, the classic works of the head science fiction writers led by Liu Cixin and the development of some top IPs still occupy the core position of the science fiction industry. With 260 million followers, "The Three-Body Problem" has even become the only development system in China supported by a single IP. This is a unique feature of the current Chinese science fiction world, and it is also an abnormal feature.
Liu Cixin said at the World Science Fiction Convention: "Although Chinese science fiction is now attracting a lot of attention, it has moved from marginalization to the spotlight. But even so, China's overall science fiction creation is still in a stage of development, and the number of our real science fiction readers, as well as the number of science fiction writers, is still relatively small, especially the lack of influential writers and works. ”
The development of IP depends on whether science fiction writers can support themselves
The development of IP is related to the survival situation of science fiction writers. Only more science fiction writers can support themselves on science fiction to activate the science fiction industry to a greater extent.
Science fiction writer Wang Jinkang said in 2023: "Only the wider the pyramid at the bottom can be built higher, in layman's terms, it is when science fiction writers can support themselves on manuscript fees, science fiction can get sustained and long-term development." ”
In the past, there was a saying in the science fiction world: no more than three science fiction writers can support themselves by writing. In 2015, after "The Three-Body Problem" won a Hugo Award, Liu Cixin said in an interview with Shanxi media, "People ask me, how many science fiction writers can China support itself? I said no more than 3, one is me, one is young pediatric fantasy writer Yang Peng, and the third I thought about it for a long time and didn't come up with it. ”
In the early 90s, Liu Cixin, who had been working as a computer engineer at the Niangziguan Power Plant in Yangquan, Shanxi, began to contribute to Science Fiction World. Initially, an editor seriously wrote him a rejection letter and made some comments elsewhere.
Until 1999, Liu Cixin tried to cast two more short stories - "Whale Song" and "Microworld". The manuscript signed "Liu Cixin of Shanxi Niangziguan Power Plant" has made a deep impression on Yao Haijun, the current editor-in-chief of Science Fiction World, and is a rare computer-printed submission, with a peculiar idea and extraordinary impact. In the following years, Liu Cixin became the core author of "Science Fiction World".
In 2006, "Three-Body Problem 1" was published, in 2008, "Three-Body Problem 2: Dark Forest" was published, and in October 2010, "Three-Body Problem 3: Death Eternal" was published. This may be Liu Cixin's most creative years, and the most weighty trilogy in the history of Chinese science fiction was written by Liu Cixin in 5 years in the remote Niangziguan Power Plant in Shanxi.
Da Liu is a real person, and when the media asked him how he wrote "The Three-Body Problem", he answered truthfully that it was during work hours.
So much so that after Liu Cixin became famous all over the world, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission once ridiculed him on the official Weibo: "Mr. Liu, the reason why we want to deepen reform is because in the past, to a certain extent, there was a phenomenon of people floating around the things you mentioned." ”
In 2009, when the "deepening reform" of the state-owned asset system began to be implemented in Shanxi, Liu Cixin was attending an event in Beijing when he heard that the Niangziguan power plant was going to be shut down due to pollution, and he was shocked that losing the iron rice bowl touched him more than anything at the time. Liu Cixin said, "Winning the Hugo Award has not had a big impact. "He felt overwhelmed, he hadn't been able to write independently, and he was about to be laid off in middle age. The mother is in her 80s and her daughter is still in elementary school.
Yao Haijun told this writer that during that time, he received many text messages on his mobile phone, all of which were willing to provide Da Liu with a job. There are education and training industries, hydroelectric power stations, advertising industries, and all kinds.
Liu Cixin eventually became a full-time writer. Before the publication of "The Three-Body Problem 3: Death Eternal" in 2010, "The Three-Body Problem 1" only sold more than a hundred thousand copies.
Yao Haijun calculated an account for "Tanji Viewpoint", and the manuscript fee for Liu Cixin in "Science Fiction World" was the highest level, 150 yuan per thousand words. But even if he publishes 4 novellas a year, such as 30,000 yuan per manuscript, "Science Fiction World" creates an output value of only 120,000 yuan a year for a top science fiction writer.
Later, "Science Fiction World" began to promote "vision engineering" to promote the publication of science fiction classic books, from the magazine era to the book era. To create more value for writers, this is also the basis for the benign development of science fiction.
At present, Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" trilogy has a domestic circulation of more than 7 million sets (21 million copies), which is 700 million yards at the most conservative price of 100 yuan per set. Based on 10% royalties, Liu Cixin's income is about 70 million. In addition, Liu Cixin's works have been translated into more than 30 languages and distributed worldwide, with an estimated overseas distribution of 3 million sets (9 million copies).
Yao Haijun said that doing books at such a stage is the highest limit we can observe, creating 1 billion yards for a top writer (the total amount of book pricing).
In recent years, "there are only a few science fiction writers who can support themselves on manuscript fees", which is no longer the real situation in the science fiction world.
Dong Renwei, honorary director of the China Popular Science Writers Association and chairman of Chengdu Time Illusion Company, once told the author a detailed list of writers in the science fiction industry: In recent years, children's fantasy has also risen, and the circulation of children's fantasy writer Yang Peng's books has reached tens of millions of copies. Science fiction writers Lu Yang, Ma Chuansi, Chao Xia, Peng Xuluo, Zhao Hua, Peng Liurong, Little Gao Ghost, Pan Liang and other books have sold 100,000 to 1 million copies. Adult science fiction and children's fiction authors, such as Wang Jinkang, Jiang Bo, and Baoshu, have also sold more than 100,000 copies, not only can support themselves, but also live well.
The science fiction industry is gradually entering a stage of benign development.
Science + culture is the industrial attribute of science fiction
At present, science fiction literature may be the most capable literary form that can cross cultures, nations, and countries. Liu Cixin said at the media meeting at the World Science Fiction Convention: "The earth is a speck of dust in the universe, and we who live on it, in the face of the crisis that threatens the entire earth, all differences seem insignificant." ”
"Many years later, human entry into space has become commonplace, and I have been forgotten, and by that time, I will buy a ticket into space without attracting attention." Liu Cixin said. Perhaps having such a romantic dream determines that Da Liu is still in the creative period.
But one thing that makes Liu Cixin's fans linger, even if Liu Cixin is already the richest Chinese science fiction writer, but compared to the value brought by the "Three-Body Problem" IP, Liu Cixin's income is not worth mentioning, which may also be the fate of Chinese writers.
The rights to "The Three-Body Problem" were sold to horror film director Zhang Fanfan in 2009. This is the famous "100,000 cheap selling three-body copyright" public case in the science fiction industry (in fact, hundreds of thousands). However, the "Three-Body Problem" movie was difficult to produce in the hands of Zhang Fanfan, so Zhang Fanfan resold the copyright of "Three-Body Problem" to Youzu Network Company for 120 million yuan, and Nomad owner Lynch benchmarked Marvel and specially established Three-Body Universe Company to develop the commercial value of "Three-Body Problem". Until Lynch was poisoned to death by Xu Yao, the former CEO of Three-Body Universe, in 2020.
The commercial appeal of top film and television IPs can be seen from "Harry Potter". A Harry Potter book for author J.K. Rowling. Rowling) brought in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. From publishing to movies, DVDs, records, games, advertising, to toys, clothing, food, beverages, mobile phones and thousands of other franchised goods, to theme parks, theme tours. Over the past 20 years, the revenue of the "Harry Potter" industry chain has reached more than 200 billion US dollars.
At present, the cumulative value of the "Three-Body Problem" IP co-branded consumer market has exceeded 2 billion yuan, and the executives of the Three-Body Universe Company believe that "The Three-Body Problem" can form a ten-billion-yuan industrial chain. It remains to be seen whether the three-body universe company can build such a content ecology and derivative development format. Of course, all the grand gains have nothing to do with Liu Cixin.
The so-called industry has several characteristics: first, the volume should be large, the second is that the industry has status, and the third is that it must have the attributes and trends of continuous iteration. The so-called science fiction industry is science + culture, which is the industrial attribute of science fiction. It remains to be seen whether a number of good sci-fi companies can emerge in China, with both technical and cultural attributes, and create a new pattern around sci-fi copyright development, sci-fi film and television production, derivative development, etc.
"Tanji Viewpoint" is a Sankei observation column produced by Tencent News and led by "media person + writer" Xu Tan, who sees a more professional and interesting interpretation in the noise.