THE “Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin failed to win the Nebula Award on Saturday, but the book has still made history as the first Chinese sci-fi novel to enter the shortlists of two of the top fantasy awards in the world — the Nebula and Hugo awards.

    Having sold more than 1 million copies since it was first published, the success of Liu’s “Three-Body” trilogy has not only put the media spotlight on Chinese sci-fi, but also drawn wider attention to the once small science fiction market in China.

    According to a report earlier this year on the publishing industry by the journal China Book Review, the number of new sci-fi titles published has been growing since the Chinese version of Liu’s “Three-Body” trilogy was published at the end of 2010. In 2012, there were nearly 200 new sci-fi books published — a peak for the niche market.

    “Liu single-handedly lifted Chinese sci-fi to the world level,” says Yan Feng, a professor of literature at Fudan University.

    While Yan praises Liu, his comment also hints at the shortcomings of the Chinese sci-fi publishing industry: a lack of originality in Chinese sci-fi novels and Chinese publishers favoring translated works over local sci-fi writers.

    “In the sci-fi genre, only Liu’s works have reached the quality of our selection,” says Xu Xiaochun, editor of Dookbook Company, which focuses on genre fiction. “We only publish the best in the genre.”

    Since 2012, the company has been importing classic Western sci-fi novels, including the “Foundation” series by American sci-fi master Isaac Asimov and works by renowned British sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke.

    Xu says the “Foundation” series has sold more than 200,000 copies in China.

    On the Chinese version of the popular bookselling website Amazon.com, the only Chinese writer who squeezes into the top 50 best sellers in sci-fi novels is Liu. The rest are all translated works by Western writers.

    A similar situation has happened with popular science books.

    “Although there are thousands of popular science books published every year, the first-class works are mostly written by Western writers,” says Sun Guijun, editor-in-chief of Hunan Science and Technology Press, which imported “A Brief History of Time” and “The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking.

    Sun says that sales of the Chinese version of “A Brief History of Time” have exceeded 1 million copies since it was first translated into Chinese in 1991.

    Zhang Siying, deputy editor-in-chief in charge of the popular science books section at Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, expressed a similar opinion.

    “The lack of incentives for scientists to write popular science books is the main reason for the lack of such books in China,” says Zhang.

    In 2012, Zhang organized a project to translate and import selected articles from the science journal Nature. Through the project, she has met many Chinese scientists and has asked them to write popular science books for young Chinese readers.

    (SD-Agencies)