Winning effort

Liu Cixin spoke at a readers' meeting that introduced Hao Jingfang (right)'s sci-fi works in July in Beijing. Luo Xiaoguang/China Daily

With a second Chinese bagging the Hugo prize, expectations from the country's sci-fi writers are rising. Xinhua reports.

On Sunday, a second Chinese author received a prestigious Hugo Award for science fiction, this time in the category of best novelette. Hao Jingfang, author of Folding Beijing, won the award at the 74th World Science Fiction Convention in the United States following Liu Cixin's 2015 Best Novel award for The Three-Body Problem, the first part of a trilogy.

Established in 1953, the Hugo Awards acknowledge the best works in science fiction or fantasy and, along with the Nebula Awards, are seen as the top prizes in the genre. They are named after Hugo Gernsback, founder of the American science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. The best novelette prize has previously been won by such acknowledged greats as Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. LeGuin and George R.R.Martin.

The news was received with great delight at the Shanghai Book Fair that closed yesterday.

Folding Beijing tells of a father's struggle to send his daughter to school in the Beijing of the future, alluding to the difficulties that some Chinese parents face today to ensure their children receive a quality education. Hao herself graduated in physics from Tsinghua University in 2006.

"Chinese sci-fi is embracing unprecedented opportunities today," said Liu Cixin at the Shanghai fair.

Liu believes China is witnessing the beginning of sci-fi "industrialization" and the environment for sci-fi writers has greatly improved from the previous decades.

Death's End, the third part of Liu's trilogy, is to be released in the United States on Sept 20. The English translation of the entire trilogy made its debut at the Shanghai fair on Sunday.

"Following the success of The Three-Body Problem, we noticed an increase in Chinese material in sci-fi all round the world," said Yao Haijun, chief editor of Science Fiction World, China's leading sci-fi magazine.

"It may also be associated with the rise of the Chinese economy in general."

The Three-Body Problem has sold more than 160,000 copies since it was published in November 2014, and has been reviewed in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.