科幻中國(guó)造

Science Fiction Made in China

在文學(xué)的眾多門類之中，科幻似乎是從源頭上同西方文明聯(lián)系最緊密的類別之一。提起開(kāi)創(chuàng)科幻小說(shuō)先河的作家和作品，人們首先會(huì)想到法國(guó)的儒勒·凡爾納和他的《海底兩萬(wàn)里》（1870年）、英國(guó)的瑪麗·雪萊和她的《弗蘭肯斯坦》（1818年）以及另一位英國(guó)人赫伯特·喬治·威爾斯和他的《時(shí)間機(jī)器》（1895年）?？苹眯≌f(shuō)的興起源于歐洲工業(yè)革命帶來(lái)的科技進(jìn)步，人們開(kāi)始思考自己的方向和未來(lái)。

一個(gè)偶然的機(jī)會(huì)，還在上小學(xué)的劉慈欣讀到了這樣一部經(jīng)典作品

凡爾納寫于1864年的《地心游記》。正是這次親密接觸決定了他日后的興趣所在：成為一名科幻作家。20世紀(jì)70年代以后，一批西方科幻文學(xué)譯作進(jìn)入中國(guó)，由此引發(fā)了80年代的一次本土科幻作品創(chuàng)作高潮，其中一些作品發(fā)行量達(dá)數(shù)百萬(wàn)。

2002年，劉慈欣發(fā)表了自己第一部長(zhǎng)篇小說(shuō)《魔鬼積木》。隨后，他又陸續(xù)發(fā)表過(guò)兩部長(zhǎng)篇作品，但直至2006年《三體》問(wèn)世，劉慈欣才迎來(lái)了其創(chuàng)作生涯的成動(dòng)。截至2014年，這部作品己在中國(guó)累計(jì)銷售50萬(wàn)冊(cè)，并引起了國(guó)際市場(chǎng)的關(guān)注，當(dāng)年《三體》的英文版也在美國(guó)市場(chǎng)發(fā)行。一年后， 《三體》獲雨果獎(jiǎng)最佳長(zhǎng)篇小說(shuō)獎(jiǎng)，這是世界科幻文學(xué)界的最高榮譽(yù)。

在接受一家英文媒體采訪時(shí)，劉慈欣說(shuō)：“過(guò)去近三十年里，我一直在單位的同一個(gè)部門，做著一成不變的工作，這在我這個(gè)年紀(jì)的人里是很少見(jiàn)的。我選擇這條路是因?yàn)榭梢宰屪约河袝r(shí)間進(jìn)行科幻創(chuàng)作。年輕的時(shí)候，我給自己規(guī)劃的是做技術(shù)工程師，業(yè)余時(shí)間寫科幻。后來(lái)，我發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果運(yùn)氣好的話，或許可以成為全職作家?！?/p>

《三體》這個(gè)名字源于天體力學(xué)領(lǐng)域的一個(gè)同名的經(jīng)典問(wèn)題。書中的兩位主人公葉文潔和汪淼是生活在未來(lái)時(shí)代的兩位科學(xué)家。葉文潔是一位天體物理學(xué)家，她的父親被指控傳播反革命的相對(duì)論理念，在批斗中被打死。汪淼是納米科學(xué)家，后來(lái)陷入了虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)網(wǎng)游“三體”之中。全書的敘事將三個(gè)不同的時(shí)代交織在一起：1971年文革期間、21世紀(jì)初期和未來(lái)一個(gè)有三顆“太陽(yáng)”的遙遠(yuǎn)行星上。書中還涉及了科幻文學(xué)的經(jīng)典主題：與外星文明的接觸。全書的高潮則是揭露了三體文明針對(duì)人類文明及其基礎(chǔ)科學(xué)所設(shè)計(jì)的宏大陰謀。目前，以《三體》為藍(lán)本改編的電影正在制作當(dāng)中。

母親、經(jīng)濟(jì)師和作家

2016年，即劉慈欣獲頒雨果獎(jiǎng)一年后，33歲的中國(guó)女作家郝景芳憑借《北京折疊gt;斬獲雨果獎(jiǎng)最佳中短篇小說(shuō)獎(jiǎng)。該小說(shuō)以批判性的目光描繪了一個(gè)未來(lái)的北京，城市的空間被分為相互隔離的幾層，由不同社會(huì)階層的人居住，整個(gè)城市通過(guò)折疊技術(shù)為各個(gè)階層分配清醒的時(shí)間。主人公老刀是一個(gè)底層清潔工，他以微薄的工資承擔(dān)著養(yǎng)女高昂的幼兒園費(fèi)用——這也是當(dāng)前很多中國(guó)父母面臨的困境。老刀所處的第三空間生活著5000萬(wàn)人，這些人每次折疊只能享有8小時(shí)的清醒時(shí)間，而且都是在晚上。每天清晨，城市翻轉(zhuǎn)后露出第二空間，這里生活著2500萬(wàn)人，每次折疊可以享受從早到晚共16小時(shí)的時(shí)間。而處于社會(huì)頂端的500萬(wàn)人生活在第一空間，他們每次折疊可享受24小時(shí)的完整時(shí)間。小說(shuō)還描繪了不同空間所對(duì)應(yīng)不同階層的城市景觀 第一空間沒(méi)有高樓，街道寬敞，綠樹(shù)成蔭;而第三空間的人們生存空間狹窄，吃著廉價(jià)的路邊攤食物。

在折疊的北京，低級(jí)空間的居民被禁止進(jìn)入高級(jí)空間。為了賺取女兒的學(xué)費(fèi)，老刀接受了一份非法的任務(wù)：幫一名第二空間的年輕人向第一空間的戀人傳遞情書。郝景芳細(xì)致地描寫了主人公所在第三空間的生活環(huán)境和社會(huì)現(xiàn)實(shí)，這些都脫胎于作者自己的日常生活。據(jù)郝景芳稱，她必須保證每天早上五點(diǎn)至七點(diǎn)的兩小時(shí)寫作時(shí)間，然后要去中國(guó)發(fā)展研究基金會(huì)上班當(dāng)研究員，下班后還要照顧正在上學(xué)的女兒。畢業(yè)于清華大學(xué)物理系，后又拿到經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)博士學(xué)位，郝景芳以自己的經(jīng)歷和學(xué)識(shí)給虛構(gòu)的小說(shuō)情節(jié)賦予現(xiàn)實(shí)主義色彩：文中有一段就講述老刀偷聽(tīng)了一場(chǎng)關(guān)于用機(jī)器人取代底層勞動(dòng)階級(jí)的討論，討論的內(nèi)容完全是以宏觀經(jīng)濟(jì)數(shù)據(jù)作為支撐的。

盡管書中的情節(jié)可以讓人聯(lián)想到世界上任何一個(gè)大都市，但其中提及的問(wèn)題更多地出現(xiàn)在所謂的“發(fā)展中國(guó)家”，這些國(guó)家飽受人口爆炸和社會(huì)差距擴(kuò)大的困擾，這個(gè)虛構(gòu)的北京可以是圣保羅、孟買或拉各斯。西方讀者對(duì)科幻文學(xué)的參照往往是來(lái)自英語(yǔ)國(guó)家，因此，像《北京折疊》這樣的作品給人們提供了一個(gè)全新的視角。 《北京折疊》即將改編成電影在美國(guó)上映，電影的場(chǎng)景很可能會(huì)被設(shè)定為一個(gè)特征模糊的城市，而主人公也會(huì)由一位西方演員演繹。

每年二百部作品

在走向世界之前，中國(guó)的科幻作家往往拿過(guò)國(guó)內(nèi)的銀河獎(jiǎng)，這是國(guó)內(nèi)科幻文學(xué)的最高獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)，由創(chuàng)刊于上世紀(jì)80年代的《科幻世界》雜志主辦。獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)咧杏幸晃唤凶鲰n松的作者，他的作品尚未被譯介到西方世界。這位供職于新華通訊社的記者以科幻小說(shuō)的方式表達(dá)自己對(duì)當(dāng)前中國(guó)的思考和憂慮。在2010年出版的小說(shuō)《地鐵》中，地球己被外星文明接管，人類被驅(qū)逐出地球，一群在地球外長(zhǎng)大的中國(guó)探險(xiǎn)者回到地球，尋找先祖遺留的重要機(jī)密。他們降落在北京廢棄的地鐵通道內(nèi)一輛高速運(yùn)行卻沒(méi)有目的地的列車中。書中體現(xiàn)了作者對(duì)人類超高速發(fā)展的反思，這種發(fā)展給人們的生活帶來(lái)了不可恢復(fù)的巨變。

在幻想類小說(shuō)家中，何夕是最神秘的一位，在最新出版的小說(shuō)《天年》中，他以比劉慈欣更宏大的視角描述了星際規(guī)模的災(zāi)難。

近年來(lái)，中國(guó)科幻作家的數(shù)量逐步增長(zhǎng)。2012年，全國(guó)共出版科幻小說(shuō)200余部，這種對(duì)科幻的濃厚興趣可以從多種角度來(lái)解讀。在接受美國(guó)媒體采訪時(shí)，劉慈欣將其部分歸因于中國(guó)的高速現(xiàn)代化進(jìn)程，這種進(jìn)程促使中國(guó)人思考自己的現(xiàn)在和未來(lái)，這多少跟當(dāng)年歐洲出現(xiàn)凡爾納和威爾斯的背景有些類似。幾年前，中國(guó)航天員首次實(shí)現(xiàn)外太空旅行，這也催生了一系列類似《星球大戰(zhàn)》和《星際迷航》的作品。

總的來(lái)說(shuō)，中國(guó)科幻文學(xué)的題材與西方并無(wú)太大差異空間探索、外星接觸、未來(lái)城市和環(huán)境災(zāi)難等。郝景芳曾對(duì)一家美國(guó)新聞網(wǎng)站表示，近年來(lái)中國(guó)科幻的創(chuàng)作開(kāi)始多樣化起來(lái)，出現(xiàn)了諸如家庭生活和古代歷史等題材，甚至還有寫搖滾故事的。即便如此，無(wú)論是內(nèi)容還是敘事方式，中國(guó)的科幻文學(xué)都具有自己獨(dú)特的魅力。希望在不久的將來(lái)能夠有更多的優(yōu)秀作品被翻譯介紹給世界讀者。

Among various branches of literature， the science fiction seems among the list ofbranches that connect the most closely with western civilization in the source. Whentalking about writers and works that broke the ground of science fiction， what firstlycome up in people's mind are French writer Jules Verne and his Twenty Thousand LeaguesUnder the Sea （1870）， British writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and her Frankenstein（1818）， ancl another British writer Herbert George Wells and his The Time Machine （1895）.All those masters and their masterpieces were born in the age of scientific and technologicalaclvance brought about by the Industrial Revolution in Europe. It was an age when thescience fiction sprang up and people started to think about their directions and futures.

By a mere chance， Liu Cixin， who was still at elementary school， read the classic workjoumey to theCenter of the Earth written by Jules Verne in 1864. It was just this close contact with this classic work thatdeterminecl his future interest： to become a science fiction writer Since the 1970s， a batch of westernscience fiction has been translated into Chinese， making the enthusiasm of Chinese Wrliters for composingscience fiction to the climax in 1980s. Some of those native works have been issued for millions of copies.

In 2002， Liu Cixin published his first novel Th e Devil's Bricks. Later on， he publishedtwo more novels in succession. But it is not until the publication of Th e Three-Body Problemin 2006 that Liu Cixin notched up his success in his writing career. Up t0 2014， The numberof copies of the work sold in China exceeded 500，000 and attracted global attention. Ancl inthe same year， the English edition of th e Three-Body Problem was released in the US. Oneyear later， it won the Hugo Awards for Best Novel， an award described as the best literaryaward for science fiction writing.

During the interview with an English media outlet， Liu Cixin said， \"In the past 30 years， I stayed in thesame department， doing routine work， which was rare among people of my age. I chose this path becauseit allowed me to work on my fiction. In my youth， when I tried to plan for the future， I had wished to be anengineer so I could get work with technology while writing sci- fi after hours. I figurecl that if I got lucky， Icould then turn into a full-time writer.\"

The name Three-Body Problem is originated from the classic problem in celestial mechanics. Theleading characters in the book Ye Wenjie and Wang Miao are scientists living in the future. Ye Wenjie is anastrophysicist whose father was accused of spreading the counter-revolution Theory of Relativity and wasbeaten to death at the struggle session. And Wang Miao is a nanotechnology professor who later becomesaddicted to the visual reality online game \"the three-bodyproblem \". In the book， three different ages areinterwoven， the year of 1971 0f the cultural revolution， the early 21st century and the future when a farplanet revolves around three sun. The book also covers the classic theme of science fiction： the contactwith alien civilization. The climax of the bookis when the plot made by the civilization of three-bodyproblem against human civilization and their basic science was uncovered. At present， a movie adaptedfrom Three-Body Problem is in development.

Mother， Economist and Writer

In 2016， one year after LiuCixin won and received the HugoAwards， Chinese female writerHao Jingfang won the 2016 HugoAward for Best Novelette with hernovelette FoldingBeijing. Thenovel critically describes Beijingin the future which is divided intoseveral isolated classes. In thoseclasses， people of different socialclasses live with different wakinghours as a result of the foldingtechnique. The character Lao Daois a waste processing worker， whobears the high cost of his adoptedkindergarten daughter with ameager salary， which is also adilemma faced by most Chineseparents at present. The third classLao Dao lives in hosts 50 millionpeople who are awake only for 8hours after each folding， and all ofthose 8 hours are at night. Everymorning， the city will fold andshow the second class which hosts25 million people who are able toenjoy 16 hours from sunrise tosunset. And those 5 million elitepeople who live in the first classcan enjoy the whole 24 hours aftereach fold. Different classes havedifferent cityscape according totheir social status-the first classhas wide and tree-shading streetswith no high- rises; while the thirdclass offers its residents limitedliving space and cheap food atroadsides.

In the foldingBeijing， residentsfrom lower classes are prohibited fromentering higher classes. However， inorder to earn the school fee for hisadopted daughter， Lao Dao acceptsan illegal job： to deliver a love letterfor a young boy at the second class tohis lover at the first class. In the book，Hao Jingfang describes the livingenvironment and social reality of thethird class where the leading characterlives in details. All these descrip tionscome from the daily life of the author.According to Hao Jingfang， who isa researcher at China DevelopmentResearch Foundation （CDRF）， everymoming， she will spend 2 hours writingfrom 5：00 a.m. t0 7：00 a.m. After that， shewill go to CDRF to work and after work，she has to take care of her daughter，a schoolgirl. Having graduated fromDepartment of Physics at TsinghuaUniversity and later obtained a doctoratein economics， Hao Jingfang endowsher fictitious plots with realism colorwith her experience and knowledge：for example， there is a plot where LaoDao eavesdrops on a discussion aboutreplacing the bottom working classwith robots which is based on realmacroeconomic data.

Although plots in the book mayremind people of every metropolis inthe world， questions proposed therearise mainly in the so called \"developingcountries\" that are suff'ering frompopulation explosion and enlargedsocial gap. This fictive Beijing may bereplaced by Sao Paulo， Mumbai or Lagos.In addition， the reference of sciencefiction in the mind of western readersalways comes from that of English-spea king countries. Works like FoldingBeijing therefore will provide peoplewith a new perspective to look into. Amovie adapted fromFoldingBeijingwillbe on soon in the US and the scene ofwhich may be an ambiguous city withwestern actors acting the leading roles.

200 Works per Year

Before coming into the world'sspotlight， Chinese science fiction writersalways have won China's Galaxy Award.It is the most prestigious science fictionaward founded by Science FictionWorld which began in the 1980s. HanSong is one of the winners of the awardwhose works have not been translatedand introduced to the western world.Working as a journalist in Xinhua NewsAgency， he expressed his reflections andworries on contemporary China in hisscience fiction works. His novelSubwaypublished in 2010 describes the timewhen the Earth is in the charge of aliencivilization and human are expelled fromthe Earth. A group of Chinese explorers，who had grow up outside the Earth，return to look for important secretsleft by their ancestors. They landed in adiscarded Beijing subway that is movingat high speed but with no destination.The writer expresses his reflection onthe high-speed development of humancivilization and its unrecoverablechanges on human life.

Among the science fiction writers，He Xiis the most mysterious one. Noone knows who he really is. In hislatest published novelDoomsyear hedescribes interstellar cataclysms from awider perspective than Liu Cixin.

The number of Chinesescience fiction writers is on therise in recent years. In 2012， therewere more than 200 science fictionworks published in China. Thisstrong interest in science fictioncan be interpreted from severalperspectives. Liu Cixin attributedthis phenomenon partly to thehigh-speed modernization processof China which urges the Chineseto think about their present andfuture. This background sharessimilarities with the rise of JulesVerne and Herbert George Wells inEurope. A few years ago， Chineseastronauts first achieved theirouter space travel which gave birthto works similar to Star WarandStar Trek.

Generally speaking， thetheme of Chinese science fictionbears little difference fromthat of the Western world-theexploration of space， the contactwith aliens， the city in the future，and the catastrophe caused byenvironmental problems. HaoJingfang once said to a US newswebsite that recent years havewitnessed the diversification in thedevelopment of Chinese sciencefiction. For example， works aboutfamily life and ancient history，and even rock music. However，Chinese science fiction has itsown uniqueness and charms withregard to its content and narrativemethod. It is hoped that more andmore Chinese fine works will betranslated and introduced to theworld in the near future.