Chinese science-fiction writer Liu Cixin said that the chances of Chinese science fiction authors' to win Huge Awards in the near future lie in the novelette or short story categories.
"One thing that I am sure is that Hugo Awards will not have anything to do with me for a long time or even forever," Liu told Xinhua in Helsinki after his failure to win the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Despite the fact that his science fiction "The Three-Body Problem" sells over one million copies domestically and more than 300 thousand copies overseas, Liu believed the traditional science fiction that he is representing will continue to decline undoubtedly.
Liu said that he will continue to write novels, but it takes a long time. "It will be a feat for a novelist to write a single successful work in his lifetime. It is even difficult to win an international award in a short time."
"The Three-Body Problem", also known as the first novel in his trilogy titled "Remembrance of Earth's Past", won him the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Liu became the first Asian to take home this world's highest honor for science fiction.
Earlier in 2017, "Death's End", the third book of the series, was again among the finalists of Hugo Award for Best Novel, although it did not win out in the end. The award was given to American novelist N. K. Jemisin, who was the winner of the same award last year.
Due to the lack of influential sci-fi novelists in China, the biggest possibility of winning the Huge Awards by Chinese writers will lie in the short and medium length categories, Liu believed.
He said there are many talented short-story writers and excellent short works in China. "Being well promoted, they may have chances to win."
One year after Liu won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the young Chinese writer Hao Jingfang became the second Chinese winner of a Hugo Award when her novel "Folding Beijing" was awarded the Best Novelette.
All these accomplishments have been a good start for Chinese sci-fi works to be recognized by the outside world, noted Liu.
