| Science fiction author Chen Qiufan says he wants his writing to provoke a sense of both wonder and estrangement, like a "fun-house mirror, reflecting real light in a way that is more dazzling to the eyes." But in the past few years—a period that has seen China's sci-fi authors elevated to the status of New Age prophets—Chen's own career has become an object in the fun-house mirror. After his debut novel, The Waste Tide, garnered widespread attention at home and abroad, reviewers began praising Chen as the "William Gibson of China," and the tech industry has embraced him as a kind of oracle. An institute run by AI expert and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee's company has even developed an algorithm capable of writing fiction in the author's voice. In China, it is the place of science fiction itself—and the status of writers like Chen—that have taken a turn toward the hyperreal. China-based writer Yi-Ling Liu explores the challenge sci-fi writers like Chen face when they're prophetic icons, with all sorts of players angling to profit from the genre's popularity: film studios hungry for screenplay fodder, universities setting up sci-fi research institutions, talent agencies eager to jump on the bandwagon, tech companies keen to borrow its aura of profundity, and even government officials looking to elevate the national project of innovation. As Chen says, "One of the most important qualities in a writer is sensitivity—the ability to capture the strangeness in everyday life." And it can be hard to maintain that sensitivity when you're squinting under the spotlights. Jon J. Eilenberg | Articles Editor, WIRED |
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