Many of us love stories about time travel, aliens, and the future, but most science Fiction comes from the West. But one completely Chinese sci-fi work has attracted the world’s attention. On April 4, the World Science Fiction Society announced the finalists for the 2017 Hugo Awards, the top award for science fiction. Death’s End (《死神永生》), the final book in Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past (《地球往事》) trilogy (三部曲), is among the nominees (被提名者). The winner will be revealed on Aug 11.
我们中不少人都喜欢时空穿梭、外星人和关于未来的故事，但大多数科幻小说都来自于西方。然而，一部纯“中国制造”的科幻作品如今引起了世界的关注。4月4日，世界科幻小说协会公布了科幻小说界最高奖项——雨果奖，2017年的提名名单，刘慈欣的《地球往事》三部曲的终章《死神永生》就在名单之列。获奖者将于今年8月11日揭晓。Liu, 54, is not a Hugo Award newcomer. In 2015, The Three-Body Problem, the first novel in the series, made him the first Asian to take home the prize.
现年54岁的刘慈欣并不是雨果奖的新人了。早在2015年，该系列的第一部小说《三体》就让他成为了第一个捧得雨果奖的亚洲人。Ever since it was published in English in 2013, The Three-Body Problem quickly became the best-selling Asian work of literature on US retail (零售) platform Amazon. Former US President Barack Obama even took it on holiday, while social media billionaire Mark Zuckerberg recommended it on Facebook. The novel has also been adapted into a movie starring Feng Shaofeng, which will be released later this year.
自2013年英文版面世以来，《三体》便迅速成为了美国零售平台亚马逊上最畅销的亚洲文学作品。美国前总统巴拉克?奥巴马甚至度假也要带上它，而社交媒体亿万富翁马克·扎克伯格也在脸书上推荐这本书。这部小说也已经被改编成了一部由冯绍峰主演的电影，将于今年年内上映。
According to Ken Liu, the novel’s US-based translator, many of the themes explored in Western sci-fi have found their place in the Chinese trilogy. Things like space exploration, alien contact, artificial intelligence (人工智能), and life science are all included. Problems of modern development are also addressed, like environmental pollution and the negative effects caused by new technologies.
这部小说的译者刘宇昆目前居住在美国，他表示，西方科幻作品中探索的许多主题在这部中国三部曲中都有一席之地，诸如太空探索、与外星生命接触、人工智能以及生命科学等内容都被包含在内。书中还提及了现代发展所带来的问题，如新科技所引发的环境污染以及其他负面影响等。“Chinese sci-fi does have its own unique themes as well, such as the attempt to re-display the ancient history of China from a sci-fi angle (角度),” Ken Liu told The Guardian.
“中国的科幻小说同时也有自己独特的主题，比如试图从科幻的角度，来展现中国古代历史。” 刘宇昆在接受《卫报》采访时表示。Yet most importantly, Liu’s work, like many successful works of science fiction, is popular because it voices our concern with the future.
但最重要的是，就像许多成功的科幻小说作品一样，刘慈欣的作品因传达了人类对于未来的担忧而大热。
“With the rapid development of China, the way of thinking of the Chinese people – the new generation in particular – is undergoing profound (深刻的) changes,” Liu Cixin told Wired magazine. “They have broader horizons. They view themselves as part of humanity instead of being just Chinese. They have also started to think about the ultimate (终极的) questions concerning the whole universe, which Chinese people seldom thought about before.”
“随着中国的快速发展，看待中国人的方式 —— 特别是新一代 —— 正在经历深刻的变化。”刘慈欣在接受《连线》杂志采访时表示，“他们拥有了更宽广的视野。他们将自己视为人类的一分子，而不仅仅是中国人。他们也已经开始思考关于全宇宙的终极问题，而这些问题是中国人先前很少会考虑到的。”Han Song, another Chinese sci-fi writer, agreed that the development of science fiction is closely related to a nation’s development. “Sci-fi novels show a nation’s imagination and creativity,” he told Southern Metropolitan Daily.
另一位中国科幻小说家韩松，对科幻作品的发展与国家的发展密切相关这一观点表示赞同。他在接受《南方都市报》采访时表示，“科幻小说展现了一个国家的想象力和创造力。”And Italian science writer Giulio Prisco believes that China is the place to watch for sci-fi fans. “Chinese writers are taking the lead in writing imaginative science fiction that is able to inspire whole generations,” he wrote on his blog. “China is starting to think big and is ready to take first place in the race toward a bright future on Earth and in space. Modern Chinese science fiction shows that.”
而意大利科幻作家朱里奥·普利斯科认为，中国是一个科幻迷应当关注的地方。“中国作家正在带头创作能够启迪世人又富有想象力的科幻小说，”他在博客中写道，“中国开始从大处着眼，准备好在地球乃至宇宙通往光明未来的竞争中取得领先地位。而中国现代科幻小说就展现了这一点。”