Speculative fiction, which encompasses sci-fi and other futuristic literature, is emerging as a strong vehicle for China to project soft power in a competition with the United States over the imagined future.
The genre may help China and the Global South challenge Western views of colonialism, capitalism and future tech, according to Chinese scholars of literature and culture.
“Speculative fiction, as a genre that imagines the future while critiquing the present, has long been dominated by Euro-American discourses, and traditional science fiction studies have likewise focused primarily on the texts of Western economic powers,” said Du Lanlan, tenured professor of English literature at Nanjing University in eastern China.
She made the remarks in a presentation last month at a two-day conference on speculative fiction hosted by Nanjing University’s school of frontier sciences and its Institute of Global Humanities in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.
Speculative fiction explores “what if” possibilities beyond the everyday world and encompasses fantasy, science and dystopian fiction.
Du said Western writers often worked within a neoliberal ideological framework, projecting capitalist society into future scenarios, and their imagined worlds tended to be “dystopian, bleak and pessimistic”.
“However, in recent years, we have witnessed the rise of alternative narratives: Chinese science fiction, Latin American solarpunk, African futurism and South Asian mythological sci-fi,” she said.
“These emerging texts from the Global South reconstruct narratives of the future and, by offering diverse imaginations, challenge the Euro-American dominance of modernity.”
Once something comes to represent the will of the state, people – both at home and abroad – inevitably view it through a political lens
Chen Qiufan, science fiction writer
In Latin America, solarpunk as a literary movement has boomed since the mid-2010s. It uses speculative fiction to explore life beyond capitalism, envisioning optimistic futures while often including elements such as ecology, community-centred social structures and sustainable technologies.
Notable examples include Brazilian writer Carlos Orsi’s Soylent Green Is People! published in 2013. The story – which nods to the 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison and the subsequent 1973 Soylent Green film – imagines a process to harvest energy from the breakdown of organic matter.
It was around this time that Chinese speculative fiction gained a footing in the West. The English version of Remembrance of Earth’s Past – also known as the Three-Body trilogy – by Chinese author Liu Cixin, was hailed as groundbreaking when it was published in 2014 and praised by former US president Barack Obama as “wildly imaginative”.
The Three-Body trilogy’s ending points to a future with a sense of hope that things could reset, even after the universe collapses.
In 2015, Liu became the first Asian author to win the Hugo Award for best novel, the most prestigious sci-fi award in the West. His novel was turned into a Netflix series last year.
Speculative fiction explores “what if” possibilities beyond the everyday world and encompasses fantasy, science and dystopian fiction.
Du said Western writers often worked within a neoliberal ideological framework, projecting capitalist society into future scenarios, and their imagined worlds tended to be “dystopian, bleak and pessimistic”.
“However, in recent years, we have witnessed the rise of alternative narratives: Chinese science fiction, Latin American solarpunk, African futurism and South Asian mythological sci-fi,” she said.
“These emerging texts from the Global South reconstruct narratives of the future and, by offering diverse imaginations, challenge the Euro-American dominance of modernity.”
Once something comes to represent the will of the state, people – both at home and abroad – inevitably view it through a political lens
Chen Qiufan, science fiction writer
In Latin America, solarpunk as a literary movement has boomed since the mid-2010s. It uses speculative fiction to explore life beyond capitalism, envisioning optimistic futures while often including elements such as ecology, community-centred social structures and sustainable technologies.
Notable examples include Brazilian writer Carlos Orsi’s Soylent Green Is People! published in 2013. The story – which nods to the 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison and the subsequent 1973 Soylent Green film – imagines a process to harvest energy from the breakdown of organic matter.
It was around this time that Chinese speculative fiction gained a footing in the West. The English version of Remembrance of Earth’s Past – also known as the Three-Body trilogy – by Chinese author Liu Cixin, was hailed as groundbreaking when it was published in 2014 and praised by former US president Barack Obama as “wildly imaginative”.
The Three-Body trilogy’s ending points to a future with a sense of hope that things could reset, even after the universe collapses.
In 2015, Liu became the first Asian author to win the Hugo Award for best novel, the most prestigious sci-fi award in the West. His novel was turned into a Netflix series last year.
Following Liu, several young Chinese writers are gradually winning recognition in the Western sci-fi world, including Chen Qiufan, Hao Jingfang and Tang Fei.
Further, Du believed there were implications for other non-Western sci-fi writing.
“The Global South has now become a symbol of political resistance,” she said on the sidelines of the conference.
Her remarks came against the backdrop of Beijing trying to position itself as a leader of the Global South and seeking to put forward an alternative world order amid competition with the West.
Once dismissed as unserious literature and largely produced by grass-roots or online writers in China, speculative fiction was cited in 2022 by the country’s Ministry of Science and Technology as useful for promoting science engagement. It has become an important platform to showcase China’s soft power.
Qiu Huadong, a member of China’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, has called for the country to capitalise on science fiction for its potentially important role in great power cultural competition.
“Science fiction, both as a literary genre and as a broader cultural domain, is emerging as a key arena …in the global cultural landscape as global cultural competition becomes more intense,” he told the state-owned media outlet China Writers in March.
“[Leveraging sci-fi] to showcase the unique philosophical vision of Chinese civilisation for the future is an essential task for enhancing the soft power and international discourse influence of China’s science-fiction culture,” said Qiu, who is also vice-chairman of the China Writers Association, a semi-official group.
Jessica Imbach, an assistant professor of sinology at the University of Freiburg in Germany, said on the sidelines of the conference that “the Global South functions both geopolitically and symbolically: as a marker of solidarity among postcolonial and developing nations; as a reminder of shared resistance to Western imperialism; and as a sign of alternative pathways to modernisation”.
“Invoking the Global South allows China to position itself not only as a rival to the West but also as the leader of a broader coalition seeking recognition and new futures beyond Euro-American frameworks,” she said.
One scholar said the country’s recent speculative fiction works had expanded the West’s imagination of China and beyond.
Song Mingwei, professor of Chinese studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, said: “I remember when I first mentioned Chinese science fiction to people, they were surprised: how could China have science fiction? But once the Three-Body trilogy was translated, readers were astonished to discover that such works existed.”
Song said the Chinese writers who had made a name in the West “in some ways expanded how China is imagined, as in the past literary depictions of China often focused on rural life or backward conditions”.
“By contrast, these new works present a very different vision, one grounded in technological imagination and pursuit.”
Like Du from Nanjing University, Song said works such as the Three-Body trilogy carried deep philosophical meaning with perspectives that “sometimes clash with dominant Western world views, such as those shaped by neoliberalism”.
Being introduced to Chinese sci-fi and speculative fiction has led Western readers to discover works from other countries.
“With the recent rise of Chinese science fiction, Korean science fiction has begun to attract more international attention as well,” Song said.
The earliest sci-fi novels include Frankenstein (1818) by English writer Mary Shelley, the works of 19th-century French novelist Jules Verne and the prolific 20th-century American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov.
Many countries went on to cultivate their own science fiction traditions, but a broader audience often eluded them because translations were limited.
The Western narrative has long dominated the market, in part because of the ease with which the works are adapted into Hollywood films and Western ownership of mass circulation channels.
According to award-winning science fiction writer Chen Qiufan, “once a nation reaches a certain stage of development, it must find a way to tell its own story, a national narrative”.
When the US went through a stage of industrialisation, science fiction began to flourish, he said, not only in literature but also in film, leading to the emergence of blockbuster works that became emblematic of American culture.
“In much the same way today, I see science fiction as a vehicle for propelling China into its next phase of modernisation – towards an innovation-driven, hi-tech society. It can serve as a powerful intellectual and cultural engine, shaping the imagination of China’s future,” Chen said.
However, he warned of the danger of speculative fiction works being perceived as propaganda by the West.
“Once something comes to represent the will of the state, people – both at home and abroad – inevitably view it through a political lens,” Chen said.
For example, the Netflix adaptation of the Three-Body trilogy last year became part of a broader clash between China and the US, with Chinese state media saying the series promoted “US cultural hegemony”.
“I believe the healthiest approach is organic growth, encouraging more diverse forms of creative expression,” Chen said.