I caught the end of a radio interview with Robert J. Sawyer, which prompted me to look it up on the CBC site -
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2007/08/28/robert-sawyer.htmlSawyer was speaking from Chengdu, where he was feted at the China International Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival and Conference.
The interview - RealAudio:
http://www.cbc.ca/clips/rm-audio/sawyer-fiction.rmThe article goes on to say:
Sawyer believes that optimism accounts, in part, for his big following in China.
"There's no doubt that they are delighted with positive visions of the future. … I am known for an upbeat, almost transcendent note in my books and that's very much been embraced here," he said.
China's own science fiction writers are still writing about robots and spaceships in books similar to those created in the West about 30 years ago.
"They're ripe for a transition to a much more interesting sociology and social impact in the softer sciences," he said.
That kind of writing will also allow them to write about subjects that might otherwise be too sensitive in a civilization that doesn't allow open discussion, he said.
"Robots and spaceships"? - I'd say more like 50-60 years ago, but it intrigues me that they would be going through an accelerated development and still be passing through a stage of writing about what Western readers would consider to be "old-school" themes. Also that they would be using SF to discuss forbidden topics.
Anybody know of any English translations of modern Chinese SF available online?
