Liu Cixin

Liu Cixin (born 1963) is arguably the most successful science fiction writer in contemporary China. Born in Beijing, Liu grew up in Yangquan, a coal-mining town of Shanxi Province at its east border to Hebei Province, where his parents worked in a mine. Graduated from North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power, Liu was a computer engineer working at Niangziguan Power Station where he started to publish science fiction in Chinese periodical Science Fiction World (科幻世界) in the 1990s. He only left his engineering position in 2014, after years of writing and publication in science fiction including his most famous trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past (aka: The Three-Body Problem, 地球往事). Translated into at least 24 different languages by late 2020, its first and final books won the Best Novel Hugo Award in 2015 and 2017, respectively, perhaps the top honour for science fiction literature. Two of his shorter works—a novella and a short story—were adapted into films in 2019, yet the most expected film adaptation of The Three-Body Problem (三 体), the first book of Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy has not had a confirmed date of release despite its shooting being concluded in 2015. Liu’s works are praised by both astronomic scientists and literature critics for its perfect combination of scientific theories and wild imaginations of the destiny of human, the planet Earth and the universe. His works include many urban elite characters and attracted many urban followers across the world