Science Fiction Around the World
Photo by JJ Ying on Unsplash
Is science fiction merely for spaceship loving and Klingon speaking nerds, or can a whole culture be fascinated by the genre?
The United States of America seem to have a fondness of Science Fiction that the German culture simply does not quite mirror. I learned more about this view of science fiction in the US American by skyping with a Chinese student currently studying at the University of Minnesota. This allowed me to discuss a lot of insight about the Chinese view on science fiction.
When asked her opinion regarding her interest in and her definition of science fiction, she stated her interest as not being particularly high and could not name a lot of science fiction media that she had enjoyed lately. Yet her definition was very broad and included several types of science fiction. She described it as anything that is not real and that is therefore different from reality. And as the conversation went on more and more examples of science fiction came to her mind that she previously had not been able to think of.
One that particular story was “Folding Bejing” by Hao JingFang, which she named as her favourite. The novella pictures a Chinese society that is strictly separated into three classes with each being allowed a certain time of the day to be awake and productive. She also used this piece as an example for science fiction as a growing genre in China. It does not merely live through western (re)productions but inspires new creations connected more directly to the Chinese culture.
However, comparing the level of enthusiasm for science fiction in the USA and China at the moment, it does seem clear to her that it is a much more popular in the USA. She observed this even though she also admits to enjoying recent social science fiction movies such as “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent”.
Even though my skype partner could not provide a complete insider’s view of American science fiction, overall her views on the genre were surprisingly similar to the ones expressed by German students. Meaning a person does not usually think about this genre often until considering more about what science fiction actually is. Even the growth described in China could arguably be seen in Germany as well, which could possibly even imply a growing, global interest in science fiction.
