FastSaying

What tends to happen when people talk about Chinese sci-fi in the West is that there's a lot of projection. We prefer to think of China as a dystopian world that is challenging American hegemony, so we would like to think that Chinese sci-fi is all either militaristic or dystopian. But that's just not the reality of it.

Ken Liu

Ken Liu

AboutAmericanChallengingChinaChineseEitherHappenHegemonyJustLikeLotPeoplePreferProjectionRealitySci-FiTalkTendsThinkWestWorldWould

Related Quotes

Whenever you talk about Chinese dragons, emperors, palaces, concubines - they conjure up a whole colonial argle-bargle that has nothing to do with historical reality.
— Ken Liu
AboutChineseColonial
I like sci-fi.
— Bill Nighy
LikeSci-Fi
There are millions of sci-fi enthusiasts in the world, not just gamers.
— Brendan Iribe
GamersJustMillions
My wife, Lisa, and I both grew up on wuxia - Chinese historical romances. They're kind of analogous to Western epics. They're based on history, just like 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey' are based on history, but they're romanticized, and a lot of fantasy elements have been added.
— Ken Liu
AddedBasedBeen
There's this long history of colonialism and the colonial gaze when applied to matters related to China. So a lot of conceptions about China in literary representations in the West are things you can't even fight against because they've been there so long that they've become part of the Western imagination of China.
— Ken Liu
AboutAgainstApplied