The future is Chinese. At least when it comes to the science fiction epic "The Wandering Earth", which starts on February 5, the Chinese New Year, in the local cinemas.
In the film industry, however, the Chinese can no longer enjoy their supremacy: in a distant future, the sun is about to explode and destroy the earth. Temperatures are falling rapidly, mankind is fighting for survival - but at least under Chinese leadership.
Science fiction is a hype in China, not just since the landing of "Chang'e 4" on the back of the moon. Already in 2007, the sci-fi shooting star Liu Cixin released his bestseller "The Three Suns", the first volume of his "Trisolaris" trilogy. "The Wanderig Earth" is also based on a short story by Liu (she gave the title to the narrative volume "The Wandering Earth", which also appeared in German).
After Liu Cixin - also popular in the West - Barack Obama is confessed fan-could in 2016 with Hao Jingfang another Chinese author won the prestigious Hugo Award for the best science fiction novel of the year ("Beijing fold"). And Chen Qiufan's novel "The Silicon Island," which was a source of excitement in China in 2013, will also be published in German this year.
Meanwhile, the science-fiction wave in China spills from literature into the film business. "The Wandering Earth" by Frant Gwo is intended to prove that even Chinese filmmakers master the art of blockbustering. So far, this failed mainly due credible filmed special effects, in which the young Chinese film industry broke its teeth.
Since 2015, another project has been put on hold, which was supposed to usher in a new era of the Chinese science-fiction spectacle: the film adaptation of "The Three Suns". The film is shot down, but the creators have failed because of the time-consuming post-production. The entire team responsible for the effects is said to have been replaced, the budget has more than doubled according to media reports, but a launch date for "The Three Suns" is still not in sight.
A genre without tradition
Other films, such as Jackie Chan's sci-fi trash "Bleeding Steel" released in 2017, have been ripped apart by critics and largely ignored by the audience. Next to "The Wandering Earth", there are at least six more projects in the starting blocks, which will finally help the Chinese enthusiasm for space travel and science fiction to become successful at the box office.
The fact that the Chinese film industry is having a hard time is not just due to the lack of experience with computer-generated effects. Science fiction has little tradition in China. Although the writer Lu Shi'e dreamed in 1910 with his novel "The new China" in a completely renewed, progressive and prosperous country. However, since the founding of the People's Republic, science fiction has had the task of bringing the reader to the state of science and research. Great art was rarely created, and during the Cultural Revolution, literary production came to a virtual standstill.
No other literary and cinematic genre embodies the "Chinese dream," that is, the desire for renewal of the Chinese nation through technological progress, such as science fiction. This feeds on the decade-long boom. The tendency toward dystopia, which is widespread in the West, is alien to Chinese authors, science fiction rarely a vehicle for critique of society or civilization; probably also because artists in China have to reckon with repression.
If Chinese science fiction is not going to have a big future, then for other reasons. Liu, for example, says openly that he has not written anything new for eight years. The technological progress, so his reasoning, just go too fast forward: "The technology has overtaken our imagination." That sounds almost like a comment on the landing of the probe "Chang'e 4".