中国科幻小说的“黄金时代”'Golden age' science fiction—made in China

Like many, many people across China, I had the pleasure of watching the movie version of Liu Cixin's Wandering Earth during the Spring Festival.

春节期间，我有幸和许多中国人一样，观看了刘慈欣的小说改编成的电影《流浪地球》。

I love science fiction, but, with a few exceptions, recent American movies and books have been such insipid stories and so philosophically empty that I had almost given up on the genre. Many current sci-fi novels in the US are unreadable shallow and politically-correct dystopias.

我钟爱科幻小说，但是除了少数例外，美国最近的科幻电影和书籍太过平淡无奇，哲学思想空泛，这让我几乎放弃了这种类型的作品。现在美国的许多科幻小说肤浅得不值一读，且都是为了政治立场正确的反乌托邦风格。

As in classic science fiction, the hero and heroine of Wandering Earth find inner strength as they struggle to achieve something great. Much current US sci-fi clearly doubts the very idea of personal fortitude.

正如经典的科幻小说一样，《流浪地球》的男女主角在为伟大事业奋斗中找到了内在的力量。而目前许多美国科幻小说都在质疑个人的毅力。

The word that summarizes the old science fiction that I miss is "thought-provoking." It's hard to imagine many thoughts being provoked by the current brain-dead Star Trek and Star Wars shoot'em ups. I was embarrassed to have taken my wife to see the latest Star Trek film.

我怀念的古老科幻小说，可以用“发人深省”一词来总结。很难想象以“脑死亡”为主题的《星际迷航》（Star Trek）和充满射击场面的《星球大战》（Star Wars）会让人想到什么。我很不好意思带妻子去看了最新的《星际迷航》电影。

In Liu Cixin's speech accepting a Galaxy award for Wandering Earth in 2001, recently translated on Reddit, he said:

刘慈欣2001年因《流浪地球》接受银河奖时的演讲，最近被翻译在红迪网上，他说：

"Contemporary sci-fi literature itself in the US is already deep in twilight -- full of works applying complex techniques to express dense metaphors, completely devoid of the youthful energy of the "golden age"; and many magnum opuses in recent years already have an air of death about them. Americans under 25 these days basically don't read sci-fi; I don't see what's to be envied about that," he said.

“美国当代科幻文学已经衰落——充满了运用复杂科技来表达寓意的作品，完全没有“黄金时代”的朝气蓬勃；近年来许多作品已经死气沉沉，现在25岁以下的年轻人几乎不读科幻小说；我看不出来这有什么值得羡慕的。”

"We should be most envious of ourselves: our current sci-fi readers are the 8 or 9 o'clock sun, or even the 6 or 7 o'clock sun. Chinese sci-fi is a market full of youth and hope, and this is what gives sci-fi writers like us confidence and strength…," he continued.

他继续说道：“我们应该最羡慕自己：我们现在的科幻作品就像早上8、9点甚至6、7点的太阳那样，充满朝气，中国科幻作品市场充满青春活力和希望，这给我们这样的科幻作家以信心和力量……”

I miss the engaging stories and philosophical musings of Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clark, who, along with H.G. Wells, Liu Cixin says were the authors who led him to write sci-fi.

我怀念罗伯特.海因莱因（Robert Heinlein）和阿瑟.C.克拉克（Arthur C. Clark）作品中引人入胜的故事和发人深省的哲学思考。刘慈欣说，他们和H.G.威尔斯（H.G. Wells）一样，是自己科幻小说创作的引路人。

Even twenty years ago my favorite sci-fi TV series, Stargate SG-1, was still on American television.  Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5, also playing at that time, were also great stories that gave us a lot to think about. Today's big Hollywood movies don't come anywhere close to the depth of thought behind these older shows.

20年前，我最喜欢的科幻电视连续剧《星际奇兵1》（Stargate SG-1）还在美国电视上播出。《太空堡垒卡拉狄加》（Battlestar Galactica）和《巴比伦5号》（Babylon 5）也在那时播出，它们都是能带给我们思考的很棒的作品。如今的好莱坞大片却没有达到昔日这些作品的深度。

I also miss the stories of exploration and combat by Jerry Pournelle, who died last September.  I was lucky enough to get to know him a bit in the 1990s. Like all good sci-fi writers he was interested in everything and bubbling with ideas and opinions. Every so often, I would get a call in the middle of the night — "David, this is Jerry, I have an idea I couldn't wait to discuss with someone."

我也怀念去年九月去世的作家杰瑞.柏奈尔（Jerry Pournelle）和他的探险、战斗故事。上个世纪90年代，我有幸与他结识。像所有优秀的科幻作家一样，他对一切事物感兴趣，并充满想法。那时候，每隔一段时间，我就会在半夜接到一个电话——“大卫（David），我是杰瑞（Jerry），我有个想法，我迫不及待地想跟某人聊聊”。

Among recent works, I can recommend James S. A. Corey's The Expanse, Andy Weir's The Martian, and Steven Baxter's imaginative re-telling of H.G. Wells' novels. So, all is not lost.

最近的作品中，我推荐詹姆斯.S.A.科里（James S. A. Corey）的《苍穹浩瀚》（The Expanse）、安迪.韦尔（Andy Weir）的《火星救援》（The Martian）、和史蒂文.巴克斯特（Steven Baxter）对H.G.威尔斯（H.G. Wells）小说富有想象力的改编。所以科幻小说并非一去不复返了。

Liu's famous The Three Body Problem series draws on Chinese history, though reportedly some of the history was deleted from the English translation for fear that foreign readers would not be able to understand it.  I hope this does not happen in future translations.

刘慈欣的著名小说《三体》系列取材于中国历史，但是据报道，在中译英时，担心外国读者不好理解，所以有些历史被删掉了。希望在将来的翻译中不会出现这样的事。

I'm looking forward to reading young Chinese sci-fi writers who incorporate Chinese history into thinking about the future. In particular, mixing the historical themes found in the martial arts novels of Jin Yong with science fiction could be the start of a new fundamentally Chinese sci-fi.

我期待阅读那些中国年轻科幻作家的作品，他们在思考未来时，融入中国的历史。特别是把金庸武侠小说中的历史主题与科幻小说结合，这可能是中国科幻小说的新开端。

Since Liu's breakthrough hit with The Three Body Problem, more Chinese sci-fi is being translated into English. I've recently been reading and can strongly recommend stories by Bao Shu, Han Song, Xia Jia, and Hao Jingfang—though I'm sure there are others I've missed.  

自从刘慈欣的《三体》小说在国外打开市场，更多的中国科幻作品被翻译成英文。我最近一直在阅读，强烈推荐宝树，韩松，夏笳，郝景芳的作品。

Who would have thought that Chinese writers, looking at the future of their country and the world, would revive the genre I love?

谁能想到，中国的作家在展望自己国家和世界的未来时，复兴了我所喜爱的文学题材呢？