CHONGQING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) – China’s push for technological innovation has been accompanied by a widespread fascination with science fiction in recent years, and now the science fiction industry for children is booming.
At the 2021 Children’s Science Fiction Conference in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality on Friday, awards were presented at the first annual Xingyun (Nebula) Awards for Science Fiction for children, drawing attention to the growing economic importance of the sector.
The market value of China’s sci-fi peripheral products was 1.35 billion yuan (about 210.83 million US dollars) in 2019, according to a report released by the China Science Fiction Research Center of the Chinese Research Institute for Popular Science, in collaboration with the Center for Science and Human Imagination, Southern University of Science and Technology.
The market value of sci-fi-themed peripheral products, mainly children’s sci-fi toys, including toy guns, shape-shifting robots and building blocks, was 850 million yuan. in 2019, accounting for 63% of total sci-fi peripheral products. market, according to the report.
“Children’s science fiction becomes the center of creative writing and incubation,” said Dong Renwei, science fiction writer and founder of the Nebula Awards.
Liu Cixin, a renowned science fiction writer in China and chairman of the awards organizing committee, said, “As time goes on, the scientific fantasies that people read in their childhood will become more and more common. more real. Compared to fairy tales and other fantasy literature, science fiction has a deeper influence on the future of young readers. “
Liu said that children’s science fiction is a vibrant literary genre, and its position in science fiction and children’s literature is irreplaceable.
Despite a number of outstanding writers and works that have emerged in recent years, the children’s sci-fi industry is still lagging behind, Liu added, calling for efforts to expand audiences and explore role models. distinctive creation and publication.
Sci-fi works for children should be made into animation, audio, picture books and other forms, to accompany children from early childhood, said Chaoxia, a popular children’s science fiction writer with the pen name. by Yin Chao. “Only then will future generations be able to create more advanced works of science fiction,” said Chaoxia.
The Nebula Awards are a first in China, aimed at promoting the genre and attracting more young people to write children’s science fiction.
