Gu, Wu and Moratto explore how Chinese Science Fiction transcends cultural and linguistic barriers with its unique blend of imagination, philosophy, and cultural reflection and provides crucial insights on how its translation shapes our understanding of the genre and contributes to the wider discussion on the circulation of non-Western literature in a globalised world.
Through a detailed examination of translation practices, multimodal adaptations, and the complexities, the book offers fresh insights into the challenges and opportunities that shape Chinese Science Fiction and examine its role of adaptation across different media – such as films, graphic novels, and online platforms—in expanding its reach and impact. This leads to broader exploration on the cultural, political, and economic implications of Chinese Science Fiction international success and how it contributes to global discourses on the future.
A comprehensive volume for scholar and students in translation studies, science fiction studies, comparative literature and Chinese studies as well as those interested in intersections of global literature, translation, and intercultural communication.
Gu, Wu and Moratto explore how Chinese Science Fiction transcends cultural and linguistic barriers with its unique blend of imagination, philosophy, and cultural reflection.
Introduction Part I Speculative Horizons
1. Translation as Cultural and
Geopolitical Negotiation: A Case Study of an International SF Writing Project
in the 1980s
2. Translating Revolution in a Traditional Context
3. Liu
Cixins Cosmic Realism in his Seven Theses of the Future
4. Literary Success,
Historical SF, and Translation in the Post-Three Body Era, Angie Chau Part
II Mediating Worlds
5. Translate Liu Cixins Science: A Dialogue Between a
Translator and an Astrophysicis
6. The Anglophone Wormhole: A Gateway to
Chinese SF, or a Double-edged Sword?
7. Shaping a Shared Future Across the
Pacific: Actor-Networking and Socio-Discursive Dynamics of the Three-Body
Trilogy in Translation
8. Chinese Dreams and Dream Interpreters: The
Reception of Chinese Science Fiction in Italy, Chiara Cigarini Part III
Translational Frontiers
9. Future Without Tense? Time and Tense in the
Translation of Chinese SF
10. Studying Chinese Science Fictions Themes
through Metaphor: A Corpus-based Study of The Wandering Earth and its English
Translation
11. Interlinguistic and Intersemiotic Translation of Chinese
Science Fiction in Italy: Con quelle Mani/from Short Story to Graphic
Novel
12. Life is a Vibrant String: Philosophical Implications and
Cross-Cultural Translations in Chinese Science Fiction through AI
Collaboration.
Yiqing Gu is Associate Professor of Translation Studies at the School of Foreign Studies, Tongji University, China. His research interests include translation history, science fiction translation, global communication, digital humanities, and Wellsian studies. He previously taught at Shanghai International Studies University and was the inaugural curator of the Museum of World Languages. He currently serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Comparative Literature Associations Translation Studies section. He is also an active translator of science fiction and art history, including The H. G. Wells Collection (2020, in Chinese).
Yun Wu is Distinguished Professor of Translation Studies and Dean of the School of Foreign Studies at Tongji University, China. Her research focuses on cultural translation theory, translation and ideology, as well as the translation of Chinese literature and culture. She is the author of Contemporary Chinese Novels in Translation Since 1978: Literary Voices from the Periphery (2024).
Riccardo Moratto is Distinguished Professor of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the School of Foreign Studies, Tongji University, and Deputy Director of Research Center for Chinese Discourse and Global Communication, AIIC member and member of Assointerpreti. He is a Chartered Linguist and Fellow Member of CIoL, an international conference interpreter and renowned literary translator. He is editor-in-chief of Interpreting Studies for Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press and editor-in-chief of Routledge Studies in East Asian Interpreting and Routledge Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Approaches to Chinese Literature.
