China's golden-age of science fiction pushes new boundaries at Hong Kong conference
AI, DNA editing and life beyond Earth on the agenda at Melon, an event that blurs the line between fantasy and reality
Last November, Amy Leung Yuk-yiu began writing a science-fiction novel. She divided it into 80 episodes, each about 1,000 words long, and wrote one or two a day until January. Although it's set in Hong Kong, it's written in simplified Chinese because, as she explains, "Hong Kong is under Chinese control and I'm trying to target my audience".
Leung, a tutor in an international school, was inspired by Ni Kuang, Hong Kong's most famous science-fiction writer. Ni, who fled China in 1957, is probably best known as the creator of Wisely, his mystery-solving and alien-battling adventurer, whom he introduced to Hong Kong readers in a March 1963 column in newspaper Ming Pao. A constant theme in those stories is life as we know it being in danger of a hideous transformation by hostile invasionary forces. Some Hong Kong readers consider him highly prescient.
3rd April 2018