Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin: I'm just writing for the beer money

Chinese author Liu Cixin. [Photo/IC]

"The Three-Body trilogy is my best work, but there are still places I wish I were able to revise," Liu said in an interview with Sina news. He said that the book couldn't have won in the world stage were it not for the good translation of Ken Liu.

As to why he's so dedicated to writing science-fiction novels, he said in a 2014 interview with The New York Times' Chinese online edition that he's just like American science-fiction novelist Robert A. Heinlein, writing for his "beer money"- "I'm nothing like the characters in my book."

"The characters in my book are totally idealists, but I'm just an ordinary man," he said, adding that if he has to choose to be one of his characters, he would go for Luo Ji, who "leads a care-free life, yet when responsibility falls on him, he can shoulder it as well."

Liu said that he is not too optimistic about raising the Chinese audience's enthusiasm for science-fiction with The Three-Body Problem alonethough he thinks it's important to have imagination for "others", or alien civilizations.

"If I were to recommend books for President Xi Jinping, I would choose 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Santi is too long," Liu said. He adds that, "Don't assume that I'm kidding - a country, as well as a ruling party, should have imagination, for 'others'."

Liu Cixin is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in China, an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer at a power plant in Yangquan, Shanxi.

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