How to create an environment encouraging science fictions?

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Fireminer
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How to create an environment encouraging science fictions?

Post by Fireminer »

Excluding Japan, there is a distinctive lack of science fictions in East Asian and South East Asian literature, comics, films, animation, etc. in general, and more often than not original works called "science fictions" in these countries embody only the aesthetics and not the essential of the genre, that is, the analysis of technology and political/economical movements to the individuals and to societies.

That begs the questions: How did Japan do it? For example, as someone who are fond of East Asian novels, while I can not say that the sci fictions scene in Japan is comparable to the West, it is still doing better than its neighbors China and Korea. How exactly did science fictions get its jump-start in Japan? Could other East Asian countries do that?

I know that the original wave of Modernism and Futurism passed through Japan without making much meaningful impact, and it was the catalyst for the generation that would go on to define science fictions in the West. Was it because of the post-war period when Japan underwent rapid industrialization and urbanization? Or was it something else?
davemerrill
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Re: How to create an environment encouraging science fictions?

Post by davemerrill »

It's my understanding that the Chinese science fiction scene has been picking up steam lately, with Liu Cixin's "Three Body Problem" generally being the most popular recent work. The story was first published in "Science Fiction World", which has been around since 1979, so there must be some kind of SF going on in China.

I can't speak for the rest of Asia, but the past century hasn't been great for that part of the world, and SF is something that requires a literate population, and that literate population has to have leisure time for entertainment and an interest in innovation, science, and the future. Much of Asia has been digging itself out of the debris of war and trying to claw its way into something resembling stability, which doesn't leave a lot of free time for science fiction. That's my take, anyway.
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llj
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Re: How to create an environment encouraging science fictions?

Post by llj »

There's also the fact that Science Fiction is seen as being a subversive genre, and many of the more authoritarian nations either actively prevented the genre or encouraged fantasy/historical fiction to continue establishing traditional ideas and culture. At least that's how I perceive it to be with China and South Korea up until the past 15-20 years when they became a little more tolerant to future thinking ideas.

I'm not knowledgeable enough about South East Asian culture and politics to speak about them though.
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