Twenty years ago, I retired. Before that, I worked as an editor in Science Fiction World, a monthly science fiction magazine, for 24 years, and witnessed the development of Chinese science fiction from silence to "being heard by the world."

After the reform and opening-up in late 1978, national construction in China was in full swing, and people were full of energy. Chinese science fiction had its big ups and downs in the early 1980s. In 1980, China's first science fiction film, Death Ray on Coral Island, adapted from a short story by archaeologist Tong Enzheng (1935–1997), attracted wide popularity upon its release in the cinema. However, that was followed by a decade-long recession in Chinese science fiction creation due to various reasons. In 1992, after senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) had talked about the need for deep reform and opening-up during his south China tour, China introduced some foreign science fiction movies, such as Hollywood's The Extra-Terrestrial. Entering the 21st century, with the publication of a number of fine sci-fi works such as The Three-Body Problem, Chinese science fiction began to prosper.