介绍:
Ken Liu might sound like an unassuming name to many of our listeners. Yet in the American literary scene, he is one of the leading new voices in speculative fiction.
Born in the city of Lanzhou of China's Gansu Province, Liu migrated to the United States with his parents at the age of 11. By day, he is a litigation consultant working on cases involving technology. By night, he is an author whose subject matters span from time travel, alternate history to hard sci-fi and futurism.
In 2012, Ken Liu's heart-wrenching short story, "The Paper Menagerie", became the first fiction to make a clean sweep of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, three of the most heavyweight prizes in the world of science fiction and fantasy. His novels, "The Grace of Kings" and its follow-up "The Wall of Storms", are hailed as epic feats that "changes the fantasy landscape".
But if you only know Ken Liu as the author of numerous books on science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal tales, you are definitely missing out. Turns out, he's also a stupendously good translator.
An unofficial ambassador who bridges Chinese science fiction with a broader range of western readers, he translated two instalments of China's all-time popular sci-fi saga, the three-body series by Liu Cixin. The first volume, The Three-body Problem, won the Hugo Award, the first translated work ever to receive the honour. In 2016, Hao Jingfang's Folding Beijing, which was also translated by Ken, snapped the Hugo Award for Best Novella.
Recently, this Boston-based author/translator came to Beijing to attend the Chinese Nebulas. Our reporter Shiyu seized the opportunity to talk with Ken Liu and their conversation started with her asking him what fuelled his passion in the speculative fiction genre.
The Q&A will touch on the following subjects, such as:
1. The topics that interest him the most
2. How his professional lives as lawyer and programmer affect his writing;
3. What does "silkpunk" mean;
4. How he bridges Chinese science fiction with a broader range of western readers;
5. The challenges of translating Chinese science fiction into English;
6. And much, much more!
If you want to hear their complete conversation, you can download the podcast from iTunes, by searching the key words: Ink&Quill.
If you want to know more about Ken's works, you can go to his website, kenliu.name or find him on Twitter by going to kyliu99.
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