Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer.
Liu was born on 23 June 1963 in Beijing and raised in Yangquan, Shanxi, where his parents had been sent to work in the mines.
Due to the violence of the Cultural Revolution he was sent to live in his ancestral home in Luoshan County, Henan.
1988
Liu graduated from the North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power in 1988.
He then worked as a computer engineer at a power plant in Shanxi province.
Liu cites English authors George Orwell and Arthur C. Clarke as important literary influences.
He was labeled the first cyberpunk Chinese author after his novel China 2185 was published in 1989.
2007
Liu's most famous work, The Three-Body Problem, was published in 2007.
It is the first book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy.
2012
In 2012, even the winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature, Mo Yan, acclaimed the remarkable originality of Liu Cixin.
Liu's fiction focuses primarily on problems such as social inequality, scientific development and ecological limitations that impact humanity.
Chinese video platform Tencent Video released a series based on The Three-Body Problem in January 2023.
A cinematic adaptation of The Three-Body Problem has been filmed, but its release has been indefinitely postponed.
2014
American author Ken Liu's 2014 translation (published by Tor Books) won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Liu Cixin thus became the first author from Asia to win Best Novel.
2015
He is a nine-time winner of China's Galaxy Award and has also received the 2015 Hugo Award for his novel The Three-Body Problem as well as the 2017 Locus Award for Death's End.
He is also a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award.
In English translations of his works, his name is given as Cixin Liu.
He is a member of China Science Writers Association and the vice president of Shanxi Writers Association.
He is sometimes called "Da Liu" ("Big Liu") by his fellow science fiction writers in China.
2016
The German translation (which included some portions of the original text not included in the English translation) followed in 2016.
Ken Liu also translated the third volume of The Three-Body Problem series, Death's End, in 2016.
2017
Death's End was a 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel finalist and won a 2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy has been a sensation of Chinese science fiction literature within Chinese territory and internationally.
Although it "was originally scheduled to be released in 2017," the project "was postponed indefinitely due to the company's internal shuffling and the rumored 'bad quality' of the film's first cut."
2018
In March 2018, Amazon was rumored to be negotiating for the rights to the project.
However, YooZoo Pictures released a statement in response stating that it was the "sole owner of the rights for film and TV series adaptations."
2019
In June 2019, it was reported that work had begun on an animated adaptation, and in 2020, October Media announced another adaptation in the works.
The cinematic adaptation of his short story The Wandering Earth was released in China on February 5, 2019, which became the second highest-grossing film in the Chinese box office within 2 weeks.
The science-fiction comedy film Crazy Alien, adapted from his science fiction short story The Village Teacher (short story), had grossed 2.2 billion at the box office, making it the fifteenth film in Chinese film history with a box office exceeding 2 billion.
According to a June 2019 interview and profile article by The New Yorker, Liu avoids talking about politics.
In the same article, Liu argued that democracy was not appropriate for modern China, and individual liberty and freedom of governance is "not what Chinese people care about", adding "If you were to loosen up the country a bit, the consequences would be terrifying."
2020
US streaming platform Netflix announced in September 2020 that it had ordered an English-language series based on Liu's well-known trilogy The Three-Body Problem.
Liu would serve as a consulting producer on the project.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were named as writers and executive producers.
Other members of the creative team included executive producer Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman, Bernadette Caulfield, Nena Rodrigue, Lin Qi, and Rosamund Pike.
The Netflix television adaptation started production in early November 2021, with a scheduled finish date in August 2022.
In November of 2023, Netflix released a sneak peak and announced that the drama would be released March 21, 2024.
Chinese video sharing website Bilibili released a series exploring the science of Liu Cixin's science fiction in November 2022.
