Chinese sci-fi travels well. Here’s why
+ OUT OF THIS WORLD: Ken Liu, photographed in Boston earlier this year, writes his own brand of “silkpunk” sci-fi, and he translates that of his peers in China.
JOHN TLUMACKI/THE BOSTON GLOBE/GETTY
KEN LIU is a prolific and award-winning author of stories that span the galaxies of futurism and fantasy. He also happens to interpret one cultural constellation for another: Liu is the leading translator of Chinese science fiction into English. “Science fiction can’t tell us a lot about the future,” he insists. “It’s more interesting for what it says about the society that produces it.”