Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.3, 2019

Liu Cixin’s  Science Fiction from the Viewpoint of Triple Aesthetical Culture

(Abstract)

Liu Fangkun

Liu Cixin’s science fiction has a wide range of audiences from expert review, popular readership and elite white-collar group and with different receptive views respectively. The concept of aesthetical culture can balance multiple considerations of aesthetic features, receptive views, and cultural backgrounds. The triple dimensions of “Liu Cixin’s Aesthetics”can be observed in his science fiction works. Firstly, the cultural reconciliation is in great need for the balance of technical development and ecological crisis. It gives rise to the emergence of “post-human” aesthetics. Secondly, the local cultural gene that Liu Cixin inherits from his hometown Shanxi can be taken as the development of “country aesthetics”(shanyaodan aesthetics). Thirdly, literature and art always point to the higher idea of essence. The idea of human conquering universe is the realistic embodiment of sublime.