Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.4, 2019

The Formation of the Distinction between “Hard Science Fiction” and “Soft Science Fiction” and Its Impact and Limitation in China

(Abstract)

Jiang Zhenyu

The concept of “hard science fiction” was born in the 1950s. It was originally advocated by American science fiction writers for re-establishing the status of Campbell style in the golden age. It was not until the 1970s that the concept of “soft science fiction” finally emerged and formed a binary opposition to “hard science fiction.” In the early 1980s, this distinction between “hard science fiction” and “soft science fiction” was introduced into China by science fiction writers. In the specific historical period and social context at that time, it was endowed with strong purposefulness and utilitarianism. After the gradual recovery of Chinese science fiction in the mid and late 1980s, this classification was widely adopted because of its conciseness. However, at the same time, the inherent drawbacks of this classification were fully exposed. With the introduction of new discourse resources into Chinese science fiction genres, current science fiction writers and theorists have made theoretical innovations.