How to create an environment encouraging science fictions?

[False Prophet]

Excluding Japan, there is a distinctive lack of science fictions in East Asian and South East Asian literature, comics, films, animation, etc. in general, and more often than not original works called "science fictions" in these countries embody only the aesthetics and not the essential of the genre, that is, the analysis of technology and political/economical movements to the individuals and to societies.

That begs the questions: How did Japan do it? For example, as someone who are fond of East Asian novels, while I can not say that the sci fictions scene in Japan is comparable to the West, it is still doing better than its neighbors China and Korea. How exactly did science fictions get its jump-start in Japan? Could other East Asian countries do that?

I know that the original wave of Modernism and Futurism passed through Japan without making much meaningful impact, and it was the catalyst for the generation that would go on to define science fictions in the West. Was it because of the post-war period when Japan underwent rapid industrialization and urbanization? Or was it something else?

[Haak]

You're probably not going to find a single answer to this question since these kind of things rely on multiple complex factors. My cursory guess is that Japan is both a developed country and a very populous country so more people have easier access to scientific literature and media to inspire them.

My recommendation would be to list the Japanese Sci-fi writers you can think of and find out what science fiction or scientific literature they read that inspired them. You can then find out if those same works are available in other East Asian countries as much as they are in Japan.

[Fireminer]

Originally Posted by False Prophet

Excluding Japan, there is a distinctive lack of science fictions in East Asian and South East Asian literature, comics, films, animation, etc. in general, and more often than not original works called "science fictions" in these countries embody only the aesthetics and not the essential of the genre, that is, the analysis of technology and political/economical movements to the individuals and to societies.

That begs the questions: How did Japan do it? For example, as someone who are fond of East Asian novels, while I can not say that the sci fictions scene in Japan is comparable to the West, it is still doing better than its neighbors China and Korea. How exactly did science fictions get its jump-start in Japan? Could other East Asian countries do that?

I know that the original wave of Modernism and Futurism passed through Japan without making much meaningful impact, and it was the catalyst for the generation that would go on to define science fictions in the West. Was it because of the post-war period when Japan underwent rapid industrialization and urbanization? Or was it something else?

It is really kind of hard to foster such an environment. It has been what, three decades of a prosperous era for China, and longer for Korea? It probably is enough time for the generation who first encounter science fictions to grow up and publish, but like you said, these authors in China and Korea are rare.

I suppose that the only thing people could do is import a massive amount of science fiction materials from abroad.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by False Prophet

Excluding Japan, there is a distinctive lack of science fictions in East Asian and South East Asian literature, comics, films, animation, etc. in general, and more often than not original works called "science fictions"

My first and most important question would be the basis on which you make such a broad assertion. Do you have publicly available data to back up the claim that "there's a distinctive lack of science fiction in East Asian and Southeast Asian literature"? Or is this just based on your opinion?

I ask because it should be noted that no Japanese novel has ever won the Hugo Award. On the contrary, one Chinese novel made it to the prestigious list of winners in 2015: "The Three-Body Problem", written by Liu Cixin and translated by Ken Liu.

It strikes me that this novel wouldn't have garnered any attention in the West, had it not been translated into English. And that raises the very significant question about whether there is great science fiction in Chinese or other Asian languages that is not getting the attention it deserves.

In short, beware of your perception bias when making such claims.