Chinese and Western Literary Influence in Liu Cixin’s Three Body Trilogy, 1st ed. 2021 Studies in Global Science Fiction Series

Chinese and Western Literary Influence in Liu Cixin?s Three Body Trilogy examines Liu Cixin?s acclaimed trilogy, a Chinese science fiction epic whose translation is exceedingly popular in the Western world. Will Peyton argues that the ingenuity of Liu?s writing is found in its conscious engagement with translated Western fiction rather than, as one might expect, in Chinese language science fiction of the past. The book illustrates how contemporary Chinese fiction, since the economic opening of China in the late 1980s, is deeply and complexly influenced by various strains in Western literary and intellectual thought, an area that scholars of Chinese literature have tended to neglect. Providing a lucid and succinct close-reading and textual analysis of Three Body trilogy, the book also makes reference to broader ideas and themes in modern Chinese and Western intellectual history.

Will Peyton is an Independent Scholar and completed a PhD in Chinese and Comparative Literature at the Australian National University and was a visiting scholar at the Center for Chinese Studies at the National Central Library in Taiwan. His other work is featured in The International History Review and The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies.