Lazi, Deputy Chief Editor of SFW Photo/Huang Qi (NBD)

Mar. 19 (NBD) -- The Wandering Earth, a 2019 Chinese science fiction film based on the novella of the same name by Locus Award and Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin, is a sure blockbuster. But Science Fiction World (SFW), the magazine which ran the novella in installments, is undergoing reforms.

Founded in 1979 and headquartered in southwestern China's Chengdu, SFW is a monthly science fiction magazine published across the country. During the past 40 years, it has published a string of popular novels, including The Three-Body Problem, which has been translated into over ten languages in the world.

The magazine was of great popularity. "When I was a school boy, I often saved my money on meals for an SFW magazine," recalled Qin Zhen (alias), a 36-year-old person working in a bank.

In addition to books, SFW also held activities. It is noted that in 1997 SFW held the Beijing International Conference for Science Fiction and invited quite a few renowned sci-fi writers and astronauts from America and Russia. In the same year, Arthur C. Clarke, known as one of the "Big Three" in the sci-fi world, hailed the conference through a satellite phone and the Internet. 

One of novels it had published even became a writing topic of China's national college entrance examinations, which in turn boosted its sales. The circulation of the magazine reached 410,000 copies of a single edition at its peak.

But with the advent of the Internet, traditional media outlets were running into troubles as people can access such genre through more diversified means, such as paper books, e-books, films, ACGs and games.

In 2010, the publishing house of the magazine hit the headline as an outspoken employee questioned via an open letter the poor management of its editor-in-chief, which the employee thought pushed the company to "the brink of bankruptcy".

NBD learned from an internal meeting of Sichuan Association for Science and Technology last year that the magazine's circulation has decreased to 150,000 copies of a single issue, but it remains the largest magazine of its kind by the metric.

Yang Guoliang, Deputy Chief Editor of the magazine under the pen name of Lazi, said that to revive sales of the magazine, they have launched e-magazines through e-commerce and e-reading platforms. In addition, they compile magazine contents into books and then sell them online.

With these efforts, the circulation of the magazine has stabilized and even increased a little bit, Lazi added.

When it comes to the 2019 Spring Festival blockbuster "The Wandering Earth", Lazi told NBD emotionally that its success didn't come up accidently but is a result of constant innovation of China's sci-fi movies. Obviously, Lazi is bullish on the development of such movies.

Lazi maintained that the publishing house has long worked as a scout and trainer of talents for the sci-fi industry through measures including saloons, seminars and training camps. "We expect to turn out 100 sci-fi writers and 100 industry participants in three to five years," Lazi revealed.

Having witnessed the ups and downs of the sci-fi industry, Lazi remains optimistic about it. "We want to help bring Chinese sci-fis to the global stage. Although the profitability of it is not that promising, the influence is considerable," said Lazi.

In recent years, the company has conducted constant cooperation with American online fantasy magazine Clarkesworld Magazine and the UK's Flame Tree Publishing. With those efforts, Chinese sci-fi writers are able to make international influence, which does not only serve as a means to spread Chinese culture but also do good to the writers themselves.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn