With a state-owned power plant in nearby Shanxi Province temporarily shut down to reduce air pollution, one of its engineers, Liu Cixin, is using the free time to work on his hobby: reigning as China’s best-selling science-fiction author.
北京——工程师刘慈欣在山西附近的一座发电站工作（为减少空气污染，该站已经暂时关闭），他用业余时间经营自己的爱好，当上了中国最畅销的科幻小说作家。

Along with working on a new novel and advising on screenplay adaptations of his earlier fiction, Mr. Liu, 51, has been promoting the English translation of “The Three-Body Problem,” the first book in his best-selling apocalyptic space opera trilogy. Translated by Ken Liu, an award-winning science-fiction writer in his own right who is based in the United States (the men are not related), it is one of the few Chinese science-fiction novels to be translated into English. It will be released in the United States on Tuesday by Tor Books.
51岁的刘慈欣目前在创作一部新小说，也在给自己之前小说的电影改编剧本提建议。此外他还在宣传自己的小说《三体》的英译本，这是他的畅销天启太空歌剧三部曲中的第一部。该书由刘宇昆翻译，他同样是一位获奖科幻小说作家，现居美国（两人没有亲属关系）。目前被译为英文的中文科幻小说非常少见，本书将于周二由托尔图书出版社(Tor Books)在美国发行。
The success of the “Three-Body” series, as it is called in China, has gained a following beyond the small but flourishing science-fiction world here. Since the third book was published in 2010, each entry in the series has sold about 500,000 copies in the original Chinese, making Mr. Liu the best-selling Chinese science-fiction author in decades.
《三体》系列的成功令它的影响力超越了小而繁荣的科幻界。自第三部于2010年出版后，该系列每一部的中文版都卖出了约50万册，令刘慈欣成为几十年来最畅销的中国科幻小说作家。
In addition to the usual high school and college-age fans of science fiction, China’s aerospace and Internet industries have embraced the books. Many interpret the battle of civilizations depicted in the series as an allegory for the ruthless competition in the nation’s Internet industry.
除了科幻小说界常见的中学生与大学生拥趸，中国的航空航天和互联网业界人士也热爱这套书。很多人把书中不同文明之间的战争解析为中国互联网业内的无情竞争。
The series has also breathed new life into a genre that, here as elsewhere, the literary establishment often marginalizes.
这部系列也为科幻小说这一类型赋予了新活力，和在世界其他地方一样，在中国，科幻小说的文学价值经常被边缘化。
For decades, science fiction was subject to the whims of Communist Party rule. The genre went from being a vehicle for popularizing science for socialist purposes to drawing criticism in 1983 from party newspapers for “spreading pseudoscience and promoting decadent capitalist elements.” When the prestigious People’s Literature literary magazine published four of Mr. Liu’s short stories in 2012, it was a sign that the genre was back in official good graces.
在中国，几十年来，科幻小说受到共产党反复无常的支配。这一类型曾经被当做社会主义科普的工具，也在1983年遭到党报批评，称其为“传播伪科学，宣扬腐朽的资本主义”。2012年，声望很高的文学杂志《人民文学》刊登了四篇刘慈欣的小说，这标志着这一类型重新获得当局垂青。
At its core, science fiction capitalizes on uncertainty about the future to push the boundaries of the reader’s imagination. In fast-changing China, stories that lay out what coming years may hold in store have therefore found deeper resonance among readers.
本质上，科幻小说利用未来的不确定性，推动读者想象的边界。因此，在快速变革的中国，关于未来可能发生的事情便能在读者当中找到更深的共鸣。
“China is on the path of rapid modernization and progress, kind of like the U.S. during the golden age of science fiction in the ’30s to the ’60s,” Mr. Liu said. “The future in the people’s eyes is full of attractions, temptations and hope. But at the same time, it is also full of threats and challenges. That makes for very fertile soil.”
“中国正处在高速现代化与发展的过程中，有点像20世纪30年代到60年代的美国，那也是科幻小说发展的黄金时期，”刘慈欣说。“人们眼中的未来充满魅力、诱惑与希望。同时也充满威胁和挑战。这为科幻小说提供了肥沃的土壤。”
Chinese science fiction serves another purpose in the eyes of Xia Jia, a science-fiction writer and professor at Xian Jiaotong University. “Chinese science fiction, in a way, has borne the weight of the ‘Chinese dream’ since the genre first appeared in China in the late Qing dynasty,” she said, referring to the turn of the 20th century.
在科幻小说作家与西安交通大学讲师夏笳看来，中国科幻小说还有另一个目的。“科幻小说是从晚清开始在中国出现，自那以后，中国科幻小说便在某种程度上承载着‘中国梦’，”她指的是19世纪与20世纪之交的那段时期。
“The dream is about wanting to overtake the Western countries and become a very powerful modern China while still preserving these old elements,” she added. “This is what we who write science fiction in China have to grapple with.”
“这个梦是关于追上西方国家，成为强大的现代中国，同时又保存古老的元素，”她补充，“这是我们中国的科幻小说作者必须应对的问题。”
The “Three-Body” tomes chronicle a march of the human race into the universe set against the recent past, the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. It is a classic science-fiction story in the style of the British master Arthur C. Clarke, whose work Mr. Liu says he grew up reading. “Everything that I write is a clumsy imitation of Arthur C. Clarke,” he said.
《三体》三部曲按年代顺序记载了人类进军宇宙的征程，故事从不久的过去开始，即“文化大革命”动荡的岁月。这是经典的科幻小说故事，有着英国科幻小说大师阿瑟·C·克拉克(Arthur C. Clarke)的风格，刘慈欣说，自己从小就看克拉克的小说。“我写作的一切都是对阿瑟·C·克拉克的笨拙模仿，”他说。
The first book in the series explores the world of the Trisolarans, an alien civilization on the brink of destruction. When a secret military project in China attempts to make contact with aliens, the Trisolarans capture the signals and decide to invade Earth. Back in China, people split into two camps: those who welcome the aliens and those who want to fight them.
该系列的第一本探索了三体人的世界，这个外星文明正处于崩溃边缘。中国的一个秘密军事行动试图和外星人取得联系，三体人收到信号，决定入侵地球。在中国，人们分裂成两大阵营，一派欢迎外星人，另一派希望同他们开战。
The series is likely to be a change of pace for science-fiction fans in the United States, where many leading contemporary writers in the genre are rejecting classic alien-invasion plots in favor of those that take on real-world issues like climate change or shifting gender roles.
这个系列有可能改变美国科幻小说迷的口味，目前美国的很多顶尖科幻小说作家摒弃传统的外星人入侵情节，更青睐反映现实世界的题材，诸如气候变化和性别转变之类。
“I don’t think the demand for this kind of classical golden age science fiction has necessarily gone away,” Liz Gorinsky, an editor at Tor Books, said of the decision to introduce the series to American readers. “The ‘Three-Body’ series sort of scratches the same itch that harkens back to the kinds of books people read when they were kids.”
“我不认为对这类黄金时代经典科幻小说的需求已经消失，”托尔出版社的编辑莉兹·格林斯基(Liz Gorinsky)在谈起为何将该系列引入美国时说。“《三体》系列正是人们小时候读过的那种书。”
Some experts link the popularity of the “Three-Body” series to a growing confidence among Chinese about their country’s growing role on the world stage.
有些专家把《三体》系列的流行同中国人对国家在世界舞台上扮演的角色感到日益自信联系起来。
“There have always been science-fiction stories that contemplated China as a leader in the world,” said Wu Yan, a science-fiction scholar and professor at Beijing Normal University. “People may have liked them, but, in their hearts, they didn’t truly believe them, or they thought it was really far off in the future. Now, with the ‘Three-Body’ series, people think, ‘Wow, it really could be possible that China might be given a say in the fate of humankind.’ ”
“总有一些科幻小说把中国描绘为世界的领袖，”科幻小说作家、北京师范大学教授吴岩说。“人们或许喜欢它们，但在内心深处，他们并不相信，或者觉得这是遥远未来的事。现在，看了《三体》，人们觉得，‘啊，中国真有可能在关于人类命运的问题上发言了。’”
In the book, scientists attempt to solve the traditional three-body problem in physics, in which the otherwise stable gravitational interaction between two objects in space becomes random and unpredictable when a third object is introduced.
在这本书里，科学家试图揭开物理学中传统的三体问题：在宇宙空间中，如果引入第三个物体，两个物体之间稳定的引力作用会变为随机而不可预测。
Mr. Liu’s revered status in the genre was evident this month at a book signing at the fifth annual Chinese Nebula Awards, one of the largest gatherings of science-fiction writers and fans in China. More than 2,000 people attended the events, held in an empty museum space on the western outskirts of Beijing.
一年一度的华语星云奖是中国科幻作家和读者最大的盛会之一，这个月的第五届星云奖充分显示了刘慈欣在科幻界的崇高地位。2000多人出席了活动，北京西郊一家空荡荡的博物馆顿时水泄不通。
Mr. Liu stepped out of the elevator and made his way through the throngs to the table. Gasps and excited whispers were audible among the hundreds of fans who had lined up around the building. Two hours later, more than 100 fans, mostly college-age, were still waiting for a chance to meet him. One, Wu Liang, 27, trembled with excitement after her encounter with Mr. Liu.
刘慈欣走出电梯，穿过人流，来到桌前。室内有几百个粉丝，兴奋的吸气声和耳语清晰可闻。两小时后，一百多个粉丝（其中大部分是大学生的年纪），仍在等着与他见面的机会。27岁的吴莲（音译）见到刘慈欣后，不禁激动得发抖。
“You just bury your head in the ‘Three-Body’ books, and all of a sudden you feel so energized,” said Ms. Wu, who works at an Internet company in Beijing and attended the event in full Jedi attire. “It’s really a milestone in Chinese science fiction.”
“你埋头读着《三体》，突然就觉得那么兴奋，”吴说，她在北京一家互联网公司工作，穿着绝地武士服装来参加这次活动。“它的确是中国科幻小说的里程碑。”