Chinese sci-fi flicks have yet to set sail

Hollywood director Christopher Nolan's new sci-fi flick Interstellar has caught Chinese people's imagination, with their common question being: Can Chinese filmmakers make such a movie?

The Chinese film industry has entered a new era, producing some good movies and earning substantial box office returns. It's not uncommon to see a blockbuster earn more than 100 million yuan ($16.16 million) nowadays. Since the film industry has never been more successful on the commercial front, film financers may not be averse to investing in sci-fi films, because they could turn into blockbusters.

A recent article on Chinese science fiction over the past two decades by Chinese-American science fiction writer Liu Yukun is seen as signaling the arrival of sci-fi films in China. In the initial years, hard sci-fi tales were more popular in China, because both writers and readers were limited, and many of them came from science and engineering backgrounds.