''Science Fiction World (Sci-Fi World; SFW)'' (, Kehuan Shijie), began in 1979, is a monthly

science fiction magazine A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet. Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nov ...

published in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, headquartered in

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

. It dominates the

Chinese science fiction Chinese science fiction (traditional Chinese: , simplified Chinese: , pinyin: ''kēxué huànxiǎng'', commonly abbreviated to ''kēhuàn'', literally ''scientific fantasy'') is genre of literature that concerns itself with hypothetical future so ...

magazine market, at one time claiming a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue, with an estimate of 3-5 readers per copy (giving it a total readership of at least 1 million) therefore making it the world's most popular

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...

History and profile

The magazine was established in 1979 with the name ''Science Literature''. In August 2007, the editor of ''Science Fiction World'', Yang Xiao, organized the Chengdu International Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, the largest such event ever held in China. An estimated 4,000 Chinese fans attended the four-day festival.

New editor and staff rebellion

In March 2010, the staff of the magazine issued an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

attacking new editor Li Chang for actions including: cancelling contracts with Chinese science fiction readers and authors; refusing to buy stories from authors, forcing the editors to write the stories themselves; ordering that foreign language editors do all translations into Chinese themselves instead of buying translations, and art editors create the illustrations themselves instead of hiring artists. He also interfered with advertising, replacing the magazine's front cover with an advertisement for a school. All of these malfeasances were claimed as causes for the recent severe drop in ''SFW'' circulation, to a low of approximately 130,000. Investigations by ''

China Youth Daily The ''China Youth Daily'' () is the newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China since 1951 with editorial and financial independence in the People's Republic of China. In the 1980s, it was regarded as the best newspaper in mainland China wi ...

'' and others verified the accusations, and by 4 April ''

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

'' reported Li Chang's ouster. Later the problem was solved, and

Yao Haijun Yao Haijun () is the editor-in-chief of Science Fiction World (科幻世界, SFW), the most successful Chinese science fiction magazine. Yao has been an editor at SFW since 1998 and became editor-in-chief in 2005. He has also served as the chief e ...

became the deputy director of Science Fiction World.

References

External links

The Official Website of ''Science Fiction World''
{{ScienceFictionMagazines 1979 establishments in China Magazines published in China Monthly magazines published in China Magazines established in 1979 Science fiction magazines established in the 1970s Mass media in Chengdu Science fiction magazines

History and profile

New editor and staff rebellion

See also

References

External links