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Laura Zhou

Science fiction writer Hai Ya has won the Hugo Award, becoming the third Chinese author to win the most prestigious international prize for the genre.
Hai Ya, the pen name of the 33-year-old writer and financial services worker from the southern city of Shenzhen, won the best novelette award for The Space-Time Painter.
He was the second Chinese writer to win the award for best novelette – the category for short works between 7,500 and 17,500 words – after Hao Jingfang, who won the prize in 2016.
Hai received a trophy from Liu Cixin, China’s most famous science fiction author, on Saturday night at an awards ceremony on the sidelines of the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.
“In my daily work, I count my time, I count my income, but I also remember to look up at the stars on my way home late from work,” Hai said, adding that winning the Hugo Award was a dream come true.
“These used to be two parallel worlds that were unrelated and non-interfering with each other, but now in Chengdu, these two worlds have merged, and ideals have shined into my reality.”
‘I was running out of time’: sci-fi author Liu Cixin writes speech using ChatGPT
Published last year, The Space-Time Painter tells the story of a detective who is investigating a ghost haunting at the Forbidden City, which leads to a painting created during the Song dynasty (960 – 1279) and the power struggles at that time.
Hai said he took inspiration from the life of Wang Ximeng, a talented young Song dynasty painter who, at the age of 18, created a long blue-green scroll that is considered a masterpiece of Chinese art.
In an interview with Tianmu News, Hai said he started writing as a college student in 2012. But his writing journey was disrupted because of his demanding work schedule.
“I only had time to write when I was off work or on holiday,” he said. “I don’t have any other hobbies that are particularly time-consuming, and I stayed at home in most of my spare time, and that’s how I could squeeze in some time to create.”
Hai’s first work, Blood Sacrifice, was published in 2019.
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Zhao Enze, a well-known computer graphics artist in China, won the Hugo Award for best professional artist.
“Of course, I’m very happy to have such an opportunity and a platform to show myself, but I think it is the step-by-step promotion of the predecessors of Chinese science fiction that gives me such an opportunity,” Zhao said in an interview after the ceremony, according to Xinhua.
“In the future, I will work harder to promote the progress of science fiction art in China.”
Established in 1953, the Hugo Awards are regarded as the highest honour in science fiction and fantasy. They are named after Hugo Gernsback, who was the founder of the American science fiction magazine Amazing Stories.
This year’s award for best novel was given to American author Ursula Vernon, writing under the name T Kingfisher, for her dark fairy tale Nettle & Bone.
The best novella prize was awarded to American author Seanan McGuire for her work Where the Drowned Girls Go.


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Liu Cixin, the Hugo Award-winning author of bestselling science-fiction novel The Three-Body Problem. Photo: Handout

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Author of The Space-Time Painter becomes third Chinese writer to receive most prestigious international prize in sci-fi and fantasy
He is honoured at ceremony during 2023 World Science Fiction Convention in southwest China’s Chengdu


Author of The Space-Time Painter becomes third Chinese writer to receive the most prestigious international prize in sci-fi and fantasy.


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