Chan Koonchung (born 1952) is a Chinese

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

writer who has previously lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. He currently lives in Beijing. Chan also holds Canadian citizenship. He is the founder of

Green Power Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Definitions of sustainable energy usually look at its effects on the environment, the economy, and so ...

(綠色力量), Green Garden Organic Farm (綠田園有機農場) and the Hong Kong Film Directors Association (香港電影導演會) among other organizations, and is currently on the international board of directors of

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

. Previously, he worked as a reporter for the Hong Kong tabloid, The Star. In 1976 he co-founded

City Magazine Francis Ford Coppola ( ; born April 7, 1939) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Coppola is the recipient of five Academy Awards, a BAFTA Awa ...

(號外) with Qiu Shiwen and Deng Xiaoyu and Hu Junyi. In the 1990s he worked as an overseas publisher for the mainland literary journal

Dushu ''Dushu'' (, ''Reading'' in Chinese) is a monthly Chinese literary magazine which has great influence on Chinese intellectuals. It is based in Beijing. History The journal was first published in April 1979 with its lead article entitled "No Forbi ...

(读书), published by the China Publishing Group (中国出版集团) and SDX Joint Publishing Company (生活读书新知三联书店). In 1991 he played the role of Professor Liu Yuebai in Yan Hao and

Tsui Hark Tsui Hark (, , born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong (), is a Hong Kong filmmaker. A major director in the Golden Age of Cinema of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cinema, Tsui gained critical and commercial success with films such as ''Zu Warriors from ...

's adaptation of

Ah Cheng Zhong Acheng (; born 1949), often known by his pseudonym Ah Cheng, is a Chinese author and screenwriter. Life Ah Cheng's father, Zhong Dianfei, was in charge of the Chinese Communist Party's Propaganda Bureau. In 1956, as part of the Hundred Flo ...

's 1984 novel, The Chess Master.

Biography

Chan was born in 1952 in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, China. Chan earned his BA from the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

and completed graduate study at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

Works

His

dystopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality ...

The Fat Years ''The Fat Years'' is a 2009 Chinese science fiction novel written by Chan Koonchung. First published in traditional Chinese versions in 2009 in both Hong Kong by Oxford University Press and also in Taiwan by the Rye Field Publishing Company un ...

'' (2009) was published in English by

Doubleday Doubleday may refer to: * Doubleday (surname), including a list of people with the name Publishing imprints * Doubleday (publisher), imprint of Knopf Doubleday, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House * Doubleday Canada, imprint of Penguin Random ...

in 2011. In his book, ''The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver'' (2014), the Tibetan driver and lover of a Chinese businesswoman falls in love with her daughter. It is a satirical metaphor of the unbalanced relations between China and Tibet. Chan's novella ''Zero-Point Beijing'' (2020) imagines a surrealistic narrative in which

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

becomes obsessed with physical immortality and becomes an adherent of

Russian cosmism Russian cosmism (Russian: Русский космизм), or simply cosmism, is a philosophical and cultural movement that emerged in late 19th- and early 20th-century Russia, integrating science, religion, and metaphysics into a unified worldvie ...

. This leads him to mastermind an attempt at future rebirth through

cryopreservation Cryopreservation or cryoconservation is a process where biological material - cells, tissues, or organs - are frozen to preserve the material for an extended period of time. At low temperatures (typically or using liquid nitrogen) any cell ...

. Those tasked with secretly preserving and resurrecting his body in the future ultimately make a desperate deal with a Chinese American entrepreneur in an effort to achieve their mission. PRC intelligence agents learn of the effort. Fearing that a successful rebirth would lead to Neo-Maoists revolting against the government, they crackdown on the cryonics lab and destroy Mao's preserved brain.

Awards and honors

*2013

Jan Michalski Prize for Literature Jan Michalski Prize for Literature (French: Prix Jan Michalski) is a Swiss literary prize for any work of fiction or non-fiction published anywhere in the world in any language. It is meant to recognize authors from around the world and world liter ...

, finalist, ''The Fat Years''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Koonchung Chinese science fiction writers Living people 1952 births Chinese male novelists