On March 28, the "Science Fiction & Talent" forum of the China Science Fiction Convention was held at Shougang Park in Beijing's Shijingshan District. The forum focused on the cultivation of complex science fiction talent and coordinated innovation among industry, academia, and research, attracting about a hundred participants including science fiction writers, sci-tech professionals, as well as representatives from industry and universities.
Daniele Macuglia is from Italy and an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences at Peking University, who was also named a 2024 Beijing International Friendship Envoy. Professor Macuglia was invited to deliver a well-received special report titled Model Worlds and Scientific Judgment: Chinese Science Fiction in the Age of Simulation. When asked about his experience participating in the forum, he stated:
As someone who teaches and works at Peking University, I found this year’s Science Fiction Convention deeply encouraging. What impressed me first was the seriousness of the occasion. Science fiction was treated as a living point of contact between scientific imagination and public culture, with clear implications for education and for the formation of talent; one could feel that the discussion was tied to real questions about the future a society hopes to build, and that gave the forum an intellectual weight many cultural events never quite reach.
The forum also brought something important about China into focus. The country’s development is already evident in its scientific capacity and in the scale of its transformation; what appeared here with particular clarity was the determination to give imagination an institutional place within that process. A nation that thinks seriously about the future needs habits of mind that are able to connect knowledge with history and with consequences, and in that respect the forum struck me as impressive in the best sense because it treated imagination as part of national development and of China’s larger conversation with the world.
I left with admiration, and with a stronger sense of why China now carries such weight in international conversations about the future. The setting at Shougang reinforced that impression: an industrial site once associated with steel and labor now hosts reflection on science and the future. It suggests a country whose rise can be felt in technical achievement and in the seriousness with which it reflects on the future it is helping to shape.
During the roundtable dialogue session, the participants engaged in in-depth discussions on a collaboration mechanism among industry, academia and research, offering suggestions and ideas for building an integrated science fiction talent ecosystem, thereby fostering a consensus on the way forward.
Background Information
The China Science Fiction Convention is a national industry exchange platform organized by the China Association for Science and Technology, with the aim to promote the progress of popularization of science, the science fiction industry and resource integration across the entire industrial chain. This year's convention was jointly hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology and the Beijing Municipal Government. With the theme "Gathering a Decade, Wisdom Ignites a New Era," the convention featured more than 20 activities across four sections: "Recalling the Decade, Building Consensus, Revitalizing the Industry, and Looking to the Future."
