It’s not sci fi, but it’s close. And a literature professor in Taipei is looking into it.

National Taiwan University professor Richard Chen wrote a newspaper column last July in a Taipei newspaper about the rise of ‘cli fi’ literature in the Western world, from Australia to Britain, and he’s now preparing an academic paper on the subject in English that will be presented at an international cross-cultural conference in Taiwan in early May.

In his newspaper column, Chen wrote a piece that was headlined “Not Just Science Fiction” and explained to Taiwanese readers that a new literary genre in the West called “cli fi” was gaining media attention in the pages of Britain’s Guardian and Financial Times newspapers as well as in the New Yorker magazine in the U.S.

Disclosure: I should note here that I have been involved as a public relations activist promoting the ”cli fi” genre in the English-speaking world, independent of Dr. Chen’s interest in the genre, and we had never met before his article appeared. I later contacted him, of course, and we are in email contact now on a regular basis.

Chen, who teaches urban fiction at NTU and gives his lectures in English, is writing an academic paper on ”cli fi” that will be the first such paper published in English in the greater China region.

Chen explained to his readers that he had not heard of the new genre before reading a Guardian newspaper story by British writer Rodge Glass last May.

”Cli fi, for me, is indeed too important to be ignored by readers in Taiwan and the rest of Asia,” Chen told me in a recent email. “It is already been boosted by such international writers as Margaret Atwood in Canada and Nathaniel Rich in America.”

Chen’s column was a full page article in the ”China Times Weekend” edition, with color reproductions of the covers of several of the cli fi novels he discussed, and his piece was later published in a Beijing blog as well, run by a well-known sci fi historian there.

The academic paper Chen is writing will be the first academic paper not only in Asia but in the world as well to focus on cli fi as an emerging literary genre and will review the history and literary background of the genre.

In his paper, he plans to demarcate the line between cli fi and traditional works of sci fi.

When I asked him what this might entail, he replied: “While cli fi is usually filled with apocalyptic and moral implications of climate catastrophes, sci fi is usually filled with the intention of exploring the possibilities of science and its relationship with humankind. Climate fiction is not only about global warming, but it appears to be also intended as a ‘global warning’ which can send messages to as many people as possible.”

While there have not been any ”cli fi” novels published yet in Taiwan or Japan or other Asian nations, Chen said he believes the genre still has to grow more in the West to become popular in Asia.

“Movies such as ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and the new ‘Noah’ film by Hollywood director Darren Aronofsky and starring Russell Crowe resonate with Taiwanese audiences, so ‘cli fi’ novels will likely be written and published as the genre gains steam worldwide,” Chen said.

With climate change and global warming popular topics on Taiwanese TV shows and in newspaper editorials, the ”cli fi” genre might find a home in Taiwan, too, the professor believes. For now, Chen is an Asian pioneer in charting unknown territory in a mostly unknown genre. No academics in Japan or China are doing this yet.

So whether or not the new literary genre is well known, cli fi exists. And it’s here to stay.

See my ”Cli Fi Central” blog here:
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com

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