At the moment all time-travel related movies are banned in China (check out the link). I'm not sure if this still applies, but all ghost related and superstitious themed movies were also banned, hence limiting the scope of the fantasy genre. In general, China has a very weird attitude to science fiction and fantasy because somehow they think it might encourage radical thinking or something bizarre like that....

you need a creative mind to create good science fiction or fantasy. for example creating whole new worlds and characters. creativity is not exactly encouraged in Chinese schools. only fantasy you will see is monkey king stuff.

a few years ago i was working in a high school. i told the students write down what they wold do if they can do anything. i tryd to explain that anything meant anything like having super powers for example. they all wrote that they would be buisessmen working in an office.

dont hold your breath for a Chinese star wars any time soon.

I believe I have seen some of those sci-fi movies here in China, the last time was a couple years ago though, about a robot, Iron Man style. Forgot the title.

yea, those are Hong Kong films.

I have heard that it's actually a limitation of the language itself - something along the lines of possible/improbable futures being described as past events -something like that - is confusing to follow in Chinese.

Of course, this could be total BS.., Anyone know?

Besides, why would you WANT to check out any Chinese sci-fi anyway? What would it be? Building glorious harmonious colonies on the moon and mars while humanity basks in the glory of the ccp?

Wouldn't someone need imagination and creativity to make those kinds of films? Why aren't there any great Chinese F1 or any race circuit drivers... Enough said...

There's no real precedent for it; they have neither the experience, know-how, directors capable of pulling it off and it just doesn't seem to click with the psyche of Chinese cinema.

Chinese directors are too busy picking chunks of China's history, inserting a few exaggerated heroes and meinus here or there and basking in how kick-ass they used to be, back then.

It's backward looking...no creativity.

I think it's overly harsh to say that Chinese directors lack creativity. Only those who don't actively go out and try to find the non-mainstream Chinese films will make such a claim. There are numerous highly talented, creative directors who are making or trying to make good films here. You have to remember that while they may have a genius script and plan for the film, if it's any bit contoversial or portrays China in a bad light, it's just going to get funding and it will most likely get banned. I've seen many fantastic Chinese films at film festivals abroad...most of which have never seen the light of day here in China. Just because they're not in cinemas or your regular DVD store, doesn't mean they don't exist.

denny18. the question was about science fiction. not just chinese films. can you name one mainland science fiction movie?

There are Chinese science fiction movies, one was even last year a little famous. The plot and story line were somewhat confusing and made me think of 1960's experiemental cinema. Another one was a kid movie about some sort of spacealien in the form of a ball hanging around with a kid. if it was from hongkong it can best still be considered chinese. Most is imported from Korea and Japan, who are a bit more advanced in these markets but do not produce so much. there are also scifi tv series and cartoons. Check your local tv channels for that. Much of it is following the trend lof Ultraman from Japan, who is amazingly popular with kids. kidshops sell the merchandize by the tons. many copies too.
scifi in china is a a developing market. in a few years it will get better.

Not a fan of Chinese movies myself! Even the most popular soap operas here people watch are the Korean ones. Goes to show what they think of their own actors.

That's the strange thing though, they know so much about their actors here, it's crazy...I mean I honestly don't get what the craze is about - the movies are all the same, the genres are so limited.

I realize I haven't really answered the question! It's true, I haven't seen any Chinese fantasy movies around either. Do Chinese people even watch European or American sci fi movies?? Are they into that?

denny18?? Have you got yellow fever? Have you been drinking the "Mao" kool-aid? Sci-fi denny, sci-fi... All their shit is about the past or sappy crying movies about the present, dick about the future...

Sigh...

I guess Hollywood makes it hard to compete. Still, it would be interesting to know just how well the American blockbuster sci-fi and fantasy movies fare here in China...it would at least give an indication of whether or not people here actually like it.

Still, it would be interesting to know just how well the American blockbuster sci-fi and fantasy movies fare here in China...

they do pretty good. Avatar made craploads of money in china and is very popular. so is transformers. and harry potter. both i saw in packed cinemas on a weekday. in english.

in fact they are so popular in china that the government delayed the release of both films to make sure that founding of the communist party movie would have no real competition and became a hit.

i remember when avatar came out. they pulled all the 2D prints to make room for the counfusius movie. and Avatar still made more money.they wernt happy about that. so this time they just delayed harry potter and transformers a whole month.

Movies have often been used to critic the present through allegory.

We (the West) often use science fiction and fantasy to critic the present through exotic, futuristic characters and vistas.

Chinese do that too, only they choose the past, not the future to do it. They take a chunk of their history and critic the present through past ordeals. Chinese people are taught so much about their history, it just makes sense that directors would refer to it to make a statement - it just connects with what people know.

Comparatively, America doesn't have the same long-shared common history, and so we're a more future-looking people.

Actually we have science fiction and fantasy films! not many, and not good. I feel Chinese producers maybe be looked down on for making this type of film, or just quality is not good because not enough money. Maybe in the future they become better.

Chinese government opened the Wuxi cinema center, like Hollywood, so hope!

At their best, sci fi and fantasy movies work as allegories of our own world and societies; the flaws are our own and the challenges are heightened versions of our own problems here in the real world. Most often, change for the better is achieved by a single protagonist/small group and by challenging the established order. I can see why, here, why that would be looked on with concern and mistrust.

Chinese films suck in general.  The 5th generation of directors are the only ones who make anything good but theres been nothing good in years.   As for time travel, they have a few tv shows about time travel but its crap.   My gf was on about this strangly enough,  she coudnt understand why Chinese doesnt make good sci fi movies.

The simplest answer would be: money. Most Chinese movies don't have the budgets to pull off the special effects required for a good sci-fi movie.

https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2166121/new-chinese-science-fiction-anthology-promises-reignite-genre

It would be nice to get this right, science fiction like everything else now has gender, multicultural bias agendas in the plot and just makes it boring.