Since writer Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award for best science fiction writing in 2015 for the Three-Body Problem, and with the great success of the film. The Wandering Earth in 2019, based on another of his works, sci-fi has become more popular in China. Autonomous driving technology, maglev trains and city security improvements using big data and artificial intelligence have made sci-fi an important factor to drive the creative economy at a time when about 500 cities nationwide aim to become smart cities. According to the 2019 Chinese City Science Fiction Index Report which was released by the Science and Fantasy Growth Foundation, Chengdu, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Nanjing top the list of cities where the sci-fi sector is booming. It also showed that the gross output of the whole sci-fi industry in China for 2018 hit 45.6 billion yuan (US$6.4b). Sci-fi has sparked new ideas and inspired emergency response plans for policymakers, becoming a crucial factor to enhance competitiveness and the innovation capabilities of cities.
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