Looking for science fiction writer "Hai Ming" in an office building in Shenzhen
Similar to the characters in his novels, Hai Miao experiences a parallel world.
On the evening of October 21st, Hai Miao was a science fiction writer standing on the stage, receiving the silver trophy from his idol Liu Cixin. His "The Painter of Time and Space" won the 2023 Hugo Award for "Best Short Novella".
More than ten hours later, when he arrived at the 35th floor of the office building in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, he returned to another identity: an account manager at the bank's mortgage center. As usual, he was about to run around with business indicators, occasionally looking up at the night sky on his way home from get off work.
On October 24, the bank where Hai Miao worked held a media meeting for him.
Surrounded by everyone, a reporter asked: "Isn't all this science fiction?" He smiled and nodded.
In his novel, the protagonist Zhao Ximeng is able to separate his spirit from his body and travel in high-dimensional space to overlook mountains and rivers.
In reality, Hai Ming does not want to turn into a ghost and abandon the beautiful ordinary world.
"I'm just an ordinary person," he said. Behind the fantasy, there is still the gravity of life.
On October 21st, Hai Ming’s “The Painter of Time and Space” won the Best Short Novella Award. Source
At 10 a.m. on October 24, the conference room on the 35th floor of the office building was already "ready".
The nameplates of more than 10 media companies surround the word "Hai Yang" in the middle of the big table. Three tripods are set up at different angles. The computers on the table are lined up in a row, and the screen is filled with listed questions.
"It's better to put it in front of him." Several reporters rushed forward and placed the media agency's logo in front of the "Haiyang" nameplate to ensure that it would be in the shot for a while.
"Everyone, wait a moment, Teacher Haiyang will be here soon," the staff said.
Wearing a crisply pressed white shirt, he bowed first and said "Hello everyone." After sitting down, he glanced around, then raised his eyes upwards, not daring to look directly at the crowd in front of him, and clasped his hands together.
"As the third Chinese writer to win this honor after Liu Cixin and Hao Jingfang, how does Teacher Haiming feel?" the host asked at the beginning.
"Accident." Haixiao smiled shyly. He had never expected the scene in the past three days.
In 2020, editor Tian Xinghai received the manuscript of "Painter of Time and Space" for the first time. What attracts him is that the story combines readability, popularity and science fiction creativity very well, and on this basis it also combines traditional Chinese culture. "Historical science fiction is not a mainstream field, but it is not a niche field either. We must develop our imagination based on the framework of historical facts."
In Haiyang's view, it was the elements of historical science fiction that were relatively rare in previous science fiction works that became an important reason to impress the judges.
Haiyang said that in fact, he had never been to the Forbidden City. He first saw the Northern Song Dynasty painting "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" on the documentary "Great National Treasures". He couldn't help but wonder why the 18-year-old painter "Ximeng" received personal guidance from Song Huizong, and then why he disappeared from historical data? He wanted to write a continuation of the life of "Ximeng" in the novel.
So he combined it with another Southern Song Dynasty painting "Skeleton Fantasy", balancing historical facts and imagination, and created a story about the fusion of two paintings in the Forbidden City and the story of modern police officer Zhou Ning encountering the ancient "ghost" Zhao Ximeng.
In April 2022, "Painter of Time and Space" was published in the "Galaxy Edge" magazine, a copyright collaboration with Wada Xinghai, and was shortlisted for the Hugo Award in June this year.
"I haven't told anyone about the news of being shortlisted, because I think if you are shortlisted, just be shortlisted. It has little to do with me later." Haiyang said with a smile.
On the evening of October 21, although Tian Xinghai expected the possibility of winning the prize, when he heard the word "Hai Yang", he "panicked. I really have never seen such a scene." Sitting in the third row, he stood up to shout and take photos. When the winning message appeared on the big screen, a string of congratulatory WeChat messages flashed on his phone.
After winning the award, "The Painter of Space and Time" had some controversies such as "not being science fiction enough" and "the idea is not fresh enough". However, more than the work itself, the dual identity of the science fiction writer "Hai Ming" was discussed more online than the work itself.
The night before, Haiyang had just finished working at a bank and flew from Shenzhen to Chengdu to attend the award ceremony.
When receiving the award, he was still wearing his bank uniform, holding the podium with both hands and said: "I still have a strong sense of unreality to this day."
Before the closing ceremony was over, he rushed to Chengdu Shuangliu Airport and took the latest flight back to Shenzhen. He left the trophy in Chengdu and was worried about the security check troubles and the tight boarding time, which delayed his trip.
On Monday morning, he showed up on time at his office building in Shenzhen's Bao'an District.
"Hai Ming is the first one to come to the office today." His colleague said.
On the morning of the 24th, office buildings in Baoan District, Shenzhen were crowded with people.
"I think you are a very talented person in writing. What gave you the opportunity to enter a financial institution in the first place?" a reporter asked at the press conference.
Haiyang's tone increased, revealing a rare anxiety, "I don't think my work is less accomplished than writing. At that time, I was very simple. I felt that finance is an industry with many opportunities. What do we young people pursue if we don't pursue opportunities? "
Haiming's former colleague Liu Yue recalled that about ten years ago, he and Haiming entered the bank through the same school recruitment and sat in the front and back seats.
"To be honest, if you didn't pay attention at first glance, you wouldn't have noticed his existence at all." Liu Yue only remembered that Hai Miao was quite low-key, but he was really good at business and had won a lot of large and small commendations.
Due to the banking business reform in 2014, the two of them worked in different branches, doing wealth and personal loans respectively. Because their businesses overlap, Liu Yue sometimes receives WeChat messages from Hai Ming: "I'm sorry, brother, please help me." The last time the two met was in 2017, they chatted about each other's targets, and then they met , all just saying hello and saying goodbye in a hurry.
On October 22 this year, Liu Yue received a Hugo Award award video from a friend, "Look, is this your colleague?"
He looked at it carefully and muttered, "I don't recognize it." He also called his wife, who worked in the bank together, to look at it, but she didn't recognize it either.
It wasn't until Liu Yue opened his WeChat Moments and discovered that financial professionals in Shenzhen were retweeting "A brother won the Hugo Award" and many people found out Hai Miao's true identity, that he suddenly realized that he and his wife did resemble each other. Many colleagues around him are still saying, "How come they have no impression of this person?"
Liu Yue said that it is normal for banks to finish meetings at nine or ten o'clock every day, and everyone is immersed in the indicators. "I really didn't know he was writing. I didn't notice it."
The 2023 Hugo Awards were announced in Chengdu. Source
In another parallel world, editor Tian Xinghai first met Hai Miao in a science fiction author group in 2016.
Tian Xinghai remembered that Hai Miao was not active online and only spoke occasionally. But he saw that Hai Miao was from Xiangtan, Hunan, and he had spent a lot of time there, so he became a friend.
Tian Xinghai learned that Haiming had published one or two works when he was in school, but later stopped writing for many years due to work. Soon after, Tian Xinghai invited Haiming to write his first manuscript. The two began to cooperate one after another.
Hai Miao, whom Tian Xinghai knew, was very stubborn when writing. "He will be very cooperative with the editor, but he has his own ideas. Sometimes he will compromise and lose some ideas, but if it is something he values especially, he will stick to it."
Hai Ming's unpublished work "The Far North" is adapted from the historical event of the Soviet Union's construction of the Bering Dam, and a fictional narrative based on it. Controversies inevitably arise - "Where is the measure of fiction?"
Tian Xinghai persuaded Hai Miao to add some more dramatic and tortuous plots, which would make the novel more in line with the reading paradigm of genre literature and make it more commercially popular. But he saw that Haiyang refused to give in. "Although it is fiction, we must grasp the truth." After arguing for a long time, Tian Xinghai finally decided to respect Hai Miao's idea.
"History itself is a very heavy thing and a very serious subject. I am very, very cautious when fantasizing. I cannot fall into the so-called nihilism or go against the common sense of history." When it comes to creation, Hai The raised eyes gradually focused and brightened, as if they were talking.
"Finance and science fiction are indeed very different," Haiyang said. But in his eyes, the two worlds never conflict.
When working, Hai Miao must pursue high efficiency and meticulousness.
When writing, Hai Miao is as meticulous as a student. He will search for keywords on the topic on CNKI, download papers and materials and read them one by one, and ask friends around him when he encounters something he doesn’t understand.
Tian Xinghai said that unlike some casual creators, Haiyi will discuss with the editor before starting to write, grasp the appropriateness of communication, and basically will not delay the manuscript when it is submitted.
The first time he met Mr. Haiming was at the Shenzhen Technology Conference in 2018. In front of him was a standard working person, "a white-collar worker working in a first-tier city. He also came directly in a suit. He was well-dressed and looked talented." It overlapped with the image of the author who was very disciplined in his impression.
However, rather than hard work, Hai Yang regards creation as a hobby.
"I never thought about turning my hobby into a living." He emphasized: "Why I cherish science fiction is because it is really not a very utilitarian thing for me. I don't think about making big breakthroughs, but It gives me a sense of belonging and makes me very fulfilled and happy.”
When Hai Ming was a child, both of his parents were miners in a factory. To kill time during the holidays, the three-story bookstore in his hometown became his "private garden." From "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" to "Death Light on the Coral Island", he had no concept of science fiction at the time, but reading allowed him to find a world where he could enjoy himself outside of loneliness.
Later, Haiming became addicted to "Science Fiction World" and never finished a single issue. He borrowed Liu Cixin's words that a happy life lies in being obsessed with something, and he found it in science fiction novels. “After loving and becoming familiar with it, I want to become it. This is a very natural choice.”
Once he climbed a mountain and was on the beach. Between the mountains and the sea, he saw the "lofty ambitions" of a hill, and felt the pleasure of leaning on the cliff and overlooking the blue sea. This is where the pen name "Hai Yang" came from. After becoming an adult, he came to Shenzhen, the city where the mountain is located.
Here, he counts time and income every day, but he also looks at the night sky on his way to get off work.
"There is a lot of confusion. How far is the world of another star from us? What kind of world is it? What I see is just a small dot, but it is actually information coming from many light-years away. Its current The real situation is completely different from what we see. Whether this star exists or not is a question. "
At this time, Hai Ming's eyes were looking at the starry sky and his feet were on the ground. He feels that many difficult hurdles and drastic changes in life are nothing at all on the macroscopic scale of the universe. The same is true in life. There are many unpredictable aspects in the future, so just enjoy the present.
When he returned home at night, Hai Yang closed the door. One of the bedrooms at home is his study. It is his habit to write in a closed and independent space that is not necessarily large.
"In reality, there are many worries and constraints, and you can't do some things according to your ideals, but you can do it in novels. Things that you can't do in life may be elevated and sublimated in my characters." Haiyang Said that creation gave him space for fantasy. It is free and comfortable to gain a moment of peace and solitude through writing in a noisy big city.
"I feel that after our heat is over, I can still return to my daily routine, do my job well, and write my novel with peace of mind."
In the past few days, Haiyang was troubled by phone calls and messages. He often answered the phone and was met by the media. He patiently explained that if he needed an interview, he would have to find the contact person at the bank. Such a high degree of dissemination has already had a certain impact on the current work. He said that in a marketing position, it is taboo to delay customer news.
Haiyang mentioned that at the end of "The Painter of Space and Time", police officer Zhou Ning faced a choice: whether he is willing to become a ghost like the protagonist Zhao Ximeng and travel through the high-latitude world. Zhou Ning objected without hesitation and chose to be with his family in the real world.
"This is a microcosm of myself." Hai Ming said with a smile. Out of curiosity, he might want to take a look at the world where the "ghost shadow" lives, but he couldn't completely abandon this beautiful real world. of.
Haiming and his wife started dating on campus and established a family in Shenzhen in 2016. At the beginning of this year, their child was born.
Haiming admitted that he owed a lot to his family. When he comes home every day, he will first talk to his wife for a few words, talk about today's work and some interesting things, and then tease the child crawling over, and enter the world of writing in 5 minutes.
"The most fortunate thing about me is that I have a relaxed growing environment. I hope that my children will also have such an environment in the future." Haiyang said with a smile. When his children grow up, he will read the award-winning novel to them. Listen, brag to him, "Your dad wrote this."
Regarding the ghost in the novel, Haiming mentioned that many readers may misunderstand it and think that it is a passive and reclusive image, which is opposite to the positivity and optimism of police officer Zhou Ning. In fact, it was not the case. Guiying did a lot of things before he lost his life. He was trying to change this era, but he tried his best. The tide of the era was not something he could change, and he paid the price of his life for it.
"They can have different choices simply because they live in different eras. This era is much better than before. I can make my own choices and I won't be involuntarily."
He and Tian Xinghai both see that the science fiction industry is moving forward rapidly, with more platforms and publishing companies willing to distribute science fiction works, and more film and television companies paying attention to the copyright of science fiction novels. At the same time, Tian Xinghai said that authors who are eager for quick success may think about what style and what kind of subject matter to write in order to realize their profits as soon as possible, but this should not be the case when returning to writing. Development does not happen overnight.
"Da Liu's success cannot be copied by anyone." Haiyang said: "We may need many small works to slowly pile up the pyramid of science fiction."
At the end of the one-hour press conference, everyone asked for photos.
Haiyang stood in the middle, pursed his lips and crossed his arms. After the flash, he hurriedly opened the door and within a few minutes, he was submerged in the long corridor of the work station, as if he had just settled an accident in his life.
