Combination of Science and Myth in Liu Cixin’s Short Stories —— Taking The ‘Angel Age’ and ‘Taking Care of the World’ as Example

Abstract

Liu Cixin is the first Chinese science-fiction writer to win the Hugo Award. Since the release of the film of the same name adapted from his novel the Wandering Earth in 2019, the academic research on his works has climbed to a peak. But relatively few studies have been conducted on his short stories other than the Wandering Earth. This paper aims to explore the characteristics of the combination of science and mythology in Liu’s short stories through the two works of ‘Angel Age’ and ‘Taking Care of the World ‘. This paper argues that the characters and things in these two works have characteristics. Therefore, the word frequency statistics of the words related to science and mythology are carried out. And mythological archetypes are analysed for characters and things characterised by myths. Based on the analysis of the work, this paper summarises the three main ways in which science and myth are combined in Liu’s work, including ‘Myth Scientize’, ‘Mythologizing Science’ and ‘Fusion Construction of Science and Myth’. Through in-depth analysis of the combination of science and myth in Liu’s short stories, this paper reveals the ‘ Liu Cixin-style ‘of science fiction writing and provides new insights into Liu’s science fiction works.