"The Wandering Earth," an adaptation from the eponymous story by famous Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, stunningly grossed more than 4.68 billion yuan ($724 million) and led China into new era of major science fiction film production and ignited audience enthusiasm for the genre. The success also thanked to the unique Oriental emotion Ji mentioned, which include the Asian nostalgia for homeland and Chinese patriotism.

Another successful sci-fi comedy "Crazy Alien" based on a Liu Cixin story, directed by Ning Hao, with a smaller scale and less desire for grandeur, grossed 2.2 billion yuan in the Chinese market, while competing with "The Wandering Earth" in the same time frame during Spring Festival in 2019. 

The next big sci-fi production released later that year was "Shanghai Fortress," based on another popular Chinese sci-fi novel by Jiang Nan, however it suffered from bad reviews and flop at box office due to its cliched storyline, flat characters and immature technologies. 

But Chinese filmmakers, authorities and the audience didn't give up. They are still trying to make the cake bigger. Guidelines on promoting the development of sci-fi films was jointly issued by the China Film Administration and the China Association for Science and Technology on Aug. 7, 2020, listing 10 policies and measures on the production, screening, special effects, and other issues concerning sci-fi films.

Lots of sci-fi films such as Ng Yuen-fai's "Warriors of Future," Lu Chuan's "Bureau 749," Zhang Xiaobei's "Pathfinder," Tian Xiaopeng's "The Three-Body Problem," Frant Gwo's "The Wandering Earth 2" are in the pipeline, some of which could be released in 2021.

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