Healthy Words

Science Fiction from China

By Alec Ash on August 26, 2014

In 1902, Lu Xun translated Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon into Chinese from the Japanese edition. Science fiction, he wrote in the preface, was “as rare as unicorn horns, which shows in a way the intellectual poverty of our time.” Not any more. The Three-Body Trilogy by Liu Cixin has sold 500,000 copies in China since the first volume was published in 2006 (it will come out in English in the autumn). Liu, an engineer, is one of the so-called “three generals” of contemporary Chinese science fiction, along with Wang Jinkang and Han Song.

Joy Chen

on August 26, 2014

Joy Chen is a business and civic leader who for decades has been expanding inclusion and equity across organizations and societies. She is CEO of JOYOUS, a human capital consulting firm that uses AI and analytics to help companies operationalize inclusion.

Prior to forming JOYOUS, Chen served as Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, in which capacity she launched workforce innovations which have resulted in access to new skills and jobs for millions. Chen also served as a Principal with the global executive search firm and leadership consulting firm Heidrick & Struggles.

Chen has been profiled by media including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CBS News, ABC News, The Los Angeles Times, and Vogue China for her work as a global leader in creating inclusion.

Chen is also a popular speaker and writer. In China, she authored two best-sellers, Do Not Marry Before Age 30 (30岁前别结婚) and How to Get Lucky in Your Career (30 岁趁势而为). She has millions of social-media followers and brand partners including Olay, SK-II, and Mercedes.

Chen holds a Diversity & Inclusion certification from Cornell University, MBA and M.A. in Urban Planning degrees from the University of California Los Angeles, and a B.A. from Duke University.

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two daughters.

Alec Ash

on August 25, 2014

Alec Ash is a writer based in China. He is the author of Wish Lanterns (Picador, 2016), about the lives of young Chinese, a BBC Book of the Week. His articles have appeared in The Economist, Dissent, The Sunday Times, and elsewhere. He is a contributing author to the book of reportage Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land (University of California Press, 2012) and co-editor of the anthology While We’re Here (Earnshaw Books, 2015). Ash was Managing Editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel. He is currently working on a new book from Dali, Yunnan.