The definition of prozines in China is a bit different from the definition used in America. In China, you have to get a special number called a “CN,” similar to an “ISBN,” certificated by the government, to be allowed to publish prozines.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, lots of SF magazines popped up in China. In 1979, Scientific and Literary («科学文艺») began to publish in Sichuan Province. Age of Science （«科学时代»), Science Literature Translation Series («科学文艺译丛»), SF Ocean （«科幻海洋»), Wisdom Tree （«智慧树»), and SF World–Selected SF Works («科幻世界——科学幻想作品选刊») appeared within the following three years. However, all these magazines except Scientific and Literary stopped publishing during the anti-spiritual-pollution campaigns.
In 1980, Scientific and Literary sold about 200,000 copies of each issue, but after the anti-spiritual-pollution campaigns, the number dropped as low as 700 copies. After 1984, Yang Xiao (杨潇), editor of the magazine, was selected as the president of Scientific and Literary. Together with her team, she made great efforts to hold the fort for Chinese SF. In 1991, the name of the magazine was changed to Science Fiction World («科幻世界»), and that year in Chengdu, they held the annual conference of World SF. We can look back to 1991 as the year Chinese SF started to flourish again. By 1999, an essay question in China’s National Higher Education Entrance Exam, “What if memory could be transplanted?,” was the same as the title of an article published in Science Fiction World that year. This partly pushed sales of Science Fiction World to its peak: 361,000 copies of each issue in 2000.
As the twenty-first century drew closer, another important Chinese SF magazine came to life in the Shanxi Province. Science Fiction King («科幻大王») started to publish in 1994, changing its name to New Science Fiction («新科幻») in 2011. The peak sales were around 12,000 copies per issue in 2008. Unfortunately, at the end of 2014, New Science Fiction stopped publishing due to its relatively low sales. Science Fiction Cube («科幻Cube») is the youngest member of the current existing SF prozine market in China. Its first three issues only came out in 2016, and each issue sold about 50,000 copies. Some other SF magazines appeared and disappeared in this period, including World Science Fiction («世界科幻博览») and Science Fiction Story («科幻-文学秀»). Other publications, like Mengya («萌芽»), ZUI Found («文艺风赏»), and Super Nice («超好看»), publish science fiction as well as other genres.
The first Chinese SF fan group appeared in Shanghai in 1980. Philip Smith from the University of Pittsburgh visited Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) and delivered a course on science fiction literature. A scholar who worked at SISU at the time, Wu Dingbo (吴定柏) regards the science fiction club formed there as the first Chinese SF fan group. In 1981, Science Fiction Research Associations were founded in several cities like Shanghai, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, Ha’erbin, Liaoning, and Chengdu, and then all were swept away by the anti-spiritual-pollution campaigns. And it wasn’t until 1988 that the Science Fiction Literature Committee was founded in Sichuan Writer’s Association, chaired by Tong Enzheng. The committee aimed to unite science fiction writers in Sichuan and make Chinese SF writing prosper from its nadir.
In 1990, Yao Haijun (姚海军) established the Chinese Science Fiction Readers’ Association with the help of his fanzine Nebula.
In the 1990s, regional fan groups and university clubs boomed all around China. The Science Fiction World magazine also founded its own fan club.
In 1998, the first online SF fan groups appeared in China. Chinese Science Fiction Online Association (中华网上科幻协会) and Feiteng Science Fiction Writing Group (飞腾科幻创作小组) were established. The latter one was renamed Feiteng SF Corps (飞腾科幻军团) after it expanded. Some of the other important online fan groups were SF Utopia (科幻桃花源), River of No Return (大江东去科幻社区), and Space Lunatic Asylum (太空疯人院). Unfortunately none of them exist today. Some of the active members continued their discussion in the Science Fiction World group (with no relation to the magazine) on douban.com (a social networking website popular in China based on hobbies).
Quite a number of Chinese SF authors were active members of these fan groups.
China’s first fanzine was Nebula («星云»), edited by Yao Haijun from 1989 to 2007. During these years, forty issues were published. Yao Haijun was a worker in a logging factory in Heilongjiang when he started the fanzine. Now he is the editor in chief of Science Fiction World magazine. Nebula played an extremely important role in the development of modern Chinese fandom, and even in the history of Chinese science fiction at large. It was the bridge between editors, writers, researchers, and readers. The peak circulation was more than 1,200 copies per issue.
Some of the other fanzines prevalent in the 1990s were Galaxy («银河»), edited by Fan Lin (范霖) in Zhengzhou; Up to the Ladder toward the Sky («上天梯»), edited by Xu Jiulong (徐久隆) in Chengdu; Planet 10 («第十号行星») and TNT, edited by Wang Lunan (王鲁南) in Shandong; and Universe Wind («宇宙风»), edited by Zeng Deqiang and Zhou Yukun (曾德强、周宇坤). There were also letterzines, such as Nebula, sent to subscribers all around the country. However, most of these only survived a couple of years due to lack of money and time.
Regional SF fan groups also published their fanzines. Cubic Light Year （«立方光年»） in Beijing and Supernova («超新星») in Tianjin were two of the key representatives. Receiving the support of many SF writers, Cubic Light Year was of quite high quality. However, both zines only published a few issues because it was hard for the editors and writers to keep running the projects on a voluntary basis.
University SF clubs also publish their fanzines, but these too have a short lifespan. One exception to the rule is Critical Point («临界点») published by Sichuan University Science Fiction Association, which published its special twentieth-anniversary issue in 2013.
With the dawn of the Internet era, numerous netzines appeared. Chinese Science Fiction Online Association published Sky and Fire («苍穹火焰») in 1998 and 1999, with a total of seven issues, and River of No Return published Edge Review («边缘») in 2005 and 2006, with a total of four issues. New Realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction («新幻界») published thirty-two issues from 2009 to 2013, which seems like a miracle, since all the issues are of very high quality and could be downloaded online for free. They even published two printed anthologies. Some of the stories published on New Realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction have since been translated into English, such as “Invisible Planets” («看不见的星球», 2010), by Hao Jingfang.