Reference: The Top 100 Sci-Fi Books, According to China
This list is a reference that is meant to accompany a broader essay comparing the Chinese media ranking site Douban to its Western counterpart Goodreads. If you’re seeing this before the post has gone up, don’t worry about it!
Top 100 Works of Sci-Fi, According to Douban 🇨🇳
(Bolded works are untranslated.)
Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Liu Cixin 🇨🇳 (1)
1984 by George Orwell 🇬🇧 (1)
Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov 🇺🇸 (1)
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧 (1)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 🇬🇧 (1)
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 🇺🇸 (1)
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov 🇺🇸 (2)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Yoshiki Tanaka 🇯🇵 (1)
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons 🇺🇸 (1)
From the New World by Yusuke Kishi 🇯🇵 (1)
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang 🇺🇸 (1)
The Martian by Andy Weir 🇺🇸 (1)
Robot Series (stories) by Isaac Asimov 🇺🇸 (3)
Robot Series (novels) by Isaac Asimov 🇺🇸 (4)
The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick 🇺🇸 (1)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 🇬🇧 (1)
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge 🇺🇸 (1)
Klein Bottle by Okajima Futari 🇯🇵 (1)
Ender’s Game Series by Orson Scott Card 🇺🇸 (1)
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge 🇺🇸 (2)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick 🇺🇸 (2)
Ball Lightning by Liu Cixin 🇨🇳 (2)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa 🇯🇵 (1)
Solaris by Stanisław Lem 🇵🇱 (1)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 🇫🇷 (1)
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne 🇫🇷 (2)
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧 (2)
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century — Orson Scott Card 🇺🇸🇬🇧
Exhalation by Ted Chiang 🇺🇸 (2)
True Names — Yao Haijun 🇨🇳🇺🇸🇬🇧
“Past, Present, and Future” by Nat Schachner 🇺🇸 (1)
“The American System” by Jay T. MacIntosh 🇺🇸 (1)
“Frost and Fire” by Ray Bradbury 🇺🇸 (1)
“Sandkings” by GRRM 🇺🇸 (1)
“The Machine Stops” by E.M. Foster 🇬🇧 (1)
“True Names” by Vernor Vinge 🇺🇸 (3)
For a Breath I Tarry by Roger Zelazny 🇺🇸 (1)
With Her Eyes by Liu Cixin 🇨🇳 (3)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 🇬🇧 (1)
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott 🇬🇧 (1)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin 🇺🇸 (1)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury 🇺🇸 (2)
Ubik by Philip K. Dick 🇺🇸 (3)
Empire of the Ants (Les Fourmis) by Bernard Werber 🇫🇷 (1)
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 🇺🇸 (2)
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧 (3)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 🇺🇸 (1)
Store of the Worlds by Robert Sheckley 🇺🇸 (1)
Cat Country by Lao She 🇨🇳 (1)
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny 🇺🇸 (2)
Blindsight by Peter Watts 🇨🇦 (1)
Dune by Frank Herbert 🇺🇸 (1)
The Drunk Man by Yasumi Kobayashi 🇯🇵 (1)
Defectives by Priest 🇨🇳 (1)
Captain Grant’s Children by Jules Verne 🇫🇷 (3)
Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye 🇺🇸 (1)
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein 🇺🇸 (1)
The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧 (4)
The Stories of Abis by Hiroshi Yamamoto 🇯🇵 (1)
A Perfect Vacuum by Stanisław Lem 🇵🇱 (2)
The Centennial Law by Muneki Yamada 🇯🇵 (1)
Xiaolingtong Roams the Future by Ye Yonglie 🇨🇳 (1)
The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem 🇵🇱 (3)
Ring by Koji Suzuki 🇯🇵 (1)
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov 🇺🇸 (5)
Doctor Who: Shada by Douglas Adams 🇬🇧 (2)
Ghost V by Robert Sheckley 🇺🇸 (2)
Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward 🇺🇸 (1)
Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin 🇺🇸 (3)
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne 🇫🇷 (4)
Galactic Empire Series by Isaac Asimov 🇺🇸 (6)
Contact by Carl Sagan 🇺🇸 (1)
Burning Chrome by William Gibson 🇨🇦 (1)
Pilgrimage to Earth1 by Robert Sheckley 🇺🇸 (3)
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧 (5)
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut 🇺🇸 (2)
Replay by Ken Grimwood 🇺🇸 (1)
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick 🇺🇸 (4)
Thirty-Seven by Liu Wenyang 🇨🇳 (1)
Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne 🇫🇷 (5)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 🇺🇸 (3)
Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer 🇨🇦 (1)
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell 🇬🇧 (1)
The Algorithms for Love by Ken Liu 🇺🇸 (1)
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 🇺🇸 (4)
The Shape of Thought and Others by Ken Liu 🇺🇸 (2)
Shanghai Fortress by Jiang Nan 🇨🇳 (1)
Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin 🇺🇸 (2)
Where the Wind Starts by Zhang Ran 🇨🇳 (1)
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick 🇺🇸 (5)
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein 🇺🇸 (2)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi 🇺🇸 (1)
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne 🇫🇷 (6)
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson 🇺🇸 (1)
Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge 🇺🇸 (4)
Genocide of One by Kazuaki Takano 🇯🇵 (1)
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick 🇺🇸 (6)
Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold 🇺🇸 (1)
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton 🇺🇸 (1)
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧 (6)
R.U.R. by Karel Čapek 🇨🇿 (1)
Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer 🇨🇦 (2)
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson 🇨🇦 (1)
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. 🇺🇸 (1)
Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold 🇺🇸 (2)
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧 (7)
Top Ten SF Authors by Followers
From the below list and the Douban author pages, I was able to assemble this top ten:
Liu Cixin / “Da Liu” [28k][15k]
Isaac Asimov [11k][27k]
Arthur C. Clarke [9k][11k]
Philip K. Dick / PKD [9k][22k]
Ursula K. Le Guin [6k][29k]
Ted Chiang / Jiang Fengnan [6k][11k]
Stanislaw Lem [5k][4k]
Ken Liu / Liu Yukun [5k][22k]
Douglas Adams [3k][23k]
Jules Verne [3k][12k]
Sci-Fi GOATs, According to Douban
The following authors have the most Douban Top 100 entries. (First bracketed number is Douban ranking of the book, second is Goodreads ranking.)
Arthur C. Clarke 🇬🇧
2001: A Space Odyssey [4][11]
Rendezvous with Rama [27][29]
Childhood’s End [40][20]
The Songs of Distant Earth [52][231]
The Nine Billion Names of God [69][N]
The City and the Stars [94][105]
The Fountains of Paradise [100][241]
Isaac Asimov 🇺🇸
Foundation Series [3][6]
The End of Eternity [7][86]
Robot Series (stories) [13][12]
Robot Series (novels) [14][59]
The Gods Themselves [59][70]
Galactic Empire Series [65][369]
Philip K. Dick 🇺🇸
The Minority Report [15][485]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [21][9]
Ubik [37][47]
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said [72][128]
A Scanner Darkly [84][83]
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch [91][158]
Jules Verne 🇫🇷
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [25][80]
The Mysterious Island [26][N]
Captain Grant’s Children [49][N]
Journey to the Center of the Earth [64][66]
Five Weeks in a Balloon [74][N]
Around the World in 80 Days [87][N]
Ursula K. Le Guin 🇺🇸
A Wizard of Earthsea [35][N]
The Dispossessed [39][39]
Changing Planes [63][N]
The Left Hand of Darkness [79][19]
Asian Sci-Fi GOATs, According to Douban
The following books are the Chinese and Japanese works of science fiction. There were no works from any other Asian country that made the cut (although Korean author Kim Cho-yeop has been getting some attention in China lately).
The Chinese Chinese Canon 🇨🇳
Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Liu Cixin 🇨🇳 [1]
Ball Lightning by Liu Cixin 🇨🇳 [22]
With Her Eyes by Liu Cixin 🇨🇳 [32]
Cat Country by Lao She 🇨🇳 [43]
Defectives by Priest 🇨🇳 [48]
Xiaolingtong Roams the Future by Ye Yonglie 🇨🇳 [56]
Thirty-Seven by Liu Wenyang 🇨🇳 [73]
Shanghai Fortress by Jiang Nan 🇨🇳 [81]
Where the Wind Starts by Zhang Ranzhong 🇨🇳 [83]
The Chinese Japanese Canon 🇯🇵
Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Yoshiki Tanaka 🇯🇵 [8]
From the New World by Yusuke Kishi 🇯🇵 [10]
Klein Bottle by Okajima Futari 🇯🇵 [18]
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa 🇯🇵 [23]
The Drunk Man by Yasumi Kobayashi 🇯🇵 [47]
The Stories of Abis by Hiroshi Yamamoto 🇯🇵 [53]
The Centennial Law by Muneki Yamada 🇯🇵 [55]
Genocide of One by Kazuaki Takano 🇯🇵 [90]
This collection by Robert Sheckley is original and does not correspond to the English language collection of the same name.