Science Fiction Writer · Futurist · Curator

Chen Qiufan

Award-winning author of Waste Tide and co-author of the global bestseller AI 2041 with Kai-Fu Lee. Also known as Stanley Chan. He writes science fiction realism — fiction that treats the present as the strangest planet of all.

Shantou → Beijing → Shanghai → Hong Kong Writing since 1997 Scroll
01 — Selected Books

Three futures, already arriving

All books →
Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan, English edition cover

Novel · 2013 / English 2019 · Translated by Ken Liu

Waste Tide荒潮

On Silicon Isle, an island of electronic waste off China's southern coast, a migrant worker becomes the spark of an uprising between clans, corporations and machines. A prophetic eco-techno-thriller set where the author grew up.

The Guardian Best SF 2019 Locus Award Finalist Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire 2023
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan, cover

Fiction × Analysis · 2021 · with Kai-Fu Lee

AI 2041AI未来进行式

Ten stories, ten technologies, twenty years out. Chen's globe-spanning fiction paired with Kai-Fu Lee's analysis — a map of how artificial intelligence will reshape the way we live, work and love.

WSJ · WaPo · FT Best Books 2021 Global bestseller Best Business Book (Germany)
Ocean Break 刹海 by Chen Qiufan, Huacheng Publishing House cover

Novel · 2025 · Huacheng Publishing House

Ocean Break刹海

The new novel. A story of climate politics and co-existence — human, technological, oceanic — that carries the ecological urgency of Waste Tide into the age of planetary crisis.

New · 2025 Huacheng Literary IP List 2025
02 — The Writer
“Science fiction realism — fiction that treats the present as the strangest planet of all.”

Born beside the world's largest e-waste site. A decade inside China's tech industry, at Google and Baidu. Since 2017, a full-time writer translating the near future into human terms — and one of the most borrowed voices when the world tries to imagine what China, AI and the climate century feel like from the inside.

Chen Qiufan, portrait

Chen Qiufan 陈楸帆 · b. 1981, Shantou

03 — Honors

Selected recognition

All awards →
The Guardian

Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2019

Waste Tide
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire

Best Translated Novel of the Year, France

Waste Tide · 2023
WSJ · Washington Post · FT

Best Books of the Year 2021

AI 2041
Chinese SF Nebula & Galaxy

12× Nebula Awards · 3× Galaxy Awards

1997 — Present
04 — Now

Latest

Hong Kong Top Ten Cultural & Creative Honors

Recognized among Hong Kong's ten cultural and creative figures of the year.

Ocean Break 刹海 published

The new climate-political novel, first serialized in Flower City and published by Huacheng Publishing House; selected for the Huacheng Literary IP List 2025.

A season of world stages

Venice (Antikythera × MIT), Berlin (re:publica), Bangkok Climate Action Week, Singapore Writers Festival, Moscow AI Journey.

Teaching & research in Hong Kong

Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Metropolitan University; President of the World Chinese Science Fiction Association.