# China launches its own 'sci-fi Nobel Prize'

Winners and important participants of the inaugural Fishing Fortress Science Fiction Awards pose for a group photo on stage in Hechuan, Chongqing, June 10, 2023. [Photo/China.org.cn]

The inaugural Fishing Fortress Science Fiction Awards, ambitiously dubbed China's "sci-fi Nobel Prize," took place in June 2023, distributing 1 million yuan in prize money across 35 categories to honor Chinese sci-fi pioneers and legends, including Liu Cixin and Yao Haijun. Sponsored by the Chongqing College of Mobile Communications and organized by its Fishing Fortress Science Fiction College — founded in 2019 and claimed to be the world's largest sci-fi college — this nonprofit award celebrates excellence in sci-fi writing, translation, publishing, education, media, and art. Unique among science fiction awards for being the first hosted by a private university, it aims to elevate science fiction as a medium of educational thought and communication, while bolstering support for sectors like sci-fi translation and publishing.