Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin: I'm just writing for the beer money

Chinese author Liu Cixin has won the Hugo Award for Best Novel on August 23. [Photo/IC]

The Three-Body Problem - a science-fiction book of the trilogy Santi written by Chinese author Liu Cixin - has caused a big splash on the Internet after it was announced winner of the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel on August 23.

The topic has been read over 8.6 million times on Sina Weibo, and generated a discussion that involved 190 thousand participants within ten hours after the news release.

Netizens were encouraged by the award and praised the novel, saying that this is an award that the book deserves.

"I read the first two books of the Santi series when I was in junior school, I didn't have money to buy it so I read it in the Xinhua Bookstore. I'm so happy that Chinese science-fiction has finally been recognized by the world," wrote Sina Weibo user Wukelili.

Zhang Yiyun, a Chinese psychologist with a follower of over 4 million, reposted the news and suggested embracing a bigger vision of the universe. "If we spend our limited life in daily hustle and bustle and turn a blind eye to the macro or micro worlds, it's like we never stepped out of our houses in the spiritual world," she quoted from the books.

But not all comments are so thrilled about the award. Weibo user Faye_Venus said that she doesn't think the book is that awesome, but "only that we couldn't find a better one in China."

The book, known for its brilliant imagination, successfully combined the exceedingly ephemeral with hard reality, all the while focusing on revealing the essence and aesthetics of science. It is a distinctly Chinese style of science fiction.