This chapter examines Shanhu Dao Shang de Siguang (Death Ray on a Coral Island, dir. Zhang Hongmei, 1980), arguably the first science fiction film produced in post-1949 China, whose release also marked the peak of a short-lived ‘Golden Age of Chinese Science Fiction’ (1978–83). The film is based upon the first piece of science fiction ever published in China's official literary magazine Renmin wenxue (People's Literature). Authored by Tong Enzheng (1935–97), the story received the magazine's Best Short Story Award and was also performed in modern theaters, opera houses, and radio programs soon after its publication in 1978. Its rise to popularity coincides with the coming of the ‘New Era’ (xinshiqi) under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping (1904–97), who consolidated his power at the Chinese Communist Party's Eleventh Congress in 1978. Prioritizing economic reform over class struggle, Deng's national policymaking attempted to modernize China through science and technology. This new agenda stimulated public interest in science fiction, which had been used to popularize scientific knowledge and inspire youths interested in scientific research since 1949. Over 800 science fiction works were published and popular interest in science fiction was reignited again decades after European science fiction was initially introduced to Chinese readers in the early twentieth century.

Chinese science fiction, however, soon became dormant again after Communist party conservatives criticized it as ‘false science’ (wei kexue) during the ‘Campaign against Spiritual Pollution’ in 1983. Political control continuously constrained the development of the science fiction genre in the decades to follow. China presently has one of the world's largest pools of science fiction fans—for example, its lead science fiction magazine Kehuan shijie (Science Fiction World, Chengdu, which started in 1979 as Science Art and Literature) prints nearly 300,000 copies monthly—but the number of science fiction films produced in China has been meager as film censors disapprove of most works with ‘fantasy and mythical elements’ (guaiyi liqi). In 2011, China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television issued a guideline that discouraged storylines that include ‘fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques,’ continuously preventing the country's increasingly market-driven film industry from making science fiction films.