Xia Jia entered School of Physics,
Peking University in 2002. As an undergraduate, Xia Jia majored in
Atmospheric Sciences. She then entered the
Film Studies Program at the
Communication University of China, where she completed her Master's thesis: "A Study on Female Figures in Science Fiction Films". Recently, she obtained a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and World Literature at Peking University, with "Chinese Science Fiction and Its Cultural Politics Since 1990" as the topic of her dissertation. She now teaches at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University. During her collegiate life she began to write science fiction works and took part in student clubs for science fiction and fantasy fans. Her short stories have attracted critical acclaim from the outset, beginning with her early
Chinese Galaxy Award recipient "Guan Yaojing de Pingzi"
关妖精的瓶子 (April 2004
Science Fiction World trans Linda Rui Feng as "The Demon-Enslaving Flask" November 2012
Renditions). A work of
fabulation, in which the scientist
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) is offered a Faustian challenge by a literal demon, its selection was attended by a spat among critics as to whether it could be called science fiction at all. The story is mired so deeply in anecdotes from the history of science, and literal interpretations of famous
thought experiments, that it requires copious
footnotes to explain its own jokes. This, however, seems very much in keeping with the classical, didactic tradition in Chinese science fiction, creating a story whose fantasy elements are mere vectors to convey information about the life and work of icon figures such as
Archimedes,
Albert Einstein,
Erwin Schrödinger and Maxwell himself. Later work mirrored her personal academic journey from hard science into the creative arts. Her first longer work was "Jiuzhou Nilü"
九州•逆旅 "On the Road: Odyssey of China Fantasy" (coll of linked stories 2009), part of the Jiuzhou
shared universe fantasy series. "Bai Gui Ye Xing Jie"
百鬼夜行街 (August 2010
Science Fiction World trans
Ken Liu as "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" February 2012
Clarkesworld Magazine) is far subtler and more mature, a child's eye view of life inside what first appears to be a haunted Keep redolent of Chinese ghost stories, but is gradually revealed as a run-down Far Future theme park populated with
Cyborg simulacra. On 4 June 2015 (online on the previous date) Xia Jia's short story "Let's Have a Talk" (
让我们说说话) was published on
Nature, 522, 122. One of the earliest Chinese fiction writers who published on
Nature, Xia Jia has received international reputation among sci-fi fans worldwide. == Research and film experiment ==