中国科幻作家通过不断发展、更新对科幻小说与现实之间关系的理解，形成了独特的文学和思想传统。在这百余年的发展历程当中，中国科幻见证、影响甚至推动了“科学”、“幻想”、“现实”和“现代化”等观念的演变。科幻小说在被译介进入中国之初，就被视为理解、介入和改变晚清中国社会现实的重要工具。梁启超强调科学对整体社会现实的改造力量，而鲁迅则发现了科学在培育“新人”方面的强大作用。他们共同打开了对科学、科幻与现实关系进行讨论和实践的话语空间，同时也发现了科技经验与中国本土现实状况的巨大差距。进入二十世纪七十年代末之后，这一差距逐渐被新的现实和创作所填补。从这个时期开始，中国科幻作家在处理现实问题时，逐渐产生了三种相互缠绕的“科幻现实主义”观念。第一种观念要求借助批判现实主义的方式，将科幻作为折射、批判和超越现实的有效工具，进而创造出中国式的“现实主义科幻”。通过求助于现实社会议题和现实主义话语，中国科幻作家成功摆脱了“科普论”的束缚，并向科学主义发起了挑战。在这一创作观念当中，“科学”作为现代世界图景和中国现实经验的一部分被成功纳入社会批判当中；“幻想”则被高度工具化，视为协助这种批判获得合理性的手段。由于被强大的现实主义话语所笼罩，这一观念隐含着对科幻文类诸多审美特征的消解倾向，由此使得中国科幻的文类特征受到了威胁。第二种“科幻现实主义”则力图与世界科幻、科学文化传统进行密切的对话和交流。它要求将中国当下现实中的事件和经验，置入到以科学为代表的现代知识语境当中，以此展现出独特的审美效果。通过对科学、想象与现实之间的重新理解和建构，新的审美系统逐渐生成，而现实主义本身也受到了挑战。进入新世纪以来，与快速发展变化的全新现实相适应，第三种科幻现实主义逐渐成型。这是一种“科幻现实”主义，主要指向对现实中的科学、现代化等宏大叙事的全面消解。这一创作观念认为，随着信息技术、基因工程和量子力学等前沿科技的发展，现实本身将从各个层面发生巨大的嬗变。由此产生的一系列重大、深刻的命题，正是科幻文学长期以来试图描述、推演和阐发的对象。在过去的一百多年中，中国科幻作家面对着现实的呼唤，依旧保有启蒙年代的热情和直面虚无的勇气。他们不断地以科幻作品来描绘与科技密切相关的中国形象、世界图景和人类命运。伴随着对科幻与现实关系的不同理解，中国科幻小说已经发展成为一个广阔的光谱。这些观念的流变过程，映射了中国科幻小说的主要脉络，预言了未来前景和发展方向。在中国思想和文化的边疆地带，科幻作家们以丰富的创作实践和理论探索拓展了文学的版图。

Chinese science fiction writers have formed their unique literary and ideological traditions by constantly developing and renewing their understanding of the relationship between science fiction and reality. Over the past hundred years, Chinese science fiction has witnessed, influenced and even promoted the evolution of such concepts as "science", "fantasy", "reality" and "modernization". Science fiction was translated and introduced into China in late Qing. It was regarded as an important tool to understand, intervene and change the social reality of China in that period. As representative intellectuals at that time, Liang Qichao emphasized the transforming power of science to the whole social reality, while Lu Xun found that science played a powerful role in cultivating "new people". Together, they had opened up the discourse space for discussion and practice on the relationship between science, science fiction and reality. At the same time, they had found a huge gap between the scientific and technological experience and the local reality of late Qing Dynasty. This gap has never been filled gradually until the late 1970s, with the new realities and works. Starting from this period, Chinese science fiction writers gradually produced three intertwined concepts of "science fiction realism" when dealing with realistic issues. The first convention requires that science fiction be used as an effective tool to reflect, criticize and transcend reality by means of critical realism, thus creating Chinese-style "realistic science fiction". By resorting to realistic social issues and realistic discourse, Chinese science fiction writers have successfully shaken off the shackles of "popular science theory" and even challenged scientism. In this convention, "science" has been successfully integrated into social criticism as a part of the modern world vision and Chinese realistic experience. Imagnation, on the other hand, is highly instrumentalized and seen to assist the critique in gaining legitimacy. Shrouded by the powerful realistic discourse, this convention t implies the tendency of dispelling many aesthetic characteristics of science fiction genre, thus making the genre features of Chinese science fiction threatened. The second kind of "science fiction realism" tries to carry on the close communication and the interaction with the tradition of foreign science fiction and the scientific culture. It requires that the events and experiences in China's current reality be put into the context of modern knowledge represented by science, in order to show the unique aesthetic effect. Through the re-understanding and reconstruction of the relationship between science, imagination and reality, a new aesthetic system has gradually emerged, while leads to the challenge of realism itself. Since the beginning of the new century, the third kind of “science fiction realism” has gradually taken shape in accordance with the new reality which developing and changing rapidly. This is a kind of " science-fictional-reality-ism", mainly pointing to the comprehensive elimination of the grand narrative, including the conpects of science, scientific, modernization, etc. This convention holds that with the development of information technology, genetic engineering and quantum mechanics and other cutting-edge science and technologies, the reality itself will undergo tremendous changes at all levels. All those leads to the emerging of a series of important and profound propositions, which is exactly what science fiction expect, tried to describe, deduce and elucidate for a long time. Over the past 100 years, Chinese science fiction writers have remained enthusiastic and courageous in the Enlightenment era, facing the call of reality. They constantly use science fiction to depict the image of China, the world and the destiny of mankind, which are closely related to science and technology. With the different understandings of the relationship between science fiction and reality, Chinese science fiction has developed into a broad spectrum. The evolution process of these concepts reflects the main tradition, future prospect and development direction of Chinese science fiction. In the frontier of Chinese thought and culture, science fiction writers have expanded the territory of literature with their rich creative practice and theoretical exploration.