Celebrated Chinese science fiction novelist Ni Kuang has died in HK aged 87

Ni Kuang died on Sunday in Hong Kong, with local media reporting skin cancer as the cause of death. Photo: HKTDC

Celebrated Chinese science fiction novelist Ni Kuang died in Hong Kong on June 3, according to a South China Morning Post report. He was 87.

In a prolific career that began in the early 1960s, the China-born Ni Kuang - either Shanghai or Ningbo, with differing reports - worked his way up as a writer in the Hong Kong scene. He specialised in science fiction and martial arts writing, persistently cross-pollinating both worlds. His groundbreaking works, which started a trend of writing across genres in Hong Kong first gained an audience through local newspapers (such as Ming Pao), before attracting fans around the world.