June 23 1963 Liu Cixin was born in Beijing, China. He grew up during the cultural revolution of China which had a major effect on many aspects of his life such as: his family, his writing, and his personal views. His family was hit hard by the revolution, mainly because his father had joined the communists while one of his uncles joined the nationalists. This would later cause problems for Liu’s father, but his family as a whole as well. Because of the effect the cultural revolution had on Liu’s family, he was sent to live with his other family in Henan Province. Henan Province is a very different area than the Shanxi Province in which Liu Cixin was born. Due to this change in his life and the problems faced by his family, these events shape his view of the world and influence his writing later in life. From an early age Liu Cixin developed his love for science and technology. As a kid he was “fascinated with astronomy and space exploration.” Thanks to his love of science Liu Cixin attended and graduated from the North China University of Water Conservancy and electric power. Graduating from college Liu Cixin worked as a computer engineer for Niangziguan power plant. It is there that he not only met his wife, but also where he started to write at night. It was then that he narrowed his interest and passions into writing science fiction or sci-fi. In the early 1980s was when Liu Cixin really began his career as a writer as he began to submit sci-fi short stories. Much later in the later 2000s is when he made his breakthrough with his novel and first book of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy: The Three-Body problem. Now Liu Cixin lives a very private life. He does not like to talk about politics or overly share about himself. When asked about themes in his book, particularly about the future he stated that he is “essentially an optimist” and that he believes that “mankind has a hopeful future.”

Liu Cixin has a vast number of different events, people, and literature that has not only influenced him as a person, but more importantly his writing and novels. As mentioned earlier the cultural revolution had a very big impact on Liu Cixin. The problems that it provided him and his family helped shape his views on societal structures and the revolution itself. As seen in his narrative writing especially in the Three-Body problem, Liu thinks negatively of the revolution and societal structures like it. The revolution had a major impact on him and his narrative style. Liu’s education in science also had an effect on his writing. With an extensive background in science Liu Cixin is able to create science fiction scenarios that are believable and plausible. The way he describes his scenarios and weaves physics into them has been described as “poetic” and Cixin himself stated that most of his stories were “imagined along the lines of physics and cosmology.” Another thing that inspired and influenced Liu Cixin was western science fiction literature. Some western authors listed by him as influences are George Orwell, Ray Bradbury. Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, and most importantly Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke wrote many science fiction novels as well, which had inspired Cixin. Not only did western literature have an influence on him, but other cultures did as well. His father gave him the novel A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, which is also a major aspect in his development as a science fiction author.

Liu Cixin has seen a great deal of success stem from his career as an author. He has won numerous awards, seen his work translated to other forms of media, and sold massive amounts of his novels and short stories. Liu Cixin was the first Asian author to win the Hugo Award, which was awarded to him for the aforementioned novel The Three-Body Problem. Cixin is also a nine time winner of the China’s Galaxy Award which is China’s version of the Hugo Award. The most acclaimed pieces of his work is the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy consisting of, The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End. All of the books in the trilogy sold incredible numbers. While Liu Cixin found great success in his home country, it was not until the translation of his work into other languages that he became a “literary phenomenon”. Other forms of media have also brought Cixin immense success as well. In 2024 Netflix released a show based off of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy that hit the top of some charts and has been approved for more seasons. Cixin’s work has also seen success in movie adaptations with the movie adaption of the novel The Wandering Earth grossing 701 million dollars worldwide.