On 30 August, a group of international writers and publishers visited the headquarters of BYD and DJI in Shenzhen. The visit, part of the 2026 Southern China Book Fair, was designed to take literary exchange out of conference rooms and into the workplaces of China's most globally recognised technology companies.
"I wrote about this kind of technology many years ago," said Polish science-fiction writer Rafał Kosik, author of Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence. "Now we are living in science fiction worlds. We are in cyberpunk, in fact."
Standing among BYD's battery testing rigs, Kosik watched engineers demonstrate a new fast-charging battery cell capable of adding hundreds of kilometres of driving range in minutes. "In a few years, everyone will have some kind of technology we only knew from science fiction," he said.
Daniyal Salam, executive director of Ferozsons (Pvt) Ltd, called the technology "a game changer for the entire world". He said he had already translated about 45 Chinese children's books into Urdu and hoped to translate more. "Books are the best way to exchange cultures," he said.
The group also visited DJI's headquarters, a building with gardens on its upper floors and trees and rock gardens interspersed among offices. Chong Lee Choo, editor-in-chief of Penang City Eye, said the design reminded her of a film set. She described herself as a "low-tech person" who works with words and culture. "I didn't expect that a Chinese company could build something like this," she said. "People used to think only Apple or Microsoft had such spaces."
The visitors, who came from Italy, Poland, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Kenya and other countries, included publishers, novelists and poets.
Author | Feng Huiting
Video | Qin Shaolong
