In 1932, at the age of 33, Lao She wrote the long science fiction novel "Cat City". This work is narrated in the first person. The story is about the protagonist arriving on Mars in a spaceship. The spacecraft crashes and the protagonist encounters a local intelligent creature: a cat-man with a cat face and a human body. There are more than twenty cat-people countries on Mars. Although the "cat country" the protagonist encounters has the oldest civilization, it has declined rapidly recently. The residents of the Cat Country are intoxicated in a narcotic called "Mystery Leaf" and fight with each other endlessly. At the same time, they rely on cat people from other countries as strong men and use them to oppress their compatriots. Later, the "Dwarf Kingdom" invaded the "Cat Kingdom". The Cat Kingdom was unable to organize a resistance and continued internal fighting. Eventually, the country was destroyed and the people were destroyed. The protagonist returns to Earth in a French aircraft. No matter in terms of science fiction creativity, plot layout, or the critical value of the work to social reality, "Cat City" is a science fiction novel in the complete sense. Due to Lao She's profound literary foundation, "Cat City" also has high literary value. Although the author is not optimistic about this work in the future, "Cat City" still reflects the author's in-depth observation and philosophical thinking on human nature and society. Many phenomena in "Cat Country" not only satirized the Chinese society at that time, but were also widely prophetic. Some plots can even remind people of the Cultural Revolution that ultimately destroyed the author himself. But at that time, readers were not prepared to accept such a literary style, and the influence of "Cat City" was far less than that of the author's realistic works such as "Camel Xiangzi". Perhaps for this reason, Lao She gave up his attempt at science fiction.

In 1939, popular science writer Gu Junzheng published a collection of science fiction novels "Under the North Pole". It contains three short stories: "Under the North Pole", "The Strange Epidemic in London", and "The Dream of Peace". At that time, China's Anti-Japanese War was raging and the danger of world war was approaching. Gu Junzheng's above-mentioned works can reflect the characteristics of the times in a timely manner. For example, "Dream of Peace" tells the story of scientists who invented radio waves that can change people's thinking, and then use these radio waves to influence the people of hostile countries with the will of peace.

In 1942, the literary master Xu Dishan published the science fiction novel "The Gills of the Iron Fish" in the bimonthly "Gale", which was one of the few science fiction flashes in this era. "The Gills of the Iron Fish" uses the oxygen extraction device in the submarine as a science fiction idea, reflecting the tragic situation of scientists in old China who have no way to serve the country. Among the science fiction novels at that time, the article "Sexual Change" written by Zhenzhi was very distinctive. This is a short science fiction novel with a transgender theme. Shortly after the novel was written, gender reassignment surgery became available in the United States. Of course, to this day, sex reassignment surgery is still just a plastic surgery technique, and has not reached the level of fundamental genetic change in the novel "Sex Change". In that era, it was a miracle that a science fiction novel like "Sexual Change" could be produced in China that did not focus on current affairs and politics, but on basic human issues. In addition to these creations, during the Republic of China, works by Verne, Wells and others were also published in vernacular translations.

Chinese science fiction in its infancy had the following characteristics. First, it is the personal behavior of civilians. Not included in the official propaganda system. Second, the authors of the time were ahead of their readers, making these exploratory works sublime. At that time, those who advocated science fiction literature and personally participated in science fiction creation or translation work were China's first-class literati. This prosperity has not been restored to this day. Third, the political environment at that time was extremely unfavorable to the development of science fiction. In the fierce political struggle, society needs works that directly reflect reality, or words that are straightforward, tit-for-tat, "dagger" or "throwing a gun". Although science fiction literature can also reflect social reality, it does so in a euphemistic and implicit way. This is determined by the artistic laws of science fiction literature. Therefore, there is no response from society.

The author originally named this chapter "The Embryonic Period of Chinese Science Fiction". Later, I accepted a friend's suggestion and changed "Science Fiction Germination" to "Science Fiction Spark". Because these initial explorations of Chinese science fiction novels before liberation did not later become the basis of Chinese local science fiction novels. After liberation, Chinese science fiction first learned from the Soviet Union, then from the United States and Europe, and matured entirely on the basis of foreign science fiction works. Many of the works listed in this chapter not only had no influence on subsequent Chinese science fiction creations, but were not even known to many science fiction writers at all. They were "picked out" by some science fiction literature researchers from a large number of documents. In fact, this situation is similar to the history of science fiction literature in various countries around the world. Even the most complete American science fiction to date originally grew out of the works of foreign writers such as Verne and Wells. Later, mature American science fiction replaced many countries’ own early science fiction explorations and became the source of their “modern science fiction creations”. This situation is actually a reflection of the cosmopolitan nature of science fiction literature.