Transmedia Evolution of Periodical Science Fiction Literature: Insights from the Adaptation of the “Wisely Series” in The Great Adventurer Wesley

Journal of Integrated Cultural Studies

JICS   Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp.138-151.

Print ISSN: 3105-840X; Online ISSN: 3105-8418

Journal homepage: https://www.icsjournal.com

DOI：Https://doi.org/10.64058/JICS.26.1.13

从《冒险王卫斯理》对“卫斯理系列”的改编看报刊科幻文学的跨媒介新变

林可盈（Lin Keying）

摘要：倪匡的科幻作品“卫斯理系列”自1963年起于《明报》副刊连载至1992年，其间多次被改编成影视、漫画、广播剧作品，影响力非凡。中国科幻新浪潮在近十年进入学者视野，要追溯中国科幻文学的发展历程，倪匡作为60-80年代产量极高、深受大众欢迎的科幻作家，应当纳入讨论。作品对新型武器的想象、外星文明与乌托邦的刻画，可与中国早期晚清科幻奇谭对话，构成当代科幻文学研究的线索之一。另外，科幻作品的“科”与“幻”，与“时间”有密切关系，当科技进步，科学部分越见扎实，幻想部分得以拓阔，故科幻研究作品后续的改编同样值得研究。剧集《冒险王卫斯理》（2018）在五十年后改编相关小说，形成一场跨越时间、地域以及媒介的对话。本文一方面希望探讨倪匡作品的科幻性与报刊生态的关系，作为科幻文学研究脉络的补充。另一方面则回应跨媒介叙事，提出原著的科幻元素如何通过影视媒介重新展现、与时俱进；而剧情的改编又如何使新作拓展原著意涵，将过去的科幻突破时间的桎梏，再度更新。

关键词：倪匡；卫斯理系列；科幻；报刊；跨媒介

作者简介：林可盈，香港中文大学中国语言及文学系硕士生，研究方向：科幻文学、跨媒介研究。电邮：hoyinglam@cuhk.edu.hk。

Title: Transmedia Evolution of Periodical Science Fiction Literature: Insights from the Adaptation of the “Wisely Series” in The Great Adventurer Wesley

Abstract: Ni Kuang’s science fiction series, the “Wisely Series”, was serialized in the supplement of Ming Pao from 1963 to 1992. During this period, the series was adapted multiple times into films, television dramas, comics, and radio plays, exerting a remarkable influence. Although the “Chinese sci-fi new wave” has only come into scholarly view in the past decade, any examination of the development of Chinese science fiction literature must include Ni Kuang, a highly prolific and immensely popular sci-fi writer from the 1960s to the 1980s. The imaginative depictions of new weapons, extraterrestrial civilizations, and utopias in his works can be placed in dialogue with the earliest Chinese sci-fi tales from the late Qing period, thus providing one thread for contemporary research on Chinese science fiction. Furthermore, the relationship between the “science” and “fiction” in sci-fi is closely tied to the concept of “time”. As technology advances and the scientific grounding becomes more solid, the scope for imagination expands accordingly. Consequently, later adaptations of sci-fi works are equally worthy of study. The television series The Adventures of Wisely (2018), an adaptation of Ni Kuang’s novels fifty years after their initial publication, constitutes a dialogue across time, space, and media. This paper aims, on the one hand, to explore the relationship between the sci-fi nature of Ni Kuang’s works and the ecology of the periodical press, as a supplement to the historical study of Chinese science fiction. On the other hand, it addresses transmedia storytelling, examining how the sci-fi elements of the original texts are re-presented and updated for the screen, and how the adaptation expands the meanings of the source material, freeing the past’s vision of the future from the constraints of time and renewing it once again.

Keywords: Ni Kuang; Wisely Series; science fiction; newspapers and periodicals; transmedia

Author Biography: Lin Keying, Master’s student at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Research interests: science fiction literature, cross-media studies. E-mail: hoyinglam@cuhk.edu.hk.

 Received: 13 Mar. 2026 / Revised: 22 Mar. 2026 / Accepted: 02 Apr. 2026 / Published online: 30 Apr. 2026 / Print published: 30 May 2026.