Star Wars fans dress up as characters from the movie and pose at the Great Wall at an offline event. Photo: Courtesy of Ding Yan

On September 12, 34-year-old Ding Yan and his friends traveled all the way from Beijing to Shanghai, to dress up as classic figures from George Lucas' Star Wars films — the Jedi, Darth Vader, R2-D2, the Imperial Stormtroopers and more.

Ding is the "executive officer" at the 501st Legion Chinese Garrison, the Chinese branch of the 501st Legion, a worldwide Star Wars organization, with its name taken from the elite clone troopers in the movie. This Chinese fan club created in 2009 has 47 members, most of them are between 30 and 50 years old.

"Star Wars was the first science fiction production ever I watched. Its grand picture production and world view had a great impact on me," Ding said. It was in the 1980s when he watched a videotape of Star Wars for the first time.

Compared to when he was initially merely shocked by the grand spaceships and breathtaking battle aircraft, he grew more deeply fond of the film after watching the videotapes over and over again.

"It enlightens me," Ding said. "It opened a new chapter of filmmaking  in terms of computer effects, props and costumes, and even its signature use of film score."

Since 1977 when the first movie was released, this international iconic cultural phenomenon has influenced generations worldwide. But Ding also pointed out that compared to its international influence, Star Wars' impact in China is less visible.

"The simple explanation for this is that the first films were not screened," he said. "After entering the 21st century, the Chinese audience had already watched Titanic (1997) and The Terminator (1984) and other good sci-fi [and blockbuster] movies."   

However, Star Wars Chinese fandom is on the rise again with the coming release of the new film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is scheduled to be released in December in the US, 10 years after the release of the most recent film in 2005. This time, efforts have been made to amp up awareness of Star Wars in China.

China's Internet giant Tencent has signed with Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox to give the Star Wars brand exposure in China, which is the second largest movie market in the world. They are making all of the Star Wars movies available online for Chinese viewers. 

During the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival in June, all six of the existing Star Wars movies were screened. In July, Disney announced that the Shanghai Disney Resort that is due to open to the public in the spring of 2016 is going to feature Star Wars Launch Bay.

Chen Qiufan, an award-winning 34-year-old Chinese science fiction writer, is also an enthusiastic fan. He told Metropolitan that technically, his first science fiction story was written during elementary school, and was inspired by and imitated the storyline of Star Wars.

"Upon seeing it on television in the 1980s, it shook my world," he said.

Chen said the story transcends continents because its world is so big, containing many types of species, powers and characters, with a complexity coming down to something that everyone can relate to: good versus evil.

"The great power of the Force tempts everybody," he said. "People have got to choose between whether they satisfy their own ambitions with it, or conduct a good deed with it."

As a writer himself, Chen pointed out that the domestic science fiction community and business should learn a lot from George Lucas.

"He is an absolute genius," he said. "Based on his audience, he builds a complete biological chain through fiction, film, animation and comics, games, and theme parks. This is what the domestic science fiction community lacks."

Chen is especially looking forward to the new film.

"The director is Jeffrey Jacob Abrams, whose directorial work includes Star Trek (2009)," he said. "I am eager to see what changes he can bring to Star Wars. His style is quite entertaining, commercial and caters to the taste of the young generation. Therefore, I believe the post-1990s and post-2000s generation could very possibly become a new generation of Star Wars fans."

Mao Lingye contributed to this story.