Bask in Basque beef stew with Xia Jia as we discuss how reading science fiction gave her the courage to take risks; what it means when she says she writes not hard SF, nor soft SF, nor slipstream, nor cyberpunk, but “porridge sci-fi;” why Ray Bradbury matters so much to her; the challenges of writing in Chinese, writing in English, and translating from one language to the other; our mutual love for Italo Calvino's <em>If on a Winter's Night a Traveler</em>; how <em>The Three-Body Problem</em> changed the perceptions of science fiction in China, why she has faith she'll eventually get to Mars, and more.