There is a distinct lack of imagination. If it is not something mundane/contemporary then it is something historic, which per tradition is often pure fiction but presented as historical. 

Scifi is, generally speaking, banned in China. As an example, time travel is illegal since it is "disrespectful to history". The powers that be are concerned that if you could make a drama in another time or place with people possessing modern knowledge, it would be too easy to draw connections with the current regime and other states.

  Art is a building development, and that development was severely damaged by the cultural revolution. I've raised the subject of life on other planets in class and hit a real dead-end of interest when I expected the opposite. Interest in sci-fi and the like will grow though, because now all the Star Wars and Blade Runner films are available there on the shelves. That's a relatively new thing. And incidentally, if you're in Hong Kong and you find it reminds you of Blade Runner, that's because Ridley Scott got his vision of his 'future city' from Hong Kong itself.