Liu Cixin, author of The Three-Body Problem, has become the first Chinese to take home the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Awarded on Sunday by the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention in Washington, the 52-year-old writer is also the first in Asia to win the honor.

"The Three-Body Problem" is a trilogy depicting an alien civilization's invasion of Earth during China's Culture Revolution. It centers on a secret military project that enables humans to establish contact with the alien civilization teetering on the edge of extinction.

The story was published in China from 2006 to 2010, and its English version in 2014.

The novel series received the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award in 2006 and 2010, and has been acclaimed as the best Chinese sci-fic novel.

Established in 1953, the Hugo Awards are a set of awards given annually to the best science fiction or fantasy achievement, and are seen as the "highest honor bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing."