Even before The Three-Body Problem aired on streaming platform Netflix last week, Chinese nationalists were uneasy about the adaptation of the Chinese science fiction series and its international popularity.
On the Chinese social media site where Netflix is blocked, some criticized the platform’s casting and changes to the story, while others accused the platform of deliberately exploiting tragic moments in China’s past to belittle the world’s second-largest economy.
novel three body problem Liu Cixin serialized for the first time in Chinese magazine science fiction world In 2016, it tells the story of a group of scientists, police and soldiers from China who discover and try to defeat an alien invasion from the distant universe.
2015, three body problem It became the first Asian novel to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel at the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention.
Former US President Obama once said, “The scope of its influence is huge.” Mark Zuckerberg, president of technology company Meta, publicly recommended the book.
Josh Stenberg, associate professor of Chinese studies at the University of Sydney, attributes its popularity to three body problem In the Western world, novel themes are universal.
“Liu is deeply skeptical of the value of humanity and pessimistic about its future. This may apply to environmental, postcolonial, nationalist, nihilistic or posthuman perspectives,” he told VOA via email.
The Netflix version made major changes to the original work, moving the story location from China to London and erasing the Chinese background of many characters.
Author Liu is one of the show’s consultants. He said in a recent interview, “Netflix’s “The Three-Body Problem” series is aimed at audiences around the world. Most of its characters may no longer be Chinese, which may not be easy for Chinese audiences to accept. But I still have full confidence” and look forward to their performance. “
But some Chinese netizens disagree. Before the show aired, some people posted videos and comments online criticizing the show and accusing it of stereotyping. Others mocked the series by editing clips of the show and posting them in video comments.
Some netizens accused Netflix of deliberately smearing China, deleting the backstories of some Chinese characters to make them purely evil, or simplifying the storylines of some remaining Chinese characters to make them insignificant, while allowing characters played by actors from other ethnic groups to become heroes. exhibit.
The show stars Jovan Adepo, a black actor, playing one of the characters that critics have been smearing.
The actor who plays Ye Wenjie is also the focus of attacks. A popular article on WeChat criticized Chinese-American actor Zeng Zhixin for having “fierce eyes and an evil expression on her face, giving the impression that she is the kind of Asian female killer that often appears in Hollywood.”
Other criticisms of the play focused on its representation of scenes from China’s Cultural Revolution.
Like the novel, the play begins at a criticism rally in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution, with young Ye watching helplessly as her father, a physics professor, is beaten to death by Red Guards. The chaos of that tumultuous time. During China’s Cultural Revolution, tens of millions of people were persecuted, and historians estimate that between 1 million and 2 million people were killed.
Many nationalist netizens accused Netflix of filming the entire series just to show this scene.
“When I read [the novel] For the first time a few years ago, after reading the beginning, I immediately knew why this book was well received abroad. ” wrote one netizen. Another wrote that Netflix “made a whole plate of dumplings for a little vinegar sauce” – a reference to a painful time in China’s past.
A movie review on China’s Douban, a community-focused book and movie rating site, said the West is unwilling to accept today’s developed China.
“In the eyes of foreigners, China is still the stereotype of repression, backwardness, and madness. All disasters originate from this. The Chinese are not worthy of saving the world and can only wait for the West to save it,” the article reads.
China aired its own version of the show in 2023, with most of the protagonists being Chinese. The series was well received by Chinese audiences and became one of the highest-rated Chinese TV series on Douban in 2023. However, this version did not include the Cultural Revolution criticism meetings.
VOA reached out to Netflix for comment but had not received a response as of press time.
Henry Ko, a law professor at Singapore Management University, said this was not surprising. three body problem found a fervent following among nationalists. He said that the jungle theory in the novel coincides with the narrative model of China’s online nationalism and China’s relationship with the world.
“This narrative consists of two parts. The first part is that ‘imperialism is determined to destroy us.’ The second part is that in the world, we must rely on strength to speak. If we fall behind, we will be beaten.” , “Gao told the United States sound. “And the dark forest hypothesis three body problem This view is clearly reflected, so it is not surprising that nationalists accept it. “
The dark forest hypothesis holds that the universe is a dark forest and every civilization is a hunter with a gun, posing a threat to all other civilizations. Once they meet, it is bound to be a life-or-death relationship.
Although three body problem While the book is not a description of the current state of international politics, this interpretation of the novel is not uncommon.
Will Paton, a visiting scholar at the Australian National University, told VOA: “Ten years ago, when Liu Xiaobo’s trilogy became popular in the English-speaking world, its popularity quickly became associated with talking about China’s geopolitical advantage. Together.”
Payton said that the theme of the novel is what kind of help or disaster the rapid development of science and technology will bring to mankind.
“This is much deeper than a superficial sociopolitical critique of contemporary China or China’s role on the world stage,” he said.
Mr. Liu has repeatedly stated that he does not intend to express any political views through the novel.In an interview in 2019 new yorker“, he said, “I’m a writer…I didn’t have any pretentious ideas in the beginning. I just want to tell a good story.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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