The ‘three-body problem’ sparks outrage in China and praise from US conservatives

“3 Body Problem”, Episode 1

Ed Miller/Netflix

Netflix’s acclaimed new sci-fi epic 3 Body problem It is getting some heated reactions from viewers in China, while its opening scene is drawing praise among some conservatives in the United States.

The big-budget adaptation of Liu Cixin’s 2008 Hugo Award-winning novel tells the story of humanity preparing for an alien invasion. The show opened in 1966 and depicts a Chinese Cultural Revolution conflict session at a Beijing university in which a physics professor is brutally beaten by Red Guards for refusing to conform to the government’s beliefs in front of a jeering crowd.

It’s an important sequence to the story and straight from the novel but was noticeably not depicted in the 30-episode Chinese version of Tencent’s book released on streamers last year. (The Chinese Communist Party has been accused of trying to erase the Cultural Revolution and its atrocities from history and popular culture.) The scene was also buried in the middle of the Chinese version of the novel but was brought to the beginning of the book in English. Copy – with the author’s blessing.

The scene received strong reactions on social media in China, where some were able to find ways to watch the show illegally (Netflix is ​​not distributed in China). Some conservatives in the United States are also focusing on this scene, calling it a rare example of Hollywood showing what happens when collective ideologies are exaggerated.

In China, the offer was trending on social media on Friday despite not being officially accessible, according to Reuters. “I was blown away by the first scene,” one user wrote on Weibo. “Even though I expected this, the scene still astounds me.” According to CNN, the show sparked “nationalist outrage” in China, with some accusing the Red Guard of being portrayed as Hollywood deliberately trying to make the country look bad. Others criticized the “politically correct” changes to the story, with the Netflix version featuring a more diverse international cast and centering the story in London (the novel is set in China). The “Chinese version wins” tag was also reportedly popular, referring to the Tencent version.

Some conservatives in the United States herald the opening scene of Series X, in which an elderly professor refuses to yield to demands from young revolutionaries to change his thinking. Examples of reactions include: “To Understand what the left is doingI suggest watching the opening of the Netflix series 3 Body problem. The scene of the Cultural Revolution shows what is happening. Learn history or you will be doomed.”; “Just watched The opening scene of the Netflix series 3 Body problem Depicting the execution of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, it is eerily reminiscent of where Wok takes us: “No freedom of speech or thought, toe the party line or it will be eliminated, and don’t even think about counter-revolution.” Opening scene It perfectly depicts our current worship of man-ants. Apply anything to this opening scene, Covid, climate cult, transfocoism etc. Conservatives are also criticizing the show in general for some “woke” casting moves that upset some viewers in China.

David Benioff – one of the showrunners 3 Body problem Along with Dan Weiss and Alexander Wu – they were asked about the authoritarian, progressive vibe of the opening scene during a set visit to the show in 2022. At the time, the production community had recently emerged from an extended coronavirus lockdown.

“This is not a comment on cancel culture,” he said. Hollywood Reporter (In a quote not previously published). “But we tend to move in cycles in terms of human history, and we are going through a certain period of the cycle now. There are many important differences between the present time and the Cultural Revolution. But there are also some similarities. It was never something where we were saying, ‘We should “We do this show because we want to comment on it.” But interestingly, the similarities are there and they’re hard to ignore.

3 Body problem Actress Rosalind Chow, who plays the adult version of Ye Wenjie in the show, spoke out THR On the show’s Cultural Revolution scenes and adaptation changes: “I think it’s important to have an international version of the story. The narrow-mindedness drives me a little crazy. Am I ok with saying that? I’d love for this to become more international for a wider audience. I’ll probably be included I’m blacklisted in China for saying this, but I have a cousin who was isolated and lived with pigs for 10 years (in China). He’s in America now, and I didn’t find out until Thanksgiving when he didn’t want to eat pork. They don’t talk about (revolution) “It’s inherently not discussed, while it’s such a big part of history and the fact that it can be told here in a way that also embraces the science fiction genre, it’s kind of exciting. It’s important for people to understand the history of the world and what makes people the way they are.”

Co-showrunner Woo said recently New York times About the scene: “It’s a part of history that hasn’t been written about much in fiction, let alone filmed, and my family lived it, as did the family of Derek Tsang, who directed the first two episodes. We give him a lot of credit for bringing that to life, because he knew it had never been photographed with such a clinical eye perhaps ever. He went to great lengths to portray every detail as real as possible. I showed it to my mother, and you could see the goosebumps running through her, and she said, “This is real.” This is what really happened.’ She added: Why would you show something like this? Why make people try something so terrible? But this way we knew we did our job.

Netflix 3 Body problem It is a huge swing for the streamer. This clever drama reportedly costs more than $20 million per episode, making it Netflix’s most expensive first-season show ever. Critics were very mixed, but some reviews were absolutely fantastic and some viewers praised the show as one of the best sci-fi shows they had ever watched. Overall, the story is quite progressive – Barack Obama was one of the book’s early champions – and many consider its story of how humanity deals with an existential threat to be a perfect allegory for the climate change crisis (a comparison also noted in Presents).

Some on Chinese social media are even heralding the Netflix adaptation (including the opening scene, noting that it is true to history). As one viewer in China quoted by CNN said: “Why do some people always need to make an enemy of a cultural product? Our copy can be good, and theirs can be excellent too. Why do we always have to fight for it?”

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