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An opening scene of Netflix’s “The 3 Body Problem” shows a Maoist fighting session during China’s Cultural Revolution.
cnn
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A Netflix adaptation of the popular Chinese science fiction novel “The Three-Body Problem.”“ has divided opinions in China and sparked nationalist anger online over scenes depicting a violent and tumultuous period in the country’s modern history.
Reactions on Chinese social media have been mixed since Thursday’s premiere of the eight-episode English-language series. “3 body problem” which is based on the Hugo Award-winning novel by Liu Cixin, the country’s most celebrated science fiction author.
Netflix is not available in China, but viewers can watch its content using virtual private networks (VPNs) to avoid strict geographic restrictions, or by consuming pirated versions.
Liu’s novel, part of a trilogy, is one of China’s most successful cultural exports in recent years and has legions of fans around the world, including former US president Barack Obama.
Among the country’s most patriotic Internet users, discussions about the adaptation turned political, with some accusing the big-budget American production of making China look bad.
The show begins with a harrowing scene depicting Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, which consumed China in bloodshed and chaos for a decade starting in 1966. On the campus of Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, a physics professor he is brutally beaten to death on stage by his own students and denounced by his colleague and wife, while his daughter Ye Wenjie (played by Zine Tseng) watches in horror.
These types of “fighting sessions” were frequent during the decade-long period of unrest, in which “class enemies” were publicly humiliated, beaten, and tortured by Mao’s frenzied Red Guards.
But some online commentators accused the show’s producers of “making a whole tray of dumplings just for a little vinegar sauce,” a popular saying used to describe an ulterior motive; in this case, they argued, making an entire television series just to paint China in a bad light.
“Netflix you don’t understand ‘The Three Body Problem’ or Ye Wenjie at all!” read a comment on social media platform Weibo. “You only understand political correctness!”
Others came to the show’s defense, saying the scene closely follows depictions in the book and is a truthful recreation of the story.
“The story is much more absurd than a TV series, but you pretend not to see it,” reads a comment on Douban, a popular site for movie, book and music reviews.
Author Liu said in a interview with the New York Times in 2019 that he originally wanted to open the book with scenes from Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but his Chinese editor was worried they would never make it past government censorship and buried them in the middle of the narrative.
The English version of the book, translated by Ken Liu, places the scenes at the beginning of the novel, with the author’s blessing.
Ye Wenjie’s disillusionment with the Cultural Revolution later proves central to the plot of the sci-fi thriller, which jumps between past and present.
“3 Body Problem” was adapted for Netflix by “Game of Thrones” co-creators David Benioff and DB Weiss and American producer Alexander Woo.
Several other aspects of the show, from its casting and visual effects to radical changes to the setting and original story characters, also drew the ire of Chinese social media users. Many compared it to a Chinese television adaptation released last year: a much longer, closer version of the book that ran 30 episodes and was highly rated on Chinese review platforms.
The Netflix adaptation featured an international cast and set much of the action in modern-day London, making the story much less Chinese.
Some Chinese viewers criticized the alteration, saying it portrayed a plot that glorifies the West for saving humanity from a disaster caused by China decades ago.
But not everyone was choosing sides.
“Why do some people always need to turn a cultural product into an enemy?” said one user on Weibo. “Our version can be good, theirs can be excellent too. Why do we always have to fight about it?