Posted in: Netflix, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: 3 Body Problem, Alexander Woo, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, Liu Cixin, netflix, science fiction, TenCent

3 Body Problem: Netflix Series Adaptation Might Have China Problem

Netflix's adaptation of 3 Body Problem has been criticized by Chinese "netizens," but is the series really just anti-China propaganda?

The Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin's 3 Body Problem may have been banned in China for its opening scene depicting the brutality of the Cultural Revolution – a major character witnesses the Red Guard beat her father to death – which the government does not want out there. Chinese social media has been arguing about it and the series in general, from whether that kind of thing really happened to complain that the series changed the story to get rid of Chinese characters. This is ironic, considering Netflix is not available in China, and they could only have watched the series, thereby pirating it.

A Version Set in the West That Westerners Just Can't Win

The biggest objection Chinese netizens have to the Netflix adaptation is that it's not "Chinese" enough. Let's face it: a Western adaptation by Hollywood writers and producers, it was always going to be more Western in its outlook. It was not going to be completely set in China because they would never get to film in China for political, business, and legal reasons too many to list here. They would definitely never be allowed to film a re-enactment of the Cultural Revolution there. Showrunners D.B. Weiss, David Benioff & Alexander Woo, and Netflix only had the rights to the English language edition of the books and make an English language international adaptation, not a fully Chinese version.

What Chinese fans of the book were really complaining about is that 3 Body Problem is not a completely faithful translation of the book. This is silly, considering they already have the 30-episode Tencent Chinese version that's extremely faithful to the book, though censors demanded that the Cultural Revolution scene be removed before it was approved for broadcast.

The big hot-button topic is the lazy criticism that the casting of the Netflix version of 3 Body Problem is "typical American wokeness." This can only come from people who know nothing about British culture because all friend groups from college in the West, not just the US, consist of people from diverse countries and backgrounds. A snarky, diverse group of close friends is an authentic reflection of Western university and life after that. The series also kept three of the most important characters – Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng and Rosalind Chao), Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), and Detective Da Shi (Benedict Wong) – Chinese. There are supporters of the Netflix version in China, though, who argue that the series brings more global attention to a trilogy of books the Chinese are justly proud of.

Is Netflix's Version of 3 Body Problem Anti-China Propaganda?

The opening scene has been embraced by the Left and the Right in the US as a condemnation of oppression according to their ideological agendas. It certainly doesn't put China in the best light, though that brutality really happened during the Cultural Revolution, and millions were killed.  The question is whether the Netflix version of 3 Body Problem is anti-China propaganda. Put it this way: China only appears in the series during the oppressive, brutal years of the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese TV version uses its scenes in Contemporary China for social commentary that the years after the Cultural Revolution are considerably better that present-day China grants citizens more freedom, rights, and a better life. The Netflix version doesn't show modern-day China at all, which might leave the impression the country is still in the Cultural Revolution. There's also a subtle detail that the hard drive containing his conversations with the aliens that Mike Evans tries to protect is framed to look like Mao's Little Red Book instead of a common hard drive you might order from Amazon.

The real subtext of the original first book of the 3 Body Problem is Liu Cixin coming to terms with growing up during the Cultural Revolution and the generational traumas after that, which the Chinese TV version also showed. The book's most emotional moments are Ye Wenjie's reactions to that period and the scenes that take place after when she reunites with her mother and finds the former teenagers who beat her father to death to find ongoing trauma and guilt. The aftereffect of the Cultural Revolution lingers throughout the trilogy in the extreme and authoritarian actions the Earth government, led by the Chinese, took against the coming alien invasion.

The broadest part of the 3 Body Problem is that Communist China is ultimately responsible for the alien invasion. If their regime hadn't brutalized Ye Wenjie, she would not have revealed Earth's location to the San-Ti. This is in all versions of 3 Body Problem, the book, the Chinese TV adaptation, and the Netflix adaptation. It's buried deep, way back in the story, and the cause of the entire plot. That's the one thing that doesn't change. The showrunners could have changed Ye Wenjie and her background, even her nationality, so she's not Chinese, and the causes of her disillusionment with the human race might not have been China's oppressive regime, but they wanted to stay as faithful to the books as possible lest the removal completely changed the face of the story. Make of that what you will. Whatever you decide, propaganda or not, 3 Body Problem is one of the most vital Science Fiction TV series of 2024.

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