The Three-Body Problem: Why is the Netflix series controversial in China?

It is originally a masterpiece of Chinese literature. But there isn’t much left of China except violence and authoritarianism. Available on Netflix from Thursday 21 March, the new series from the creators of game of Thrones arouses anger among Chinese viewers. Although Netflix is ​​not accessible in China, Chinese people can watch the series via VPN and have had to deal with it two bad surprises ahead of the series by David Benioff and DB Weiss.

An opening scene that doesn’t work

The three-body problem is the adaptation of the saga of the same name by Chinese author Liu Cixin, winner of the Hugo Award in 2008. As soon as it was released on Netflix, the series caused a sensation thanks to its opening sequence. We witness the scene set in Beijing in 1966 during the Chinese Cultural Revolution the attack on a physics teacher at the University. The latter is attacked by the communist Red Guards. He is accused of opposing the government, teaching theories such as the Big Bang. As reported CNNChinese viewers have accused Hollywood of portraying China in a negative lightthrough this representation of the Red Guards.

A westernized story

To make matters worse, the Netflix adaptation surprises with the candor of its cast. This remarkable freedom compared to the original work immediately struck us when we discovered it The three-body problem, as we reported in our review of the series. Names, genders and characters have been changed, while the action, originally set in China, now takes place in the UK. A choice that necessarily resonates with the Hollywood cliché according to which the United States or the United Kingdom are the center of humanity, from which science fiction and apocalypse stories are lived, while Asia, the Orient or Africa are only suburbs.