Netflix's '3 Body Problem' Draws Mixed Reviews, Sparks Anger in China

'My favorite kind of science fiction involves stories rooted in real science...' writes NPR's reviewer. '[T]here is something special about seeing characters wrestle with concepts closer to our current understanding of how the universe works.'

The Verge calls it an 'impressive' and 'leaner' story than the book, arguing 'it's a good one — and very occasionally a great one' that introduces the author's key ideas, though channelling 'the book's spirit but not its brilliance.'

And Slate calls it a 'downright transformative' adaptation, 'jettisoning most of the novel's characters and plucking scenes from all three books,' while accusing it of 'making the trilogy's expansive and philosophical story into something much more pedestrian and digestible.'

But Reuters notes there's huge interest in China over this adaptation (by the co-creator of Mem>Game of Thrones) for the first Asian novel to win the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. 'The new series was trending on Chinese social media platform Weibo on Friday,' reports Reuters, 'with 21 million views so far.' (The show came in first on Weibo's 'top hot' trend rankings, they add, 'despite Netflix being officially inaccessible in China. Chinese viewers would have had to watch the Netflix series from behind a VPN or on a pirate site.')

So what was their verdict? CNN reports Netflix's adaptation 'has split opinions in China and sparked online nationalist anger over scenes depicting a violent and tumultuous period in the country's modern history.'

Among the country's more patriotic internet users, discussions on the adaptation turned political, with some accusing the big-budget American production of making China look bad. The show opens with a harrowing scene depicting Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, which consumed China in bloodshed and chaos for a decade from 1966... '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 reenactment of history. 'History is far more absurd than a TV series, but you guys pretend not to see it,' read one comment on Douban, a popular site for reviewing movies, books and music.

Author Liu said in an interview with the New York Times in 2019 that he had originally wanted to open the book with scenes from Mao's Cultural Revolution, but his Chinese publisher worried they would never make it past government censors and buried them in the middle of the narrative. The English version of the book, translated by Ken Liu, put the scenes at the novel's beginning, with the author's blessing... Various other aspects of the show, from its casting and visual effects to the radical changes to the story's original setting and characters, also attracted the ire of Chinese social media users. Many compared it to a Chinese television adaptation released last year — a much lengthier and closer retelling of the book that ran to 30 episodes and was highly rated on Chinese review platforms.

The Netflix adaptation featured an international cast and placed much of the action in present-day London — thus making the story a lot less Chinese.

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