Chinese state media accuse Netflix series 3 Body Problem of pushing ‘American cultural hegemony’
- Official military site publishes blistering critique of sci-fi drama based on Hugo Award-winning novel by Chinese author Liu Cixin
- Although the series features diverse cast, its villains have ‘yellow faces’, the article says, echoing complaints by viewers in China
The commentary targeted the American version’s radical departure from the novels, which feature mostly Chinese characters and a plot that plays out over hundreds of years, while the first season of the Netflix series features characters of various nationalities all set in the same time period.
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It added that the production team “deliberately does away with the modern image of China depicted in the novel” while preserving the “yellow faces” of its villains.
“The so-called pluralism and inclusiveness cannot hide their deep-rooted discrimination and hostility towards other civilisations,” the article said.
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The main characters in the three-book series appear at different times, with some of their stories separated by decades or more. But in the Netflix version, most of the main characters appear at the very beginning and their storylines develop over the same time period.
The Netflix series also mainly takes place in Britain, rather than China, which is the main setting of the novels.
The sci-fi drama has a rating of 6.8 out of 10 on Douban, China’s best-known film review site – significantly lower than other high-budget Netflix productions such as the first seasons of Stranger Things and The Crown, which earned viewer ratings of 9.0 and 9.3 respectively.
The Tencent series, which debuted last year, has a rating of 8.7 out of 10 on Douban. While some reviewers complained the home-grown version’s depiction of the Cultural Revolution was compromised because of China’s strict censorship, most applauded the complexity of the characters and its faithful adaptation of the novels.
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Most criticisms of the Netflix series on Douban echoed those raised by China Military Online, focusing on the drastic differences compared to the novels, from the characters to the compression of the trilogy’s timeline.
A major controversy is the American series’ detailed portrayal of the Cultural Revolution – the event that spurred the Santi aliens’ invasion of Earth. The director of the scene is Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung.
Some reviewers compared the Netflix version’s depiction of the period in Chinese favourably with the more nebulous version of events in the Tencent series. But others criticised the scene, saying it portrayed China in a bad light and painted non-Chinese characters as saviours.
“Netflix followed the original novel by having the Chinese character summon the Santi, but the hero has to be replaced with Westerners. Don’t ever chalk it up to the inevitable product of globalisation,” one Douban reviewer said, giving the series two out of five stars.
But another reviewer, who gave the series a four-star rating, said that understanding the Santi required understanding the history of their engagement with humans, including the Cultural Revolution, “so it is very suitable to highlight this part at the beginning of the series”.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV also reported on the controversy, citing high-profile Japanese video game designer Hideo Kojima, who posted a review of the Netflix series on X, formerly Twitter, advising those who had read the original novels to watch the Tecent adaptation.
However, in a separate post, Kojima also praised the Netflix version’s adaptation and visual effects, saying the production team had transformed the trilogy into “an entertaining work suited for both those who have read the original and those who have not”.
