Thoughts on ...?

Netflix

Brother, you should just pretend it was never adapted like Cowboy Bebop and Death Note fans did.

Older generation folks really don’t like to talk about it, but I’ve heard that the real Cultural Revolution as some had experienced was even worse than the scene described in the book.

The scene in Netflix is almost an accurate recreation of the scene in the book, down to the Chinese dialogue. Even the critique against Einstein’s theory of relativity and the Big Bang theory was real. They didn’t add anything of their own to the scene.

The only thing that pisses me off is the banner “Down with social imperialism” which clearly aimed at the USSR, instead of “Down with capitalism” which showed their bias. However, it’s something only noticeable to those who understands Chinese.

My personal theory is that the Cultural Revolution traumatized entire generations of China so much that they are no longer confident in committing to radical paths toward socialism. Everything has to be taken slowly, conservatively, and laying as low as possible. Xi Zhongxun (Xi Jinping’s father), one of the most decorated commanders during the Liberation War (Chinese Civil War), for example, was purged during the Cultural Revolution and had to go through the “struggle session”. Many intellectual and academic families were banished to the countryside. It was a very messy and chaotic times fueled by anti-intellectual frenzy.

Here’s the Cultural Revolution “struggle session” scene from Farewell My Concubine (1993) by the way.

honestly i refuse to watch anything produced by dumb and dumber from GoT.

FWIW, the cultural revolution doesn't really factor that much into the books. Maybe it plays a larger part in the adaptation, I haven't seen it yet. The CR makes for a dramatic start to the story, but a lot of people seem to be really focused on that aspect in the wake of the Netflix release, I assume because people like to fight about China. I haven't read the books in a while, but my recollection is that the story mostly takes place in the present/near future, with the CR stuff being more narrative backstory.

I don't know much about the cultural revolution, either, so I can't speak to whether the portrayal in the books or adaptation is accurate. My guess, just based on my own modest level of media literacy, would be that the nuances of the portrayal are probably lost on those of us who aren't immersed in Chinese culture, and that what we see in how it's portrayed is going to be different than the intent of the author or the perspective of the original audience.

The GPCR is, of course, exaggerated in the netflix show. Here's a twitter thread about it, and check out this screenshot for a more direct critique and comparison to the Chinese version.

You can also read the CPC's own critique of the GPCR in this thread. (original source)

Not sure how it's portrayed in the Netflix series as I've only gotten around to starting the Tencent series now.

IIRC Chinese readers thought the book did a decent job at portraying the cultural revolution. Of course anti-communist Netflix and Hollywood TV producers will show what they want to to present a certain narrative.

First book is very good, second is slightly worse, third is horrible, fourth (by other author but accepted by originial one) is also bad but at least it gives us some acceptable closure.

And of course the CR issue which is so bad in the first book that even Obama liked it, worse in netflix show, but in book 2 we have praises for CR, just least noticeable that the brick in head at the start of book 1.

Netflix show was not on the level of the books or the Chinese TV series.

CR was used basically to demonize China in the Netflix version. In the same way, the character Ye Wenjie is just reduced to a psychotic villain who just wants humans wiped out.

I've read about half the book and watched the first episode. From my recollection of the book, the tv show actually is fairly true to it. The book doesn't really shy away from being pretty critical of the CR, at least in the English translation. I think it's not too much of an exaggeration of historical fact, it was a fairly bleak time in history. I don't think many Chinese communists would argue that no mistakes were made at the time.

I've read the books when avoiding USian culture. Loved it. I plan to watch the Netflix version, eventually.

I couldn't get into it but I founs thia critique of it with Chinese political context interesting (has spoilers for thr whole series):

https://madeinchinajournal.com/2023/12/11/the-three-body-problem-the-imperative-of-survival-and-the-misogyny-of-reactionary-rhetoric/

Evwn juat reading the synopsis was tiresome and I'm glad I didn't try to slog through something with this much reactionary misogyny in it.

I've never heard of it until now