2000 esssay

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PAAS 151 – Modern Chinese Culture

Three Body: Liu Cixin’s Call for the Chinese to Fully Enter the World Stage,

Despite their Anxieties

Chinese science fiction is not something unlike science fiction found in the

West. It draws on similar themes, questions, and anxieties that are shared in the

genre of both hemispheres. But Chinese science fiction is different from Western

science fiction: it was raised in a setting hostile to such discussions. The Cultural

Revolution still has an impact in China today, despite being a subject the

government is unwilling to acknowledge. Chinese author Han Song states that

many science fiction authors feel the “country’s rapid modernization [is] the stuff of

fiction,” which grounds the perfect setting in which to write science fiction: the

authors have seen the effects of incredible technological advancements (Song,

2013, 18).

Liu Cixin’s Three Body Trilogy is set over a long period of time, but begins

with the Cultural Revolution. This pivotal starting place sets the one for the series:

all hope is lost, and everyone is out to get you. This was the style of the Cultural

Revolution, but as Three Body teaches us, every civilisation in the universe must

fend for itself against the others. There are no allies. As the years pass and Earth

must face the reality that another civilisation, the Trisolarans, wishes to take over

Earth, a common humanity is declared, and nations must set aside their differences

and work for the common good.

Through a case study of the Three Body trilogy written by Liu Cixin, this

essay will examine the impact the Cultural Revolution continues to exert on

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contemporary science fiction and Chinese citizens themselves while simultaneously

voicing cultural anxieties pertaining to China’s contemporary view of the West. In

doing this, this paper will bring to light the importance of these historical events

even today, and that perhaps governmental silence is perpetuating the need for

writers to discuss this troubling history. This essay will not discuss the issue of

utopianism in science fiction, as it is not a common theme in the case study; it is,

however, a crucial discussion when looking at certain works of science fiction after

Tiananmen Square and the despair that followed. Themes of utopia or dystopia are

can be directly linked back to the Chinese political platform of the 1980s, as the

Party ran on the hope of creating a harmonious society. This essay will draw on

research on Three Body specifically, but also on broader research regarding science

fiction in China. The methods of research executed for the purpose of this paper

were reading and analysing the Three Body trilogy from a contemporary Chinese

perspective, as well as determining other scholars’ interpretations of the texts.

It is important to discuss the reality of the science fiction scene in China is

that it has not had success reaching a wide audience. Many readers hold the

impression that science fiction is nothing more than “stories for children” (Song,

2013, 15). But literary actors in Chinese cultural development of the early twentieth

century were very optimistic about science fiction in the Chinese context. Chinese

science fiction author Han Song identifies that “Liang [Qichao] and Lu [Xun]

believed that science fiction would help the spread of modern knowledge in China,

emancipate people’s minds and bring positive developments to a declining

civilization that was being surpassed by the industrialized Western nations” (2013,

15). In theory, science fiction was thought to have the capability of saving the

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nation, and for a while it did lift people’s spirits “as the genre instilled pride in

readers who saw China defeat Western countries with imaginary high-tech weapons

in the future” (2013, 15). Science fiction, as a genre, suffered during the Cultural

Revolution as it was criticized for being “something from corrupt Western culture

that could lead people astray” (2013, 16). The genre has only seen a renewal of

success since the 1990s, when China embraced an economic boom and writers

were granted more freedoms as China entered the global stage (2013, 16). By

studying this marginalised genre, one can study unvoiced anxieties as they appear

in the forms of these troubled characters and challenging situations.

But even today, “most Chinese people have no idea about science fiction;”

readers are “more interested in things that have a direct influence on their daily

lives” (Song, 2013, 21). There is more interest in building relationships with the

people around them “than on exploring the relationship of human beings to a vast

nature” (2013, 21). This is a China-specific issue that has its effect on science

fiction as a successful genre. This is certainly not a negative characteristic; it is

admirable to desire to understand daily life and build relationships with those who

share our lives. But those who do read Chinese science fiction, can observe the

relationships embedded in human nature. Science fiction also offers opportunities to

think about our own lives from a different perspective, as in the Three Body trilogy,

people are still people. The Three Body trilogy has sold “more than 500,000 copies

in China since the final installment” in 2010, numbers for which it quite the name in

the Chinese science fiction sphere (Thieret, 2015, 36). But given the current

population of China being over 1.3 billion, that is not meeting anywhere near a

majority audience. Science fiction simply does not exhibit the practicality which

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Chinese people are looking to find. Science fiction, and its often utopian or

dystopian settings appear to be an escape from practicality, which cannot help

Chinese people build relationships or solve day-to-day issues. This factor is crucial

to the debate of Chinese science fiction, and rather the reason why Chinese science

fiction might just never be successful, within China.

So, what can science fiction do within China? Han Song states that

contemporary Chinese science fiction seeks to place China in “hypothetically

extreme situations to see how people might respond to radical changes” (2013,

17). This is an vital distinction of the genre, as today sees the ever-growing

tensions between the United States in the west and China in the east. It begs the

question: what if the radical change forced Chinese nationalists to work with the

rest of the world? Three Body creates a world that forces the Chinese audience to

imagine themselves not at odds with the West, but working together with them.

Such an extreme example seems to suggest that such a radical situation should not

be the only cause for the two sides to get along.

Three Body can be used to examine the issues of American and Chinese

discourse, and the nations’ respective differences and difficulties understanding one

another. The author is writing at this critical point in the Chinese cultural period,

where the government is trying to protect Chinese culture and maintain the values

it has deemed important to the Chinese historical and cultural body. The author

does what Peter Gries has suggested is an answer to the problem of Chinese

harmony and American hegemony: focus on the common humanity of the two

nations (2007, 47). These two nations can work together without damaging their

own internal cultures. When given a common enemy, the world must work together

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to survive the universal threat, and in Three Body China is portrayed as ready, and

willing to fight for humanity. Obviously, this work of science fiction offers an intense

reason for a need for common humanity, but it can also describe the successes of

this solution for the problem of discourse.

For instance, the United Nations still plays a prominent figure in this Chinese-

focused novel. An organisation, formed historically to unite countries in a time

following great crises between nations, organises strategies for nations to follow.

China was originally included in the formation of the Unites Nations, proving from

an early point in modern history that China could cooperate to certain extents with

other nations. This is not a novel where China is portrayed as standing alone in a

science fictional catastrophe; it speaks to a need for humans to unite from our

differences and thrive together. In Liu Cixin’s fictional future, the two languages of

English and Chinese have moulded into one language while still entirely

encapsulating the intricacies of the two linguistic spheres. This plays on the

contemporary cultural anxiety that China will adopt too many loanwords from

English, endangering its linguistic niche.

In contrast, many works of American science fiction paint the Chinese as an

enemy determined to thwart intellectual progress. Obviously, Chinese cinema has

also played on this trope as mentioned above, but also in films like the Wolf Warrior

franchise. With this common theme in Three Body, this novel could be another

patriotic voice of the Chinese people: they are not the enemy, and willing to work

with like-minded individuals for a common cause. Rather interestingly, this is a very

explicit distinction in the novel. Rather than nations competing for or against

humanity’s best interest, organisations rise regardless or nationality against

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humanity’s survival against the Trisolarans. Though a character may have a

Chinese name or an English name, he or she acts on their own volition, on their

moral stance toward the outward threat rather than a nation’s decision. In the first

novel in the trilogy, the world’s population is split into those who wish to defend

Earth from the Trisolarans and those who want the Trisolarans to wipe out

humanity. This becomes the common fight: to thwart the other group from

succeeding its goal, regardless of national borders.

Characters within the novel, such as Ye Wenjie, can be seen as direct results

of the Cultural Revolution. Her disillusionment with humanity stems from the

injustices she and her family personally suffered during the Cultural Revolution.

When she is the first to contact the Trisolarans, even well-knowing it may end

humanity’s existence entirely, she “[invites] them to invade Earth, a decision that

echoes her mixed feelings about the Cultural Revolution” (Song, 2015, 10). It must

be remembered that the author himself lived through the Cultural Revolution, and

thus a personal bitterness may bleed into his writing. An argument can be made

that this negative attitude is purposefully adopted by a character who experienced

the Cultural Revolution. This critical point in Chinese history, which the current

government refuses to acknowledge, has potentially shaped a nation to be

disillusioned with humanity. Despite these disillusioned, destructive characters, Liu

Cixin creates a backdrop that this is not what China is. Though it suffers from these

anxieties, “a strong and powerful China is here to stay” (Thieret, 2015, 36). The

intellectuals existing in this dystopia may still be disillusioned with society, but the

focus is drawn to their values, disassociating them with the current situation in

China. This is because Liu sees that “the reality of worldwide risks demands far

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greater attention than any perceived risks to the Chinese nation…one could say that

this is because China and the world face the same risks in the contemporary world”

(Thieret, 2015, 36). China can partake in the global sphere, and Liu wants his

readers to understand as well that China can play as a positive actor on the world

stage.

The science fiction literary world still holds its inner anxieties regarding the

Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Three Body has a significant setting based in the

Cultural Revolution, and is not exactly friendly toward the brutal history of the time

period. Though it has been over fifty years, the author still conveyed concern about

discussing the topic when asked in an interview with The Guardian (Barnett, 2016).

Though it is a very real and very recent part of China’s history, the government is

still extremely strict about content released that in any way touches on the subject

of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. But the novel was not censored by the

government, and has received widespread success both within and outside China.

This is a curious factor, as science fiction that challenged the ethicality of Chinese

politics was shut down by the government in the 1980s (Song, 2015, 7). Could the

allowance of such controversial opinions in Three Body be a sign of a shift in the

Communist Party’s attitudes toward public opinion? The Party will take all

precautions to ignore the situation, as they created the Road to Revival exhibit

which extracted the Cultural Revolution from the Party’s journey to modernity

(Denton, 2014, 1).

Looking at where China has come from, and the anxieties it still experiences

from its past, Liu and other Chinese science fiction authors believe that “the future

looks more colorful and positive than ever and more open to the spirit of discovery”

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(Song, 2013, 18). Relating to this, he also believes that “China should shoulder

more responsibility for solving the problems faced by human beings in a changing

world” as it becomes increasingly involved in international affairs (Song, 2013, 18).

This is again calling on China’s shared humanity with the rest of the world: it does

not have to exist in a bubble to thrive. Current events in China are constantly

contradicting: the shutdown of the internet, the sharing of technological culture

with the west, and increased economic agreements with the outside world. It is as

if the government cannot decide how it should react to the interconnectivity of the

international playing field.

Three Body exists in a culture that is unsure about science fiction, stagnating

its ability to reach widespread success. But the ideas the trilogy discusses are would

be beneficial to the Chinese society, despite being hidden behind stunning

technology and the threat of alien invasion. Three Body speaks to humanity’s

eternal problem of not being able to get along, something that China is

experiencing on a very real front today. The differences in Western and Chinese

discourse do not fundamentally separate them: it is something to work on and learn

to understand, which can benefit both nations in an exchange of culture. But China

still must face its inner demons found in the Cultural Revolution, and the

government’s refusal to acknowledge this past. This inability to take responsibility

within its own country could have devastating effects if executed likewise on the

global stage. Facing international distress can bring opposites together, but

hopefully it does not have to come to the threat of aliens for these sides to realise

that.

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Works Cited

Barnett, David. “'People hope my book will be China's Star Wars': Liu Cixin on

China's exploding sci-fi Scene.” The Guardian, 14 December 2016.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/14/liu-cixin-chinese-sci-fi-universal-

the-three-body-problem.

Denton, Kirk A. “China Dreams and the ‘Road to Revival’.” Origins, vol. 8, no. 3, 2014, pp. 1-2.

Gries, Peter H. “Harmony, Hegemony, & U.S.-China Relations.” World Literature

Today, vol. 81, no. 4, 2007, pp. 44–47.

Song, Han. “Chinese Science Fiction: A Response to Modernization.” Science Fiction

Studies, vol. 40, no. 1, 2013, pp. 15–21. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/10.5621/sciefictstud.40.1.0015.

Song, Mingwei. “After 1989: The New Wave of Chinese Science Fiction.” China

Perspectives, vol. 101, no. 1, 2015, pp. 7–13. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/43392960.

Thieret, Adrian. “Society and Utopia in Liu Cixin.” China Perspectives, vol. 101, no.

1, 2015, pp. 33–39. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43392963.