THE VIDEO ABOVE IS ONLY IN CHINESE! Do NOT try to watch it! The actual watchable version can be downloaded here:
https://disembiggened.com/#download
So I'm going to write about Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem.
It is a sci-fi novel I have nothing to do with. But I think it is a great read, and might offer insight into how technology is perceived in China, given the book's popularity. (The book might be shaping culture as much as reflecting it.)
Spoiler-Free: The Book "Three Body Problem"
Published in 2008, translated into English in 2014, and read-by-me in 2017.
TBP is a popular book in China.
It’s being referenced all the time in daily conversation, to the point where some of the phrases invented in the book have become universal (for example, “dimension-reduction strike” is now used to describe an uneven match). I’d say most of the younger generations have read the book and reference it frequently, especially online. -Constantonius
TBP is about (some) people's dislike of technological advancement. And how a small handful of people opposed to technological advancement work to seed distrust in others on a much larger scale.
And what is perhaps unusual about TBP is how it takes a fairly common theme, hostility towards technical advancement, and identifies such attitudes as ultimately anti-human.
I suggest, as I always do, reading the book yourself. It is excellent in print. The audiobook adaptation is great. It was adapted by people who care about the (Chinese) source material.
No, you're not going to read the book?! Fine...
Spoiler-Free: The Miniseries "Three-Body"
Production company "Tencent" created a Chinese miniseries called "Three-Body". This is an adaptation the author Liu Cixin has endorsed.
It is a drama with high budgets, and very loyal to the original book. The TV series adaptation was extremely unique compared to other counterparts in a sense that it was very faithful to the original book. The talks in the TV series between the characters were almost copied and pasted from my orignal book. I think that degree of faithfulness is not very common in adaptations. When I watched the TV series of The Three Body Problem, I felt that all images and characters became alive and vivid from my book. So I am content with the adaptation. -Liu Cixin
And it pretty much opens with the following dialog:
I've always believed that the over-development of science and technology is a disease of human society. The explosive development of technology is like the rapid spread of cancer cells. The hosts will both be killed. Who can survive the earth's destruction?
And later nuclear power is rolled into this "cancer on the Earth" bucket as well.
To be clear, genetically modified agriculture (which in the real world saves lives) and nuclear power (which in the real world saves lives) are described matter-of-factly as dangerous.
What the hell is Gord talking about this book for!?! That sounds awful!
In fact, this weird dismissal of GMO and nuclear power is front-loaded in the TV show... it basically opens with it. In the book, this happens in the middle.
Imagine reading a great book, and half way thru it just observes that nuclear power is dangerous.
And at that moment, reading the book, I was about as pissed of as you could imagine. I kept reading because it was overall such an interesting book, but at that point I'd just assumed Liu Cixin didn't understand either nuclear power or GMOs. (Which would have been really weird for such an otherwise hard-science author.)
But, as the story progresses, there is a twist, and it all makes sense. The book is absolutely not anti-nuclear, nor anti-GMO. (And did I mention it is a really good book too?)
If you'd like to enjoy this story spoiler-free, go read the book, or watch this English captioned fan-edit of the miniseries. This is my fan-edit.
https://disembiggened.com/#download
I created this fan edit because the original Tencent production is 22 hours long.
There is great, fantastic work in those 22 hours. But I don't think anyone who's watched the miniseries hasn't lamented that it is strangely, frustratingly, bizarrely slow moving. And it also deviates from the book by adding unnecessary characters and plot threads. It is like they just added a bunch of nonsense to TBP to pad it out.
I think this has something to do with the economics of Chinese television, and a need to maximize how long a show runs for. There's no artistic explanation for it that I'm willing to believe.
So I cut all that bloat out.
My edit is 6 hours. My edit ("Three-Body Disembiggened") moves quickly, and does not waste your precious time.
22 hours = Tencent original production called "Three-Body".
14 hours = Unabridged audiobook of The Three Body Problem.
6 hours = My "Disembiggened" fan edit of Three Body Problem.
I've broken the show into 3 parts. In fact, I think it works perfectly and I don't think anyone would guess that this 3-part format ever came from a 30 episode series.
If you're up for 2 hours of Three-Body a night, you can watch the Three-Body over 3 evenings!
This changes it from something that only a tiny fraction of (English speaking) people could possibly consume, into something that you'll probably like (maybe you won't?) but I do not believe anyone could possibly be bored by it.
English captions are included in the MP4 data, if you don't see captions then you'll have to turn them on manually with whatever viewer you use. (Or download a version with burned-in captions.)
If you watch it, please let me know what you think.
https://disembiggened.com/#download
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SPOILER
So you won't read the book?
You won't watch the miniseries? You won't watch my fan edit?
Fine.
Fine then, scroll way down and I'll spoil it for you.
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SPOILER: Seriously, the book or show are still great even if you know what I'm about to tell you. But they're even better if you don't know...
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SPOILER...
Aliens. Aliens are attacking Earth.
And the anti-human attitudes depicted in the book are literally anti-human.
Who wants us to stop using GMOs to help feed our population? Evil aliens.
Who wants us to shut down all our nuclear reactors? Evil aliens.
Evil aliens that want to destroy all humans.
I mean, it makes a lot more sense than Greenpeace fighting GMOs and nuclear power for the sake of "the environment", right?