While I see your point, the first book had been written back in 2008, at the time China was still moving towards…
But that is what makes it the most sad! 😢 Great science fiction writers are great because they have a "sixth sense" for the future.
Thinking about all the openness to the West back at the time, I cannot help to see the story as a warning, something like: "Yes, our country has made terrible mistakes (eg in the cultural revolution), and there is still plenty to work out. Maybe the open West can teach as a lot, can help us solve our problems?"
There have been intellectuals that have left China and provided plenty of material for the West against the Chinese political systems. They were motivated by their own hurt because the were victims of the flaws in these systems, and maybe had a sense of hope that the Western ideas and values could provide a solution for those flaws. Like the trisolarians could provide solutions for the flaws of mankind. Some characters in the series are so hurt and disillusioned that they think maybe mankind does not deserve to exist at all.
The feeling I have when I watched the series was of a warning: "Be careful. Better technology does not mean more capacity for living in harmony, side by side with something different. Don't be too quick to invite them in. "
That feeling gets even worse when I compare the Chinese version of the series with the one on Netflix. The Chinese version has all this nuance, complex characters, explorations of deep questions... I find myself wanting to look at things more deeply, wanting to respect life more, thinking that even insects are living creatures. When I watch the Netflix version, the feeling I get is: "Aliens are scary! If anybody with better technology comes close to us, we are f*cked!" (The f word needs to be there to represent the Netflix version accurately 😅 )
I'm going to have to disagree. I can't see the Chinese supporting the idea that the West is 'better' at anything,…
That is an interesting perspective. What I had in mind were things like US laws strictly controlling exports to China of technologies that could be used for military purposes, for example high tech Nvidia's chips used for advanced AI. In an age when AI is becoming increasingly important, that seems to me to be at least an attempt from the part of the US to slow China down. How effective those measures are is another story. I agree that a lot of it ends up making China stronger. It is also true that the technology gap has diminished a lot, because China has developed so fast. 😅 I don't speak Chinese (yet 😉), so I have only an outsiders perspective. Sometimes I see in dramas people talking about going abroad for medical treatments, or for doing science, and I got the impression that they talked about it as if it was better. Or, at least, as if it used to be better. My perspective on it is very limited. Being south-american, I don't particularly identify with the West, or with China, but it seems clear to me that the whole world has so much to learn from China. What I see instead is often fear or looking down on them and a desire to force them to accept the Western ideas of how a proper developed civilization should look like. It had the same feeling when I heard the tri-solarians say that humanity can continue to exist but cannot reproduce anymore, as when I hear some people say that China has to adopt all the ideals and ideas of the West. Maybe the parallels it is only my imagination running wild, and the reason I post the initial message was to see if resonate with somebody else or if it was just my thing. Seems to have been just my thing ♥️ I greatly enjoyed the show, but my overall emotion was not fear, but sadness. Because I don't know if aliens exist - but the problems of civilizations finding it difficult to share a planet definitely do. 😔
Somehow, I cannot stop thinking of the parallel: mankind = China, trisolarians = the West.
Like: The West has better technology, so some people in China might assume them to be more advanced also morally, and their interference necessary to solve China's problems. The US is very determined to cut China off from technology (like microchips), getting in the way of them progressing with their science. The slogan of the Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO) talks about freeing the earth from the tyranny of humans, in the same way that a lot of people in the West would talk about freeing China from the tyranny of the communist party. Compared to the stability of China as a civilization, the West had a lot more unstable eras (like the collapse of the Greek empire, the dark ages).
I had that feeling right at the beginning of the series, so I watched it with that in mind, and so many details matched that idea... 😓
I have a theory about why season 2 is taking so long. 🤔 As long as season 2 does not air, Xiang Liu is still alive. The people making the decisions about when to air it, loving the character as much as we do, just want to wait a little longer before seeing it dye! 😆
I do not know why ratings are low on this drama... This drama is very successful in china with oven 3 billion…
I guess people in Asia can relate more to the gender role stuff. Many viewers in the west are mainly interested in the romance and the actors, and so the theme of the role of marriage and family might be a bit boring. :-( And there was also a lot of disappointment with the ending. I really liked it, but I also feel the quality dropped a bit in the end.
Thinking about all the openness to the West back at the time, I cannot help to see the story as a warning, something like:
"Yes, our country has made terrible mistakes (eg in the cultural revolution), and there is still plenty to work out. Maybe the open West can teach as a lot, can help us solve our problems?"
There have been intellectuals that have left China and provided plenty of material for the West against the Chinese political systems. They were motivated by their own hurt because the were victims of the flaws in these systems, and maybe had a sense of hope that the Western ideas and values could provide a solution for those flaws.
Like the trisolarians could provide solutions for the flaws of mankind. Some characters in the series are so hurt and disillusioned that they think maybe mankind does not deserve to exist at all.
The feeling I have when I watched the series was of a warning: "Be careful. Better technology does not mean more capacity for living in harmony, side by side with something different. Don't be too quick to invite them in. "
That feeling gets even worse when I compare the Chinese version of the series with the one on Netflix.
The Chinese version has all this nuance, complex characters, explorations of deep questions... I find myself wanting to look at things more deeply, wanting to respect life more, thinking that even insects are living creatures.
When I watch the Netflix version, the feeling I get is: "Aliens are scary! If anybody with better technology comes close to us, we are f*cked!" (The f word needs to be there to represent the Netflix version accurately 😅 )
How effective those measures are is another story. I agree that a lot of it ends up making China stronger. It is also true that the technology gap has diminished a lot, because China has developed so fast. 😅
I don't speak Chinese (yet 😉), so I have only an outsiders perspective. Sometimes I see in dramas people talking about going abroad for medical treatments, or for doing science, and I got the impression that they talked about it as if it was better. Or, at least, as if it used to be better. My perspective on it is very limited.
Being south-american, I don't particularly identify with the West, or with China, but it seems clear to me that the whole world has so much to learn from China. What I see instead is often fear or looking down on them and a desire to force them to accept the Western ideas of how a proper developed civilization should look like.
It had the same feeling when I heard the tri-solarians say that humanity can continue to exist but cannot reproduce anymore, as when I hear some people say that China has to adopt all the ideals and ideas of the West.
Maybe the parallels it is only my imagination running wild, and the reason I post the initial message was to see if resonate with somebody else or if it was just my thing. Seems to have been just my thing ♥️
I greatly enjoyed the show, but my overall emotion was not fear, but sadness. Because I don't know if aliens exist - but the problems of civilizations finding it difficult to share a planet definitely do. 😔
Like: The West has better technology, so some people in China might assume them to be more advanced also morally, and their interference necessary to solve China's problems. The US is very determined to cut China off from technology (like microchips), getting in the way of them progressing with their science. The slogan of the Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO) talks about freeing the earth from the tyranny of humans, in the same way that a lot of people in the West would talk about freeing China from the tyranny of the communist party. Compared to the stability of China as a civilization, the West had a lot more unstable eras (like the collapse of the Greek empire, the dark ages).
I had that feeling right at the beginning of the series, so I watched it with that in mind, and so many details matched that idea... 😓
As long as season 2 does not air, Xiang Liu is still alive. The people making the decisions about when to air it, loving the character as much as we do, just want to wait a little longer before seeing it dye! 😆
Or even October/November/December😂 😭
And there was also a lot of disappointment with the ending.
I really liked it, but I also feel the quality dropped a bit in the end.