‘3 Body Problem’: Depictions of the CCP’s Cultural Revolution and a ‘Dark Forest’ of Survival Competition

(L-R) Liam Cunningham, Zine Tseng, Jess Hong, Eiza González, Sir Jonathan Pryce, John Bradley, Alex Sharp and Benedict Wong attend the "3 Body Problem" Special Screening at Frameless in London on March 20, 2024. Lia Toby/Getty Images

News Analysis

On March 21, Netflix released the science fiction TV series “3 Body Problem,” adapted from a highly popular Chinese science fiction novel. Since then, the series has remained on top of Netflix’s TV charts.

Despite the series’ popularity worldwide on Netflix, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Propaganda Department issued orders prohibiting its viewing, discussion, and media coverage. Due to the CCP’s strict media and Internet censorship, Chinese viewers can only use VPNs to circumvent geo-restrictions or view pirated versions.

‘Dark Forest’

Guo Jun, editor-in-chief of The Epoch Times’ Hong Kong edition, said on the “Pinnacle View“ program that the plot of ”3 Body Problem” initially delved into various aspects of the Cultural Revolution. It vividly portrayed the brutal scenes of “struggle sessions” during the Cultural Revolution, where people were publicly humiliated, tortured, and lynched.

Li Yuanhua, a China affairs expert and former associate professor in history at China’s Capital Normal University, also said on the show that the novel introduces a concept of competition and survival called the “dark forest,” which is similar to the law of the jungle. It likens the universe to a dark forest, where civilizations are competing for its survival. When one alien civilization discovers another, the instinct is to attack.

Mr. Li said that after the success of the novel in China, many individuals, including some CCP propagandists and Chinese ultranationalists, accepted this dark forest principle as a model or guideline for interpreting the current situation. For instance, there are opinions asserting that truth and power lie within the range of the CCP’s missiles. Essentially, they are saying that the strongest country is always right. They use this concept to justify the CCP’s aggressive and expansionist policies.

The author’s “dark forest” hypothesis is based on the premise that survival is the primary need of civilization. Yet, resources are limited, and everyone must fight for themselves. Therefore, one must strengthen oneself and eliminate others to survive. This established the foundation of the novel,  presenting the “dark forest” as a law. The novel also discusses a chain of suspicion, which is that when one does not know whether the other is a force of good or evil, one strikes first.

Depictions of the Cultural Revolution

Chinese independent TV producer Li Jun pointed out on “Pinnacle View” that the part depicting the Cultural Revolution was omitted in the Chinese domestic adaptation of “Three-Body Problem” by Tencent Pictures. However, Netflix faithfully restored the original opening scene of the novel, and the intervention by the CCP’s Propaganda Department is undoubtedly related to this depiction of the brutal Cultural Revolution.

“Three-Body Problem” itself is a science fiction novel, or one might even say apocalyptic fiction. In the end, an extraterrestrial civilization invades Earth, and the entire solar system suffers a catastrophe, essentially being destroyed. However, the apocalyptic events were triggered by the CCP’s Cultural Revolution.

“The first scenes of Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ accurately portray the Cultural Revolution, which those with historical knowledge would recognize as very authentic,” said Mr. Li. The protagonist, Ye Wenjie, witnesses her father’s public lynching by the CCP’s Red Guards, and then she experiences betrayal by her boyfriend. When she feels that human civilization has no hope, she wished for aliens to come and transform humanity, thus becoming the spiritual leader of the Earth-Trisolaris Organization.”

However, she did not expect the extraterrestrial civilization to also be brutal, living under a highly authoritarian system. So, the protagonist finds herself in a new civilization that lacks emotions or compassion.

A Godless Universe

Mr. Li added: “When I watched this [TV] series, I found it quite oppressive overall because it presented a godless universe from the beginning. It killed off belief in god right at the beginning. At that time, a Red Guard asked Ye Wenjie’s father, ‘You say the big bang occurred at a certain time, and after that, there was the universe. So, before the big bang, are you saying there was a god?’ Ye Wenjie’s father said, ‘Science cannot prove that God does not exist.’ This response angered the Red Guard, who then took off his belt to beat him to death. So the Red Guard killed off the belief in god, and the entire novel constructed a godless universe. When there is no god in the universe, it is a dark forest, where nobody trusts anybody, where everybody sees others as threats, where everybody thinks others will plunder their resources.”

Shi Shan, an expert on China issues and senior editor at the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times said on “Pinnacle View” that the show is indeed filled with various cultural concepts of modern science, reflecting relationships between people, civilizations, and the relationship between humans and the universe.

“I doubt whether a purely atheistic world can still form a civilized orderly society,” he said. “In fact, this has been widely believed in the West for a long time. They believe that a rational society must be a society that believes in god, and a society that does not believe in god would be an irrational society.”

Ms. Guo mentioned the concept of cosmological natural selection, which is basically founded on the concept of a food chain, where the strong and powerful would consume and eliminate the weak. Later on, it evolved into social Darwinism, which was one of the theoretical foundations of communism and also of Adolf Hitler’s national socialism (Nazism).

“Basically, [it is the belief] that we are excellent, we must be powerful, we must expand our living space, so we have to invade, and you deserve to be eliminated,” she explained. “It lacks a moral foundation.”

Michael Zhuang contributed to this report.