by Cliff Homewood
Intrigue, Murder and death (well, death normally does follow murder!) The real-life stories of the Three Body Problem.
Body 1 – The Novel
The first volume of Liu CIxin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy won the Galaxy award for Chinese science fiction in 2006. The English translation, released in 2014, was the first Asian novel to win a Hugo. It starts with a flashback to the Cultural Revolution. Up to 2 million people were killed in Mao’s attempt to purify China, removing foreign influences, starting in 1966 and lasting 10 years. Gangs of students in red armbands roamed the streets killing people. You could be executed for mentioning any foreign influence. Intellectuals committed suicide. Hundreds of printers were set up across China to print Mao’s quotations, the Little Red Book. Billions were printed, it was the most printed book on the planet. Mao realised the revolution wasn’t working and from 1971 a normalcy returned to the streets. In 1981 the Communist party declared it “responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the people, the country, and the party since the founding of the People’s Republic.” But still the Chinese government doesn’t invite criticism and the Chinese editors feared it might get cut, so Liu Cixin agreed to hide it in the middle of the novel. For the English translation it was moved back to its right place at the novel’s start, hence Liu Cixin prefers the translated version.
The Three Body Problem is a physics problem relating to orbits. Two planets or stars can rotate each other fine. For example, the Earth and the Moon, or, the Earth and the Sun. But once you have three or more of a similar mass it becomes chaotic. Each one is pulled in too many directions. The Earth gets pulled by nearby planets if their orbit aligns, but self rectifies. Being stuck between the Sun and Jupiter will affect us eventually, the key word being eventually. But what of a civilisation not in a stable system?
The book has ideas that can blow your mind. Characters have been accused of being two dimensional. But the mystery works. I have found myself addicted as the ideas it posits are compelling and you trust there will be a suitable answer. I’m not great at science, that’s not needed, just a willingness to try and understand what it explains.
Body 2 – The Adaptations
Chinese (Tencent)
I have to admit, I have not read the novel. My knowledge comes from the excellent Chinese adaptation, which takes words from the novel and literally used them as dialogue. Scene for scene. The audiobook is 14 hours and 46 mins long, the show 30 episodes long. Yep, the show’s longer than the novel. A couple of reasons, both TV adaptations flesh out the characters more. In the Chinese version the main hero is accompanied by a Cop to give him someone to explain to. The series also repeats explanations. You may get fed up of the term ‘Turkey’ (we are all turkeys ripe for killing). There’s an observatory scientist in multiple episodes who only appears in the novel for one scene. I like that the TV series takes the time to explain the scientific ideas of the novel. Episode 2 for instance was mainly used to explain one concept. TV is not dumbed down in this instance.
There is another problem, that of regime change in China. When this series was made, the talk of the cultural revolution was no longer all right and thus minimised in the TV version. As a westerner though it provides a fascinating watch, retaining the culture of the novel. Countries for instance aren’t called by their names on Chinese TV, none of that western corruption, they are just given letters. Also ads are like the Chilean Star Wars ones that went viral the other year. You think you’re watching The Three Body Problem but suddenly a computer is advertised for instance. To be fair that’s on the YouTube copies, watch on Amazon Prime if you have it and then switch to YouTube for the episodes they would charge you for (they are being sneaky). As well as an intriguing storyline the series has great music. It took four years to complete and is a big hit in China.
Netflix
Things move a lot faster in the Netflix series (being 8 episodes), and it feels like they skimmed in places, lacking the mystery being built up and sometimes full explanations for things. It also starts introducing characters and storylines from later novels. Each book of the trilogy has a different protagonist, they decided to introduce them all in the first season. It has been accused of anglicising the heroes but leaving the villains Chinese. It, for instance, starts with the Chinese cultural revolution that was banned from the TV series. Chinese viewers who managed to watch the Netflix version somehow, as Netflix is not available in China, accused Netflix of defaming China. I do wonder in a world where we are meant to be practising diversity why wasn’t it set mainly in China with Asian actors.
Others
There’s a movie version, made in 2015 that was shelved, a graphic novel, recently nominated for a Hugo award, seemingly not available in the West yet. A website https://labs.sense-studios.com/threebody/index.html and a VR experience https://codercat.xyz/three-body/ which seems to require a warehouse to play. There’s an anime of the second book by Bilibili so bad it became a laughing stock in China. The Minecraft animated series is purportedly better. There’s also a short film of the second novel The Dark Forest. Both TV series are making a second season but we are unlikely to see either until at least 2026.
Body 3 – The Dead One
Now, The Three Body Problem is a hot Chinese property. A Chinese billionaire, Lin Qi, who made his money through the mobile video game company Yoozoo, bought the rights to adapt it, hoping to build a multi-media empire. He created a subsidiary, The Three Body Universe, and made Yozoo employee Xu Yao its chief executive. After its first failures, including a film reportedly so bad it was never released, he blamed Xu Yao and started filling his company with other executives. Xu Yao was demoted, and received a significantly smaller salary. He felt devalued with a smeared reputation and plotted to murder his boss. Inspired by Breaking Bad he bought over 140 different mobiles and started his own poison manufacturing and testing company. Using multiple phones and means legit and illegitimate, he acquired over a hundred different poisons. He tested these poisons on various animals within his company. This is how you kill someone when you have money (he was paid millions). He decided to start poisoning the food and drink, which other employees also consumed. He substituted Lin Qi’s pills with poisoned ones. Lin Qi was rushed to hospital, they realised he had consumed a neurotoxin, and was given a blood transfusion. They then realised he was also suffering from mercury poisoning which undermined their efforts and lead to his death. He died with at least 5 different toxins in his system, his death guaranteed. Xu Yao was convicted of murder and given the death penalty. Lin Qi died on Christmas Day 2020, the same year the Netflix deal was completed.