Government here and in mainland haven’t yet learned the lesson of the “Streisand effect”.
A while ago it was our Hong Kong government loudly complaining about international sporting events playing “Glory to Hong Kong”, the HK protestors anthem, instead of the national anthem, which only made more people download the Glory song.
And now it’s China state media having a go at Netflix -- which, please note, is not even available in China -- for the way it interpreted Liu Cixin’s book, the “3 Body Problem"for its international audience. Again, the Streisand Effect will just mean it gets more clicks.
We watched the Netflix version last weekend. I’d read the book back in 2015, but didn’t know about the Chinese version last year. Apparently it’s 30 eps long, which is kinda, yeah, I’ma sleep now....
Anyway, people being upset about the way their book is translated to the screen is super common. Especially authors. But this time it’s not the author, Liu Cixin, but the actual government of China, that’s now upset by alleged “cultural hegemony”. The likes of “China Military Online”, would you believe!? And China’s state broadcaster CCTV. All upset at the cultural appropriation. Which is a nonsense concept. And hugely ironic: the biggest "cultural appropriation" is China’s appropriation of the west’s worst export, Marxist-Leninism.
Heh!
We enjoyed the Netflix version even though, like the book, it’s a slow burner. We’re looking forward to Season 2.
Meantime, the Chinese government complaining is only going to make more people look at the series. I’m sure Netflix are delighted.
ADDED: an Aussie review, sent in by an Occasional Reader, from The Monthly magazine. I’d pretty much agree with the review:
