“They’re coming, and there’s nothing you can do to stop them.” The sentence, whispered at the end of the trailer, takes up all the codes of apocalyptic science fiction. “They”, a distant and mysterious entity with advanced technology, come to visit Earth with disastrous plans. This March 21, Netflix unveils the highly anticipated adaptation of the international bestseller The Three-Body Problem. Written in 2006 by Liu Cixin, the work paved the way for international recognition of Chinese science fiction. Interview with Gwennaël Gaffric, his French translator (the novel is published by Acte Sud) and lecturer in Chinese studies at Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University.
L’Express: The work of Liu Cixin was a pioneer in the international discovery of Chinese science fiction. Is it fundamentally different from its Western counterpart?
Gwennaël Gaffric: In reality, there is no fundamental difference per se. Science fiction is the modern literary genre par excellence. His works therefore do not come from an ancestral and cultural tradition, whether in China, Europe or the United States. More than any genre, perhaps, science fiction is nourished by its socio-historical context, certainly, but also by other science fiction works produced internationally. There are certainly common points in a national corpus, but which are more circumstantial and contextual than cultural and national. During the Maoist period, science fiction produced in China imagined an ideal Maoist society. In the 1950s, science fiction in the United States was very marked by the Cold War. Science fiction literature is always literature that speaks about the present.
Can we link Cixiu Liu to a specific school of science fiction?
In China, he is generally considered a “hard-science fiction” author. It is a subgenre very interested in scientific questions, and quite focused on the coherence and rigor of the science presented in the novel. From a literary point of view, Cixiu Liu is more in line with Arthur C. Clarke, or even Jules Verne, of whom he regularly claims to be an admirer. His sources of inspiration are more Western and American than Chinese.
It is in line with a science fiction of the idea, which puts its rough style at the service of its subject. The Three-Body Problem is a great epic, less focused on the interiority of the characters than on the evolution of political systems. We can identify only one belief from its author: his faith in science.
Does this very American inspiration explain the Western success of his novels?
There are obviously factors specific to the quality of the work itself. Its subgenre also had a role. “Hard science fiction” was no longer necessarily fashionable in the 2010s and had experienced its golden age sixty years earlier. The Three-Body Problem therefore signified a renewal, a renewed interest in a genre which had almost disappeared. There has also been general curiosity about the question of China itself. The success of the trilogy can therefore be explained by multiple factors, as much linked to the literary qualities of the work as to an interest in what we imagine to be China’s discourse on its future.
You talk about a “renewal”. Was Liu Cixin a pioneer?
He is the first Chinese author who has truly emerged internationally. In the past, there had certainly been significant interest in martial arts and Chinese genre cinema in the 1990s-2000s. But this is hardly comparable to the interest shown in Liu Cixin. Its publication shed new light on Chinese science fiction, both locally and internationally, allowing new authors to emerge. However, he did not create a school: his style is not necessarily advocated by today’s young science fiction authors. The latter can say they are admirers of his work, without being in the same literary lineage. Result: when a Chinese author becomes known outside the borders, it is more often an editorial stunt than anything else. In the United States, the emergence of Liu Cixin created a breath of fresh air allowing the translation of other Chinese authors – which was less the case in France.
To understand Liu Cixin, it is very important to point out that he was born in 1963. He is a child of the Cultural Revolution. The texts to which he himself had access in his youth, from which he drew inspiration, were mainly popular science, Russian literature, and some great American classics. The authors who occupy the new SF scene today, born in the 1980s and 1990s, do not at all have the same relationship with this corpus. They are readers of more contemporary science fiction. The themes that concern them are different. Where Liu Cixin has a universalist vision, current authors will be more marked by the specifically Chinese context of current society. They will look at more social issues, where Liu Cixin is more cosmopolitan. The Three-Body Problem was written in the 2000s, at a time when, unlike today, more folkloric, regional and religious questions were questioned less. The tones are no longer the same.
The Three-Body Problem addresses very political issues. Is it a key to understanding the current Chinese regime?
Not really. Even though the work is contemporary, it is already a little dated. At the time of its publication, in 2006 [NDLR : le roman a d’abord été publié par épisodes dans un magazine chinois], Xi Jinping was not yet in power. The problems of the current regime are not exactly the same. We can read some things into the plot about international Chinese politics, perhaps, but it remains perilous.
There is no unified “Chinese thought” strictly speaking. So it’s a bit futile to look for something there. Nevertheless, we can find traces of possible reflections from Chinese philosophy. But this is by no means a Chinese vision of the future.
Many, however, saw in the work a brief summary of Chinese policy in the future…
In Europe, in particular. In China, the symbolic power of seeing this work win a literary prize as important as the Hugo Prize, seeing it adapted, could also have suggested this. But in both cases it is quite wrong. The Three-Body Problem is above all a fictional project, which does not seek to be linked to a political ideology. Even if that were the case, it would be difficult to make an author the symbol of the thought of an entire nation. Would you say that Alain Damasio is the symbol of the French vision of the future? There is little chance.
How did the international success of Three-body problem is it perceived in China?
The authorities are obviously delighted to see a Chinese work adapted on Netflix. One fear, however, agitates some fans: it will be an American work, rather intended for an American audience, with a certain number of script changes in the construction of the characters and the plot. The characters are no longer Chinese for the most part, unlike the trilogy. This is enough to annoy fans attached to the original story.
More than the work itself, it is science fiction in general that is used by those in power. Recently, WorldCon, a major science fiction convention, was organized in Shanghai. Significant financial efforts have been made. An effort is made to promote the “soft power” of SF works, with one constraint: China is a country where you cannot write what you want. Science fiction authors are no exception to the rule. Some authors also manage to be subtly critical, but without directly attacking the Chinese Communist Party.
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