Netflix showrunner says parallels between Chinese cultural revolution scene & cancel culture 'hard to ignore'

 David Benioff, showrunner of Netflix's new show "3 Body Problem," saw parallels between a scene depicting China's Cultural Revolution and modern cancel culture.

Netflix's new science fiction epic '3 Body Problem' is based on Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin's Hugo Award-winning story of the same name. While the story is about humanity preparing for an alien invasion, with an emphasis on interstellar physics, the show's opening scene went viral for depicting a controversial historical event. The scene takes place in the midst of China's communist revolution, where a physics professor is interrogated by Red Guards and beaten to death in front of a crowd for refusing to adhere to Chinese communist beliefs.

Benioff, who was the showrunner of HBO's "Game of Thrones," told The Hollywood Reporter, "This is not a commentary on cancel culture." "But we move in cycles in terms of human history, and we are going through a certain period of the cycle right now. There are many important differences between the present time and the Cultural Revolution. But there are also some similarities. It has never been There wasn't a point where we were like, 'We should do this show because we want to make a commentary on it.' But it's interesting that the similarities are there and they're hard to ignore.'

Alexander Wu, who is one of the series' three showrunners along with Benioff and Dan Weiss, told The New York Times that the era is "a part of history that hasn't been written about much in fiction, let alone filmed. A matter of."

Rosalind Chao, who plays a character on the show, also spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the scene.

He said, "I think it's important to have an international version of the story. The narrow-mindedness drives me a little crazy. Is that fair to say? I love that it's been made more international for a wider audience."

The actress added, "You'd probably get me more blacklisted in China for saying this, but I have a cousin who was isolated and lived with pigs [in China] for 10 years. He's now In America, and I only found out about it at Thanksgiving when he didn't want to eat the ham. They don't talk about [the Revolution]. It's so embedded in not discussing it, even though it's a big part of history and The fact that it can be told here in a way that also embraces the sci-fi genre is kind of exciting. It's important for people to understand world history and it's important for people to understand how they create what they do. Is."

Many commentators saw parallels between the interrogation of a physics professor by ideological radicals in China in the 1960s and cancel culture in modern society, such as game developer Mark Kern, whose post with over 240,000 views argued That such issues already exist in the games industry.

He wrote, "3 body problem videos are already happening in gaming. Devs are being forced to attend DEI seminars where they have to admit their 'white privilege'." "This is the verbal version of what will happen if we don't act now. It's the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s."

Tech developer Grant Slaton similarly wrote, "The weirdest thing about seeing this depiction of a struggle session during the Cultural Revolution is that I know people in Seattle who are rooting for techbros/landlords/hedge funds/whatever. Would 1000% love to do that.”