Haven't seen the Netflix adaptation, but portraying the red guards during the cultural revolution as anti-science goons that beat up physics professors for teaching Einstein is already in the book, and that view of them is in fact the official party line under Dengism. The cultural revolution was at its core a struggle session between the left and the right wing of the party about whether to exterminate any and all vestiges of reactionary thought in the PRC or whether to search a policy of equidistance between the USSR and the USA and then open up the economy and integrate the country into capitalist world trade to develop its productive forces. As we see today, the faction that the Gang of Four referred to as "capitalist roaders" won and their decisions have completely reshaped how China is today.

I'm not saying any of this to be sectarian, as i am torn on the subject myself, ideologically siding with the left wing of the CPC, but also seeing the success of Deng's reforms in the realm of realpolitik and productive development. I particularly invite everybody who is better versed on the history of the CPC than i am to correct mistakes in this post, and if anybody can compare changes in how the scene is shown in the book vs how it is adapted for western audiences by Netflix, this would also be a welcome addition. Just saying that this isn't an idea that's new to the Netflix version, and that the original version isn't a Western "communism hates science", but a Dengist "ultras hate science".

I couldn't say, I don't really watch tv and have no basis of comparison. But i do want to take this opportunity to slag tbp - the "Dark Forest" is lazy thinking that reflects contemporary geopolitics, and not even that very well. It's tech-bro silliness. The problems of trying to blow up another planet across interstellar distances is so vast the author doesn't even try to make it seem feasible, he just made up a bunch of ridiculous magic excuse "technology" to make the plot work. And the plot is just "wot if nature was red in tooth and claw? Make's you think! Doesn't it?" Just reductionist social darwinist bullshit. "The optimal and indeed only survival action is to kill literally everyone you encounter the moment you encounter them!" Is silly bullshit. It doesn't work in nature, it doesn't work on Earth, and it is not meaningfully possible across interstellar distances with any technology that doesn't rely on magical thinking to function.

>Barges into Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences

>"Stop Studying Genetics"

>refuses to elaborate

>Leaves

As a Chinese, this is probably the part I like the most about the Netflix version. The other changes aren’t good at all, but the Tencent version also filmed the CR part but ended up on the cutting floor due to the censorship. The director and the actors have said as much.

The Netflix CR scene is almost a 1:1 recreation of the book’s Chinese dialogue. At least Netflix didn’t add unnecessary lines which could be interpreted as blatant propaganda. Here, it’s just being faithful to the book.

The Cultural Revolution was a huge mess. Most people agree to that.

Netflix is so shit, its like they have a quota per movie/series for anticommunist propaganda.

Ah yes, America. Famously pro-science.

of course the thing that helped drive science further and faster then ever before as well as an ideology believed in by some of the most prestigious scientists worldwide absolutely despises science

This is in the book tho.

Can't say I'm surprised about this. Of course they would try and cram in as much anti-communism as possible. They probably saw the anti-cultural revolution stuff in the original and just assumed it was talking about communism in general. I doubt most Americans even know what the cultural revolution is, beyond "bad commie stuff."

regardless of the politics, the beginning and the motives are pretty accurate to the novels.

The only good thing they did was to split the main character into multiple one because in the novel the main character feels like a compound character

Netflix is dogshit now anyways. Never payed for it, never will.

Something I think people are missing: American audiences won’t get the actual context of the Cultural Revolution being considered a bad thing. They’ll just see it and think “oh so communism bad”

Can't remember if it's Mobo Gao or Dongping Han, but in one of their books, the scientific achievements of the cultural revolution are listed

Of course Netflix would ruin the series, just go watch the Tencent version, please.

It makes the cultural revolution look too organized, it was anarchy!