Liu Cixin and his "Three-Body Problem": the Coexistence of Conscience Pollution and Grandeur Deep（3）

(Continued from Part 2)

   (9) Cheng Xin

    Cheng Xin is the character Liu Cixin writes about the most, is criticized the most by fans of "The Three-Body Problem" and Liu Cixin, and is the most controversial character in this book. To put it simply, she is the opposite of Thomas Vader. Of course, the details are much more complicated. This character is very important and is the focus of the book review, so I have to talk about it in detail.

   "Holy Mother" is the word most commonly used by fans of "The Three-Body Problem" and Liu Cixin to call Cheng Xin. Of course, this is not a compliment, but a deep disdain. If you understand the context of the Chinese Internet, you will know that the word "Madonna" is not only not a good word on the Chinese Internet, but also a particularly malicious and defamatory term. This is also highly relevant to the reality of China, which is highly social Darwinist.

   However, the original meaning of the word "Madonna" on the Chinese Internet is not particularly different from that in the West. It refers to a person who is overflowing with love, loves and tolerates everything, and opposes all hatred and oppression. This kind of people have different attitudes (well, to be precise, "some Chinese people and some Westerners have different attitudes towards this kind of people"). In China, the definition of "Mother" also includes the characteristics of not distinguishing between right and wrong, having no concept of right and wrong, having no position or principles, and blindly exporting love and sympathy.

   The Chinese people hate this kind of people. They believe that this kind of "Madonna" can only do bad things, betray the interests of their own country and ethnic group, and ultimately harm others and themselves. In China, a jungle society, this kind of consequences does often occur.

   I always say China, China, isn’t the world like this? Isn’t it a developed Western country? There is indeed ingratitude and repayment of kindness everywhere in the world, and there are many stories of "farmers and snakes" being played out in the West. I have said repeatedly before that this world is still a jungle world. But this does not mean that everything in the world is like this. All groups in all regions of the world live with such values 鈥嬧€媋nd behaviors. They are not the same as those in China (even if they are fundamentally the same in terms of "quality", there are differences in "quantity". (very different), a society where there are many “Holy Mothers” and good deeds can be rewarded well. This is at least the case for a large part of the Western European and American leftists they attack and vilify.

    However, the Chinese people have no sympathy and support for this, but are even more resentful. I don’t know whether it’s jealousy or disbelief, or both (yes, it seems that these two cannot be both for the same object at the same time, but the Chinese can (again, please correct me, it’s “some Chinese” who can )). They don’t want to believe that there is really love and peace in this world, or they are extremely jealous, so they madly attack all kinds of “white leftists”, “Mothers” and even such fictional characters. Cheng Xin in "The Three-Body Problem" is one of the targets. Of course, there is another kind of person who hates Cheng Xin, but we will talk about this kind of person later.

    As soon as the name Cheng Xin appeared (the character had not officially appeared), he was reviled by readers (of course this is because they already knew some of the following content in advance, or read it and started from the beginning, and then made notes here). And she officially appeared on the stage when Yun Tianming was about to be euthanized (attempted). She saved Yun Tianming and then said, "You know what? Euthanasia is prepared for you." This sentence has been sprayed with invisible spit by countless people countless times.

    Of course, judging from this plot, Cheng Xin deserves to be criticized because she did something immoral. But if it had been done by other people, such as Wade, Shi Qiang, Zhang Beihai, and Luo Ji, these people wouldn't be so abusive, and would even think it was a decisive act of choosing the greater at the expense of the small. However, Cheng Xin couldn't do this because she was the "Madonna" and had moral shackles, and whatever she did would be scrutinized. When you are a good person, you cannot do this kind of thing, otherwise it will be "hypocrisy" and "double standards", even if it is far less hypocritical and double standards than the critics.

    Speaking of this, many people must think that I am deliberately trying to be more truthful, it is just a storyline, and readers are just cursing for the fictional story, just to vent their anger. If that were the case, there would be no need for me to say this, or even write the entire article. Of course this is not the case but the opposite. Literary works and interactions with readers deeply reflect the real world and the judgments and choices of real people.

    In the part where Cheng Xin participated in the "Ladder Plan", no one criticized Cheng Xin. There was nothing to criticize about these technical issues. On the contrary, people should admire her technical level (but this does not prevent her from continuing to criticize her later). Some people even To criticize Liu Cixin for portraying female stereotypes. This is a rare phenomenon among Chinese readers, or it may have only appeared later.

    Then, there is the plot where Cheng Xin knew that Yun Tianming sent him stars, and then tried her best to prevent Yun Tianming from being "euthanized" but failed. Cheng Xin knew about Yun Tianming's love for her, so she wanted to save everything. This was logical, and it also showed that her decision to allow Yun Tianming to have euthanasia was not an act of betrayal but an honest mistake. However, here again there are scoldings for her "hypocrisy". Is she really hypocritical? Obviously not. If we really wanted to condemn him, shouldn't we blame Vader for being unscrupulous and willing to complete the mission despite knowing that Yun Tianming was Cheng Xin's lover (or deliberately doing so to make a non-ridiculous prank)? Of course, saying this will make everyone think that I am too serious and boring. But I think those who criticized Cheng Xin for ignoring Vader probably did the same thing in reality. There is no risk in condemning a good person, but there is trouble in attacking someone who is aggressive. And as mentioned before, people always blame good people for their faults, but for bad people it is "there is no need to condemn them because they are bad". People's views on artistic figures have always been a reflection of reality, but sometimes they are exaggerated, but the essence is still a reflection of reality.

    The next point where Cheng Xin was ridiculed was when she ran for the Sword Bearer and was elected. People chose her, who represents love and peace, as the sword bearer, replacing Luo Ji, who had become serious and tough (he was cynical before), and they did not choose Cao Bin, Bi Yunfeng and others who were similar to Wade. This laid the foundation for mankind's loss of deterrence against the Trisolaran world. Cheng Xin's cowardice and hesitation when the three-body detector "Water Drop" attacked the deterrence facility became the focus of intense ridicule and abuse from readers. This performance is also the core factor why Cheng Xin was attacked, cursed and ridiculed, that is, her "holy mother" love and weakness can cause bad things.

   In fact, I can quite understand the ridicule and abuse of Cheng Xin in this paragraph, and I quite agree with it. Liu Cixin's arrangement of this content is indeed very reasonable to a certain extent. This is indeed a fatal flaw for those who are considered "white leftists" and "holy saints", although it may not be a fatal flaw for everyone among them. Kind people always don't want to hurt others, let alone destroy or die together, or even want to sacrifice themselves to achieve others. And if it is responsible for the rise and fall of a country or nation, then this kind of behavior will lead to the collective sinking or destruction of the entire nation. This is indeed the weakness of the kind and the advantage of the cruel.

   But like I said before, this is true, but should it be so? Do we have to become evil in order to win? Not necessarily. It’s not that we can’t cultivate people who “use thunderous means to protect the heart of a Bodhisattva”. There are many such people in reality. During World War II, the German and Japanese armies were extremely ferocious, and the US military was regarded as the "young master soldier." However, the US military finally defeated the Japanese army, and the US military was also the first to contribute to the defeat of the German army on the Western Front. This has something to do with weapons and equipment, but the US military is not generally afraid of life and death. As for today's "white left" politicians, many times they just want to abide by their principles and prevent the country and the world from falling into a vicious cycle of retribution and violence for violence. If they really take action, those stubborn and cruel people may not be their opponents. In fact, the "white left" is even more firm in its belief in justice. Wasn’t Robespierre a “white leftist” three hundred years ago? The stubborn and conservative old nobles were still beheaded one after another.

   Of course, a person with Cheng Xin's personality and value choices is indeed not suitable for such a task that requires decisive killing. If all human beings become weak and lose their vigilance and fighting spirit, they may indeed be "annihilated" by the few remaining crazy and stubborn people. Liu Cixin's original intention may not be good, but it objectively reminds us that when we maintain goodwill, we should not put down the sword in our hands.

    However, from another perspective, is fighting to the death or even dying together really the best choice (whether for oneself, the entire society, or even the opponent), or is this kind of mentality game the best deterrent? Most fans of "The Three-Body Problem" and Liu Cixin would say "yes", but my opinion is wavering between right and wrong. Indeed, the more determined you are to die together, the more likely you are to win the game. This is the core of the game of "who will give in first". But if no one is willing to bow his head, the world will be destroyed by constantly playing this game. Or, all parties will rack their brains to strengthen themselves and weaken each other, and use any means at any cost. Human beings will lose their conscience and kill the other party or suppress it absolutely. Reason will never be able to defeat the fist. Hatred and the weak will expand with the blessing of intelligence, and the human world will become More jungle than animal jungle. As for the balance of deterrence, is there ever a balance? Will there not be a moment of loss of control? Is such a world really good? Who can be sure that he is the ultimate winner? Or is there a final winner? Should those losers live by the victors? Is this the human civilized world we pursue?

    But if you don't do this, then those who do it will win and dominate the group, region, country, and world. Such a world is, of course, hell. Therefore, in order to fight against the devil, I have to become the devil. I just hope it is a devil who is not so evil, or preferably has the methods of a devil but the heart of an angel. But how could the angel's mind not be polluted in such a game and competition for survival?

    The next point where Cheng Xin was taunted and attacked was for the same reason as before. Cheng Xin stopped Vader and others from researching the light speed spacecraft and asked them to give up their confrontation with the government and put down their weapons. And this also doomed almost all human beings to extinction. Ironically, she ended up being one of the very few survivors who did not become two-dimensional with the solar system. Her prevention led to the almost total annihilation of humanity in the solar system, but she was able to escape. It would be strange not to be scolded.

    But this is also her good intention to do bad things. Or maybe it's because she always does bad things with good intentions, which makes her even more detestable. If someone had bad intentions and did bad things, like Wade or Ye Wenjie, people would not be so aggressive and abusive. This is what I said before, so I won’t dwell on it anymore. At this point, she deserved to be scolded. However, I still want to emphasize the good intentions, because "good intentions" are already rare things in the real world, and bad things done with good intentions do not always happen. In many cases, the probability is still less than 50%. %of.

   In fact, Liu Cixin also wrote many plots in her article that almost everyone thought were positive and shining points of Cheng Xin, such as giving up the huge sum of money that the United Nations could pay her to buy the star that Yun Tianming gave her, but choosing to donate it instead , meeting Yun Tianming for a responsible adventure, and giving up the small universe to return the quality of the universe for the purpose of restarting the universe. These have also been praised by many readers. But why do so many people still abuse Cheng Xin? Do these two waves of people overlap?

   There is some overlap. Some people can separate and evaluate a person with coherent behavior, affirming some parts of them but rejecting other parts. If one part deserves recognition and the other part deserves disdain, then of course that is okay and very appropriate. However, it is foolish or morally corrupt to deny outright something that should not be cast aside or should be evaluated more comprehensively and objectively, or if the denial fails to get to the point and instead is insulted indiscriminately.

   There are also some parts that do not overlap, and they are consistently abusive towards Cheng Xin. In addition to the jealousy I mentioned earlier or the belief that a "holy mother" like Cheng Xin cannot be trusted, there is another reason that is even more terrifying. That is, those evil people and scoundrels, including sanctimonious conservatives and green-faced and fanged Social Darwinists. These people reviled Cheng Xin and all "white leftists" and "holy mothers" because they were deeply afraid that the world would change to love and peace, and that they would be excluded or assimilated. In order for themselves to continue to live in evil, for their evil values 鈥嬧€嬧€嬧€媡o last forever, and to achieve their various practical and value interests, they must denigrate, completely deny, and criticize the "white left" and the "Mother of the Holy Mother" in every possible way. , so that the ugly values 鈥嬧€媡hey advocate can continue to prevail in the world, and these people can continue to thrive. There are many such people in the world, especially in China.

    It is worth mentioning that Liu Cixin himself also has a rather negative view of the character Cheng Xin he created. It does not mean that he is dissatisfied with the portrayal of the character Cheng Xin, but that he is disgusted with people with characteristics like Cheng Xin. Therefore, Liu Cixin himself is one of those people who attacked and abused Cheng Xin, and his views are more profound (how can he not understand the image he created deeply), so his evil is also more terrifying.

    Finally, let me talk about my evaluation of people like Cheng Xin. I think it is 60% positive, 60% right (not 60% "right") and 40% wrong. Their quality is commendable, but their value choices are often undesirable. If love and peace could solve everything in the world, world harmony would have been realized long ago. For the sake of justice, we have to make some bad preparations.

   (10) Gender bias controversy

    After Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" was published (especially after it was translated into English and other foreign languages 鈥嬧€媋nd won the Hugo Award), it caused great controversy. One of the controversies is that he believes that his works are sexist and stereotypical against women.

    After reading the full article, I found that this is indeed the case. I have said before that his portrayal of Ye Wenjie, Shao Lin and the female Red Guards reflects discrimination and prejudice. In fact, more than that, there is widespread and obvious sexism and prejudice in more parts of the book and overall.

   Throughout the book, Liu Cixin portrays more than ten main characters, most of whom are relatively positive characters (at least these people are "essentially good people"). Most of these people have made a lot of sacrifices and made outstanding contributions in saving the earth. Except for Say, who is set to be the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who is a woman, these characters are all men, such as Luo Ji, Shi Qiang, Zhang Beihai, Thomas Wade, Cao Bin, Taylor, Ray Diaz, Wang Miao, Chang Weiss et al. Even Sai, who clearly has a positive image and has made great contributions, is a supporting role with a limited number of appearances. And the few negative images are almost "taken over" by women.

    In addition to the female Red Guards I mentioned earlier, there is also a special vilification of female images. At the end of "The Three-Body Problem", it is written about the two-dimensionalization of the solar system, the scene when Cheng Xin and Ai AA left in a light-speed spacecraft, and other people trying to escape discovered them:

    "Look, why is that ship accelerating so fast?!" a woman screamed.

    "Oh my God, the people in there are going to be crushed to pieces," one man said.

     Then another man's voice appeared: "You idiots, an accelerating spacecraft like that will be crushed! But it doesn't. That's not a fusion engine, that's a space curvature drive!"

    "Warp drive?! Light speed ship?! Light speed ship!"

    "It seems that the rumors are true. They are secretly building a light-speed spacecraft and escaping by themselves..."

    "Ah ah ah ah ah! Ah! Ah!!!" This is the voice of the first woman.

    "The one in front, intercept it! Hit it to death!!"

     It was the woman's voice again, "Ah! They can reach escape velocity, they can escape! They can live!! Ahhhh!! I want a light speed ship!! Stop it! Kill the people inside!!"

     The vilification of women is self-evident. In addition, there are some small figures with negative images that go unnoticed. For example, the director of the neighborhood committee who drove Luo Ji away was also a woman (of course, in reality, most neighborhood committee directors are indeed women).

     There is also the objectification of women. For example, Luo Ji's wife Zhuang Yan is a highly objectified female image. Of course, this is not entirely a stereotype, but a character image deliberately designed by Liu Cixin to meet the needs of the plot (such as to set off Luo Ji's character and its changes). But on the other hand, it is not necessary to set up other characters and storylines that vilify women, and the negative characters do not have to be set as women (but Liu Cixin set them up like this).

    Cheng Xin, the "Madonna" image who "does not succeed enough but more than fails", is a woman, and there is a faint hint in the book that it is her femininity ("Madonna") that makes her "lost." This has been explained and analyzed in the previous section dedicated to the analysis of Cheng Xin, so I will not repeat it again. Cheng Xin is also the female character in Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" who permeates sexism and stereotypes most quietly and deeply.

    The female scientist Ke Manlin, who has the opposite personality and temper to Cheng Xin, is the kind of woman who is rude and also likes to compete with women (women find it difficult to be a woman).

    "Use resources to change the principle?" an older French woman named Cormanlin said in a disdainful tone. She was a senior consultant from the European Space Agency. She noticed the way the men looked at Cheng Xin, and she felt very uncomfortable.

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     There were several more laughs, and Ke Manlin laughed the loudest, "Honey, you provided us with a cartoon-like scene..." With more and more laughter, she continued, "You'd better do it again. Assignment for freshman year, calculate push-to-weight ratio."

     鈥︹€

     The men's eyes turned away from Cheng Xin one by one. Now they finally began to seriously consider what she said, and their admiration for her was temporarily ignored. Only Ke Manlin kept staring at Cheng Xin, as if she didn't recognize her.

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     She held the document up for a few seconds, and instead of handing it to anyone, she dropped it hard to the ground.

    "What the hell!" Ke Manlin yelled angrily.

    鈥︹€

    "You, and you," Wade pointed at Cheng Xin and Ke Manlin, "Such senseless mental loss will not be allowed in the future."

    Due to space issues and the trivial distribution of related content, I cannot list all the discrimination and prejudice against women in "The Three-Body Problem", but the above examples are enough. In fact, other readers have also seen it, so there is no need. I list and repeat them all.

    These are undoubtedly sexist and biased. But is this an objective fact to some extent? That is, are women really like this?

    In my personal opinion, first of all, fundamentally speaking, the negative behaviors and negative personality traits of these women portrayed by Liu Cixin, especially the various ugly words and deeds, are common to both men and women and are not unique to women. Secondly, it is true that to some extent and under certain circumstances, women do have some characteristics that are different from men in some aspects, such as the above-mentioned vilified or stereotyped images or words and deeds. However, the degree is far less serious than Liu Cixin's portrayal.

    And, are they born this way, or have they been shaped and disciplined into these ways by the patriarchal society? This question is important, very important.

    I believe that this is of course the result of acquired social environment, rather than an innate inevitable situation. Women are particularly intolerant, anti-intellectual, objectified, and weak in some things and situations. They are created, seduced, and forced by society, to be precise, the patriarchal society. Liu Cixin's "Three-Body" is a person who participated in the creation and creation of this. Part of the temptation and coercion. This is like saying that "the cultural quality of migrant workers is low." It is not that the quality of migrant workers is inherently low, but that they are often in poor family and social environments and do not have the conditions to receive a good education and a good external environment. They are Victims rather than natural low-quality bad elements. What we need to do is to sympathize with and change, and to condemn the people or institutional environment that caused such consequences, rather than scorning, ridiculing and pointing fingers at these victims.

    In the same way, the intolerance, anti-intellectualism, objectification, and weakness of women are not a reason to discriminate against women, nor are they an excuse for the patriarchal society to oppress and blame women. On the contrary, they are victims, and they need to bear the responsibility of the patriarchal society. Responsibility, through changes in systems, culture, and habits, to reduce or even eliminate non-biological gender differences and achieve true gender equality and gender justice.

    What needs to be emphasized in particular is that the differences between men and women in certain traits that I am talking about are far smaller than the differences within men and women, and are generally smaller than the differences between groups with different levels of education and income. . Regardless of physical or non-physical aspects, the commonalities between men and women are far greater than their "personality" or specificity, especially in non-physical aspects. People can discuss and have their own opinions on gender differences, but this should not limit or persecute the basic human rights of any gender (including transgender people) and the right to make free choices in all matters of study, work, and life. Using these involuntary differences to judge, discipline, and blame men and women or people of any other gender/gender identity is fallacious and should be criticized.

    So, there is so much sexism and prejudice in "The Three-Body Problem", does it mean that Liu Cixin himself has such sexism and prejudice? The answer is obviously yes. Liu Cixin denied this in the interview, but his denial is not valid because it goes against the facts. In other words, even if Liu Cixin did not intentionally discriminate subjectively, she still had the essence of objective discrimination. When Liu Cixin showed off certain traits that are considered to be more prominent in women, it was obviously a discriminatory stance, rather than an attitude that needed sympathy and change, nor was it specifically intended to expose and criticize the impact of patriarchal society on women. Discipline.

    In addition, Liu Cixin once hypothesized in a debate with scholar Jiang Xiaoyuan,If the world ends and only he, Jiang Xiaoyuan and a female host are left, "The three of us carry everything about human civilization, and we must eat her to survive. Will you eat it?" Liu Cixin stood at the "Eat it" "Party. Although this is largely just a hypothesis, Liu's assumption that the target was a "beautiful woman" (even though there was indeed a female host next to them at the time), that is, a woman, inherently implies that women will be sacrificed. Even without going into detail, this is enough to reflect Liu Cixin's certain bad psychology and value orientation towards women. Even as a joke, it's inappropriate. Moreover, Liu Cixin argued with Jiang seriously, which shows that he did not take it as a joke, but took the hypothesis seriously.

    (11) Public image

     In "The Three-Body Problem", Liu Cixin not only did not endow the people with qualities such as unity and courage, but instead gave them extremely strong belittlement and contempt. In Liu Cixin's writings, the masses are selfish, blindly obedient, weak, and barbaric, and are an out-and-out "rabble."

    In addition to the Red Guards' criticism of Ye Zhetai mentioned above and the screams of female refugees when the earth became two-dimensional, there are also many plots that reflect the bad nature of the masses.

     For example, Luo Ji predicted that a star would be destroyed based on the laws of the dark forest. When the incident was made public, the star fleet was destroyed. The public worshiped Luo Ji as a god-like person in order to survive the crisis:

    "Seeing Luo Ji stop, the crowd moved towards him. Two or three meters away from him, the people in the front row tried their best to block the advance of the crowd behind him, and then knelt down. The people behind him also knelt down one after another, and the glowing The crowd dropped like waves receding from the beach.

    "Lord, save us!" Luo Ji heard someone say, and his words caused a buzzing resonance.

    "Our God, save the world!"

    "Great spokesperson, uphold justice in the universe!"

    "Angel of justice, save mankind!"

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    When Luo Ji showed his inability to solve the crisis, people's views on him and the way they treated him took a 180-degree turn:

    On a cold and rainy autumn afternoon, the resident representative meeting of the fifth district of New Life made a decision: to expel Luo Ji from the community on the grounds that he had affected the normal lives of the residents in the district. During the snow project, Luo Ji often went out to attend meetings, but he still spent most of his time in the community. He kept in touch with various organizations involved in the snow project from his residence. After Luo Ji resumed his identity as a Wallfacer, the five New Life Districts were placed under martial law, affecting the lives and work of residents. Later, as Luo Ji's status declined, the martial law in the community was gradually relaxed, but the situation got worse: from time to time, people from the city gathered downstairs where Luo Ji lived, heckled and taunted him, and even shouted at him. Rocks were thrown at the windows, and the news media took an interest in the scene, often with as many reporters as protesters. But the real reason for Luo Ji's expulsion was the complete disappointment in him among the hibernators.

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   Facing this man who had exhausted everything, the director showed no mercy at all. Like other people of that era, she always felt that no matter how dark the world was, ultimate justice always existed somewhere in the dark. Luo Ji first confirmed her feeling, and then ruthlessly shattered it. Angry at his disappointment, she coldly announced the meeting's decision.

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   "Ah, he seems to be a wall-facer!" Then the child's parents also turned to look at him, and he had no choice but to admit that he was Luo Ji.

    At this time, "Hawthorn Tree" sounded in the car.

    The car stopped, "Get off." The child's father said coldly, and the eyes of the mother and child looking at him were as cold as the autumn rain outside.

    Luo Ji didn't move. He wanted to hear the song.

    "Please go down." The man said again, and Luo Ji read the meaning in their eyes: It is not your fault that you have no ability to save the world, but it is an unforgivable sin to give the world hope and then shatter it.

    鈥︹€

   The journey went smoothly, but more than an hour later someone recognized Luo Ji, and everyone in the car unanimously asked him to get out of the car. Luo Ji argued that he had entered his credit points to buy the ticket, so of course he had the right to ride on the bus. An old man with gray hair took out two cash coins

After the already unusual cash coins were thrown at him, he was kicked out of the car.

    "Wall-facer, what are you doing with a shovel on your back?" Someone stuck his head out of the car window and asked as the car was driving.

"Dig your own grave," Luo Ji said, causing a burst of laughter in the car.

    Wall-facer, populist, and Venezuelan President Rey Diaz was stoned to death by people who knew that he was trying to fight the Trisolarans by committing suicide when he returned to his homeland after finishing facing the wall:

    Rey Diaz raised his hands in the air, and with tears in his eyes called out affectionately to the crowds of people rushing towards him: "Ah, my people!"

    The first stone thrown by his people struck him on his raised left hand, the second hit him on the chest, and the third struck him on the forehead and knocked him down. Then, people's stones flew like raindrops, and finally almost buried his lifeless body. The last stone that hit Wallfacer Rey Diaz was thrown by an old lady. She struggled to lift a stone and walked to Rey Diaz's body and said in Spanish:

    "Evil man, you want to kill everyone, but there is my grandson there, and you actually want to kill my grandson!"

     As she spoke, she tried her best and tremblingly smashed the stone in her hand onto Ray Diaz's broken head that was exposed from the pile of stones.

    There are also some details where Liu Cixin’s contempt for the public can be seen, such as this passage when Shen Yufei’s husband Wei Cheng was dictating some of his experiences:

    I don’t have a good impression of the tourists and pilgrims who come here. Those tourists don’t know what they are here for, they just run around taking pictures. The pilgrims, on the other hand, generally seem to be much poorer than the tourists, and they are all in a state of numbness. Intellectually inhibited state.

    The most ironic thing is the following paragraph describing the pessimism and despair of mankind after the destruction of Starfleet, so a hundred thousand people gathered together for a naked sex party:

    The whole square is covered with white flowers, and the white particles are squirming like a pot of boiling rice porridge.

   "Are those all human?" Luo Ji asked doubtfully.

   "Naked people, this is a super sex party, now over a hundred thousand people and counting."

    Of course, Liu Cixin also described some of the kindness and love of common people in this book. For example, when describing the two-dimensionalization of the solar system, there is this paragraph:

    On a magnified screen pulled out by the spacecraft's A.I., a couple can be seen embracing and falling into the plane. The two-dimensional human bodies are arranged side by side on the plane. The embrace can still be seen, but the posture is very strange. Like a clumsy drawing by a child who doesn't understand the principles of perspective. There was also a mother who held her infant child high and fell into the plane. The child only lived 0.1 second longer than she did in the three-dimensional world. Their bodies were also vividly printed on this giant painting.

    But such depictions are rare (this is a bit exaggerated, the only one that seems to portray the public in a positive light is the paragraph above), and most depictions of civilians are derogatory. It should also be noted that Liu Cixin's praise from the public only refers to his love for family members, not his altruism and public service in the public sphere. Although this is a statement of certain facts, it can also reflect Liu Cixin's conservative thoughts and stance (valuing the traditional family and ignoring the public sphere are typical characteristics of conservatism).

   Liu Cixin's description of the masses is in line with those academic analyzes such as "The Crowd" that criticize the inferiority of the masses (or "the masses"). There are many other literary and artistic works that express the bad nature of the public, but few are as vivid and vicious as Liu Cixin's description.

    These descriptions of Liu Cixin are indeed the true face of the people in many parts of the world today. In China, this inferiority of the public is more common and prominent.

    However, like the previous descriptions, Liu Cixin stated the facts not with a compassionate attitude, but with pure cynicism. Liu Cixin's understanding of the public is not a profound sympathetic understanding, but a mocking understanding. This is completely different from Lu Xun's kind of strong criticism of the bad nature of the people, but full of grief, anger, sympathy, goodwill, and good intentions. The nature and direction are completely different.

    Another important point is that what Liu Cixin depicts is the future world, and the scene he sets is especially the human world after the "Great Depression" era. In many cases, it is very developed, and the people are kind and qualified. In such a society, there should be a civil society similar to that in Western developed countries, and the people should also have a certain quality of political participation. But Liu Cixin did not describe any public with civic qualities, nor did he describe civil society (only a few mentioned similar things, such as citizens throwing tomatoes at congressmen, or being derogatory). On the contrary, there are many heroic characters in "The Three-Body Problem". Of course, this can also be justified by the harsh censorship environment. However, according to Liu Cixin's value orientation in this book and on other occasions, it is basically "it is not impossible, it is not possible." Even without strict censorship of speech, he would still not be able to write about civil society, or in other words, he would not be able to write about the "goodness" of civil society.