Chinese cultural products can compete on their own merits

ACCORDING TO REPORTS, US-based e-commerce company Amazon is negotiating with Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin to purchase the copyright of his science fiction book The Three Body Problem, with the intention of adapting it into a three-season TV drama with an estimated investment of $1 billion. Thepaper.cn comments:

The Three Body Problem is one of the few domestic science fiction books that has gained popularity both in China and overseas. Data show that by the end of 2015, about one year after being published, the first volume of the English version of Liu’s book had already sold 110,000 copies worldwide.

The book has got quite high ratings. Liu even won the 2015 Hugo Award with the book, the first Asian writer to win the award. With the award, The Three Body Problem is widely believed to have joined the ranks of world science fiction classics.

Good books speak for themselves, and their influence goes beyond borders.

The success of The Three Body Problem should

inspire more Chinese writers and act as a stimulus for the whole of the Chinese cultural industry. The influence of a good story extends beyond borders. There are many reasons why The Three Body Problem has won so much praise, and one of them is its deep ultimate concern: It is about the destiny of the whole of mankind, even that of the whole universe.

There is no need to intentionally follow any “global trend” or “internationalize” Chinese cultural products to specially fit Western audiences, nor impose limits by emphasizing the products are Chinese.

To make better use of good Chinese cultural products, more investment is needed so the whole cultural industry can prosper.