China’s film authority hails ‘The Wandering Earth’
China’s top film authority on Wednesday praised domestic sci-fi film The Wandering Earth for promoting the concept of a community of shared future for mankind and providing a Chinese approach to dealing with potential catastrophes different from the West.
Wang Xiaohui, executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and director of the Film Bureau of National Radio and Television Administration, said at a seminar in Beijing that the film not only shows the collectivism, patriotism and family love rooted in traditional Chinese culture, but also manifests the Chinese people’s nonutilitarian, cosmopolitan and cooperative spirit, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Adapted from the short story written by Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin, the film topped the holiday film market. Released on February 5, the film raked in almost 4.1 billion yuan ($610 million) as of press time.
Wang noted that The Wandering Earth interprets China’s traditional and modern values, promotes the concept of a community of shared future for mankind and provides a Chinese approach, distinct from the West, in dealing with potential catastrophes.
He pointed out that the film’s success can be attributed to the values it established and the moral high ground it seized upon.
Other experts said the film started a new voyage for the Chinese sci-fi filmmaking.
It filled the gap of domestic sci-fi films, furthering the development of China’s film industry, and made great strides in exploring domestic film genres, innovating and upgrading China’s films.
Liu, the author, said that in the film, human beings were represented as a whole, not conflicts among different people or races, which reflects the concept of a community of shared future for mankind.
Hu Zhifeng, director of the School of Art and Communication at Beijing Normal University, said the film did not just simply adapt the “standard answer” – individualistic heroism – from Hollywood sci-fi films. It proposed a “China approach” of the United Earth Government.