Cixin Liu is a Bad Person
The Chinese author Cixin Liu [1] is most known for his book The Three Body Problem and it’s sequels. One of the main plot elements in the book is that every species in the universe is cool with genocide and willing to commit genocide as a preemptive strike against any star system found to contain intelligent life.
It’s not unreasonable to think that some planets may be by run societies like that, if one star system in 10,000 had a technological society and one society in 10,000 is run by depraved autocratic governments that would make 1,000+ planets in our galaxy that are run by genocidal groups!
To think that every single society wants to commit genocide at every opportunity says a lot about every person who makes such claims. If you believe that everyone wants to do something then it must be something you really want to do. If there’s something you really don’t want to do then you will be able to imagine a system of government where the majority of citizens vote against doing it.
Even in the more horrible parts of human history there hasn’t been a genocide comparable to destroying and entire star system, genocide is usually based on slavery and large scale armed robbery. To just commit large scale genocide with a side effect of destroying valuable resources without any investigation or attempts at negotiation just based on fear of others is an extreme that I don’t think humans have reached in history.
The Daleks are portrayed as a perverse extreme of xenophobia but even with the low budget SciFi trend of depicting aliens as mostly having a common belief system they managed to show some Daleks going against their system from time to time. Cixin Liu is a very talented writer but his attitude towards genocide has caused him to write SciFi with a major plot point that’s not great by Dr Who standards.
Overall his short stories are much better than the three novels he is most known for. But he shows his ass in some of them too. One notable example is a short story where a significant plot point is declaring a “right to sex” (for men) which involves government sponsored sex workers. A “right to sex” conflicts with a sex workers right to refuse sex for a potential client who is undesirable in some way. Regardless of opinions on whether sex work should be permitted I hope that the vast majority of voters in every jurisdiction can agree that sex workers shouldn’t be forced to do things that they don’t want to do.
Some writers like George Orwell create deliberately fictional scenarios that they hope to inspire opposition to bad ideas, I’m sure that many proposed laws have failed to get enacted after being described as “Orwellian”. But describing a fictional horror situation as inevitable is a way of driving support for such things. It’s particularly noteworthy when written by a citizen of a country that’s involved in genocide.
A possible counter argument would be “but he is living in a repressive country and can’t oppose his government”. But when Hergé (the author of the Tintin graphic novels) was threatened about the consequences of writing another book like King Ottokar’s Sceptre [2] he didn’t write books in favour of authoritarianism, he just avoided the topic by writing about visiting the moon instead. I don’t think that people living in China now should be expected to publicly oppose evil things done by their government, but when they go out of their way to support such things it’s their choice and we should note that they made that choice.
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t read his work as his short stories are definitely worth reading. But the Three Body Problem series really isn’t that good, he prevented many potentially interesting situations from happening by having every interaction between different species be based around genocide or the potential for it. Being a horrible person also made him a less capable SciFi author.
12 thoughts on “Cixin Liu is a Bad Person”
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I had a weird feeling reading Three Body. I just left it off as a difference between cultures, but maybe it was more than that?
I think your reasoning is flawed; it may, in fact, be influenced by your lifestyle.
As for the conclusions you draw regarding an opinion or view on a ‘scenario’, a plot, a narrative thread, a theory of evolution or political fiction – which is your right, since these are, after all, merely opinions – they strike me as having been voiced or written following a ‘special evening of discovering local beers’.
Every work has its readers, just as every product has its customers; it’s a shame to try to put others off it simply because you don’t like it.
That’s not a healthy attitude.
dgm: The cultural differences were apparent in the first book covering the Communist revolution, which was very interesting to me. The later books had a strange combination of sometimes having too much cohesion in society and sometimes going straight to disputes that seem unlikely – such as the ships capable of transport to other solar systems suddenly declaring war on each other.
2200_ctl: What “lifestyle” is it you believe I have which leads me to wrong conclusions?
It’s not an opinion on a plot or narrative thread, it’s an opinion on the type of person who assumes that everyone in every culture desires genocide.
If we are going to talk about the things that determine which theories get voiced then the fact that you aren’t brave enough to sign your name to your opinions is noteworthy.
You criticise me for “try to put others off it” when I recommended reading his short stories while you had nothing positive to say about anything. I really doubt that someone who can’t articulate any positive aspect of their hero and just criticises people who disagree while not even being willing to sign their name to their opinions is going to encourage anyone to read anything.
Are you a fan of the orange idiot or Pooh Bear?
2200_ctl: Strangely WordPress has a disposable email address for the email address field but didn’t display the field that has your actual email address in the dashboard view or the user edit view. So I didn’t see your actual email address until after writing my previous comment.
@etbe
I don’t wish to be in conflict with people who seek knowledge and culture, and I have nothing against opinions on the subject, however diverse, incongruous, exotic or even absurd they may be.
So we won’t debate the psychosociological data (an American specialty) or the history of peoples and civilizations (a European cultural tradition)—both of which the author has drawn on extensively, including many significant events. They clearly show that war, the destruction of others to the point of extinction (or reducing them to the lowest common denominator/multiple), and “genocide”—a rather odd word—are undeniable facts. It is quite literally a “human” trait that distinguishes us from our fellow creatures (I believe that line is also spoken in ). That, then, is the basis for what you call “the kind of person who assumes that everyone aspires to genocide.”
Of course, if you don’t like these historical and scientific references, that doesn’t stop you from enjoying other books and other authors.
As for these attempts to draw me into private discussions about me—or about you (it seems to be a question of personality, and apparently you enjoy educational disputes)—I have no ambition to change other people or to reveal “the truth” to them. I’m simply saying that your post about Cixin Liu was insulting and deserved a response.
It’s naïve to think that longevity and prosperity can be achieved by coexisting with the worst. So I suppose that, instinctively, life—wherever it exists—preserves itself by permanently eliminating every form of deadly poison, including the worst “beings.”
P.S. I don’t know who “the orange idiot” is, and “Winnie the Pooh” is a U.S. character.
?
Thank you for your attention.
err : (I believe that line is also spoken in *Planet of the Apes*.)
err : ? = It was an emoticon.
; )
2200_ctl: War and genocide have happened throughout recorded history. The recent civilisations that have engaged in genocide have found that it takes a significant toll on people who do it. If you read WW2 history you will see that a lot of effort was involved in developing systems for mass murder that gave enough psychological distance to allow the people who did it to function normally afterwards. Genocide is not a human trait (animals do it routinely). Having psychological problems leading to suicide after being involved in genocide is a human trait.
There is no scientific reference for genocide as a standard practice without the motivation of theft. There is no historical reference for genocide applied in a manner that Cixin proposes (the US could have wiped out the USSR and China after defeating Japan but chose not to).
If you feel that someone needed to defend Cixin’s honour in this regard then someone who knows what is meant by winnie the pooh in this context would be much better qualified to do so.
But please don’t try to tell me that being “insulting” is bad after criticising my “lifestyle” and claiming that I was drunk while writing this post. Obviously insults are something you are happy with and it’s just a question of who should be insulted. I suggest that if there’s going to be some restrictions on who can be the subject of insults in blog posts in the FOSS community then the restriction should be on insulting members of the FOSS community, not on outsiders, and definitely not on public figures.
The word “genocide” dates from 1944.
It was coined by the jurist Raphael Lemkin
from the Greek *genos* (“people” or “group”) and the Latin *-cide* (“killing”).
Raphael Lemkin was Jewish and Polish.
He was born in the Russian Empire, in a village that is now in Belarus.
I don’t know what you mean by the word “genocide” here (Australian? A meaning handed down from the Dreamtime?).
It has been known for a very long time—several millennia, tens of millennia
that the total extermination
of targeted individuals, families, tribes, clans, peoples, species, races, or “communities”
is exclusively HUMAN in origin, not animal at all.
It is a defining feature of human history, a commonplace, a fact.
And it is not traumatic before, during, or after the event.
It is likely that this will continue until the end of humankind.
Is there an eternal law that predicts
that the same thing happens elsewhere, in another dimension, another spacetime?
This is the subject of many works and theories.
So it is reasonable to think
that this is a trait of dominance or intelligence
or perhaps a primitive instinct common to all forms of life?
We kill for no reason, and for pleasure too.
That is reality.
* @etbe There is no connection with 1944, unless Cixin Liu’s science-fiction book is set in that period, which I may have missed.
No, he is not a bad person; as for China, you know nothing of its history or worth.
* @etbe (The United States could have annihilated the USSR and China after defeating Japan, but chose not to.)
They did not choose; they were forced by a balance of power,
under threat of exclusion for … genocide and considerable loss of life … a vicious cycle—this, too, is documented.
* @etbe I have trouble understanding
what “public figures,” “Winnie the Pooh,” “honor,” “looting,” “the Second World War,” “genocide,” “Jewish,” “Polish,” and “1944”
have to do with a four-volume book by an honorable Chinese writer
who has done nothing to you except be famous and talented.
* @etbe Your writing reeks of hatred and jealousy, and that is shameful.
If you want to write an article or a literary or political review of this author, it might be useful (this is not a suggestion) to take courses in journalism, history, science, civilizations, languages, and another thirty or so related fields.
Since you have my email address, I suggest we continue this conversation by private message if you wish.
Thank you for your attention.
; )
https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/learn-about-genocide-and-other-mass-atrocities/what-is-genocide
I think this is a good definition of genocide.
Using modern words to describe things that happened in the past is the only way to go. Otherwise there is no possibility of discussing things that happened before the languages we all know existed.
Skip the derogatory comments about Aboriginal culture, the discussion does not concern that.
If you believe that genocide is a natural and common thing why are you getting so emotional about defending Cixin Liu and the Chinese government? Why not just say “genocide is no big deal, the Chinese government is not bad for doing it, and Cixin Liu isn’t bad for claiming it’s normal”? I won’t agree with you on that but it’s clear that we aren’t going to agree.
“Your writing reeks of hatred and jealousy, and that is shameful.” This is very amusing, thanks for the laugh.
If you want to campaign against insulting people it might be useful (this is not a suggestion) to refrain from insulting other people while doing so.
I am not at all interested in having a private email discussion with you. The effort required to interpret what you are writing is too great.
Interesting post, Russell! Tintin (Tim und Struppi – here in Germany) was a huge part of my childhood, so your paragraph about Hergé immediately caught my eye. However, out of curiosity, I used an AI assistant to double-check the historical timeline, and your parallel regarding Hergé is factually incorrect and not supported by the Wikipedia article you linked.
Hergé was never threatened by the Gestapo because of King Ottokar’s Sceptre, nor did he escape into space to avoid authoritarianism.
According to authoritative English-language sources—specifically Pierre Assouline‘s biography “Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin” (Oxford University Press, 2009) and backed up by the Hergé Wikipedia article under the World War II section—the exact opposite happened: After the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, Hergé chose to work for Le Soir, a major newspaper that had been seized and turned into a pro-German, collaborationist organ.
To keep drawing his strip and avoid political trouble with the Nazi military administration, Hergé voluntarily pivoted to strictly non-political, escapist stories like The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941) or Red Rackham’s Treasure (1944). The Moon books (Destination Moon) were written much later, between 1950 and 1954, long after the war.
The only time Hergé faced real threats and arrests (he was detained four times by different groups) was AFTER the liberation of Belgium in 1944, when he was blacklisted and accused of being a wartime collaborator for working under the Nazi regime. While your moral argument about choosing between collaboration and resistance stands, Hergé is unfortunately a prime example of an opportunistic artist who chose to look the other way to continue his work, rather than an active resistor who fled into the stars.
As this was largely created with help from a LLM, it still might contain factual errors.
cassiel: Thanks for the information, it’s sad to learn that Herge wasn’t the good guy he was made out to be. I didn’t do much googling the topic when writing this post as it’s not the main point and I relied on some mainstream media coverage of him that I had read in the past (before Google).
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the author of “Tintin in the Congo” isn’t a great guy, that book was really obviously racist to me when I read it and being obviously racist by the standards of Australian primary school students in the 80s is quite an achievement!