Chiu-Ti Jansen

Why China’s sci-fi community is embracing ‘Love, Death & Robots’ as the nation transforms into a technological leader

It’s not just titillation – the graphic Netflix series’ convenient format, references to China and sci-fi themes appeal to a society remade by technological advancement

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Gamers play on computers in an internet bar in Beijing. China’s increasingly wired population has made the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots a hit there, even though Netflix is not available in China. Photo: AFP

Chiu-Ti Jansen

Published: 7:00am, 30 Mar 2019Updated: 12:23pm, 16 Apr 2019

Following its March 15 Netflix debut, the animated sci-fi series Love, Death & Robots has attracted over 100,000 comments and a score of 9.3 on China’s social media network Douban. To put that into perspective, Wolf Warrior 2, the highest-grossing film in China – shown on more than 19,000 cinema screens – has had around 620,000 comments and a score of 7.1 mark on the same site.

Netflix is not available in China, and with the series’ propensity for titillation, it will probably never officially be shown there. How, then, has it carved out a niche following?

Hard-core sci-fi fans and housebound gamers have built a Chinese subculture on the lookout for cutting-edge cinematic expressions in tune with their virtual lives. It certainly does not hurt that the masterminds behind the shows – David Fincher of House of Cards and Tim Miller of Deadpool – are well known. Even People’s Daily and Xinhua republished a review of the series from The Beijing News.

Love, Death & Robots is a series of 18 standalone films of disparate themes, styles and lengths (6-18 minutes), that has been compared to “an R-rated take on the Black Mirror formula”. In a society where short videos have become a predominant form of creative expression, Chinese netizens think these episodes are meant to be consumed within the time span of a bowl of instant noodles.

More importantly, as Kai-Fu Lee argues in AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, while the US leads in AI discoveries, China leads in AI implementation. It’s no exaggeration to say AI is now inscribed into China’s “national psyche”, with shows such as CCTV’s Artificial Intelligence vs Human Intelligence and Hunan TV Network’s I am the Future turning robots into household names.

Also, Chinese fans believe that The Wandering Earth has ushered in an age of sci-fi films in China. With Liu Cixin and Hao Jingfang winning the Hugo Award in 2015 and 2016, sci-fi has become the stage to showcase China’s new literary talent, drawn to the energy and escapism, as well as a world of less political sensitivity.