What question did this study set out to answer?

To explore how Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem serves as a metaphor for colonial encounters and ideologies.

February 9, 2026

Cosmic empire: Colonialism and postcolonial thought in Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem

HZHong ZengSouthwest Jiaotong University

Key Points

To explore how Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem serves as a metaphor for colonial encounters and ideologies.
Applied postcolonial theory, focusing on works by Fanon, Said, Spivak, Loomba, and Santos.
Analyzed thematic elements related to domination, collaboration, and resistance in the novel.
Examined the interplay between the cosmic setting and historical contexts.
The novel reflects ideological fragmentation characteristic of colonial discourse.
It demonstrates the complexities of domination and the potential for resistance against oppressors.
Cosmic elements accentuate historical crises rather than provide an escape from them.

Abstract

Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem (2006), the first novel in his acclaimed Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, is often celebrated for its integration of hard science, Chinese political history, and cosmic imagination. This paper applies postcolonial theory—particularly the works of Fanon, Said, Spivak, Loomba, and Santos—to read The Three-Body Problem as a sustained metaphor for colonial encounter, ideological fragmentation, and epistemic subjugation. In doing so, it demonstrates that the novel’s cosmic setting and futuristic plot serve not to escape history but to reinscribe and magnify its central crises: domination, collaboration, and the uncertain possibility of resistance.

Ask AI

Helpful

Bookmark

View Full Paper