a movie/book/story needs a protagonist. All that building that goes on off-screen is the meat and potatoes of the solution, yes the daughter has a breakthrough

a movie/book/story needs a protagonist. All that building that goes on off-screen is the meat and potatoes of the solution, yes the daughter has a breakthrough realisation, but the realisation is for nothing if the infrastructure isnt there. I think the 3body problem has a similar theme, the protagonist is central to the story, without him stuff does/doesnt happen, but the infrastructure (which in the main happens off camera) is built and deployed by the many not an individual, of course some solutions (trying not to spolier anything) are dependant on one individual. I guess my point is that there isnt much difference between western and chinese sci-fi but chinese sci-fi also has to please the chinese government to be allowed to be published, so that also needs to be considered.