5 ms·

China is using mythology and sci-fi to sell its space program to the world

12 points by olvy0 5y ago

Normille 5y ago
TL;DR; China is actually showing a bit of creativity and pride in its cultural heritage, by drawing on its folklore, when naming aspects of its space programme. Contrast with Europe's excruciating aping of the US practice of contriving godawful acronyms when naming everything. Because it's not like Europe has any culture or folklore to draw upon, in these circumstances, is it?
- yeuxardents 5y ago
  There are a few Chinese SciFi movies on various streaming platforms that I stumbled across. They were quite interesting, in putting forth this 'Chinese vision of the space exploration future'. They were less dark and dismal like shows such as The Expanse, and more forward looking and positive, while still having 'cataclysmic events to be overcome' They were interesting to watch. On a side note a lot of western futuristic scifi in the last 20 years has future, eg +100 years, languages consisting of pidgin of english, chinese, primarily with smatterings of french and german.
  - bawolff 5y ago
    > On a side note a lot of western futuristic scifi in the last 20 years has future, eg +100 years, languages consisting of pidgin of english, chinese, primarily with smatterings of french and german. Pretty sure all that means is firefly was really popular, and everyone is falling over themselves to copy it.
    - yeuxardents 5y ago
      Thats possible, but I have watched a lot of scifi that occurred prior to firefly and after, and this was more or less the case. Of course thats anecdotal from my memory. Now, I just saw, no idea how I missed it, Space Truckers from 1996, with Dennis Hopper! I never would have pegged him to do a movie like that. Its 1000% worth seeing for its sheer nuttery. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120199/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120199/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOqLOErhZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOqLOErhZA Its top of my list of most ridiculous movies.
  - Rebelgecko 5y ago
    If you haven already seen it, you might enjoy the Korean movie Space Sweepers. I think there's about a dozen spoken languages in the movie
- flohofwoe 5y ago
  Erm, the European rocket is called "Ariane". Also if you look up the names of ESA missions, there's plenty of references to European culture (mainly Greek mythology and European scientists).
bawolff 5y ago
So? The most famous american space program is literally named after Apollo.
Proven 5y ago
There's nothing to "sell", we don't have to "buy in" or pay for it. And those who do, don't have a choice. Like the US they use taxpayer money to advance agenda of various interest (politicians, crony capitalists, state sector). It's just another form of plunder, albeit better than bio weapons research.
babesh 5y ago
A related activity is that they are broadcasting the launches and space activity. I found it on YouTube under CGTN. YouTube marks it as sponsored by the Chinese government. Funny that they don’t do the same for NASA. Politics aside, what is more interesting is that the commentators provide excellent technical information and it is in English. They talk about the suits, the rockets, space station, astronauts, plans to go the moon, etc… China is playing the long game of soft power by providing this information and pushing their world view. https://youtu.be/cburnLophMs https://youtu.be/cburnLophMs
- melesian 5y ago
  > China is playing the long game of soft power by providing this information and pushing their world view. Change China to the USA to see the absurdity of this.
  - vimacs2 5y ago
    I don't see the absurdity frankly though perhaps you mean hypocracy. Both superpowers love to exercise soft power as well as the kind backed up by munitions.
    - babesh 5y ago
      Yes, the US does the same thing. Apparently the poster failed to point out that I called out YouTube for calling out the channel as a China government voice but didn’t do so for NASA which also has a channel on YouTube.
      - vimacs2 5y ago
        Tbh, I actually will take the possibly controversal stance that I do not think governments, foreign or otherwise should be prevented from broadcasting provided that they do not attempt to disrupt the broadcasts of others in the same network. Then it's simply a violation of ToS like any regular user. Problem is though that the networks always play favorites with governments they have business relations with or property in.

12 points by olvy0 5y ago

TL;DR; China is actually showing a bit of creativity and pride in its cultural heritage, by drawing on its folklore, when naming aspects of its space programme. Contrast with Europe's excruciating aping of the US practice of contriving godawful acronyms when naming everything. Because it's not like Europe has any culture or folklore to draw upon, in these circumstances, is it?

yeuxardents 5y ago
There are a few Chinese SciFi movies on various streaming platforms that I stumbled across. They were quite interesting, in putting forth this 'Chinese vision of the space exploration future'. They were less dark and dismal like shows such as The Expanse, and more forward looking and positive, while still having 'cataclysmic events to be overcome' They were interesting to watch. On a side note a lot of western futuristic scifi in the last 20 years has future, eg +100 years, languages consisting of pidgin of english, chinese, primarily with smatterings of french and german.
- bawolff 5y ago
  > On a side note a lot of western futuristic scifi in the last 20 years has future, eg +100 years, languages consisting of pidgin of english, chinese, primarily with smatterings of french and german. Pretty sure all that means is firefly was really popular, and everyone is falling over themselves to copy it.
  - yeuxardents 5y ago
    Thats possible, but I have watched a lot of scifi that occurred prior to firefly and after, and this was more or less the case. Of course thats anecdotal from my memory. Now, I just saw, no idea how I missed it, Space Truckers from 1996, with Dennis Hopper! I never would have pegged him to do a movie like that. Its 1000% worth seeing for its sheer nuttery. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120199/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120199/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOqLOErhZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOqLOErhZA Its top of my list of most ridiculous movies.
- Rebelgecko 5y ago
  If you haven already seen it, you might enjoy the Korean movie Space Sweepers. I think there's about a dozen spoken languages in the movie
flohofwoe 5y ago
Erm, the European rocket is called "Ariane". Also if you look up the names of ESA missions, there's plenty of references to European culture (mainly Greek mythology and European scientists).

bawolff 5y ago

So? The most famous american space program is literally named after Apollo.

Proven 5y ago

There's nothing to "sell", we don't have to "buy in" or pay for it. And those who do, don't have a choice. Like the US they use taxpayer money to advance agenda of various interest (politicians, crony capitalists, state sector). It's just another form of plunder, albeit better than bio weapons research.

babesh 5y ago

A related activity is that they are broadcasting the launches and space activity. I found it on YouTube under CGTN. YouTube marks it as sponsored by the Chinese government. Funny that they don’t do the same for NASA. Politics aside, what is more interesting is that the commentators provide excellent technical information and it is in English. They talk about the suits, the rockets, space station, astronauts, plans to go the moon, etc… China is playing the long game of soft power by providing this information and pushing their world view. https://youtu.be/cburnLophMs https://youtu.be/cburnLophMs

melesian 5y ago
> China is playing the long game of soft power by providing this information and pushing their world view. Change China to the USA to see the absurdity of this.
- vimacs2 5y ago
  I don't see the absurdity frankly though perhaps you mean hypocracy. Both superpowers love to exercise soft power as well as the kind backed up by munitions.
  - babesh 5y ago
    Yes, the US does the same thing. Apparently the poster failed to point out that I called out YouTube for calling out the channel as a China government voice but didn’t do so for NASA which also has a channel on YouTube.
    - vimacs2 5y ago
      Tbh, I actually will take the possibly controversal stance that I do not think governments, foreign or otherwise should be prevented from broadcasting provided that they do not attempt to disrupt the broadcasts of others in the same network. Then it's simply a violation of ToS like any regular user. Problem is though that the networks always play favorites with governments they have business relations with or property in.