In the new sci-fi film. The Wandering Earth《流浪地球》, humans save the Earth without leaving it. In many-even most-space-themed films, whenever Earth faces a disaster(灾难), the1 is always running away from the planet in spaceships.
But the latest Chinese sci-fi movie, The Wandering Earth, offers a different and more ambitious idea. In the film, based on a short story by Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, Earth is in danger of being destroyed by the dying sun. In reply, humans around the world work 2 to build a huge engine system that will push Earth away from the dying sun.3 giving up Earth-again-this time we're taking it with us.
This "ambition" didn't come from nowhere. For thousands of years," homeland" has had a soft point in 4 of Chinese people. One old idiom is "luoyeguigen", which means returning to one's homeland at the old age, like 5 leaves return to the roots of their trees. Or there is an ancient poem, "The season called the White Dew begins tonight: Nowhere as in our native place is the moon so bright". These6 show the tight link that Chinese people have had with their homeland.
This special cultural background is probably the key 7separates The Wandering Earth from Hollywood-style space films.
"What is Chinese sci-fi?"Guo Fan, the film's director, said in an interview. "A movie that can really 8our cultural and spiritual view can be called Chinese sci-fi. Or, we're just copying others and telling the same American stories."
And the makers of The Wandering Earth may have chosen the best time to tell its Chinese sci-fi story. The film was released on Feb 5th, the first day of Chinese New Year. It was a time when many people had just made the 9journey back to their hometowns.
So to them, there is only one possible way to tell the story. Earth10wherever humans go, because it's our home forever.
