Haven’t seen the Netflix adaptation, but portraying the red guards during the cultural revolution as anti-science goons that beat up physics professors for teaching Einstein is already in the book, and that view of them is in fact the official party line under Dengism. The cultural revolution was at its core a struggle session between the left and the right wing of the party about whether to exterminate any and all vestiges of reactionary thought in the PRC or whether to search a policy of equidistance between the USSR and the USA and then open up the economy and integrate the country into capitalist world trade to develop its productive forces. As we see today, the faction that the Gang of Four referred to as “capitalist roaders” won and their decisions have completely reshaped how China is today.

I’m not saying any of this to be sectarian, as i am torn on the subject myself, ideologically siding with the left wing of the CPC, but also seeing the success of Deng’s reforms in the realm of realpolitik and productive development. I particularly invite everybody who is better versed on the history of the CPC than i am to correct mistakes in this post, and if anybody can compare changes in how the scene is shown in the book vs how it is adapted for western audiences by Netflix, this would also be a welcome addition. Just saying that this isn’t an idea that’s new to the Netflix version, and that the original version isn’t a Western “communism hates science”, but a Dengist “ultras hate science”.