BEIJING (Xinhua) – The final episode of Chinese audio drama Three-Body was released recently on online audio platform Ximalaya to rave reviews from netizens.
This marked the completion of the 100-episode radio drama based on Liu Cixin's Hugo Award-winning sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem.
The news made headlines on China's social media sites, with the hashtag "How do you like Three-Body radio drama" generating about 75 million reads on Weibo as of Thursday (Jan 20).
"It's the same experience as watching an awesome sci-fi movie, not through your eyes, but by immersing yourself in a universe created by sound effects and voices," wrote a Weibo user, calling the blend of radio drama genre and popular novel "beautiful".
Created by 729 Voice Studio, a Chinese voice actor brokerage company, the project saw its first episode go on air in November 2019 and has since been updated regularly for over two years.
Boasting a total of 115 million hits, the Three-Body radio drama currently tops the popularity chart on Ximalaya, according to data from the platform.
An audiobook of the original novel is also available on Ximalaya and it has 300 million hits.
The Three-Body Problem is the first book in a sci-fi trilogy that revolves around physicist Ye Wenjie's contact with the Trisolaran civilisation living in a three-sun system, and follows the centuries-long clashes between earthlings and the aliens.
Chinese sci-fi fans have greatly anticipated film and television adaptations of the critically acclaimed trilogy and any pertinent news gains great traction within China's online community.
Tencent Video revealed in November last year that the television drama Three-Body was on its list of dramas to be released or pursued by the online streaming platform in 2022.
The Wandering Earth, another sci-fi novel by Liu Cixin, became a blockbuster film in 2019 and made 4.68 billion yuan (S$1 billion) at the Chinese box office.
Artmotion Asia
