How family trauma played a role in '3 Body Problem'

Cultural revolution scenes haunt show's co-creator Alexander Woo

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Opening scene of Netflix's "3 Body Problem." (Netflix)

SUSAN HORNIK, Contributing writer

LOS ANGELES -- Netflix's adaptation of the Chinese sci-fi novel "3 Body Problem," which depicts physics professor Ye Zhetai's "struggle session" during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, was particularly haunting for Alexander Woo, one of the show's creators.

During the brutal first episode, which takes place at Beijing's Tsinghua University in 1966, a young Ye Wenjie watches in agony as her father Zhetai is brought onstage and beaten to death by members of the Red Guard -- a student-led militant group endorsed by Chairman Mao Zedong.

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