A study on the international communication effect of Chinese Sci-Fi films and TV series based on LDA topic modeling: a case study of English reviews of the Chinese and American versions of The Three-Body Problem

With Chinese science fiction films and TV series gradually entering the international stage, this study focuses on English-language reviews on IMDb and Letterboxd. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, it analyzes the international reception of the Chinese sci-fi work The Three-Body Problem, aiming to uncover the main discussion points and differences in attention among foreign audiences for the two versions of The Three-Body Problem through text-mining techniques. The findings reveal differences between the two versions in terms of target audience, cultural presentation, adaptation evaluation, and focus in plot discussion. Moreover, this study explores new pathways for Chinese sci-fi media to go global from four dimensions: channel, content, communicator, and recipient. The study provides not only a novel perspective for understanding the international influence of Chinese sci-fi media but also empirical support for strategies in the international dissemination of Chinese cultural products.