Individualism and Collectivism in the Search for a New Home

Earth as an uninhabitable planet seems both like fictions as well as a foreseeable future. In recent years, more and more apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction is being produced in reaction to climate change and the environmentally disastrous path we see ourselves going down with. Both Interstellar and The Wandering Earth are films within the genre. However, being produced in different cultures, the fundamental ideas they engage with are drastically different. While Interstellar approaches the search for a new home through individualism, an American ideology, The Wandering Earth approaches the same issue through collectivism, a Chinese ideology. While Christopher Nolan deconstructs the idea of individualism into love and personal connection, complexing the concept, making it personable; the explicit manner in showing collectivism in The Wandering Earth makes the theme ideological and shown as propaganda.

With the past decade breaking more climate change records than ever, the possibility of Earth becoming an uninhabitable planet begins to seem increasingly real. In fact, the decade from 2010 to 2019 concludes the hottest decade ever recorded.[1] With both Interstellar and The Wandering Earth produced in the 2010s, they both exhibit climate problems and their reactions to them. While Interstellar describes the problem of food shortage and desertification, The Wandering Earth is set in the future where the Sun is dying. However, the similarity between the films does not stop here. Both films set out into space, outside of our solar system and galaxy, for the quest for a new home. Both films center on stories of a family, where the father leaves the children behind in achieving an impossible mission. Both films start with nostalgic scenes where the families enjoy earthly activities, such as camping and baseball.

Despite all the similarity in the premises and structures, the underlying themes used in approaching the quest is very different. However, these themes each adhere to the culture, value, and ideological context where the films exist in.

In Interstellar, the notion that ultimately saves humanity is the deconstructed American individualism that has been manifested as love and connection between Cooper and his daughter, Murph. Ever since the American revolution, individualism has been an important part of American culture. The Lockean ideology of the pursuit of individual freedom and happiness has become a core value of America today.[2] It has manifested in all aspects of culture and society and built up the American political, social, and economic system, from valuing autonomy to respecting personal space to praising independence.[3] As Interstellar is set in future Colorado and produced in 2014 U.S., this notion of American individualism prevails. In the movie, before going on the mission to one of the planets where one hour of its time equals seven earth-years, the protagonist Cooper, recourses to minimize time loss because he does not want to miss out on his children’s lives. Cooper’s appreciation in family and personal connection are reflective of American individualism. Though this emphasis on personal sentiment seems counterintuitive in the search for a new home for the entire humanity, it is exactly these sentiments that ultimately save it in the film. As the film develops, the viewers would later learn that Murph’s ghost, who young Murph believes is trying to communicate, turns out to be Cooper from the future. It is the connection between Cooper and his daughter that brought Cooper into the Tesseract, the five-dimensional space where he goes back in time. And it is the faith that Murph had for her father that leads her to decode the message, saving humanity. Just like one of the lines in the film explicitly states, “love is the only thing that transcends through time and space.”[4] In a way, Nolan is able to complex the concept of American individualism, deconstructing and reconstituting it as the more personable concepts of love and connection, and use it as the building block of finding hope and thus a new home for humankind.

Forming great contrast to individualism in Interstellar is the idea of collectivism in The Wandering Earth. Though approaching the same issue of finding a new home for humanity, in the 2019 Chinese film, collectivism and loyalty to the state are the ideas that ultimately save humanity. The root of collectivism in China traces back to Confucius of Ancient China, a philosopher who promoted “benevolence,” “courtesy,” and the pursuit of communal good.[5] During the independence of China, such ideology alongside the collectivism that exists inherently in Communism accentuated its importance and manifested itself into all aspects of culture and society, from political structure to economic configuration to military tactics to family values, which then permeated into today.[6] Stories of war heroes who “used their lives in exchange for the new China today” are still being told in classrooms today. One is expected to make sacrifices if it benefits the common goal. This type of collectivist ideology is reflected in The Wandering Earth. Towards the end of the movie, when it seems like all has given up, the team of the protagonist, Liu Qi, sticks through for the greater purpose of finding a future.[7] Few have survived because they all have understood the need for sacrifice in the process of achieving a greater goal. In fact, it is the mutual understanding of sacrifice and then collaboration between Liu Qi and his father, Liu Peiqiang, that successfully ignites the outer atmosphere of Saturn, launching Earth into a safe path, saving the planet and humankind. However, unlike Nolan, the director Frant Gwo chooses not to transcend such ideology into any idea beyond its cultural-political indication. The explicit manner in which the father decides to sacrifice himself and the expectation of Li Qi’s understanding of his behavior reinforces the ideology of sacrifice. It draws resemblance back to the stories of war heroes and thus can be seen as a way of propagating collectivism.

Based on the same premises, the individualist way that the American film approaches the search for a new home is inherently different from the collectivist way that the Chinese film does. In each case, ideologies that are specific to each culture pervade. Though these ideologies are considered dominant for each culture, they are not mutually exclusive. There are traces of collectivism in Interstellar and American culture; there are also considerations of individualism in The Wandering Earth and Chinese culture. Then it is interesting to consider the relationship and tension between the two ideologies. What is the indication of such tension in each film? How does it penetrate through society? How can we use the understanding of each ideology to better understand each culture? How can we use such understanding to better collaborate between both cultures?

[1] Alejandra Borunda, “This Decade Broke All Kinds of Climate Records-and Not in a Good Way,” Science (National Geographic, February 11, 2021), https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-decade-we-finally-woke-up-to-climate-change.

[2] Eric Daniels, “A Brief History of Individualism in American Thought,” in For the Greater Good of All: Perspectives in Individualism, Society, and Leadership (New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), SpringerLink PDF, p. 72.

[3] Ava Rosenbaum, Amelia Spalter, and Siena Capone, “Personal Space and American Individualism,” Brown Political Review, October 31, 2018, https://brownpoliticalreview.org/2018/10/personal-space-american-individualism/.

[4] Christopher Nolan, Interstellar, (2014; Los Angeles, CA: Paramount Pictures, 2014), Swank Digital Campus.

[5] Yang Liu and Congzhou Yang, “Analysis of Sino-American Family Education Differences: Collectivistic or Individualistic? – Taking the Glass Castle as an Example,” International Education Studies Vol. 11, No. 8 (July 28, 2018): p. 52, https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v11n8p51.

[6] Xiaoshuo Huo, Community Capitalism in China: The State, the Market, and Collectivism, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), ProQuest, p. 31-65.

[7] Frant Gwo, The Wandering Earth, (2019; China: China Film Group Corporation, 2019), Netflix.