The Romance of the Three Kingdoms in Today's Context

A video footage of a Chinese girl in school uniform comparing the Russo-Ukrainian conflict to "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has gone viral on the Internet. 

The schoolgirl is asked by her father "What do you think about the situation between Russia and Ukraine?" 

Although the question seems to be a little "beyond basic" for a school-aged child, the girl appears to only think for a moment, before she confidently starts responding in English. 

At the onset, she expresses sympathy for those who are suffering in the war, before saying that she has read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and thinks the situation between Russia and Ukraine is similar to it. 

"The US-led NATO (are) like the Cao Cao force", she says. "Russia is like the Jiang Dong under Sun Quan". 

Ukraine is the battleground of Jingzhou, caught between both sides in the conflict. 

The girl then further analyzes the situation: assuming that should Jingzhou be captured by Cao Cao, "there is no strategic buffer zone" anymore. Cao Cao can directly go down the river, which is a great threat to Sun Quan who feels threatened. 

In this predicament, Sun Quan decides he cannot sit idly by and just be at the other's mercy, and so he launches the Battle of Chibi or popularly referred to as the Battle of Red Cliffs. 

"Look at the conflict between Russia and Ukraine today, there is no difference from the time of the Three Kingdoms", the little girl asserts in the video. NATO want to expand eastward into Ukraine, and Russia, which is just next door, realizes it has to take punitive action. 

When asked about the "fate" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left), the little girl says, "Think about Liu Cong". In history, Liu Cong directly surrendered to Cao Cao without a fight, causing Jingzhou to be acquired effortlessly, and then gradually disappeared from the stage of history. 

Check out the said video here:

 

"Although a comparison with the Three Kingdoms, is not rigorous enough to draw a perfect analogy of the situation between Russia and Ukraine, the little girl clearly realized that the essence of the conflict lies in the continuous eastward expansion of NATO led by the US. She has integrated what she has learned from the story with what she learned from the news and then she was able to express her opinions in fluent English, this level of analysis surpasses that of many of her peers and even some adults", said one netizen on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. 

Many netizens praised the child for being cerebral and clear-thinking despite her young age. 

Global Times reported yesterday that the video impressed the Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary (left), who retweeted it many times on his Twitter account and was still recommending it as of May 09. 

Teodoro Locsin Jr. described it as “the smartest commentary” about the situation between Russia and Ukraine. He was full of praise, saying, "Her generation of Chinese is the hope of China and the world".

He even expressed his desire of possibly sending his granddaughter to China for education, "I want her to be a little girl with great insights like the one in the video".