How Genshin Impact Became China's Biggest Export
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- To be honest, I made this video so I can claim my Honkai Star Rail pulls as a tax write-off.
BGM Sources:
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Sources and further reading:
Cao, Yong, and John D.H. Downing. “The Realities of Virtual Play: Video Games and Their Industry in China.” Media, Culture & Society 30, no. 4 (2008): 515-29. doi.org/10.117....
Crawford, Robert J. "Reinterpreting the Japanese Economic Miracle" Harvard Business Review. hbr.org/1998/0...
Daly, Robert. "A Rise Without Shine: The Global Weakness of Chinese Culture." Wilson Center. www.wilsoncent...
Gao, George. "Why Is China so Un-cool?" Foreign Policy foreignpolicy....
Zhang, Lin. “Productive vs. Pathological: the Contested Space of Video Games in Post-Reform China (1980s-2012).” International journal of communication 7 (October 2013).
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I maintain that Genshin is probably the greatest cultural ambassador for Chinese culture in the world right now. Not just through the Liyue parts and its playable characters, though that has already done a great deal (see: exposing the world to Chinese opera, the annual Lantern Rite/Chinese New Year events, etc etc). Mihoyo’s official UA-cam channels also have full videos of Chinese cuisine being cooked, traditional Chinese art being crafted, and my favorite, an entire live action movie centered around a real life Lantern Festival and a father and son. (As a Chinese person myself I found that incredibly moving.) MiHoYo seems to be deeply conscious of its role as cultural ambassadors and I think can help reduce the xenophobia that is rising everywhere due to the geopolitical tensions.
But as you say-this creativity can only last as long as the heavy hand of censorship isn’t placed on them. MiHoYo has to walk a fine line. They’re great now but the bigger they get the more scrutiny they might receive.
The Yun Jin opera cutscene is probably one of the best cutscenes I've seen in any game.
I'd say even outside of chinese culture they do a good job representing other cultures that are often underrepresented (mind you they still have colorism issues) biggest one is sumeru and maybe fontaine aswell
It was the first time that I was interested in Chinese culture, Yun Jin cutscene is really beautiful
I hope the ccp government stays clear of the mihoyo business
@@kingalex105x7is it Chinese now? The company headquarters is not in China right now
This guy made a full-scale lection of chinese/japanese/korean history just to explain why genshin impact is so popular. it's pretty respectful
'lection' just learned a new word, thanks!
Korea？
as someone who was adopted from china and raised by white parents in a majority white town, i spent a lot of my life dealing with internalized racism and sinophobic sentiment. i’ve spent the last 6 years of my life really working on reconnecting with east asian and chinese culture. i was aware of genshin for a while but didn’t start playing it until this year, and the great sense of belonging from this celebration of chinese culture and pop culture, when everything in the news and my childhood regarding china was mostly negative, ended up meaning a lot to me. i know it’s still a fictional representation and loose interpretation of culture, but there’s something about my connection to genshin that kpop and anime never really gave me in the same way
Glad you are saving yourself from Western Culture. Reconnect with Han Chinese Bloodline.
Congrats on finding your true self. White culture is way more overrated and trash nowadays anyway
@@arnowisp6244they don’t need to save themselves from western culture wth ToT
@@arnowisp6244Ew... someone can identify with multiple populations in society. Bloodline is worth about as much as biological sex, which is to say little to none unless you're a raging bigot.
@arnowisp6244 Ew... you know people can relate to multiple populations in society right? Bloodline is worth about as much as whether you're male or female, which is to say not at all unless you're an extreme bigot- plus they've been dealing with racism all their life, so I can't imagine why you would think they need more of it.
I would also add that another factor of Genshin is that it's a high quality game that runs on mobile. Mobile games were known for puzzles, tower defense, card games, etc. Genshin is an open world action RPG that elevated the threshold for mobile games. I don't have high end PC, nor console, and for years my biggest gaming desire was to be able to play this kind of game. So when I got a new mobile that could run heavy games, Genshin was the first one that got my attention (I didn't know it was Chinese and I didn't even know what gacha was.) I remember I sent a message to my friend, told her I've found my dream game only for her she to give me a lot of warnings about the dangers of gacha xD
About Chinese censorship going against soft power, I remember how danmei novels started to get popular, how a friend of mine, who was never into asian pop culture, got addicted to Mo Dao Zu Shi and went head first into Chinese pop culture, just to have everything shut down by the government. My worries about the huge popularity of Genshin and HSR is the government going not only after character outfits, but also censoring the little homossexual romance nuances that Mihoyo loves to add in their stories...
It's the perfect game for what you're looking for, and your friend did the right thing, better to be safe than sorry to see you sink life savings into one game.
Dunno if the ccp will delete homo in hsr and genshin, but at least hi3 is safe
I'm just wondering why HI3, an earlier game that has good local and decent international presence can afford to make gays canon whereas genshin is barely dropping any hints. Heck Kaveh x Alhaitham is one of the most (if not most) "implied" ships yet there's nothing suggesting that either of them have romantic feelings for each other. Is it a Honkai thing or??
@@f4llenleaves Hi3 has never had as much of an impact, at least compared to genshin tho. Like it is big in its sphere, but Gi is like just big in china.
This was my very first thought too. The first Chinese media I truly saw getting popular was danmei and BL dramas and then what do do you know they all get censored and cancelled by CCP. I truly feel bad for creatives in China it really seems like there’s no winning. Similar thing happened with webtoons there. It’s such a shame. I’m really surprised Genshin even made it this far
As a straight man I honestly appreciate the spectrum of male characters in Genshin. Even as a weeb it feels weird how hard it is often to find male characters that are interesting in the media I like.
Yeap I am always one for balance and variety. I can enjoy playing be it Lara Croft or Geralt of Rivia.
Weeb wtf
I feel like there’s been a cultural shift in the past few decades. 20 years ago, it was the reverse. My mom knows very little about modern games but I showed her my Genshin account and she remarked enthusiastically that she was excited to see so many female characters in a video game. (Let’s ignore the fact that she was looking at Diluc, she must have mistaken him for Himeko)
as a gay woman I agree
But all the males are either little boys in shorts or stoic tall pretty boys. Very few characters break away from these two archetypes and im 100% sure they're gonna somehow fuck up a cool looking chad like capitano and turn him into another twink pretty boy
I'm frankly surprised what Mihoyo have been able to get away with for the genshin story. Think about the plot of Sumeru. A country of elites used technology promised to improve the lives of its citizens to create a giant surveillance state to monitor the thoughts and habits of its people and used ai learning to predict and quash any dissent before it can begin. In addition, said government does not value the lives of its citizens, using them in order to further the interests of the elites, without any concern for the interests of the civilians. It even oppresses a religious minority by either removing them from society or making them laborers. They also want to remove the old god and supplant it with a god they have complete control over, cementing their power. And the moral of the story is doing these things are bad. You could say a lot of countries are doing many of these things, but China is for sure doing all of them and the fact that they let this story seep through the cracks is crazy.
dayum I didn't even realize this kind of similarity between sumeru and chinese government until you mentioned it💀
I guess that as long as this kind of scenario isn't happening in Liyue (which is basically the embodiment of chinese propaganda), CCP will just let it slip pass
@@coriakacoron5851liyue represent china culture, not any political party.
@@rewer and no it isn't allowed to show any downside of china in reality, only the rare gems in its culture
so it is a propaganda as well
@@coriakacoron5851what kind of downsides that other genshin regions have that liyue doesnt ?
The lack of creative freedom is absolutely crazy in China. Video games, apps, movies, music, books, talkshows, literally everything requires government approval. Video games in particular requires a government-issued permit to be published, and god helps you when the government stops issuing such permit for no reason at all for years.
"Lack of creative freedom in China" has been one of the most ignorant takes on China I ever heard. Only people that know absolutely zero about the country would say this.
@@kingbaxter1945 I'm chinese, and I wonder what kind of creative freedom would you ever see in china? since it sounds like you know china better than anyone round here
@@kingbaxter1945 Please, we are still waiting for your insight.
Sheesh dude getting cooked here
@@hunterxiv6123 I'm feeling the heat already
Great video as always!
As a Korean-born living in America with basically 80% Chinese friend group who are also weebs, I found a lot of your thoughts aligned with mine.
I think I have a take on the popularity of genshin with the female market.
Mihoyo's roots have been more otaku-centric; honkai 3rd and other of their early lineups reflect the more traditional otaku market model.
The censors and government eyes were always closing in on Mihoyo, as the market got bigger, and I think Genshin might have been their attempt to make a game that would be less scrutinized, and in the process gained a more mass market appeal, a sort of creative restriction that was able to birth something productive.
Blue Archive being the antithesis of that is quite resonating; a game, from ground-up, built to appeal to the otaku market, that could even compete with Genshin within Japan at times because of that lazer focus on the wants and needs of their hardcore audience. I still remember the time where my twitter timeline was just 90% Kisaki art, truly terrifying stuff.
ps- nice pronunciation of park chung hee btw, that was str8 up native
I think it's interesting that a lot of the hardcore otaku gachas like Blue Archive and Nikke come out of Korea now. Probably because the art would get censored in China. BA is only now coming out in China, almost two years after it came out for Global.
The Korean pronunciation is a product of living with a Korean girlfriend lol
@@gomi-san I wonder how they are going to localize Chairman Nyao Trying to kill a sparrow 💀💀💀
@@dhk117rp That's probably why it took two years to localize. I'm curious how the game is going to look, considering how much people freaked out when they censored the Arisu cutscene for global.
Stop the cap
Good point on mihoyo's roots - i'm not sure if you've seen it, but there's a video floating around youtube of da wei from the early days of mihoyo at an investment competition where he mentions this exact strategy, first capture the otaku market and then expand out to non-otakus.
It's titled [EN SUB] Wei and Mihoyo back in 2011
Edit: it's also really funny watching him explain otaku culture to middle-aged business men
Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed you didnt talk about The Untamed/Mó Dão Zu Shi. Before Genshin, that was by far the most successful Chinese cultural export in history, being one of the most successful shows in the world surpassing despite not only being extremely long but also distinctively chinese. Danmei has grown so much in popularity, its a bit insane actually, specially considering there's a strong governmental pushback against it in China, with the other highly antecipated adaptation by that same author (Heaven's Official Blessing/TGCF) being stuck in censorship limbo for years.
As a fan of both MDZS and Genshin, I completely agree! I'm glad that the donghua managed to get away with as much as it did tbh. I've never been so invested in Chinese culture (especially the music and the clothing) until these two. Both are absolute gems with an incredibly rich story, with both going against their own government in the process.
Agreed! Personally, Genshin is what got me more interested in China and its culture, but MDZS and Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's other works are what sparked much more interest to the point I finally had the motivation to focus on learning Mandarin rather than constantly pushing it to the wayside after a few study sessions. I feel out of the two, MDZS does more for China than Genshin does, especially since MDZS has a proper focus on China specifically rather than a bunch of different nations at once like Genshin. Liyue is such a small part of genshin now that it feels almost obsolete (to me) until the new year updates roll around or new characters appear. I think Heaven Official's Blessing is also getting a second season of its donghua this year or at least soon?
The only other form of modern Chinese cultural media I'm aware of that's become relatively popular in the West is BL (danmei) novels. In the past couple of years, most of the bookstores I've gone to are stock full of Chinese BL novels, including the "big three" from MXTX, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Scum Villain, and Heaven Official's Blessing, but also other ones like Guardian, The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Thousand Autumns, Stars of Chaos, etc. They've definitely not become as popular as Genshin has since they appeal to a narrower audience, but I still think it's interesting how much they've caught on in the last few years. The animes for Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official's Blessing definitely helped paved the way for this, along with The Untamed and Word of Honor, but it's still pretty interesting how the most common Chinese animes/dramas/books in the West today are almost all BL, especially when you consider that China censors BL content a lot more than Japan or Korea does---a lot of these books have explicitly LGBT characters and sometimes even sexual scenes, but these are always removed or at least de-emphasized in the anime/drama adaptations.
I mean danmei loves have mostly had a cultural backdrop of xianxia. Which was already popular at some point, but definitely doesn't really appeal to the average fujoshi or romance binger.
It’s really interesting how most people who consume Chinese media find it through first finding Korean or Japanese media. I see this all the time and even I was a part of this pipeline. For me it was anime to kpop to chinese literature both modern and classic and through that I have been discovering cpop and cdramas and video games
Okay so Mihoyo is actually "Tech otakus save China" lol
That was their first. Hahahha. Now they changed it 😂😂
For most of my life I always struggled to embrace my cultural identity due to growing up in a mainly western country and always being exposed to scrutiny and racism. At a point in time I had wished I was at least born from a country like Korea or Japan which deals with less scrutiny because of geopolitics. When Genshin released and I got to play it, it really was a comfort game I needed this entire time to show me the beauty in my own culture. This is quite dumb to say but Genshin literally changed my life and views on my own identity so it’ll always have a place in my heart no matter what kind of problems it may have or face.
You ought to fight against the disgusting racism against your ethnicity, not against your ethnicity. Chinese is one of the most awesome civilizations in this World, and helped it become better (and keeps helping) in many many ways. One just have to read a Chinese history book and they will see it. Be proud and always blame Qianlong haha.
Agree with most point. Huge Disagree with the Japan depiction of Inazuma and Iiyue of China is biased against Japan. Because the Inazuma is 1 for 1 depiction of the Edo Japan. Which banned all the swords(vision) and forbid anyone from coming in and out and only allow a small port on Kyushu Sound familiar? Because it is basically Genshin setting. Also Liyue is Ruled by 7 richest people(you only need to be rich) and everyone basically gets ruled by different companies hardly a nice depiction. I think that point you made doesn't make any sense.
Was about to write that Inazuma is just historically accurate Japan lol. But one thing I am surprised when it comes to the portrayal of the nations is Mondstadt. The country where all the aristocrats where killed by hero Vanessa, where the god king pissed off, and that basically created a anarchist utopia. I feel like that would be pretty sharp even in a western game.
The depiction of Liyue is still rather favorable. Somehow it's the richest nation in Teyvat, despite being obviously much less advanced than Fontaine, Snezhnaya and even Deshret's former civilization. There is hardly any inner conflict, the most turmoil is brought on by foreign intervention of foreign powers. Meanwhile the oligarchy rules peacefully and competently.
But that is historically true. Even at 1800s China and India was much richer than UK which ruled the world. I mean they even invaded these places because the trade imbalance and how much richer these places are @@guyonyoutube501
@@guyonyoutube501 which region would you live in?
@@guyonyoutube501You forgot about the brutal Archon war happened IN Liyue, right? There were lots of Gods inside Liyue region and Zhongli had heavy loss such as Guizhong, which depicts warlord period in China history
China’s cultural export in recent years has actually grown significantly compared with 10 years ago. The censorship has some degree of impact on china’s creative freedom but the key factor is economic growth. Japan’s economy became strong in the 1980s and that’s when japan’s cultural products started to be popular globally, same thing happened to South Korea in the 2000s and the 2010s. China is now transitioning into a high-income economy so its culture export finally starts to grow
I'm a new Genshin player and seeing Liyue and Inazuma... I was like hoooo boy. Glad I'm not the only one to notice. I think it's interesting that you pointed it out as a way to appease regulation.
I'm glad to see the Chinese representation in Genshin because it's really depressing that their art creation is so heavily regulated. Feels like Chinese media isn't given the freedom to breathe.
Great video! (:
it doesnt have anything to do with regulation though, they were adapting the Edo period of japan, wich was xenophobic, backwards and a dictatorship.
Vision ban was essentially an allegory for the banning of swords, they had massive immigration buroucracy wich made a ton of potential business offers dry up due to no one wanting to deal with all of those regulations it was ended in a civil war, and after that japan opened itself to foreigners again, and laws become a lot less totalitarian.
Its pretty much as historically accurate as you cn be inside of a fantasy world.
@@qaztim11 I'm aware of the movement into the Meiji era, but they did deliberately pick that era to represent. It's not inaccurate, but certainly comes off a certain way after Liyue's prosperous environment.
@@LolaLink Because Edo era was literally the most prosperous and "liberal" era of Japan when compared to any other non-modern era, before Edo era Japan's economy was flatlined for almost 2000 years, Japan in classical and feudal eras were waaaaay more draconian and brutally poverty stricken, if any other historical era Hoyo picked to represent Japan it would have made Inazuma look a lot worse, Japan never had a "Roman Empire" or "Han Dynasty" moment in history.
@@LolaLink if you watch anime, you know that lots of the settings are in the Edo period, for example Samurai X,Samurai champlo, Gintama, etc. notice that these anime has themes talking about sword ban and rebellion against government/shogun of that era. So, I don't see why suddenly its become a problem if its adapted by others? its just a cool historical settings, cause that's the era where a lots of things is happening in japan during their steps to modernizing their society, lots of fighting, political disputes, etc.
You forgot about tiktok being a major success in terms of international popularity, but in terms of games mihoyo and such gachas definitely takes the cake. I started playing my first Chinese gacha azur lane and damn i dont regret it
China's version of Tiktok is a censored version where analysts have compared global/Western Tiktok to opiods while China's TikTok is more catered to children.
@@sakiamira but you have to remember that even western version of tiktok is still a product of China and was extremely successful as a product
@@justinwong5315TikTok is just an app though by itself it doesn't export any culture. People in the west are using it to consume western culture not Chinese.
I think this video focuses more on cultural products while TikTok is more of a platform
@@sakiamira no
FANTASTIC.
Around a year ago when Sumeru released, I began to realize clearly that Genshin Impact is a Chinese game, and began to notice all its Chinese lore characteristics clearly. As I am only 14 year old and wasn't particularly good at writing convincing stuff, I have wrote a bunch of Genshin Lore articles trying to explain the philosophical part of the Chinese culture in the inspirations of Genshin's world building, but never got much likes or understanding. The westerners just simply don't understand and criticize immediately, especially in Reddit. You certainly did a fantastic job in explaining the root of the problem: Social stereotypes, which sounds far-fetching but is actually the base.
And here's a joke: What does Herrscher of Sentience's Sentience stands for and why does she behave in this way? Because she's the sentience of Chinese Culture, which is quite toxic in terms of personal attacks.
so uh... where can i find those writings
Hmmmmm
I think you hit the nail! Thanks for the high quality content.
Tbh i think cross culture in a package but not mixing them up together is the best selling point here, i mean i might be fond towards japanese culture today for a week and decided to hangout around inazuma, and next week i decided to stick around liyue. But i had to agree that genshin by far is the most successful, guess who tells the best stories nowadays wins
Opposite, genshin is not a perfect representation of any nation, including liyue. The culture is not what attracts people, it’s the anime style, the music, battle mechanics, and the legend of zelda gameplay similarity.
The nations are not even geologically the same as our world, during the livestream they mentioned how hard it was to get that european feel without making a second mondstad for fontaine because in real life said inspirations are close. I don’t like it when people decide that the nations are one to one to their inspirations because then it will lead to situations like when Nahida released.
Where hoyo TRULY puts in the chinese representation is in their social media; those cooking videos, heritage videos, etc.
@@Astrophel24 relate to nation is the nearest things most commoners like me who dont have the luxury to travel often to have a little fantasy outside of our miserable real life.
it doesn't have to be same, in fact if everything is same then I dont think I would have kept playing.
Indeed the music & plot is good. yet again, people nowadays are sold by stories, imo genshin is doing a pretty good job.
not sure what happened during nahida's releases, mind sharing? I just started playing around 3.6-3.7
@@Astrophel24not perfect in the sense that it is a mix of real cultures AND fantasy
@@kelvin-t7y People were very angry during Nahida’s release because 1) Sumeru’s inspirations were India and middle eastern countries. Her design doesn’t immediately make people think of said countries. 2) She’s whiter than snow. Given what the inspiration was, many felt like hoyo was racist and stuff. 3) She’s a child model, I have no idea why this angered people (it’s not because of her being a loli character, just her being an archon and child model).
@@cancer5950 That’s what I said. That’s what inspiration means. I don’t know why people always reply like this to my comments when I make it very clear that the nations are inspired by real countries.
meaningful video with many interesting topics!
I live in Aachen, a very small city in Northwest Germany, but in my 10er student dormitory we have 3 guys (me, a German girl and Spanish boy) palying Genshin
I start playing this game about 2 years ago by influenced of my ex-girlfriend (just in Shenhe banner and Lantern Rite). I must say, I have never thought there is this kind of mobile (and PC) game which mixed so many elements in chinese game market. (even though it is gacha, is japanese aesthetic style, is fulled of Waifu so they called. ALL this points are nagative for me at that time).
2 years past, I moved from Shanghai to Dusseldorf, I met and talked so many people with total different culture background. We passionately discussed our favorite characters, shared our exploratory experiences and stories. It was then that we found a spiritual connection. I suddenly realized that this is the true value Mihoyo's games/anime/music brings to me. It allows us to find emotions worth entrusting in this deteriorating world, and provides us with a less alienating way to engage with foreign cultures.
Looking at how the US government is treating Huawei, you pretty much get the answer, the US do not likes to see other countries become powerful, popular, influential, etc. UNLESS it is to their benefits and under their "supervision" and the countries most likely will also need to obey to whatever the US command them to do.
I feel like you’re simplifying things. Japan and Korea have both been gaining a lot of power over the years, both in the tech industry and in entertainment, yet the American government doesn’t care. That’s because they’re not straight up hostile towards the USA. But China? China is the USA’s biggest threat rn (tied with Russia, of course). Of course they don’t want them gaining more power- who would want a threat against them to become bigger?
@@books2438 Just face it, the US want to control over everything, was China the one going sanction over countries just because their own incompetence? Was China the one bombing every countries in the world just because they are a "threat"? China has not been in a war for so long, China has not start a war for even longer time, you think they are "hostile" towards the USA. What has China do that the US think they are hostile? Was China funding one of US's province for them to keep rebel against the US? Was China the one building military bases surrounding the US? So, now you tell me, which country was being hostile to which country? There are plenty of proof that US was not only being hostile to China but also a lot of countries in the world including their allies.
bold of you to assume that only USA that is like that
@@seliamila1005 One thing is for sure, only US did it with no reason over than "ItS a ThReAt To ThE uS", everyone know they just dont like other countries be stronger or better than them at any field. What do you called this again? Oh yeah, HEGEMONY.
China literally bans every single western website like UA-cam, Google, twitter, and facebook so it’s a two way street.
Interesting video, and pretty sure 14:36 is a very common stereotype from mainstream pov, that otaku are men having perverse sexual interests even though female otaku dominated communities and spaces like comiket in early years and they never left the community.
My current stance is " Bishōjo characters =/= women", and really want your feedback on this.
Btw, the CCP has criticized male characters in Genshin for being too feminine, so there's definitely censorship in the future.
Didn't stop them from creating Lyney's design XD
@@heistingcrusader_ad3223Lyney is pretty much the reason that caught the attention of the CCP.
(edit : just double checked the source, and I got the wrong one. CCP is displeased with Wendy's design rather than Lyney . However, China's internet doesn't really like Lyney probably due to local politics. )
@@pik9486 Wendy? Is that a leaked character?
@@heistingcrusader_ad3223 Ah shit wrong translation. It's Venti
@@pik9486 ah yes good ol Tone Deaf Bard
Genshin using an anime style is basically a business decision as it has become shorthand to convey that your media is "Not Western," which I think above all is a testament to Japanese soft power and cultural production. Like the two major aesthetic styles of drawn mass visual media (as opposed to the fine arts) in our world right are are basically manga and American comics, and you have non-Japanese and non-American media that largely uses one style or the other
also, self-censorship has as much a role to play as actual censorship in stifling creativity, innovation, and cultural output in China. this is a general phenomenon in the country as a whole, not just applicable to the entertainment and the arts, and has been an issue since at least the Cultural Revolution, long before the Xi Jinping era which, in fairness, has really ramped up stupid interventions like banning media portrayals of "effeminate" men. In previous decades there was a huge concern about "shanzhai" products which has been mitigated greatly in years since. the same could happen to cultural production, but not under the current regime's policies
in all, china soft power bad, genshin exception to rule
I disagree that Genshin's style is a business decision. If you're familiar with Hoyo's history you'd know that the "Tech Otakus" part in their tagline is very literal. The founders were huge fans of anime and their games since the beginning have always had an anime style.
Love this video! Also explains why The Untamed (fruity C-drama) was so popular abroad.
this is a great analysis, totally agreed that if China never had such a insane stance in censoring art and regulation during the Mao regime to now, Chinese Manhwa style might have taken off and become as popular as Japanese style manga style art.
There are worldwide media trends that transcend national borders and generate mass appeal. China actually did used to have one in martial arts movies, which I'm surprised you didn't reference (you mentioned Jackie Chan, but not the cultural wave he rode to become famous in the first place).
The mass appeal of Japan and Korea I believe are largely due to creatives in those nations tapping into things that have that universal appeal. Japan has become the forefront in cartoon animation, they took the influence of cartoons and comics and well and truly mastered and refined that concept into an artistic style that took the world by storm. Similarly, they succeded at doing the same with video games.
K-Pop and K-Dramas were inspired heavily by American pop music and TV soaps. Billion dollar conglomerates spent a vast amount of time finding and boosting media trends, discovering what has that mass appeal in music and television. Korean media started copying styles that were proven to work.
And that's what Chinese gacha makers are doing now. While Mihoyo throws its own Chinese flare into their products, what they make is ultimately anime video games. From HI3, to Genshin, to HSR. They take game concepts that are proven to work, artistic and narrative elements that are tried and true, and wrap it up in the gambling simulation that is the core profit generator of gacha games while making that aspect relatively unobtrusive to the gaming experience.
This video is a good comparison between the media environments of these countries, but I think it's not just the idea of censorship, but the ability for creators to take inspiration from popular media of other cultures that is what was truly missing for China compared to Korea and Japan.
I didn't even consider the Kung Fu wave bc you're so right. Even my grandparents in their 3rd world country of Peru where things arrived later there than they did in America used to love them back in the 80s, and my grandparents were already about 70. It was a thing at the time internationally and honestly even until the early 2000s was a big export of China, and had American adaptations such as the "Rush Hour" film series for families/adults, and "Jackie Chan Adventures" for children.
It's also a good point that S. Korea (very obviously) based their stuff on American music & soap opera attributes, stuff that worked.
Someone else also mentioned that Genshin has open world and story driven aesthetics and themes that many mobile gacha games do not, which he did kind of touch on with the commuting thing.
I think this video was great at explaining why Genshin became successful, but not necessarily explaining why it's so successful abroad.
but weren't the Kung Fu movies more of a Hong Kong thing than mainland China?
My friend told me that the ban on gaming consoles in China was the worst period for young people in China. Fortunately, it has passed. He said, "Just like the elderly's discomfort, aversion, and fear towards new things, the mainland government has produced a documentary about the development of Chinese gaming, which disappointed him. The documentary covers up the ban on gaming consoles and the freezing period of game licenses.". I was surprised at the time because doing so was undoubtedly an act of hurting myself. The current games in China are still too childish for their young people. They hope to establish a content grading system similar to that in the United States, which can allow content creators to create more generous and unrestricted works.
I'm a Chinese born in Spain and I agree that the censorship is excessive. Not a long while ago I was reading a Spanish translation of the Chinese novel "The problem of the three bodies", then I found it interesting so bought a physical copy in Chinese, and the first part of the novel was literally cutted off because it happened in the context of the Cultural Revolution (and indirectly critizising it), it really killed the great part of the essence of the novel.
Wait. The three body Problem Novel? The Sci Fi one?
@@arnowisp6244 Exactly that one
@@SunnySzetoSz2000 yeah, I found it in a Spanish translation. Just feel bad for the Chinese who will not be able to enjoy the story in its full
@@chengfang545 no, chinese watch web ver. they can read it all.
Read the full book, those 3 chapters are in the middle of the book, in international versions they moved those 3 chapters to the beginning to provide more context cos most westerners don't know wtf exactly is a Culture Revolution
I think the biggest reason Genshin is successful, is that they care a lot, about the gameplay lore and world, also about other cultures other than the chinese.
They put a lot of effort in order to portray the cultural differences in each region, from the naming, to design, to the mythological and historical references.
the way the OST uses traditional instruments from the real world counterparts, how they give attention to detail to cultural touchstones such as Nilou's dance wich is a traditional dance they essentially made a 1 to 1 copy of it.
Its one of the few modern mega-media properties where it feels like everyone involved loves their job and the world they are creating, putting in a lot of extra work that most of the playerbase will never see or experience, be it the hundreads of pages of lore, the dozens of character stories and bios or how they translate real world locations to the games.
Even my friend, who has seen places in the middle east and is from there herself, commented while exploring Sumeru that one of the restaurants looked exactly like buildings there
They do care, but only when it comes to their image.
Actual gameplay kinda sucks and the devs don’t give a crap about what people say and. any suggestions to their game.
I will give credit where it’s due and say they do pay attention to detail, but the thing is that they won’t listen to any actual criticisms of their game be as use they think it’s already “perfect”.
@@jksupergamerGenshin is like Apple. Tech enthusiasts (most) hate them but the casual (most) loves them. It really just appeals more to non gamers and casual gamers, and hardcore weebs.
One other big reason imo is that a lot of studios and manufacturers in China were used to make these Japanese and Korean products. A lot of merch you see is typically made in China, regardless of how japanese or korean that IP is. Moreover, big Chinese companies would rather invest in videogame companies than make their own (COUGH tencent COUGH)
Genshin is one of the few chinese global IPs I've seen where the merch is technically all designed and made inhouse at the same time
Its obviously not the _only_ aspect, but one thing I noticed is that Genshin merch is far more accessible and easy to find, and even thrown at the wall at times. On Amazon, its easy to find a ton of genshin merch, and even bundled in for free. I'd get a cheap hu tao hoodie and found a free charm that came with it (usually worth $10), little tidbits like that make it much more fun to collect imo.
wtf i thought this had thousands of views ur underrated
Thank you so much on touching on South Korea's militaristic dictatorship. I feel like a lot of people don't know that just forty years ago, South Koreans were fighting for their human rights. A lot of people know Korea for k-pop or k-drama, but what I think is the most outstanding quality of South Korea is their ability to persist. They went from one of the poorest to one of the richest countries less than seventy years. The fight of the Korean people shall not be ignored, and I hope more people come to appreciate South Korea outside of a pop culture lens.
I think a big reason is due to the different economic systems between China and other East Asian countries as well. And Hong Kong used to be a pretty big export of media, and that gave us some of the biggest Chinese cultural icons like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. I don’t know the political situation there, but I know it’s not exactly stable, so it’s unfortunate if that means they cannot make some excellent media
Also unrelated, but I’ve heard that people who speak English played these games dubbed in Japanese, and that angers me to no end. The reason to watch something in Japanese is because it’s the original language, not because it looks like anime.
The thing with the Japanese dub is interesting because people act like it's the best dub and look down on those who play any other dub. The excuse is "it's just like an anime!" and even believing it's the original language of the game. Japanese culture is cool and liking it is fine but it's like they can't digest something Chinese without having a Japanese filter on it because they don't want to try something new. Plus a lot of English speakers don't realize Chinese and Japanese are completely different languages, it's like telling someone to read Lord of the Rings in French instead of English because "well it's basically the same language".
A video about genshin and how it became the beat chinese game starting with star rail music, love it
when it comes to the reason people chose chinese more than any other language was for the fact that it is the most spoken language in the world and bery useful to know in business overall, japanese on the other hand was learned because those dudes most likely are obssessed with japan not to discredit chinese its a beautiful language and surely some people chose it because it atracted them
This is really interesting. The gacha stories can also have a more freedom - Arknights's story, for example, is heavily political, dealing with themes such as inequality, prejudice and costs of technological progress (it helps that the devs are from Hong Kong).
But you can see mihoyo's attempts to make China interesting in Liyue (and Mondstadt, that's just Hong Kong with a pseudo-Northern European fantasy aesthetic), but it does show a bit of national preference: while all other nations are suffering from political crisis, the one in Liyue is much less complicated and more flattering to the government.
Also, it should be noted that one thing that catapulted South Korea's development was their involvement in the Vietnam War; they sent thousands of soldiers yearly and the chaebols grew up procuring assets for the American military, and their involvement guaranteed the loans for industrialization would be the highest quality. It would require more research to see how it impacted the Korean cultural industry.
鹰角和香港有什么关系吗？他们是上海的工作室
Really really love the video, I love how your take is super nuanced and isn’t just “one side is bad and the other is good” but instead an analysis. Just reading some of the other comments about the success of BL from China, you get the impression that global culture isn’t something that can be controlled or fixed by one person or body, and I believe that’s the main thing holding China back in becoming a cultural powerhouse like Korea or Japan. Because Chinese culture is awesome like I’m probably not the only one to really enjoy the genshin quest with the Chinese opera. It’s when the government tries to control culture that it becomes less enjoyable and really limits what brilliant native Chinese creatives can do. If you enjoy Chinese culture, learn about the INSANE Chinese myths from the old dynasties, it’s gets WILD. Truely a loss for the global community these storytellers aren’t given the best opportunity to flourish.
The first reaction to Chinese anime games from normies being "is this Japanese?" is actually precisely equivalent how before the 1980s or so reaction to anything Japanese was "is this Chinese?"
It’s what happens when cultures inspire each other
Pretty good analysis overall. As an addendum, FGO having a large cast of Male characters (who often are just as profitable as their female counterparts) and a well-written and engaging story can further be used to reinforce your argument for why Genshin has had such sustained popularity, as it is precisely why FGO has been as popular as it has.
(Also I wish I could skip HSR's story, I sort of speculate it's out of precaution of Chinese censors, but the Xianzhou arc ruined my interest in the game that Belobog established. I *know* Mihoyo can do better; it just felt very poorly paced with not enough time for necessary character development and exposition)
I feel like they're drip feeding the Xianzhou story because they want people to go play Fontaine in Genshin.
Xianzhou felt like doing radom things with no purpose, I didn't understand the story or behaviour of the characters even if I read it all
Belobog felt just as boring to me. The world building was never the priority for this game. Nobody noticed this with Belobog but as soon as Xianzhou came along, things started falling through the cracks since these Chinese depictions are often about how great their history was and how much they sacrificed to achieve greatness. And well, Xianzhou's history is mediocre at best.
@@gomi-san nah i believe the drip feeding is just so they could have major story content for each patch. it also allows them more time to polish stories and cutscenes more. people would still play fontaine regardless if hsr has more story or not, given that genshin still has more players overall than hsr.
@@RKNancy imo xianzhou was more interesting to me since they dropped in more lore about aeon conflict. i also think the exposition in xianzhou was better, belobog felt too fast for me that i ended up not really caring much about what's happening. xianzhou's opening made me interested but the pacing halfway through felt off.
I am Indian but I am devoted Genshin player! I love how Chinese made this world's game! This game includes all culture
Monstadt: Germany
Liyue: China
Inazuma: Japan
Sumeru(Forest) : India & Persia
Sumeru( Desert) : Arabia & Egypt
Fontaine: France
according to the theory in the video, the insane popularity of genshin impact is maybe a sad fact regarding china's cultural export
(when every other form of pop culture is strictly censored and nearly dead, only except for the cash-grabbing gacha games featuring japanese art style waifus)
中国流行文化其实相当丰富，不过有文化隔阂，中国内部流传文化几乎都是以中文形式和为中国人服务
I realize that China still has a long way to go to do a good job in publicity, but Genshin is definitely a great progress.
bruh this whole video can be summed up in 1 word, Censorship
This is a great breakdown. I've wondered these same things myself and your analysis is spot on, in my opinion. It's an IP juggernaut from an unlikely source. It's crazy that it's won out over all of its competitors by far despite being chinese.
Chinese potential for cultural growth and export is there but is being quashed by the authorities who don't like creative freedoms getting too out of hand
if only reality is that simple eh?
You are probably overthinking things. Generally, it is tough for foreign-language media properties to get widespread attention as there are natural language and cultural barriers. Every now and then, however, you get a genre that manages to get past the tipping point-Brazilian bossa nova (late 1950s to early 1970s), French New Wave cinema (late 1950s to early 1960s), Hong Kong martial arts movies (especially in the 1970s), Cantopop & Hong Kong cinema (mid-1980s to mid-1990s), Japanese anime (late 1990s to present), K-pop (early 2000s to present), K-drama (early 2010s to present). In all the cases, it was simply down to a few outstanding works or artists creating a stir and encouraging people to further explore the genre.
Mainland China might get a turn in the spotlight at some point (perhaps in gaming, perhaps in something like animation). Similarly, India might get a turn in the spotlight (perhaps in cinema). Or maybe a small country will get the attention (e.g., Jamaica's huge musical influence during the 1970s). It is impossible to predict.
Regarding censorship, I suggest you watch the Mainland film ‘Angels Wear White’. It will probably encourage you to revise your ideas about media censorship. That film deals with government corruption and the sleazy side of economic development in an uncompromising way.
Here in South East Asean, when I grow up there was huge influence from Chinese/Taiwanese films, usually wuxia and historical drama. Nowadays it is Kdrama and anime. Frankly the present films from Chinese are not as good as before IMO, while Kdrama has gotten super good and anime gets more exposure.
Agree Chinese film gone downhill but anime not so Chinese anime getting better and better especially 3D type already leave Japan in dust.
2D are close the only problem is most can't accept Chinese dub.
Not fan of Kdrama so no comment.
Although I no longer live in the Philippines, back then before K-dramas were a thing, Chinese wuxia shows and movies used to air a lot on TV back then and some movies, particularly those of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, etc., used to be very popular in Philippine cinemas, to the point that older people would bootleg old kung fu films because of how enjoyable they were. I used to watch old kung fu films as a kid because my dad had a lot of the original DVDs.
Then the Telenovela boom came in the 1990's and a lot of series from Spain, Mexico, Columbia, and some Spanish-speaking parts of the US (primarily through Telemundo) became popular. And then by the mid-2000's, Asianovelas (TV dramas made in Korea and Japan) gradually replaced the Spanish telenovelas and that started the rise of the K-Drama trend today.
its that japan rarely touches 3D in terms of animation. many japanese games in 3d are world-famous series. chinese 2d animations are inconsistent, with. lot of them having a low budget.
@@chrislee5685 china has shown some really good 2D works like link click. I hope they continue with that because I love Chinese dubs. An anime rivalry between china and Japan would be really cool
@@karahafu Yes game 3D are good that why it disappointing the anime 3D did not get done right.
As for Chinese animation as I say it getting better and better each year.
I say around 5 years back I cannot even stomach 1 Chinese series but currently I watch almost as many as Japanese anime.
The first half of this video actually explained why the only Chinese-made media I had consumed prior to Genshin was The King’s Avatar, an anime that takes place in an internet cafe.
I'm one of the aforementioned few non-Chinese Americans who took Chinese language courses throughout middle and high school and we all learned a lot and I got to have an experience with the culture. I found it really interesting and remember recent media like CJ7 and the Jackie Chan Monkey King movies fondly, but I always wondered why it wasn't as popular as Japanese and Korean media. I knew about the censorship and the poor relationship between China and the west but this is the first video I saw that went in depth about how it applies to media and Genshin. I'd also like to point out the whole "made in China" joke and really anything coming out of China being seen as cheap knock offs, which Genshin unfortunately was accused of because of the similarities to Breath of the Wild.
What I like about Genshin is it has a lot of substance to it both storywise and culturally, not only have I learned more about Chinese traditions but have also learned about how China views other cultures - for better or for worse. I also like the comparison with both the male and female characters who are (mostly) well written and were designed for the male/female gaze but while relying on other aspects besides being extremely lewd. I also like how despite the constant pedophile jokes, the children aren't designed sexually but are all fully clothed and are mainly appealing to the "cute factor", which is a refreshing break from most of these games.
This are the old thoughts, right? In recent years, in terms of popularity, Chinese dramas have greatly surpassed Japanese dramas and are approaching the influence of Korean dramas, especially in Southeast Asia, South America and South Asia. Maybe you don't pay attention to this aspect, or your understanding of this aspect is just heard and not actually investigated. In addition, the only Asian culture that has really entered the Western market is Kpop and Japanese animation. In the field of dramas, neither China, Japan and South Korea have entered the Western market. In the field of games, Asian participants can be divided as follows: Japan dominates the console market, while China dominates mobile games, all of which are worldwide. In addition, when it comes to the field of novels, Chinese novels are indeed unique in Asia. Therefore, China's development of soft power has been very fast. You should know that Japan and South Korea have developed 30 to 50 years in advance. In addition, you may not have noticed that there are more and more porn movies from Chinese porn companies.
My favourite type of chinese cultural product is probably web novels. I feel like the popularity and number of web novels there is kind of crazy. (although idk anything about web novels in other countries😅)
and yes, hoyoverse games stories and/or storytelling aren't necessarily the best. it just appeals to more people cause it has more animations and voice over than your usual gacha game - both of which allows to retain players' attention over the long run. if anything, hoyoverse stories are greatly limited by china's censorship.
The fact that Paimon from Genshin was taken from a mischievous demon from gnostic literature means this is not just a cutest name. It's no coincidence
Because a lot of things are censored in China, the ones that do come out have all been filtered by the government and are usually the most uninteresting ones. That's the main reason why China is lagging behind Korea and Japan in terms of creativity and cultural exports. And I think it is also complicated by the fact that Korea and Japan are ethnically rather homogeneous whereas China is ethnically diverse, hence it's hard to create a work that satisfies everyone's taste in the domestic market (Chinese works usually cater to domestic markets). Genshin Impact, on the other hand, was most likely created with the international audience in mind (using Japanese manga styles which are already largely accepted and recognized internationally), hence its success.
So for me personally, it is three things.
Accessibility. Where do I go to watch, read, play Chinese content? Most of Chinese media is segregated to its own platforms and has very little foothold anywhere else. The only reason I know gacha games is because they are advertised outside the nation.
Forced art. Most the media of China that I have seen feels synthetic. I'm not sure if thats restirictive laws or actual propaganda, but it feels like a lack of creativite freedom.
Cultural difference. Some of the moral messaging of Chinese media feels almost contradictory to western beliefs. It has a hard time resonating with me, as I disagree with the core concept of the story, gameplay, or artstyle in general.
i would've never clicked on this if it weren't for the thumbnail. haven't played genshin in months but i've been thinking about how genshin is the only mainstream chinese game that i've played (except it isnt because i played alchemy stars without realizing it was chinese).
You are very wrong about inazuma thats based on the meiji restoration originally kokomi was going to take the role of the emperor that modernizes and raiden shogun was the villain tied to the sword ban era of japan
I dont have any problem with japanese aesthetic for chinese games especially mihoyo game i mean they put otaku in their logo and theres tons of anime and japanese game references like the train in star rail is obviously Galaxy Express 999 references, they respect and acknowledge the source thats the most important thing and theres already too many japanese influence in asian entertainment industry that its a normal thing here, from tokusatsu to variety shows, anime game aesthetic is just a little part of it
The second most popular cultural export from China aside from gacha games is arguably danmei, which not only further proves the point of this video but is also Deeply ironic lol
Note: Genshin Impact is not a phone game. It is a PC game that can sort of run on phones.
Cloud genshin carrying the mobile players on it's back
17:55 No!! CPC wouldn't mind the stories in Genshin and Star Rail, because they are really good stories, aligned with modern Chinese values.
As someone who’s also very interested in chinese media, I find it’s hard to get into because they gatekeep so much.
I love cpop but to keep up with my idols I’d have to make do with the one twitter stan account who may or may not leave the fandom, lack of video content as no one reuploads them, no translations, fandom leaving after 4 months (chuang) as international fans are not fed with any content despite so much being posted on Weibo or an app I cannot download/make an account for.
To appreciate Chinese media you need to have a big fanbase who are willing to put into the work to translate and upload. So many great Chinese manhwa’s and novels out there then the general audience are unable to access them sigh.
Zhongli the only character in game who get massive Buff 😂
As a Chinese, I'm by law supposed to say Liyue is my favorite nation
(Please help the CCP has a gun to my head)
whereas having the freedom to have a gun to your head while in school? 😍
It's true best nation ( I am the CCP)
Liyue isn't even Hoyoverse's favourite nation. It looks generic and boring in comparison to Sumeru, Inazuma and even the tiny bit we saw of Fontaine.
@@bigoof1105 it was the First Nation along with mondstat. They look dull compared to the newer ones because they got better at making regions. If you look at chasm, the only new part of liyue, that region is very cool
I'm sure that the Japanese are also inadvertently asking themselves how the most (commercially) successful anime games of our time are somehow almost all Chinese.
That's what I've been asking every time I open up JP Google Play and all the local ones that ARE popular are otome based
Gameplay and polishing. U can argue that all anime games have a similar gameplay (Gacha, at least), but the Chinese ones are by far more polished (My personal experience). U can see it by just how the game ui shows itself. Simple yet good designs, when it's gacha games they are arguably more free to play than Japanese ones and the simple fact to actually having more money lol. That being said, only applies to gacha games or mobile ones. I still believe that console japanese have more quality but they got way less money
Just to be more clear too.
Japanese: How make a person spend 100$ in the game?
Chinese: How make 100 people spend 1$ in the game?
Easier to found someone willing to spend 1 than 10. Personal opinion and analysis
In fact, it is due to technical reasons. China has better and more advanced development technology, but what about Japan? Every time they create an excellent IP, they put it into Pachinko
@@pangcihu aka... it doesn't leave the country. 💀
My Chinese friends either like Japanese or Korean culture regarding media and food. Video is on point
Nicely done, with some research I did on the side of this video, I learned a lot
Simply put, in 2000, China experienced rapid development, and outdated ideas have not yet dissipated with the passage of time. Chinese young people love Japan, including Japanese games and some products; But young people in China also harbor hatred towards Japan, which stems from their family's past experiences and the hypocrisy and deception of the Japanese government. That's also why Chinese people have a good impression of Germany. The main reason why China does not have internationally recognized popular culture is that there is not enough time. A strong international influence is one of the main factors driving a person's popular culture to the international stage, otherwise you will still see Shanghai people who cannot eat enough and Taiwanese people who live happily.
its so interesting how danmei has broke through to the west too!! i got into it this summer and these books are amazing
Another great Chinese mobile game I can think of right off the bat is Sky: Children of Light. It's available on appstore, Definitely not as popular but the stunning visuals and unique characteristics are truly like nothing I've ever seen (it's based around Tibetan culture!) It simply illustrates just how much great talent and creativity lies buried in china from decades of censorship, I truly believe a few more years of Chinese game industry thriving, we'd really start seeing it take a completely unique shape from japanese culture.
就是从西藏取景了而已，光遇基于敦煌文化，不是西藏，西藏文化基本全是吃人肉和一些舞蹈之类的
all the question can be easily anwsered-------because you never try to learn about them
You know, 1 thing that I think popular even before genshin from China is wuxia. Not that blazing fire popular but still popular enough
Well your points are correct, I will have to disagree, Mihoyo still tries to hide the fact that they are a Chinese company considering they have “tech otaku” otaku isn’t really a Chinese word. And also considering people are just sinophobic in general because when yunjin came out people mocked her singing and culture + another type of thing I want to debunk, is your point that “chinese products suck” Chinese makeup/ xiao hong shu/ hanfus have gain a wide popularity too, to the point that people love renaming CHINESE products as Japanese or Korean. One last problem I had is that when u said East Asian has gain a lot of popularity when u only mentioned Korea Japan and Chinese media when East Asia is a lot more than those 3 countries. But no hate this is just what I wanted to say !
This was extremely educational. Thank you!
0:36 Prigozhin with Konosuba? Guess he's in Isekai now. 😂
The problem is not censorship per se, but arbitrary censorship that "up to intepretation". Chinese government doesn't like writing rules down on paper because if they do that it's harder to bend it.
Wasn't expecting this when I clicked on the video but very interesting analyse on Eastern Asia cultural expansion
They have some modern day great works on both animation and game industry. But games exploded cause they're easily accessible and the animes are not .
This is a good video but I take some umbridge with the map of China at the start of the video that includes Taiwan. Politics aside, the two regions are simply governed differently. Taiwan is not subject to the same creative censorship China is, and has a different legacy of media output. The Taiwanese version of Boys Over Flowers (Meteor Garden) used to be quite popular internationally and especially in other Asian countries, and singers like Jay Chou were a household name. This would be like taking the legacy of Hong Kong cinema on global filmmaking and lumping it with Mainland China’s.
governed diff… but a same country right？they all Chinese no difference
@@spongebobharden6265different government and different country. Most Taiwanese don't identify as Chinese
No, they are very different.@@spongebobharden6265
@@NewBambooCity who cares
What a coincidence I got an ad for Genshin Impact before watching this
I can confirm that Hu Tao is indeed the sun that rises in China
Wow. At first I thought Blue Archive was made by Japanese developers, then found out it was from Korea... only to find out from this video now, that they outsourced notable workers from Japan for the game... no wonder the OST was so good lmao
tbh zhongli threw liyue under the bus because he wanted to retire while inazuma had a Chernobyl-level incident while they had a depressed goddess who didn't know how to govern
Osmanthus wine moment
For 3k subscriber, I will say, it's a preatty solid video. Hell, even better than most mainstream dogshit streams who give a review or their _'honest opinions'_ about the game. This video was true and honest. Very insightful and well researched. 🙏
To oversimplify, China has been a developing country and it took it a relatively short time to catch up on economy but it just took longer for it catch up culturally (pop culture and modern media not traditional ones). I believe a solid economic foundation is essential for any popular culture to flourish, and equally importantly exposure of young people to the most advanced pop culture (which has been dominated by Western nations including Japan). The creator of Genshin basically grew up in the 90s where a large quantity of Japanese anime were imported to China. It's concerning nowadays government policy is turning inward and banning Japanese anime on TV and young people end up being fed with only trash cartoons rather than Dragon Balls. But I'm too worried because people can still watch anime on the internet so the overall availaiblity is higher, at least for now.
Genshin peaked with amazing exploration, seamless puzzles and fun combat. Its' story is mediocre, only because the npcs keep talking without saying anything of value. Same goes for that screeching diaper baby who won't stfu.
Other games:
Grandma needs milk, you give her milk.
Genshin:
Madame X, the grandma of kites, is sorrowful, you approach her. Paimon asks her 10 questions, Madame X talks about her dead husband, you try to go get her milk, fight hilichurls that want to steal the milk, enter another unskippable bullshit cutscene before you actually get Madame X her milk. Click manually to give her milk.
Grandma needs milk, you give milk:
Approach 1:
End up in a hidden quest, realized that u killed some fallen god and a cursed child. All that without a line of dialogue and u manage to give the milk, only to find out that the cursed kid is the grandchild of the granny.
Approach 2:
Go to the ranch, buys a milk for 100 (Cuz there's always huge inflation lol )golds and complete the quest. No further dialogue
Genshin would be 10 times better if they cut 75% of Paimon's screeching and actually made the Traveller speak.
@@bigoof1105 when I am with someone I rarely speak to other people who show up. So I feel very at home with the paimon traveller dynamic lol
Although many of your claims are valid, there are two very important ideas you missed. The first one is that Japan was never an enemy to the United States in terms of ideology. Japan's only threat was through economical terms, and the United States controlled Japan's economy, and it still does now. China, on the other hand, is a competitor in ideology, and that is a whole other level. For this reason, it is fair to say that China never got the chance that Japan or South Korea got to popularize its cultural content, because there is a stigma to the word China, and that differentiates China from the other two countries. In a way, you can say that China is here to replace the USSR as the United States' no.1 imaginary enemy. The second thing is, China don't invest as much (proportion wise) as Japan or South Korea do in cultural output, because the domestic market is already big enough. I think this is a foolish move on the Chinese government, but this is why Chinese companies aren't that eager to go outside the borders and promote their works, because they already have a big market domestically. Japan and South Korea don't have such a big market, so they have to rely on foreign markets, and often that results in shifting their content to fit the needs of that market. For instance, anime often features blonde characters and kpop songs always have english lyrics. Although the attempts themselves are not accurate representations of the Western culture, they do enough to make these audiences feel included. How often do you see Chinese cultural products feature Westerners? Far less frequent than the products from Korea and Japan. So inherently, Western audiences will be drawn more towards Korean and Japanese cultural products because they reserved a place for them, and sometimes they even change according to the will of the Western audience just to get into the market, but China will never do this, because what the Western audience expects from Chinese culture is completely different from what Chinese culture really is, and this misinterpretation only worsen this cycle of misunderstanding and closure.
Can’t agree more.
The guy at the end seems so wholesome.
I find the Genshin Impact story amazing
"Traditionally" it was Hong Kong that was the pop culture export to the world.
The worst is there steal the kfc genshin impact character stand 6:20 this is too much
As a Malaysian Chinese, I ashamed yourself can speak Chinese. Proud to be Malaysian Chinese because I can speak, Malay, Indo, Chinese, Russian, Japanese and English LoL
I'm going to elaborate, yeah gatchas are big Chinese exports but so is BL (danmei, boys love, yaoi, mlm) gay Chinese novels are getting animations, movies, shows that get rapidly picked up by westerners even though they are censored to hell and remove every ounce of gayness
China used to have cultural exports that have interested the west though. That is in the form of kung fu movies. Ofc, it doesnt seem to be the case any more.
Not sure if they simply stopped making kung fu movies or did audiences lose interest?
Some big name action stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li retired and there were no replacements.
@ef3001 accented cinema has made a lot of videos on this topic actually
I forgot the main reason why kung fu movies fell off but if you're looking for an answer he provides a pretty good explanation
@@mybeaniebooz9601 Thanks, I'll check out his channel and look for it.
Didn't most of those Kung Fu movies come out of Hong Kong, which was still a British possession at the time.
@gomi-san oh yeah thats true, not really chinese then
I am current on the plot of Genshin up to the update that came out yesterday, but I still think Girls Frontline's plot hit hit harder
Very interesting topic. Ive started studying chinese because of the influence of thede games. But didnt know everything in china was censored to this extreme.
As a Hu Tao main, i see her face, i must click.
But jokes aside, Chinese media is pumping out much better animes now. Just 5 years ago the art was bad and inconsistent and the voice acting was just wrong. They are pumping so much anime it is crazy. I admit i was an original JP otaku when OG Ghost in the Shell came out back then and yes, Chinese anime studios copied the overall style by Japanese anime but added Chinese cultural styling. Although yes i agree, the topics they convey are completely not controversial and mostly typical good vs evil or "Wu Xia" or Chinese mythology topics. Actually our Chinese culture has SO MANY great works even in recent times with Chinese "wu xia" comics. Just that they are not really translated to English. Chinese movies and TV shows do not suck. They just do not resonate with Western audiences as they are heavy in Chinese cultural symbols and derivative works. Western audience cannot relate yet. While JP and KR have been trying to use their culture as a marketing tool for tourism for decades.
And us Chinese who don't live in China (but still live in Asia), have consumed their movies and tv shows for years. But mainly because of Hong Kong having a great movie industry for us here in Asia.
I feel like the idea of censorship is overstated. From reading Chinese comics and novels in the past decade, the regulation on those also seem to be quite lax these days. In fact there are enough story references to recent history (I think even some novels about the events of the communist revolutions) that I was surprised the novels are still existing. My only conclusion is that there is not really as much government policing on subject as these days as people would think. Many of the novels are actually quite amazing - unfortunately it is impossible to read and appreciate if you don't have a good understanding of the culture.
Webnovels and comics tend to be a bit more of a grey area. As a matter of practicality, there's no functional way for the government to police everything people want to put out online. For example, Danmei is quite popular and prolific online, but the depiction of LGBT relationships in media is de facto banned. Once those written works get adapted into TV dramas, the homosexual aspects usually watered down significantly or removed entirely with the relationship being recharacterized as "good friends" rather than lovers.
Indeed, TV dramas are still considered the "serious" media where a lot of budget is thrown into both in terms of creative development and censorship. There have been some very intriguing concepts; arguably Cdramas have achieved good quality these days. (I do miss the epic scale historicals of the 2010s era though. But that is more of a audience interest shift rather than a quality one).
Redshell is a leading Chinaboo ngl. He even has thousands of followers on bilibili and is a meme on douyin