Lewd Game Opens Old Wounds

[Atari]

Chinese gamers react angrily to a Japanese video game they say besmirches the heroine of a classic Chinese novel. Whether it does or not, this latest cross-cultural tiff does nothing to help the historically lousy relations between these two Asian nations. Wired has the story.

Dream of the Red Chamber, also known as Dream of the Red Mansion, by Qing dynasty (1644-1911) author Cao Xueqin, chronicles a noble family's declining fortunes, and is often regarded as the zenith of classical Chinese fiction. The Japanese computer game, however, features images of scantily-clad young girls attached to chains and comes with an adults-only warning.

[Zoras]

I think the Chinese side is over-reacting a little. One can't discount the possibility that this is all just coincidence, either.

[Sailor Enlil]

Yeah. Many Japanese game developers (and even animators) do this kind of stuff - making parodies or works inspired by outside ideas (but not actually using them as that could consititue intellectual property theft), kinda like fanfiction. Though doing it in the form of a Hentai game (especially one themed on slavery) would certainly raise a few eyebrows at least. I'm surprised Jack Thompson and any other US Politician hasn't even heard about these kind of games, especially since a lot of them involve (by US Standards, but not by Japanese standards) underage girls in sexual depictions (again I'll point out Virgin Roster - while the US translated version has all the girls in the game aged above 18, that's not the case in the original Japanese version, where all but the two eldest ones are in their teens, and the youngest one is 13).

[Riggers]

I vaguely recall seeing an anime that was called Ninja Scroll, but wasn't the Ninja Scroll - it bizarrely featured the second coming of Christ, but according to a prophecy if Christ became corrupted he would become Satan. There's also the case of a Japanese legend that has the theory that Jesus escaped to Japan, and started a family there - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5326614.stm

I also remember when Kellogs upset Hindus in the UK by having a 'Monsters in My Pocket' promotion, which featured the toys being given away with various brands of cereal. Unfortunately, alongside Werewolves, Hydras and the like, was a humanoid elephant called Ganesh. They were not amused.

I think the problem is, the imagery and myths of 'foreign' cultures holds a fascination which homegrown mythology can't match. People get inspired by it, but don't realise that what's one person's myth is another's religion. But as people have pointed out, the company in question make porn games, so I doubt they're that fussed about causing offence...

[Dungeon Keeper]

I think it should be pointed out that many Asian countries are still very sensitive about the history of 'comfort women', women (usually prisoners of war from invaded countries) who were forced into service as prositutes for the Japanese army during WW2. I believe this game may play on those issues very strongly. It certainly was the first thing that crossed my mind when I heard about it. Japan's gov't has never been open to dicussion about what happened to these women and that has angered a great many people world wide. China in particular has very strong feelings about what happened to these women, and I believe this is feeding into the outrage.