We accuse China’s cultural imperialism hidden behind games!
VANK is starting a global campaign that alerts the world of China’s cultural imperialism that promotes history distortion and cultural invasion with games.
Recently, it became a big problem when Chinese games distorted Korean traditional cultures such as hanbok and gat as Chinese ones. In November, 2020, commemorating the launch of Chinese game ‘Shining Nikki’ in Korea, the company started selling hanbok items. Then, Chinese users strongly protested, saying, “Hanbok is Chinese”, and eventually the company reversed its sales of hanbok items under pressure from Chinese public opinion, and withdrew from Korea. Also, the Chinese game “Sky: Children of the Light” marked the ‘gat’ item as a Korean historical hat. In response, Chinese users strongly protested, saying, “Gat is a Chinese costume.” Eventually, the CEO of the game company officially apologized, saying, “When designing this hat item, we referenced many elements of China.”
A bigger problem is that China’s Korean history distortion through games will be intensified.
The Chinese government has introduced a new scoring system for authorization of game services(a.k.a. 版号 bǎnhào). The new scoring system is divided into five categories : “idea orientation”, “original design”, “production quality”, “cultural connotation”, and “level of development”. The best for each category is 5 points, and the game service is permitted only when an average of 3 or more is scored. However, if even one category gets 0 points, approval of the game service authorization will be rejected.
Particularly problematic are two categories; “idea orientation” and “cultural connotation”. It is stated that the “idea orientation” category evaluates whether the game theme, player role, and main play method conform to “Socialist core values”, and the “cultural connotation” category judges whether the game could disseminate “China’s remarkable culture”.
After all, in order for an individual or a company to release a game in China, they must praise Socialism even if they are against their own ideas, and must remain silent without expressing their national identity.
By systematically controlling the expressions of ideology and culture in games, the Chinese government intends to use the domestic game market as a channel for promoting ‘Culture Project’.
Accordingly, Voluntary Agency Network of Korea, VANK, tells world citizens of Chinese government’s excessive nationalism with games through Global Petition and Global Posters.
On the poster created by VANK states, “We accuse China’s cultural imperialism hidden behind games! Stop China’s cultural imperialist policy of promoting history distortion and cultural invasion with games!” with the Global Petition link.
VANK also started a petition on world’s biggest petition site that the Chinese government’s addition of “Socialism” and “dissemination of China’s remarkable culture” as criteria for approving games discriminates against people of different ideologies, political views, and ethnic origins by limiting their freedom to form, express, and communicate their opinions freely.
Through the Global Petition, VANK intends to tell the world citizens of China’s conduct that unilaterally imposes Chinese ideas and cultures with games on world citizens.
VANK also demands the UNHRC(United Nations Human Rights Council) to express concern over Chinese government’s racist policy on game scoring system that violates freedom of expression, and that the Chinese government should review its new scoring system for authorization of game services.
You can stop China’s cultural imperialism that promotes history distortion and cultural invasion with games by joining the Global Petition and promoting Digital Posters.
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VANK has been promoting global petitions and digital poster distribution activities to inform the global community of China’s history distortion that steals the history of Goguryeo and Balhae of Korea, and China’s cultural hegemony that steals Korean culture such as hanbok, gat, kimchi of Korea.
VANK is going to make peace in East Asia by publicizing the issue of China’s history and culture distortion with Korean youths, Koreans around the world, and with 100 million Korean Wave fans around the world.