Earlier this week, we discussed how progressive leftists on social media were incensed to the point of inciting a boycott of the open-world action RPG, Genshin Impact.
The boycott arose from allegations of cultural appropriation and colorism following the recent announcement of the “Natlan” region in the fictional world of Teyvat, developed by the Chinese company miHoYo (HoYoverse).
The controversy began after the reveal of the Natlan region, which included several new characters. Terminally online activists believe that this fantasy region is heavily inspired by African and Latin American cultures. However, the radical leftists were appalled by the characters being depicted as “White” or “whitewashed.”
There is some merit to these accusations, given that Genshin Impact features various characters based on mythical demons and deities. The Natlan expansion is believed to include characters named “Mavuika” and “Ororon,” thought to be based on the Maori deity Mahuika and the West African god Olorun.
First and foremost, the images on the left-hand side of the image above are far more attractive. Setting that aside, it’s fairly evident that Genshin Impact has significantly altered the appearances of these mythical characters with their own fictionalized creations, to say that this is “whitewashing” is a stretch given that we’re of course talking about fictional characters based upon fantasy entities.
Despite this, devoted Westerners, mainly African-Americans and liberals consumed with White guilt who feel the need to virtue signal, have taken it upon themselves to slander miHoYo’s name.
They are outright demanding that the company authentically include representation of the cultures they believe the fictional Natlan region within the game is based on, by providing characters that, according to the image above, are black and unattractive.4o
The resulting effect of this “boycott” encourages individuals to stop making additional purchases within miHoYo products, to review bomb their games on respective storefronts, and to share altered artwork while signing a petition.
The artwork in question essentially takes miHoYo’s own fictional characters and covers them in a whole bucket of brown paint, to give them “the melanin” they supposedly “deserve” which is ironically a rather racist approach.
As expected, gaming journalists quickly jumped on the boycott bandwagon, reinforcing the narrative that miHoYo has engaged in colorist behavior with their character designs.
This accusation may hold some weight, given China’s history of racial prejudice, particularly against individuals with darker complexions.
Genshin Impact is a Chinese-made video game that primarily caters to Asian audiences. The game’s immense success is evident in its staggering $5 billion revenue, making it the fastest mobile game to achieve such a feat.
The Chinese demographic alone accounts for nearly 30% of this figure, followed by Japan at 21%, and the United States at 18%.
When we delve into specifics like revenue per download, the Western world lags significantly behind the East.
In the United States, the average spend per download is $31.10, even trailing behind Australia. In contrast, countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and especially Japan, are major financial supporters of the game.
Japan, in particular, contributes an impressive $91.84 per download.
According to activeplayer.io, the American region is notably absent from the list of most active Genshin Impact players. Years after its initial release and with its hype waning, Japan remains the leading region in terms of active players, followed by Korea, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and finally, China and Hong Kong.
Surprisingly, both America and Australia lag behind regions like Chile, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Lithuania, and even New Zealand despite America having contributed 18% of its 5 billion revenue total.
Given this data, it’s clear that miHoYo, being a Chinese company, targets its products towards its primary demographic, also known as “whales,” which are predominantly from Japan and other Asian countries like Korea and China.
The accusations of “whitewashing” African gods and Maori deities seem misplaced. miHoYo is creating their own fictional characters, which are naturally catered towards the Asian demographic.
Even if miHoYo were engaging in whitewashing, it wouldn’t be particularly concerning, especially considering the lack of outcry over modern media adaptations of prominent franchises and even historical depictions that replace White characters with Black ones.
This issue extends far beyond mere “redhead erasure,” as seen in Netflix’s Cleopatra series, which portrays ancient Egyptians as Black Africans. This depiction offended an entire nation, leading to accusations against Netflix of distorting their country’s history with falsified narratives.
It seems more than acceptable for Western media outlets and Western audiences to embrace and distort prominent characters and historical accuracy for the sake of diversity and inclusivity. However, when the tables turn and cultural appropriation is perceived from the other side, it suddenly becomes a major scandal and a problematic issue.
When White characters are reimagined as Black, it’s often accepted and even celebrated, year after year. Critics are told they must adapt to changing times, and expressing frustration over such changes is deemed as racist.
Consumers frequently react with shock and dismay when iconic characters like Velma from Scooby-Doo and April O’Neil are reworked with Black portrayals, seeing these recreations as being self-insertions of their creators.
However, when “Black characters” or perceived Black characters are reimagined as White, it’s a different story. Creating artwork that lightens the complexion of such characters often sparks significant backlash, as this kind of change is widely condemned.
Ironically, those who fail to understand the nuances of color and lighting are often the same people who justify their outrage over similar changes, demonstrating a double standard in their reactions.
The world of Teyvat in Genshin Impact is entirely fictional, populated with made-up deities, gods, and demons, all tailored to appeal primarily to Asian consumers. While comparisons between characters like “Mavuika” and Mahuika, or “Ororon” and Olorun, might be tempting, it’s crucial to remember that the game often draws on demon mythology for its character designs.
For example, the loveable mascot of Genshin Impact, “Paimon” (pictured on the left), is named after the 9th spirit of the Ars Goetia, known as the King of Hell.
Originally a demonic figure serving under Lucifer, Paimon has been dramatically transformed and, some might say, “whitewashed” into a lovable, cute, floating chibi character.
The comparisons go further, too. The character Venti, who many consider a “trap,” is actually inspired by the demon Barbatos. If you look closely, you might notice some similarities between the Anemo Archon of Mondstadt and the demon Barbatos.
Raiden Shogun, the Electro Archon of Inazuma, is inspired by the demon Beelzebub. The character has been radically transformed from the demon’s original, unsettling depiction as a flying bug creature into a strikingly attractive woman with purple hair.
One of the most dramatic changes is how miHoYo, in their controversial design choices, transformed the demon Buer, originally depicted with a lion’s head and multiple goat or horse legs into a cute and charming loli character.
Not only did miHoYo alter the demon’s appearance for the sake of microtransactions, but they also performed a gender transformation, adding further to the “controversy.”
Fortunately, the Western demographic, despite their relatively minor impact on Genshin Impact’s player base, quickly took action to address their concerns about Nahida’s depiction following her announcement by miHoYo with the Sumeru region.
Boycotts and Genshin Impact go hand in hand. This isn’t their first rodeo, nor will it be their last. For instance, back in April 2021, “fans” of Genshin Impact attempted to boycott the game for several reasons, including the supposed sexualization of an NPC named “Flora,” the absence of Black characters, and racist depictions of indigenous people.
Shortly after, there was an attempt to boycott the character Eula due to her backstory. Eula is a descendant of the Lawrence clan, which once ruled Mondstadt and became corrupt. The clan’s history in Genshin Impact includes references to slavery, which sparked controversy.
Yes, I’m aware that these people are fucking retarded. Because slavery is racist of course, despite the fact that White nations were the first and only in recorded history to ever abolish the act of slavery, which remains prominent in parts of Africa to this very day.
In fact Elon Musk loves African slave labor to mine cobalt and lithium for his “eco” electric vehicles.
After previous boycotts fell short, Western critics targeted the character Xinyan for alleged “colorism,” claiming that this Asian-designed character in an Asian game wasn’t dark enough.
They then took issue with the Sumeru region, arguing that its jungle-themed environment should exclusively represent African and South American cultures, according to some vocal anti-racists on Twitter.
This boycott also faltered, with supporters split on whether to pull for characters like Dehya, who are perceived as representing diverse skin tones, or to abstain from pulling for any banners featuring such characters because they were being whitewashed.
The purpose of a boycott is to actively avoid a product, yet those pushing for a boycott of the game seem to think that playing the game without spending money is a form of protest that harms its developers. They are truly that goddamn stupid.
Many of these social media users have accounts dedicated to characters from miHoYo franchises, often obsessively supporting virtual characters like fervent K-pop fans. Ironically, their advocacy is giving Genshin Impact free press and marketing, even as the game’s relevance fades and its revenue declines.
Their efforts have made miHoYo cautious about including characters with tanned skin, as these characters often perform poorly in revenue from their banners. It seems that the native Chinese audience and other Asian regions may not favor these characters, despite the boycotts having little impact.
Their complains only cause such characters to fall further in popularity leaving miHoYo with little choice but to print out more authentically Asian characters to keep the money rolling.
It’s acceptable for these fervent “fans” to create artwork that transforms Asian characters into Black characters, yet they react with outrage when the reverse happens.
Despite Genshin Impact’s dynamic day and night cycles causing tanned characters’ skin tones to vary with lighting, creating artwork that appears to “whitewash” characters can lead to harassment and accusations of racism.
This collusive effort between journalists and activists is neither new nor surprising. What we’re seeing is an extortion attempt demanding that miHoYo include racially diverse characters.
While journalists overlook Hades 2 blackwashing Greek gods and Ubisoft’s controversial portrayal in “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” or dismiss it as fictional, the call for miHoYo to “stop cultural appropriation and whitewashing” and commit to “respectful and accurate representation of all cultures” has now garnered 89,000 signatures.
Roughly on par with the petition to cancel Assassin’s Creed Shadows which is a game that quite literally was designed with racist intent.
The petitions popularity no doubt influenced by Genshin Impact English voice actors joining the fray by advocating that miHoYo should cater to “fan demand” by incorporating “authentic” and diverse characters. The push for representation persists despite the fact that the Americas are relatively low in player counts and revenue generation for the game in today’s market.
June Yoon is barely credited for his roles as minor NPC quest givers, yet countless other English VAs for Genshin Impact have put their jobs on the line to promote forced diversity and inclusion.
They criticize the game for its fictionalized renditions of gods and deities, turning them into attractive characters, but suddenly draw the line when it comes to Black gods and deities.
These must always remain unchanged, despite the fact that games like Hades 2 blatantly blackwash Greek gods, which is somehow acceptable according to Valeria Rodriguez, the queer non-binary voice behind Sucrose in Genshin Impact.
Posts made by individuals like Ariana Rosario, a bisexual Dominican-American who voices various minor NPC characters, and Dani Chambers, the English voice behind Nilou, who praised a “fix it” edit of one of the upcoming characters, highlight the problem with foreign entities abstaining from hiring locally.
Virtue signaling pleas of blackwashing by your own voice actors are a direct result of outsourcing. If race and authenticity truly mattered, Dani, a Black woman, wouldn’t have agreed to voice Nilou in the first place.
When a foreign company outsources their work, they’re often left with limited options, with these anti-Asian racist, queer actors being the only ones available for the job. If you happen to be a voice actor who doesn’t conform to these leftist standards, you’re ostracized from the industry due to malicious false allegations of sexual assault or harassment, like what Vic Mignogna experienced.
Snowbreak: Containment Zone has seemingly found new life focusing on fanservice content to the point where they tried to hire back its English voice actors to reprise their roles, only for them to turn down the job due to how raunchy the game had become.
Countries such as China, Japan, and possibly Korea have the ability to hire local English speakers for their games or, at the very least, can now harness the power of AI to produce a similar level of quality as these Baizuo.
They don’t deserve to be paid; they’re more than happy to turn on their own employer to preach virtues of systematic racism simply because American tourists believe that their “culture” is being infringed upon or that your fictional deity isn’t being authentically represented.
Because these people don’t actually care about authenticity; they’re professional victims. As part of the boycott movement, a Slavic individual made a large-scale thread about how miHoYo allegedly butchered Slavic representation via the Snezhnaya region within Genshin Impact.
However, progressives, who couldn’t even pretend to care, bombarded him. They were more interested in fighting among themselves because Slavs aren’t Black, and therefore, cultural appropriation doesn’t matter to them.
The boycott petition demands that miHoYo pander to indigenous cultural consultants, revise existing content to ensure accurate representation, and commit to creating diverse and inclusive characters in the future.
This sounds a lot like how modern game development is influenced by DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) policies. These hedge fund-backed initiatives reward developers for inclusive character design, which recently led to Ubisoft’s blackwashing of Japan’s Sengoku period for the sake of diversity.
Despite the blatant hypocrisy of mainstream media, which has ignored countless instances of White figures being race-swapped, these groups claim that games need to consult with indigenous experts, positioning themselves as the “necessary” intermediaries. This strategy opens the door for more demands, like the inclusion of more diverse characters.
Next, they demand to revise existing content to ensure accurate representation. This isn’t just about fixing a few character designs or storylines; it’s a complete overhaul that requires extensive consultation and retroactive development.
We all know who would be the perfect company to consult with in this regard: none other than Sweet Baby Inc., who attempted to extort Chinese developers Game Science for woke consultation on Black Myth: Wukong for $7 million. Though they were ultimately rejected, mainstream media has been painting the narrative that the developers are sexist towards women ever since. Strange.
By insisting on ongoing consultation to ensure future content meets their standards, DEI groups can secure a steady stream of revenue, essentially leeching off the industry by threatening companies with bad publicity if they don’t comply. This isn’t just about one update but rather a permanent presence and influence over the company’s creative direction.
To feature Black characters that the primary Asian audience seemingly is averse to spending money on, given how the American population is less than that of New Zealand in terms of Genshin’s actual player base, this entire ploy will likely go unnoticed by the Chinese.
Why do I say this?
Because China isn’t a free state. While this has many downsides, one of the limited upsides of being a communist country is the “Great Firewall,” which effectively blocks its citizens from accessing foreign websites and platforms.
For instance, this very website is currently accessible in China. You can even watch a video featuring Techopse on Bili Bili regarding my coverage of Sweet Baby Inc and the sexist slander related to Black Myth: Wukong.
However, one website you can’t access due to the Great Firewall of China is change.org. This means that the entire efforts of supposed “fans” of miHoYo games, who can’t even boycott a product correctly since they refuse to abstain from playing it or detach from the fictional characters they obsess over, fall on deaf ears.
These “fans,” who don’t play the game in sufficient numbers to make an impact, so much so that even New Zealand and Canada have higher representation amongst their player base.
The Chinese, who dominate in-game purchases for Genshin Impact, don’t care about accusations of racism because they are, in fact, racist. If you can’t handle that and can’t accept them for who they are, simply stop playing their game.
Given that this is just the latest boycott revolving around Genshin Impact, it’s clear the players won’t stop playing the game. Instead, these boycotts will likely continue with each large-scale expansion.
The Baizuo (Western liberals) will almost certainly cry about supposed cultural appropriation of a geographical region plagued by crime, slavery, and starvation. They’ll throw another fit while sharing their racist “fixed it” art pieces while simultaneously defacing those who preach a similar message but don’t center around Black people being the victims.
Coincidentally, those demanding female characters be censored are often homosexuals. It’s staggering to witness how miHoYo has managed to attract such a toxic fanbase that seems to hate White people and sexualization, and sends death threats to artists for going against their preferred ship.
This is the end result of not filtering such cancerous parasites by focusing entirely on cute women with a male self-insert protagonist. By incorporating beautiful men into a game like Genshin Impact, you attract a wider range of audiences, including gay men and deranged women who fixate upon male characters.
These fans often prove to be the most toxic and reprehensible within any community. The same goes for incorporating a female protagonist, which also facilitates the lesbian shippers who are equally deranged.
miHoYo seemingly brought this upon themselves by being inclusive in the first place. A product made to cater to many demographics is one that ends up not truly catering to any.
Niche products are niche for a particular reason. Now, Zenless Zone Zero doubles down on this trend by including anthropomorphic animal characters, which has undoubtedly attracted furries to the game.
At the very least I hope miHoYo takes action following this social media tirade, which has the full support of mainstream media outlets, by ransacking its English-speaking voice cast altogether. This would force players to switch to sublime Japanese or even Chinese dialogue, much like what happened with Final Fantasy XIV’s recent Dawntrail expansion.
The inclusion of an obnoxious Mary Sue-type character voiced by a transgender actor fell completely flat, forcing countless players, some of those being Redditors to switch to Japanese to avoid its horribleness.
Thankfully, Change.org is banned in China. The 89,000 racists demanding miHoYo become another safe and sanitized Western developer shoveling Black queer rubbish like Sony with Concord are speaking to a literal brick wall.
Given miHoYo’s response to Western critics demanding more racial diversity in a game primarily designed for an Asian audience is to remind them that fiction isn’t to be confused with reality, it’s peculiar how these advocates for “authentic representation” remain silent about the numerous instances of blackwashing in media.
miHoYo focuses on catering to their core audience, whales, and clearly disregards the opinions of clout-chasing Westerners. This is just another tantrum from those fixated on race and representation, upset because they aren’t getting their way for once.
I’ll take this boycott more seriously when the people of Natlan voice their concerns, while those who freak out over subtle color changes of their bedroom walls as day turns to night continue to lobby against the Chinese, who seem to be ignoring their complaints entirely.
