Source: Think China (9/10/24)
How Black Myth: Wukong navigates China’s political and cultural trends
By Ying Zhu
Black Myth: Wukong has revived interest in everything Monkey King, but the Chinese video game has also been criticised for not fully capturing the original myth. Even so, the game has given the Chinese gaming industry a boost, even though government endorsement may shift the focus from design to politics. Academic Ying Zhu explores the magic of Monkey King.
People wait in line to play Black Myth: Wukong at Gamescom 2023, in Cologne, Germany, on 23 August 2023. (Jana Rodenbusch/ Reuters)
In summer 2015, a Chinese animation film, Monkey King: Hero Is Back, made headline news for breaking the Chinese animation box-office record previously held by DreamWorks’ Kungfu Panda 2 (2011). The film features the Monkey King, a legendary trickster known for his mischief and magical powers, drawn from the beloved 16th-century Chinese literary classic Journey to the West.
Journey to the West narrates the 7th-century pilgrimage of Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who travels from Xi’an (the Tang Dynasty capital) to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. This whimsical and fantastical tale chronicles Xuanzang’s challenging journey, accompanied by three troublesome apprentices who have been assigned to him as protectors to atone for their sins.
Among the three, the monkey named Sun Wukong stood out for both his magical power in fighting evil and his troublemaking penchant. His captivating character has enchanted generations of readers, making him a legendary hero in Chinese mythology.
Monkey King fever a decade ago
The Monkey King story has been updated through stage performances, TV series, film and video games in China and beyond. Research shows that from 1906-2021, roughly 170 theatre, film and TV adaptations were said to have been produced in the Chinese-speaking world alone. Among them, Monkey King: Hero Is Back stood out for its success in vanquishing Hollywood in the Chinese domestic market.
Designed by Chinese developer Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong is reportedly the most-played single-player game ever, surpassing both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077.
The poster for Monkey King: Hero Is Back. (Internet)
The success of Monkey King: Hero Is Back spurred a rush of imitations, with 2016 — the year of the monkey in the Chinese zodiac — seeing 23 monkey-related projects being launched, attracting popular and critical derision.
Major state party organs including People’s Daily chastised the entertainment industry for chasing quantity and profit at the expense of quality and edification. Concerns were raised that these cheap knockoffs could harm the reputation of the legendary Chinese monkey and risk reviving outdated cinematic tropes featuring monsters and goblins, reminiscent of the Chinese martial arts-ghost pictures of the 1920s. The backlash put the monkey in dormancy.
Black Myth: Wukong brings back the magic
A decade after the debut of Monkey King: Hero Is Back, a single-player AAA Chinese game, Black Myth: Wukong (Black Myth), resurrected the monkey by putting a gamer in the role of a monkey who fights to defeat an array of monsters. In a twist, the featured player/monkey is not actually the original Monkey King, but a Monkey King devotee in a quest to liberate the Monkey King, officially called Wukong in Black Myth.
Marketed as a sequel (a spinoff really) to the Journey to the West story, Black Myth has Monkey King trapped under a rock after his legendary journey to the West. The player/monkey is set on a 15-hour journey to unearth Wukong, literally and figuratively bringing the dormant monkey back to life.
Black Myth marked a new milestone in Journey to the West adaptations with its successful debut, drawing a record number of players and garnering worldwide attention, making it one of the summer’s most talked-about releases.
Designed by Chinese developer Game Science, Black Myth is reportedly the most-played single-player game ever, surpassing both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077. It was commended by the Guardian for its “stunning visuals, cinematic beauty and a refreshing sense of speed”.
The game was enthusiastically embraced in China as a triumph for Chinese literary and cultural tradition and China’s technological prowess — at least in the gaming industry. In addition to bringing back the monkey, Black Myth also singlehandedly resuscitated the Chinese gaming industry, which had been in peril in the last decade due to government clampdown in the name of preventing game addiction and in-game gambling. Licenses were withheld and permits were delayed as a result.
It appears that Game Science is wary of potential criticism of China’s frequently harsh and ill-conceived regulatory exercises.
A young man plays Chinese action role-playing game ‘Black Myth: Wukong’, developed by Chinese video game company Game Science, during its launch day in Shanghai on 20 August 2024. (Hector Retamal/AFP)
The success of Black Myth has reenergised China’s gaming industry. After banning game consoles for 15 years, the Chinese regulator is finally loosening up. A Goldman Sachs report notes that there are signs that the Chinese government is recognising the game industry’s potential value for exports and culture. Curiously, Game Science, the creator of the game, has downplayed the extent to which this success is connected to the broader Chinese gaming industry.
The controversy
In advance of the game’s launch, Hero Games, which owns nearly 20% of Game Science and has financial ties to several state-owned enterprises, made overtures to influential overseas players, offering free virtual “keys” to play the game. Benoit Reinier, a prominent video game streamer on YouTube who doubles up as a journalist was one of the players being approached.
As he recounts, the free key is linked to a document that “outlines the essential dos and don’ts regarding content creation”. One of the don’ts is “content related to China’s game industry policies, opinions, news etc.” It appears that Game Science is wary of potential criticism of China’s frequently harsh and ill-conceived regulatory exercises.
But the clumsy attempt misfired, attracting wide media attention in the West, making “censorship” a dominating topic in reports concerning the game. The rest of the don’ts include “politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse”. The so-called “feminist propaganda” has to do with reported sexism at Game Science. Players are further told not to “use trigger words such as “quarantine” or “isolation” or “Covid-19”, which would likely remind us of the government’s flawed Covid policy.
The list has become a trigger itself, creating a backlash among the Western players and ironically instigating “negative discourse” the Chinese creators wish to avoid. Negative exposure overseas notwithstanding, Black Myth is widely celebrated in China as a triumph of Chinese culture.
Victory lap?
“The success of Black Myth: Wukong is not only a victory for the gaming industry, but also an important milestone in the overseas expansion of Chinese culture,” reports Yangcheng Evening News, a state-owned newspaper. An editorial on the official Xinhua news reads: “This release marks a bold foray by Chinese game developers into a market long dominated by Western triple-A titles…. With this breakthrough, the default language of a triple-A game is no longer English, but Chinese.” Indeed, an article in The Standard noted that Black Myth is said to have finally compelled Western players to reckon with Chinese as a language and a cultural force.
The practice aims at introducing Chinese pinyin into the game lexicon previously laced with Japanese terms such as Ninja, Samurai, Katana, and Manga, which quickly became common terms in English.
A screen shot of a trailer for Black Myth: Wukong. The game creators used hanyu pinyin for some keywords, including “jinggubang” instead of “golden rod” for the Monkey King’s weapon. (Internet)
The game creators promptly chimed in, highlighting their decision to use Chinese hanyu pinyin instead of English translation for a few keywords in the game. Thus, we encounter the words “Wukong” instead of Monkey King, “jinggubang” instead of golden rod (the magic weapon used by the Monkey King), “yaoguai” instead of monster, and “long” instead of dragon. The practice aims at introducing Chinese pinyin into the game lexicon previously laced with Japanese terms such as Ninja, Samurai, Katana, and Manga, which quickly became common terms in English.
While it is not difficult for foreign players to memorise a few key words in pinyin, it is challenging for players without sufficient background knowledge to become fully immersed in the game. Game Science offers no essential information about various characters in the game, which makes it challenging for non-Chinese players to engage beyond the superficial fighting sequences.
This raises the question: is the game aimed at players who are already familiar with the literary classic and its adaptations, or is it intended to compel non-initiated players to bridge the knowledge gap by seeking out the Chinese classic? Foreign players would also need to understand Monkey King’s evolving character positioning.
The metamorphosis of Monkey King
Monkey King has been riding the domestic political and cultural currents. It goes without saying that each adaptation mirrors its times, and that for media creators in China, attuning to the shifting political and cultural currents is a matter of survival.
Foremost a self-indulgent trickster prior to the PRC era, the monkey was re-fashioned as a revolutionary hero during Mao’s era. Mao saw Monkey King as a kindred spirit who defied hierarchies and battled oppressors on behalf of the poor and the dispossessed, turning the latter into a proletarian superhero. However, in 1995, the Hong Kong film A Chinese Odyssey reshaped the Monkey King into a flawed yet comedic character engaging in various vices.
Post-Mao, the Monkey King gradually recovered its complexity and evolved into a commercially viable intellectual property with K-pop star quality. By 2015, the animated movie Monkey King: Hero Is Back breathed fresh air into the old legend, recasting the monkey as a redemptive hero who overcomes initial hesitation to save children from an evil force.
A decade later, Black Myth brings Monkey King into the world of gaming, gaining traction beyond the Chinese border, a feat that China has long aimed for. This time, a Chinese legend is hoped to rival Marvel & DC Comics while hewing to the party line.
The criticism that Black Myth fails to capture the richness and complexity of the Monkey King story highlights the challenge faced by Game Science…
An image of the Monkey King from A Chinese Odyssey Part II. (SCV)
In literally burying the Monkey King under a rock, the game Black Myth: Wukong liberates itself from the question of fidelity so far as its adherence to the source material is concerned. It is a clever manoeuvre as it simplifies the otherwise complex origin story involving religions and pilgrimage, something that might not jive with the political currents.
Still not good enough?
The monkey warrior in Black Myth provides an antidote to the “lying flat” youth that the party so desperately wants to arouse. Despite its modern design, the game remains faithful to the essence of the original story, portraying the Monkey King as an underdog who, through skill and discipline, discovers tricks and magic on his journey to victory.
Shannon Liao, the deputy gaming editor at a fan website, Inverse, has some reservations about the quality of the game in terms of content, “Wukong’s world feels empty and devoid of life,” she writes. She does not consider Black Myth “a particularly inventive game”, citing the “stale and small” environment and the boredom in between big fighting bosses (in gaming-speak, defined as “a significant enemy standing in the way of your main objective or an enticing rewards”). She laments the skeletal side content that would have otherwise enriched one’s gaming experience. “A retelling of a 432-year-old tale with pretty trees and Ragnarok-style combat doesn’t entirely hit the spot” is her final verdict.
The criticism that Black Myth fails to capture the richness and complexity of the Monkey King story highlights the challenge faced by Game Science in adapting a politically and culturally significant Chinese mythology into a video game designed for mass consumption.
Regardless, the buzz created by Black Myth has significantly raised the profile of the Chinese gaming industry. However, government endorsement might shift the game’s focus from design to politics, a development that Game Science specifically aimed to avoid.