Opinion | Younger generation spreads China culture from the ground up

New Chinese role-playing video game Black Myth: Wukong became a global phenomenon overnight, clocking up more than 2.2 million concurrent users on the day of its debut last month. Within hours, it became the second most popular “sandbox” distributed by US platform Steam, and has continued to be one of the fastest-selling video games of all time.

But what really sets Wukong apart is a celebration of Chinese culture. Inspired by the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, it represents a milestone for the Chinese gaming industry, created by developers from the Tencent Holdings-backed studio Game Science.

The runaway success of the game has prompted analysts to praise it as a lift for cultural confidence that could advance China’s soft-power agenda. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said a game seemingly inspired by the literary classic spoke “to the appeal of Chinese culture”.

While it is true that gaming is now bigger than the film industry, and that China has the biggest pool of players, the focus has largely been on copycats of Japanese or American games lacking strong or distinctive Chinese characters.

That is where Wukong stands out for being based on a classic myth using Chinese characters and style.

This reflects a deeper transformation in popular culture being wrought by the younger generation. It is emerging among fans of video games or other leisure and entertainment such as cinema.

They are becoming increasingly confident about China’s own culture, evidenced by revival, including the adoption by young people of traditional Chinese styles of dress.

Films about Chinese history are becoming increasingly popular. Last year Chang An, blending modern animation with poetry in the Tang dynasty, was thought to be an offbeat topic, but it became a box office hit praised for celebration of traditional Chinese culture. Wukong is making a similar impact.

This has opened up a unique business opportunity for China’s creative industries to come up with their own distinctive voice. Over time, hopefully, we can expect to see more popular games, films and books focusing on China and its culture.

This is not government-driven. It is a bottom-up movement rooted in a younger generation projecting pride and confidence in its own culture.

A case in point was to be found on the world stage during the recent Paris Olympics, when today’s athletes prompted positive comparisons with predecessors. They were seen to be more expressive and confident in a global multicultural environment.

President Xi Jinping has said Chinese should be more confident about their culture. The younger generation is showing the way.