Bringing up a dead horse but I really need to get this out there:
Having lived in China for like a year now I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem with Natlan is most likely due to ignorance and lack of knowledge. Like, I’m not joking when MAJORITY of Chinese people don’t know what’s going on outside of their country. They’re simply taught not to think about it and they simply have no access to it outside of what the CCP allows in through the news and Chinese social media.
Chinese people have everything—and I mean EVERYTHING—convenient for them here. It’s so convenient that they don’t even see the reason to ever go out and from China for “opportunities” because there’s already enough back at home. This fuels the people’s lack of knowledge of the outside world due to having no interest in it and in addition to their limited ability to research the outside world, of course they’re bound to fumble one way or another.
Searching for things in chinese google (baidu) is HARDDDD and also limited when it comes to outside sources. You can’t even access that one science paper database website that’s all just scientific research. Oh and if you want to say “oh you can just VPN” that’s illegal. Chinese people are, by law, NOT ALLOWED to own or use VPN. It’s meant to deter criminal activities but even if you used it for only playing games or use twitter or Instagram you might get in trouble (when I told my Chinese friend to just use VPN, he VEHEMENTLY did not want to do it because he didn’t want to get caught and get in trouble and have to explain himself. Me asking him to download VPN is like me asking him to walk around with a loaded shotgun)
And I know, MiHoyo is a multi-billion dollar company, they can pay an outsider to do research on it but I think there’s a company law that limits or perhaps even prohibits that from happening. I don’t know, I’m not certain, I forgot, I might be just shutting out of my ass with this one.
So combine ignorance + lack of knowledge + lack of available information, you can totally see the picture of misrepresentation looking over the horizon. Even Mondstadt didn’t escape this situation because Mondstadt is less Germanic and more or less just medieval fantasy: those fairy tale-like land with the rolling hills and green fields like in old American movies.
If you think about it, the only cultures they’ve represented “correctly” with minimal complaints are China and Japan—with Liyue and Inazuma respectively.
The three founders of MiHoyo are literal otakus and weebs so that explains their extensive knowledge of Japan (and it’s easier to learn more about foreign Asian countries than foreign anything else countries) (and by Asian I mean east Asia and South-east Asia) (even Middle East and India are not that easy despite being practically neighbours and just a border away) and China is, well, China.
You will never understand the kind of scrutiny and beauty standard they hold here. To you beauty standards are just standards, you won’t get killed if you don’t follow them and they are just expectations placed onto you. Over here? If you don’t follow beauty standards, you might not get a job, heck, you might even be considered a criminal.
Of course, that’s being harsh and very extreme. If you just kept yourself natural and not do any makeup then everyone is just going to judge you but not do anything. However, if you ACTIVELY and I mean like choosing styles that subverts the standards, you are Satan incarnate.
…well, not exactly Satan incarnate becaude they don’t follow religion here, more like you are the second-coming of hitler? Like you’re capable of destroying the country of China and ruin lives by just… dressing like a hobo… or being black.
I’M NOT JOKING. IF YOU DIDN’T *LOOK* LIKE YOU’RE OBVIOUSLY A FOREIGNER YOU *WILL* BE HELD BY THE SAME RULES AND UNSPOKEN RULES AS A LOCAL (source: me and my friends who are all ASEAN but have been mistaken to be a local due to how much we look alike)
Okay now I’m just complaining about my short-comings… regardless, where was I even going with this? Ah yes, not gonna lie, Genshin is very woke popular game in the eyes of Chinese people because of simply the large of culture stuffed inside of the game. The only other CHINESE GAME ADVERTISED TOWARDS CHINESE PEOPLE that contained this much culture is Reverse:1999 and that game’s fanbase is NOTHING compared to the behemoth that is Genshin. Genshin, whose merch I can find abundance of in the midst of other Chinese-focused chinese media in the small city I currently live in versus Reverse:1999 who—despite being famous—I lack the ability to find merch for… even fake ones orz
Idk how to really end this other than… don’t really expect much? What Genshin has is already a lot and more than even the most well-informed Chinese. I’m not saying that you don’t have the right to be made or upset, Im just telling you to just… set your expectations lower.
Also Chinese people hate things that does not meet expectations and that includes familiarity. So if you expect Genshin to delve into unfamiliar details, I think you need to make the majority of Chinese people be comfortable with it first before Genshin will ever make that change.
Oh and also I think Natlan is not only based on Africa but every country that is touched by the Ring of Fire (this includes my country KEKW, I can definitely see it in Mictlan, their whole vibes and music is very Indonesia—at least in the mystical side. The music is very Indonesian though, you can see a lot of Indonesians posting about it when that si area first came out)
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