Sun Wukong is an integral and long-enduring part of Chinese culture, one that has been reinterpreted time and time again across multiple mediums since the character was first created in a 16th-century Chinese novel called Journey to the West. The monkey god is iconic because he’s impossibly powerful and intelligent, has so many skills that he’s practicall🐷y unbeatable, and uses those powers to sow chaos. He’s largely considered ꦬa trickster god, a la Loki.
Like many people in my age ཧgroup, I first found out who Sun Wukong is through the CCTV Chinese television adaptation of the same name, which I’d watch with my grandmother while she babysat me. Others discovered him through one of the many animated series, comics, films, and plays portraying the all-powerful immortal monkey man. The original Dragon Ball was heavily inspired by Journey to the West. Dota 2 has a character called Sun Wukong. League of Legends has a champion based on him. Sun Wukong is everywhere if you know what to look for, and he’s now the focus of a highly-anticipated Soulslike, slated for release in🐽 the summer of 2024.
I was thrilled when I first heard about Game Science’s Black Myth: 🃏Wukong. A game where you play an absurdly powerful god with an impossible lineup of skills at your disposal? An authentically Chinese Soulslike where you’d get to use those powers to totally decimate your enemies? Of course I was excited. The majority of Asian representation we get in video games is Japanese because of the huge industry in that region and the early opport♛unities that companies like Sega and Nintendo seized.
꧙Chinese games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail are huge and Chinese games dominate the mobile game market, but these games don’t have nearly the cultural impact that companies like Nintendo hꦿave had with their intellectual properties. Chinese representation rules, and I was so excited to see something that resonates with so many Chinese people turned into what looks like a really cool game – China’s first major triple-A game, no less.
But then there’s the controversy. In 2020, comments from Game Science founder and CEO Feng Ji sparked a debate about the treatment of female gamers and had people proposing boycotts. On the day that the trailer was released, Feng made a post on Weibo. “I want to expand our workforce and hire more people. I want to be licked so much that I can't have an erection anymore,” he wrote following Black Myth Wukong’s 2020 reveal. "I know you guys just happen to be so horny. I'm glad that the trailer has given you some satisfaction. My goal is to give blowjobs to people who appreciate my work, and to help people who share my vision achieve orgasms".
In another post about the trailer, he said, “Now I feel pressure in my pants!” These are weird and kind of gross statements to make on a public forum, to be sure, but not necessarily indicative of bigotry. However, some also cited the company’s 2015 recruiting advertisements, which were highly and inexplicably sexualised, making some feel it indicated a sexist company culture. He ꦇalso said that Black Myth: Wukong “needed no female players” alongside some other stereotype🦩s about women and gay people.
I know some gamers like to ignore the actions of companies as long as they make good games. I am not one of those gamers. Knowing that I will be putting money into the pockets of a misogynist by buying a game makes me deeply uncomfortable. Will I be playing the game and writing about it honestly and critically on the basis of its merits? Sure, if I get a code. It’s my job to care about the triple-A landscape, 🐻and Chinese representation in the gaming industry will benefit from coverage of this game. But I don’t want to spend a cent on it, because I’m not interested in making people like this richer.
These allegations have put a huge damper on my exci🐟tement for China’s first triple-A, and it’s a huge shame – the game looks beautiful. Sun Wukong is one of the most compelling characters in Chinese literature, which is why there are so many characters and shows inspired by him. But that’s not going to be enough to get me excited for this game’s release and possible success. I wish I cared more, but I don’t.