Cultural spillover effect bears rich dividends

"Black Myth: Wukong", a single-player video game, became an instant hit upon its launch on Tuesday, setting multiple records including that for the highest number of simultaneous online users, with hashtags on the video game accumulating a record 2 billion views on China's X-like microblog Weibo by Wednesday.

The game, developed and published by Chinese company Game Science, a new start-up, has since been trending online, both domestically and internationally. Based on the monkey king, Sun Wukong, from the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West, "Black Myth: Wukong" was, at one point, being played concurrently by 2.2 million players on Steam, a major online gaming platform, on Wednesday. No wonder some experts said the adaptation of Journey to the West will prompt Western players to learn more about China's culture.

"Black Myth: Wukong", even before its official launch in China, benefited not only the gaming industry, but also sectors such as the stock market. On the other hand, the cultural and tourism departments of cities, counties and rural areas have released multiple collaborative videos, demonstrating the potential of such works to integrate the cultural and tourism sectors. Also, ride-hailing enterprise Didi, the Lenovo Group and Luckin Coffee are incorporating elements inspired by "Black Myth: Wukong" into their promotional campaigns.

The video game has spread across societies, promoting the coordinated development of related industries in the shortest span of time.

None of this has happened by chance. In August 2020, when Game Science, which at the time employed fewer than 30 people, released a promotional video of "Black Myth: Wukong", the realistic details, aesthetic features and exemplary craftsmanship of the video game sparked widespread discussions, with some people asking when China will have its own AAA-level game and when Chinese-made games will reflect a distinctive Chinese style.

"Black Myth: Wukong" has answered those questions, as it has been widely lauded as China's first AAA game — high development cost, long production cycle and huge investment, with industry analysts viewing its sudden fame and popularity as marking an inflection point for China's PC/console gaming sector.

All countries and regions have endeavored to showcase their culture to the world and enhance their image through media such as movies, TV shows, and online posts including video clips and online games. Thanks to such endeavor, the Journey to the West series, which debuted in the 1960s, achieved international success, influencing future Japanese anime creations and laying the foundation for Chinese-made animated films.

Subsequent animated films such as Nezha Conquers the Dragon King have left a clear imprint on viewers' mind. This is where the biggest significance of "Black Myth: Wukong" lies.

Video games have become an important part of the common cultural experience of youths across the world, irrespective of their ethnicity, race, creed, color and religion. In fact, video games were featured as competitive electronic sports at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in 2023. And before the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee announced that the first Olympic Esports Games will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2025, indicating gaming as an official Olympic sport has a promising future.

Over the past few years, China's cultural industry, which has become one of the pillar industries of the national economy, has given us one excellent production after another, from The Wandering Earth and The Three-Body Problem to milestone creations such as Chang'an.

From original science fiction films and works reflecting foreign cultures to the productions reflecting the rich traditional Chinese culture, a series of high-quality creations with excellent commercial, social and professional value have enthralled audiences in the past years, mirroring the qualitative improvement of China's cultural industry. In the gaming world, an AAA-level game like "Black Myth: Wukong" shows that the Chinese cultural industry has mastered more than just the simple technological and commercial aspects of video games.

In the era of mobile internet, online or video games not only influence film and TV productions, but also often serve as the ballast for success in the global market. From Apple, Amazon and Google to Microsoft, Tesla and NVIDIA, the gaming industry chain involves artificial intelligence, cloud computing, global real-time transmission networks, data storage, game engines, virtual reality, augmented reality, and other hardware and software industries, which play a crucial role in determining the global financial order. That's why "Black Myth: Wukong" has had a huge social impact globally.

High-dimension media, online or video games, and electronic sports, which influence the global youth, have become a major field of global ideological struggle. Games are increasingly reshaping the virtual world and expanding the geopolitical space of the real world, becoming the main representatives of virtual space geopolitics.

Compared with the physical geopolitical landscape, the power struggle in the virtual geopolitical space is more disparate and asymmetric, and like outer space, it is not entirely subject to the direct constraints of traditional sovereignty and international law. As such, there is a need to re-examine and attach greater importance to the strategic value of China's digital cultural industry.

The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China called for promoting Chinese discourse and narrative systems, so as to better tell China's story. In fact, China has already been promoting high-level opening-up, including that of the cultural industry, exploring effective mechanisms for the integration of culture and technology, accelerating the development of new cultural formats, and helping create more high-quality works such as "Black Myth: Wukong".This means the future of China's digital industry is promising.

The author is an associate researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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