How China Uses Genshin Impact as a Form of Cultural Soft Power
🍓Hi all, this is the full essay WITH the bibliography. Unfortunately, Tumblr has ruined the formatting, and my block quotes are no longer properly blocked. If there is a large section of text with a citation after it, then that is a full quote from a paper and not my own work. (You can tell because actual scholars are more eloquent than me). This is a LONG READ. It is 7,000 words, and I'm still going to tweak it so it's not even a final product. Also, I overexplain concepts because I am writing this not for Tumblr, but for academic boards who have no idea what this game is lol. Still, I hope those who are interested enjoy my research!
Slight Warning! I am highly critical of the CCP, and often refer to "China" doing something. They are used interchangeably often. I do not believe all Chinese people are represented by the CCP, and I do not believe that all of China is trying to exhibit cultural soft power. This is an analysis entirely on HoYoverse and the CCP. Though this should all go unspoken, I am very sure people will be obtuse.
Genshin Impact opens with a beautiful overture, strumming of harps, the soft singing of a faceless woman, and a doorway in the sky leading to something not yet known to the player. Passing through these doors, the player is greeted with an intense battle between two otherworldly siblings and a “Heavenly Principle,” who enforces the laws of the world yet unknown. Here, in this battle, the player must choose between the protagonists, give them their “name”, and proceed to lose the fight almost immediately afterward. Shortly after this battle, in which the opposite twin is taken away, the traveler of choice awakens on a beach beneath a cliffside, with a new guide, Paimon, beginning a journey spanning eight nations rich in culture and history that echoes the world the player lives in today.
Genshin Impact is a Chinese science fiction-fantasy action role-playing game (ARPG) released in September 2020 by miHoYo (now HoYoverse), which has quickly grown in popularity across the world. In the game, the player, referred to as the traveler by characters, is tasked with traveling across the world of Teyvat to find their lost sibling. They quickly find that there is more to their mysterious disappearance than meets the eye; they must uncover the secrets hidden within Teyvat's history, stories, and culture, particularly, the secrets of the gods or “Archons” of the seven regions.
Teyvat is a post-apocalyptic world that struggles between godly influence and human self-sufficiency. The Traveler entered the world's history as a “descender” five hundred years after a great calamity called the Archon War, in which Teyvat’s power was divided up into seven – eight, counting a surprise region introduced in 2025 before the “seventh” area – nations with a respective Archon representing an element. Each is representative of a collection of cultures from the ancient and modern world. However, for this paper, three are important: Liyue, based on ancient China, in which the Archon of Geo rules; Sumeru, based on a disparate group of nations spanning from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa (specifically Persia, Egypt, and India), in which the Archon of Dendro rules; and Natlan, based on an even wider spread, including most of Mesoamerica, Central and Southern Africa, as well as Oceania (spcifically Maori and Polynesian cultures), in which the Archon of Pyro rules. Notably, only one nation here is truly based on one culture, while the others are agglomerates. The only other exception to this multicultural grouping is Japan, which also gets its own region in Inazuma.
To understand why this is, we must look at Edward W. Said’s Orientalism, which Genshin loosely uses to break up their regions. “The Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West” (Said, 1978, 5). Although Said’s primary area of interest is the Middle East and classifying it in relation to the West’s colonialism, this paper will use his theory through a Sinocentric lens, examining how China breaks up and classifies the world through similar means as Orientalists do. Rather than a Western view, they take the concept and apply it to who they view as important, as a threat, and who their political allies are. The way it is used by HoYoverse also echoes Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, the theory that “The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural” (Huntington, 1996, 1). HoYoverse groups these fictional countries based on their perception of cultural nations within the world. Therefore, this paper argues that Said’s theory is the means by which the regions are built within the virtual world of Teyvat, where Huntington’s theory is the end that the CCP attempts to achieve, pushing soft power with Genshin Impact. The in-game countries of Mondstat and Fontaine are based on Central and Western Europe, respectively. Inazuma is in Japan, separated from the rest of the world. Nod Krai – the aforementioned “eighth” area – is loosely Baltic, and Snezhnaya is interestingly based on Russia, with hints of the United States’ influence present. Snezhnaya is also the final region, the most advanced in Teyvat, and the biggest acting threat. Each of these regions has been, or will be, released on a yearly schedule with patch updates to the game.
Here is where the crux of the argument begins: why does China choose to do this? Their classifications are purposeful, and the care they put into each culture being represented was intentional. So what is this? In the simplest terms, it is China exhibiting soft power over Genshin’s global audience. Genshin Impact is one of the most popular pieces of global media China has put out, and as a result, it is closely watched and scrutinized by the CCP.
When GI saw worldwide success, miHoYo became the unexpected purveyor of Chinese soft power overseas. With this success, the founders became not only very rich but also the subject of scrutiny by the state in China. In 2021, the organization within the company that represents the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was upgraded from a party branch (党支部) to a full-fledged party committee (党委) (Yap, 2024,7).
The CCP invests money, effort, and resources into Genshin Impact, which means it must comply with the CCP's standards in return. While all video games in China must also do this, because of the CCP’s direct involvement with Genshin Impact, it, in turn, acts as a means of pushing Chinese thought to a global level.
So, Genshin Impact, as a product of HoYoverse, one of China’s most successful and most popular global video game companies, alongside Tencent, exhibits Chinese Soft Power in everything it does. Anything the writers, developers, art directors, and anyone else working on the game does is an exhibition of Chinese Soft Power. Through each update to the game, they are pushing a specific narrative of Chinese cultural and historical views of countries around the world, and insisting upon the importance and the character of these states through their fictional counterparts.
As established, the way that HoYoverse does this is through a mix of Said’s Orientalism, altered to the Sinocentric view, and Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. Western colonialist thinkers often impose this kind of view of the world; Said, coming from Jerusalem, and Huntington from the United States; their thinking is interesting, given that both countries they are from lived under an oppressive British rule in their early lives. The difference is that Palestine continues to be under Apartheid to this day, and the United States has broken free and become a superpower, which both Said and Huntington have seen firsthand. These histories are, in part, what shape thier thinking in their theory. However, as applied by China, this background is mostly negligible. HoYoverse takes a broader approach to the theory in application. It is not so much about the meaning of the theory, but more so a tool with which they can help the audience understand the world in more basic terms. It creates a connection to what is known in the real world with what is yet known in Teyvat’s world.
Knowing how the regions are classified, Huntington's theory can now be applied. Particularly with Liyue, being that it is only China, with very slight additions from cultures that China now considers part of itself, such as Taiwan, there’s a clear message. “Liyue in the Genshin Impact is based on the reality of China and is created in a fantasy worldview with a Chinese-style theme, hoping to convey the charming "Chinese beauty" to players around the world while ensuring the acceptance of this element by everyone” (Fan, 2024). HoYoverse seems to want to imply that China being separate implies a “pure” culture, which is unchanged by outside influences. There is no crossing or confusion, which makes it far easier for the writers to create more accurate cultural and historical portrayals in the game's characters and stories. For example, a pertinent character named Xiao, who “takes the guardian attribute from the magic novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Because of Xiao’s quick and light fighting movements, he has applied the “night spear” image, which originated from Buddhist stories and has been incorporated into Chinese folklore, to his character design” (Wang, 2023, 7). It creates an air of importance about Chinese culture, the idea that it is unblemished by the mixing of multiple different types of religions, beliefs, and moral systems. The only other nation like this is Japan’s Inazuma, and that seems to be because of Japan’s isolative nature historically, plus its heavy association with the West and very poor relationship with the rest of East Asia.
Liyue, as established, is the fictional lifeblood of China flowing through Genshin Impact. It is the nation that is returned to the most, being that it has yearly events for the Chinese New Year, the nation with the most playable characters, and received two large map expansions long after its initial release in version 1.0 – one in version 2.6 (HoYoverse, 2022), the other in version 4.4 (HoYoverse, 2024). Furthermore, in the patch update version 6.5, there is another sub-region added that takes inspiration from China (HoYoverse, 2026). The pattern here is significant; the player returns to Liyue once a year, and about every two years, there is some kind of region that is referenced or is part of Liyue. China remains important, but that begs the question of how well done Liyue is from a cultural representation perspective. It is easy to say, with how much they seem to love the region, that it is done with love and care.
According to Xingwei Wang, the southeast part of Liyue is a port known for commercial trade, which corresponds to marketing on the southeast coast of ancient China, while the rest of Liyue is an agricultural production mode. Under the ancient legend of “‘Work at sunrise and return at sunset.’ the law of life. Liyue is a city with a rich cultural atmosphere, strong examples of Chinese color, and unique natural scenery that complement each other” (Wang, 2023, 5). As Wang puts so eloquently, Liyue is a perfect representation of Chinese values and culture. It directly reflects a historical China, and paints an image of a bustling country with beautiful landscapes and deep Chinese roots. The way the nation itself is set up is a direct reflection of China today, again simulating the image to the player and displaying its most positive traits.
Another way they display these strong Chinese connections is through the mainline story quest connected to Liyue – referred to as “Archon”, “Interlude”, and “Story” quests. Liyue has three main Archon Quests that explore humanity's ability to survive without its god. The Archon of Geo, Rex Lapis, also known as the God of Contracts, has “died” at a celebration dubbed “The Rite of Descension,” where he comes from the heavens to visit his people. The rest of the three quests are spent trying to figure out why this happened, and watching Liyueians grapple with a future where they no longer can rely on the support of their Archon, nor the Adepti who have kept them safe. At its core, Liyue is a story of gods stepping aside for human societies to flourish. As said by minor character Ganyu during the second act, “As an adeptus… I think I will eventually come to grips with reality. Since Rex Lapis has passed, the time of Liyue’s contract with the gods and adepti has now reached its end” (HoYoverse, 2021). This is indicative that China, though still connected to its rich history and the gods of the past, is stepping forward into a future where they no longer need to rely on them to be something great.
In this questline, the Traveler later finds that the Archon of Geo has not, in fact, died, but has stepped away from his post as Archon to live as a normal human under the name Zhongli. At first glance, his characterization seems like he is aloof and generally uncaring of others, and certainly neglectful of the nation that worships him. Yet he displays an acute awareness of himself and the people of Liyue: “In the safe hands of the Liyue Qixing… I, for one, believe that Liyue will continue to prosper as it always has done” (HoYoverse, 2021). Furthermore, Zhongli himself displays the idea that history changes with time, that its perception changes as the people do, and accuracy is difficult to find in an ever-changing world. “But unchanging stone, immovable earth, even one such as myself… Someday, we may all disappear” (HoYoverse, 2021). He is the embodiment of the idea that all will fade away one day, and his awareness of this is what caused him to leave Liyue to the humans he ruled over for thousands of years. Zhongli is the very embodiment of Chinese ideas on history, what is permanent, and what it means to be permanent in a world that changes so often.
Visually, Zhongli tends to blend Western and Eastern traditions seamlessly. He continues the idea of impermanence and the struggle of modernization by maintaining historical means through design motifs littered throughout.
The outermost layer of his main outfit is a suit tuxedo, except underneath this coat is a hem resembling an ancient Chinese robe. His jacket also has dragon scales and phoenix feathers, and his body is covered with traditional Chinese patterns, such as the fang sheng pattern, key patterns, and silvery Chinese knots on his back. These elements have the artistic conception of auspiciousness in Chinese culture, and these patterns represent the Chinese culture, which is subtly displayed to players from other countries in the game (Wang, 2023, 6).
A mixing of Chinese cultural references mixed with a more modern western suit jacket, meant to emulate the mixing of past and present, the moving forward from what was into what will be. China remembers its past while stepping into a more global future.
That, then, leads to Reid’s counterargument to Huntington, “The increasing tendency to overlook the many identities that any human being has and to try to classify individuals according to a single allegedly pre-eminent religious identity is an intellectual confusion that can animate dangerous divisiveness” (Reid 2015, pg. 89). While she is focused on religion, this same argument can be turned around to point at HoYoverse and thier handling of culture in Genshin Impact. To summarize any group of people with distinct cultures, histories, and identities as one is a failure to understand the importance of these individual things that make up a nation. Refusal to acknowledge differences displays a serious lack of concern and respect for other cultures. With a game meant to be so global as Genshin Impact, this ignorance easily turns dangerous. China uses Genshin Impact as a means of exerting thier cultural views on its players. China and its culture are important enough to have their own region with love and care put into it, while these other cultures are less so. They can cross and mix and become one in the public eye with no care for how that affects these nations of people.
The next area of interest, Sumeru, reflects the argument Reid sets up. Instead of Huntington, its representation is done in a way that would better fit Said’s argument against the cultural clash. The nations grouped within it are near-perfect replications of how Orientalists split up the world. Because this region has so many different cultures, religions, and geographical differences, the expectation is that the mixing of cultures would be large and the representation would be poor. Yet, Sumeru manages to avoid this for the most part. While inevitably, there is overlap with these cultures, it is done in a way that makes sure to differentiate them from one another. Sumeru is split up into two distinct regions: The Rainforest, representing India largely, and The Red Desert, representing Egypt largely. The Rainforest is not only a rainforest, but it also contains large mountainous regions and lush greenery, as seen in areas across Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East. The characters in the region each tend to represent a historical figure from these regions, or an individual culture; i.e., the character Nilou is representative of Persia and Persian culture with a traditional headdress calling back to the Persian goddess of flowers and design covered in lotuses referencing their importance in Iranian culture; where the character of Alhaitham is most likely based on Ibn Al-Haytham, being a scholar with a unique ability to see things that others cannot see (Brighella, 2023). While the regions are mixed, and their mythos exist in one area, they are distinct and do not draw from each other. Again, this region of the world is both historically and politically significant to China; the level of care put into these cultures is a reflection of the CCP’s view of these regions. They can be lumped together, but they and their people and cultures are distinct. That differentiation must be respected by anyone seeking to use these cultures, at the very least to a surface level degree.
Sumeru, then, is the loop of time, rather than moving forward through it. The main story quest largely operates around a Samsara, or “the indefinitely repeated cycles of birth, misery, and death caused by karma” (Merriam-Webster, 2019). This Samsara was artificially created by the Akademia – the largest known college in Genshin – with the help of an Akasha system (a collection of knowledge harvested from the minds of Sumerians) to help power a false god in the making. This storytelling, in a way, implies the belief that these cultures within them are “stuck in place” with no ability to get out without the intervention of thier gods at the surface level, yet as the story continues, again it is the humans that persevere to allow their goddess to end this cycle. It sets up a criticism of the government, then, showing it to be oppressive and willing to squash its people for its own gains. The Akademia is the complete opposite of Liyue’s Qixing, who work for and with the people toward mutual benefit. It displays Sumeru’s people as the core of the knowledge, and interestingly, highlights the arts as some of the most important parts of Sumerian culture.
Sumeru is a warning that knowledge and power in the wrong hands are a dangerous thing. A show of concern from China to its allies and neighbors over their own political unrest, and the country subtly encourages them to fight back for what is rightfully theirs. This brings to mind Said’s admonition of the cultural control the West exhibits over the Middle East, almost as if China is implying these countries should break free from the control of the West.
She is the youngest of the current seven archons, having come into being as a reincarnation of the previous Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, and only existing for around 500 years. The way that she, and subsequently Sumeru, are written gives the impression that something is holding both her and her nation back, and the shedding of this something leads to a “rebirth” for both Nahida and Sumeru. The cycle that they are trapped in draws directly on Hindu values and beliefs, and the idea that they will be reborn as something “new” in a half-literal sense brings to mind reincarnation, which is utilized literally by Nahida’s very existence. The cultural and religious aspects of this region are done well, and give way for the player to feel a sense of hope for the future. In a way, it is as if China is seeing what these nations represented could be, especially after years of political strife and struggle with steady, proper leadership. They highlight the beauty of their religions and cultural customs, while also criticizing the governmental systems that appear to oppress them so heavily. Nahida herself is a literal representation of one's ability to break free from the cycle and create a new future for all, so long as one is willing to do so with what means they can.
However, Sumeru still struggles with Orientalism and exoticism in many aspects. For example, a character named Dori leans into the greedy salesman archetype that many Middle Eastern and South Asian merchants tend to be categorized as. She is loud, annoying, and unpleasant to be around because of her averice. Then, there are the emirates, who are dark-skinned people living in the desert of Sumeru, depicted as violent thieves and crooks. Despite the proper representation in some aspects, HoYoverse leaves behind other cultures in favor of depicting them in a racist and unfriendly way that, at the time of Sumeru’s release, had not been depicted in the game before. It leaves much to be desired in terms of proper representation of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and provides the players with a narrow-minded view of these cultures.
HoYoverse favors Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and simulacra, the idea of the false becoming the truth through projection. They tend to use it as a basis to create the false cultures shown by the fictional countries of Teyvat.
By crossing into a space whose curvature is no longer that of the real, nor that of truth, the era of simulation is inaugurated by a liquidation of all referentials - worse: with their artificial resurrection in the systems of signs, a material more malleable than meaning, in that it lends itself to all systems of equivalences, to all binary oppositions, to all combinatory algebra. It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real, that is to say of an operation of deterring every real process via its operational double, a programmatic, metastable, perfectly descriptive machine that offers all the signs of the real and short-circuits all its vicissitudes (Baudrillard, 1994, 2).
According to Baudrillard, Genshin Impact would be the “sign” imitating real life, which is then reflected out to the world. It is intrinsically linked to real-world culture, and this link creates confusion between what is and is not true. In this case, the Chinese conceptions of these countries are expected to be taken as the truth, and their distortion of reality is meant to be dismissed or is so minuscule that it cannot be noticed. In this way, HoYoverse can tell stories that reflect real life while avoiding the trouble of claiming these cultures wholly real. Through the idea of simulacra, the player subconsciously compartmentalizes what they see from Genshin Impact as a partial truth. “It is worth noting that game text is an open, dynamic, and polysemous symbolic expression form. It requires active participation, interpretation, and interaction from players to generate meaning and experience, which is conducive to cultural interaction” (Zhang, 2024). It relies on the player to create those boundaries, but makes it hard to separate that partial truth from the whole truth of reality, which is why the mixing of cultures is so dangerous. No clear distinction makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction.
The final nation, Natlan, employs Baudrillard the most out of any other region in Teyvat. It is the second most recently added to the game, and it also takes on the burden of representing a much larger spread of states and cultures than seen before. The team working on it at HoYoverse seemed to understand this, at least in part, and tried to do a similar split to Sumeru by making the nation have “clans” or “tribes”. There are five of these total: The Flower Feather Clan, The Scions of the Canopy, Children of Echos, People of the Springs, and Masters of the Nightwind, each representing a specific area’s cultures. For example, the Flower Feather Clan is most likely Native American/Mesoamerican using heavy feathers in their design and basing the characters there off of the original “cowboys” from Mexico; the Scions of the Canopy draws largely from Myan cultures, having its inhabitants live in a “hanging city” in the mountains alongside similar cultural markings and motifs; and the People of the Springs are supposed to represent Hawaiian natives, living on an island set off from the mainland, mostly made up of hotsprings and known for surfing and celebrations similar to those of Hawaii.
However, the issue is that there are large amounts of mixing present in the Characters from each of these regions, with a few exceptions. The characters are no longer representative of one culture or historical figure, but of the Chinese idea of what their culture is. For example, Mualani, the representative of the People of the Springs and the first released Natlanese character, is most certainly Polynesian and draws specifically from Hawaii. Yet, the representation of this culture is the commercialized culture that is sold by the West. She is literally a tour guide meant to sell the hot springs and wonderful vacation spots of her given region to the player. It is not as though these things do not exist and are not part of said culture; it is the fact that many Native Hawaiians suffer from touristic activities, and promoting this idea of Hawaii as a “vacation spot” is tone deaf to the people HoYoverse is drawing from.
Natlan struggles the most with its representation of the three areas here. It is known, from the very start of the game, as the Nation of War, where the God of War rules her people. The war in Natlan, however, is not a tribe-versus-tribe war, but instead a war of humans versus the Abyss. The Abyss is a force that corrupts Teyvat and the people within it. It is a lurking factor throughout the whole of the story, but finally shows its ugly head in Natlan, as Natlan is where the Abyss originates. This defense is known as “The Night Warden Wars, a continuous conflict Natlan Warriors fought against the Abyss” (Genshin Wiki). These fights take place in the Night Kingdom, connected to Wayob – the will of the various tribes' ancestors (HoYoverse, 2024). Where Liyue and Sumeru are focused on their gods' connection to thier people, Natlan focuses almost entirely on the human side of the story. The connections between each character, their own personal beliefs, and how they come together are what make them who they are and give them the ability to fight off the Abyss.
What Natlan avoids well is portraying these regions of the world as uncivilized or barbaric. Each character is reasonable, likable, and friendly to one another, unlike so many interactions of Tribal war nations in other Media. Instead of a war-torn land, Natlan is a colorful place with diverse cultures and well-crafted landscapes reminiscent of the regions it is drawing from. Intercultural conflict is a thing of the past here; however, that is not inherently a good thing. In fact, it is the very reason the issues listed earlier exist: because there is no clashing or conflict, the cultures mix and become conflated as the same. “In the history of the modern world, there are few more traumatic ruptures to match these enforced separations from Africa - already figured, in the European imaginary, as 'the Dark Continent'. But the slaves were also from different countries, tribal communities, villages, languages and gods” (Hall, 2015, 6). When handling regions with vast amounts of tribal communities, ignoring these tribal identities and mixing them forgets the importance of culture in the first place. No individual culture is able to shine, because it has to share the spotlight. So while The Night Kingdom is based on Mesoamerican culture, and the Wayob are from Mayan culture, they are depicted as the same.
With a story such as Natlan’s, where it is to be believed that the people all get along with no issues about cultural differences and struggles, at least some level of acknowledgement would be necessary. While the game does have an awareness of the differences, and the characters acknowledge it, this is never displayed to the player in any meaningful way. Every character seems to blindly agree on nearly everything - or come to agree on everything with little fight - even if it does not make sense for them to do so. This issue stems from the very heart of Natlan: Mavuika.
Mavuika is the first, and only currently existing, human Archon of the Seven. The procession of Archonhood in Natlan is passed down between generations of humans, and Mavuika is one in a long line. She is introduced to the traveler in a very friendly manner, straightforward about her godly nature, and confident in her bearing of the title. She is, by all means, a competent leader and seemingly worthy of her role as the God of the nation of war. The issue comes, then, in the fact that her very existence seems to be the only glue holding the narrative together. The only reason any characters seem to be motivated to do anything or get along is that Mavuika is their guiding moral beam. The relationships between these tribes feel fabricated because the only real connection that they have is that they share an archon. In avoiding the stereotypical conflict of tribal nations at war with one another, they created the opposite issue of nonsensical friendliness that is only there because they wish to avoid that trope.
Natlan’s mixing of culture, of course, extends to Mavuika herself. She is, in name and being, “most likely based on the Maori fire deity Mahuika” (Genshin Wiki). Her design furthers this idea, “ In one of the directions, the sharp corners are longer, as if they were the wake of a glowing flame passing through the air. This is because Mavuika is the wife of "Auahituroa" in Maori mythology. As one of the most important deities in Māori mythology, the comet god reflects the Māori's reverence and worship of the natural world. The comet is also believed to be the origin of fire” (Genshin Fans, 2025). She is an embodiment of the sun, of fire itself; however, the sun depicted on her is far more like the Aztec sun than the Maori symbol for the sun. It conflates the cultures as the same because of a shared icon, yet the subtle differences between the two matter and are what make the cultures unique and important.
Another notable design choice for all Natlan characters is the “nightsoul” markings, which are a state the characters go into by channeling their ancestors in the night kingdom. These markings are meant to be tribal markings, yet most of them do not call on a specific culture, but rather a generalized symbol to call back to cultural tattoos and practices marking the skin. Again, the concept is there, yet the importance of it is simply not shown, which leaves it feeling hollow and meaningless to players who do not already have a grasp on these cultures. Cool, but only there to be cool, not to tell them anything about specific people.
By using the three models above, China sets a clear precedent for what they want to say about these specific cultures and their importance (or lack thereof). Liyue, one of the starting two regions, and one that is revisited often, is clearly pushed as important. HoYoverse intends to sell Chinese culture and history through Liyue, which is why Liyue being solely Chinese is important to recognize. There is no muddying the waters, so it can craft the narrative of a good and pure China as far as it pleases. Now, Sumeru’s classifications align well with the traditional boundaries drawn by religion in Orientalism. Many of the countries it borrows from either share borders with China or are of political interest to China, so there seems to be some level of care put into properly representing these cultures. However, Natlan is a unique case, in which the groupings of people are often classified together via continent, but never cross continents. It leaves Natlan feeling like an afterthought, putting all the “ignorable” nations in one region, and mixing the cultures. The accuracy does not matter so much as the presentation.
However, this is not only a result of ignorance; it is also a result of the Chinese public's perception of history. Generally, the history of China is less about what is objectively true and more about what feels correct; “To write about modern China was primarily to trace the historical roots of the country’s current problems to legitimize their solutions rather than a truth-seeking process or the reconstruction of the past as it actually happened” (Li, 2013, 1). Because of this struggle with preservation and legitimization, the history can be accepted so long as it feels correct in the context of video games or media consumed by the Chinese populace. Genshin Impact uses this partially correct or fictional history to build its world, as seen with Liyue in particular;
The whole region of Liyue looks like a mixture of historical elements from various historical periods, and although many of the designs have historical prototypes, they do not connect to form a coherent system. Such historical designs not only avoid criticism regarding historical authenticity but are also often used to demonstrate the game's efforts in preserving history and culture (Feng, 2025, 76).
This is not to say that the representations of cultures in Genshin Impact are entirely false or made up, but that the public gives game makers leeway, as long as it is mostly accurate or feels correct.
It is a harmless practice on the surface, yet easily devastating when not handled properly, and leads to dangerous implications about poorly represented cultures. This is how the CCP uses HoYoverse as an engine to subtly imply that Chinese thought on these groupings of nations is the true or correct interpretation. Kept vague enough that a person not looking into it would not notice, but strong enough that they will still subconsciously consider that information as they play the game. For example, a character named Dori is the stereotypical Middle Eastern, money-grubbing merchant archetype – she is not entirely important, but the existence of her as a playable character in the game tells the player that this archetype is true to life in some fashion.
There is also the fact that, at its base, Genshin Impact is marketed as a science fiction fantasy game. These cultures are then modified by this overhead idea so that they fit into the world of Teyvat better, to create a moderate fantasy for the player to enjoy (Tang and Li, pg. 5). This only further adds to the Simulacrum that HoYoverse builds within the world of Teyvat. The word choice here is what is important: “moderate fantasy” is enough, but not so disconnected that the cultural motifs cannot be recognized anymore. Rather than highlighting these cultures, it uses them as vehicles to push the worldbuilding only as long as it needs it. While some of the histories of referenced nations are integral to plots and characters, generally, the real-world references are there purely for the sake of being there.
Along this same vein, Genshin Impact is a gatcha game – a game in which a player is expected to spend in-game or real-life currency to obtain a copy or multiple copies of a character. One of its main purposes is to make money for the company, and subsequently the CCP. To do this, they have to make the characters sell to their targeted audience. The deliberateness of cultural motifs in Genshin is part of the sell, but while designing and writing these characters, the company also has to maintain a level of approachability to the average player. Thus, there must be a balance between what sells and what is culturally appropriate according to their largest player base: Asia. Nearly six million players come from the Pacific region, double that of the Americas and Europe (Powell, 2025). Thus, the simulation of these cultures does not bother Chinese players as much as it might otherwise, because the simulation aligns well with what they believe to be culturally appropriate.
This does not excuse the picking and choosing of proper representation, however, and in fact makes it all the more egregious. The cultures and histories are a tool to make more money for the company. Because they are trying to maximize profits with the characters in particular, they are smart about what is most “appealing” to their audience and alter, leave out, or mix whatever cultures/cultural motifs that they so please. This has a devastating effect on many characters, leaving them feeling disconnected from the real world and subsequently making them less appealing to a global audience. It is especially noticeable when there are regions with so much time and care put in, such as Liyue, which shows not only bias but the intent behind HoYoverse’s decisions in cultural representation.
When a region like Natlan – a mess of mixed cultures, religions, and peoples – is put next to a cohesive area like Liyue, it is very hard to miss the favoritism and the subliminal message: China matters, these cultures do not. Even if the representation is accurate, the assimilation of these cultures is a blatant misunderstanding and misrepresentation of them. They conflate individual countries, religions, and peoples as similar enough to be grouped, which then leads the playerbase to make these same assumptions based on what the game tells them.
Giving credit where it is due, HoYoverse does its best to make the stories, characters, and regions compelling to the players. Yet,
Genshin Impact is adapting and implementing the visual aspect of an existing culture into game characters’ designs; moreover, on a highly popular game with a huge player base, which helps to sustain a culture’s aesthetic through visual means. The players are exposed to the visual pattern of a certain culture and will recognize it if they were to see the same visual pattern in other media because the player is already familiar with the visual elements to a certain level (Sintowoko, 2022).
When it mixes cultures in such a way, it fails to properly represent them to the player, which then leads to the loss of a deeper understanding of the culture. It minimizes the importance of differentiation and creates a fallacy where two cultures are presented as the same, and thus can be interchangeable. In the real world, that is not the case, and creates stigmas like Huntington’s model. A belief that one culture is better than another, and eventually these cultures will become homogenous to the “greater culture”.
China’s messaging through proper and improper representations of different regions of the world is a subtle implementation of Soft Power. With such a global game, there must be careful consideration of how culture is implemented, but HoYoverse picks and chooses which cultures get to be represented properly based on China’s interests, rather than what is appropriate for a global audience. It is a dangerous display of power that puts these cultures at risk without a care for thier wellbeing, only to inflate China’s cultural power through subtle means.
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and simulation. University of Michigan press, 1994. (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&publication_year=2010&author=J.+Baudrillard&title=Simulacra+and+Simulation)
Brighella. “Official Community.” HoYoLAB, January 31, 2023. https://www.hoyolab.com/article/16001567.
Fan, Yanchen. "The international communication of Chinese culture in the context of games-A case study of Genshin Impact." In SHS Web of Conferences, vol. 187, p. 04031. EDP Sciences, 2024. https://www.shs-conferences.org/articles/shsconf/abs/2024/07/shsconf_essc2024_04031/shsconf_essc2024_04031.html
Fans, Genshin. “Natlan’s 9 New Characters Cultural Research.” GenshinFans, August 23, 2024. https://genshinfans.com/blogs/news/natlan-9-new-character-cultural-research?srsltid=AfmBOoqeM_DMbmbRu6Zbf9kSNyyTPUqPFYvnoVhRpsbtsUvtLlkTYTY9
Genshin Impact, Cognosphere, HoYoverse, released September 28, 2020
Hall, Stuart. "□ Cultural Identity and Diaspora." In Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory, pp. 392-403. Routledge, 2015.
Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72 (3): 22–49. https://doi-org.illinoiscollege.idm.oclc.org/10.2307/20045621.
Kang, Yowei, Kenneth C. C. Yang, Michał Mochocki, Jakub Majewski, and Paweł Schreiber. Asian histories and heritages in video games edited by Yowei Kang, Kenneth C.C. Yang, Michał Mochocki, Jakub Majewski, Paweł Schreiber. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2025.
Merriam-Webster. 2019. “Definition of SAMSARA.” Merriam-Webster.com. 2019. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/samsara.
Powell. “Genshin Impact Live Player Count and Statistics.” IconEra, August 5, 2025. https://icon-era.com/blog/genshin-impact-live-player-count-and-statistics.135/.
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Sintowoko, D. A. W. (n.d.). Preliminary study into the Genshin impact’s aesthetics: The sustainability of visual culture through the character design. In Sustainable development in creative industries : embracing digital culture for humanities : proceedings of the 9th Bandung Creative Movement International Conference on Creative Industries (9th BCM 2022), Bandung, Indonesia, 1 September 2022 / (pp. 113–117). Routledge,. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003372486-21
Tang, Fang, and Fang Li. “Between Culture and Control: Genshin Impact and the Evolution of Chinese Online Nationalism.” Continuum 39, no. 6 (September 8, 2025): 931–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2025.2559225.
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Talent: Exceptional at talking circles around people
Despite seeming airheaded at first, Mitsumi proves herself as useful time and time again. She tries her best to make a new life in Twisted Wonderland, but sometimes she feels as though she’ll never find her place in this new world.
— More info below the cut! —
Design Notes:
-Her Cardigan is Kalim’s. He gave it to her after spilling food over the front of her uniform, hoping that it would help her cover up. It didn’t do a great job, but she kept it and uses it as part of her uniform now.
-Her skirt was up cycled from parts of an old uniform Trey doesn’t fit into anymore. She sewed on the patches on her cardigan and leg warmers as well.
-She wears a matching friendship bracelet with Ace and Deuce!
-The tips of her hair is dyed a deep magenta, she makes sure to take good care of the color and the curls.
-The scar on her face and arm were from Riddle’s Overblot. They healed surprisingly quickly, but stand out. She changed the color of her leggings to match the pink scars better.
-Cherry earrings from Cater! The leggings were also a gift from him too. She insisted the be different colors because it was “cuter”.
Fun Facts:
-She allowed Ace and Deuce to call her “Yuu” through books 1 and 2. They’d misheard her name as “Miyuki”, and she thought it was too funny to correct until she signed the contract in book 3.
-Joined the pop music club at Caters insistence, quickly becomes extremely dedicated to it. She loves to perform, but more so loves the process of preparing for performances.
-Mitsumi has been practicing and competing for Ballet since she was six. She has very strong legs and an incredible balance because of this. It’s hard to knock her on her ass, but that isn’t always a good thing.
-She can reliably play a total of ten instruments including the piano, violin, flute, and guitar. She wants to learn more, but doesn’t have the time to study any more than she already has.
-With her love for music, she also enjoys singing, but finds in embarrassing to sing in front of others.
-Knows six languages, but most aren’t useful in twisted wonderland.
-Has a deep adoration for Marine Biology and the sea, but rarely lets it show. It’s hard for her not to geek out when she’s in Octanivelle. If prompted, she can ramble on for hours about the different species of eel and their mysterious means of reproduction and migration.
-Most of her closet is made up of things stolen or up cycled from the heartslabyul boys. Eventually, she’s gifted newer clothes from Vil and Kalim, but still prefers the stuff she got from Ace and Deuce more.
-Loves to make gifts for her friends. Ace, Deuce, and Grim all have various accessories they wear made by her. A good sign to know she likes you is if she’s given you something homemade.
-She’s a wonderful baker, and likes to bake with Trey when he has the free time. They share recipes and use the Heartslabyul dorm members as their guinea pigs.
-She tends not to sleep much, usually woken by night terrors of her life before NRC or strange dreams that make her head spin.
-One reoccurring dream she has is of a woman trapped away in a magical mirror. The woman reminds her of someone on campus, but she can’t place who.
(Some) Important Relationships:
Ace & Deuce, without needing to be mentioned, are her two closest friends at NRC. After surviving several close calls with death within their first month together, the three of them are thick as thieves. Where one is, the other two aren’t far behind.
Also unspoken, Grim and Mitsumi treat each other like family. They rely on each other for everything, and hardly know how to function when the other isn’t doing well. It’s not secret to the student body that the two are attached at the hip, and they’d happily start more than a few fights to defend the other.
Cater is like the older brother Mitsumi never had. While closeness has never been Caters forte, it’s hard to reject Mitsumi when she comes to his door looking like a wet dog begging for guidance. Whether he liked it or not, he took her under his wing, and gives her as much help as he can offer her. Including even, gasp, emotional support.
Mitsumi finds herself entangled with the Octatrio after book 3. She mostly sees them when she works part time at the lounge, but always manages to bump into one of them in the halls between classes. She’s not sure what they may want from her, being that Ramshackle isn’t an option anymore, but she hopes she doesn’t have to find out any time soon. Regardless, she’s always been interested in marine life, maybe she could work out a deal so she can see how their biology differs from sea creatures of her world.
A rough beginning between Mitsumi and Vil left a sour taste in her mouth. Yet, after the VDC, she can’t deny that she enjoys his company. His harsh criticisms die down, and she’s left with someone who enjoys gossiping and doing his makeup alongside her. Not to mention her skin has never looked so good.
Malleus Draconia, also known as Tsunotarou, is a mystery to her for the longest time. Starting as a creepy figure in her front yard, he became someone she confided in, until she considered him one of her closest friends on campus — despite never really seeing him in the daylight. His unique mannerisms and speech patterns always make her laugh, she only wonders why he seems so familiar to her, despite never having met before NRC.
romaincrisis
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