This is a bit of a rant about the title "rex lapis" and english localizers. It's not well written. It's a rant and i do get angry and mildly personal. Also sorry this is what i post after so long of nothing.
Idk about anyone else but i have always felt weird about say "rex lapis" , it always felt like it didnt fit right and in a way ive grown to tolerate it more and even be comfortable with it.
Can we fucking talk about genshins english localizers butchering liyue characters.
For a long while now ive learned that "rex lapis" is not his title. Its "Yanwang Dijun" and ive slowly been replacing his localized title with his real one ever since.
Honestly? Im sick and tired of targeted prejudice against chinese people, their cultures and their languages.
They didn't need to replace his title. It's not hard to pronounce. It's easier than the correct pronunciation of the name "zhongli". They kept "Raiden Shogun" and "Musou no Hitotachi" and just about every other name i believe thats in another language. Even in sumeru and natlan. I can't even begin to understand how to pronounce the names and stuff from natlan. Not that I don't try ofc but I don't think I've seen words like that before natlan in my life.
To be honest at first i thought "rex lapis" was a deliberate choice on hoyos side. Nope it was literally just the localizers being racist and sinophobic.
Its not just with zhongli either
Gaming or "Jiaming" which is his real name (literally no reason to change it to gaming. Especially when its going to be seen as a different word in english)
Speaking of Jiaming theres his fucked voicelines where he goes "alley-oop" in the localization. Not even close to what he actually says.
Or or or Xianyuns "Fiddlesticks" now granted that one is a hard one to translate because as far as im aware it doesnt have a direct translation, there is no word in english that matches it. But they seriously could have done better here.
I could go on and on (dont even get me started on that one npc outside wanmin restaurant) but i think you get my point.
The localizers are terrible in general especially with trying to add weird and cringey slang and i honestly wish they would learn to do their jobs properly
And maybe I'm biased because I'm Chinese myself and am more perceptive of prejudice towards anything chinese related, but i honestly dont know where else, what other nation has this many of this kind of fuck ups.
I mean there was that one thing in sumeru, the um, black cake things idr what they are, and paimon hating them and i know people got upset about that, and personally i think thats a pretty fair reaction, i also felt hesitant about them, but also i could list dozens of real chinese foods that i would react the same way to so....
Anyway they didnt change the name for the mechanism in fontaine (you know the one im not gonna try to spell it from memory)
Or ventis/barbatos lyre, or any of fischls nonsense.
So why are the liyue characters, and especially liyues title for their archon that they call him OUT OF RESPECT and not even difficult to say, replaced and butchered so damn much. Even the fan wiki tries to justify it by saying it is "thematically tied".
And its even more weird because on xiaohongshu (rednote) nearly all his fans over there call him by his title. Of "Yanwang Dijun" and you can tell even if its translated that they are doing that. Even real people from china call him by his title, like you would think they'd keep it instead of using a fucking latin replacement.
Sorry if im a bit angry, i am angry. I try not to talk about such things too much because i hate getting into drama
But this infuriates me the more i learn and think about it. All the time and effort people put into researching the other nations, but dont even bat an eye at the lies they are being given about liyue. Lies fed to them from the fucking english localizers. But no one cares because its liyue and liyue is "based on china and china is bad". I can't stand it. I cant stand the hypocrisy and double standards. And zhonglis title is not the first thing to make me reach a boiling point over sinophobia, but for some reason it hurts even more because its over him.
Growing up in america i never really had much of an opinion of china, and didnt know much about it. i even lied to people and said i was japanese a few times, believed the american propaganda about china. But a couple years before genshin came out i started watching cdramas out of boredom . That piqued my interest more. Then i got into genshin and liyue and zhongli were such a huge push for me to learn and discover and appreciate the cultures and people i should have grown up in and around. Helped me accept being chinese and is a huge influence on why and what i chose to be my new name.
So seeing the way people purposefully replace the chinese aspects of things and knowing why when they do it just hurts so fucking much now that ive come to embrace these things more.
Theres so much i could say about this stuff but honestly im tired, and it would simply take too long...
So I'll end it here. If youve made it this far all i can really do is ask that you try to double check and fact check what you think you know about chinese culture and liyue. Please use the correct original versions of things when you can. I know most people won't since the english localization is treated as canon, and its not as if im going to get mad at each individual fan for not knowing, but if you do at least know that you have my sincere appreciation every time you do. Im not religious (unless you count zhongli and my shrine for him) but may blessings and good fortune find you every time you say "Yanwang Dijun" or "Yanwang Ye" instead of "Rex Lapis".
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