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“We call on MiHoYo to stop cultural appropriation and whitewashing in their games and to commit to respectful and accurate representation of all cultures,” begins the petition. So far, over 67K people have signed the community’s demands to heal the damage of “harmful stereotypes.”
The petition asks for MiHoYo to engage with indigenous cultural consultants, revise existing content to unsure accurate representation, and to commit to creating diverse and inclusive characters.
The discourse is not limited to just the petition though, as plenty of voice actors have been speaking up against MiHoYo in the past few weeks. Amber May, a voice actor who plays Dehya in Genshin and Yanqing in Honkai Star Rail has said that “politely asking to see more accuracy in a portrayed culture is not a ‘forced agenda’,” while Allegra Clark (Beidou in Genshina and Acheron in HSR) has said that “it’s just disappointing” when minorities are not represented properly.
The discourse is a build up of aggravations that were catalysed by the reveal of the Natlan region. Inspired by both African and Latin American culture and geography, yet predominantly featuring white characters.
Take Ọlọrun, for example, an ancient Yoruba deity. With roots in West African mythology, they are indisputably black, and should be characterised as such. Genshin’s portrayal (below, right) is just a disrespectful attempt to whitewash the character, especially compared to Smite’s compelling portrayal on the left.
Kinich is the Mayan sun God. His character in Genshin is an uninspired Timothee Chalomet clone, and there seems to be little in the way of respecting Maya culture in anything but name. The lack of attention to detail, care, or representation is astonishing.
Citlali, a name of Aztec origin, yet portrayed visually as a pink-haired girl of pale white skin. Xilonen, too. Thankfully, an artist known as @cerezcs repainted the character based on Aztec paint. One of the responses said the artwork was “healing my Aztec loving heart.”
Genshin’s Natlan region introduces a handful of new characters, each glibly appropriated from Aztec, Yoruba, Salvadoran, and many other cultures. There will be people responding to this discourse saying that it’s just a fictional game, and that none of this matters. It is in fact important. We need accurate representation – to call out whitewashing of minority characters – to ensure that future projects are not littered with cultural appropriation. Because deliberate acts such as this erase the visibility of ethnic minorities, while simultaneously profiting from their cultures. It tells us that we don’t matter, and it’s just dehumanising.
The petition calls upon MiHoYo to respectfully address its cultural appropriation, and take care when moving forward with similar projects in the future.
VideoGamer has reached out to MiHoYo for comment.
About the Author
Genshin Impact
- Platform(s): Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
- Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Massively Multiplayer Online, RPG
