"The value of games is not only creating economic returns by means such as diversified copyright operations, but assuming the social responsibility as a media in inheriting fine traditional culture and spreading it. All game practitioners should properly deal with the close relationship between inheritance and innovation, sourcing their innovation from our brilliant traditional culture."
Gaming Responsibility Forum 2022 & Release Conference of Game Developer Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report (2021-2022) (Report) was held in Beijing on July 30. Representatives from regulators, industrial institutions, research institutes and game developers have reached the consensus above. Guided by the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association (CADPA), hosted by people.cn, organized by Jinbao Electronic & Audiovisual Publishing (Beijing) Co., Ltd., with the theme "Promoting Chinese Traditional Culture, Delivering Quality Games", the event aims to explore ways for the development of the gaming industry through collision of wisdom.
Valuing traditional culture
Its extremely popular nature makes video games an ideal media for spreading cultural concepts. Now a growing number of game practitioners have realized the importance of infusing traditional cultural elements into their development.
"Profound traditional Chinese culture has provided rich materials and space for game creation. Games' features of participation, interaction and immersion have created an effective path for the inheritance and promotion of the crown jewel of our traditional culture. In this connection, to lead the sector on a clean and sustainable developmental path, we must uphold the confidence in our culture, ride along with the trending history and epoch, and spread the culture of our people and the spirit of the times we are living in, making the games created by us melodious notes perfectly blended in the mainstream themes of our times. All game practitioners should center around people during, seamlessly integrating serving the people and developing the sector," said Zhang Yijun, First Vice Chairman of CADPA and Director of the Game Work Committee of CADPA, whose words aroused bursts of applause from the audience.
Chinese gaming industry recorded overseas sales of 8.989 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, up 6.16% year on year, according to public data. To Zhang, the data suggest Chinese gaming industry has not only gained a firm foothold, but also shown a strong momentum in the highly competitive international market. The situation has apparently created a superb opportunity for introducing Chinese culture to the world, telling Chinese stories right and shaping the new image of China quietly.
Prof. He Wei from the School of Arts & Communication, Beijing Normal University felt the same. To him, from the dimensions of character, environment and action, in the states of sign, knowledge and notion, games effectively reflect the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional Chinese culture. Digital games infused with traditional culture will help tell Chinese stories, enhance soft cultural power of our country, and promote international cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Creating quality games
The inspiring news is a mounting number of game developers have already deepened integration between games with traditional culture over the past years, creating quality games with traditional culture at the core.
Shanghai Gewu Research Institute of Cultural Development and the Cultural Industry Research Center of Guangming Daily jointly released Innovation Cases for the Brand Promotion of "Shanghai Culture" in January 2022, with game brands like Shengqu, Lilith, Mihoyo and Perfect World among these cases, according to the Report. Remarkably, as a cultural enterprise, Perfect World Investment & Holding Group (Perfect World) has remained committed to the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional culture through fine digital cultural products based on its years of practice and exploration. "We invited Mr. Zheng Feng, the fourth-generation successor to an intangible cultural heritage item: Qinhuai Lanterns as a traditional culture advisor, to supervise the full-process production of game scenes and props including Qinhuai lanterns," said Wang Qingping, Vice President of Perfect World. "From details, we aim to deliver a fantastic Qinhuai digital temple fair to players worldwide."
Brilliant traditional Chinese culture is everlasting and inexhaustible treasure handed down for thousands of years, and the game has become one of the most dynamic industrial forms. To keep to the right path, make innovation, bring its positive value into full play, and realize its economic and social value, the gaming industry must root itself in traditional culture and take fulfilling social responsibility as its fundamental mission.
