Crafting National Image via Video Games' Fictional Universes and Implications for Digital Diplomacy: Portrayal and Perception of China and Japan through 'Reassembling' and 'Reterritorialization' of Cultural and Natural Heritage in Genshin Impact

Abstract

Prominent video games such as Genshin Impact have been increasingly recognized as instrumental vectors for the diffusion of information, possessing the capacity to shape attitudes and behaviors across diverse life spheres. This study employs a bifurcated methodological approach involving primary and secondary data: firstly, a functional ludostylistic analysis of the game's semiotic structures, and secondly, a series of in-depth qualitative interviews. The initial analytical phase elucidates the distinctive semantic characteristics of the game's fictional universes that establish linkages to China and Japan. Subsequently, the second phase through a set of in-depth interviews (n=18) investigates how these fictional-actual correspondences are decoded and internalized by participating gamers. To interpret these phenomena, the study adopts Penix-Tadsen's theoretical constructs of 'reassembling' and 'reterritorialization,' contextualized within frameworks of tangible and intangible natural and cultural heritage. Findings reveal that interviewees consistently identified allegorical references to China and Japan within the game's fictional realms and observed inherent representational biases perpetuated by the game's designers. Nonetheless, such recognition did not culminate in outright rejection of the game or its constructed universes. In conclusion, the study delivers a discussion around that national branding as well as soft power processes that can be effectively activated within virtual environments through the deployment of elaborately crafted fictional universes.

Keywords:fictional universecountry imageplace brandingsoft powerpublic diplomacycultural heritageGenshin Impactnew media