Editor's note:

The video gaming industry has grown significantly over the past decade, with China emerging as one of the world's largest markets. Its influence extends beyond entertainment, shaping how we learn, work and connect. Felania Liu, a game studies scholar at Beijing Normal University and curator of the Homo Ludens Archive – the first public video game archive in China – offers a fresh perspective in the three-part series New Perspectives on Gaming. She presents games as tools for education and as a new force for cross-cultural dialogue. In Part 3, Liu explores the power of games in bridging cultures.

When millions of players around the world explored ancient Chinese temples in "Black Myth: Wukong," they did more than simply observe. International streamers began reading the novel "Journey to the West," fans created mythology databases, and real-world heritage sites featured in the game saw a 300 percent surge in visits.

This shift from passive viewing to active engagement highlights video games' unique capacity to bridge cultures through what scholars call "experiential authenticity." The term refers to the feeling of truly being "there" in the virtual world, created through a player's interaction with the game's environment, narrative and systems.

Such deep engagement becomes possible only when players, developers and societies alike have the critical ability to appreciate and interpret the cultural values and rules beneath the surface of entertainment.

The mechanics of cultural understanding

Traditional cultural exports often prioritize "thematic authenticity" – the accurate representation of symbols, events and forms. While visually impressive, this approach rarely conveys deeper cultural values. It is like showing a photograph of a mountain instead of letting someone climb it.

Experiential authenticity operates differently. It does not ask, "How accurately can we depict culture?" but rather, "How can players genuinely experience its core values?" This shift transforms cultural transmission from a monologue into a dialogue.

For example, "Papers, Please" – a puzzle simulation video game – immerses players in the moral dilemmas of authoritarianism not through lectures but through its mechanics, forcing them to make inhuman choices at a border checkpoint. Players feel the system's weight firsthand, embodying its tensions rather than merely observing them.

Games encode culture in their rules and interactions – the dao (principle) beneath the qi (form). The tangible elements of a game become vessels for deeper underlying values. Where traditional media describe, digital games allow players to enact. This is the foundation of authentic cultural transmission.

Black Myth's cultural renaissance

"Black Myth: Wukong" exemplifies experiential authenticity. It does not simply retell "Journey to the West;" it immerses players in its philosophical conflicts. The quest to recover the liugen (Six Relics) becomes a playable exploration of Buddhist self-mastery, with each relic representing a tangible philosophical concept gained through interaction.

What makes this approach revolutionary is how it transcends language barriers. When players traverse 27 meticulously recreated heritage sites in Shanxi Province – from the Yungang Grottoes to the Hanging Temple – they are not reading about Chinese architecture; they are moving through it, understanding its spatial logic through embodied experience. This form of engagement creates deeper cultural connections than any amount of exposition could achieve.

The game's global reception validates this approach. Foreign players began seeking out the original literary and philosophical sources, sparking a cascade of curiosity born not from didactic cultural instruction but from genuine experiential engagement.

This mechanical embedding of cultural logic succeeds because it bypasses conscious resistance to unfamiliar worldviews. Players do not feel lectured; instead, they are challenged to master systems that organically embody different ways of thinking.

The localization balance

Professional localization plays a crucial yet often misunderstood role in cultural bridge-building. Recent controversies – such as the overly ornate Chinese translation of "Hollow Knight: Silksong," which saw approval ratings in the Steam China region fall to 38 percent – reveal how forced linguistic authenticity can alienate players.

As one frustrated player put it: "I'm not here to read Shakespeare; I just want to know where the next boss is."

The most effective cultural translation preserves specificity while ensuring accessibility. Games that maintain their cultural DNA but clarify their mechanics offer rich, contextual experiences that convey meaning through depth rather than simplification. The goal is not neutrality, but navigable difference.

Quality localization, therefore, serves as a bridge – making complex cultural ideas intelligible without diluting their essence.

Building tomorrow's bridges

As gaming evolves into humanity's most powerful experiential medium, its cultural role will only deepen. To realize this potential, developers must embed culture within mechanics, not merely aesthetics; publishers must champion authentic stories rather than safe, generic ones; and localizers must serve as cultural guides, helping players grasp the meanings behind the words.

When games allow people to live within another culture – even briefly – they nurture empathy that transcends language and geography.

Ultimately, the capacity to recognize, appreciate, and critically engage with such experiences defines game literacy — the ability to understand and make meaningful use of games and gamified systems. This literacy is becoming a foundational competence for navigating, and thriving within, our emerging mega-gaming society.

Kang Congcong, vice curator of Homo Ludens Archive, also contributed to the article.

Cover image is re-edited by Li Yueyun.

Read more:

Game literacy: A new lens for China's mega-gaming society

The cultural DNA of Chinese games