Introduction
From Kung Fu (1972 TV series) to the blossom of various Hollywood Chinese action films, Kung Fu, the practice of Chinese martial art, has been long mythicized and Orientalized by Western visual media and market. In the past, scholars such as Jane Iwamura (2010) argued that Western depiction of Kung Fu perpetuates the stereotypes against China and recreates the “Chinese other” in the Western political environment, especially in the U.S. Meanwhile, in 2022, a French game developer group Sloclap released an action-fighting game Sifu that complicates Western portrayal of Chinese Kung Fu by rooting it in Confucianism and Daoism. This unique narration captivated the Chinese gaming communities, with Chinese streamers complimenting the French developers for doing Chinese traditions justice within the communal space around Sifu. Chinese gamers’ appreciation of Sloclap’s depiction of Kung Fu challenges the previous Oriental setup and raises the question of how the representation of Chinese identity, especially about Kung Fu, has changed over the years in Western visual media. This paper offers a textual analysis of Sifu’s narrative in contrast to its Hollywood counterpart and Chinese streamers' responses to Sifu through their playthroughs. I argue that Sifu builds a rhetorical space for discussion of identity representation, urging the Western visual media to acknowledge the rich and complicated history that shapes Chinese identity.
Theoretical Foundation
Kung Fu has been the symbol to represent Chinese identity in Western visual media, especially in Hollywood representations. Demonstrated by Iwamura (2010), Hollywood Kung Fu shows have prevailed in the U.S. market and helped Western audiences imagine an Oriental China from a Western gaze. In such orientalization, Kung Fu is often perceived as mythical and religious and thus fails to embody the complexity of Chinese history and culture. Tomoko Masuzawa (2005) argues that the purpose of recognizing and studying Oriental religions is to set up the “Oriental others” as inferior to the West. Here, Kung Fu, as Iwamura conveys, is strategically constructed by Hollywood-style works to perpetuate an Oriental China against the West, representing Chinese identity as mythically ahistorical but also premodern and savage.
Scholars studying video games, on the other hand, explored how video games can reshape the politics of representation. Ian Bogost (2008) argues that video games produce “procedural rhetorics,” which recreate real-world symbols under systems of rules to persuade and shape players’ understanding of the world. Following Bogost, Souvik Mukherjee (2018) and Kathrin Trattner (2018) demonstrate how video games reproduce hegemonic power by game developers drawing real-world colonial and religious symbols to represent the designated players. However, such recreation of the real world in video games has more potential than shows. Shoshana Magnet (2006) depicts the spatiality provided by video games and how it refers to both developers’ construction of colonial space and players’ disruption to the construction. Mukherjee (2018) adds that, as participants of video games, players have the ability to play alternatively against the dominant storytelling. This paper sets the ground on Sifu as a rhetorical space for discourses of Kung Fu.
Case Study
Nominated at The Game Award for the Best Action Game and the Best Fighting Game in 2022, Sifu has a unique approach to Kung Fu, celebrated among even Chinese gamers. The game’s main story unfolds as the protagonist, Yin (can be chosen as either male or female), seeks to revenge Yang, leader of the villain group, and the rest four villains for the murder of Yin’s master (Sifu). However, after players successfully eliminate all the villains, the game does not end but goes into a new cycle from the beginning, with a voice in the background saying: “He who has Kung-Fu and Wude, makes others know he can break him. His hands go out like lightning, and the other doesn’t want to fight anymore.” The voice uncovers the true ethos of the game—to spare all the villains by showing Wude (martial morality) to them instead of revenge kills. In this way, Yin will sacrifice himself/herself at the end to shake villains up from their wrongdoings.
“Wude”, as the central theme of Sifu, is also the key ideology within Confucianism and Daoism behind Kung Fu. “Wu” (martial art) can be acquired through the practice of techniques. In Sifu, Pak Mei master Benjamin Colussi was invited to represent Kung Fu techniques accurately. “De” (morale), on the other hand, refers to the ethics of proper personhood represented by the highest five virtues— Ren [仁], Li [礼], Zhi [智], Yi [义], and Xin [信]. Qiyong Guo (2001) demonstrates that according to Taixuanjing [太玄经], the five virtues correspond with the five elements—wood, fire, water, metal, and earth. The perfect balance of all the virtues and all elements arrives at the sagehood of wisdom. In Sifu, each villain represents an element lacking a corresponding virtue. By sparing them, Yin can restore the connection between elements and virtues and thus also walk closer to a path of Wude.
The West and China Collaboration
In the game space of Sifu, Sloclap makes its best effort to connect Chinese martial arts to their complex roots in Chinese religions. The developers assert that Kung Fu is not merely a symbol of Chinese identity but a rich and intricate narrative that can only be imperfectly embodied in gameplay. With thousands of Chinese streamers publishing content about Sifu on Chinese social media platforms, many express their appreciation in their playthrough content for this Western Kung Fu game for its humility and effort to represent China. Of course, discussions on Orientalism are inevitable in this context. However, Sifu takes a different approach here as it neither generalizes Chinese identity nor oversimplifies Kung Fu to align with mainstream expectations. By connecting Chinese players to the West through in-depth research and openness to China, Sifu sets a standard for Western visual media to acknowledge Chinese culture and its global impact.
From Kung Fu (1972 TV series) to the blossom of various Hollywood Chinese action films, Kung Fu, the practice of Chinese martial art, has been long mythicized and Orientalized by Western visual media and market. Over the years, scholars and the Chinese audience have criticized how such construction of Chinese identity perpetuates the stereotypes against China and recreates the “Chinese other” in the Western political environment. Now, this article looks at the French action-fighting game Sifu, which is about Chinese Kung Fu and has been popularized and appreciated among Chinese players, and asks how, if at all, it challenges the traditional Hollywood set-up of Chinese traditions. By conducting a textual analysis of Sifu’s narrative in contrast to its Hollywood counterpart, I argue that Sifu builds a rhetorical space for discussion of identity representation, urging the Western visual media to acknowledge the rich and complicated history that shapes Chinese identity.