Smash the four olds, cultivate the gijinka

The People’s Republic of China has a lot of censorship laws. Pornography is illegal, for one thing. But more than that, there are also cultural protection laws on the books that could be extrapolated out to restrictions on lese-majeste:

“Protecting intangible cultural heritage, focus shall be laid on its authenticity, integrity and inheritance and such protection shall be conducive to strengthening the recognition of the culture of the Chinese nation, maintaining the unification of the country and the unity of the nation and promoting social harmony and sustainable development.”

Actually, that’s broader than just “don’t criticize the government.” It could be interpreted as “don’t make content that makes the country or its culture look bad.” The cool thing about legal literature is that the vaguer the language, the more easy it is for the judiciary to interpret it whatever way they want at any given time.

A lot people playing Girls Frontline know that MICA Team -- a mainland Chinese game studio -- censored many of the character models for the domestic release, models which were left uncensored in the later launches of the Korea and Japan servers (for some reason the English server left the domestic CN censorship in, much to players’ chagrin. My pet theory is that it’s because EN is the “global” server, including several markets in Southeast Asia who,  though gacha game-crazy, happen to exist under religious majoritarian or straight-up authoritarian governments)

What’s less obvious is the cultural framing of the T-Dolls. Look at the ones based on Chinese-made weapons and you’ll see some common threads:

DSR-50

Compare that to T-Dolls like Belgian Mk 48, or Wa2k’s cousin, German DSR-50, noted Girls Frontline thirstbuckets whose voice clips allegedly contain useful information underneath the mountain of innuendo and double entendre. Their damaged character models are basically porn.

It’s a hybrid of softcore (no pun intended) nationalisms. PRC weapons are made to look good and desirable and at the same time, by way of gijinka, are made to promote Chinese womanhood as good and desirable in a way that contrasts with that other nations and complements the Chinese state’s traditionalist notions about modesty and gender norms.

A notable exception to the rules of Chinese T-Dolls is the infamous Hanyang, but even then if you follow the history you’ll know that the Hanyang was actually a Qing-era rifle based on a German design. You’re allowed to be lascivious if you’re a relic from the imperialist past.

Let’s be real. I doubt PRC government regulators are reviewing MICA Team’s alpha builds and sending back emails dictating that Type 95 needs full breast coverage at all times and that thirst must be relegated to characters originating from bourgeois liberal nations like Belgium and the Bonn Gangster State. MICA is covering its bases by covering up the nation’s T-Dolls. (a few holiday special costumes excepted)

By dissociating Chinese communist characters from appearance and personality traits the Chinese state designates as culturally undesirable, MICA avoids the possibility of some apparatchik coming along -- probably on account of a kickback not being paid on time -- and finding that this game is denigrating contemporary Chinese culture.