Arknights does really well at representation, yeah. It's one of my favourite things about the game, how well represented many cultures were even though the setting is entirely fictional. Take, for example, Bolivar. As a Latin American, it kind of irks me how all the representation we usually get in foreign media is just "beach place + narcos + crime". And while AK falls into that as well to some extent, the whole idea of Bolivar being a very politically unstable place in good part because of foreign powers wanting a piece of the natural resources there feels very close to home. Also, as a non Chinese, I can say I learned a lot about China from AK. It expanded my viewpoint a bit more over just the chinese sterotypes you usually see,
@@lydia-is-bored2816 sargon is wierd. It's got lizard men, vampire, liches, wendigos, Kings, warlords, and rainbow 6 siege. Whilst the place does seem inspired by Africa in some respects, it can also be considered middle Eastern or Arabian, esspecially with the emergence of techno gun Catholicism from the sarkas population, and generally seems to be more concerned with being a magic place rather than relating to a specific counterpart region in the real world, unlike Victoria or Yan.
@@lydia-is-bored2816 yeah, can be. Isn't as bad as some games, but still wouldn't be a bad thing to have a few more dark skinned characters, other than Thorns.
Arknights having regional voices is one of my favorite things about the game. What other gacha game would include Cantonese voice lines? (Probably only Reverse 1999 lol) Speaking of representation, it would be really neat if HG delves into SE Asia 🥺
honestly they could do it with making a hidden island of majapahit era, Arknights is very good at putting different era into one timeline lorepiece afterall
not localized into english but there's one called 物华弥新, having characters be anthropomorphized cultural artifacts (currently the roster is mainly chinese artifacts), has several characters speak dialects. Hell, one of the very few non-chinese speaking characters is a mayan clay bowl and her default voice track speaks yukatan.
As someone who grew up in the Eastern US working on produce and dairy farms, I was very excited to see this event touched on a lot of things that showed how universal agricultural lifestyles are, regardless of where in the world you’re farming. Also you even found a legitimate excuse to zoom in on Ling’s legs.
I was aware about how much cultural influence the game had but it never really hit me how much it had. Even as someome who grew up in a chinese household, I couldn't tell apart the regional dialects or stuff on my own culture. It was only until someone pointed out Shu's regional dialect that I immediately recognized that it was the same dialect my family members used during gatherings. It really is crazy how in depth they go
@@GrimoireLeSot ikr? when i heard that iconic folksong in her teaser animation, when i heard the reveal of her regional voicelines in the cn livestream...that familiar dialect...i almost cried.
The nostalgic feeling I simply get from hearing the lobby theme of Invitation to Wine just sings to my Chinese soul. It’s a feeling of “home”, as that style of music and instruments were what I had grown up listening to and came to love.
Yan is truly a magical land. tianshi of Shangshu bringing their mountains to the new city not wanting to forget their roots, Dahuang bringing their paddies, Yumen where all across land migrates there to serve the nation and ofc the Twelve Pagodas, a living city with artificial godzilla heart. you'll see many lines on how even great Yan still have ppl under it's jurisdiction starved to death bcs of famine, village forgotten for centuries to the governments and so on. but i believe a civilization is at it's peak and on the right path when even with all the technology advancement they develop throughout the year, their cultures remain in their heart and daily lives. my fascination with dystopian futuristic mega city does not mean i believe that it's the only way a civilization may push forward, Yan shows me how that perfect blend is the bliss we all as a human being must strive for. bcs survival alone is not enough, our identity and history must endure thru our way of life. but seriously CNY event in gacha never been as good as AK, perhaps bcs HG never just wanted it to be "filling the quota" for nationalism but a true way to tell the story. and tbh that is also problems with most gachas in jp and kr too, they took their cultural holiday occasion just as an "event" not as a true storyline
Thank you! As a American born Chinese this was something that I always wanted to cover and really means a lot to me. I'm glad that so many are interested and excited by these topics.
I really enjoyed this. It was a well-constructed video and taught me a bunch of things about Chinese culture that would have gone over my head otherwise! In fact, it makes me wonder why there aren't videos like this for the other Arknights nations. And I love putting all my operators on regional languages/dialects--Italian, Russian, I just think it's all so cool that they're even doing that! (Polish when?)
I was so excited seeing the community post precluding this video, I had been hoping you'd cover this event! Excessively long comment to follow. I really loved the history and appreciate having the direct parallels to real-life Fujian laid out the way you have. I met my wife's family in Quanzhou earlier this year, and was unaware of the agricultural background of the province, even as I recognized Shu's regional accent as Hokkien- the segment on all of the Sui siblings and how direct and thought-out their connections to different regions was really nice. (I also enjoyed the primer on hanfu that diverges from qipao, I've been loving the growing trends in the modern incorporation of traditional dress like how you pointed out in Qiubai's newer skin.) I also really appreciated seeing the perspectives of Chinese players, particilarly the commentor who related Lonetrail (an event I see many people acknowledge mostly in its direct parallels to the American space race) just as closely to Chinese ideals of balance in ethics and technological development- I would usually just write these off as more universal themes, but seeing many people reiterate them as more reflective of Chinese culture makes me want to go back and examine things differently with them in mind. You've spoiled us in this one by going above and beyond, and I can't thank you enough for it! 💕
Excessively long comment appreciated! I'm glad that you were able to connect with the video's topics and thank you so much for your support! I will continue to do my best to cover more topics like this in the future.
I really love Arknights, because it literally makes expanded my horizons through their art mediums and how I can mirror myself and the world around me in its stories. Also, don't worry, my Sui operators are all using their respective dialects, even when I don't understand any of them; which are the same case for other operators who have extra voices outside of the four main languages in the game. Pray that we get more Sui or Yan related stuffs soon.
My mother’s side of the family was an agricultural family from Fujian, they were rice farmers on top of growing other produce, and the section of the video going over rice farming was very informative of the history and plights of the agricultural history behind it
I guess there is a reason why I enjoyed Here A People Sow more compared to other Sui events. The agriculture aspect of the story was a treat to read and the characters were fun to follow.
Ehh the characterization is still ass and the story style hasn't changed (Still plot focused.) How is it that ops are becoming more and more unlikable?
@@tonyknighton4019 Don't know how you can somehow see that, all the characters in this event was interesting to follow. And they somehow made me like Zuo Le after all the other Sui events he appeared in so I say they did a great job.
Arknights stories are literal novels. I really meant by NOVELS. The depth and meaning of stories are god tier. And also the freaking time to read a story! But I think it's worth it
One unrelated thing I also want to point out is the CG in the event that illustrates the scenery of the city is also perfect blend of both the high tech architecture style of the modern building and the agricultural style of the rural rice field. It gives a clear vibe of “this is how modern farming 20 years from now on would look like” On the comparison (not trying to offense the game or wage war against the fandom) is the Xianzhou Luofu of HSR, despite able to freely run around the map, I really think that the game haven’t done very good at blending the “modern” and “chinese” aspect. It building look too traditional/classic for a ship that can do interstellar travel imo (Im posting this here because the HSR community will boil me alive if they saw this lol)
you can say HG succeeded, the whole concept of Sui sibling rails me in to learn more about chinese culture and the story they told and the discussions arounds it gave a deeper understanding on what China is
I totally agree with the criticism toward gacha game ( Live servive game in the West), because it is *indeed predatory in nature.* No amount of investment in quality or quantity will remove this. It is built into the system. Immersive setting and complex stories has been done to dead by other games, which is way, way memorable than what gacha game could do. Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls, Diablo,... all have a very good setting and story without the need to drag the story out for money milking. Hell, even the way Arknights tell the story, visual novel, is outdated and frankly, horrible ( Visual Novel was borned because most Japanese PC at that time can't run modern game like their console, due to JP's associating PC with workplace, and view their console as the main entertainment tool). Half Life, released in 1999, for example, make me feel more immersive and memorable than whatever story Arknights can throw out. Hell, the way Arknights tell it's story *actually discourage me to read the story.* About the qipao, the oversexualisation with qipao isn't an accident. It's intentional. You said that clothes like qipao was borned in the 1st half of 20th century right? Well that period was during China's *Century of Humiliation* , a period wherr China is beset by foreign occupation and internal fragment into warlordism. When I saw the qipao as first I thought it's from the Qing Dynasty, until I look at the the Qing Dynasty clothes in movie and TV series and the doesn't looks alike. The Qing one looks way more modest than.... well, qipao. In fact, I also looks at clothes and faction from other countries during that period and they looks also very modest. Remember Reed The Heavy Flamer clothes? *That's how people in Europe looks like during that time period* ( Though it's much simpler and the dress also cover the front down to ankle. The best exampleis *Violet Evergarden,* which take place during their equivalent of post-WW1 era). That's mean for me, qipao were created to sexualise Chinese woman for Western occupier and coliniser, the legacy of Chinese humiliation that I think Chinese should not feel proud about. For the West, "liberalization" basically mean freedom to do anything without moral constrain or boundary that protect social harmony. Exploitation for profit, you know. That also include sexualisation toward woman. ( In economic and profit term, mind you. Sex and adult industries is a booming and profitable business)
While I could just leave a comment saying Limbus mentioned, Pm sleeper agents have awakened. I want to add that I am glad that you did make the video on Here a people Sows event. As while I can’t comment much on the cultural side of it story and design wise I think it was very good.
I'm always excited to see a new upload from you, but this has got to be the best one yet! I had already grown an interest in Chinese art and culture from my time playing Arknights, so a video diving deeper into the references the game has to those things is a real treat. I'm glad I took the time to watch this, as there were many references I as a westerner had completely missed. Thank you for this insightful and well made video, you don't disappoint! 💯💯🙏
3:40 I feel that the background has nothing to do with the Northeast, but should be the area south of the Yangtze River, that is, the Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas. Dahuang should refer to the great famine, especially the old capital Nanjing, not BeiDaHuang （the Great Northern Wilderness, the Manchuria area used to be a swamp, so it has this name)
China's geography has always been a pattern of rice in the south and wheat in the north. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that rice began to appear in large quantities on northern tables. Without the support of modern agriculture, cold chain and food processing technology, rice is not suitable for cultivation north of the Yangtze River, and rice is not suitable as the staple food in the north.
The floodplains in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were important agricultural production bases and political and economic centers in ancient China, with a prosperous economy and fertile land. However, the floodplains were not easy to defend, but they were also important strategic hubs, and cities were prone to frequent changes of hands, so famine and massacres occurred almost every time there was a large-scale war. In addition, the fragile ancient agriculture and overly dense population would lead to large-scale famine and plague whenever there was a large-scale flood or drought.
When it comes to "agricultural researchers", the most classic image is that of Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice in China, and agricultural researchers represented by him, who have saved tens of millions of people from hunger. Fertilizers, mechanization, biotechnology, and the elimination of landlords are the weapons that have saved modern society from hunger.
And that little flying object, I think it is a dragonfly & locust. Whenever a drought occurs, a locust plague is likely to follow, because drought provides very favorable conditions for locust reproduction. Therefore, floods & plagues, droughts & locust plagues are always strongly related.
This was a really great video, and I love the exploration of cultures through Arknights-- Your videos keep getting better, and I do applaud you for evolving. Though I'm conflicted on the use of "dialect" here, it's a minor nitpick, ultimately- it's a form of exertion of hegemonic power through Mandarin to centralize "one" single culture over all others, even though, as you say, these languages are not mutually intelligible
Thank you! Yes, the scripting for the "Diversity of the Chinese Language" was one of the most difficult due to the discussion surrounding the topic. I'm currently working on a document of footnotes to give some insight on some the research I did and hopefully that may clarify my thought process in using the term "dialect".
yt played this on auto for me at some point and I dont recall anything, so I went back and watched it. Really glad I spent the half hour to watch it this is a good video
Hearing Cantonese in a game in general was so jarringly comfortable, and all the other dialects and sub dialects only contributed to my appreciation for Chinese culture Aside from that, Arknights alone as a game is so rich in just about everything. Not to mention Hai Mao’s own journey of founding Hypergryph and making Arknights.
What a time to be alive when these "lowly" mobile gacha games are capable of telling complex and deep stories, while the only thing that these multi-million dollar AAA games have learned from them is the highly-aggressive, exploitative monetisation with none of the effort to compliment it.
@@anonymousmind8402 Yeah, Arknights so far (been a Doktah for 5 years now since the beginning), we got into story of discrimination, rebellion after being pushed too far, Cthulhu seaborn monsters, Commercialism in old honorable knights sports, Necessary Evil and then Goodnight Terra goodnight space, a tribute to the Space travellers scientist in the 1960 of Yuri Gagarin and NASA scientist
@@hanchiman For the record, this is not necessarily a praise of Arknights or many other gachas, but instead a lamentation on just how bad it has been over the last 10 years. Even now, I still despise gachas as a business model, relying on thinly-veiled gambling as a monetisation model being just one of many issues. And yet, barring a few high-profile examples like the From Software games and Warframe (the latter being a non-gacha F2P game too), I cannot properly think of any good high-profile AAA games which combines good story, gameplay and responsible monetisation simulateously. Heck, that farce named Concord was just now cancelled after only 2 weeks of forgettable service. Likewise with non-gacha mobile games. Causal mobile gamers are better off playing Sudoku or Solitaire than these games, and physically to boot.
@@anonymousmind8402 I know what you mean, but honestly Arknights compared to other Gachas I encountered from the past, Hypergraph is pretty "Generous" compared to other companies. I haven't touched Genshin impact, but from what I heard, Hoyo is pretty "stingy" with rewards and freebies. I used to play Girlsfrontline but their freebies are pretty mediocre. I think Nikke is pretty predatory and pretty much P2W though especially with the Gacha part.
@@anonymousmind8402 Also to go back to Concord, it should have been a Free 2 Play, and maybe then it could have "survived" a bit, although I doubt it will last long. Maybe a few month or a year instead of humiliating lasting less than 2 weeks.
I would also point out that we don't have to just look at the women, the men are also representing Chinese heritage. I can't praise this game enough for covering and borrowing from all this arts & culture. It's not just Chinese either but they're borrow culture from over the world. It's amazing and so rich.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention! Gacha is certainly notorious for being female character heavy but indeed that doesn't mean that we have to just look at the female characters.
Love the Chinese culture explanation of Arknights, not a lot of people go that in depth as you did into the inspirations behind the event, the Sui siblings and many operators. Keep on what you are doing, it adds more appreciation to the game.
@@HalfACupOfRice My friends are actual weirdos, but they wanted to ask you some questions: 1: "Do you like tacos?" 2: "How were your rolls for the 'Here a People Sows Event?' I got spooked 3 times during my rolls." 3: My question: Were you going to make a video about Babel? I don't play the game, but I follow it through its media. I'd love to see your thoughts on the aesthetic choices.
While I agree with most of what you say, gacha is not in any way shape or form a genre. It is a business model which will never be anything more than despicable and disgusting based entirely in greed. Arknights is one of the better examples out there, but that does not change the fact that the entire model is designed and intended to be predatory. While it is true that the long term endurance of Arknights is partially attributable to the gacha system, there have been numerous more ethical examples of games with long term success like Path of Exile, Warframe or EvE Online, each older than 10 years. Couple the terrible business model with a really unforgiving and quite demanding tatical tower defense, Arknights' story and characters entirely carry the game.
Hm...., aren't things reversed? Shouldn't it "Chinese empowers Gacha Culture"?? Of course Chinese Culture would be promoted by default. But still a little weird for me since Gacha already popular before China overtake it from Japan.
This video focuses particularly on how Chinese Culture is represented, and subsequently empowered through its exposure to a wider audience, by Arknights in particular. The topic of how Chinese developers have impacted the entire genre of gacha games is a entirely different story in itself and would be quite the daunting topic to tackle.
@@HalfACupOfRice well, it's a given, even if they didn't mean to promote it, their culture would still end up more appealing than other since it's where they do best. A little off topic, but I honestly kind of bored of it, in all big Gacha game I play (all Chinese), Chinese themed character/faction get highlighted too much, sometimes it's like almost 1/3 content of it is Chinese themed when they have world wide themed factions. Didn't hate it, just want something different. Anyway, I don't hate your video, just a little biased, sorry for blabbering nonsense.
> Southrons celebrate all the Yantze-south references done well > Northeasterners being content because they have no cultural binds > Middle plains laughing at Zuo Le's fucking dialect > Northwesterners seething at the stereotype compilations in Yumen and a Death in Chunfen Is there not a single potatohead in HG? Sure Ling had a stiff Xi'an dialect but goddamnit they just threw shit around and called it a day. People think the Northwest is just full of forts, starving villages, and Uyghurs, you'd think our own nation would do better but nah all we got at Yumen are a fort, a starving village nearby, and a Tocharian girl. Other than that there are no problems, but it's so disappointing to see them researching everywhere else and chucking our homeland aside.
For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the themes in Death in Chunfen and consider it one of the best AK events as far as story goes. Poverty is everywhere, yet game stories frequently avoid it.
Sorry but one good event isn't going to make up for what Arknights is becoming if it hasn't reached that point already But then again its a live service game so maybe it already happened.
![Wing 8 - Decima The Stormsinger - [cX] First Kill](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dTsBkwnB1Qw/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Arknights] What are the inspiration for the Sarkaz?](/img/1.gif)
Arknights does really well at representation, yeah. It's one of my favourite things about the game, how well represented many cultures were even though the setting is entirely fictional.
Take, for example, Bolivar. As a Latin American, it kind of irks me how all the representation we usually get in foreign media is just "beach place + narcos + crime". And while AK falls into that as well to some extent, the whole idea of Bolivar being a very politically unstable place in good part because of foreign powers wanting a piece of the natural resources there feels very close to home.
Also, as a non Chinese, I can say I learned a lot about China from AK. It expanded my viewpoint a bit more over just the chinese sterotypes you usually see,
Reading "conchetumare" in a chinese game was surprising to say the least
Except for Sargon
@@lydia-is-bored2816 sargon is wierd. It's got lizard men, vampire, liches, wendigos, Kings, warlords, and rainbow 6 siege. Whilst the place does seem inspired by Africa in some respects, it can also be considered middle Eastern or Arabian, esspecially with the emergence of techno gun Catholicism from the sarkas population, and generally seems to be more concerned with being a magic place rather than relating to a specific counterpart region in the real world, unlike Victoria or Yan.
@@Santisima_Trinidad a bit annoying for the lack of color amongst for some of it's people ngl
@@lydia-is-bored2816 yeah, can be. Isn't as bad as some games, but still wouldn't be a bad thing to have a few more dark skinned characters, other than Thorns.
Arknights having regional voices is one of my favorite things about the game. What other gacha game would include Cantonese voice lines? (Probably only Reverse 1999 lol)
Speaking of representation, it would be really neat if HG delves into SE Asia 🥺
But not Singapore, it's just another lungmen
honestly they could do it with making a hidden island of majapahit era, Arknights is very good at putting different era into one timeline lorepiece afterall
not localized into english but there's one called 物华弥新, having characters be anthropomorphized cultural artifacts (currently the roster is mainly chinese artifacts), has several characters speak dialects. Hell, one of the very few non-chinese speaking characters is a mayan clay bowl and her default voice track speaks yukatan.
@@izendale It looks really neat! If it ever gets an English localization, I'd love to check it out.
i'd be so disappointed if they lump SEA into Sargon. the upcoming Sargon event already left a bad taste in my mouth
As someone who grew up in the Eastern US working on produce and dairy farms, I was very excited to see this event touched on a lot of things that showed how universal agricultural lifestyles are, regardless of where in the world you’re farming.
Also you even found a legitimate excuse to zoom in on Ling’s legs.
The zoom in on Ling's legs was completely unintentional (;￣▽￣)
Wake up besties New HalfACupOfRice video
I was aware about how much cultural influence the game had but it never really hit me how much it had. Even as someome who grew up in a chinese household, I couldn't tell apart the regional dialects or stuff on my own culture. It was only until someone pointed out Shu's regional dialect that I immediately recognized that it was the same dialect my family members used during gatherings. It really is crazy how in depth they go
Meanwhile, I sleep for all the hours I missed because of working on this video ( -_- )
@@HalfACupOfRice Dang have a good rest beeg boss! You deserve it for the awesome work you do :D
@@GrimoireLeSot ikr? when i heard that iconic folksong in her teaser animation, when i heard the reveal of her regional voicelines in the cn livestream...that familiar dialect...i almost cried.
The nostalgic feeling I simply get from hearing the lobby theme of Invitation to Wine just sings to my Chinese soul. It’s a feeling of “home”, as that style of music and instruments were what I had grown up listening to and came to love.
Yan is truly a magical land. tianshi of Shangshu bringing their mountains to the new city not wanting to forget their roots, Dahuang bringing their paddies, Yumen where all across land migrates there to serve the nation and ofc the Twelve Pagodas, a living city with artificial godzilla heart.
you'll see many lines on how even great Yan still have ppl under it's jurisdiction starved to death bcs of famine, village forgotten for centuries to the governments and so on. but i believe a civilization is at it's peak and on the right path when even with all the technology advancement they develop throughout the year, their cultures remain in their heart and daily lives.
my fascination with dystopian futuristic mega city does not mean i believe that it's the only way a civilization may push forward, Yan shows me how that perfect blend is the bliss we all as a human being must strive for. bcs survival alone is not enough, our identity and history must endure thru our way of life.
but seriously CNY event in gacha never been as good as AK, perhaps bcs HG never just wanted it to be "filling the quota" for nationalism but a true way to tell the story. and tbh that is also problems with most gachas in jp and kr too, they took their cultural holiday occasion just as an "event" not as a true storyline
Fire video! 🎉
Half native Chinese here, it is amazing to see you explore the Chinese references HG implemented.
Thank you! As a American born Chinese this was something that I always wanted to cover and really means a lot to me. I'm glad that so many are interested and excited by these topics.
I really enjoyed this. It was a well-constructed video and taught me a bunch of things about Chinese culture that would have gone over my head otherwise! In fact, it makes me wonder why there aren't videos like this for the other Arknights nations. And I love putting all my operators on regional languages/dialects--Italian, Russian, I just think it's all so cool that they're even doing that! (Polish when?)
Thank you! I also do hope for more videos analyzing more of Arknights' lore, story, and worldbuilding.
I was so excited seeing the community post precluding this video, I had been hoping you'd cover this event! Excessively long comment to follow.
I really loved the history and appreciate having the direct parallels to real-life Fujian laid out the way you have. I met my wife's family in Quanzhou earlier this year, and was unaware of the agricultural background of the province, even as I recognized Shu's regional accent as Hokkien- the segment on all of the Sui siblings and how direct and thought-out their connections to different regions was really nice.
(I also enjoyed the primer on hanfu that diverges from qipao, I've been loving the growing trends in the modern incorporation of traditional dress like how you pointed out in Qiubai's newer skin.)
I also really appreciated seeing the perspectives of Chinese players, particilarly the commentor who related Lonetrail (an event I see many people acknowledge mostly in its direct parallels to the American space race) just as closely to Chinese ideals of balance in ethics and technological development- I would usually just write these off as more universal themes, but seeing many people reiterate them as more reflective of Chinese culture makes me want to go back and examine things differently with them in mind.
You've spoiled us in this one by going above and beyond, and I can't thank you enough for it! 💕
Excessively long comment appreciated!
I'm glad that you were able to connect with the video's topics and thank you so much for your support! I will continue to do my best to cover more topics like this in the future.
I really love Arknights, because it literally makes expanded my horizons through their art mediums and how I can mirror myself and the world around me in its stories.
Also, don't worry, my Sui operators are all using their respective dialects, even when I don't understand any of them; which are the same case for other operators who have extra voices outside of the four main languages in the game. Pray that we get more Sui or Yan related stuffs soon.
My mother’s side of the family was an agricultural family from Fujian, they were rice farmers on top of growing other produce, and the section of the video going over rice farming was very informative of the history and plights of the agricultural history behind it
I guess there is a reason why I enjoyed Here A People Sow more compared to other Sui events. The agriculture aspect of the story was a treat to read and the characters were fun to follow.
Plus it gave me a excuse to do a lore dump on rice lol
@@HalfACupOfRice We asians do love our rice.
Ehh the characterization is still ass and the story style hasn't changed (Still plot focused.)
How is it that ops are becoming more and more unlikable?
@@tonyknighton4019 Don't know how you can somehow see that, all the characters in this event was interesting to follow.
And they somehow made me like Zuo Le after all the other Sui events he appeared in so I say they did a great job.
@@tweetug3697 Why don't you try actually reading a book sometime or take some writing classes.
Arknights stories are literal novels. I really meant by NOVELS. The depth and meaning of stories are god tier. And also the freaking time to read a story! But I think it's worth it
One unrelated thing I also want to point out is the CG in the event that illustrates the scenery of the city is also perfect blend of both the high tech architecture style of the modern building and the agricultural style of the rural rice field. It gives a clear vibe of “this is how modern farming 20 years from now on would look like”
On the comparison (not trying to offense the game or wage war against the fandom) is the Xianzhou Luofu of HSR, despite able to freely run around the map, I really think that the game haven’t done very good at blending the “modern” and “chinese” aspect. It building look too traditional/classic for a ship that can do interstellar travel imo
(Im posting this here because the HSR community will boil me alive if they saw this lol)
If they are reasonable person, they will agree with you.
I think even HSR community agreed that Luofu wasn't the best overall, I certainly felt that while playing it, so maybe they'll agree with you.
How does Liyue compare as the other Hoyo Chinese culture inspired place to Yan?
Wait, is the intro is you having your mom react to Shu theme ? That was so cool
HalfACupOfRice with the signature. Long, yet interesting explanatory video to watch
Man you released this at such a good time, now that Black Myth: Wukong got released to a international audience.
you can say HG succeeded, the whole concept of Sui sibling rails me in to learn more about chinese culture and the story they told and the discussions arounds it gave a deeper understanding on what China is
Awesome video! Just wanted to add that Chongyue's event name is a reference to another poem!
I totally agree with the criticism toward gacha game ( Live servive game in the West), because it is *indeed predatory in nature.* No amount of investment in quality or quantity will remove this. It is built into the system. Immersive setting and complex stories has been done to dead by other games, which is way, way memorable than what gacha game could do. Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls, Diablo,... all have a very good setting and story without the need to drag the story out for money milking. Hell, even the way Arknights tell the story, visual novel, is outdated and frankly, horrible ( Visual Novel was borned because most Japanese PC at that time can't run modern game like their console, due to JP's associating PC with workplace, and view their console as the main entertainment tool). Half Life, released in 1999, for example, make me feel more immersive and memorable than whatever story Arknights can throw out. Hell, the way Arknights tell it's story *actually discourage me to read the story.*
About the qipao, the oversexualisation with qipao isn't an accident. It's intentional. You said that clothes like qipao was borned in the 1st half of 20th century right? Well that period was during China's *Century of Humiliation* , a period wherr China is beset by foreign occupation and internal fragment into warlordism. When I saw the qipao as first I thought it's from the Qing Dynasty, until I look at the the Qing Dynasty clothes in movie and TV series and the doesn't looks alike. The Qing one looks way more modest than.... well, qipao. In fact, I also looks at clothes and faction from other countries during that period and they looks also very modest. Remember Reed The Heavy Flamer clothes? *That's how people in Europe looks like during that time period* ( Though it's much simpler and the dress also cover the front down to ankle. The best exampleis *Violet Evergarden,* which take place during their equivalent of post-WW1 era). That's mean for me, qipao were created to sexualise Chinese woman for Western occupier and coliniser, the legacy of Chinese humiliation that I think Chinese should not feel proud about. For the West, "liberalization" basically mean freedom to do anything without moral constrain or boundary that protect social harmony. Exploitation for profit, you know. That also include sexualisation toward woman. ( In economic and profit term, mind you. Sex and adult industries is a booming and profitable business)
While I could just leave a comment saying Limbus mentioned, Pm sleeper agents have awakened. I want to add that I am glad that you did make the video on Here a people Sows event. As while I can’t comment much on the cultural side of it story and design wise I think it was very good.
Thank you! I'm also glad that I dedicated myself to do a video on Here a Peoples Sow and hopefully I can do more videos covering more events.
@@HalfACupOfRicei look forward to more of your videos regardless of the topic
I'm always excited to see a new upload from you, but this has got to be the best one yet! I had already grown an interest in Chinese art and culture from my time playing Arknights, so a video diving deeper into the references the game has to those things is a real treat. I'm glad I took the time to watch this, as there were many references I as a westerner had completely missed. Thank you for this insightful and well made video, you don't disappoint! 💯💯🙏
Thank you very much!
@@HalfACupOfRice no, thank YOU for the video! 😁
3:40 I feel that the background has nothing to do with the Northeast, but should be the area south of the Yangtze River, that is, the Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas. Dahuang should refer to the great famine, especially the old capital Nanjing, not BeiDaHuang （the Great Northern Wilderness, the Manchuria area used to be a swamp, so it has this name)
China's geography has always been a pattern of rice in the south and wheat in the north. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that rice began to appear in large quantities on northern tables.
Without the support of modern agriculture, cold chain and food processing technology, rice is not suitable for cultivation north of the Yangtze River, and rice is not suitable as the staple food in the north.
The floodplains in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were important agricultural production bases and political and economic centers in ancient China, with a prosperous economy and fertile land. However, the floodplains were not easy to defend, but they were also important strategic hubs, and cities were prone to frequent changes of hands, so famine and massacres occurred almost every time there was a large-scale war.
In addition, the fragile ancient agriculture and overly dense population would lead to large-scale famine and plague whenever there was a large-scale flood or drought.
Or including the Dongting Lake area, that is, Hunan and Hubei provinces
When it comes to "agricultural researchers", the most classic image is that of Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice in China, and agricultural researchers represented by him, who have saved tens of millions of people from hunger. Fertilizers, mechanization, biotechnology, and the elimination of landlords are the weapons that have saved modern society from hunger.
And that little flying object, I think it is a dragonfly & locust. Whenever a drought occurs, a locust plague is likely to follow, because drought provides very favorable conditions for locust reproduction. Therefore, floods & plagues, droughts & locust plagues are always strongly related.
This was a really great video, and I love the exploration of cultures through Arknights-- Your videos keep getting better, and I do applaud you for evolving.
Though I'm conflicted on the use of "dialect" here, it's a minor nitpick, ultimately- it's a form of exertion of hegemonic power through Mandarin to centralize "one" single culture over all others, even though, as you say, these languages are not mutually intelligible
Thank you!
Yes, the scripting for the "Diversity of the Chinese Language" was one of the most difficult due to the discussion surrounding the topic. I'm currently working on a document of footnotes to give some insight on some the research I did and hopefully that may clarify my thought process in using the term "dialect".
yt played this on auto for me at some point and I dont recall anything, so I went back and watched it. Really glad I spent the half hour to watch it this is a good video
I was literally just thinking 'hmm will he make a deep dive into Shu's event' and f*ck yeah he did!
i cried when i heard 天黑黑 in the 3d teaser, it's so nice to finally hear such a familiar dialect in arknights
Hearing Cantonese in a game in general was so jarringly comfortable, and all the other dialects and sub dialects only contributed to my appreciation for Chinese culture
Aside from that, Arknights alone as a game is so rich in just about everything. Not to mention Hai Mao’s own journey of founding Hypergryph and making Arknights.
This is a truly fantastic video essay. I learned a lot, and I love the topics you covered! I really, really hope you place in the top ten!!
Thank you! I'm glad you've learned something and I also wish you the best of luck with the video comp!
Arknights might be a "simple" Gacha game, but the storyline and lore basically beat those Triple A high budget game story.
What a time to be alive when these "lowly" mobile gacha games are capable of telling complex and deep stories, while the only thing that these multi-million dollar AAA games have learned from them is the highly-aggressive, exploitative monetisation with none of the effort to compliment it.
@@anonymousmind8402 Yeah, Arknights so far (been a Doktah for 5 years now since the beginning), we got into story of discrimination, rebellion after being pushed too far, Cthulhu seaborn monsters, Commercialism in old honorable knights sports, Necessary Evil and then Goodnight Terra goodnight space, a tribute to the Space travellers scientist in the 1960 of Yuri Gagarin and NASA scientist
@@hanchiman For the record, this is not necessarily a praise of Arknights or many other gachas, but instead a lamentation on just how bad it has been over the last 10 years.
Even now, I still despise gachas as a business model, relying on thinly-veiled gambling as a monetisation model being just one of many issues. And yet, barring a few high-profile examples like the From Software games and Warframe (the latter being a non-gacha F2P game too), I cannot properly think of any good high-profile AAA games which combines good story, gameplay and responsible monetisation simulateously. Heck, that farce named Concord was just now cancelled after only 2 weeks of forgettable service.
Likewise with non-gacha mobile games. Causal mobile gamers are better off playing Sudoku or Solitaire than these games, and physically to boot.
@@anonymousmind8402 I know what you mean, but honestly Arknights compared to other Gachas I encountered from the past, Hypergraph is pretty "Generous" compared to other companies. I haven't touched Genshin impact, but from what I heard, Hoyo is pretty "stingy" with rewards and freebies.
I used to play Girlsfrontline but their freebies are pretty mediocre.
I think Nikke is pretty predatory and pretty much P2W though especially with the Gacha part.
@@anonymousmind8402 Also to go back to Concord, it should have been a Free 2 Play, and maybe then it could have "survived" a bit, although I doubt it will last long. Maybe a few month or a year instead of humiliating lasting less than 2 weeks.
I would also point out that we don't have to just look at the women, the men are also representing Chinese heritage. I can't praise this game enough for covering and borrowing from all this arts & culture. It's not just Chinese either but they're borrow culture from over the world. It's amazing and so rich.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention! Gacha is certainly notorious for being female character heavy but indeed that doesn't mean that we have to just look at the female characters.
WOOO arknights documentary!
Heck yeah!
Scared out of my shit when I heard such perfect Chinese in the opening shot
Love the Chinese culture explanation of Arknights, not a lot of people go that in depth as you did into the inspirations behind the event, the Sui siblings and many operators. Keep on what you are doing, it adds more appreciation to the game.
Thank you!
Another banger from our favourite rice cup!!
AAAAAAAAAAAA! So excited to see another video from you. Gonna save this one to watch with the homies. Hope you're doing well!
I appreciate it and I am doing well thank you for asking! hope you and your friends enjoy the video!
@@HalfACupOfRice
My friends are actual weirdos, but they wanted to ask you some questions:
1: "Do you like tacos?"
2: "How were your rolls for the 'Here a People Sows Event?' I got spooked 3 times during my rolls."
3: My question: Were you going to make a video about Babel? I don't play the game, but I follow it through its media. I'd love to see your thoughts on the aesthetic choices.
A well researched analysis!
The video makes me want to make a gacha game about my own country
The video is really well made!
Cant wait to see what you make next!
Thank you! I can assure you that there will be more videos like this in the future.
Now I know. Everything about Sui siblings design make sense now😦
this made my day, love seeing breakdown videos like this
I'm glad it did and thank you!
Time to yap to my friend about Shu design 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥
Great video
Bro really put the red bar there and thought nobody would notice (i'm nobody)
11:20 BASED 将进酒 recitation, ling would be proud
IT'S YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU hi TAMM hows it going oomfie
@@FlamyEX It be going ok, though I'm jet lagged as hell
Haha thank you!
I decided to include a reading of it after watching 30,000 Miles from Chang'an again
@@HalfACupOfRice I need to watch that man, all my cousins have been telling me to
While I agree with most of what you say, gacha is not in any way shape or form a genre. It is a business model which will never be anything more than despicable and disgusting based entirely in greed. Arknights is one of the better examples out there, but that does not change the fact that the entire model is designed and intended to be predatory. While it is true that the long term endurance of Arknights is partially attributable to the gacha system, there have been numerous more ethical examples of games with long term success like Path of Exile, Warframe or EvE Online, each older than 10 years. Couple the terrible business model with a really unforgiving and quite demanding tatical tower defense, Arknights' story and characters entirely carry the game.
Ironically GFL evaded the censorship by: erasing China, story wise. (North belian Island incident, when all hell broke loose)
bro is embodiment of Kaltits. I really appreciate it.
I don't know whether I should be proud or scared lol
The background music is a bit too loud to hear your voice well
Hm...., aren't things reversed? Shouldn't it "Chinese empowers Gacha Culture"?? Of course Chinese Culture would be promoted by default. But still a little weird for me since Gacha already popular before China overtake it from Japan.
This video focuses particularly on how Chinese Culture is represented, and subsequently empowered through its exposure to a wider audience, by Arknights in particular. The topic of how Chinese developers have impacted the entire genre of gacha games is a entirely different story in itself and would be quite the daunting topic to tackle.
@@HalfACupOfRice well, it's a given, even if they didn't mean to promote it, their culture would still end up more appealing than other since it's where they do best.
A little off topic, but I honestly kind of bored of it, in all big Gacha game I play (all Chinese), Chinese themed character/faction get highlighted too much, sometimes it's like almost 1/3 content of it is Chinese themed when they have world wide themed factions. Didn't hate it, just want something different.
Anyway, I don't hate your video, just a little biased, sorry for blabbering nonsense.
> Southrons celebrate all the Yantze-south references done well
> Northeasterners being content because they have no cultural binds
> Middle plains laughing at Zuo Le's fucking dialect
> Northwesterners seething at the stereotype compilations in Yumen and a Death in Chunfen
Is there not a single potatohead in HG? Sure Ling had a stiff Xi'an dialect but goddamnit they just threw shit around and called it a day. People think the Northwest is just full of forts, starving villages, and Uyghurs, you'd think our own nation would do better but nah all we got at Yumen are a fort, a starving village nearby, and a Tocharian girl.
Other than that there are no problems, but it's so disappointing to see them researching everywhere else and chucking our homeland aside.
For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the themes in Death in Chunfen and consider it one of the best AK events as far as story goes. Poverty is everywhere, yet game stories frequently avoid it.
ti or or
Sorry but one good event isn't going to make up for what Arknights is becoming if it hasn't reached that point already
But then again its a live service game so maybe it already happened.