for anyone who doesnt play overwatch, heres essentially whats going on in no particular order
symmetra, someone who’s INDIAN and likely practices HINDUISM if anything at all, was given a CHINESE QIPAO skin and the skin is literally called QIPAO and its still sexualized, bc apparently qipaos and chinese clothing arent constantly sexualized enough
mercy, some WHITE WOMAN, was given a skin based off chinese new year colours, and even worse, a highlight intro where she, a WHITE WOMAN, writes the CHINESE character for good fortune
tracer, a WHITE WOMAN, was given a highlight intro where she does the CHINESE lion dance, the very traditional and culturally important CHINESE lion dance
YELLOW-FACE zenyatta, winston, reinhardt, and roadhog to give them journey to the west themed skins, these four NOT CHINESE characters are given very CHINESE themed character skins
YELLOW-FACE ana’s skin, you know, ana, the dark skinned ARAB MUSLIM WOMAN FROM EGYPT
using CHINESE CULTURE as an ~EXOTIC~ aesthetic for tons of sprays
junkrat, who is NOT chinese, has a voice line where he speaks a CHINESE phrase for good fortune in the new year, and is deckd out in CHINESE fireworks which are actually CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT and used in CHINESE new year festivals for a reason
in short this event is a fucking racist mess
Okay, this has to be one of the most misinformed posts I’ve seen about Overwatch, so sit your ass down as I refute this point by point. (If you need credentials I’m actually Chinese plus I play Overwatch on a regular basis :V)
First of all, Lunar New Year is not a religious celebration. It is just a celebration of the new year on the lunar calendar, as the name might suggest. Religion has nothing to do with this. Also, Symmetra isn’t actually wearing a qipao, it’s just her usual outfit recoloured into the LNY colour palette. Which is a shame, but that’s Blizzard’s only crime in this regard.
Are white people not allowed to speak Chinese? At all? And wear Chinese themed clothing? It’s not even based on racial stereotypes so there’s nothing wrong with Mercy (and everyone else’s outfit). There’s only one Chinese person in the Overwatch cast. Did you really expect them to load everything on just her and ignore everyone else? I, as a Chinese person, would have been really disappointed in that case. (On a side note, I’m kinda sad there aren’t more Korean themed stuff but Blizzard chose to focus on the Chinese aspect of Lunar New Year I guess.)
The lion dance is not a religious dance. It’s a celebratory dance and also one of skill. The lion’s dance isn’t limited to just Chinese performers, people of other cultures can perform it if they are capable of doing it.
Hahahaha, bud have you LOOKED at the skins? None of those four costumes have anything resembling a yellow face.
Please. Go on. Point out the yellow face. Also thematically each of these four characters fit the skins they’ve received. The protagonist of Journey to the West, Sun Wukong, is a monkey. Why not give it to the gorilla? Zhu Bajie is actually a pig. Roadhog is pig themed. This makes sense right??? Sadly I’m not as familiar with the other two main protagonists but I can guarantee if I did the research I’d find nothing wrong.
The sprays as far as I’ve seen have all been respectful and none of them are offensive. Just a bunch of Lunar New Year symbols.
See point above about speaking Chinese. Not to mention, Junkrat says Gong Xi Fa Cai perfectly, it’s not a racist imitation? It’s a well wishing phrase often said during Chinese New Year to wish the recipient prosperity and fortune. What’s wrong with that?
To conclude, Chinese New Year is a celebration that is open for sharing, and Blizzard as far as I’ve seen has been respectful of the event and the Chinese culture. So, OP, shut the fuck up.
Edit: I missed the point about Ana, but that one’s not any terrible either. Just google Chinese masks and you’ll get a ton of pictures of masks that resemble the one Ana wears. No problem here.
Another Chinese person weighing in here. Everything @skycompass said is pretty much on point. Lunar New Year is NOT a religious holiday, even though it is culturally significant. Everyone is welcomed to participate as long as they’re respectful of our traditions, which Blizzard has been.
Adding on to the Journey To The West thing. Zenyatta is casted as “Tang San Zang (唐三藏)”, which is the Buddhist monk who freed the Monkey King from his imprisonment. His character is all about preaching peaceful resolution and the way of zen. Sure sounds like Zenyatta, doesn’t it? That’s because Blizzard has done their research.
Anyway, this Chinese person is going back to playing Overwatch and trying to get myself that NON-SEXUALIZED Chinese outfit for the Chinese character, Mei. 😉
Yet another Chinese person here… I LOVE just about everything with this update. Everything @skycompass and @cannedebonbon said above I fully agree, there’s nothing about this update I find offensive. I could write a very long novel of a reply to this, but I feel it unnecessary as most of what truly needs to be said I feel has been said and I’d just be adding fire to the unnecessary flames possible. But I will say this.
For anyone who fears how offensive this update is, Overwatch is a big game in China. The first country anyone thinks of when they think of the lunar new year. If you truly think it is offensive, look for major backlash from the Chinese overwatch community. Look for it, but I highly doubt you will find much if any at all. If the players from the country a lot of these skins and such are inspired from aren’t freaking out in a negative way, neither should you.
And lastly for anyone who feels there’s a problem with Mercy writing a Chinese Character, or Junkrat speaking Chinese is some kind of problem… you need to get out more. Like I’m a recent college grad, and you know what I met a lot of? Chinese language majors and minors, you know what almost all of them were? White. I met so many white people who spoke better Chinese then me, and can write the characters really well. The subjects of Mercy and Junkrat’s writing and speech is something I could see any one of those people doing, it’s not just restricted to Chinese people. And about those fireworks, OP’s argument that they are “
CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT and used in CHINESE new year festivals for a reason
“ calm yourself friend. Fireworks are fireworks. Sure the Chinese love them but like damn… they’re fireworks. If Junkrat went and visited China he could probably get his hands on all those fireworks, To my knowledge there’s now law keeping those specific kind of fireworks out of white peoples hands.
