Technology and culture

According to the 2023 Chinese Games Overseas Research Report, in response to overseas market pressures, 63.6 percent of companies are focusing on long-term product strategies. Over 40 percent see acquiring global intellectual property, diversifying game types, exploring new gameplay mechanics, and external collaborations as crucial breakthrough strategies.

Many also emphasize the importance of incorporating diverse cultural themes, enhancing localization efforts, broadening marketing approaches, and the application of cutting-edge technology.

Liu Wei, chairman of miHoYo, describes his company's trajectory as a blend of "technology innovation and cultural creation".

Tencent's senior vice-president Ma Xiaoyi emphasizes: "Gaming is not an industry that grows in isolation. Since its inception, it has always evolved in tandem with cutting-edge technology."

Game engineers now have access to a plethora of advanced visual technologies, allowing for the vivid portrayal of imagined worlds.

Black Myth: Wukong, for example, features meticulously modeled and optimized renditions of real-world ancient temples, such as the Dule Temple in Tianjin's Jixian county, bringing these cultural heritage sites to life within the digital realm.

"Games can be seen as super-digital scenes that amalgamate cutting-edge technology with cultural achievements, offering new possibilities for the restoration, protection, and interpretation of cultural heritage," says Zheng Han, an associate professor at Wuhan University's School of Information Management in Hubei province, in a previous interview.

In addition to advanced technology, Chinese local culture has also become a selling point on the global stage, bringing fresh experience for international players and enriching global game culture.

Recent surveys conducted by the China Audio-Video Digital Publishing Association's Game Committee revealed the embrace of traditional Chinese culture in game development, with 84 percent of Chinese game enterprises incorporating traditional characters in game character design and 98 percent utilizing traditional cultural elements in game environments and item designs.

For example, Century Huatong's Shengqu Games has been developing titles like Lianpu (opera makeups) and Yueshen Qu (music of gods), all of which integrate China's intangible cultural heritage into their gameplay.

On the international stage, hit titles like Honor of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite, and Genshin Impact have woven a rich tapestry of Chinese elements and traditions into their design, drawing heavily on classical Chinese poetry, mythology, music, martial arts, folk games and traditional art.

These games serve not only as a digital repository of Chinese culture but also as a bridge for international cultural exchange and cooperation.

Increasing influence

Another notable cultural industry that has been getting more attention from overseas is online literature.

After more than 20 years of development, Chinese online literature has become a foundation for the prosperous development of downstream industries, such as publications, TV dramas, films, video games, audiobooks, and cultural creative products in the country. Now this development mode has also been copied in the international market.

According to statistics by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in 2023, the market value of Chinese online literature had reached 40.4 billion yuan, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, while the market value of intellectual property in Chinese online literature jumped to 260 billion yuan.

Overseas market value of Chinese online literature has surpassed 4 billion yuan.

Web Novel, an overseas online platform of China Literature Group, attracted 230 million users from more than 200 countries and regions, with users from the United States being the most numerous.

By the end of 2023, Web Novel launched about 3,800 novels translated from Chinese, up 31 percent compared with the previous year.

Apart from translations, works from the international platforms of Chinese online literature have been published by overseas publishers and been adapted into manga, cartoon and audio works that have attracted millions of users worldwide.

Chinese online literature companies, including China Literature Group, have cooperated with overseas publishers such as Penguin Random, Amarin and Libre, selling digital and print copyrights of about 2,000 novels to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America, involving more than 20 languages, including English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Turkish and Portuguese.

More than 1,500 manga works, and over 100 audiobooks, adapted from works from those platforms, were launched overseas last year.

For example, the audiobook of My Vampire System had been played more than 30 million times, covering many English- and Indo-European-speaking countries and regions.

Since China Literature Group registered its YouTube channel in September 2022, it has released one episode of each cartoon adaptation of online novels, such as Battle Through the Heavens, Martial Universe and Stellar Transformation.

Now the channel has been subscribed by more than 1 million viewers who hit the channel more than 270 million times.

Translation with AI

In 2017, to provide solutions to the translation of literary works, Funstory.ai was founded to develop artificial intelligence-assisted translation and production system targeting literature. So far, the company has helped translate more than 7,000 online novels with AI.

At the end of 2019, Web Novel started posting online novels translated by AI and launched the function that allows users to revise the translation, which can help to upgrade AI. Since 2023, Web Novel kept advancing the translation mode which is a cooperation of human and machine.

Works translated in this mode like the English translation of Chinese online novel Mythical Era: I Evolved into a Stellar-Level Beast soon became hits.

Now with AI, Web Novel can translate works into English, Spanish, Indonesian, Portuguese, German, French and Japanese, from not only Chinese, but also other languages.

Tong Ye, chief executive officer of Funstory.ai, says AI can make translation 3,600 times more efficient, and cut down cost by 99 percent.

As multiple books have become top best-sellers on Web Novel, it can be said the translation quality is quite good, according to a recent report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

By October 2023, 238 works on Web Novel had been hit over 10 million times each, among which nine translation works, including Full Marks Hidden Marriage, Release That Witch and The King's Avatar, had been hit more than 100 million times each.

Contact the writer at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn