Tidbits

I'm quite certain Zhuang Zi would heartily approve of Discordianism. It fits his kind of humor.

Tidbits

The benefit of being Chinese is I can eat tofu now and then without being a hipster.

Tidbits

Co-worker: This Ramen menu looks great. Sorry if I mispronounce the words.

Me: Don't worry, it's just Japanese. It's a simple language for a simple minded people.

*Shots fired*

Sesame Credit

I am both aghast and intrigued by this new Chinese national game system, known as Sesame Credit.

First, historical context: when Mao took over, he indoctrinated the populace into Communism using an easy to understand media for the masses - comic books. When Deng Xiaoping wanted to convert the nation to Capitalism, he used comics as well. Both instances were among the biggest examples of comics - normally a pop culture fixture - being used for something far larger scale than story telling. In this sense, China adopting game design to reinforce their national message is consistent with past mass education movements. They take what we treat as "fun" in the west and figure out how to use it in a more serious manner.

Second, personal reaction. Yeah, this is horrifying. It decentralizes oppression to the individual level. The centralization of the state's hold on people is always the greatest weakness - they simply can never be efficient enough to suppress everything. This eliminates that bottleneck and does so in a way consistent with Brave New World more than 1984. Instead of a single data stream being broadcast from the government, it turns individual citizens into mini-radio towers that broadcast and enforce the party line.

Third, and the scariest point: it could easily happen here. We have interconnected data mining on a mass scale, just like China, as well as at least two major online companies willing to work with the government on anything (Google and Facebook). We have a rising tide of people who want echo chamber hug boxes in their friend circles and a demand for exclusionary "safe spaces." It would be child's play for the government to sponsor a gamified site that ranked people based on adherence to being "environmentally friendly" or "socially just" or any of a dozen other dog whistle terms that all translate to "OBEY."

If they wanted to be more low key, have a private company do it, but receive under the table support from the government in choosing what constitutes "good" and "bad" points. They wouldn't have to pass a law saying it's mandatory: just shunt all the data in there whether you want it there or not and refuse to prosecute them. You will participate, even if you object.

I think I just envisioned Facebook 2.0.

Chinese Wedding Dreses

I've always found Chinese red wedding dresses more beautiful than the white western ones. Something I disliked in Taiwan was how the western style weddings had supplanted the traditional ones.

So many there seemed ashamed of their own heritage. The main driver? The brides. I knew one wedded couple and the bride didn't even want to consider a Chinese dress. Somehow, the media has convinced them it's better to look like an American bride than a Chinese one. That could tie into the popularity of plastic surgery to make faces look more western.

Let It Go (Chinese Extended Mix)

I suppose it was inevitable that I would make a "Let It Go" video. Law of averages and all. This one uses three of the Mandarin Chinese versions. Two of them are given straight up, then a L/R audio mix, and finally the end credit version of one of them.

Review: "Oriental Adventures"

Title: Oriental Adventures
Year: 1985
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR

Background:

Oriental Adventures is one of the first of its kind: an attempt to bring an eastern influence into the western fantasy dominated area of fantasy RPG's. Many of the tropes found in later attempts stem back to this book. The book is more than a supplement to AD&D, including new rules such as honor system.

Thoughts:

As one of the first attempts to bring Asian culture into fantasy RPG's, a lot of forgiveness and leeway can be given to the structure of the book. First, like many similar work, Japan is the primary focus of the book rather than China: ninja, samurai, and the naming schemes are largely Japanese.

David Cook acknowledges this in the preface:

"The bulk of this material deals with Japan, with China a close second. This is not due to any oversight. Most of the material available deals with Japan, through the choice of various writers. Japan's history and culture provides greater opportunities for adventure and advancement...Of course, anyone who looks carefully at China will find the same occurred there. However, fewer people cared to write about it."

A bias in favor of Japan back then was born of academics: Japan at the time was more readily accessible to scholars, so the bulk of books in the 1980's dealt with Japanese culture. There are some notable exceptions to this - Needham's Science and Civilization of China and others - but the reason for their favoring of Japan is understandable, if disappointing.

As with Mystic China, the focus on the book is fantasy, so science is all but absent from the series. Instead, the focus is on Asian magic and mysticism, with material drawn from several folktales, such as animal spirits and monsters. Interestingly, though, the magic spells are presented in the western style of discrete spells and incantations, while Asian magic tended to favor less compartmentalized approaches.

The honor system they implement is fun and an interesting addition to the rules. Many of the creatures do accurately reflect Asian folklore and tales, providing some nice encounters to the campaign possibilities. And while today ninjas and samurai have been reduced to cliches for Asian gaming, the version of ninjas implemented here is a genuine attempt to capture their hidden assassin role.

Religion is largely missing from the book. The wu jen are similar to many Taoist hermits in Chinese history and the monks are nominally Buddhists, but there is very little religion given to the characters. This is a surprising oversight given its usefulness in world building.

One minor point is that anime shape shifters are not allowed to be samurai in the book. For those who read Bleach, the example of Komamura - a humanoid fox whose powers follow a samurai theme - this exclusion is puzzling.

Takeaways:

As one of the first attempts to bring Asia to the western gaming scene, Oriental Adventures definitely set the tone for developments decades down the line. The classes it offered, the focus on fantasy and magic over science, and the overall tone have all been carried down the line by works such as Rokugan and Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade.

In our modern day case, the preference for Japan over China is not due to dearth of materials (Sinologists have produced numerous authoritative work documenting every period of Chinese history), but familiarity. Anime has generally skewed things in Japan's favor in such a manner. Even Tephra takes more cues from Japanese pop culture than Chinese culture. In this manner, Oriental Adventures remains very mainstream.

Daizhong's heavy Chinese focus and its emphasis on technology and science over mysticism, though science done in a manner consistent with Chinese philosophy, should help expand some of the well tread ground Oriental Adventures first broke.

Review: "Mystic China"

This is the first review of the research material I've been reading while I work on Daizhong for Tephra. One of my main tasks was finding how China and Chinese culture has already been presented in table-top games so I could find a way to both a) do a faithful steampunk interpretation and b) avoid retreading too much of the same ground as other publishers.

Title: Mystic China
Year: 1995
Author: Erick Wujcik
Publisher: Palladium Books

Background:

The book is a follow-up to Ninjas & Superspies, supplying additional info on Chinese and East Asian culture. It's primary goal is to expand the rules on martial arts, magic, and other features. At 208 pages, it has NPC's, new rules, and setting notes to expand the Ninjas world.

Thoughts:

The source game, Ninjas, is one of action and martial arts adventure. So it's no surprise that Mystic China follows in this theme. As a result, it chooses mainly to focus on Chinese culture relevant to action rather than historical exploration. Despite the limited scope, there's a lot to like about this book.

One, they differentiate between Japan and China. "East Asia" tends to get lumped together in one big soup, so seeing them separated here was refreshing. The differences they cite are correct. The narrator tips on how much Chinese language to use during dialogue is very helpful to GM's. "A little goes a long way" is good advice.

There's a handy glossary of terms that can be useful in character naming as well as a longer general vocabulary list people can use to mix in. I liked the information provided on times, astrology, and five element theory. These little facts were both correct and helpful to someone who wanted to setup a Chinese atmosphere, by giving them basically a crash course on Chinese culture. Many of the enemies and types of opponents used in the book (such as many kinds of immortals) are based firmly in Chinese mythology.

One of the best aspects of the book was the section on Chinese alchemy. Wujcik very clearly did his homework for this piece, as he captures the goals and techniques of Chinese alchemists very well. The quest for the immortality elixir - and, indeed, a general theme of immortality in the book - are very well presented. It's one of the few examples of Chinese science being presented well in a game I have found to date.

There are a few flaws. The exaggerated humility Wujcik recommends for monks was a bit off. His depiction of a Taoist is also inaccurate, leaning more toward the western concept of one than actual Taoist behavior. The available classes are also highly stereotypical: there's a large section of martial artists and masters, with two exceptions (an antiques dealer and a businessman). Scholars, bureaucrats, and other Chinese archetypes are not present. This could be attributed to the theme of the game, however.

While the list of traditional Chinese weapons was nicely detailed, a major oversight is the general lack of Chinese science present. Alchemy gets a very good representation - but that's it. Even in the wuxia movies this game aspires to replicate, demon hunting technology is commonly featured and invented. While Wujcik did more research than others, he still barely scratched the surface.

Takeaways:

Mystic China does a good job of what it sets out to do: create a world of "mysterious magical China" for players to explore. There is nothing wrong with wanting to play a game based on the wuxia genre and this book captures it well. I only wish Wujcik had written games set in China that explored other possible genres, so there could be more contrast.

Researching Daizhong

One of the major projects I work on for Tephra is Daizhong. It's the Asian steampunk setting for the game. As a result, it strongly features many aspects of East Asian culture and tradition, filtered through the elseworlds lens of steampunk.

Faithfully representing Asian culture in a fantasy game is a difficult task. While I'm Chinese, I grew up in America. Some of my perspective is based in Chinese tradition, but I lack the understanding that immersion can bring. I am still at least partly on the outside, looking in. So research is important. In addition to the obvious refreshers on Asian history (History of Chinese Science and Technology was one of my majors in college), it's also good to see how other games have made the effort. This allows me to see what gaps remain to be filled so Daizhong can differentiate itself and avoid being labeled, "Just another expansion for anime fans."

Overall, the results of my look into various Asian-themed games have been disappointing.

First, the majority of games dealing with Asian culture are fantasy ones in nature. This is likely due to the types of games that comprise the market - fantasy ones dominate the field in numbers. That immediately means that the aspects of Asian culture selected for inclusion are limited in much the same way as the elements selected from western culture. Non-fantasy elements, and often non-violent aspects, are left out in favor of flashier combat oriented ones.

The shared basic elements can be summed up as mysticism/superstition, martial arts, and maybe some cultural mores (like ancestor worship). But that's it. There is rarely anything deeper or more expansive.

The one aspect that bothers me the most that is present in almost all of these games is their basic approach to establishing Asian culture is to stress the "other-ness" of it. "Mysterious," "strange," "unusual," and "exotic" are all common adjectives. By itself, this wouldn't be too much of an issue - feeling out of place on entering a setting you're unused to is a normal human emotion.

Where it becomes a problem is in the regular and steady emphasis on how technologically "backwards" or "inferior" their Asian culture location is. This propagates the widely held misconception of medieval Asia being inferior to Europe. Even when not actively portraying an Asian setting as technologically lesser, there is rarely, if ever, a mention of East Asian science or technology - even if the game tries to mention science in a western context. Basically, for most games, science is purely a western concept and one that should be left out of Asian settings, because "science" doesn't feel "Asian."

To put it in different terms on how annoyingly shallow this is: imagine if every game you came across had a Greek culture expansion. However, they only used the Spartans from "300," portraying every Greek as warriors who wanted to die gloriously for their pantheon of gods. Oh, sure, the characters you get are cool - but they always leave out Euclid, Pythagoras, and all the other things that made ancient Greece what it was. That's how Asia is done in most games.

I make "raising the bar" one of my goals with Daizhong. I want to not only make the link between East Asian culture - especially that of China - and human's scientific progress a central theme, I want to model that science in a way consistent with how they saw the world. I don't want to have Chinese inventions and Chinese developments presented with western methodology. Steampunk is an abstract concept that can be applied to any civilization while retaining the fundamental aspects of that culture. I seek to make Daizhong not a "Chinese flavored London" (as many game developers would do), but "Nanjing experiencing its own steampunk revolution."

Daizhong will exemplify steampunk born, not of Britain, but from those who invented the steam engine: the Chinese.

Time and Relative Developments in Science

The differential in technological development between China and Europe is not widely understood. Here's something that puts it in context:

When the Titanic was launched in 1912, it bragged about its watertight compartments, which had begun to catch on in European ship design around the 1800's. Watertight bulkheads were a standard feature on Chinese ships going back to as early as the 400's (and dated definitively to ~1000).

It took 1500 years for Europe to create a luxury liner using something merchants in China had when the Roman Empire existed. And it was still novel enough for the Titanic's builders to think of it as a "special feature." This would be the same as a city planner today bragging about the aqueducts he's having constructed to deliver water into his city and touting it as something awe-inspiring.

The abnormality of our modern era is not that China is catching up to the west in computers and engineering. The abnormality is that they are not centuries ahead of us.