Genshin Impact Cultural Appropriation and Whitewashing Controversy

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Part of a series on Genshin Impact. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Genshin Impact Cultural Appropriation and Whitewashing Controversy or Hoyoverse Whitewashing Controversy refers to accusations of cultural appropriation and whitewashing towards the gacha game Genshin Impact, with many online claiming that MiHoYo (the company responsible for Genshin and Honkai: Star Rail) had taken inspiration from indigenous cultures without proper representation and respect. The discussions grew as a viral topic in July 2024 after a trailer for the Natlan nation, a new region of the game purportedly inspired by Africa and Latin America, was posted on social media, causing division in the Genshin fanbase and sparking conversations about character designs and other content related to the game.

Background

On July 5th, 2024, Genshin Impact released a trailer^[1] for the game's upcoming new region, the Natlan nation (seen below), which amassed over 1.8 million views and 88,000 likes in two weeks. The new region features canyons, steppes and hills, and while MiHoYo has not officially stated its inspiration behind the nation, many perceived it to be inspired by African and Latin American cultures (similar to how the game already has nations that draw inspiration from France, Japan and more).^[8]

A few days after the trailer was released, some Genshin content creators began debating about cultural appropriation and whitewashing for the game's new Natlan nation. One of the earliest viral videos posted about the subject was uploaded on July 10th, 2024, by streamer and TikToker @hobikage_games,^[2] who voiced her complaints about the way indigenous and Latin American culture was represented in Natlan (seen below), which amassed more than 241,000 plays and 57,000 likes in a week.

Developments

Genshin Impact Voice Actors Protest

As the cultural appropriation and whitewashing allegations grew as a viral topic among the Genshin fanbase on X / Twitter, some of the voice actors who worked on the game started to voice their opinions about the matter. For instance, on July 12th, 2024, the voice of the character Sucrose, Valeria Rodríguez,^[3] posted a thread on X writing that "folks of color don’t always need to stay quiet & let others fk us over and disrespect us." The tweet (seen below, left) received over 39,000 likes and 8,600 reposts in a week.

On July 13th, the voice actor of Albedo, X^[4] user @khoidaooo, tweeted that "people are absolutely within their rights to demand better representation, especially when said game has a clearly-stated commitment to a *global* audience." The post (seen below, right) amassed over 69,000 likes and 16,000 reposts in three days.

Stop Cultural Appropriation and Whitewashing in MiHoYo Games Petition

On July 7th, 2024, a petition was launched by user Aventurine of Stratagems on Change.org^[5] titled “Stop Cultural Appropriation and Whitewashing in MiHoYo Games.” The petition states, “We call on MiHoYo to stop cultural appropriation and whitewashing in their games and to commit to respectful and accurate representation of all cultures.” It continues by suggesting that the Chinese company should "engage with indigenous cultural consultants, revise existing content to ensure accurate representation and commit to creating diverse and inclusive characters." As of July 16th, 2024, the petition has accumulated over 63,000 signatures.

Online Reactions

As the controversy continued to spread in July 2024, additional Genshin players started to post more content about the cultural appropriation and whitewashing accusations on social media. For example, on July 14th, 2024, TikTok^[6] user @yelanfan3.0 uploaded a video (seen below, left) comparing a dark-skinned character from the gacha game AFK Journey with another character from Genshin Impact. The video amassed over 330,000 plays and 58,000 likes in two days.

On July 15th, 2024, TikTok^[7] user @sipsipstefen posted a video talking about how the MiHoYoverse allegations became a mainstream topic within the broader gaming community and gaming journalism outlets (seen below, right), amassing more than 66,000 plays and 14,000 likes in a day.