National fantasy: the past and the future of Chinese style video games

Abstract

Video games play an increasingly important role in today’s culture, and not just as sociological, economic or cultural evidence, but as cultural expressions worthy in themselves of scholarly attention. The aim of the thesis is to fill the gaps between Chinese games and game theory. It aims to provide some cultural insights into Chinese video games, particularly one of their most distinctive aspects: how they deal with Chinese identity and matters directly relevant to Chinese audiences. This thesis comprises of a theoretical frame of game studies with Chinese digital games as my case studies, and placing these in the Chinese cultural context. I will also compare Chinese games with popular international games to present a more complete picture of so-called ‘Chinese style’ in Chinese game industry. The structure includes six chapters. Each chapter begins with a short introduction which summarises the arguments developed in individual sections. Arguments developed in earlier chapters become building blocks for analysis in later chapters. My overall argument is that Chinese style video games play an important role of expression for Chinese culture, representing the national fantasy of the past and reworking Chinese history for the present.

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ORCID for Seth Giddings: orcid.org/0000-0001-7323-9184

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