泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
Cultural industry and acknowledging cultural differences
In recent years, with playing some local video games based on Samgukjji (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), I have seen a couple of transsexual game characters from man to woman. The trans characters for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms have been already created in Japan several times, which made me be interested in the concept. But until recently, they were not be seen in the Korean video games. We usually regard Japan as a standardized country with pervasive school bullying. But let's look back. Isn't Korea much worse when it comes to cultural diversity?: macho remarks, revised historical figures, reference to politics and thought, etc. For this reason, I'd like to discuss acknowledging cultural differences and cultural industry in this column.
I think that bullying cultural diversity prevents CT (Culture Technology) development and idiosyncrasies; It might be a sensitive issue to say cautiously. Most local animation films deal with bright and sound stories starred children and I remember that old adult animation films with a 'revealing' scene were only limited to grown-ups. Besides, domestic subcontractors which have been worked for Japanese studios, based on their numerous experiences, made animation films with full of colorful pictures which are meaningless. The Korean gaming industry seems to change the existing framework step by step, on the other hand, the national cultural industry still seems to have a negative perception of expanding cultural diversity overall. Why, like Japanese game companies, can't we depict Cao Cao as a hero and Liu Bei as an indecisive leader on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Why can't we switch the roles of a hero and an evil? What about a game developed by a domestic game studio with new stories?; Admiral Yi Sun-sin is a woman who loves Seonjo, the King of Joseon Dynasty, and a general Won Gyun who feels a secret love for Yi bears a grudge against her because she doesn't love him and Japanese generals try to abduct her because they also love her. What about a story?; the Admiral uses black magic to protect Joseon with the help of evil and he raises the Satan when he defeats the Japanese Navy. Probably the embellish stories with a different interpretation of historical facts would raise lots of questions and it is most likely that some groups would take the case to the courts. What if it could happen in a game?; Jang Bogo is a Sillan rebel to go on to conquer Japan, Silla, and Tang dynasty and Yeom Jang is a hero who defended Silla against the enemy. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to make a game based on the adapted stories—A comment like this is necessary. Ninja is a popular and widely known character representing the island nation than Samurai and it contributes to making various cultural products, even though very little historical materials are available and very little is known about it.
Cultural industry is to generate new added-value based on enlarged reproduction of the country's cultural grounds. The cultural grounds may be a traditional culture of the country, an alien culture, or pop culture. It can be constantly re-created on an enlarged scale only in a society where people stress the freedom of individuals from cultural norms and acknowledge diversity. But we have easily ignored unusual interpretation and not accepted the diversity. Idiosyncratic interpretations have disappeared in the society where nonconformists are not really accepted. Are we use crude oil only as energy sources like gasoline and diesel? We may have obsessed with the interpretation that crude oil is only a source of energy although we can create lots of new products by using various components in it. I hope to see a variety of cultural items, especially in the gaming industry, which bring pleasure to me with a distinctive story.
※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
(http://www.khgames.co.kr)
Translation by Kim Ki-hui
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