A down-to-earth visual representation of contemporary China: analysing the video game Chinese Parents

Abstract

The award-winning indie video game Chinese Parents, developed by a mainland China-based studio, has gained significant popularity among both Chinese and Western players owing to its unique narrative and representation of contemporary mainland China. Some of these in-game representations include the strict parenting style, academic pressure on Chinese children, unique Chinese school culture and popular Chinese internet memes. This article applies compositional interpretation, as well as the framework of iconology in visual culture to analyse the representation of contemporary mainland China from a video-game-context graphic communication perspective. Examples of character portraits, background scene illustrations, biaoqingbao meme application and supporting visual elements are selected and analysed to demonstrate how the game incorporates contemporary Chinese culture into the visuals, while also challenging and playing into existing clichés of Chinese culture.