for anyone who doesnt play overwatch, heres essentially whats going on in no particular order
symmetra, someone who’s INDIAN and likely practices HINDUISM if anything at all, was given a CHINESE QIPAO skin and the skin is literally called QIPAO and its still sexualized, bc apparently qipaos and chinese clothing arent constantly sexualized enough
mercy, some WHITE WOMAN, was given a skin based off chinese new year colours, and even worse, a highlight intro where she, a WHITE WOMAN, writes the CHINESE character for good fortune
tracer, a WHITE WOMAN, was given a highlight intro where she does the CHINESE lion dance, the very traditional and culturally important CHINESE lion dance
YELLOW-FACE zenyatta, winston, reinhardt, and roadhog to give them journey to the west themed skins, these four NOT CHINESE characters are given very CHINESE themed character skins
YELLOW-FACE ana’s skin, you know, ana, the dark skinned ARAB MUSLIM WOMAN FROM EGYPT
using CHINESE CULTURE as an ~EXOTIC~ aesthetic for tons of sprays
junkrat, who is NOT chinese, has a voice line where he speaks a CHINESE phrase for good fortune in the new year, and is deckd out in CHINESE fireworks which are actually CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT and used in CHINESE new year festivals for a reason
in short this event is a fucking racist mess
Okay, this has to be one of the most misinformed posts I’ve seen about Overwatch, so sit your ass down as I refute this point by point. (If you need credentials I’m actually Chinese plus I play Overwatch on a regular basis :V)
First of all, Lunar New Year is not a religious celebration. It is just a celebration of the new year on the lunar calendar, as the name might suggest. Religion has nothing to do with this. Also, Symmetra isn’t actually wearing a qipao, it’s just her usual outfit recoloured into the LNY colour palette. Which is a shame, but that’s Blizzard’s only crime in this regard.
Are white people not allowed to speak Chinese? At all? And wear Chinese themed clothing? It’s not even based on racial stereotypes so there’s nothing wrong with Mercy (and everyone else’s outfit). There’s only one Chinese person in the Overwatch cast. Did you really expect them to load everything on just her and ignore everyone else? I, as a Chinese person, would have been really disappointed in that case. (On a side note, I’m kinda sad there aren’t more Korean themed stuff but Blizzard chose to focus on the Chinese aspect of Lunar New Year I guess.)
The lion dance is not a religious dance. It’s a celebratory dance and also one of skill. The lion’s dance isn’t limited to just Chinese performers, people of other cultures can perform it if they are capable of doing it.
Hahahaha, bud have you LOOKED at the skins? None of those four costumes have anything resembling a yellow face.
Please. Go on. Point out the yellow face. Also thematically each of these four characters fit the skins they’ve received. The protagonist of Journey to the West, Sun Wukong, is a monkey. Why not give it to the gorilla? Zhu Bajie is actually a pig. Roadhog is pig themed. This makes sense right??? Sadly I’m not as familiar with the other two main protagonists but I can guarantee if I did the research I’d find nothing wrong.
The sprays as far as I’ve seen have all been respectful and none of them are offensive. Just a bunch of Lunar New Year symbols.
See point above about speaking Chinese. Not to mention, Junkrat says Gong Xi Fa Cai perfectly, it’s not a racist imitation? It’s a well wishing phrase often said during Chinese New Year to wish the recipient prosperity and fortune. What’s wrong with that?
To conclude, Chinese New Year is a celebration that is open for sharing, and Blizzard as far as I’ve seen has been respectful of the event and the Chinese culture. So, OP, shut the fuck up.
did they did they seriously try to say that a fucking aracialrobot given a chinese motif skinand A Gorilla given a skin to resemble the monkey king was yellowface
pls stop appropriating monkey culture
also can I add that junkrat is australian and a huge chunk of our population is chinese and chinese new year is a massive thing that everyone gets together to help celebrate - these celebrations also happen to have a lot of chinese fireworks so i don’t know why it’s such a big deal that blizzard gave him the skin they did
ALSO while i’m at it.. zenyatta was based in nepal and his character itself is based on nepalese monks. the nepalese also celebrate the lunar new year.
