A new video game that has sparked a debate on sexism in China has been renamed following a backlash. The game, originally called Revenge on Gold Diggers, allows players to take on the role of a male protagonist who is lured into relationships by manipulative women who are after his money. The game’s creators insist they never intended to “target women” and wanted to facilitate “open dialogue about emotional boundaries and the grey zones in modern dating”. However, critics argue that the game reinforces insulting gender stereotypes and that the term “gold digger” is often used to label women in a derogatory way.
Some players find the criticism overblown, saying the game isn’t trying to say that all women are gold diggers and that both women and men can be gold diggers. Despite the controversy, sales of the game have continued to soar, and it is now among China’s top ten titles for the PC platform. The game has divided local media, with some praising its creativity and others criticizing it for perpetuating problematic gender norms.
Women who spoke to the BBC worry that the video game perpetuates problematic gender norms in China, where society believes women belong at home, while seeing men as the primary breadwinners. Official rhetoric from the male-dominated Chinese Communist Party endorses this, and the government has cracked down on activists demanding gender equality. One woman who did not want to be named said she feels the game “merely fans hostility between men and women” and “casts women, once again, as the inferior gender who have to somehow find ways to please men to earn their livelihoods”.
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