Nintendo launched its new game on May 12, on the same day as the 15th anniversary of China’s destructive 8.0 magnitude Sichuan Earthquake in 2008. Angry mainland netizens accused the game manufacturer of carrying secret messages in the game’s dialogues.
Since then, some have been actively calling for boycotts on Twitter and other social media channels.
“Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is the latest game series of Nintendo.
It is common for “little pinkies” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to accuse something or someone of “humiliating China.” The party’s trollers have recently turned against Japanese game manufacturer Nintendo and its newly launched game.
Netizens screenshot the dialogue in question. A character commented on Princess Zelda’s energy and catch phrase, “I can sense the energy of ‘light’ and ’time' from you.”
The words “light” and times” were short names for the unofficially banned protest slogan in Chinese: “Liberate Hong Kong' Revolution of our times.”
Meanwhile, after accusing Legend of Zelda of its May 12 launch date, other mainland netizens claimed that the game plot, divided into three levels: The Heaven, The Earth, and The Underworld, was also insulting to their motherland.
They believed that the game release on May 12 notably suggested that after the Sichuan Earthquake in 2008, some people survived on Earth, some people died and went to the Underworld, and others went to Heaven.
They called the plot “disgusting.”
However, a group of anti-CCP netizens ridiculed that something was constantly and seemingly humiliating the communist party every day for 365 days: May 12 (Sichuan Earthquake in 2008), June 4 (Tiananmen Square Massacre), Sept. 18 (The 918 Incident, also known as the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria, China, in 1931), Oct. 10 (Taiwan’s National Day). They mocked the party-supporting little pinkies for accusing the entire world, except China, of being born to humiliate China.
It would not be the first time “The Legend of Zelda” series had been accused of “insulting the motherland.” In June 2021, mainland netizens posted about the game’s story regarding the Hailar He, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. They said “Hailar” was the name of a branch of Unit 731 during the Japanese invasion of China. They suggested the game used inappropriate historical references to “humiliate China.”
A boycott was called online. Little Pinkies felt that the game used Japanese invasion unit 731 to “boast its arrogant attitude” and “Japan’s unwillingness to apologize for its wrong in the past.”
Nintendo: Little Pinkies’ Targets
Other mainland citizens said a scene from the new game was an attempt to recreate the Tankman from the Tiananmen Square Movement and Massacre to turn the game into the next Animal Crossing, also under Nintendo’s umbrella.In 2020, players used the DIY artboard feature to decorate walls and floors in the game, creating spoofs of the CCP leaders, Wuhan Coronavirus, and Wuhan Seafood Market.
CCP Eliminating All Things They Consider ‘Insulting to China’
After that, the Chinese government removed Animal Crossing from the shelves in April 2020.At the time, mainland netizens accused Joshua Wong of being responsible for the game removal; Wong also received death threats, wishing his family dead.
Wong then told the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily, “It does not matter how many animés the Chinese regime banned in the past. The conflicts between the Taiwanese distribution agents and games in China reflect that the political censorship by the CCP is pervasive.”
Wong questioned if Animal Crossing could be banned in China, would the regime also shut out Nintendo Switch?
However, after Animal Crossing, Nintendo’s other hitmaker, Super Mario Maker 2, was also removed from the market in mainland China in June 2020. The game allowed players to customize user names and game-level titles.
Subsequently, many game platforms got rid of Super Mario Maker 2 from the shelves, and the physical copies were no longer for sale in the mainland Chinese market.
Some people also found “8964” as a user name while playing Animal Crossing.
Games That ‘Haunt’ The CCP
Other than Animal Crossing and The Legend of Zelda series, many other video games were allegedly CCP supporters’ evidence of humiliating the motherland.In 2019, Devotion, a well-known horror Taiwanese game developed by Red Candles Games, was removed from public sale.
Online pro-government gamers found a seal hidden in the gameplay with “Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh” written on it.
CCP’s Own Cancel Culture
However, In June 2019, the Beijing government accused Devotion’s mainland China distributor, Indievent, of “using the company to engage in serious illegal acts that endanger national security, social and public interests” and evoked its distribution license.Killing Chinese soldiers and the current “Snow Mountain Lion Flag” game are all accused of “ridiculing China.”
In 2021, in Life is Strange: True Colors, developed and launched by Deck Nine, an American game company, mainland netizens discovered a flag with snow mountain lions, the flag of the Tibetan autonomous government-in-exile. Little Pinkie gamers criticized the American game for supporting Tibet’s independence before being axed from Steam China.
Fallout76, a multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Microsoft’s Bethesda Game Studios, updated its Daily Mission in the game in September 2021. The task for the game players was to kill the CCP’s soldiers, which prompted Little Pinkies’ trolling online. They left many negative reviews on the game page on Steam.
However, since the launch of the game series Fallout in 1997, the game has incorporated a large number of game plots of the Sino-U.S. war.
