I'm trying to better understand the subject and part of me is unclear on if any depiction of another culture "counts", even if it's a fictionalized depiction / amalgamation of those cultures.

Also, if you could count stuff like those as examples, I'm unclear on if cultural appropriation is always bad, or more dependent on how respectful / high quality the appropriation is.

  • Abstraction [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The main harm of cultural appropriation (in my opinion) is if the culture being appropriated, or a form of that culture abroad, is changed by the popularity of the appropriation. I don't think any culture identifies with Tolkien-esque medieval fantasy, so Dark Souls is safe.

    I'm not too familiar with Jade Empire, but it seems to be a pretty standard western mystification of Chinese culture, and as such it is part of the harmful appropriation of that specific kind. The harm is caused especially to Chinese people living in the west who have their view of their own culture changed, as well as the views of the people around them. Some harm could be caused to Chinese culture in China, if the popular western view bleeds over to there. They seem to be culturally strong enough to avoid it being anything serious though.

    It is also important to note that cultural appropriation is not morally simple, that Jade Empire being potentially appropriative is not really a reason to shun the game or especially any of the people who worked on it. In the first place, it is only appropriative because that kind of portrayal is otherwise popular, if it was alone in being a western mystification of china it would likely not be at all harmful. Both the causes and effects of it are beyond individual moral analysis, the real solution is as always to abolish capitalism.

    • KollontaiWasRight [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Jade Empire makes no claim to represent China, but rather to reflect elements of Chinese myth. The Jade Empire (the empire, not the game) was explicitly designed to not be China, in order to give the writers more freedom. Even so, it wouldn't be particularly out of place as the setting of a domestic wuxia or xianxia work (save the part where JE includes no elements of cultivation, and thus would not fit into works of xianxia in that regard). It is no more cultural appropriation than God of War is.