Influencer marvels at rich French elements found in popular Chinese video game

Genshin Impact, a world-wide popular Chinese video game, has grabbed the attention of a social media influencer, with its wide range of French cultural elements and subtle depiction of the country's city settings, the thoughtful designs of which made her felt that her culture "was respected."

Last year, Genshin Impact released the song "La Vaguelette" by French singer Cecilia Cara, igniting global interest.

In the game, "La Vaguelette" is performed by Furina, one of the main characters in the Fontaine region, where a variety of French features were uncovered by players around the globe.

"I think the atmosphere feels really right, it feels like a small French city. The architecture, the pebbles on the road, even the nature scenery feels really right," said Marie Derien, a French influencer.

Marie said typically the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles are what comes to mind when France is mentioned, but many settings in the game remind her of places in her homeland in Marseille. And she is happy that in this game, French features appear more delicate and profound.

"Fontaine people are really proud of themselves. They eat right, they dress right, the art for them is really refined. And I think that's really a very French way of seeing ourselves. There's also the introduction of photography and cinema, which are both French inventions," she said.

Talking about the rich French elements and thoughtful designs of the popular game, "I felt like my culture was really respected," said Marie.

Culture observer said the phenomenon of creating a successful Chinese game with such a wide variety of French culture elements is enlightening, because it stands as a great example of promoting cross-cultural communication.

"I think games have a power to bridge cultural gaps by introducing players to different cultures, traditions and also perspectives. And games that incorporate authentic cultural elements, such as language, music, and architectures, and also folklores can raise awareness and sensitivity towards different cultures. Players may develop a deeper understanding and respect for cultural diversity through engaging with the elements in the games," said Zhou Kui, associate professor of Communication University of China.

Genshin Impact is a world adventure games released by miHoYo in September 2020. With subtitles in 13 languages and voice acting in four languages, the video game has been launched in over 200 countries and regions across the world.

Adventures taking place in the game are set to happen in seven imaginary kingdoms and its music incorporates styles of different parts of the world.  

Influencer marvels at rich French elements found in popular Chinese video game

Chinese scientists have recently worked together and rebuilt the face of an ancient Chinese ethnic minority emperor via cutting-edge DNA technology.

Emperor Wu of the Xianbei-led Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), also known as Yuwen Yong, was an ambitious leader who died at 36. He belonged to the Xianbei nomadic group, which originated from the Mongolian Plateau.

The tomb of the emperor was discovered in 1993 in a village of the city of Xianyang in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. His skull and bones were discovered during an excavation held in 1994 and 1995 at the site of his tomb.

In late March this year, scientists led by the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University managed to decode key features of the emperor and speculate about his cause of death. The emperor might have died from chronic arsenic poisoning due to long-term use of a pellet, which was believed by ancient people to achieve eternal life.

"First, the skeleton can be used to determine age. Second, in terms of age and gender, some pathological research can also be done to see if he had any fractures or other (diseases)," said Zhang Jianlin, a researcher from the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.

Obtaining high-quality genomic data is crucial for restoring the face. Through DNA paleogenomics techniques and optimized DNA extraction, database building and capture methods, more history was revealed.

"First, we have done the shorter fragments enrichment method, which is a DNA extraction method. In addition, we have developed some more sensitive database building method suitable for ancient samples with short fragments. You can regard it as a method to amplify the genetic signal, the extracted DNA. The third is that we have developed a capture method that is more suitable for this kind of highly degraded ancient samples. So we have optimized and improved our approach from three aspects at the same time," said Wen Shaoqing, an associate professor of the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University.

The reconstructed face showed that Yuwen Yong had black hair, yellow skin and brown eyes, while his appearance was typical for people from East or Northeast Asia.

Wen said that with the help of the DNA technology, the accuracy of facial restoration can reach 90 percent.

"As for the accuracy of (facial restoration), the current situation is that if there is a skull as a basis, its accuracy will be relatively high," said Wen.

Scientists rebuild face of ancient emperor using advanced DNA technology