Genshin Impact and the Proliferation of Culture: A Study of Liyue’s Fashion By Courtney Fu and Serena Gao
Genshin Impact as a Game
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ne of the top games to come out of the mess that is 2020 is a multi-platform action role-playing game known as Genshin Impact. Developed by the Chinese company MiHoYo, Genshin Impact follows the story of the main character, Traveller, as they venture through the seven nations of the Teyvat world in search of their lost twin sibling.
Intro to Liyue Throughout the story, the Traveller encounters people from different nations. Each nation is ruled by a god who is associated with a different element (e.g. air, water, fire, etc, though they go by different names in the game), and is heavily inspired by a real country. At the time of writing, there are two countries that are explorable in the game: Mondstadt and Liyue. Mondstadt is ruled by the god of Anemo (air), and its design is based off of Germany. Liyue is ruled by the god of Geo (rock), and it’s based off of China. In the game, Liyue Harbour is the bustling centre for commerce and trade, and responsible for the world’s coin currency production and supply. Immediately, there’s a lot to unpack about the Liyue-China analogy, from the architecture, to the food, to the people. The focus of this article will be on fashion and clothing of the Liyue people, taking you through the history and cultural references of some of the pieces you see in the game. We’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum! Historical Fashion Influences in Character Design Looking at the Liyuean characters, it’s clear that they’re “Asian”— but what elements of their design have contributed to that impression? We’ll walk through some notable characters and point out the features that are rooted in Chinese culture and history. Zhongli Zhongli is the Geo god that rules over Liyue, enforcing business contracts and consulting on various projects with his vast knowledge accumulated over centuries. Despite having the ability to make infinite money, he somehow always forgets to bring money to lunches at expensive restaurants. Yep, he’s that friend. Zhongli’s design contains a lot of patterning. These are references to a set of twelve different patterns known as the Twelve Symbols of Sovereignty (Twelve Ornaments) introduced in the Zhou Dynasty (1050 - 771 B.C.), which were exclusively worn by the
10 ASIAN OUTLOOK
Official Artwork From Mihoyo
