Between culture and control: Genshin Impact and the evolution of Chinese online nationalism

This article examines the intersection of commercial culture and state-sanctioned nationalism in contemporary China through a case study of Genshin Impact. Drawing on Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulacra and Koichi Iwabuchi's concept of 'cultural odour,' it argues that GI functions as a 'odourless simulacrum': it integrates diverse cultural motifs into an aesthetically stylized form that appears apolitical. The analysis highlights how both the state and players engage with the game's symbolic repertoire, generating competing interpretations of national identity. For the state, the game's global success is re-appropriated as evidence of China's cultural ascendancy, where the symbolic and geopolitical utility of 'Chinese culture' outweighs concerns for representational accuracy or authenticity. At the same time, players' practices produce alternative and sometimes conflicting articulations of identity within the same cultural framework. The case of GI thus illustrates a decentralized and symbolic mode of national identity production, wherein state power, commercial imperatives, and popular engagement converge to sustain multiple, coexisting, and contested visions of nationhood.