Why Games Showing Skeletons Is A Big Issue In China

The use of skeletons, both alive and dead, are a popular trope in not just video games,
but all fictional media.
Games like the Lucas Arts adventure game Grim Fandango, for example, even feature a cast
made up of nearly nothing but skeletons, including the game's protagonist Manny Calavera, a travel
agent in the Land Of The Dead.
Skeletons are also a popular enemy in many games and even Disney has various Skeleton
characters under its wing, such as Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, who is
depicted here in their appearance in the game Kingdom Hearts 2.
I'm sure you will be able to think of many other times where you have seen skeletons
in games, however, there's one region in the world where doing this might be a bit harder.
It's no secret that China has some very strict censorship polices and this doesn't just include
games, but everything from what people can search for on the internet to what you can
print in books, and, with a population of nearly 1.5 billion, these are laws that are
affecting a lot of human beings.
All games released in China must first be approved by the State Administration of Press,
Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
During this submission process, China's censors will check that games do not contain any of
this restricted content: Gambling-related content or game features
Anything that violates China’s constitution Anything that threatens China’s national
unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity.
Anything that harms the nation’s reputation, security, or interests.
Anything that instigates racial/ethnic hatred, or harms ethnic traditions and cultures.
Anything that violates China’s policy on religion by promoting cults or superstitions.
Anything that promotes or incites obscenity, drug use, violence, or gambling.
Anything that harms public ethics or China’s culture and traditions.
Anything that insults, slanders, or violates the rights of others.
As well as any other content that violates the law
What does all of this have to do with skeletons though?
Well, one of these restrictions is responsible for making finding skeletons in Chinese games
extremely rare, with them virtually always being censored out of Chinese versions of
games.
See here, for example, which shows the Western version of World of Warcraft on the left and
the Chinese release on the right.
The law in question is China's ban on content which "violates China’s policy on religion
by promoting cults or superstitions".
Due to the risk of violating the rules on things like superstitions, the depiction of
skeletons is something that commonly gets removed from games in China.
This doesn't just include full-body skeletons either, with things like just this skull on
a treasure chest getting removed.
Also, sometimes the localisers can get rather creative with the censorship, as seen here
in CS:GO, where the skull and crossbones on some gloves were changed to puppy paws.
Another example of some creative edits can be found in the MMO Wizard 101, where the
skeleton dragon is made extremely colourful, or the creature here which was turned into
some sort of zebra Even popular card games such as Magic The
Gathering have made many changes in China because of it, as, remember, this law affects
everything that is filtered though the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication,
Radio, Film and Television.
However, despite there being just so many changes of this nature, it would actually
be wrong to say that skeletons are straight up banned in China.
After all, the law in question is to do with "violating China’s policy on religion by
promoting cults or superstitions" and some of you may argue that simply having a skeleton
in a game doesn't do this at all.
Unfortunately though, the guidelines are left vague so it's hard to even work out what's
ok and what's not.
Some even argue that the rules are left intentionally vague to allow them to police things as they
see fit or to put people in a strict self-censorship mentality out of fear of breaking the rules.
It is true however that skeletons are NOT completely banned in China.
Shown here is a skeleton in the MMO Age of Wushu, a game that was developed in China
itself, and here is a skeleton in another Chinese-developed game, Ghost Story.
It is likely that some publishers are being overly cautious when bringing their games
to China, due to how vague the rules seem to be.
Even if they don't censor everything though, China does still censor many things containing
this type of content, although, possibly one day this is something that may be improved.
You see, China's censorship of "cults and superstitions" actually made the news recently
due to the state censors deciding to relax the rules a little for China's move industry.
Whilst up until now, anything containing things like zombies, vampires, werewolves, mummies
and ghosts had been banned by the government, including Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters being
denied a release last year, things are now starting to change.
Granted however, the reason for the change is due to the government seeing box office
profits fall and wanting to stimulate the market, but regardless, this year has seen
the surprise release of movies such as Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - both of which would have been banned previously.
The question however is: 1) Whether this more relaxed approach in the
movie industry will last or will it be changed back when the market improves?
And 2) Could the government possibly do the same
for games one day and allow uncensored versions of the countless games censored in China into
the country, or even games that they wouldn't currently allow at all?
Whilst these points are not yet known, Censored Gaming will be watching how things develop
and, as always, will be sure to let you know of any changes and other points of interest.
Until next time, thank you for watching.

Why Games Showing Skeletons Is A Big Issue In China

Latest Posts