Shanghai Newspaper Praises miHoYo's Cultural Heritage Efforts, Players Aren't Buying It

Wen Hui Bao — a major Shanghai newspaper — ran an extensive piece praising miHoYo's contributions to intangible cultural heritage preservation, with the headline reading something like "Shanghai's Cultural Heritage Is Winning Fans on Global Social Platforms." Naturally, the veterans over on NGA weren't exactly buying it.

The story centers on "流光拾遗之旅" (Light-Chasing Heritage Journey), a long-term cultural heritage project launched by Genshin Impact in early 2023. The initiative invites intangible cultural heritage artisans from across China to recreate game elements using traditional craftsmanship, filming the process as documentaries. The series reportedly includes subtitles in 15 languages, has been published on global social platforms, and across its 7 episodes has accumulated roughly 30 million views domestically and internationally. The article even quoted an emotional fan comment: "Behind the line 'No secret, just years of practice' lies the silent dedication of countless master craftsmen."

A miHoYo spokesperson chimed in with the expected corporate talking points, saying that "recreating game elements through traditional craft techniques is quite challenging" and that they plan to "adopt a global and youth-oriented perspective" to "leverage games' potential as cultural vessels." Pretty standard PR boilerplate.

But the NGA comment section told a very different story. The top-voted replies were all variations of the classic "feels worse than..." meme format: "Feels worse than Primogems... in terms of吸引力 (appeal)," "Feels worse than Raiden Shogun... in terms of cultural output," "Feels worse than donating money... in terms of winning fans." Translation: players would rather see actual game content and rewards than this kind of lofty cultural posturing.

Perhaps the most cutting comment came from a user who pointed out bluntly: "Many newspapers literally sell ad space. So this is most likely a paid placement." This observation hit the nail on the head — if this were genuine journalism, why does it read exactly like a corporate PR piece?

Another player shared their personal experience, saying they never once saw this documentary series recommended to them on Bilibili (China's YouTube equivalent) during the period they were inactive in the game, suggesting miHoYo barely promoted it at all. An even sharper take read: "I feel like this whole thing is basically homework they turned in to the government. As a player, I just want to play the game — please don't try to educate me." And the final comment on the thread said it all in just three characters: "赢赢赢" ("Win win win") — the quintessential Chinese internet sarcasm used to mock hollow, self-congratulatory narratives.

In summary: the official side wanted to play the "cultural prestige" card to burnish their brand image, but players saw right through it as a bought-and-paid-for newspaper ad dressed up as journalism. This round of intangible cultural heritage promotion? The only thing it successfully propagated was skepticism.