From Game Practice to Embodied Patriotism: Aesthetics and Identity Reproduction in Black Myth: Wukong

Duan, Xiaoxiao; Yaling, Zhao; Si, Chen; Zhijia, Liu

doi:10.69513/jndm.v3.i1.a2

	From Game Practice to Embodied Patriotism: Aesthetics and Identity Reproduction in Black Myth: Wukong
Al-Noor Journal for Digital Media Studies
Article 2, Volume 3, Issue 1, April 2026, Pages 12-21 PDF (274.88 K)
Document Type: Original Article
DOI: 10.69513/jndm.v3.i1.a2
Authors
Xiaoxiao Duan^* ¹; Zhao Yaling²; Chen Si³; Liu Zhijia⁴
¹Department of Mass Communications, Faculty of Philology, RUDN University, 10 Miklukho-Maklaya St, bldg 2, Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation.
²Department of Russian Language, college of Foreign Languages, Hebei University，No. 180 Wusi Dong Road, Lian Chi District, Baoding City, Hebei Provinc，071000, China
³Department of Japanese Language, college of Foreign Languages, Hebei University，No. 180 Wusi Dong Road, Lian Chi District, Baoding City, Hebei Province，071000, China
⁴College of Electronics Information Engineering, Hebei University，No. 180 Wusi Dong Road, Lian Chi District, Baoding City, Hebei Province，07100, China
Abstract
The development of digital technology has enhanced the narrative capabilities of videogames, allowing players' actions to no longer be restricted by game rules and providing them with greater autonomy. Communication between game creators and players, as well as among players themselves, has become frequent and timely, breaking the traditional one-way communication paradigm. Game platforms now undertake more functions of cultural exchange, gradually shaping a new form of patriotism led by young people. This study takes the Chinese phenomenon game Black Myth: Monkey as an example to analyze the cultural dissemination power of videogames on digital platforms. It is believed that as an immersive virtual practice space, games provide a field to produce cultural identity. National culture inspires game creators, integrating it into narrative scenes, character tasks, central ideas of the games, which change from static texts that can only be observed to highly interactive content subjects. We believe that there are three paths for videogames to reproduce cultural identity: procedural rhetoric, audiovisual design, and narrative philosophy. After being visual adapted, national myths have become immersive and interactive game spaces. Long-term game practice makes abstract cultural identity recognition into concrete cultural embodied practice. Young people even, out of their passion for a certain game, study real history and culture seriously, transforming from traditional culture recipients to inheritors and re-creators. This cultural learning based on emotional resonance and value identification can shape more stable and more infectious cultural identity.
Keywords
China; patriotism; game aesthetics; identity; reproduction; Black Myth; Wukong
Supplementary Files 2 From Game Practice to Embodied Patriotism.pdf
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