Sex and the City à la Chinoise
A new wave of Chinese dating sims is changing cultural perceptions
*First of, allow me to apologize for the title. I know how it may come across as super pretentious and lame, BUT, it suddenly came to me and I’m sticking with it. So that’s that.*
Superscout is yet another Chinese FMV dating sim that recently made the jump to consoles, after being a PC-only title for a while.
Now also available on PS5, it is developed by Hangzhou-based "Mountain & Sea Studio". The studio has also made a horror title before, Underworld Island.
Filled with innuendos, life lessons and many optional narrative paths, Superscout follows the formula of what, surprisingly, has become a very prolific genre coming out of China in the last couple of years: the FMV dating sim.
About a year ago I wrote about "Love is all Around", a title in the same genre that became a breakthrough hit on Steam and was later ported to consoles as well. Beyond that, many other similar games have come out of China in recent times. We see many from South Korea as well by the way, but I’ll leave that for another time (if you’re curious, yes, Korean dating sim are generally much more “naughty” than Chinese ones)
While this is somewhat of a niche genre, it is not without its wide-exposure potential (Nigh Trap, amirite?). The existing audience is in the millions already, and it continues to grow.
Space in the Culture
These Chinese games in particular are carving an interesting space for themselves, being virtually the only current Chinese cultural export that showcases the middle/upper-class urban lifestyle that almost completely evades most international audiences.
Meaning, China is not creating and exporting any successful romcom tv shows or movies (like Friends or Sex and the City), but these FMV dating sims are providing exactly that, within their scope as videogames. It's yet another layer of soft-power through gaming that is being underreported, I think.
On a more societal note, I would even say it is interesting to notice how these games are generally far sexier, edgier and suggestive than anything we currently see in Chinese pop music videos, or tv shows. Millenials in China consume a lot of such content imported from South Korea and Taiwan in particular, precisely because (among other reasons) those countries multimedia productions are not restrained by the kind of censorship that creatively limits most entertainment produced in China.
I’m not suggesting that these games go beyond what Chinese regulations generally allow for their media and gaming in particular. However, it’s important to understand and realize just how tame most mainstream content is in China. I understand this statement will raise many eyebrows and many people would disagree…but to those, I would simply say, “be honest”. Fact is, GENERALLY speaking, most moderated content on Chinese broadcast networks and online has very little content that could be considered risqué or tantalizing. When it comes to depictions of romance in particular, it is not an exaggeration that most content is extremely infantilized, even when aimed at adults.
Games such as Superscout, while never being in any way explicit or erotic, are somehow “allowed” to step on a few lines, even if never actually crossing them. Being games, they get much less attention and comprehensive scrutiny from authorities than most other mainstream entertainment media, and can therefore fly under the radar…to some extent. Especially when made available on global platforms such as Steam and gaming consoles.
It’s a positive development, I think. Both for Chinese audiences, and international ones. While these game’s stories and interactions are totally fictional and often borderline nonsensical (and extremely sexist, sometimes), they do open a window into a side of modern Chinese society that is very rarely represented or exposed. These games depict a modern urban lifestyle that is, at least at some levels, relatable to Chinese audiences, and realistically portray a more mundane side of life in China that foreign audiences rarely get exposed to.
