Computer game controversy shows history should be kept in perspective

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Computer game controversy shows history should be kept in perspective

By David Dawson (Global Times) 08:31, September 18, 2013

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A computer game being made in Australia, which is set in 1936 gangland Shanghai, has raised more than a few eyebrows after the developers settled on the name Whore of the Orient.

The chief critic is Jieh-Yung Lo, a City of Monash councilor in Australia.

Lo claims that the game aims to disgrace Chinese culture and traditions, but his chief objection is the use of the "O-word" in the title, which he claims is as bad as the "N-word" for African Americans in the US.

Oriental has certainly been a tricky term in the past. Its use by Edward Said to create "orientalism," the stereotyping and denigration of Asia by Europeans, has received wide currency even as Said's work has been slammed for misrepresenting the work of past scholars.

But it hardly carries the same weight as a term intimately linked to white domination, slavery, and the lynching tree.

Many people appear to consider "orient" rather benign, albeit outdated and problematic. It's more a fustian word than a fighting one.

If indeed it is the insulting term that Lo claims, then one must wonder why Shanghai's glimmering Pudong skyline is defined by the Oriental Pearl Tower, or why one of the largest private education providers in China is known as New Oriental.

That isn't to say some people aren't offended by casual usage, and they have every right to feel that way, particularly given the painful memories associated with past stereotypes.

But no major US skyscrapers or multinational corporations would dare use the "N-word" as their title, so evidently few share his view that the two terms are equal.

But even so, the question remains as to why the developers chose this name, an obvious reference to Shanghai's reputation at the time.
The name was a pejorative term for 1930s-era Shanghai, which was plagued by gang warfare, drug dens and prostitution.

Not only is it the truth of that time, but much of this crime was the result of foreign intrusion.
If China is being insulted by the term, then so too are the countries that carved up slices of the city for their own criminal enterprises.
It is the criminal gangs of the past who deserve harsh judgment, and many of those were foreign.

Besides, calling Shanghai a whore is surely far more insulting than saying the city is in the orient.

All of Lo's objections, which as yet don't seem to have resulted in a groundswell of outrage against the game's title, seem to be over the top, but one key part of his objection is worth analysis: the fact that the game's development is being funded with public money.

It is difficult to justify spending public money on the development of computer games, which should ultimately be able to support themselves. Lo's calls for the game not to be funded are worth hearing, though for the questionable use of taxpayer dollars rather than the alleged insensitivity.

At the end of the day, the name was bound to raise a few hackles, the developers were undoubtedly aware of this and perhaps banking on the publicity.

So I'd suggest the critics bear in mind that if they're genuinely outraged there is a far more low key way to make the point: Don't buy the game.

And I would humbly suggest to Lo that while the developers may have been at fault in choosing a name that could cause unease in some quarters, claiming equivalence between the "O-word" and the "N-word" is a far more egregious sin.