China Promotes Nationalist Propaganda in Animal Crossing, a Game It Banned

Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily encouraged readers this week to visit a virtual model of the Terracotta Army built in Animal Crossing, a game China banned after deeming it potentially harmful to its communist agenda.

Animal Crossing was banned in April over concerns it was becoming a hub for dissidents to criticize the communist regime.

Multiple virtual protests took place on the platform, including virtual vigils to commemorate the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and mockery of dictator Xi Jinping and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong organized a small protest featuring iconography from the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement before China banned the game entirely.

The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, seemed oblivious to the previous censorship of the game, pointing out how it recently received “global attention by reaching five million in digital sales within a month.”

The thing that caught their attention was Nintendo’s decision to place of collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, known as the Terracotta Army.

“In the game, players can visit an art museum, collecting antiques and artworks from around the world, and its Chinese section featured a group of Terracotta Army soldiers, which represent the pinnacle of Chinese artistry,” noted the Daily. 

It went on to explain:

Dubbed the world’s eighth ancient wonder, the Terracotta Army is a collection of life-sized sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shihuang. Dating from approximately the late third century BCE, each figure has its own unique features, down to the face and toes. The Terracotta Army includes warriors, chariots and horses, and has more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses.

China’s sudden embrace of the game, which has sold over 40 million copies worldwide and is particularly popular in Asia, is somewhat surprising given its very recent removal from platforms and online sales, with officials warning sellers of the game not to list it in their inventory. Many Chinese have been able to circumvent the ban by locating the game for sale under a different code name.

Practically all information in China is subject to review by the Communist Party’s army of censors, particularly across social media platforms where it has the potential to spread very quickly. Past examples of such censorship include comparisons of Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh, support for the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, and individuals criticizing the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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