How ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Became a Cultural Sensation in China and Beyond

Chinese culture is thousands of years old. The first written records of it date back 5,000 years. That is why it boasts an unprecedented wealth in all forms of art. To the point that, like other legendary civilizations, there are many people who devote their lives to studying the products of their culture. Black Myth: Wukong Shows Chinese Culture’s Enormous Potential to Capture World Attention.

The video game has just hit the market as one of the most successful in history, selling ten million copies in just three days. Defeat hits like Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy.Game Science, the Shenzhen-based company behind Black Myth: Wukong, invested $100 million over six years to produce the game, and it paid off. Within a week of its launch, its investment had quadrupled.

Among many factors, the huge success of Black Myth: Wukong is due to its gripping depiction of the most famous Chinese novel of all time, Journey to the West. The developers wanted to bring the epic tale into the 21st century. create a new experience that will take you on a journey across China, slaying the demons that seek to block your path. The game’s story couldn’t be more interesting.

Black Myth: Wukong and the Journey to the West

Journey to the West is the most famous Chinese novel ever written. An unrivaled classic with dozens of film adaptations, it is based on the powerful true story of Xuanzang. A Chinese monk who, in 629, at the age of 27, decided to travel to India to obtain the original Buddhist sutras, the religion’s fundamental texts. He was concerned that the versions available to Chinese Buddhists like him were incomplete or even poorly translated. That is why he decided to spend seventeen years traveling thousands of miles in search of enlightenment for himself and his countrymen..

Almost a thousand years after the epic excursion that forever changed the history of the region, the legendary writer Wu Cheng’en decided to write a novel that would mythologize the real events. In Journey to the West, Buddha himself came up with the idea of ​​sending someone to India to collect the original sutras and take them back to China.. The monk Tang Sanzang is chosen, and to protect him, Buddha provides him with three attendant deities who have misbehaved, and serving as bodyguards will be a way to repay their debt. Among them is Sun Wukong, better known as the Monkey King, a novel that made him one of the most iconic figures in Chinese culture.

The first seven chapters of the book (it has one hundred chapters or 2,300 pages) are devoted to introducing the character of Sun Wukong. Born from a stone nourished by the five elements, The Monkey King becomes an expert in Taoism, which allows him to change shape, defeat any enemy in battle, and even achieve immortality.He is a cheeky and witty character with a penchant for sarcasm and a boldness that usually gets him into trouble. His troubles grow so great that he is able to challenge all the gods in the heavens. The only one who was able to defeat him was Buddha, who sentenced him to spend 500 years locked under a mountain, and then gave him a chance to redeem himself by accompanying Tang Sanzang.

The story of Black Myth: Wukong begins just after Sun Wukong has succeeded in his mission of redemption, having managed to attain Buddhahood, the noblest state of life a living being can attain. Despite this, he refused to live in the heavenly court with the other deities, preferring the peace of his mountain. The gods, feeling disrespected, send a heavenly army after him, thus managing to defeat him and lock him back under the mountain. However, before being defeated, Wukong managed to divide his powers into six relics, and whoever retrieves them will be able to awaken the Monkey King..

An unprecedented cultural phenomenon

The great success of Black Myth: Wukong is largely due to the enthusiasm it generated among Chinese audiences. China’s video game market is the largest in the world, with sales exceeding $42 billion.. A huge chunk of that money usually goes to mobile games or free-to-play battle royale games whose business model relies on microtransactions. Black Myth: Wukong is an exception to the rule.

While many companies have given their employees time off to play Black Myth: Wukong, some have gone even further, pairing the weekends with deluxe digital versions of the game. The phenomenon has also had an impact on the tourism industry, particularly in Shanxi Province, home to 27 of the 36 Chinese historical sites featured in the game. On the day of launch, the number of searches for the term “Shanxi tourism” doubled compared to the usual level.Without wasting any time, the Shanxi Department of Culture and Tourism posted a video on social media, mixing images of the game with videos of tourist attractions.

Modern Chinese culture leaves much to be desired. Compared to previous eras, the artistic creativity of the Asian country is insignificant. It significantly outperforms its neighbor South Korea, a country with less than 5% of its Chinese population.. This is due to both the strict censorship implemented by the government and the disastrous Chinese Cultural Revolution, an event that ended the country’s artistic prospects for generations. The success of Black Myth: Wukong is a step in the right direction, towards solidifying a respectable cultural status around the world.