When China Rules the World

Hangzhou Temple Art

Ancient Chinese Beauty

I really enjoyed this article over on LA Times regarding Chinese vs. Western views of the world.

The issue here is much deeper than Western-style democracy, a free media or human rights. China is simply not like the West and never will be. There has been an underlying assumption that the process of modernization would inevitably lead to Westernization; yet modernization is not just shaped by markets, competition and technology but by history and culture. And Chinese history and culture are very different from that of any Western nation-state.

After being in China for 5+ years (part of that admittedly spent in “China-lite” AKA Hong Kong) I can attest to the huge gulf that exists between the cultures – something that can be bridged in places (art, music, films, games), but that I think will always (and probably *should* always) remain of two worlds. One aspect I particularly like is the relationship between state and people (at least when it works), as mentioned in the article:

The Chinese state enjoys a very different kind of relationship with society compared with the Western state. It enjoys much greater natural authority, legitimacy and respect, even though not a single vote is cast for the government. The reason is that the state is seen by the Chinese as the guardian, custodian and embodiment of their civilization. The duty of the state is to protect its unity. The legitimacy of the state therefore lies deep in Chinese history. This is utterly different from how the state is seen in Western societies.

All this comes from the author of a thought provoking book called “When China Rules the World” by Martin Jacques. Check out his website HERE.

Adrenaline Vault Interview

PRC Flag

PRC Flag

I’m featured in a podcast interview over at Adrenaline Vault – some details provided over at their site:

Episode 56’s guest is American McGee from Spicy Horse. American dropped what he was doing in China to chat about his history in the industry, and provided some interesting insight into where he’s been and where he sees both himself and games going in the future. He also revealed what he could about Alice 2, and addressed the infamous trailer.

Head over to listen to the podcast.

The World of Warcraft China Saga (pt. 2)

Greg Pilarowski has written another informative piece on the latest turn in the Blizzard “World of Warcraft” in China saga. From the article:

Activision Blizzard’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) great adventure in Chinese bureaucracy appeared to have drawn to a peaceful close in late September with the commercial relaunch of World of Warcraft. On November 2, 2009, however, China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) declared that the relaunch was illegal and demanded a halt to the commercial operation of the game.

You can read the rest by heading over to The Escapist.

Return of Alice (Video Madness)

Alice - Snail Fight

Snail Fight!

Here’s the official statement regarding the “Return of Alice” video which was being presented at www.returnofalice.com

Yesterday, a few sites picked up a video of Alice made by one of our fans and confused it as an official trailer of Alice 2. I wanted to clear up any confusion – as I mentioned in my post it was unofficial, and does not represent any of the final art direction or story elements in Alice 2. We look forward to sharing information on the game in the future.

The content has since been removed from returnofalice.com, but it still lives in its original location – on the website of its creator, Troy Morgan. You if you missed it, you can see it here.