A Chinese Gold Diggers video game nourishes a debate on sexism

“He is more dedicated than a dog … If only more than these dumb ones appear,” he boasts a woman in a new video game that nourishes a debate about sexism in China.

The players in the revenge live of gold diggers are male main characters lured in relationships by manipulative women who are after their money – how the man responds, shapes the rest of the story.

He headed the list of sales of the Game Platform within hours after its release in June, but contradictions followed. Some have hit him to strengthen the offensive sexual stereotypes, while supporters say the game warns people about love fraud.

The criticism was so hot that the creators of the game quietly renamed their emotional scam simulator the next day.

But that was not enough to cancel the damage. The leading director of the game, Hong Kong’s director Mark Hu, is now banned on several Chinese social media platforms.

The creators of the game insist that they never intended to “direct women” – more recently they wanted to facilitate “open dialogue for emotional boundaries and gray areas in modern dating.”

Sue Icun, an artist who tried the game and found her deeply offended, rejects this justification. She accuses them of a “classic business model that thrives on content generating, which causes debate and divisions.”

Critics like her say the term “Gold Digger” Reeks of Misogyny.

“This is a label that is used too often for women,” says G -ju Sue. “Sexist jokes and shameful terms like these have found a way in our daily language.”

“If you have a rich boyfriend, you are called a gold digger. If you try to look pretty, you are called a gold digger … Sometimes the label is used on you only to take a drink by someone,” she adds.

However, some players find the criticism overworked.

“The game is not trying to say that all women are gold diggers … I do not find that it is aimed at any gender,” says 31-year-old Juang Menchen, who uses a nickname to talk to the BBC. “Both women and men can be gold diggers.”

Still, in the game, all “gold diggers” are women. From a fresh face online influencing to an entrepreneur to obtain further, they are shown to make men be gorgeous money and gifts on them.

“Do you want to know if a person loves you? See how much it spends,” says one of them.

The game even divided the local media. A newspaper from the Central Hubei province said the game “labeled whole gender as fraudsters”.

But Beijing youth praised him on his “creativity” daily, citing the financial impact of love fraud: about $ 2 billion ($ 279 million; 204 million pounds) in 2023, according to the National Fraud Center.

“We have to stop without slowing emotional scams,” the editorial said.

Dispute aside, the sales of the game continue to rise. He is now among the top ten headlines of China for the PC platform, exceeding even Black myth: Vukong Which is the most successful Chinese game of all time.

“I don’t understand why people are upset with it. If you are not a gold digger yourself, why should you feel attacked by this game?” He says a 28-year-old man.

“In fact, I thought the creators of the game were very bold. These problems (like emotional fraud) were not widely discussed in China.”

Some people online have suggested that the game is inspired by the history of real life of a Chinese man known as a fat cat on the Internet who jumped until his death last year after the breakup.

His death sparked an intense discussion online, where the term “gold digger” was used liberally, with some blaming his ex -girlfriend for exploiting him, which made him take his life. Police have rejected these allegations.

Women who talked to the BBC are worried that video game perpetuates the problematic gender standards in China, where society believes that women belong at home, while seeing men as major carriers.

So for women, marrying well traditionally is perceived as more important than professional success.

The official rhetoric of men -dominated Chinese Communist Party supports this – his President Jinping repeatedly calls for women to perceive their roles as “good wives and mothers”.

The government has also broken up Increasing set of activists a demanding gender equality.

“I feel such a game just hostility to fans between men and women,” says a woman who did not want to be baptized, fearing hostility online.

“He re -throws women, like the smaller sex, who must somehow find ways to please men to win their livelihood.”