Disco Elysium praised in China despite hiding communist references
The official translation for a country literally ruled by a communist party removes references to communism
Musings on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the legacy of communism might not seem like the best premise for a hit video game. But it worked for Disco Elysium.
The PC game, which won Best Narrative Game at The Game Awards 2019, is only now catching on in China thanks to a recent translation. But ironically, the country literally ruled by a communist party has a translation that deliberately disguises references to communism, among other things considered politically sensitive.
Disco Elysium is a point-and-click adventure game in which you role-play as a hard-boiled detective trying to solve a murder case in the fictitious city of Revachol. The city is meant to reflect a post-Soviet Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and is shown to be a hotbed of class conflict, racism and even fascism.
Ever since the rollout of the translation in simplified Chinese, the script primarily used in mainland China, discussions about Disco Elysium have been springing up across Chinese social media platforms. It’s also giving the game a huge boost in its Steam ratings as Chinese gamers gush in reviews on Valve’s digital game store.
But perhaps because Disco Elysium also appears to have critiqued communism and socialism, some politically sensitive words weren’t directly translated into Chinese. Most notably, the word communism was replaced with a transliteration. So instead of the actual Chinese term “gongchan zhuyi” for communist doctrine, players got “kangmi zhuyi”.
Zhihu, where people in China go to ask questions and get answers
Another reason Chinese gamers say Disco Elysium didn’t offend them is that players are given wide latitude for role-playing. There’s a wide range of responses for each dialogue or phenomenon, so any given player can walk away with their own understanding of the game.
One Chinese Steam user said the game helped him better understand his political beliefs.
Sign up now and get a 10% discount (original price US$400) off the China AI Report 2020 by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. The report also includes exclusive access to webinars to interact with C-level executives from leading China AI companies (via live Q&A sessions). Offer valid until 31 May 2020.