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After watching the Black Myth: Wukong PV, foreigners collectively read Journey to the West

2024-08-19

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I really like the foreigner's saying: That's cool

I still remember that day four years ago vividly.

At that time, the school had online classes every day, and I would get up every day to sign in, then hang up the live broadcast on the computer and go back to bed to sleep. But on the morning of August 20, 2020, I didn't stay in the dreamland for too long. I had only slept for less than two hours, and more than a dozen WeChat messages popped up one after another, interrupting my sweet dream. Although the people who sent the messages were different, the general idea was nothing more than: "Have you heard that there is a domestic 3A masterpiece called "Black Myth: Wukong"."



Looking back, it was normal for Black Myth: Wukong to cause such a sensation when it was first revealed. In addition to being a 3A masterpiece with excellent graphics, it does carry some significance beyond the game. However, it is hard for me to imagine that four years later, even though Black Myth: Wukong is about to be released, the "final trailer" released on August 8 has added a lot of heat to the game, triggering a wave of public opinion that is no less than that of the year.

In this "final trailer" video, in addition to the previously unreleased game content such as the "Four Heavenly Kings", the "cyber electronic music" version of "Nirvana Sutra" inserted in the middle of the video has also become a new focus of discussion. For several days, you can find many players who have been brainwashed by "Namo Amitabha" on major social media.



And "music has no borders". In the various "reaction" videos about "Black Myth: Wukong" on YouTube, although each blogger's performance in other aspects is different, at the moment when the little demon lit the alchemy furnace and began to chant "Namo Amitabha", those who were thinking stopped thinking, and those who were talking gradually fell silent, leaving only the word "shocked" on their faces.



Of course, some of the video bloggers may have a bit of "historical personality", but there is no doubt that they are indeed a microcosm of the player community. If you casually browse the comment area of ​​these "reaction" videos, you can see a large number of foreign players discussing topics related to this music. In addition to the usual exclamations such as "Damn" and "That's cool", the most common content discussed by foreigners is actually discussing the origin of this song and its history.



In addition to the popular science of "Nirvana Mantra", in the comment area of ​​these videos, you can also see a lot of discussions about Sun Wukong himself and the entire "Journey to the West" story by foreigners. And their current understanding of "Journey to the West" is really surprising to me.

The first thing to say is that in all these discussions, they refer to Sun Wukong as "Wukong" in the English title of Black Myth: Wukong, rather than the stereotypical "Monkey king" or "Goku". Honestly, this makes me feel very relieved.



As for the specific content of the discussion, we can see that foreigners' understanding of Sun Wukong's magical powers such as the "Seventy-two Transformations" and "Somersault Cloud" has generally reached a very deep level, although there are still some problems with the measurement units.



As for Sun Wukong's legendary weapon, the "Golden Cudgel", they were not misled by the French IGN's previous statement that "stuffing cotton swabs in the ears is too dangerous". From the origin of the "Golden Cudgel" to its special abilities, many foreigners can tell a thing or two like the back of their hand.



Of course, these contents are only a small part of Journey to the West. But then again, although it has been four years since the first exposure, Black Myth: Wukong really "went viral" internationally and attracted the attention of many players only after a series of disturbances in the first half of this year. In these few months, it is really difficult to expect foreign fans who are interested in Black Myth: Wukong to understand the entire story of Journey to the West without missing a single detail.

However, judging from the current performance, perhaps this day is not as far away as expected. On YouTube, there are already some bloggers who are familiar with "Journey to the West" and Chinese culture, and they have explained cultural knowledge in their "reaction" videos.

For example, this blogger named "The Mythology Guy" often uses cultural products such as animation and games as themes to tell the audience about the cultural knowledge contained in them. This time in "Black Myth: Wukong", although the "final trailer" itself is only more than four minutes long, he supplemented it with more than 20 minutes of content.



On Reddit, players who were looking forward to Black Myth: Wukong after seeing the "final trailer" also showed great interest in the story of Journey to the West. They wanted to know how many fantastic fantasies this novel had that inspired Game Science to create this AAA masterpiece with outstanding visual effects. For this reason, some foreign players went to their local bookstores to search for the English translation of Journey to the West.



For those players who don't have the time to read the original novel, the story explanation video of "Journey to the West" has become a "must-see item" before the game is released. In addition to the common YouTube videos, in the discussion of this topic, you can also see them mentioning the 1986 version of "Journey to the West" TV series and some analysis videos on Bilibili.



Some enthusiastic foreign players even found a tourism promotional video produced by Shanxi Tourism and Black Myth: Wukong on TikTok. Xiaoxitian, Yuhuang Temple, Iron Buddha Temple and other real-life filming locations of Black Myth: Wukong would "go global" in this way, which is something no one would have expected.



There are actually many examples like this on the Internet. To be honest, before I saw it with my own eyes, I could hardly imagine that foreigners would be so interested in "Journey to the West" just because of the game "Black Myth: Wukong" - this is really not a case of first suppressing and then praising. After all, in order to guess the plot direction and world view of "Black Myth: Wukong", domestic players have put a lot of effort into the relevant content of "Journey to the West" culture at all levels. If this is the case in China, it is conceivable that foreign countries, which do not originally have this cultural soil, will encounter many difficulties in understanding "Black Myth: Wukong".

But the most amazing thing about the whole thing is that foreign players with almost no basic knowledge did not give up exploring Black Myth: Wukong or even the entire Journey to the West. They wanted to do this simply because the promotional PVs of Black Myth: Wukong, which showed Chinese fantasy, were extremely attractive. In fact, their enthusiasm reminded me of myself when I first came into contact with the God of War series. After completing the game, I bought a copy of Edda, and then I completely understood the meaning of the various details in the game.

After reading Edda, in addition to the increase of knowledge, I also felt a sense of joy that "the world is so vast". I see the green mountains are so charming, I think the green mountains see me the same way. These foreign players who are passionate about Black Myth: Wukong and Journey to the West probably have the same feeling.



To sum up, maybe I should say something like "cultural export" at this point. But I am not a theorist, so it is better not to make such a summary. I think that truly excellent culture is the spiritual wealth shared by all mankind. It does not need anyone to use data to praise it. It is just "the peaches and plums do not speak, but the paths are formed by themselves".

Black Myth: Wukong has used its own achievements to attract people from all over the world to walk out of such a small road. I can't draw any conclusions now whether this road will become wider and wider in the future. But the emergence of this road itself means a transformation from zero to one.

That's enough for us today.