Walk into an internet cafe or 网吧 (wǎng ba) anywhere in China and what do you find? Throngs of Chinese people (mostly male) fervently and ferociously clicking away on their mice (plural?) as they heavy-handidly mash upon their keyboards–yelling and screaming a cacophony of insults and swears that echo and reverberate throughout a dimly lit, cigarette smoke-filled room. Sure, you just came in to check the news and send out some emails but instead found yourself in a racous room filled to capacity with young people and five-year old computers. And on almost every computer screen is one thing: a video game or 电子游戏 (diàn zǐ yóu xì). Welcome to the wide world of the Chinese video game industry.

Here you can play CS or WOW against friends, foes or random strangers for hours at end taking refuge from the multitude of tasks such as working or studying ad-nauseam that plague most Chinese youth and young adults. It’s no surprise then that China has the world’s largest video gaming population and has an insatiable appetite for any form of video-based leisure. As the middle class emerges, China is quick to pick up on anything modern and cool to pass the time, so naturally video games took front and center stage.

As a fan of video games myself, I find it interesting that Chinese Video game culture is much different than that in the United States (there aren’t many fans of Halo or Madden overseas). First off, there are very few “console” games such as Xbox, Playstation of Nintendo, due mainly the the prevalence of “pirated” software and DVDs, along with a systematic crowding out of these “foreign-national” game systems (just think of Playstation and Japan…yeah Chinese nationalism) by a Chinese government that wants to both create and control the video game industry.

Secondly, almost all video games are played on computer, either through lan-party connections (such as at the Internet cafe) or via the interwebs. Hence computer games or电脑游戏  (diàn nǎo yóu xì) Hand-held gaming systems, such as DS, Gameboy, etc… or games run through smart phone applications are also quite prevalent–to the extent that on several occasions I’ve had my taxi cab driver or 司机 (sī jī) pull out his phone and start playing a video version of “Go” while sitting in traffic. Unfortunately I haven’t learned the phrase “keep your eyes on the road”, so all I could say is “注意安全” (zhù yìān quán) or “pay attention to safety” which always seems to garner a laugh. What else is the dude going to do in bumper to bumper traffic?

However, within all pop-culture movements there is always a backlash and negativity associated with it. In the video game industry, CCP party officials have become very worried about the length of time people spend playing video games and also of the content that such games portray. In fact, the CCP has a monitoring body that regulates online hours for “hyper-gamers” and censors (or disallows) games with seedy subject matter or that are not government sponsored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN6vr9IwQ2I

The reason for which is that (I never thought I’d say this) there can be too much of a good thing and in this case, too much video game hours logged can be detrimental to your overall well being (Southpark does a pretty good episode on this fact in “Make Love, Not Warcraft”). Students, feeling the pressures of academia and success, turn to it as a form of escapism, pulling all-nighters and avoiding human interaction. Grades suffer, relationships falter but they just keep on playing World of Warcraft or 魔獸世界 (mó shòu shì jiè).

In fact, the government has gone so far as to label a small group of youngsters as “online delinquents” or “online addicts”. I agree that such addictions occur in China (due mainly to a lack of other social avenues of unwinding and leisure), and after talking with many of my students, I fear that computer gaming addiction is on a steady rise and is affecting younger and younger age groups.

In some cases, Chinese citizens have actually become divorced of reality and their “real world responsibilities” highlighted most tragically instances of suicide or school/work place related bullying. This isn’t endemic just to china as most recently just across the straight, in South Korea, a couple was found to have neglected and eventually let their newborn starve to death because they were so entralled by online gaming. China take note because video game culture in China is strikingly similar to S. Korean gaming culture.

Yet for all of these negative aspects of video gaming, we have to realize that a video game, just like any other hobby, can bring both joy and sadness to an afficionado and can be taken to extremes, whether it’s painting or powning. Temperance and moderation are the name of the game here. I get that online role playing games are fun and somewhat addicting, but so are real life interactions.

That being said, if you want to endear yourself to younger Chinese generations, head on down to the internet cafe and buy yourself two hours of game time (that’s about 5-8 kuai). Within an hour I gurantee you’ll be laughing, yelling and swearing along with the rest of them, while you get your ass kicked in Counter Strike (apparently Halo doesn’t translate to computer 1st person shooters).

Game Over!