China throws toys out of pram over game

A JAPANESE adult computer game based extremely loosely on a classic is getting a thorough pasting on Chinese bogs as being literary blasphemy.

According to ZD Net, "Slaves of the Red Mansion" is a fantasy game about girls sold into sexual slavery and has been branded a bawdy version of "Dream of the Red Chamber" penned by Qing dynasty (1644-1911) author Cao Xueqin.

The Chongqing Economic Times said that the main character, a young girl called Lin Daiyu, was closely modelled on the novel's heroine.

Chinese boggers say that turning "Dream of the Red Chamber" into a lewd game besmirches a treasure of Chinese literature, and desecrates Chinese culture.

There are calls for the game maker to halt production and to apologise to the Chinese people.

However, one has to wonder how much of this opposition is real and if it is anti-Japanese blogging engineered by China's masters. China is always keen to remind Japan of its war crimes against the country. The Communist Youth League, which is sort of like the Young Conservatives of Beijing, have been involved in campaigns to educate youth of Japan's pre-World War II invasion of China.

A similar campaign was mounted when a rising red sun was used in the enormously popular online game "Fantasy Westward Journey". µ

L'INQ
ZD Net