How Gaming Became the Next Front in the War Over Hong Kong
‘Overwatch’ players have repurposed a Chinese character into a symbol of the protests, as the debate over the city spreads to the video game world
If we needed any more proof that the intersection of meme culture, gaming, capitalism, and politics is a defining element of contemporary global reality, now we have this: A first-person shooter gaming character has joined the fight between Hong Kong protesters and the Chinese government’s authoritarianism.
In the Blizzard game Overwatch, the character Dr. Mei-Ling Zhou is a climate scientist who freezes herself in an Antarctic cryo chamber during a catastrophic storm. She awakens nine years later in a world gone deeply awry, and must employ her special cold-weather-related powers (like her frost-jet-spouting Endothermic Blaster) against a variety of enemies.
As of Wednesday morning, Mei had found a new opponent to tackle: the Chinese Communist Party. In a meme video called “Mei Stands with Hong Kong,” published by a sympathizer to the Hong Kong protest movement, politically provocative Chinese subtitles and spliced protest footage are inserted into about two minutes of a stock Overwatch scene.
