cashew | 原神 (Genshin Impact) kerfluffle

Full disclosure: I don't play Genshin. I have nothing on the line here other than being from the same culture as the creators.

When the game came out, I dismissed Genshin as just another gacha money maker. Breathless news about how the game made $1 billion revenue in the first week (3 days? I don't remember the exact number) only further justified my dismissal.

And recently, I found out that thanks to this gacha money maker, tons of gamers became interested in Peking Opera. So, in some ways, like the web novels before it, I can only scratch my head, be confused, and settle on, "Well, as long as it gets Chinese culture front and center in front of the West, I guess I can't complain." (Side note: I think there's been a weird panic of Peking Opera dying off in Western media, but that assessment has been greatly exaggerated. Peking Opera is dying off the way Kabuki has been dying off, which is to say, not at all and is a nationally protected heritage and the government is dumping tons of money into its preservation. If anything, other local operas are having a hard time competing with Peking Opera for support.)

So, from there, I found out that the Western gamers are all up in arms about representation and cultural appropriation as Genshin expands from its Chinese based roots to a lot of...uh, very obviously not Chinese roots.

A few brief thoughts from a person on the other side:

Where do you think these millennial developers got their stereotypes? You know, this group that grew up on a diet of Hollywood movies and Disney animated movies and 90's anime.
There's a hilarious complaint that the Chinese developers painstakingly depicted Chinese cultural elements in realistic detail but didn't give the other cultures the same kind of treatment. I ask you, who else was going to give Chinese culture a fair shake and treat it with reverence? Hollywood? Japan's anime industry? Chinese artists finally have a way to shove their art and culture into other people's faces for once, you think they're going to spend that time honoring other people first?
I totally understand if you think Genshin's portrayal of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures were unrefined, disrespectful, and/or appropriative. I actually agree and definitely cringed when I realized the game was going there. What I don't understand is the disappointment. Because...uh, why do you expect an outsider to be able to portray your culture sensitively? Like...what? China is 90% Han majority. The rest of the minorities are also East Asian in appearance (aka, black hair, black eyes, pale face, yes, even the Muslim and Jewish minorities look East Asian). Why the hell would you expect anything but a cringe depiction of non-Chinese culture when it's been incorporated?
I'm not going to say that a few Iranian internet users expressing joy that their traditional instruments featured in Genshin's OST makes the cultural appropriation any better. However, I will say that I'm really not interested in a bunch of Americans bitching about representation when they continually churn out culturally appropriative shit like Shang-Chi then get upset that Chinese people rejected their movie. If you're an American starting a boycott hashtag on Twitter, sorry, I don't really give a shit about your white guilt/diaspora identity issues. Go talk to the American game developers instead of harassing a Chinese company.
Finally, while there might be the occasional genuine criticism, I'm finding it hard to believe that this boycott kerfluffle isn't just a bunch of astroturfing sinophobes looking for any excuse to tear down a successful Chinese product, because they've been out-competed at their own stupid game.