Genshin Impact and Proliferation of Culture: A Study of Liyue’s Fashion | Courtney Fu & Serena Gao

Genshin Impact and the Proliferation of Culture:

A Study of Liyue’s Fashion

By Courtney Fu and Serena Gao

Genshin Impact as a Game

One of the top games to come out of the mess that is 2020 is a multi-platform action role-playing game known as Genshin Impact. Developed by the Chinese company MiHoYo, Genshin Impact follows the story of the main character, Traveller, as they venture through the seven nations of the Teyvat world in search of their lost twin sibling.

Intro to Liyue

Throughout the story, the Traveller encounters people from different nations. Each nation is ruled by a god who is associated with a different element (e.g. air, water, fire, etc, though they go by different names in the game), and is heavily inspired by a real country. At the time of writing, there are two countries that are explorable in the game: Mondstadt and Liyue. Mondstadt is ruled by the god of Anemo (air), and its design is based off of Germany.

Liyue is ruled by the god of Geo (rock), and it’s based off of China. In the game, Liyue Harbour is the bustling centre for commerce and trade, and responsible for the world’s coin currency production and supply.

Immediately, there’s a lot to unpack about the Liyue-China analogy, from the architecture, to the food, to the people. The focus of this article will be on fashion and clothing of the Liyue people, taking you through the history and cultural references of some of the pieces you see in the game.

We’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum!

Historical Fashion Influences in Character Design

Looking at the Liyuean characters, it’s clear that they’re “Asian”— but what elements of their design have contributed to that impression? We’ll walk through some notable characters and point out the features that are rooted in Chinese culture and history.

Zhongli

Zhongli is the Geo god that rules over Liyue, enforcing business contracts and consulting on various projects with his vast knowledge accumulated over centuries. Despite having the ability to make infinite money, he somehow always forgets to bring money to lunches at expensive restaurants. Yep, he’s that friend.

Zhongli’s design contains a lot of patterning. These are references to a set of twelve different patterns known as the Twelve Symbols of Sovereignty (Twelve Ornaments) introduced in the Zhou Dynasty (1050 - 771 B.C.), which were exclusively worn by the

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Official Artwork From Mihoyo

Image from Wikipedia

emperor and high ranking officials.

Each pattern has a symbolic meaning-- for example, the sun (right page, top right) symbolises the source of life and represents enlightenment, and the seaweed (left page, bottom right) represents purity of the emperor’s leadership.

As the god of Liyue, it makes sense for Zhongli to have parts of the Twelve Ornaments. On either side of his robe, he has the dragon (as implied by the scales), which represent the emperor’s imperial power and adaptability. Across his back, he has the symbol of distinction (fu 黻), which doesn’t have a name specifically but is composed of two back-to-back 己’s (己 meaning self), representing the emperor’s ability to distinguish between good and evil, and reflect on himself to ensure he’s doing good.

Over time, the Twelve Ornaments have lost their sacred significance, but the patterns are still present in Chinese styles of clothing today.

Another noteworthy feature of Zhongli’s design is his long ponytail. Long hair is deeply rooted in ancient Chinese history as a symbol of social status, ethnicity, and beliefs. It dates back to Confucius of the Spring and Autumn period (771 - 476 BCE), who said that long hair was a sign of piety and virility; since a person’s hair, skin, and body was given to them by their parents, they should show respect by not damaging it. To cut off someone’s hair was considered worse than sentencing them to death.

As punishment for crimes, law breakers would be ordered to cut their hair. One famous story is that of General Cao Cao from the Three Kingdoms era, who was a staunch enforcer of rules and regulations. One day, he accidentally let his horse into a field of corn and, having violated his own rule of not dealing damage to standing crops, determined that he must also be punished with death. After further persuasion, he agreed to cut his own hair as an equivalent punishment.

Zhongli’s ponytail isn’t completely historically accurate, but his long hair is a nod to the long-held significance of hair in Chinese history.

Xiao

Xiao is one of the remaining yakshas and protectors of Liyue, whose main role is to subdue the evil spirits that have once plagued the nation. At first, he appears as a loner with no interest in crowds or social gatherings. But on closer inspection, he suffers massive negative karma from the evil spirits he slaughters, and isolates himself to protect others from his burden.

The term “yaksha” originates from Hindu and Buddhists texts and was popularised in Chinese folk legends by the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 BC). In these texts, yakshas are benevolent spirits who were protectors of the god. As a yaksha who can manipulate air, Xiao’s character is better encapsulated by the Chinese term 捷疾鬼 jieji gui (“swift and nimble spirit”), which extends the concept of yaksha to cover his physical agility and warrior abilities.

When observing Xiao’s design, one of his notable features is the mask he carries alongside with him. This mask is inspired by Chinese exorcism masks which were a part of Nuo folk religion. Nuo opera performances used these masks to ward off evil spirits and disasters and bring good luck. For the same purpose, Xiao wears his mask when he’s dealing with the evil spirits of Liyue. Xiao’s outfit additionally incorporates Buddhist objects such as the vajra around his neck and the censer at his waist in order to ward off evil spirits. A censer, also known as an incense burner, is typically used in religious circumstances. The vajra

Left: Traditional Nuo Mask Right: Xiao’s Mask

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is a ritual weapon that symbolizes the properties of a thunderbolt and a diamond. It has origins in Indian mythology, where it’s the strongest weapon of the universe. Though these objects can be seen as accessories to ward off spirits for Xiao, they still hold great significance.

Qiqi

Qiqi is a small child resurrected by the gods that works in the local pharmacy of Liyue Harbour. She has a tendency to forget things, but will do anything for coconut milk. Same, girl, same. Qiqi’s design is based off of the jiangshi ( ) or Chinese Hopping Zombie: the key markers of which are the round mandarin hat, the talisman on her forehead, and her red eyes. She also exhibits Taoist influences through the yin-yang tassels at the end of her robes. The origins of the jiangshi are traced back to the Ming/Qing dynasty, where migratory workers who passed away far from their ancestral homes would have to be transported back for a proper burial, otherwise their spirits would become homesick. So families would hire Taoist necromancers (known as corpse drivers) to bring the corpse to ‘life’ and hop them back to their homeland. Qiqi also wears black decorative shoes, known as (shuo xie, longevity shoes), which are worn by the corpse in their burial. As a person nears death, it’s tradition that they make their own longevity shoes, which are often made of silk and have various tassels and decorations to symbolise a happy afterlife.

Official Artwork From Mihoyo

Image from Photobucket

Xiangling

Xiangling is the adventurous head chef of a renowned restaurant in Liyue Harbour. She suffers from poor public speaking abilities, but she’s always experimenting with new ingredients that others would balk at using, which gives her a culinary edge. Xiangling brings in yet another subculture of Chinese fashion: country bumpkin. The dark brown of her shirt is reminiscent of the dudou ( , literal: belly wrap), an undergarment dating back to the Ming Dynasty. The dudou was effectively a square cloth made of cotton or silk which only covered the chest and stomach, and was tied around the neck and back by thin strings. It functioned as the modern day bra, and was patterned and embroidered to thematically suit the person wearing it, but is most commonly red in colour. Wearing it as outerwear is generally disapproved of by the elder generations, and seen as a stereotype of rural dwellers, but has occasionally been introduced into modern fashion.

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Chongyun

Chongyun is an exorcist that was born with excessive yang (positive) energy, which repels ghosts and spirits, thus making him very effective in his job.

Together with the yin-yang symbols in his exorcist rituals, he embodies another Taoist element in the form of the symbols on his belt, which are part of the Eight Trigrams (ba gua, ). These symbols are used in Taoist cosmology and represent the fundamental principles of reality, with the broken lines meaning yin and unbroken lines meaning yang. Particularly, the three symbols on Chongyun’s attire, from top to bottom, mean thunder (☳ Zhen), water (☵ Kan) and mountain (☶ Gen).

Chongyun’s overall style of clothing is reminiscent of that in the Yuan Dynasty (the Mongol Dynasty). During this time period, men’s casual clothing was similar to that of the Han people and consisted of a jacket with short sleeves worn over it. Though Chongyun’s design is a more modernized version (a hoodie with short sleeves), it shares similarities with the original designs.

Ningguang

Ningguang is a wealthy businesswoman who leads the government of Liyue. She has a keen eye for new wealth opportunities and carries a Chinese opium pipe with her. The opium pipe was introduced in the late Qing dynasty, and was initially mostly consumed by women of high social status because of how expensive they were. Ningguang is one of several female Liyuean characters to wear a hair stick. Hair sticks in China date back as far as possibly the Neolithic era, where they were given as part of a coming of age ceremony. Since then, their social role in Chinese society has expanded to the point where you can visually identify a woman’s marital status and rank based on her hair stick alone. The Buyao ( , Step Shake) is a particular kind of hair stick that was popularised in the Han Dynasty and was worn exclusively by noblewomen in the royal family. They were made of gold, silver, jade, or other precious minerals as a sign of status. As the name suggests, buyaos have components which shake and move when you walk, and require a ladylike gait to successfully wear.

Genshin’s impact on the Proliferation of Asian Culture

As a high profile game, Genshin Impact has an immense opportunity to expose its players to different cultures and their intricacies. From this article on Liyuean fashion alone, you can see a lot of research into culture and history went into their character design. For people unfamiliar with these aspects of Chinese culture, it builds familiarity and sparks curiosity in Asian culture. For ABCs, this is a chance to engage deeper with our own background through the lens of a game we enjoy.

Genshin isn’t a historically accurate game, nor is it designed to be, but in keeping the little details of the countries they represent, the game preserves a small part of a culture that has existed for thousands of years.

Image from Capital Museum

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