The hashtag #boycottgenshinimpact is currently trending on Twitter, at least partially due to questionable depictions of race in Chinese free-to-play RPGs. The hashtag (which together with other hashtags including #dobettermihoyo and #boycottgenshin has nearly 100,000 tweets) began as a conversation about various criticisms of Genshin Impact's racial portrayal, but recently the various discussions have become has devolved into an incoherent mess.

It is not clear what sparked the trending hashtag, but one of the central issues involved a post by Twitter user venluvr, who shared a fragment of a video created by MiHoYo late last year that toured its offices in Shanghai, China. In that video, an artist is shown working on one of the main enemies of the phantom impact, called hiritur, while referencing what appears to be a Native American dancing.

Although the video is only a few seconds long, it has sparked controversy over the possibility that "Phantom Impact" may allow real-world minorities to influence the design of fantasy races. The hirihuur are humanoid creatures, one of the main enemy types players will fight throughout the game, and are portrayed in the story as a kind of indigenous tribe of the Teivat. They wear stereotypical tribal clothing, perform tribal dances and rituals, and are often led by a hirichur shaman who uses magic; in Genshin Impact's story and dialogue, hirichur are evil (or evil-controlled, depending on how you interpret their complex lore ), unintelligent, and uneducated. Simply put, the hirichur are monsters and appear to be at least partially inspired by real-world indigenous peoples. This is a problem that echoes criticisms of how various fantasy franchises, such as Dungeons & Dragons, portray certain races, such as orcs.

"Our culture is not something that Mihoyo can just take and use. 'It's not okay, it's not funny, and it's really disappointing.' A lot of us are."

However, as the hashtag began to grow, more and more players began to express their dissatisfaction with various aspects and treatment of race in Mihoyo, with two characters, Xinyan and Kaeya, at the center of these discussions as players debated whether their portrayal was racially insensitive Xinyan has noticeably darker skin than most of the Genshin roster and has an entire storyline that emphasizes how scary she is to other characters. Some players have noted the association between Xinyan's dark skin and the negative stereotype of black people as intimidating. Kaeya, on the other hand, also has dark skin and is referred to as "exotic" in the in-game text.

There was also a lot of back-and-forth about an adult NPC named Ulfr who, in a few lines of dialogue, admits to being in love with another character, Flora, who is clearly a child. In the closed beta, Flora was a fully grown woman; for some reason MiHoYo seems to have made Flora a girl and overlooked the dialogue referring to her older description.

Given how difficult it is to have a deep discussion about such issues on social media, especially when it is happening in the form of a trending hashtag, the #boycottgenshinimpact discussion is, at this point, an insult, a meme, and a phantom It's down to the character's sexy fan art. And since many of these concerns deal with race, they naturally attract a very vocal crowd that is unwilling to discuss them in good faith.

Coupled with the loosely defined lore and stories of Genuine Impact, it is difficult to find clear answers. In the case of Xinyan, for example, other players have pointed out that she is considered scary not because of her skin color, but because she is the punk rocker equivalent of a phantom impact. Some players also argue that describing Kaeya as "exotic" is a mistranslation from the original Chinese version, and rather refers to her being an immigrant from outside the Teivat continent.

All of this is complicated because the answers and rationale are, in many ways, based on small details found in the game. Right now, one of the top posts on the Genshin Impact subreddit claims that "#BoycottMihoYo is so stupid." The post has already received over 1,800 comments, many of which support the claim and backlash that MihoYo is insensitive in her portrayal of the various races in the game.

Many of these claims, particularly with regard to hiriture, are based on the belief that players are wrong to judge hiriture negatively because the story of the phantom impact is still ongoing and potential story developments could exonerate hiriture of being evil based on the following. Others argue that hiriture is simply a clone of other iconic monsters, such as the bokoblins of The Legend of Zelda. None of them, however, address the fact that a small aspect of the hiriture is clearly indigenous-inspired and reinforces the negative racial stereotypes that its community faces.

For now, any meaningful discussion seems to be overshadowed by hashtag-specific confusion as defensive fans mobilize to defend Mihoyo. But it is also another example of how fantasy is rarely divorced from reality, especially when it comes to depictions of race and culture.

We invite MiHoYo to comment on this story and to provide more insight into the design and inspiration of hilichurls.