PLAY(IN)SHANGHAI - A documentary about playing in China

In France, when we talk about video games in China, we tend to focus on either gold farmers and bootleg consoles which is kind of sad. So when I started to shoot this video, I wanted to show that the chinese market is way deeper than these just few things. Moreover, we are not very well informed about the chinese indie scene. To put it simply, we just do not have enough information about China.

So my objective with PLAY(IN)SHANGHAI was to bring back some knowledge from China but without my occidental point of view. That is why I contacted Eric who lives in Shanghai and has many interesting things to say about how chinese game designers create chinese success stories, how mainstream game design is and how video games reflects the sociology of China as a society.

To quote a famous french philosopher, Jacques Henriot, games and especially "play" can not be understood by thinking they're the same everywhere. As researchers, we may understand these only through what the players say. So, understanding how Chinese player play can not be understood without directly asking them. That was my ambition when I started to work on this project.

The video is cut into different parts in which we discuss about chinese game design, how mainstream games may be considered as new forms of "opium", how look like the chinese indies and finally about the grey market.

To me, this video is just a start for a larger research about videogaming and playing in China but I still hope you will enjoy it.

Thanks for watching.

Esteban Grine, 2017.

To follow Eric and get in contact or just updates about what is happening in China : https://twitter.com/FatAsianTechie

====== games credits ======

rhythm Doctor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaF2YFhLaok

Songbird Symphony - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa8jQN04rVs

Luna  - The Shadow Dust - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDZFelrVgQo&t=10s

Ying Yang Shi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFefDML3e0&t=26s

Hidden Dragon Legend - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Z_0im8PF4

Shanghai - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujw9y_m41WM&t=994s

====== music credits ======

"Isolated" - Wang Qian (Elecorgan) - Please check her entire work either here https://twitter.com/ElecorganSusie or https://soundcloud.com/elecorgan

"Tears" - Oxthello - https://soundcloud.com/othellohou/tears

"The Girl Next Door" - Tomppabeats - https://tomppabeats.bandcamp.com/track/the-girl-next-door

"Oriental Insomniac" - Hafiz Azman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F8_Oc-rt_A

"Springtime" - J^P^N - https://3333.bandcamp.com/track/springtime

"Lyn" - J^P^N - https://3333.bandcamp.com/track/lyn
 
私は愛に ハイです - YUNG BAE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxD5Z0ClLd8

"Waver" - OK Ikumi - https://soundcloud.com/ok-ikumi/waver

====== video credits ======

中国独立游戏大电影（indiePlay特别篇） http://www.bilibili.com/video/av5618359/

====== Translation ======

French subtitles : Belmont1, Damastès, Esteban Grine, Honeyxilim, JoK, MissMyu_, Rob, Sig, Weis