Orientalism, 'Cyberpunk 2077,' and Yellow Peril in Science Fiction

<p>2020 has been one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory, but at least, in a few days, the most anticipated game of the year will come out. That game, <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i>, has already drawn both praise and criticism, but one of those criticisms is of how it handles different cultures—especially Asian culture, which is inextricably tied to the cyberpunk genre.</p>

<p>2020年是近年来最动荡的一年之一，但至少在几天后，本年度最受期待的游戏将问世。这款游戏《赛博朋克2077》(Cyberpunk 2077)既有好评也有批评，其中一个批评是关于它如何处理不同的文化，特别是与赛博朋克类型密不可分的亚洲文化。</p>

<p>The Origins of the Cyberpunk Genre</p>

<p>赛博朋克风格的起源</p>

<p>The origins of the cyberpunk genre involve Western anxieties about the East. <i>Techno-orientalism</i> is the use of Asian aesthetics in cyberpunk, futuristic, and dystopian settings. There is a long and deep Euro-American tradition of using Asian symbolism such as neon signs with Japanese and Chinese lettering to express those feelings about what the future holds, including globalization and the threat of a takeover from the East.</p>

<p>赛博朋克流派的起源与西方对东方的焦虑有关。东方科技主义是在赛博朋克、未来主义和反乌托邦背景中使用亚洲美学。欧美对亚洲象征符号的使用有着悠久而深刻的传统，比如用写着日文和汉字的霓虹灯来表达对未来的看法，包括全球化和东方世界掌权的威胁。</p>

<p>Dylan Yeats, the author of <a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.amazon.com/Techno-Orientalism-Imagining-Speculative-Fiction-American/dp/0813570638"><i>Home Is Where the War Is: Techno-Orientalist Militarism on the Homefront</i></a>, told me that he believes there are two strains of techno-orientalism, the European “Imperialist” strain and the American “Settler” strain.</p>

<p>《家在哪里，战争在哪里》(Home Is Where the War: Techno-Orientalist Militarism on the Homefront)一书的作者迪伦·叶芝(Dylan Yeats)告诉我，他认为有两种东方科技主义，欧洲的“帝国主义”学派和美国的“定居者”学派。</p>

<p>The former can be traced back to World War II, when powers like the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands were looking at the end of their globe-spanning empires, while simultaneously seeing the expansion of imperialism in countries like Japan. They feared they would be outpaced in both technological and political clout, with Asian nations flipping the table and turning the previously colonized into the colonizers.</p>

<p>前者可以追溯到第二次世界大战，当时英国、法国和荷兰等大国眼看着他们横跨全球的帝国的终结，同时也目睹了帝国主义在日本等国的扩张。他们担心自己在技术和政治影响力方面会被超越，亚洲国家会翻盘，把以前的殖民国家变成殖民国家。</p>

<p>As for the latter, the Settler strain is about the promise of land and democracy to transform culture and the world. As America expanded on land in order to accumulate wealth, Asian immigrants ended up being targeted as cheap labor without any concern for their basic rights. These immigrants had sacrificed everything they had in their homelands to seek a better life in America, and thus they were willing to work for meager wages.</p>

<p>至于后者，定居者流派是关于土地和民主改变文化和世界的承诺。随着美国扩张国土以积累财富，亚洲移民最终被视为廉价劳动力，根本没人关心他们的基本权利。这些移民为了在美国寻求更好的生活，牺牲了他们在祖国拥有的一切，因此他们愿意工作以获取微薄的薪水。</p>

<p>Chinese immigrants, in particular, were exploited to build technology like railroads during the 19th century. As a result, they were treated as an underclass and targeted as symbols of fear surrounding job displacement: low wages, dirty living conditions, and greed.</p>

<p>尤其是中国移民，他们在19世纪被拼命剥削，干着建造铁路等脏活。结果，他们被视为下层阶级，被当作失业恐惧的象征:低工资、肮脏的生活条件和贪婪。</p>

<p>“I think this context is very important. Because to me, cyberpunk as a literary movement and genre and style emerges from this deeper history,” Yeats explained. “The impact of World War II cannot be overstated. I think many Americans today don't realize just how scary the Japanese were, or how scary it was that the Americans developed globe-threatening atomic weapons to defeat them.”</p>

<p>“我认为这种背景非常重要。因为对我来说，赛博朋克作为一种文学运动，流派和风格都是从这种更深层次的历史中产生的，”叶芝解释道。“第二次世界大战的影再怎么强调也不夸张。我认为今天很多美国人并没有意识到日本人曾经有多么可怕，或者美国人为了打败日本人而开发出威胁全球的原子武器有多么可怕。”</p>

<p>The aspect that the cyberpunk genre gets right is that technological advancement doesn't necessarily lead to a higher quality of life, so long as transnational capitalism continues to exploit and redistribute resources unequally in society. The antagonist in the genre is usually a multinational corporation, which is why many villains in cyberpunk stories aren't lone actors or criminal masterminds, but massive conglomerates that want to dominate everything they can. If there is an individual standing in the way, it's typically the CEO of the otherwise faceless corporation. But then again, the company is too big to fail, and another CEO can always be appointed by its shareholders.</p>

<p>赛博朋克题材的正确之处就在于，只要跨国资本主义继续不平等地开采和重新分配社会资源，技术进步并不一定会带来更高的生活质量。这就是为什么赛博朋克故事中的许多反派不是独行侠或犯罪分子，而是想要控制一切的大型企业集团。如果有人挡道，那通常是一家不知名公司的首席执行官。但话又说回来，这家公司太大了，不能倒闭，而且股东总是可以任命另一位首席执行官。</p>

<p>However, the themes of class and social inequality “often become caught up in fixating upon a foreign, racialized other, whose sudden capitalist dominance is both uncanny and extra-terrifying,” said Takeo Rivera, assistant professor of english at Boston University.</p>

<p>然而，阶级和社会不平等的主题“常常被卷入对一个外来的、种族化的他者的关注中，他者突然的资本主义统治是不可思议的，而且异乎寻常的可怕，”波士顿大学英语助理教授Takeo Rivera说。</p>

<p>Rivera noted how the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit, Michigan, was a result of fears that Japan's then booming economy meant that country would soon take over American industries such as auto and real estate. Chin, a Chinese man, was murdered by two disgruntled white male auto workers who assumed he was Japanese. He added, “Techno-oriental fears are mapped as easily upon Japanese people as the Japanese cars: mass reproducible, intrusive, and overwhelming the more ‘human' white man.”</p>

<p>里维拉指出，1982年发生在密歇根州底特律市的陈果仁(Vincent Chin)谋杀案，是由于人们担心当时蓬勃发展的日本经济意味着日本将很快接管美国的汽车和房地产等行业。<br>中国男子Chin被两名心怀不满的白人男性汽车工人杀害，他们以为他是日本人。他补充说，“东方科技型的恐惧很容易就像日本汽车一样被描绘在日本人身上:大量产、具有侵入性，并压倒了更‘人类’的白人。”</p>

<p>Why Cyberpunk Is So Often Set in California</p>

<p>为什么赛博朋克总是以加州为背景</p>

<p>When you look at <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i>'s setting, setting, Night City, in the various trailers, the Asians that you see or meet are still “foreign” or the “other,” resting outside of some typical, white male norm. Yeats said that Night City reminds him of <i>Blade Runner</i>, in that there is a real sense of a multicultural future. These stereotypical Asian decorative elements like neon signage with Asian lettering <i>could</i> signal anxieties of a globalized future where some identities have taken a back seat to others. But at the same time, they <i>could</i> just be there for purely aesthetic reasons, as they are commonly seen in modern city neighborhoods like Chinatown or Little Tokyo.</p>

<p>当你看《赛博朋克2077》的背景，在各种预告片中，《夜城》的背景，你看到或遇到的亚洲人仍然是“外国的”或“其他的”，不同于一些典型的白人男性形象。叶芝说，夜城让他想起了《银翼杀手》，因为它给人一种真正意义上的多元文化的未来。这些千篇一律的亚洲装饰元素，比如带有亚洲字母的霓虹灯招牌，可能表明了对全球化未来的焦虑，在这种未来，一些身份已经退居其次。但与此同时，它们也可能只是纯粹出于审美原因，因为它们在现代城市社区很常见，比如唐人街或小东京。</p>

<p>Similarly, it's no surprise that Night City is located in California. Depiction of the cyberpunk genre involves a globalized world, class conflict, the collapse of effective democracy (subsumed by global corporate interests), and the double-edged sword of technology. It doesn't look like the future that farmers and 1950's suburban families fantasized about. “It is no accident that California–the site of so much hope but also fear about the future–is the location for these movies and games,” said Yeats.</p>

<p>同样，“夜城”位于加州也就不足为奇了。赛博朋克风格涉及全球化的世界，阶级冲突，有效民主的崩溃(被全球企业利益所包容)，以及科技的双刃剑。这看起来并不像农民和20世纪50年代郊区家庭所幻想的未来。叶芝说:“加利福尼亚——一个充满希望但又对未来充满恐惧的地方——成为这些电影和游戏的举办地并非偶然。”</p>

<p>Whit Pow, assistant professor of queer and transgender media studies at New York University, explained that the state contains incredibly rich, multigenerational communities of Asian people.</p>

<p>纽约大学的酷儿和跨性别媒体研究助理教授惠特·波(Whit Pow)解释说，该州拥有令人难以置信的多代亚洲人社区。</p>

<p>They noted that the Asian America portrayed in <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i> is in stark contrast to its real-life counterpart. The Asian American communities in the game are still defined by their foreignness, unlike real-world multi-ethnic Asian communities with long histories and roots in the United States today.</p>

<p>他们指出，《赛博朋克2077》中描绘的亚裔美国人与现实生活中的亚裔美国人形成了鲜明对比。游戏中的亚裔美国人社区仍然是由他们的外来特性所定义的，而不像现实世界中拥有悠久历史和根源于美国的多种族亚洲社区。</p>

<p>Whit explained, “I think it's important, when looking at the ways that Asian-ness is produced and referenced through objects like those in the clips of <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i>, to think about the way that this game is teaching us to think about race, and how these objects are presenting us with a particular view of Asian-ness that is spectacular, that is foreign.”</p>

<p>惠特解释说,“我认为这很重要,当看着亚裔特性通过像赛博朋克2077里面出现的物品而产生和引用，这个游戏在引导我们思考种族，以及这些物体如何为我们带来了一个特定视图的亚洲特性,这很少见。”</p>

<p>You can see this particular foreignness in the Asian “Tyger Claws” gang in <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i>, complete with generic “Asian” accents and old-school katanas. While these are the usual orientalist clichés that we see in cyberpunk settings, there's a certain insidiousness to them. Yeats mused that these clichés could be rooted in the idea that the presence of Asians is somehow polluting white America.</p>

<p>你可以在《赛博朋克2077》中的亚洲“虎爪”帮派中看到这种特殊的异国情调，包括通用的“亚洲”口音和老式的武士刀。虽然这些是我们在赛博朋克背景中看到的常见的东方主义陈词滥调，但它们在不断加剧。叶芝沉思道，这些陈词滥调可能根植于这样一种观念，即亚洲人的存在在某种程度上正在污染美国白人。</p>

<p>Organized crime groups and familial gangs like the Triads and Yakuza don't exactly follow the social norms and rules Western audiences would find familiar (although they might, if they studied the history of organized crime in Europe and America).</p>

<p>有组织的犯罪团伙和像三合会和山口组这样的家族帮派并不完全遵循西方观众熟悉的社会规范和规则(尽管如果他们研究过欧洲和美国的有组织犯罪的历史，他们可能会遵守)。</p>

<p>Writing members of the Tyger Claws with these clichés reinforces the notion of otherness. However, Yeats explained, “I think there is also an almost unconscious recognition that discrimination and racism perpetuate fantasy depictions of gang culture, so that like African American and Italian American versions, the gangs somehow symbolize a failure of the American Dream to be accessible to all.”</p>

<p>用这些陈词滥调来写作虎爪帮成员强化了差异性。然而，叶芝解释说:“我认为，还有一种几乎无意识的认识是，歧视和种族主义使帮派文化的幻想描绘永驻，因此，就像非裔美国人和意大利裔美国人的版本一样，帮派在某种程度上象征着让所有人都能实现的美国梦的失败。”</p>

<p>Exoticizing the Other Comes to Corporations</p>

<p>企业会将其外来化</p>

<p>Otherness can also be perpetuated through the racialization of multinational corporations. One such organization in <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i> is Arasaka, a worldwide megacorporation that has influence in many industries, such as corporate security, banking, and manufacturing. During World War II, Arasaka was a major manufacturer for Japan's Imperial Army. After watching GameSpot's <a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www."><mark>you*tube</mark>.com/watch?v=oA-v5grpYEs&amp;t=4s"&gt;overview video of the corporation</a>, which detailed the rise of Arasaka from its founding as a manufacturing company in 1915 to becoming the multinational powerhouse in the present, Rivera noted that there are certainly Yellow Perilist tropes, such as the representation of a hyper-traditionalist Japanese culture paired with high technology and corporate deviousness.</p>

<p>跨国公司的种族化也会使这种差异性永存。《赛博朋克2077》中的一个这样的组织是Arasaka，这是一个世界性的大型公司，在许多行业都有影响力，如公司安全、银行和制造业。在第二次世界大战期间，Arasaka是日本皇军的主要制造商。看<a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.">you*tube.com/watch?v=oA-v5grpYEs&amp;t=4s"&gt;overview video of the corporation</a>,详细Arasaka作为成立于1915年的一个制造公司崛起成为跨国巨头，里韦拉说,当然有黄祸这样的比喻,比如高度传统的日本文化搭配高技术和企业迂回。</p>

<p>However, as <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i> hasn't been released yet, he wanted to clarify that the jury is still out on whether the portrayal of Arasaka is as repulsive as other “foreign” companies we see in other cyberpunk media, such as Hanka Robotics in 2017's live-action adaptation of <i>Ghost in the Shell</i>. Additionally, Rivera said that it's possible for a piece of work to contain techno-orientalism that also reworks and contests it. He referenced Neal Stephenson's sci-fi novel <i>Snow Crash</i> as an example. It contained these themes, but also had a sympathetic Asian and Black, or “Blasian,” protagonist.</p>

<p>然而，由于《赛博朋克2077》尚未发布，他想澄清的是，对于Arasaka的形象是否像我们在其他赛博朋克媒体上看到的其他“外国”公司一样令人反感，比如2017年真人版《攻壳机动队》(Ghost in the Shell)中的Hanka Robotics。此外，里韦拉说，一件作品可以包含技术东方主义，也可以对其进行再加工和反驳。他以Neal Stephenson的科幻小说《雪崩》为例。它包含了这些主题，但也有一个同情亚洲和黑人，或“白亚裔”的主角。</p>

<p>Moreover, it's currently unknown whether Arasaka is inherently more “evil” than, for example, Militech, an American military manufacturing company in <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i>. But one way to depict Arasaka in a bad light is by racializing and exoticizing corporate threats, by framing injustice in nationalist terms as opposed to class-based ones, like “good honest American companies versus devious Asian ones” rather than “international capitalists versus international workers”.</p>

<p>此外，目前尚不清楚Arasaka是否比《赛博朋克2077》中的美国军事制造公司Militech更“邪恶”。但是，用民族主义的语言来构建不公正，而不是以阶级为基础的语言，比如“诚实善良的美国公司对抗狡猾的亚洲公司”，而不是“国际资本家对抗国际工人”，这是对Arasaka不利的描述。</p>

<p>Rivera again cited the 1980s as an example, when the rise of Japanese automakers instilled anxieties about an Eastern takeover of the West. The American auto industry had been dominant at that point and was largely responsible for the growth of the country's middle class through the post-World War II era.</p>

<p>里韦拉再次以20世纪80年代为例，当时日本汽车制造商的崛起让人们对东方超越西方产生了焦虑。美国的汽车工业在当时处于主导地位，并且在二战后对美国中产阶级的增长起了很大的作用。</p>

<p>However, Japanese innovation, speed, and affordability made them an easy scapegoat for Americans who wanted someone to blame instead of examining the systematic issues of their own business practices. The problem wasn't conceptualized in terms of workers versus exploitative companies, but as an exotic “other”: the Japanese companies intruding on the marketplace that Americans thought was theirs.</p>

<p>然而，日本的创新、速度和经济负担能力使他们很容易成为美国人的替罪羊，美国人想要指责某人，而不是审视他们自己商业实践的系统性问题。这个问题的概念并不是工人与剥削性公司的对立，而是一种外来的“其他”:日本公司侵入了美国人认为属于他们的市场。</p>

<p>A good example of this dynamic can be found in the 2011 game <i>Deus Ex: Human Revolution</i>. </p>

<p>2011年的《杀出重围:人类革命》便是一个很好的例子。</p>

<p>In the paper, he wrote about how a Chinese company in the game, Tai Yong Medical, was juxtaposed against American ones. “American companies were portrayed as comparatively more sympathetic, less perverse, more visionary,” he explained, “while the Chinese company was grotesque, freakish, hyper-exploitative, and imitative; racism obscured and undermined what would otherwise be a very productive critique of transnational capitalist excess.”</p>

<p>在这篇文章中，他描述了中国公司泰永医疗(Tai Yong Medical)是如何与美国公司进行对比的。“相比之下，美国公司被描绘得更有同情心，不那么乖僻，更有远见，”他解释道，“而中国公司则怪诞、古怪、过度剥削和模仿;种族主义掩盖和破坏了对跨国资本主义过度的富有成效的批评。”</p>

<p>Yeats shared similar sentiments. He mentioned that one of the most sophisticated and important elements of the cyberpunk genre in general was the conflation between military and private corporations. “This is very much a part of <i>Blade Runner</i> and <i>Robocop</i>, when fears of ‘Japanese' corporations buying American towns were high, but of course that was just a radicalized stand-in for Reagan's privatization of many government functions, fears about emerging technology exacerbating economic inequality, and a loss of democratic control,” he added.</p>

<p>叶芝也有类似的感受。他提到，赛博朋克最复杂和重要的元素之一，总体上是军事和私人公司的合并。”这是《银翼杀手》和《机器战警》的一部分,当“日本”的担忧公司购买美国城镇高,当然这只是一个激进的替身为里根的许多**职能的私有化,新兴技术的担忧加剧经济不平等,民主控制的损失,”他补充道。</p>

<p>Finally, You, the Main Character</p>

<p>最后，你，主角</p>

<p>Finally, one aspect that reinforces the notion of Asian characters in the game as the “other” may actually be the most inconspicuous: the main character, V. The game's extensive character customization is impressive. However, even if you create the most Asian-looking person you can through the customization tools, there are elements of racialization that are inescapable.</p>

<p>最后，在游戏中强化亚洲角色作为“其他”角色的一个方面可能是最不明显的:主角v。游戏中广泛的角色定制令人印象深刻。然而，即使你能够通过定制工具创造出最具亚洲特色的人物，游戏中仍存在不可避免的种族化元素。</p>

<p>V is by default, a white person. So players' interactions with the various characters and the world are going to be through the lens of one. Rivera said that <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i>'s character creator reminded him of <i>Mass Effect</i>'s.</p>

<p>V默认是白人。所以玩家与各种角色和世界的互动都是通过一个镜头进行的。Rivera说赛博朋克2077的角色创造者让他想起了《质量效应》。</p>

<p>In <i>Mass Effect</i>, you can customize the gender and appearance of the protagonist, Commander Shepard, and make him or her look as Asian as you want. However, <i>Mass Effect 3</i> introduced the cyber-ninja villain Kai Leng. Throughout the game, Commander Shepard fights Kai Leng several times. In these particular moments, Shepard occupies a space of normative whiteness, regardless of what his or her racial features are.</p>

<p>在《质量效应》中，你可以自定义主角Commander Shepard的性别和外观，让他或她看起来像你想要的亚洲人。然而，《质量效应3》引入了网络忍者反派Kai Leng。<br>在整个游戏中，Commander Shepard多次与Kai Leng战斗。<br>在这些特殊的时刻，Shepard占据了一个规范的白人空间，不管他或她的种族特征是什么。</p>

<p>Shepard is scripted the same in those situations, reading as a very culturally white liberal Canadian, no matter how nonwhite the player made him or her look. Contrast that with Kai Leng, who on the other hand is stoic and unfeeling, which unfortunately are stereotypes of Asians.</p>

<p>Shepard在这些场景中的表现也是一样的，不管玩家让他或她看起来多么非白人，他都是一个文化上非常自由的加拿大白人。与凯冷形成对比的是，凯冷另一方面是坚忍和无情的，不幸的是，这是亚洲人的刻板印象。</p>

<p>Rivera added, “Even when it isn't as overt, or otherwise virulently racist, you can still find traces of racialization in characterization, narrative, and procedural rhetoric, even in the absence of phenotype.” Also, the fact that Kai Leng was written to fight with a katana in a sci-fi universe filled with advanced space travel technology, laser guns, and biotic superpowers is problematic at best.</p>

<p>里韦拉补充说，“即使它不那么公开，或者没有那么严重的种族主义，你仍然可以在人物塑造、叙事和程序修辞中发现种族化的痕迹，即使在表现型的缺失。此外，《开冷》是为了在一个充满了先进太空旅行技术、激光枪和生物超能力的科幻世界里与武士搏斗，这个事实往好里说也是有问题的。</p>

<p>Regardless of all of this, it is possible to embrace the elements of cyberpunk that resonate with audiences without resorting to orientalist tropes. The sequel to <i>Deus Ex: Human Revolution</i>, 2016's <i>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided</i>, was a big step in the right direction. It was considerably less techno-orientalist, given that the game's central location was Prague, in the Czech Republic.</p>

<p>抛开这一切不谈，不诉诸东方主义修辞，也可以融入赛博朋克元素，与观众产生共鸣。《杀出重围:人类革命》的续集，即2016年的《杀出重围:人类分裂》便是朝着正确方向迈出的一大步。<br>考虑到游戏的中心地点是捷克共和国的布拉格，这款游戏的技术导向色彩要少得多。</p>

<p>In addition to including an Asian character devoid of those tropes on protagonist Adam Jensen's team, <i>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided</i> was still unmistakably cyberpunk in tone and identity, despite the relative absence of Asian iconography and stereotypes.</p>

<p>《杀出重围:人类分裂》除了包含了一个缺乏主角Adam Jensen团队中那些隐喻的亚洲角色外，在基调和身份上仍然明显带有赛博朋克风格，尽管亚洲形象和刻板印象相对缺失。</p>

<p>Similar to myself, Rivera is hesitant to write off <i>Cyberpunk 2077</i> entirely without having actually played it first. He continued, “While there do seem to be familiar techno-orientalist tropes, which are particularly problematic and even dangerous in an era marked by anti-Asian COVID panic, I do wonder how complexly it will deal with race throughout the rest of the game.”</p>

<p>和我一样，Rivera也在犹豫是否在没有真正玩过《赛博朋克2077》之前就彻底否定它。他继续说道:“虽然游戏中似乎存在一些熟悉的技术东方主义修辞，在一个以反亚裔COVID恐慌为标志的时代，这些修辞尤其有问题，甚至是危险的，但我确实想知道它在整个游戏中处理种族问题的复杂程度。”</p>

<p>“The fact that the original tabletop game was developed by a man of color, after all, does make me cautiously optimistic.”</p>

<p>“事实上，最初的桌面游戏是由有色人种开发的，这让我保持谨慎的乐观态度。”</p>