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Recently, a video of a school principal berating students for performing to content from popular game “Genshin Impact” has emerged on social media.

网友投稿
近日，南通大学附属中学校庆上，学生们表演彩排《原神》中著名的妮露《花神之舞》，却被校长批评“这是日本文化，我们要的是积极向上的中国的文化，这不是日本人的舞台”。
视频中可以看见表演的同学们沮丧的神情。
据悉，这是一款中国游戏中以印度和波斯神话为背景创作的角色和舞蹈。… pic.twitter.com/G5uukHu4tb

— 李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) May 30, 2023

It was first posted on, Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, before being shared on other social media platforms like Twitter and Weibo.

“Genshin Impact” is an open world, action role-playing game (RPG) developed by Chinese video game developing firm miHoYo, rebranded as HoYoverse.

Aside from "Genshin Impact", the company is best known for its games such as "Tears of Themis", "Honkai Impact 3rd", and "Honkai: Star Rail".

What happened?

Students of Nantong University Affiliated Middle School were apparently rehearsing for their school’s 10th year anniversary, using one of the game character’s cutscenes, Nilou’s “Dance of Sabzeruz”, as their backdrop and music.

Nilou is a character from the in-game region "Sumeru", which appears to be based on Middle Eastern and South Asian culture.

The students were then subjected to a scolding by their school’s principal, who claimed that the game’s contents were part of “Japanese culture”.

What did the principal say?

In the video, the school principal could be first heard saying that the background’s image and music were “all Japanese culture”.

“That is absolutely unacceptable,” he said to some students seated on stage.

“You are allowed to like it privately. At such public settings, at a school anniversary celebration, (we) do not accept this kind of culture, this kind of background music, this kind of background images.”

Some were also heard saying in the background, "Genshin is Japanese."

The camera then zoomed into the students on stage, who looked visibly dejected by the principal’s comments.

He continued:

“You are not allowed to use this kind of music or image. What we want is a motivated China culture, this is not a stage for the Japanese people, understand?”

In another video uploaded on Chinese video-sharing website bilibili, the principal also criticised the students’ performance and called out the student who was responsible for organising it.

Chinese nationalism?

The incident comes amidst what seemed to be a growing trend of Chinese nationalism.

Earlier, China cracked down on a comedian for making "inappropriate" jokes of its military, while Nigel Ng ("Uncle Roger") was banned on Weibo for joking about the country during his gig.

The school principal’s comments have also sparked debate on Weibo.

One questioned miHoYo’s naming choice of the game, noting that the term “Genshin” is romanised Japanese, while others questioned the double standards involved in the case.

Related:

Top images via YouTube/Genshin Impact & Twitter/@whyyoutouzhele