Earlier today, Rocket News 24, a Japanese news site, uploaded photos of an arcade machine spotted in Myanmar. The arcade machine at first glance looks pretty much like every cheap arcade game out there—however, upon closer inspection, one can see that it's horribly racist. Towards the Japanese.
The arcade machine in question, PK918, isn't a Myanmar made machine at all, but a Chinese import. The game is made in Guangdong province by Dragonwin Animation. How it ended up in Myanmar, no one knows. Dragonwin Animation wasn't available for comment by post time.
PK918 is a simple shooting game—think the duck game at the local fair. Put in a coin, pick up the gun and aim at the targets. Westerners would immediately recognize the cartoony caricatures of Japanese soldiers, but to Asians, these caricatures are far more sinister.
The title of the game, PK918, is in itself a clue as to the meaning behind the game. The letters PK, meaning Player Kill, and the numbers 918 equate to a slogan of sorts in China. 918 in Chinese represents the date September 18, 1931. The day of the Manchurian Invasion, a day that lives in infamy in China.
Some Chinese whom I've spoken to about PK918 say that the machine isn't so terrible, it's just a means to vent out some frustration against the Japanese. These people I spoke to are in their mid 20s. A friend of mine who works for Sina explained it as such: "During this time when domestically produced media is so anti-Japan, it's only natural for it to flow down to the area of video games."
Now PK918 is by no means the first game of its kind in China. In fact, there is a whole genre of games in China called "Red Games" that glorify the Chinese (mostly the communists) and vilify the invading Japanese. There have also been arcade machines that have subject matter. Most recently Red Games have also popped up on mobile devices. These Red Games, to repeat what was written previously, are mostly flash and no substance; they are anti-Japanese to draw attention.
【ショック】ミャンマーのゲーセンに日本人を撃ち殺すシューティングゲームがあった [Rocket News 24]
(Top photo: Rocketnews24)
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