The American Social Metaphor Of

"Grand Theft Auto V"

Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism

China Threat

The main villains in GTA5 include:

1. Use despicable means to coerce the three protagonists into carrying out missions such as assassination, bank robbery, and secret sabotage to cover up criminal evidence and raise funds for counter-terrorism. FIB corrupt agent Steve (concealing corrupt officials) ;

2. Rich businessman Defan (an oligarchic capitalist who alludes to politics and business)

3. Chinese gangsters.

For a long time, the villains/powers in American video games are mostly German Nazi and Japanese troops, Soviet agents, Russian gangs, terrorists and aliens during World War II. "Red Alert", "007", "Battlefield", "Medal of Honor", "Call of Duty", "Doom", "Halo", "Half-Life", "StarCraft" and other well-known masterpieces are reflected. This feature. This may be because in the real world, Nazi Germany, Japan, and the former Soviet Union are the only countries that have engaged in frontal military confrontation and economic competition with the United States. After the end of the Cold War, America’s economy, technology, and economic strength have become the only superpower in the world, and only aliens can conquer America by force.

Entering the 21st century, the rising China has made significant progress in the economic and technological fields, becoming the world's second largest economy. Under the influence of zero-sum thinking and Cold War thinking, the United States began to regard China as the most powerful competitor. With the help of nationalist sentiments, the "China Threat Theory" quickly took root in the United States, and has gradually become popular in the past two decades. This change has also begun to gradually become prominent in the American cultural field, and has gained popularity in video games. reflect. For example, the best-selling masterpieces "Red Alert 2 The Rise of China" (2008), "Battlefield 4" (2013), and "Fallout 4" (2015) all set China as the main military power.

In this context, GTA 5 regards the Chinese gang as one of the main villains, which can also be said to be in line with mainstream American public opinion and conform to the trend of the times. American companies invest in China, leading to the outflow of industries and profits, which is the focus of GTA5's criticism. For example, in the short film "Invincible Fury Man," the Fury Man warns entrepreneurs to move to China if they don't like American rules. Entrepreneurs reluctantly argued: "Because of the free trade agreement, if the company does not want to go bankrupt, it must move to China"; the short film "Moore Head Attacks Again" predicts that the US manufacturing industry will collapse due to the expansion of labor unions, and entrepreneurs will The factory moved to China; the short film "Mechanical Bubblegum Princess" reminds that Chinese factories are rushing to produce lunch boxes with the cartoon characters; radio news pointed out that Chinese gangs have entered the North American drug market and "outsourced" the American criminal industry. The radio news in the game also pointed out that Chinese gangsters stole cutting-edge weapons and smuggled them out of the country with recycled garbage; the secret weapon stolen by the mercenary company Meliweather may be sold to China by the black market arms dealer; the wealthy businessman Defan will steal it. The limited edition luxury cars grabbed are sold to China.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned "China penetration theory" and "China conspiracy theory" expressed in a subtle way not only exist in best-selling video games such as GTA5, but are also popular in mainstream American literature and film and television works, subtly shaping the American people's attitude toward China. The views of the United States have really affected the US government’s China policy.

In addition, some details of GTA5 have intentionally or unintentionally strengthened the prejudice of Western society towards China and overseas Chinese. For example, during the side mission "Escape from the Paparazzi", the white female star rescued by the player complained: "I think their (Chinese) language is terrible, and those (Chinese) characters all look like tattoos"; Cui Fo and Chinese gang leader Chen Wei deliberately imitated the Chinese voice to provoke him while talking on the phone; in the wealthy area of Los Santos, occasionally I can meet Chinese women who drive luxury cars and speak Mandarin; Chen Wei’s son Chen Tao is a typical rich second-generation son. , Speaking Mandarin, addicted to drugs all day long. These small details create a stereotype that Chinese Americans are rich and unwilling to integrate into American society.

As of 2018, the total Chinese population in the United States is approximately 4.9 million, accounting for 1.49% of the total population. It is a minority among ethnic minorities. The overall educational level and income level of Chinese Americans is higher than that of other ethnic groups, and the crime rate is low, which makes American society form a "model minority" stereotype of Chinese Americans. However, as the Chinese American writer Xie Hanlan pointed out, the label "model minority" did not help Chinese Americans improve their social status and integrate into mainstream American society, but hurt them. First, government officials believe that there is no need to worry about the health or poverty of Asians because they are all rich. On this basis, the American people have formed a second stereotype—Chinese citizens who become American citizens are "foreigners" with ulterior motives. Some Americans firmly believe that Chinese Americans are inextricably linked with China, the main rival of the United States. ,Untrustworthy. For a long time, Chinese Americans have silently endured all kinds of hostility, prejudice and discrimination in American society. Especially in recent years, the situation of Chinese Americans has become even worse in the wave of the confluence of racism and right-wing populism. Regrettably, the gap between China and the Chinese in GTA5 will only reinforce the above-mentioned stereotypes, and will not help the American people understand China and truly understand and accept the Chinese community.

Finale: Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism

At the end of the game, players need to manipulate Mike, Trevor, and Franklin to kill four enemies respectively:

1. FIB agent Steve;

2. African-American gang member Stuiqi;

3. Chinese gang leader Chen Wei;

4. Black-hearted merchant Germany Where. They represent: corrupt officials in the system, villains who sell friends for glory, aliens who endanger the country and social security, deteriorating capitalism and capitalists.

The first three crimes are easy to understand, but in a country like the United States based on capitalist private ownership, how to define the quality of capitalism and capitalists requires a convincing and self-evident explanation. Before killing the ultimate enemy Defan, the concluding statements of the three protagonists responded to this question.

Mike pointed out that Defan is still a practitioner of American capitalism. This is not wrong, but he messed up two things: The first is outsourcing, which means hiring other companies to do shameful activities and paying them. You don’t have enough money, because you are big enough, so you don’t have to follow the rules. The second is to invest overseas profits that should have remained in the United States. Trevor and Franklin immediately seconded, saying that they only want to stay in the United States and "don't want to go anywhere", reflecting the plain patriotism of the American people. After that, the three of them worked together to push the car with Defan in the trunk down the cliff by the sea, the car exploded, and Defan died.

Mike concluded: "Now everyone can go back to normal life... We have no choice... Three flawed, awful, awkward, and totally unfit people continue to be friends." (Or alluding to African Americans , The three social groups of middle and lower-class whites and wealthy whites coexist harmoniously). Trevor responded: "Awesome! So that we can return to the capitalism we used to practice!" Franklin had doubts about this: "X's, I don't know how much better capitalism you are talking about than Defan's." (Or alluding that African Americans are not the beneficiaries of the previous system in the United States).

In general, GTA5 is ideologically more left-wing liberalism, but at the same time, it also hopes to be as neutral as possible and to support some right-wing conservative ideas with reservations. The American core of capitalism cannot be overthrown, but it requires constructive criticism and improvement. The most important thing is to solve the problem of industrial outsourcing and profit outflow. Although the multi-party election system has its shortcomings, it is still the best choice overall. As long as you pick out the bad apples (corrupt politicians) in the basket, you can basically maintain normal operations. Although not perfect, it is acceptable.

When it comes to national interests, GTA5 shows a strong "America First" idea. This idea overrides any internal conflicts in the United States and transcends all race, class, social issues, and political correctness. Perhaps only strong external competitors can activate this idea right now: Russia, the world's second largest military power, and China, the second largest economy. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was unable to challenge the United States. The rising China began to be regarded by the United States as a major opponent threatening its economic interests and national security. Three years after the launch of GTA5, Trump defeated the traditional politician Hillary Hillary and won the 2016 US presidential election. Trump’s policy agenda, which embodies "America first" everywhere and focuses on boosting the US economy, as well as the ensuing US-China trade war and US-EU trade frictions, are in line with the apparent neutrality expressed in GTA5. A unilateralist thought with American interests as the core and Thucydides trap theory as the basis. Looking back, Trump's victory back then cannot but be said to be a manifestation of this mainstream public opinion.

The 2020 new round of the US presidential election is approaching. The positions of Democratic candidate Biden and Republican candidate Trump in the seven key areas are also in line with GTA5's implied "Left and right parties seek common ground while reserving differences, and unite externally." For example, in terms of trade policy, Trump and Biden are basically the same. Trump suppressed Chinese companies, imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, promoted the return of industries, and shouted the new slogan of "America First". Biden put forward the "Made in America" plan, hoping to revitalize the manufacturing industry and reduce dependence on China. At the same time, he held a tough attitude on the issue of importing Chinese steel and protecting intellectual property rights. The two candidates hold opposite positions, basically in secondary areas where the left and right parties in China have been difficult to reach consensus for a long time, such as carbon emissions, illegal immigration, and online social media censorship.

In short, GTA5 not only allows us to get a glimpse of the United States from a special perspective, and to understand the mainstream values and world outlook of this superpower, it can also help us understand the mainstream American view of China. In recent years, the saying "Yiwu mysterious big data predicts the US election" has become popular in the market. For the same reason, we can also jump out of conventional thinking and study American public opinion through best-selling games, think about Sino-US relations in the new era, and deeply understand the game of great powers. The deep logic behind.

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