China’s Miao ethnic group dates back over 5,000 years to the legendary Yan and Huang era, and has become invaluable to the world. As technology develops, the magnificent scenery, culture, and cultural heritage of Miao villages are being more widely appreciated through audiovisual media, attracting a large number of domestic and international audiences. However, in this process of modernization, Miao villages are also facing many challenges, such as a lack of cultural heritage inheritors and difficulties in developing infrastructure. Finding solutions to these problems has become a ubiquitous issue for Miao villages and society.

       NetEase Games is dedicated to helping Miao villages and is working to address the issue. In recent years, NetEase Games has cooperated with Miao communities and local inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to empower local culture with digital technology, offering material support to help develop and modernize Miao villages and Miao culture.

 

I. Empowerment With Digital Technology: NetEase Games Helps Promote Miao Cultural Heritage

       The cultural heritage of Miao villages is not only a crucial part of Miao culture but also an artistic and cultural treasure. In recent years, due in part to overpopulation and waning interest among younger generations, intangible cultural heritage has received less attention and, in some cases, a lack of inheritors to take up the craft. Promoting and passing on such traditions has been difficult to address, posing a challenge for cultural preservation. NetEase Games has leveraged its own resources to work with Miao villages to overcome obstacles for developing intangible cultural heritage.

　　In 2023, as part of a program to inherit traditional crafts, NetEase's traditional Chinese game Fantasy Westward Journey collaborated with an inheritor of the Miao drum dance, A Duo, to release the song “Ruo Ba Ni” as a theme for the Shenmu Forest sect, which incorporated elements of the Miao drum dance into the arrangement and music video. The drum dance culture in Miao villages in the western Hunan province has a long history, which is not only important for studying Miao culture, but also a symbol of unity, creativity, and kinship. “Ruo Ba Ni” reinterprets the traditional drum dance into new ethnic music, innovating and developing ways to pass on and present the drum dance. Empowered by the game’s digital technology, the Miao drum dance has found a new avenue into the modern world.

Fantasy Westward Journey: The Drum Dance Video “Ruo Ba Ni”

　　In 2023, NetEase's mobile game Eggy Party announced that it would launch the event "Moon Setting in Miao" during the National Day holiday. The event drew inspiration from the folk literature—such as "Yang’asha" "Twelve Ancient Songs" and "Butterfly Mother"— from the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture and nearby regions. The game cooperated with intangible cultural heritage inheritors Wu Shuigen and Zhang Tingting to create digital versions of traditional crafts, such as bean dyeing, silver jewelry, bamboo weaving, and lanterns, and integrated them into the game setting to raise player awareness on cultural preservation. Eggy Party also leveraged its own user-generated content ecosystem by getting players to create maps based on their understanding and reflections on the Miao cultural heritage, which breathed new life into it while providing educational entertainment.

Eggy Party: "Moon Setting in Miao" Event

 

II. Trailblazing: NetEase Games Promotes Miao Industrialization and Transformation

        A challenge with cultural protection and inheritance is the relative dearth of opportunities to integrate traditional culture into market trends. NetEase Games has leveraged its industrial clout, using games as an innovative method for Miao culture modernization by combining intangible heritage and games.

　　In 2020, NetEase's fantasy game Fantasy Westward Journey II collaborated with three intangible cultural heritage apprentices to create the first haute couture ‘hanfu’ (traditional Chinese attire) "Gilded Dream". Its design and stitching were done by Zhou Shuangxi, an inheritor of the Nanjing brocade. Its embroidery work came from the inheritor of Su embroidery, Yang Xue. The design and creation of the hairpins came from the inheritor of Miao silver jewelry, Li Zhengyun. This collaboration of three major intangible cultural heritage projects breathed new life into modern innovation and development, while also providing new ideas for Miao village cultural and creative industries.

Fantasy Westward Journey II: Three Intangible Cultural Heritage Works in "Gilded Dream"

　　In 2022, NetEase's martial arts game A Dream of Jianghu collaborated with the well-known domestic handcraft brand "Wang's Handmade" to launch the “Dragon Boat Festival Miao Embroidery Gift Box”. The gift box adopts various classic embroidery techniques such as satin embroidery, coiled thread embroidery, and contour embroidery and engages rural Miao embroidery craftsmen to participate in production. This not only publicizes Miao embroidery, it also promotes Miao embroidery artisan employment in southwestern Miao villages and stimulates local industry.

A Dream of Jianghu x "Wang's Handmade"

 

III. NetEase Games Aids in Miao Village Construction

       Beyond the challenges of cultural inheritance and industrial transformation, Miao villages in southwestern areas also face relatively underdeveloped material conditions. Infrastructure construction has become an important way to combat poverty in Miao villages and a key aspect of rural revitalization. NetEase Games has worked to actively engage in community service activities, providing donations and assistance to Miao villages on several occasions.

　　In 2022, the project team of NetEase's game New Ghost, along with players, raised 150,000 yuan to donate a school road for children in Miao villages. Mimalong Village is a Miao village located on the southwestern border of China with a mountainous and rugged topography. Natural disasters such as mudslides threaten road safety, and it was particularly difficult to reach the local kindergarten. However, due to the lack of collective economic resources for the village committee and village groups, repairs for the road to the kindergarten had been delayed. Upon learning about the situation in Mimalong Village, the project team of New Ghost, in collaboration with the China Siyuan Foundation and the Yangfan Project, initiated a fundraiser. Players could pay the exclusive 1-yuan link for the event, which would grant them the chance to enter a draw for the server-wide mount "Liu Guang Fu Meng" and donate to the road repairs. Once completed, the road will be named "Empowering Dreams" to carry on the hope of empowering children's dreams with the energy of public welfare.

New Ghost: Fundraiser

　　As Miao villages develop, there have been ongoing challenges when it comes to cultural inheritance, cultural industry transformations, and infrastructure construction. NetEase Games has mobilized its role in the game industry to participate in community service, digitally transforming intangible cultural heritage, promoting local cultural industrialization, and helping with Miao village infrastructure. By using games for the greater good, difficulties like those with the development of Miao villages can be resolved, and the Miao culture will continue to flourish.