UpdateRace row over Australian computer game called 'Whore of the Orient'
New game branded “racially insensitive”
An Australian-made computer game that was branded “racially insensitive” and “disgraceful” by members of the country's Chinese community has also angered people in China. Some furious netizens in the mainland have even called for a boycott of all Australian games.
Well, that is, if the Chinese ever pay for their games - as one astute blogger noted.
The game, aiming for a 2015 release, was viewed as an attempt to "disgrace Chinese culture, history and traditions," according to critic Jieh-Yung Lo, a 28-year-old councillor in the City of Monash, a suburban area of Melbourne.
Shanghai earned the name “Whore of the Orient” during the 18th and early 19th century when the city was rife with brothels and drug dens, according to some historical accounts. However, the city was also referred to as the “Paris of the East,” among some other more graceful nicknames.
But Jieh-Yung Lo, a gamer himself, was relentless in his criticism. Lo compared use of the word “Orient” for Asians with use of the N-word for African-Americans in the United States.