Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game
Resident Evil 5 is a zombie game made by Capcom featuring a White American protagonist and set in Africa. This paper argues that approaching this as a Japanese game reveals aspects of a Japanese racial and colonial social imaginary that are missed if this context of production is ignored. In terms o...
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| Format: | Article |
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SAGE
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48877/ |
| _version_ | 1848797869028409344 |
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| author | Martin, Paul |
| author_facet | Martin, Paul |
| author_sort | Martin, Paul |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Resident Evil 5 is a zombie game made by Capcom featuring a White American protagonist and set in Africa. This paper argues that approaching this as a Japanese game reveals aspects of a Japanese racial and colonial social imaginary that are missed if this context of production is ignored. In terms of race, the game presents hybrid racial subjectivities that can be related to Japanese perspectives of Blackness and Whiteness where these terms are two poles of difference and identity through which an essentialised Japanese identity is constructed in what Iwabuchi calls “strategic hybridism” (Iwabuchi, 2002). In terms of colonialism, the game echoes structures of Japanese colonialism through which Japanese colonialism is obliquely memorialised and a “normal” Japanese global subjectivity can be performed. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:10:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-48877 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:10:43Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | SAGE |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-488772020-05-04T17:36:07Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48877/ Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game Martin, Paul Resident Evil 5 is a zombie game made by Capcom featuring a White American protagonist and set in Africa. This paper argues that approaching this as a Japanese game reveals aspects of a Japanese racial and colonial social imaginary that are missed if this context of production is ignored. In terms of race, the game presents hybrid racial subjectivities that can be related to Japanese perspectives of Blackness and Whiteness where these terms are two poles of difference and identity through which an essentialised Japanese identity is constructed in what Iwabuchi calls “strategic hybridism” (Iwabuchi, 2002). In terms of colonialism, the game echoes structures of Japanese colonialism through which Japanese colonialism is obliquely memorialised and a “normal” Japanese global subjectivity can be performed. SAGE 2016-02-22 Article PeerReviewed Martin, Paul (2016) Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game. Games and Culture . ISSN 1555-4139 race postcolonialism Japan memory Resident Evil normal country avatar social imaginary implied player hybridism http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1555412016631648 doi:10.1177/1555412016631648 doi:10.1177/1555412016631648 |
| spellingShingle | race postcolonialism Japan memory Resident Evil normal country avatar social imaginary implied player hybridism Martin, Paul Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game |
| title | Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game |
| title_full | Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game |
| title_fullStr | Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game |
| title_full_unstemmed | Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game |
| title_short | Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game |
| title_sort | race, colonial history and national identity: resident evil 5 as a japanese game |
| topic | race postcolonialism Japan memory Resident Evil normal country avatar social imaginary implied player hybridism |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48877/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48877/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48877/ |