"Animal Crossing: New Horizons": the game in which the Hong Kong people demonstrate virtually

Text by: RFI Follow

While confinement explodes the sale of video games, young Hong Kong people have set their sights on Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But they quickly diverted this most harmless game for political ends.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Hong Kong, Florence de Changy

The sky is blue, the sea too. Everything is cute and nice on the islands of Animal Crossing : New Horizons. Released on Nintendo Switch on March 20, it proposes to pitch its tent on a deserted and paradisiac island populated by adorable animals, which become guides and friends to arrange its island as it is understood.

But young Hong Kongers, deprived of demonstrations and rallies because of Covid-19 for several months, saw in this game the opportunity to continue to demonstrate in virtual. They began by dressing their avatar in black from head to toe and wearing a construction helmet and a gas mask like a real protester.

Besides the decor, most of the activities have also been diverted. Butterfly nets or axes are used to tap portraits of Carrie Lam, the chief executive, or Chinese President Xi Jinping. Because in this new interactive version, players can import their own images into it. 

This is how #hongkong ppl spend our time during coronavirus lockdown - villain hitting in #animalcrossing, the villain is #CarrieLam, the worst governor in #hongkong history. # AnimalCrossingNewHorizons # StandWithHK pic.twitter.com/K5AbOTl9tD

But this impertinence has frightened in mainland China where the game has disappeared from online sales platforms, no doubt for fear that this taste of the Hong Kongers for the revolt, even virtual, will spread to China. 

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Hong Kong
• China
• New technologies
• Video games