Art and Culture 126: Techland dev’s adds new Lawan skin for “Dying Light 2” in celebration of Chinese New Year

Here we go again. Turning black characters into Asian characters just to meet new status quo points

For some reason, Techland studios, who created the Dying Light franchise, are celebrating Chinese New Year, as the game is going to allow you to change Rosario Dawson’s character Lawan into an Asian woman. It’s not like this doesn’t sound like Techland is trying to reach the Chinese market, but it’s odd. Techland studio’s “Dying Light 2” wasn’t the most incredible splash in the gaming world, “78% metacritic, 7/10” both from IGN and Steam, respectively. But it was a solid, but rather disjointed tale about the zombie apocalypse that originally took place in Haran Turkey and then in the second game followed a whole new story in New Paris.

What makes this rather unfair, for Rosario Dawson, whose character, Lawan, has a huge character arc, as she’s living in New Paris, trying to kill her ex lover who betrayed her and New Paris. Ms. Dawson has always been an incredibly talented artist, on small and large screen, ranging from Sin City to Clerks 2. Her performance shines above the rest of the cast, and depending on what ending you choose, you can end up with Lawan, too.

(a little bit of reddit humor that makes it all worthwhile)

The affair seems rather disingenuous but also disrespectful to not only Ms. Dawson but the original interpretation just to appease the Chinese audience. Let’s not reminiscence about how the Black Panther poster was changed to not show any black people on it. The industry treats China with kids gloves and does everything they can to appease their market base.

So, why would Techland want the appeal of a Chinese audience that only feels insulting to artistic merit, but with Dying Light’s The Beast set to arrive 2025, but as of February 20^th, 2025, no new release date has been set.

This does resemble what most studios will do in order to find a new audience. It’s rumored that the skin can go back to Ms. Dawson, who originally played Lawan, but this is just emotional fraud on a highly moral level.

It’s not like this isn’t done for money, because if it was about money, then they would stick with Rosario Dawson being Lawan. But the skin is temporary, but the video game industry will cuck to anything China gives out and they don’t care if the original interpretation was good enough.

Yes, there are some incredibly beautiful Asian female characters, including Ada Wong, from Resident Evil 4, but changing the character to match some other ethnicity, without it being a fan modulated character, doesn’t feel right or logical.

But nothing is ever logical when your business is predicated on false advertising and ass kissing to tyrants. Why not give the Chinese government the finger and stick to your interpretation? But Techland won’t ever listen to the fans, and they have no reason publishing video games if they are going to appeal to a tyrannical government that respect their people.