Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality

Chinese companies are making the most of their IPs by incorporating traditional culture into games, and bringing virtual characters into the real world, Shi Jing and Xing Yi report in Shanghai.

In a bid to attract more players from around the world as well as showcase China's culture, more and more Chinese game companies are incorporating traditional cultural elements into their creations and diversifying their income streams by making the most out of their intellectual property rights.

Take for instance the Cantonese opera Fighting for the Great Tang Empire. The highly popular production, which has been staged more than a hundred times across China since it was created in 2015, was not produced by a traditional opera troupe, but by Xishanju, a game company from Zhuhai, Guangdong province. The opera is based on the company's flagship game JX Online.