The Wukong “No Feminist Propaganda, No Talk About COVID-19” email is real

A document regarding the coverage for the upcoming Black Myth: Wukong has been reported floating around the internet making very strange demands on creators in order to receive a code. It seemed almost too crazy to be true, but now I’ve been able to confirm with a US-based creator, I believe it’s actually legit.

A Google document attached to the email said the following about coverage:

DO’s

IS NOT

• DO NOT insult other influencers or players
• DO NOT use offensive language/humor
• DO NOT include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishism and other content that incites negative speech
• DO NOT use trigger words like “quarantine” or “isolation” or “COVID-19”
• DO NOT discuss content related to China’s game industry, policies, opinions, news, etc.

This email was not sent to journalists as some of them said it is fake based on this, but it was only for creators. These instructions may also not have reached all creators, or were simply sent by requests for codes from those creators. No NDA is required to accept the code.

I confirmed this by talking to the creator I trust and seeing an actual screen share of the email and a long back and forth that followed that ended with a link to this blacklist document, along with an actual Steam code. It seems there is other streamers are starting to confirm received the same email with working codes for the game. It’s unclear how many creators this was sent to.

There were some oddities about the Google document that were pointed out before this, including a Gmail address that created it, but the original email contacts weren’t sent by Gmail. Having seen the full exchange, not shown here due to the parties not wishing to be identified, which resulted in an actual code for redemption, this is not just a random document created and circulated online.

As for… why does this exist at all, this is a game made by a Chinese studio where COVID-19 is obviously a touchy subject. As for why this would be mentioned when talking about Wukong, that is extremely unclear.

The other phrase that stands out, “feminist propaganda,” may have gotten there due to reference indicated Wukong’s studio had a “history of sexism” in a widely circulated story, and they didn’t want it discussed, assuming they think it’s what feminist propaganda entails. This could also include a theme like “they made the female characters too sexual” or something like that.

There’s actually a crowd that looks at the banned list and says it’s fine and obvious that the developers need to “focus on the game”. Although it’s easy to imagine what the same group might say if a Western developer sent out a document telling streamers not to discuss “right-wing propaganda” or something similar.

It’s a very strange situation. I contacted Game Science and have not heard back. This is not something that affected the review scores as no journalists were sent this email. And it’s not clear why almost any of these topics might have made it into the creators’ coverage in the first place.

I will update this article as more information comes in.

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