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How a Chinese game scholar connects ancient texts with modern play_我的网站

杨澜访谈录

一 |

Liu Mengfei at Beijing's Homoludens Archive Photo: Courtesy of Liu Mengfei
Inside Beijing's Homoludens Archive, shelves are filled with books, game consoles, game cartridges and other materials tracing the history of video games. For Liu Mengfei, the archive's director and chair of the academic committee of the Gamification Professional Committee, these collections preserve more than the evolution of games, they also capture the cultural memories of a generation.
A PhD in history from Tsinghua University, Liu has spent more than a decade studying the social impact of games, the role of games in history and digital humanities. Throughout her career, she has continued to explore the relationship between games and people: Why do humans create games? And how do games shape culture and society?
Books, meanwhile, have been an important gateway through which Liu has come to understand the world of games.
"The real value of a book lies not simply in what it tells you, but in whether it can change the way you understand the world and people," Liu told the Global Times.
Books meet games

In 2007, being an undergraduate history student, Liu wrote her thesis on the links between ancient Celtic religion and modern digital games.
To study original sources such as The Gallic War by Roman author Julius Caesar, she taught herself Latin. As her research extended into modern games, she also began reading the rulebooks of Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game.
"From historical texts to game rulebooks, these reading experiences seemed to belong to completely different worlds, but they gradually led me to realize that games are not simply entertainment products. They also contain history, culture and the relationships between people and society," she said.
Later, Homo Ludens, by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, further transformed the way she understood games. The book gives a theory that humans are not only Homo sapiens, or "rational beings," but also Homo ludens, or "playing beings," and that games are deeply intertwined with human culture, from language and art to religious rituals and sports.
The book had a profound influence on her. It points out that the foundations of human society — language, civilization, religious rituals, sports and art, are all connected to play and games, because we are Homo ludens, "the playing human."
"The idea prompted me to view games from a broader perspective," Liu said. "Games are not an appendage outside human civilization, but are deeply connected to cultural creation and social life."
"It also showed me that games and game-based thinking could extend into broader fields, including education and technology," she added.
She later read other works on game studies, including Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture, Half-Real and Rules of Play Game Design Fundamentals. Play Between Worlds, in particular, opened up another possibility for game studies at a time when discussions about "internet addiction" were prevalent in China.
"Games are not simply a form of entertainment that needs to be restricted or criticize;. they can also serve as important media for storytelling, cultural expression and exploring relationships," she said.
These reading experiences gradually shifted Liu's focus from simply asking "What are games?" to a deeper question: What can games bring to people?
Beyond time and technology
Periodically, Liu still returns to Homo Ludens in her free time, finding new insights from the book as society changes. In the age of artificial intelligence, she has revisited one of its fundamental questions: As AI becomes increasingly capable of handling repetitive tasks and surpasses humans in efficiency, what does it mean to be human?
"As AI takes over more monotonous and repetitive work, the time freed up should be devoted to creativity, experience and human relationships," she said. "The time we gain should actually be used to become better at 'playing humans.'"
For Liu, this also requires people to maintain their ability to think, imagine and reflect -- abilities that cannot be gained through simply receiving information. This has also prompted her to reconsider the meaning of reading.
In an era when AI can quickly summarize an entire book, Liu believes people still need to read the original works in full, because the value of reading lies in more than simply acquiring knowledge and conclusions.
"Reading a book is like a form of cultivation. You have to immerse yourself in it, patiently allow the author to take you on a journey, and find your own island along the way," she said.
For Liu, the value of reading is not limited to books on paper. As media evolve, so do the ways people encounter stories and understand culture. Some digital works are now becoming new vehicles for reading.
Chinese-developed games such as Genshin Impact contain hundreds of thousands, and even more than a million Chinese characters of text, while Black Myth: Wukong uses its "Journal" system to tell the stories of individual monsters through written entries.
"Digital games are carrying forward traditions inherited from literature and film, becoming new gateways, through which young people can enter the worlds of literature, history and traditional culture," she said.
"An important reason why Black Myth: Wukong has succeeded in communicating Chinese culture is that it does not simply insert traditional cultural symbols into a game. Instead, it draws on the original Journey to the West, contemporary works inspired by the classic, as well as the game's own rules and interactions, allowing players to develop a new understanding of traditional culture through their actions," she noted.
For Liu, the forms of reading may change, but the desire to understand the world and discover oneself will not. From books to digital worlds, what matters is not only what people read or play, but how they think, create and find meaning through these experiences.
。这几年大家看明星旅行照，早就不太吃“精修大片”那一套了。真正能让人停下来多看两眼的，反而是那种带着烟火气的瞬间：蹲在路边吃一口热乎的，手里拎着打包袋，衣服也不刻意，像是真的在过日子。杨幂这组贵阳旅行照，火得就挺直接。不是因为摆得多高级，恰恰是因为太松弛了，松弛到让很多人一下子想起，自己上一次认真出去走走，好像还是很久以前的事。她这次去贵阳，不是只停在景点门口拍照。照片里能看出，她是真的在逛老巷、尝小吃、钻进老馆子吃酸汤鱼，甚至还被拍到排队买糯米饭。那种感觉很真实，不像“来过”，更像“住进了这座城市一小会儿”。

二 | 这种真实感，往往比十张精修图更容易让人心动。

三 | 因为大家平时太累了，工作累，生活也累，看到别人不用端着地旅行，会很自然地想：原来出去走走，也可以这么轻。贵阳这波热度，起得一点都不意外。 #杨幂晒贵阳旅行照#把贵阳旅游搜索量直接带涨了300%，阳明祠、青岩古镇这些地方热度也跟着上来了。更明显的是，贵阳文旅局很快就顺势推出了“杨幂同款Citywalk路线”，把她打卡过的丝娃娃老店、酸汤鱼馆这些地方都串了起来。这个思路挺实在，不是光喊口号，而是把明星的停留，直接变成游客能照着走的一条线。

四 | 有意思的是，她这次去的地方不只是大家熟悉的热门点。除了阳明祠、万峰林，她还去了花溪夜郎谷、肇兴侗寨这些更有地方味道的地方。据本地导游说，她还挺喜欢错峰出行，清晨或者傍晚去走，避开人挤人的时候。这个细节很关键。因为很多人不是不想旅行，是一想到景点人山人海、拍照排队、吃饭排队，就先累了。

五 | 错峰这件事，看着小，其实特别能影响体验。我个人感觉，现在大家喜欢看的，已经不只是“明星去了哪里”，而是“她怎么去的”。杨幂这组照片最打动人的地方，就是那些不太完美的边角：沾着辣椒的指尖、皱了的纸巾、路边随手一坐的状态。它没有把旅行拍成广告，也没有把城市拍成样板间。反而让贵阳的老街、夜市、食物、石板路，都变得更像生活本身。这种传播，比单纯打景点牌更有后劲。因为它不是在卖“看点”，而是在卖一种生活方式。年轻人为什么会去模仿“贵阳松弛感穿搭”，为什么会去搜同款路线，说到底，还是因为大家都想在紧绷的日子里，找到一点能喘口气的地方。贵阳这次刚好接住了这种情绪。更值得说的是，照片里那条青石板路，其实是电台街。

六 | 这是一条贵阳仅存的明清老街，因为照片曝光后，后面还启动了保护性修缮。这个变化挺让人感慨的。

七 | 很多时候，一座城市真正被看见，不一定是因为它有多“新”，反而是因为它那些老的、安静的、原本不太起眼的地方，被人认真看了一眼。所以这次事件最有价值的，不只是热搜和订单。它更像是在提醒大家：现在的文旅传播，早就不是单靠景点海报就能打动人了。真实、松弛、生活化，才更容易让人愿意去。贵阳借着这波热度，把“避暑之都”和“烟火气”两个标签一起立住了；而杨幂这组旅行照，也把明星旅行的审美，往更自然的方向往前推了一步。说到底，大家真正想看的，从来不是一座城市被包装得多漂亮。