On August 6th, the Chinese horror game “阴阳锅” (meaning “Yin and Yang Hot Pot”) revealed that August 19th would be its release date. Surprisingly, instead of discussing how scary the game may be, people were sharing memes about hot pot food habits in no time.
Yin and yang hot pot is another name for the “Double Flavor Hot Pot”, a popular style of the Sichuan hot pot. The pot will be split into two parts: one with a spicy broth called “The red pot” and the other one with a non-spicy broth called “The white pot”. The double flavor hot pot is the perfect solution to let both lovers and haters of spicy food have a hot pot meal together.
A picture of the “Double Flavor Hot Pot” shows the pot itself looks like the “Yin and yang”
The game story is based on folk legends from Sichuan/Chongqing: do not eat the dishes in the white pot during the Zhongyuan Festival (the Ghost Festival in Asia), or the ghost will find you. The legends believe the white is for the ghosts and the red is for the living. The story starts when the protagonist eats from the white pot and is spotted by ghosts.
However, many people find the story more funny than scary. There is a food habit meme in China that says Sichuan hot pot enthusiasts believe the red-only pot is the authentic Sichuan hot pot. They treat the Double Flavor hot pot in a similar way to how many treat pineapple on pizza; it’s that kind of joke. Thus, many commented on the game that “these guys really try hard to convince people to try only the red pot”, or “they even made a horror game to scare those who stick with white pot”.
Screenshots from the game trailer’s comments show that people are making Sichuan/Chongqing hot pot jokes.
Source: Weibo