On Dec 27th, Mihoyo released a special program for the upcoming Genshin Impact version 2.4. Yun Jin, a new character in 2.4, shocked many players with her traditional opera singing and made some players feel they had “been caught off guard.”
Yun Jin’s backstory is as a famous opera figure in Liyue (a fictional country in the game). Thus, her art design is strongly inspired by traditional Chinese opera. When she activates the “Elemental Skill” in the game, the iconic flags from Chinese opera appear on Yun Jin’s back. Meanwhile, her idle animation is a “spear flourish” based on a combination of opera and martial arts moves.
Yun Jin will also have an additional voice artist for the opera singing part. The voice acting will be performed by Yang Yang (杨扬), a professional Chinese opera actress who has the title of “National First-Class Actress.” Chinese opera has many special breathing and vocal techniques and often comes with a high-pitched voice. It is nearly impossible to perform or even mimic such techniques without years of hard training.
The additional VA will also be available in EN and JP language settings.
The exceptional tone is one of the key charms of Chinese opera, while that same characteristic surprised some players. It is an unfamiliar vocal technique that we do not hear from today's popular music. The pronunciation of the Chinese words is hard to recognize, even for a native speaker. Most young people in China are not fond of Chinese opera either.
On Baidu Trend, it shows the average search volume of “Beijing Opera” is only 6000. Or about 1/10th of the volume of “Genshin Impact,” or 1/4th of “TV Series.” Some think that traditional opera may fade away eventually since most prefer more fast-paced entertainment.
Regardless of the feeling towards Chinese opera, many players appreciate the efforts Mihoyo made to bring a traditional cultural element into the game. Hopefully, it might make more people willing to learn about Chinese opera.