Game app slammed as racist

A mobile game called “Dirty Chinese Restaurant” has recently been slammed by politicians and members of the Chinese community who are calling on mobile platforms to boycott it.

The game, developed by a Toronto-based company called Big-O-Tree Games, has yet to be released. The company says they are “still working towards a beta”.

In the role of Wong Fu, a restaurateur who inherited the “dirty” establishment from his brother Wang Fu, players are encouraged to run the business as dishonestly as they want by doing such things as scavenging from dumpsters, killing dogs and cats to serve to customers, insulting patrons, sabotaging the competition, and paying the staff in degradingly frugal minimum wages, according to the company.

Wong Fu also needs to evade tax officers or immigration officers who come to deport some of his employees, according to the two trailers posed on YouTube in Oct 2016. The trailers have generated nearly 68,000 views.

“Our game is mainly satire and comedy influenced by the classic politically incorrect shows we grew up watching — South Park, All in the Family,” George Lambropoulos, the company’s spokesman, told China Daily in an email.

“Our game in no way is meant to be an accurate representation of Chinese culture,” he added.

The company’s tagline on its website reads: “Because being politically correct is so... boring.”

Congresswoman Grace Meng of New York was among the first to criticize the game. She said the game “epitomizes racism against Asian Americans”.

“This game uses every negative and demeaning stereotype that I have ever come across as a Chinese American,” said Meng in a Facebook post last week. “I urge Google, Apple, Android, and any other platform to not carry the game Dirty Chinese Restaurant, or any other game that glorifies in hurting any community.”

Canadian politicians, including Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, also denounced the game, saying “this type of racism has no place in Ontario”.

Karlin Chan, a community activist in New York, said the game was dangerous as it was available to children once it was released. “What will children learn from playing it?” he wrote on Twitter. “We must speak out collectively against hate.”

According to the company, the game will be available from the App Store on Google Play.

But some people believe the game won’t be accepted in App Store, as Apple’s app review guidelines say apps should not contain offensive or insensitive content, including material that discriminates against race.