Alleged Use of Photographs in 'Black Myth Wukong' Game Sparks Controversy

I might have caused a stir. The reading count has exceeded 100,000 and there are quite a lot of comments.

At 10:30 PM on August 22nd, the blogger Nan Shanchan posted a moment in his WeChat Moments with this sentence and a sweating emoji, along with a picture he posted on Weibo at 4:01 PM that day. The text part is not much, just one sentence: 'Hello Wukong. When using the picture of Brother Monkey, you didn't inform me. Please contact me if you see this, thank you.'

What really triggered tens of thousands of comments and 465,000 likes from netizens is the content in the picture attached by the blogger: In the original painting of the game 'Black Myth: Wukong', there are two statues. Both the perspective of the picture and the overall lighting effect have a high similarity to the photos he took.

We got in touch with the blogger, named Hou Nanshan. He used to be engaged in image design-related work and spent his spare time studying and researching ancient Buddhist statues, learning from the famous Buddhist statue appraisal expert and Zen painter Jin Shen. He said that there are two Buddhist statue sculptures in the game's original painting that are very similar to two photos from his published book 'Unique in the World: Shanxi - Iron Buddha Temple Statues in Gaoping'. The photos were all taken in 2017.

Regarding the content in the game, he said: 'No one from Black Myth Wukong has contacted me yet.' He believes: 'The original painting of the game should be my picture.' 'If you want to use it for commercial purposes, you need to inform me.'

We contacted the production team of 'Black Myth: Wukong', Game Science, about this matter. As of the time of writing, we have not received a response.

The following is the dialogue with Hou Nanshan, and some parts have been streamlined:

'If you want to use it for commercial purposes, you need to inform me.'

Q: Since you posted on Weibo, has anyone from 'Black Myth: Wukong' officially contacted you?

A: No.

Q: Have you consulted a lawyer? Is this situation considered plagiarism by 'Black Myth: Wukong' now?

A: I have consulted. The lawyer told me that normally it should be plagiarism. But to file a lawsuit, that is to send a lawyer's letter. Maybe only then will they reply to you, otherwise they may not reply. And the lawyer's fee for this lawsuit is also quite a lot, and maybe even if you win, you won't get much.

Q: How to determine that the picture in this game is the photo you took?

A: The pictures I took will be shared. For example, for those who bought the book, because the angle and the clarity of the picture in the book are definitely not as clear as the original picture. If the original picture looks good, then I think that if you bought my book, if you need the original picture, I can give you the original picture and you can look at it. But you don't have the commercial use right. If you want to use it for commercial purposes, I also wrote on it that if you want to use it for commercial purposes, you need to inform me and contact me. So the picture in the game is not taken from the picture in my book, but is made with the original picture, because many people have my original picture.

Q: When was this book published?

A: The first edition of my book was published in 2019, and the photos were taken in 2017. After taking the photos, because I didn't think about publishing a book before, because I have a public WeChat account, after I posted it on the public account, many people said can this be published? Then I said I would publish it, and I sorted it out and published it. After communicating with the Cultural Relics Bureau of Gaoping City, they served as the supporting unit and the book was published. After it was published, it was sold out immediately. After it was sold out, the Sanjin Publishing House started to talk to me and added the Jade Emperor Temple and published another edition, and then reprinted another edition the next year.

'I haven't thought about the appeal about this matter yet.'

Q: When interviewing 'Black Myth: Wukong' online, it was said that these Buddhist statues are all officially sampled and modeled with official cooperation with local cultural tourism. Could this be that they sampled it themselves?

A: There is an interviewed video of the art director of 'Black Myth: Wukong', Yang Qi. He said that it's a pity that he didn't sample at the Iron Buddha Temple. He just took a few flat pictures. There is also his video. Because the Iron Buddha Temple is rather crowded and complicated, it's too difficult to do 3D scanning. It's not that you can scan if you want to. And maybe because the management of the Iron Buddha Temple is rather strict, they are also afraid of damaging it inside, which they can't afford. So in Yang Qi's video, he made it very clear that he didn't do scanning, just took some photos. And that is what he said. He said that he saw this book when he was in school. But I don't know whose book he was talking about. My book should be the earliest one published. And before my book, there was an exhibition of the Iron Buddha Temple at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, but the angle of this picture definitely doesn't exist in their exhibition. So these two pictures should be my pictures.

Q: What is your appeal or what do you hope for this current matter?

A: I haven't thought about it yet. I hope that the game company of Black Myth Wukong can contact me and have further communication.