Chinese gamers decorate Animal Crossing with propaganda and Covid-19 references

Portraits of Communist leaders, Covid-19 quarantine signs and ancient Chinese clothing are showing up in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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A player put up portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Mao Zedong, Jiang Zemin, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in his house. These types of portraits used to be more common in China. (Picture: Feichenpan/Weibo)

Josh Ye

Published: 5:00am, 24 Mar 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t officially available in China, but tons of Chinese gamers are already playing the game and showing off their islands online. And these islands come with some interesting accoutrements: Portraits of Communist leaders, Covid-19 quarantine signs and ancient Chinese clothing are some of the interesting things you can expect to see.

Nintendo just released the latest entry in the iconic Animal Crossing franchise this month. Within two days of its launch, New Horizons was already the bestselling physical game on Amazon this year and the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game ever in the UK.

Animal Crossing is a family-friendly life sim that’s been around since 2001. The game encourages players to decorate their own islands and invite others to visit. But New Horizons has a new feature that’s producing some interesting results. Players quickly discovered a workaround to convert any image into pixel art in the game, which is why you might see the face of Mao Zedong if you visit certain islands.

Gamers are now actively sharing screenshots of the game on Weibo to show off the various decorations they put up on their islands. Many of these reference iconic Chinese trappings.

One player put up portraits of Communist idols such as Mao Zedong, Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin alongside the flags of China and the Soviet Union. It’s unclear whether it was intended as a joke or a sincere homage, but it’s not something that would be out of place in some Chinese homes. Idolizing Communist leaders has been a common phenomenon in China, but mostly among older generations these days.