Female Representation in Chinese Otome Games: Comparative Research on Three Famous Games from 2017 to 2021

Otome games is a kind of love simulation role-playing games, which are originated in Japan.This genre first became widely popular throughout China in 2017 when Love and Producer was released by Papergames.Gender representation in otome games could have potential influence on female players, such as impact on their attitudes towards appearance and female role in gender relationship.This research does comparative research on female representation of the heroines in Love and Producer (2017), Tears of Themis ( 2020) and Light and Night (2021), which are three most popular Chinese otome games in recent years.This could help both the players and manufacturers to understand the construction of female characters in relation to their gender implication.The research finds that although female representation in Chinese otome games has improved a lot, there is still some gender stereotypes.There is an improvement on the representation of female characters in recent years regarding the increasing female images in academic and work fields.All three heroines are portrayed as well-educated white collars with their dream jobs, and the latter two games emphasize more on their occupational representation.This may because women engage more in the labor market and fight for their financial independence in China in the recent decades.Furthermore, it shows a growing trend of diverse female images.However, the overall style of their appearance and dressing tends to be sweet and innocent, which reflects traditional gender norms in patriarchal society that women are better to be sweet and obedient.Finally, the three heroines are most attractive for their nice and kind and lacks other personal traits and most of their personality are constructed simply through labeling.