From Individual Expression to Group Events: Dark Narrative Turn of Chinese Youth Groups: Taking Black Myth : Wukong as an example

FAN Tianbo, ZHANG Ben

Industrial & Engineering Design ›› 2026, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (3) : 1-6.

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Industrial & Engineering Design ›› 2026, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (3) : 1-6. DOI: 10.19798/j.cnki.2096-6946.2026.03.001
Design Theory

From Individual Expression to Group Events: Dark Narrative Turn of Chinese Youth Groups: Taking Black Myth : Wukong as an example

  • FAN Tianbo, ZHANG Ben
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Abstract

The existing research mostly focuses on the technological breakthrough and commercial success of' Black Myth · Wukong ', and lacks in-depth interpretation of the narrative turn of the youth group 's ' dark power style ' inspired by it. The purpose of this study is to reveal how the game, as a symptomatic text, has become a cultural practice carrier for youth groups to respond to structural anxiety, and to explore the social and cultural mechanism of youth narrative turn in the post- ' Wukong ' era. Taking Stuart Hall 's " engagement theory " as an analytical tool, this paper takes the game text as a symptomatic specimen of the youth cultural turn, and examines how traditional mythological resources and Western dark aesthetics complete the engagement through visual symbols and narrative strategies. The study found that the narrative turn of youth groups is not a style iteration of the game industry, but a cultural response to structural anxiety. By embezzling the resistance genes of traditional myths and grafting the visual grammar of Western dark aesthetics, the young people construct a ' gray expression ' space with both resistance and compromise between the tension of mainstream discipline and subculture autonomy. The dark writing of national narrative inspired by the game has become a social and cultural issue that needs to be studied and judged.

Key words

Black Myth : Wukong / youth group / dark narrative / cultural resistance / combining theory

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FAN Tianbo, ZHANG Ben. From Individual Expression to Group Events: Dark Narrative Turn of Chinese Youth Groups: Taking Black Myth : Wukong as an example[J]. Industrial & Engineering Design. 2026, 8(3): 1-6 https://doi.org/10.19798/j.cnki.2096-6946.2026.03.001

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