Yun Jin

Yun Jin (Chinese: 云堇; pinyin: Yún Jǐn) is a fictional character in the action role-playing game Genshin Impact developed by miHoYo. The character was officially released in the 2.4 update titled Fleeting Colors in Flight, which was released on January 5, 2022. Yun Jin is portrayed as a successor of the traditional art form "Liyue opera" from the fictional nation of Liyue within the game, and she serves as the head of the local opera troupe, the Yun-Han Opera Troupe, as well as a leading actress. The character's English voice actor is Judy Alice Lee, the Chinese voice actor is He Wenxiao, the Japanese voice actor is Kotori Koiwai, and the Korean voice actor is Sa Moon-young. Yun Jin's dialogue and singing segments in Liyue opera are performed by Yang Yang.
Yun Jin's character prototype is based on a Peking opera performer, with the development team aiming to promote traditional Chinese opera through her character and to generate interest in opera among players. To achieve this, miHoYo decided to retain the voice acting and singing segments performed by Yang Yang in languages other than Chinese. In the game's 2.4 update, a video showcasing Yun Jin performing the Peking opera piece The Divine Damsel of Devastation attracted players from various regions to take interest in Chinese opera. It also inspired a group of first-class performers related to opera and musical instruments to undertake secondary creative works based on The Divine Damsel of Devastation. Mainland Chinese media positively reviewed the character, acknowledging her role in promoting traditional Chinese art. Chen Weijun, Vice Dean of the Institute of Cultural Industry Development at Jinan University, described Yun Jin as "a relatively good case of international cultural dissemination".
In the "Moonchase Festival" event introduced in version 2.1 of Genshin Impact, Yun Jin already appeared as a cameo character in the event introduction animation. Fans had anticipated her debut in the next 2.2 version of the game. On November 22, 2021, miHoYo revealed on Twitter the upcoming new characters Shenhe and Yun Jin along with character illustrations. It was disclosed that Yun Jin would be the second Geo element character in Genshin Impact to use a polearm weapon, with her character based on a Peking opera performer. In December, Yun Jin also appeared in the ending of the video for Genshin Impact nominated for The Game Awards, with the character's official introduction in a preview live stream for the game's 2.4 version. On January 5, 2022, the 2.4 version of Genshin Impact titled Fleeting Colors in Flight was officially launched, and in the new version's animated cutscene, Yun Jin performed a segment of The Divine Damsel of Devastation with Peking opera singing, integrating elements of opera into the game, which attracted widespread attention. Later, on January 14, miHoYo released a dedicated interview program specifically introducing Yun Jin's character design.
The main creator of Genshin Impact, Dou, when sharing the original intention behind Yun Jin's creation, expressed the desire to design an "artist" for Liyue Harbor while constructing it, symbolizing the rich cultural and entertainment life of Liyue Harbor. They looked at traditional Chinese art forms such as "opera" in real life and conceived the character of Yun Jin. Therefore, the development team combined the worldview of Liyue Harbor, blended traditional Chinese opera, and designed the fictional opera "Liyue opera", positioning Yun Jin as a performer. The production team deliberately studied traditional opera for inspiration, hoping to arouse people's interest in traditional culture through reinterpretation of traditional content. When designing Yun Jin, the team focused on opera elements and even specifically sought appropriate opera teachers to voice Yun Jin's singing segments. In terms of character design, Dou stated that Yun Jin is a character with "both a spirit of inheritance and innovation". As a traditional opera worker, Yun Jin is also eager to accept new things to broaden her horizons and has a keen interest in rock music. In the animated cutscene The Divine Damsel of Devastation after Yun Jin finishes singing the original version (神女劈观) based on the regional characteristics of Liyue's "human governance", she continues to sing a new song, combining the experiences of the Traveler (player) and Shenhe and their adventure against an "Oceanic Overlord", reflecting Yun Jin's innovative spirit.
Yun Jin wears a headdress adorned with seven stars, draped in cloud-like shoulders and a battle skirt, incorporating elements of theatrical stage design. Because Yun Jin's attire is everyday wear rather than theatrical costume, the original illustrator, Weiwei, mentioned that when designing Yun Jin, they did not rigidly adhere to the traditional image of a "theater performer". Instead, they drew inspiration from the appearances of Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying, and Liang Hongyu in traditional Chinese opera. Considering Yun Jin's youthful setting and personality, they designed attire that includes theatrical elements but differs in style from the traditional ones. Her attire meanwhile was designed as a half skirt to avoid issues with her 3D character model when animating it.
The 3D model of Yun Jin was completed in 2018, but the final product did not meet expectations. As a result, the original illustrator and modeling team went through a period of iteration and polishing. During this time, the modeling team encountered several technical challenges, which they gradually overcame. They mentioned that the original design did not initially consider the virtual camera within the game, especially regarding Yun Jin's elaborate headwear design, which could lead to some distortion. To address this, the modeling team submitted a request to the tooling team, hoping to develop a tool that could synchronize Maya and the game engine in real-time, allowing them to see the final visual effects of the model in the actual game environment instantly. The successful development of this tool greatly facilitated communication between the original illustrator and the modeling team and accelerated development work.
Yun Jin's character design differs from other characters in Genshin Impact in many ways. The rich accessories posed several challenges for animation design. The unique heavy eye shadow required special attention even for blinking animations. To achieve a richer cartoon rendering effect, the modeling team developed a dynamic facial shadow texture system, making the transition of facial lighting effects appear more natural and stable. Yun Jin's character rendering underwent multiple iterations, including the addition of dynamic self-shadowing, scene dynamic projection, scene lighting sources, and the effect of mist, allowing the character to better blend into the scene. Due to performance limitations on mobile devices, some effects cannot be applied to the mobile version.
Yun Jin's performance animations and skills also reference theatrical culture, such as incorporating acrobatic movements from traditional Chinese opera and martial arts into her spear-dancing performance, derived from her skill "Opening Flourish" (飞云旗阵; 'Flying Clouds Formation') which is inspired by Beijing Opera costumes. Li Xiaoxiong and Shao You, the animation producers of the game, mentioned that to showcase Yun Jin's unique temperament, the animation team extensively studied theatrical culture. They ultimately decided to shape Yun Jin's character using the signature movement "appearance" from traditional Chinese opera. "Appearance" is the movement actors make when entering or leaving the stage. The animation team designed each of Yun Jin's combat animations as a "dramatic performance", incorporating elements like the "Solo Sword Appearance" and "Dual Sword Appearance" into her regular attack animations. They also made detailed adjustments to the Appearance movements and rhythm to suit Yun Jin's girlish temperament. For Yun Jin's elemental skill design, the animation team referenced the "spin" movement commonly seen in opera and martial arts. Through Yun Jin's idle animation design, the animation team aimed to showcase her character's personality. They drew inspiration from the acrobatic skill "striking out" in theatrical martial arts, originally requiring multiple people to perform, but modified it to be executed by Yun Jin alone.
The audio production for Yun Jin and the creation of The Divine Damsel of Devastation took only one month. Due to Yun Jin's voice acting involving operatic content, the production team made the first attempt to have voice actors He Wenxiao and opera performer Yang Yang respectively perform the character's lines and singing segments in Chinese, aiming to retain the characteristics of opera. Before Yun Jin's appearance, character voice acting in various language versions of Genshin Impact had undergone localization. However, due to the difficulty of adapting Yun Jin's singing segments, which represent Chinese opera, miHoYo decided to retain Yang Yang's singing segments in languages other than Chinese. Yang Yang, a Hua Dan performer of the Xun Group at the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company, is the winner of the "Leading Actress Award" at the 29th Shanghai Magnolia Drama Performance Awards.
Yang Yang considers voicing Yun Jin to be a very fresh and interesting experience and hopes that the integration of drama and the virtual world can expose more people to and deepen their understanding of opera. During the production of The Divine Damsel of Devastation, the production team found that Yang Yang was not familiar with traditional music notation, so they adapted the music notation to a simplified version to accommodate her. The Divine Damsel of Devastation has more elements of rock and electric guitar in the demo, and adjustments were made during actual recording. The production team also listened to Yang Yang's feedback to make the final product's opera style more prominent. For the spoken parts of The Divine Damsel of Devastation, originally intended for Yang Yang to imitate He Wenxiao's voice, the team ultimately decided to use Jingbai from Peking opera, which is not uncommon in traditional opera, for dialogue with the audience. This setting is also present in traditional opera and does not seem out of place. In the Japanese version, the voice acting is done by Kotori Koiwai, who expressed joy at being able to voice Yun Jin due to her passion for acting, music, and creation.
In the fictional world of Teyvat Continent in Genshin Impact, there is a bustling port city called "Liyue Harbor" known for its commercial prosperity and cultural richness. Yun Jin is a local performing artist in Liyue Harbor and a successor of the traditional art form "Liyue opera" skilled in creating and performing opera. In the game, she promotes innovation in traditional "Liyue opera", shifting from past themes primarily focusing on praising demons and immortals to telling stories of the human race itself.
Yun Jin comes from a prestigious family of Liyue opera artists; her mother was a renowned actress in Liyue Harbor, and her father was a playwright. Influenced by her family, Yun Jin learned Liyue opera from a young age and inherited her grandfather's legacy, becoming the director of the Yun-Han Opera Troupe and responsible for various tasks within the troupe. Because of this, she is respectfully addressed as "Director Yun" by the business community. The Yun-Han Opera Troupe is the resident opera troupe of the "Heyu Tea House" in Liyue Harbor. Old opera fans refer to Yun Jin's grandfather as "Mr. Yun". Inheriting the opera troupe, Yun Jin earned the respect of opera fans through her performances and also inherited the title "Mr. Yun."
Following the release of Version 2.4 Fleeting Colors in Flight in Genshin Impact, players can obtain Yun Jin through wishes in the game or choose to invite her to join their team after meeting certain conditions during the Lantern Rite event starting on January 25, 2022. In the game, Yun Jin is a support character reliant on defense, providing buffs to team members to increase their damage dealt to enemies and monsters. She is not suitable as a primary damage dealer in the team. Her elemental skill releases a protective shield and provides a Geo element bonus to attacks. Her elemental burst "Cliffbreaker's Banner" increases the damage dealt by all characters in the team based on Yun Jin's defense for a duration.
When miHoYo announced the character design on November 22, 2021, Yun Jin briefly trended as the second-most-discussed topic on Twitter. After her appearance in the preview livestream for Version 2.4 in December, Yun Jin garnered widespread attention once again. The hashtag "#原神云堇" on Weibo accumulated millions of views, and Yun Jin's tag briefly reached the fifth position on Twitter trends. Yun Jin's performance of a traditional opera segment during her debut sparked discussions among fans. Some fans expressed surprise and mockery towards this performance, while others pointed out that it is a unique art form within Chinese culture and should not be prejudiced against.
In January, miHoYo released the story teaser The Divine Damsel of Devastation for the new version of Genshin Impact, which featured Yun Jin's opera performance throughout. As the production team retained the original opera singing in versions other than Chinese, it piqued the curiosity of some non-Chinese players about opera culture. China Global Television Network's YouTube channel experienced a short-term increase of over 100,000 views on their Peking opera videos due to the influence of The Divine Damsel of Devastation, with viewers commenting that they were drawn by Yun Jin's performance.
After the release of The Divine Damsel of Devastation video on Bilibili, it garnered 3 million views within 12 hours. Yun Jin's performance also prompted some professional opera enthusiasts to analyze and educate about it. Xue Jian, the Consul General of the Chinese Consulate in Osaka at the time, liked the tweet about The Divine Damsel of Devastation on Twitter, describing it as "extremely beautiful". Subsequently, The Divine Damsel of Devastation sparked some cover songs and derivative works. It also attracted coverage from media outlets such as China News Service, Xinhua News Agency, and People's Daily. Mainland Chinese actors attempted to reinterpret The Divine Damsel of Devastation for the second time, such as Zeng Xiaomin, director of the Guangdong Cantonese Opera Theatre, who reinterpreted it in the style of Cantonese opera, gaining over 3.5 million views. Additionally, figures from Peking opera, Huai opera, and suona performance showcased their own interpretations of The Divine Damsel of Devastation. The popularity of The Divine Damsel of Devastation also stimulated some opera enthusiasts' reflections. Qiu Danli, from the Shanghai Yue Opera Theater, performed The Divine Damsel of Devastation in the style of Yue opera, garnering millions of views, significantly higher than previous Yue opera videos. She believes that opera can be combined with animation, attempting to bring game characters onto the opera stage.
A week after the release of The Divine Damsel of Devastation, the video's views on Genshin Impact's Bilibili and YouTube English channels surpassed 9.4 million and 2.1 million, respectively. miHoYo's CEO, Liu Wei, expressed "great joy" at the warm reception of The Divine Damsel of Devastation by players worldwide. He also remarked: "taking traditional elements as the foundation, understanding and absorbing new cultural elements, interpreting traditional content in innovative ways, arousing the audience's enthusiasm for traditional culture — this is not only Yun Jin's wish but also our expectation as game content creators". An article on the WeChat public account of "National Humanities History" by Xiangqiao Penghao Ren stated: "'The Divine Damsel of Devastation' not only embodies the charm of Peking opera in Yun Jin's singing, but also excels in lyricism. The lyrics contain an ancient and elegant style". The article praised the incorporation of classical allusions and imagery, seamlessly integrated into the story's setting, without any sense of discordance, further enriching the mythological elements of The Divine Damsel of Devastation.
Kotaku's Chinese-American editor, Sisi Jiang, pointed out that when Yun Jin first performed opera on December 26, players' reactions to this character varied. Some enjoyed Yun Jin's performance, while others were displeased. Jiang believes that Peking opera is a niche art form in mainland China, and its development stagnated during the Cultural Revolution. Jiang initially thought Peking opera was unsuitable for cultural exportation. However, after the trailer for the game was released, The Divine Damsel of Devastation sparked significant interest among players in Peking opera, which was unexpected. Promoting Peking opera domestically in mainland China is also challenging, but Genshin Impact, through The Divine Damsel of Devastation and Yun Jin, has aroused global interest in Peking opera. This demonstrates that popular video games can lead mainstream culture rather than just following trends.
Chen Weijun, Vice Dean of the Cultural Industry Development Research Institute at Jinan University, believes that miHoYo's promotion of traditional Chinese opera through the game character Yun Jin is "a relatively good case of cultural international dissemination". Tan Qunzhao, former CEO of Shengqu Games, believes that "Her (Yun Jin's) attire incorporates a lot of operatic elements and is a symbol of Chinese traditional culture".