Making “Tomorrow Look Like Yesterday”:¹ The Creation of Stereotypes Represented Through Dress within Cyberpunk Media  

“Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?” 

“Senator. Again, I’m Singaporean.” 

(Leal, 2024) 

On the 31st of January 2024, Republican Senator Tom Cotton was criticized for asking TikTok CEO Shou Zi about his personal connections to China, despite him repeating that he was, in fact, from Singapore (Leal, 2024). The perceived threat of East Asia and East Asians, which persists to this day, is not a new phenomenon— extending as far back as Genghis Khan (Marchetti, 1993). This idea that Asia poses an existential threat to the West is most well-known as the “yellow peril” trope, a concept that finds its most famous visual manifestation in the Geisha advert in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner (see Figure 1) (Marchetti, 1993). The same year, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was victim to a racially motivated murder in which the autoworkers responsible exclaimed that “‘Japs’ were taking all the jobs” (Prasso, 2006: 27). 

Figure 1

Still from Blade Runner, Directed by Ridley Scott (1982) 

Blade Runner Wiki [Link] 

Cyberpunk emerged as a genre of new wave literary fiction in the 1980s, characterized by speculation of what society might look like in the future; perhaps to rationalize the rate at which technology progressed (Jameson, 1991). Cyberpunk media continues to surround us, being recontextualized into films, video games, and anime; for example, the anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) and the live-action film The Creator (2023). Regardless of their interpretation, the stereotypes and imagery that have defined the aesthetics of this genre persist despite the critical focus upon racist tropes that has skyrocketed in recent years in other genres (McCann and Engstrom, 2023: 62). Furthermore, when the matter is discussed, dress is often overlooked as a method for communicating stereotypes, especially when analyzing the idea of a techno-Oriental “Other” (Park, 2004). 

Cyberpunk relies on stereotypes that emerged in the 1970s out of a cultural fear of an “amorphous Orient,” that arguably has become the accepted language representative of dystopian fiction (Said, 1978: 22; Ruh, 2020: 402). In response to the representation of Japan in 1980s America, the media critics David Robins and Kevin Morley, building on the work of Said (1978) identified an overwhelming tendency toward what they termed “techno-Orientalism” (1995). 

The term “techno-Orientalism” has grown to describe any media that utilizes East Asian aesthetics, such as dress, while still excluding and/or negatively representing East Asian people (Roh et al., 2015: 2). It is imperative, then, that project to design more inclusive fashion should also consider video games as influential and relevant media (Malkowski and Russworm, 2017). 

As such, this work seeks to dissect how dress contributes to the construction of East Asian femininity within cyberpunk media. While East Asian women are present within the genre, they are often relegated to peripheral or even antagonistic roles in games’ narratives (Paulk, 2011: 482). Dress is a fundamental factor in the visual language used to communicate stereotypes and cyberpunk is no different (Hester and Hehman, 2023). Within the genre, the visual representations of East Asian femininity are structured around the characterization of what Ann Anlin Cheng calls “ornamental personhood”—that is, their personhood is “named or conceived through ornamental gestures, which speak through the minute, the sartorial, the prosthetic, and the decorative” (2019: 17-18). 

The research presented within this piece aims to contribute to the growing body of literature on the intersection of video games and fashion. Why do problematic tropes, particularly those rooted in racism and stereotypes, continue to persist within cyberpunk-themed media? The lack of critical analysis in video game studies allows problematic tropes to persist today (Malkowski and Russworm, 2017). By analyzing the video games Deus Ex (2000) and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011), as well as applying this work to the more contemporary game Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), I seek to highlight the importance of video games as cultural texts that deserve critical analysis. 

According to a 2024 survey, an estimate of 3.32 billion people globally play some form of video games, with 53% of players being male (Duarte, 2025). In 2022, 67% of videogame developers in the United Kingdom were male, relegating the industry’s workforce far below the average representation of female and non-binary workers in other creative industries (Taylor, 2022: 31). Female characters are often designed with “highly exaggerated body proportions” and often revealing clothing, fitting a marketable fantasy shaped by outdated and often unachievable gender expectations (Skowronski et al., 2021: 2). This gender disparity among developers can influence the types of characters and narratives that are created, as predominantly male design teams may cater unconsciously—or strategically—to a presumed male audience, reinforcing long-standing industry norms that equate female appeal with sexualization. Additionally, it can be argued that this contributes to the lack of gender diversity among playing audiences, as women feel under- and/or misrepresented in the industry’s productions and thus have less interest in partaking in video games (Skowronski et al., 2021). 

As stated in The Evolution of Fashion as Play in the Digital Space (2023), the idea of play “creates a temporary boundary around ‘ordinary’ or ‘real’ life and induces immersion, and players enter a virtual world through play” (Park and Chun: 259). It can be argued that the temporality of the digital space is controlled by the player’s immersion into the environment where creativity and expression are allowed in a more abstract form (Park and Chun, 2023). These are outlined by the characteristics of play that define the player experience within the game: “free activity”; “departure from space-time”; “pretending” and “order” (Park and Chun, 2023: 259-260). The authors’ emphasis of “centering on self-expression rather than on the importance of objects or space” informs the way games are played, in which both in-game and real-world social structures shape player interaction (Park and Chun, 2023: 259-263). 

Although virtual fashion cannot be worn in the real world, it can be engaged with and consumed much like material fashion but without the boundaries that materiality presents (Boughlala and Smelik, 2024). In Tracing the History of Digital Fashion (2024), it is posed that fashion objects that exist in virtual worlds must be analyzed and viewed as components of a fashion system in their own right (Boughlala and Smelik: 3). Video game “skins,” or avatar customizations, are akin to an in-game language, usually providing minimal in-game benefits and existing for aesthetic and communicative purposes: “[Skins] typically communicate the status of the character/ player" (Särmäkari in Boughlala and Smelik, 2024: 6). Customization is only afforded to player-controlled characters, with non-player characters (NPCs) being dressed in predetermined, non-customizable clothing designed for a specific character. 

The concept of Orientalism is fundamental to discerning how the West has historically falsely represented or manufactured depictions of “East” and “Orient” as “Other.” Palestinian-American literary critic, Edward Said, defines “Orientalism” in his seminal text Orientalism (1978) “as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (3). These understandings of a homogenized “East” result in depictions of Eastern nations as unable to develop without Western interference, falsely representing these countries and cultures as exotic and mysterious (Said, 1978). 

While Said himself does not discuss fashion, the concept has been applied to the broader scope of fashion, notably in the Fashion Theory’s Fashion and Orientalism (2003). Historically, the belief was that only the West could create and effectively wear fashionable dress: “Western dress worn by colonizers is superior while non-Western dress worn by the colonized is inferior” (Kawamura and de Jong, 2022: 60). 

Said’s work omits East Asia when discussing the concept of Orientalism. While this is a limitation, this has allowed scholars to take Said’s ideas and apply them to China and Japan, displaying that while Orientalism has common themes, it does not occur in one form. China’s experience of Orientalism extends back to the mediaeval period, and the country and culture “[have] been an empire of mythical characteristics in the European imagination: the utmost representation of the so-called Far East” (Martinez-Robles, 2007: 9). 

Further, Said’s reliance on Foucault and gender are, perhaps, two criticisms. Foucault’s theory of discourse ignores the individual experience (Quinn, 2017). Additionally, and similarly to Foucault, Said’s failure to consider gender in his analysis leaves the assumption of the male experience being the norm (Lewis, 1996). 

As stated, the term “techno-Orientalism” was coined by sociologists Kevin Robins and David Morley in their book Spaces of Identity (1995). This operates in direct contradiction with the fabricated belief of Japan and China as a homogenized “East,” as the false belief of tradition and purity cannot co-exist with the investments made by Japan into America’s “democratic and progressive society” (Robins and Morley, 1995: 151). 

Techno-Orientalism operates in the same way as Said’s Orientalism; however, focus is placed on the West seeking to maintain a “stable identity in a technological environment” (Ueno, 1999: 95). This idea of ideological dominance surrounding techno- Orientalism is brought to a more contemporary point in Techno-Orientalism (Roh et al., 2015), with the concept outlined as: 

The phenomenon of imagining Asia and Asians in hypo- or hyper-technological terms in cultural productions and political discourse [...] Japan is a screen on which the West has projected its technological fantasies, then China is a screen on which the West projects its fears of being colonized, mechanized, and instrumentalized in its own pursuit of technological dominance. (Roh et al., 2015: 2-4) 

Roh et al. explore how Japan and China are “orientalized” differently within the techno-sphere but are often homogenized as threats to America and its economy (Roh et al., 2015). 

Perhaps the biggest gap with the current research surrounding techno- Orientalism is the lack of discussion surrounding how dress is utilized to maintain Western hegemonic power dynamics. While academics have taken Said’s understandings of Orientalism and applied them to fashion, the same cannot be said of the discussion surrounding techno-Orientalism. 

A stereotype is an inaccurate and often negative representation of a social group or category of people where “certain forms of behaviour, disposition or propensity are isolated, taken out of context and attributed to everyone associated with a particular group or category” (Pickering, 2015: 4). The practice of stereotyping is similar to that of Orientalism, operating as a form of power and in turn, reducing peoples, cultures and social groups into a homogeneous, simplified amalgam (Pickering, 2015). In Stuart Hall’s Representations (1997), he discusses that analysis of the dominant meanings of visual media is key when understanding how groups, cultures and people become “othered” when represented (Campbell, 2017; Hall, 1997). 

The East Asian stereotypes prevalent in modern Western media are rooted in the 1930s depictions of exotic glamour seen on screen (Prasso, 2006). Western understandings of the East are due to the limited contact between the regions historically, leading to the maintenance of stereotypes “based on the old notions preserved” (Prasso, 2006: xi). Sheridan Prasso’s (2006) graph displaying stereotypes of Asian women on screen will serve as the point of reference for stereotypes analyzed throughout this paper (see Figure 2). While the graph is limited and in no way covers every stereotype applied to the continent of Asia, it provides a concise demonstration of the stereotypes prevalent in the case studies explored in this research (Prasso, 2005: 87). 

Figure 2

Stereotypes of Asian Women on Screen (Prasso, 2006: 87) 

In the original Deus Ex (2000), the player-controlled character is limited to a male protagonist, JC Denton. While the game provides multiple options for ethnicity, it should be noted that the promotional material depicts Denton as white. In the sequel, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, there are no options for customization; the player embodies the protagonist Adam Jensen, a white, young adult male, who is significantly cybernetically enhanced, notably with retractable eye shields—his physical appearance cannot be changed. In contrast, Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) has gender and character customization options, with the player-controlled protagonist having the gender ambiguous name of “V.” Like Deus Ex, all promotional images portray the protagonist as white regardless of gender. Furthermore, voices for both JC Denton and V are performed by white voice actors, regardless of the race option selected. 

To ensure full understanding of the context that situate the case studies, all games were observed in full. The analysis of Deus Ex is backed up by over 20 hours on “medium” mode, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, also with 20 hours, on “Tell Me a Story” (easy) mode. The analysis of Cyberpunk 2077 contains 50 hours of gameplay on “normal” mode. All games were complimented by watching playthroughs for clarity. 

Media genres survive depending on how successful they are at representing and resolving present cultural anxieties (Buchanan, 2006). Is this not why cyberpunk remains relevant today? If the genre seeks to make predictions about the future, then why are meaningful explorations of themes such as race and gender omitted? Most Western cyberpunk protagonists are white, able-bodied, American men such as Rick Deckard in Bladerunner (1982) or Neo from The Matrix (1999). 

A significant aspect of cyberpunk is the construction of society in the future; however, the genre appears to continuously rely on “an example of Orientalism, fetishizing the aesthetics of Asian cultures without meaningfully engaging [...] or including Asian characters” (McCann and Engstrom, 2023: 62). Perhaps the dichotomous representation of an “East” is why cyberpunk continues to be revisited by a Western audience as it enables “the idea of engaging with the exotic ‘Other’ while courting the ‘danger’ of getting subsumed by foreign technology” (Ruh, 2020: 402). 

This idea of “East” is “other”-ed enough that exoticization, fetishization, and stereotyping can take place (Ruh, 2020). Said made mention of this dichotomous representation, arguing that “one aspect of the electronic, postmodern world is that there has been a reinforcement of the stereotypes by which the Orient is viewed” (1978:27-28). By placing focus on the character Maggie Chow from the video game Deus Ex, the goal of this section is to explore how the cheongsam that she adorns becomes recontextualized to create an idea of a techno-Orientalized “Other.” 

Deus Ex is a video game that was originally released in 2000, developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. The game is an immersive simulation and always offers an “alternative to combat [...] [it] forces players to reflect on the meaning of their actions” (Sicart in Knoppler, 2020: 193). Set in 2052, the player takes the role of JC Denton, a cybernetically enhanced, white, American man employed by the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO) who finds himself caught in a worldwide conspiracy. While the game begins in America, the player encounters the antagonist Maggie Chow in a level set in a futuristic Hong Kong. Chow is the Director of VersaLife, a company that focuses on the creation of cybernetic technology and pharmaceuticals (McCubbin, 2000). 

The Deus Ex series is built on an inherent distrust of everyone the player encounters, employing a defining characteristic of cyberpunk known as “high-tech paranoia” (Jameson, 1991). Coined and defined by postmodern theorist Fredric Jameson, “high-tech paranoia” is the notion that due to the increasing global nature of the world, there are countless competing conspiracies developed by computers that can work beyond the capacity of the human mind (Jameson, 1991). In Deus Ex, set in a fictional world in which humans are intrinsically connected to technology, paranoia is a central driving force to the plot (Knoppler, 2020). 

By analyzing Maggie Chow’s cheongsam within the context of cyberpunk media, it becomes recontextualized, reducing her to nothing more than an ornament within the game. Maggie Chow is an important example of the “Other” transformed into something “atomizing, dehistoricizing, commodifying, and desacralizing” by the clothing that exists on her body (Leitch, 1992: 112). Therefore, she becomes categorized and defined by what she is adorned in. 

Within the game, Chow only appears in one outfit (see Figures 4 to 6). She wears black heels with black tights and a bright red and gold cheongsam. The outfit may be curtailed by the late 1990s graphics; however, the red of the garment is visibly patterned and hemmed in gold with black closures at the top of the chest. The focal points of the cheongsam are the large gold dragons depicted down the front and back. Warren Spector, the lead designer, stated that the game had to be inspired by the world it was representing “we had to pay close attention to things in the real world” (2017: 00:17:13-00:17:23). 

Figure 4

Storm I. (2000). Maggie Chow in her cheongsam from Deus Ex [Screenshot]. Taken from: Deus Ex (2000) (Retrieved: 20/04/2024) 

In 1991, two years before Deus Ex was first conceptualized, the article “Japan Panic!” was published (Robins and Morley). The article highlighted the paranoia of Japan economically surpassing the West due to their rising economy in the 1980s and early 1990s (Robins and Morley, 1991; Sato, 2020). The grounding premise of the article was that by “other”-ing Japan in the American consciousness the country would be unable to economically compete with America (Robins and Morley, 1991). Within this context, the idea of “the Other” is recontextualized to fit a modern manufactured fear of Japanese economic dominance (Robins and Morley, 1991). 

The Japanese economy would begin to stagnate in 1991, and as a result media focus shifted toward China. The techno-Orientalizing of China became apparent following its recognition as a Newly Industrialized Country in the 1990s and as its economic influence grew (Roh et al., 2015). Perhaps this is why “by the mid-1990s, SF [Science Fiction] authors favoured China over Japan as a setting for cyberpunk” (Niu in Fan, 2015: 3). Furthermore, in 1997, the same year Deus Ex would go into pre-production, Hong Kong was transferred from British rule to China (Spector, 2017). It can be argued then that cyberpunk media moving its focus to China coupled with the handover of Hong Kong were catalysts for Spector and his team choosing to set Mission Six of Deus Ex in Hong Kong (Niu in Fan, 2015; Spector, 2017). 

The same year Hong Kong was transferred from Britain to China, the video game Shadow Warrior (1997) released—a first-person shooter game developed by the studio 3D Realms. In response to the negative reviews, the studio stated, “our mixing of Asian cultures was so outright obvious that no one could possibly mistakenly think it was done from ignorance [...] We are having fun with the whole Asian culture” (Ow, 2020: 56). Within the game players are invited to play as Lo Wang, an intentionally homogenized “Asian” man (Ow, 2020). As Said himself discusses, there are codes and understandings that are utilized not for their truthfulness, but for their effects on this “amorphous Orient” (1978: 24). 

Perhaps this is due to a “lack of real concern about the distinctions between Japanese and Chinese cultures and a lack of understanding of the historical legacies which contributed to the delicate relations between Japan and China” (Chen, 2009: 3). China and Japan are often homogenized in Western media due to their economic, historical and geographic proximity (Chen, 2009: 2). This allows for the dominant Western powers to create an idea of subject or object through these disconnected forms of representation, thus reinforcing stereotypes and exerting cultural dominance by framing Chinese and Japanese identities through a singular, distorted lens (Bhabha, 1983: 19). 

Like paranoia, the idea of the “Other” is intrinsic to Deus Ex (Knoppler, 2020). Within the Deus Ex Strategy Guide (2000), Chow is described as a “true femme fatale” and it is stated that “even her closest allies and partners are never sure where her real loyalty lies” (McCubbin, 2000: 18). The femme fatale archetype is a character trope of a woman “who uses her charm to seduce or/and destroy a male protagonist,” a temptress clad in “exotic clothing” (Elhallaq, 2015: 85). 

As Roland Barthes states, “clothes double up as signs. They construct a meaning and carry a message” (Barthes in Hall, 1997: 37). Maggie Chow is the only character wearing clothing that can be successfully dated to a point in history, instead of following the general trend of cyberpunk clothing being “chrome and matte black” (Sterling in Attebery, 2020: 288). Maggie Chow is undeniably depicted as both “oriental” and “ornamental” (Cheng, 2019: 6). 

Maggie Chow’s cheongsam “others” her as the “charming seducer” adorned with the large gold dragon on her front (Burney, 2012: 33). Hong Kong is the only location within Deus Ex where stereotypical dress is utilized as a visual signifier of location (see Figures 7 to 10). Her dress is reminiscent of Chinese fashions of the 1930s, similar to Anna May Wong’s Tu Tuan in Limehouse Blues (1934) (see Figure 11). Many East Asian stereotypes developed from early cinema in which “Hollywood codified these ideas and then sent them back to Europe where they resonated with a new-found strength based on the immigrant and historical experience there” (Prasso, 2006: 61). 

Maggie Chow’s cheongsam is particularly interesting due to the fact that dragon designs were often associated with Chinese weddings. Additionally, the colour red in Chinese culture is commonly worn by those on their wedding day, often seen as the colour of prosperity and good luck (Bai, 2010: 1; He, 2009: 160). Therefore, it can be evaluated that within the game, her dress signifies the regressive stereotype she falls into, as she can be suggested as epitomizing the Western idea of the “Dragon Lady”—clever, calculating, and powerful—exemplifying the ignorant disregard of the North American designers for the cultural significance her ensemble actually holds (Prasso, 2005). 

The “Dragon Lady” is an extension of the femme fatale trope, representing a woman who wields power and is often characterized by her “exoticism” (Larson in Umeda, 2018: 168; Prasso, 2006: 29, 87). She is portrayed as clever, calculating, and inherently untrustworthy (Prasso, 2006). The East Asian woman is presented as dichotomous and paradoxical “absent/present, dead/living subject on-screen upon whose body race, sex, and gender in colonial narratives are kept open with possibilities for various interpretations,” viewed as sexual but cannot be seen as sexually autonomous (Tripathi, 2021). Her allure comes from the danger she presents. Maggie Chow is recognized as a figure with power and influence; described by characters in the game as both powerful and politically involved. 

Figure 11

Photographer Unknown (1934). Anna May Wong for Limehouse Blues wearing a reinterpretation of a cheongsam (Image: Wikimedia Commons) 

JC Denton: Do you know of Maggie Chow? 

[Old China Hand] Bartender: Maggie Chow. A bad character. Before, she was an actress. Now she is everywhere in Hong Kong politics. They say she is a spy. 

(Deus Ex, 2000 [Dialogue]) 

In a manner similar to the dragon motif on the front of her cheongsam, the traditional meaning of the colour red has been recontextualized for a Western audience. The traditional use of red in the garment is removed from these cultural connotations, its meaning being superseded by the Western association of red with danger and warnings. This, combined with the wider conspiratorial narrative of the game and its reliance on paranoia, can be read as recontextualizing the traditional meaning of the colour and supplanting it with a meaning that becomes entangled with her very character. The secondary colour on her cheongsam is gold, a colour associated with power, status and wealth (Han, 2001). It can be argued that the gold dragon adorning the front of her cheongsam is a sign of this perceived power that she has, although the player does not get to see this power in action as the character is confined to the walls of her home (Han, 2001). 

In her book Ornamentalism (2019), Ann Anlin Cheng argues that East Asian femininity is “simultaneously consecrated and desecrated as an inherently aesthetic object, [...] inextricable from synthetic extensions, art, and commodity” (2). Cheng illustrates this point with the example of Afong Moy, an “imported” Chinese woman that toured around cities in America during the nineteenth century (Cheng, 2019: 5). She was defined by the objects that surrounded her, the “textual thickness; her material, synthetic affinities,” and that her appeal came from “her decorative, [...] sameness to the silk, damask, mahogany and ceramics alongside where she sits” (Cheng, 2019: 5). 

Maggie Chow does not exist outside the flat that her mission is set in—a woman also confined to what is around her. Her outfit matches her sofa, fades into the colour of the wood panels behind her; her costume providing that same “decorative appeal” as Afong Moy (Cheng, 2019: 5). This idea of recontextualization extends to the cheongsam itself, with the garment being recognized historically as representing the increased number of freedoms women gained in Hong Kong and wider China in the 1920s and 30s (Lin and Khuen, 2012: 17). It can be argued that, in this setting, the dress is stripped down to its literal textile quality, a meaningless manufactured representation that is simultaneously responsible for and representative of the “atomizing, dehistoricizing [sic], commodifying, and desacralizing” of Chow’s character (Leitch, 1992: 112). This recontextualization positions Maggie Chow is a modern pastiche of Afong Moy (see Figures 12 and 13). 

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (DXHR), was released in 2011, developed by Eidos-Montreal, and published by Square Enix. The plot follows Adam Jensen, who becomes cybernetically enhanced after an attack on his employer Sarif Industries, an experimental biotechnology corporation. The game is set in 2027 and is a prequel to the original Deus Ex. The game continues the pattern of visually “Other”-ing East Asian female characters. Within the original Deus Ex it was Maggie Chow; within DXHR it is through the portrayal of the character Zhao Yun Ru. She is the head of Tai Yong Medical, a dominating pharmaceutical corporation based out of Hengsha, a fictional city modeled after Hong Kong, and she acts as the primary antagonist of the game (Jacques- Belletete, 2016). 

Her character design takes inspiration from Renaissance-style aesthetics, clad in a gold, neo-renaissance style skirt and corset, with the focal point of her outfit being the large Elizabethan ruff that sits over her shoulders (see Figures 14 and 15). Her dress takes inspiration from the Myth of Icarus and is described as “the strongest and purest Renaissance fashion of all the characters in Human Revolution,” the epitome of corporate indulgence (Jacques-Belletete, 2016: 45). This embodiment is linked to visual excess, her ambition is displayed through decadence and an idea of untrustworthiness, associating her with Jameson’s notion of high-tech paranoia (Jameson, 1991). Furthermore, it evokes the techno-Oriental trope of East Asian economic and corporate dominance against America (Roh et al., 2015). 

While her dress is not as overtly “Orientalist” as Maggie Chow’s, it conjures the idea of imperial wealth and status through the use of the colour gold (Han, 2001). Ru’s clothing is saturated with gold, reflective of her apparent wealth as the head of a private medical company, arguably connecting her historic Renaissance clothing with the idea of dynastic China often depicted in the West (Han, 2001). Her nickname “Dragon Queen,” used throughout the game, connects her to that same stereotype of the “Dragon Lady”—powerful, seductive, and manipulative (Prasso, 2006). 

Furthermore, it is only revealed that she is cybernetically enhanced at the end of the game, when she literally turns her back on the player during the final fight, once again returning to this idea of distrust due to high-tech paranoia (see Figure 16) (Jameson, 1991). This twist in the narrative becomes racialized as her body becomes symbolic of postmodern paranoia with stereotypical deception reflective of the “Dragon Lady,” further contributing to her “Other”-ness within the game (Jameson, 1991; Prasso, 2006). 

This visual disconnect aligns with the trope of techno-Orientalism; these women are portrayed surrounded by their hyper-technological settings, yet portrayed as regressive, embodying the West’s anxieties about China’s rise as a global economic power (Roh et al., 2015). 

These women are also the creative product of White, North American men; game designers Warren Spector and Jonathan Jacques-Belletete. The designs and personalities of these characters work to enforce the idea that while both China and Japan compete with America for economic, labour, and corporate dominance, it is only the West that can ideologically move forward (Roh et al., 2015: 4). Both women are the heads of their respective companies yet are pushed into a dichotomy of being both technologically forward and traditional at the same time (Roh et al., 2015). 

Figure 16

Eidos-Montreal (2011). Zhao Yun Ru from Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Screenshot]. Taken from Deus Ex Wiki [Link] (Retrieved: 29/04/2024) 

Despite the over 20 years since the release of Deus Ex in 2000, there appears to be little development in the understanding of the continued trope of the techno- Oriental “Other” in popular cyberpunk media, with examples such as the whitewashing of Major Motoko Kusanagi in the 2017 Ghost in the Shell (Rose, 2017). Even in the wake of movements such as Stop Asian Hate or Black Lives Matter which rose to prominence in the early 2020s as a result of COVID-19 Western political tensions, it is important to take a closer look at how false representation works to maintain Western hegemonic power structures and the marginalization of non-Western identities that occurs as a result (Subair, 2021). 

Furthermore, the popularity of video games in the public zeitgeist has grown exponentially. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there has been “a record 31% increase in consumer spending on video gaming” (International Trade Administration, n.d.). The aim in this section is to explore what happens when stereotypes transcend the body and become attached to clothing by discussing the hybrid cheongsam that is worn by Hanako Arasaka throughout the video game Cyberpunk 2077. 

Cyberpunk 2077 was released in 2020. With a budget of over $316 million, it remains one of the most expensive and expansive video games produced (Spurlin, 2021). Deus Ex’s key theme was arguably Fredric Jameson’s idea of “high-tech paranoia” communicated through conspiracies; inspired by the events that led to the so-called “Japan Panic” (1991: 38). Cyberpunk 2077 returns to the more traditional aspects of the cyberpunk genre, taking inspiration from themes such as class struggle against corporations, addiction to technology, and amongst it all, the meaning of self (Bukatman, 2018; Benthien, 2022). 

The game is an open-world, story-motivated game, set in fictional Night City, California. The game also works through a butterfly effect, where player decisions impact the storyline and ultimate outcome. Sparked by a botched heist of the Arasaka family, the player must work to explore a dissolving sense of self. The story is dictated by the choices made by the player, that ultimately lead up to the decision to work for or against the Arasaka Corporation, a megacorporation that deals in security, banking, manufacturing, and cybernetic enhancements. A central character to the narrative is Hanako Arasaka,[2] a Japanese woman, and depending on the choices made by the player, she may become one of the heirs to the Arasaka Corporation. While Maggie Chow and Zhao Yun Ru are undoubtedly antagonists, Hanako’s relationship to the player is left to the choices made throughout the game. 

Hanako Arasaka’s primary dress is a white, sleeveless, hybrid cheongsam. This is the dress that appears on Hanako if the player chooses to side with the Arasaka corporation (see Figures 17 and 18). The hybrid cheongsam consists of a plain white fabric with a patterned white panel down the middle of the dress, mirrored on the back. There is a depiction of PVC vinyl on her shoulders, above the hem of the skirt, and extending down to her mid-back. There are also strips of gold between the white and clear fabrics of her dress and around the neck, ending in a triangular shape at the nape of her neck. Hanako’s secondary dress is a recoloured version of her white cheongsam (see Figures 19 and 20). This hybrid cheongsam consists of a textured gold “fabric” down the middle, complimented by red “fabric” mirrored on the back. Her cybernetics are complimented by gold earrings, as well as gold bracelets, which fade into the gold cybernetics of her fingers. 

The representation of a Japanese woman wearing a dress inspired by historically Chinese garment construction allows for her to become the “exotic ‘Other’ [...] for that particular moment” (Kawamura and de Jong, 2022: 42). This returns to the broader pattern of homogenization of China and Japan by the West, through which East Asian identities are simplified, generalized, and then reduced to their “exotic” quality (Quinn, 2017). Coupled with the idea that the hybrid cheongsam utilizes visual signifiers to convey its design, it is “more ambiguous in its actual ‘coding’,” allowing for meaning to be placed upon it (Jie, 2019: 182). 

The recontextualization of Hanako’s hybrid cheongsam can also be extended to its white colour. While the meaning may be multifaceted, the most obvious is perhaps the repeated reference to her as “porcelain” throughout the game, often stated in a derogatory manner, reducing her to nothing more than something that can be possessed (Cheng, 2019). 

The almost translucent facade of porcelain can only be achieved under extreme temperatures, a bridge between “old-world beauty and new-world technology” (Cheng, 2019: 93-94). This idea of porcelain is intrinsically related to race, as Ann Alin Cheng argues, “translucent white porcelain [...] carried and produced racial meanings [...] as indebted to ornamental practice and material making as it is to the pseudo biology of early ethnography” (2019: 93). The porcelain evokes the trope of the “China Doll,” implying that she is submissive and docile (Prasso). 

While her hybrid cheongsam likens her to porcelain, her cybernetics likens her to kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer (Keulemans, 2016: 16). Hanako is seen as the techno-Oriental “Other” as her dress is imbued with the dichotomous relationship of traditional craft coupled with new technology; perhaps this is representative of her depiction in the cyberpunk world that she is placed in, a representation of traditional “Eastern” values depicted in a hyper-modern speculative future (McCann and Engstrom 2023). This mirrors Zhao Yun Ru’s dress in DXHR, in which her highly detailed gilded clothing and cybernetic augmentations create a similar dichotomy of East Asian countries being seen as technologically advanced but societally traditional (Cheng, 2019). 

In the case of Hanako’s dress, she adopts that “white virtue” literally through the hybrid cheongsam, a synthesis of Eastern exoticism and Western virtue (Berry, 2000). 

The white is representative of porcelain, fragility, submissiveness. Her red hybrid cheongsam, like Maggie Chow serves not as a wedding cheongsam as it traditionally would, but arguably as warning to the player (Parkin, 2022: 26) 

Indeed, also similar Maggie Chow, Hanako Arasaka is a woman who has immense power and reach, yet we never see her utilize either: “I was brought up to be [the Arasaka family]’s heart—to uphold life, ensure continuity, stability, never to oppose it” (Cyberpunk 2077, 2020 [Dialogue]). Once again, this nods to the idea of the “China Doll” through her apparent submissiveness (Prasso, 2006). Similar to that of both Maggie Chow and Zhao Yun Ru, Hanako Arasaka’s positioning around a megacorporation reinforces the stereotype of East Asian femininity being a passive and ornamental extension of ultimate power. 

It is impossible for clothing to exist without its historical context, nor is it separate from the environment that it exists in. Clothing within video games exist similarly, with the same capacity to create and perpetuate stereotypes. As Edward Said states, “The Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined. On this stage will appear figures whose role it is to represent the larger whole from which they emanate” (Said, 1978: 56). This essay has outlined the creation of stereotypes translated through dress in the aftermath of the “Japan Panic” by exploring the video game series Deus Ex and utilizing the antagonists, Maggie Chow and Zhao Yun Ru. This was further backed up by displaying how these stereotypes operate in a more contemporary media by bringing Hanako Arasaka from Cyberpunk 2077 into the discussion. 

Through this analysis, attention was given to Maggie Chow’s red and gold cheongsam, with the two dragon motifs on the front and back. While red is representative of weddings in Chinese culture, as is the symbol of the dragon, these are both recontextualized into Western understandings to serve as warning symbols to the player (He, 2009; Parkin, 2022). The red is maintained as a sign of danger, and the dragon becomes illustrative of the “Dragon Lady” stereotype, becoming sexually attractive due to the allure of danger (Prasso, 2006). Chow is presented as this dichotomous woman; powerful, yet domestic, sexually attractive but not sexually autonomous (Tripathi, 2021). In the reality of the game, this insinuated danger is meaningless as she exists only within her flat, confined to match the red on the walls and the mahogany of her table, becoming Afong Moy within a speculative future and displaying that it is entirely possible for oriental tropes to exist in the future. 

Maggie Chow’s cheongsam becomes recontextualized once again—historically, the garment was reflective of the changing attitudes and freedoms presented to women in 1930s China (Lin and Khuen, 2012). Her cheongsam here becomes regressive, representative of confinement and perpetual display to the player. The lack of meaningful engagement is a theme translated through to DXHR. This comparison was drawn to display that dress is used to “Other” East Asian women in cyberpunk video games. Building off this, Zhao Yun Ru was found to be representative of the techno-Oriental stereotypes that cyberpunk thrives on, such as Western connotations of East Asians with technological development (Robins and Morley, 1991). 

Zhao Yun Ru further displays the continuation of visually “Other”-ing East Asian women within cyberpunk-themed media. Her elaborate gold attire with the Elizabethan ruff signals excessive wealth and power, aligning with the Western paranoia of East Asian corporate and economic dominance. DXHR displays how cyberpunk-themed media continues to visually “Other” East Asian female characters through their dress. Furthermore, her cybernetic enhancements are only revealed in the final confrontation of the game, reinforcing the stereotype of East Asian figures as deceptive and untrustworthy. Designed by white, North American men, Zhao Yun Ru’s characterization shows a recurrent reliance on Oriental tropes to “Other” her. 

Hanako Arasaka shows that stereotypes can be weaved into the fabric of dress and adopted by the wearer for that moment to create the idea of the techno- Orientalized “Other” (Kawamura and de Jong, 2022). The cheongsam in Western media is often tied to Chinese identity, often worn by Chinese officials while on political visits. This research found that within the context of cyberpunk-themed media, it has been recontextualized to be symbolic of the fragile and performative nature displayed by Maggie Chow, Zhao Yun Ru, and Hanako Arasaka (Jie, 2019). Indeed, the cheongsam is a garment designed by its nature to adapt and change with fashion zeitgeist (Ling, 2017); however, when worn by Hanko Arasaka, the signifiers of her hybrid cheongsam denote Oriental tropes of the submissive and docile Asiatic woman, the “China Doll” (Prasso, 2006). Hanako Arasaka is further defined by her materiality through the references to porcelain. 

The idea of the homogenization of East Asia is perhaps due to the West’s need for East Asia to exist as one thing; an “Other.” This concept is apparent in cyberpunk video games—that even in this speculative future, non-white, non-Western women, are presented as solidly connected to a past, perpetuating this idea of Orientalism, simply pushed into the future (Park, 2008). 

Cyberpunk emerged to rationalize the changing nature of not only technology, but the world (Jameson, 1991). The cyberpunk genre as it stands today continues to have an unhealthy reliance on stereotyping East Asian women, as outlined by the case studies presented in this research. The characters explored are afforded little autonomy in a genre that is dominated by white, male, North American protagonists. As discussed, East Asian femininity is continuously defined as two-dimensional, characterizing them by their “ornamental personhood” (Cheng, 2019: 3). 

In cyberpunk media, dress is a key tool in perpetuating the stereotype of a techno-Oriental “Other.” This trope continues to manifest itself in cyberpunk visual culture and therefore continues to perpetuate the idea of a techno-Orientalized “Other.” The analysis of fashion and dress within these video games is essential for providing a deeper understanding of cyberpunk media and its cultural implications. The dress chosen to represent key characters throughout the storyline of these games provide key elements that convey ideas around identity, power and cultural narratives within speculative fiction and virtual worlds. Indeed, this research could encompass representation from other genres—the 1980s also saw the emergence of the fighting genre of games, such as Mortal Kombat that also utilize Orientalist dress tropes. Despite the stylistic differences, they collectively highlight how East Asian aesthetics are stereotyped and simplified through dress across multiple genres of video games. It is crucial to understand how stereotypes are displayed to better prevent their continued formation and perpetuation. While cyberpunk showcases futuristic and highly stylized environments, fashion serves as a vessel for visualizing cultural anxieties about the future and what happens when profit is put over people. It is important that these appealing visual codes do not distract us from their ability to be criticized and scrutinised rather than simply being captivated by their aesthetic appeal. 

Cyberpunk as a genre is important, influential, and deserves more attention to be paid to the themes within it. It displays the consequences of unregulated capitalism and what happens when corporations have unlimited control. Perhaps then, this thesis sits within wider questions: how do racism and stereotyping within fiction shape our perceptions of people and the world and, as such, is there a way the future can be depicted without it being problematic? The hope for this thesis is that it contributes to the larger discussion of more intersectional representations within cyberpunk, gaming cultures, and beyond. 

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Author Bio

Article Citation

Urquhart, Peigi A. “Making 'Tomorrow look like Yesterday': The Creation of Stereotypes Represented through Dress within Cyberpunk Media.” Unravelling Fashion Narratives, special issue of Fashion Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2025, 1-32. 10.38055/UFN050103.