Principal faces backlash for criticizing students' "Japanese" Genshin Impact dance performance

A principal from China has criticized his students for performing a dance from Genshin Impact, calling it a "Japanese dance." Naturally, many people have taken issue with his speech. The performance in question was Nilou's Dance of Sabzeruz (also known as the Dance of the Flower Goddess since the festival is dedicated to her).

For those who don't know, Genshin Impact is a Chinese game. Nilou is from Sumeru, which is not based on Japan. The region is more inspired by Indian and Persian culture, yet the principal's lack of knowledge regarding the dance's origin didn't stop him from scolding his students.

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Video of the Chinese principal scolding students' Genshin Impact dance performance

Here is a translation of the tweet from Mandarin as provided by Google Translate:

"Contributions from netizens. Recently, at the school celebration of the High School Affiliated to Nantong University, the students performed the famous ,"Dance of the Flower God" by Nilu in the rehearsal "Original God," but were criticized by the principal. 'This is Japanese culture. What we want is a positive Chinese culture. This is not the stage for the Japanese.'"

The tweet goes on to say:

"In the video, you can see the frustrated expressions of the students performing. It is reported that this is a character and dance created in a Chinese game based on Indian and Persian mythology. Some netizens questioned, is this cultural self-confidence or cultural inferiority?"

This clip went viral on TikTok and Twitter, with the principal's rant beginning around the 0:10 mark. The students shown in it don't look pleased listening to his whole speech, either.

Genshin Impact's Nilou does a dance that is not inspired by Japanese culture in any way, shape, or form. The Chinese students doing the same thing and getting criticized for it is rather odd.

Nilou is a character made by a Chinese video game company, making it somewhat baffling to see these pupils' actions scolded this way.

There is also some irony that the same principal was reportedly part of Japanese welcome groups. The above tweet, when translated by Google Translate from Mandarin, states the following:

"Some netizens added that the principal had previously organized a welcome for Japanese groups to visit the High School Attached to Tongda University."

Since the original clip has gone viral only recently, it's too early to tell what kind of response will occur to the principal's actions (if any). All that's known right now is that some parts of the online Chinese community are mocking the principal for this incident.

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Original Nilou dance

The above dance performance by Nilou was quite well-liked by the Genshin Impact community, especially by Nilou mains, who enjoy seeing her. She tried to recreate an old scene with a dance tied to the Goddess of Flowers. It is a pretty sequence of events, so it's no surprise that anybody interested in this type of art would try to replicate it in a school setting.

Genshin Impact's Inazuma is inspired by Japanese culture, but Sumeru isn't. This dance does not concern Inazuma since it's about Sumeru's Dendro Archon and other mythological figures in the latter region.

That's everything that Travelers need to know about this controversial new incident.