Cultural Discount and Re-localization: a Study on Cross-Cultural Communication and Commercialization Strategies Using “Honkai: Star Rail” as an Example

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_2How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cultural Discount; Re-Localization; Cross-Cultural Communication; Game Localization

Abstract

The global expansion of digital entertainment content presents unprecedented cross-cultural communication challenges for Chinese cultural-themed games and anime. This paper examines the significance of “cultural discount” and “re-localization” in global dissemination, advancing an “L0-L4xROI” decision-making framework to mitigate cultural discount and optimize commercial benefits. By operating across the five levels of language, symbols, mechanisms, values, and meta-narratives, this framework seeks to analyze the method for achieving maximum impact with minimal modifications across different cultural markets. Using “Honkai: Star Rail” as a case study, this paper conducts an in-depth comparison of its two cultural contexts, “Xianzhou Luofu” and “Penacony”, demonstrating how a forward-shifted and collaborative re-localization process can effectively enhance user conversion, brand equity, and long-term retention, while preventing cultural conflicts and compliance risks. The contribution of this paper lies in offering an actionable commercial decision-making model for the globalization of Chinese cultural themes to empower the industry toward more efficient cultural dissemination and market expansion.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Haozhe Yang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
TI  - Cultural Discount and Re-localization: a Study on Cross-Cultural Communication and Commercialization Strategies Using “Honkai: Star Rail” as an Example
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 8th International Conference on Economic Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 7
EP  - 14
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_2
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_2
ID  - Yang2026
ER  -