Capcom replaces Hong Kong flag with Chinese flag in Capcom Arcade Stadium Switch game

Capcom has swapped the flag of Hong Kong for the Chinese flag on the character Fei Long in the Nintendo Switch bundle game Capcom Arcade Stadium, which includes multiple Super Street Fighter games. An image of the Japanese rising sun has also been removed.

Among other there will be a message on Twitter about the Chinese flag at the Bruce Lee inspired character Fei Long, in the screen to choose a character. Screenshots have also been posted of what this looked like in the game before, namely with the Hong Kong flag from after the British transfer of sovereignty in 1997 and before that with the Hong Kong flag from the British era. The thread on Twitter is complaining about this change. Also in a YouTube video of Street Fighter II, the game that is part of the free-to-download Nintendo Switch title Capcom Arcade Stadium, the Chinese flag is visible at Fei Long, with Hong Kong under the flag.

Another adjustment has also been made to the Street Fighter game, which was probably made to avoid Chinese irritations. For example, a change has been made to the characteristic background in the bathhouse space that belongs to the character Edmond Honda, a Japanese sumo wrestler. A clear image of the Japanese rising sun was always visible in the background, with the sun’s rays also changing color at the end of a round. That image of the rising sun has been completely removed in Capcom Arcade Stadium. Presumably this image has been deleted, as it is associated with the imperialism of the Imperial Japanese Army, particularly in China and Korea. This army existed from 1867 to 1945, the end of World War II.

This is not the first time that Capcom has made these kinds of changes. In 2018, the game company already changed the Hong Kong flag to the Chinese flag at Fei Long in the bundle game Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. And in 2019’s Street Fighter V, E. Honda’s bathhouse had already traded the rising sun for a neutral rendering of a sun. Incidentally, someone on Reddit says that Capcom would not have modified the flag of the Soviet Union, belonging to the character Zangief.