Is Joy related to Master Chen? (Analysis)

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Shenmue analysis at www.phantomriverstone.com
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
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From playing Shenmue II, one might gain the impression that Joy is related to Master Chen, from certain conversations in which she refers to him as "Uncle Chen". But does she mean this literally?

I've written a post looking at what we know about how Joy is connected to Master Chen and Guizhang, and a conclusion to this question.
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/is-joy-related-to-master-chen.html
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Just read through your piece on Phantom River Stone. I played Shenmue II years before I had access to Shenmue I, but I never triggered any of the events where Joy talks about Master Chen. Really interesting stuff I'm on the boat that Chen is just a really close family friend.

But it's little things like this that just adds to the amazing story of Shenmue
 
Yes, it's incredible how much extra optional detail the game contains, and what it reveals about the relationship between characters. The're just there to be discovered, making multiple playthroughs rewarding. Hopefully Shenmue 3 will continue in the same vein, as Yu has hinted at in interviews.
 
it is hard to tell because you have to consider the cultural differences and how accurate the Translation is. Alt least according to the subtitles when you watch some old cantonese movies you can see that some older People are refered as uncle although the Person calling them uncle is not necessary related to them.

Shenmue is a japanese game and the japanes have something similar. They have the word ojisan, which can be translated as uncle or also as older man If I am not mistaking. So it seems that the word uncle has not not the seem meaning in Japanese and maybe also in cantonese than it has in English.

And didn't tell the game that The Chen Family does some Business with the father of Joy a businessman himself? And isn't that the reason why they know each ofter for quite some time?

I think so that the game did, but not sure. Cannot think of any hints that they might be related at least...
 
9dragons said:
And didn't tell the game that The Chen Family does some Business with the father of Joy a businessman himself? And isn't that the reason why they know each ofter for quite some time?

I think so that the game did, but not sure.
Click to expand...
Yes, you remembered right - this is something that was mentioned in the Shenmue Side Story comic (which is also in the post), for example.
 
Indeed, Oji-San can also mean, "Mister," as the first Yakuza title shows; I used it with cab drivers and proprietors when I went to Japan in 2016 and all of them were accepting of the term, when I addressed them as that "(arigato, oji-san!" is what I normally said).

I took it from the very beginning, to be a non-family, "Uncle." (we use the term here in North America too, for a close family friend).
 
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