Serial authentication: Gamifying Hong Kong action cinema in Sleeping Dogs

This essay investigates how the open-world action adventure video game Sleeping Dogs constructs cultural authenticity as a feature of its narration and digital game play. Not only does the game avoid accusations of racial insensitivity but also producers and fans promote the game as an ‘authentic’ Hong Kong experience. Using digital seriality to analyze Sleeping Dogs, which occupies a fertile intersection between game studies and film studies, I argue that Sleeping Dogs justifies its appropriation of Hong Kong action cinema by subjecting the player to serial authentication.