#might as well share SLDNSKDHS

[kukuandkookie]

I have nothing really worth adding because despite reblogging a lot of cdrama, that’s actually just because cdrama is one of the bigger Chinese media fandoms in the west. I mostly specialize in the donghua and manhua fandoms, but those have a highly minuscule presence on any western website (besides big ones like Link Click or 19 Days)…

And well, what I’m getting at here is that I actually don’t know AvenueX’s material that well, although I have enjoyed some of her videos in the past, and that is because I’ve also disagreed with some of her opinions.

In my own opinion, she falls into a fallacy every critic easily falls into: they’re often so much more cynical about the media they watch, often in a slightly high-and-mighty way.

Of course, this on its own is technically fine; as mentioned, it’s okay to have your own opinions about something.

But to know that she makes these statements without any proof and supporting the burying of a BL drama being shown is certainly disturbing.

I have seen people who are into cdramas disliking her due to her often disdaining what she calls “bad acting” (stuff like idol dramas, romance dramas, popular dramas), which I guess often comes across as again kind of hoity toity.

That hoity toity attitude isn’t bad if you want to find a bit of a hidden gem that’s perhaps enjoyed by more general audiences in China as higher art; for example, it was her that let me know about She and Her Girls, which has been very highly praised yet isn’t necessarily as well-known in the west because it’s not a romance drama…

But I do still dislike how easily she writes off these “idol dramas” that she views as having “inexperienced actors” or I guess what we can interpret as just “pretty faces showing off,” based off what she said about Luo Yunxi.

I’m not entirely sure why I’m typing this out, but as someone who’s done media studies and has had to write reviews and most of all, analyses—including of media that I’ve personally disliked—I find it pretentious to be so firm in terms of what’s good and what’s bad.

That doesn’t read as good review/critique to me, and if you take up the role of a reviewer, I think you need to be more open to exploratory things, or just the general idea that all media has a right to exist and even something to offer. Even stuff you personally don’t think is good.

I guess unfortunately reviewers and critics often end up like this though; having to think of whether something is “good” or “bad” often seems to get in their heads and they come across as cynical and hard to please and even pretentious, and in AvenueX’s case…almost a bit spiteful in small areas and unfair in larger areas?

I’m not sure where I was going with this because unlike the previous reblogs, I don’t have specific examples of where I can pinpoint that her words were quite egregious; I’m just aware of the cynicism around her and I can see why because I feel like she carries the cynicism of a stereotyped critic with her.

I do still mention her in my cdrama recommendations list since she’s a slight resource; I usually use her to find something that’s more general and well-praised but lesser known internationally like To the Wonder, but I feel tempted now to add a disclaimer in the list to steer clear of her more cynical reviews and to be aware of her status as a critic and how critics are…well, cynical (and no, I don’t plan to link any of these posts!). This is also why my list still contains cdramas she panned, mostly because general audiences enjoyed it, and also why I’ll add that people should probably take a look at MDL, but—like I say about NovelUpdates, be aware that general audiences will also rate something poorly just because they “don’t like” it or think it’s “problematic” despite that maybe being the point of the writing—and Reddit and Tumblr etc.

As for Marcus, the other general cdrama YouTuber… I also don’t watch him very closely because again, cdramas aren’t actually my special interest (Chinese media is, but my other special interest is animation and art so naturally I prefer donghua and manhua more), but he seems alright!

I mostly watched his stuff for updates on the industry rather than a direct review, and yeah, it’s definitely less personal. But that also means it doesn’t carry that somewhat “high and mighty” critical air to it that AvenueX does.

Anyway, to finish off: I can see why people have followed her and now I can see even more than ever before why people dislike her, especially due to her strange comments and baseless accusations. But I also generally think that while some of her reviews can be considered well done, she falls into the mistake so many critics make, which is simply being too harsh and not letting yourself enjoy the whimsy of media and how stuff like popular, mainstream dramas and actors/idols don’t necessarily automatically mean it’s bad just because it’s not made as higher art.

What are you uh...what are you salty about? (I'm nosy as hell, give me the tea)

okay SO. disclaimer before i start: if anyone seeing this likes the youtuber mentioned, understand i am not calling her a bad person; i have some very specific umbrage with her, and i will detail why. you don't have to agree with me, but if you, in any way, inform this youtuber of this post and what i'm saying, you will be blocked, because this is meant to be on my personal blog only and a severe violation of my boundaries to tell her about this.

let's begin, shall we? (below the cut, since this got a bit long; my apologies.)

for context, since i started watching zmyx, i have been periodically checking youtube for amvs of the show so i can add them to my playlist. while doing so, i stumbled across this video by AvenueX. i had watched a video by her previously on the show under the skin, and mostly enjoyed it. i love hearing people react to batshit cdrama, well, drama, and "this show was up for bare hours before being taken down" definitely counts as something i like hearing reactions to.

i cannot directly upload the clip into this post, but i'll put the subtitles in for the relevant section, which begins at the 12:25 mark and ends at 14:59.

AX: Basically, there is a BL drama that was made quite a few years ago and hasn't come out like all the BL dramas, Zhiming Youxi. It's based on a novel called Wanghuatong [sic] and is a clear BL drama. The platform was iQiyi, and they cast Huang Junjie and Xia Zhiguang. These two guys have been multiple other stuff ever since then, and if you watch a lot of Chinese dramas, you probably have an impression of who they are. Neither of them are considered to be good actors, very young, and not really coming from professional sort of trained actor background[...]I'm not so interested in the story to start with and not interested in these two actors either, because BL dramas is hard to do well; you have to be good actors to pull it off, and you actually have to know what type of acting you need to be doing. You're not actually playing realistic gay people, you're playing imagined version of [here she makes a sound i can only transcribe as the auditory equivalent of tilting your hand back and forth], that whole complicated psychological thing on the back end, and if you're not clever and experienced enough actor you actually easily make a mess. Based on the leaked out footage I see on the internet, it's embarrassing, in terms of the acting, and they stole the most important line from Word of Honor, which is 'there's light on you and I want to grab it and take a look'. Every BL drama has a classic line[...]and this drama shamelessly took a completely, and that part of the video is online. I've watched it, and I'm like, 'oh my god, oh my god, just because you're another BL doesn't qualify you for stealing literally the line from another BL drama[...]just because of that I'm like, oh, okay, now I can make fun with other people together on this drama being living [sic] on the internet for like, what, three-four hours[...]it's a good thing this drama is buried now, and please don't show up again. I don't want to see it. It's embarrassing, it's embarrassing, okay.

bolding mine; these are the portions i have umbrage with.

let's go through the points she makes, shall we?

this show is "embarrassing", in terms of acting; presumably, this is connected to the earlier line about the actors not being known as "good actors", and not having professional acting backgrounds.

it stole a line from shl.

she thinks this drama deserves to be made fun of for "being embarrassing" because, presumably, the actors don't play bl roles the way she thinks they should, and "make a mess of it".

i must reiterate: she can have these opinions. these are opinions she is entitled to. i disagree with them, but i respect her right to have them. however, because i also have the right to my own opinion, i am allowed to be pissed about these opinions she has.

i will go through a point by point breakdown of my responses and thoughts on each point.

i think it's really stupid to judge an actor based simply on them having a professional background or not. when it comes down to it, the most important thing for actors, especially co-leads, in a show, is their ability to do their job and create believable dynamics with their co-actors. in my opinion, xia zhiguang and huang junjie do this very well in zmyx. their dynamic feels natural and realistic to me, and, more importantly than that, it compels me. i don't say this as a "fan" of either actor; it was a nice bonus to me that hjj had also played another character i like, but even if he hadn't, i would be judging this performance as lin qiushi based on its own merits. i have never seen xzg in anything, and again, i am judging his acting in this show on its own merits. also, i should add there's something hilarious about her holding up shl as a "good" bl, when you could argue that those leads aren't "good" actors, either. i mean, look at advancing bravely! or, maybe, i don't know, it's possible for actors to improve over time and do better in certain projects than others? and someone doesn't have to be the "best" in all areas of their field, just the right choice for the role they're playing??

this is just stupid, in my opinion. the line is not stolen; it is altered and becomes its own line in zmyx. in shl, the line is, as she says, "there's light on you and i want to grab it and take a look". in zmyx, the line is "there's a light on you that i don't see on others". this is, at most, a reference—and zmyx isn't the only bl that references other media! this is a silly, petty argument, in my opinion, and frankly annoying as hell. if it were a crime to reference any other media in the same genre as the media doing the referencing, we'd miss out on so much. to me, this reference doesn't read as an appropriation, but as a nod of appreciation to another bl which was heavily censored. also, if her claims are anything to go by, and zmyx did film "years ago", it's possible that, actually, zmyx used the line before shl did. even if that isn't the case, who fucking cares? genuinely, i think this is a stupid point and i hate it.

she thinks the actors made a mess of the show by not playing the roles in the specific way bl roles are "meant" to be played. we could spend years arguing about the "right" way to play a bl role, but to me, it sounds like she has a very specific idea of the roles bl actors must fit into and fulfil—specifically, that they must play an exaggerated, unrealistic mimicry of gay male relationships, or else it's a "bad" bl. i don't know AvenueX's sexuality, but as a person of the homosexual persuasion myself, if not one attracted to men, i personally don't like exaggerated mimicries of gay relationships, and i would wager a guess that many gay and bisexual men are probably in this same boat. when i watch a bl show, i prefer that the dynamics are driven not by the idea of what gay people should act like, but by 1. the plot, 2. their own characterisations and character motives, and 3. their relationships and dynamics with each other. in this regard, while zmyx isn't a "good bl", i think it's a good depiction of the relationship between two characters. i don't say this to be holier-than-thou, or to claim i'm somehow "better" than other people who do like specific exaggerated tropes in bl; i say this because i feel like AvenueX entirely disregards the possibility that the thing that she doesn't like about zmyx are things that other people will.

(additionally, while she never says this, i get the impression that one of the things she doesn't like is that the chemistry between the characters isn't the "typical" bl chemistry. i, frankly, don't give a fuck. i think the leads have fantastic chemistry, and it annoys me that she thinks they "made a mess" just because they don't fit the idea she has for what a bl "should" look like. i, for one, think it's a good thing that we're moving away from caricatured depictions of gay people in media, especially danmei and dangai. myself and other asian gay people, especially east asian gay people, have pointed out how harmful caricatured versions of gay asian characters are.)

(also, as an unrelated, and petty aside, if i remember correctly, she's a british film school grad, and not to be judgemental, but, yeah, i can fucking see it.)

so, yeah. that's my two fen and indignance on this. but, hey, what do i know, i'm just some random tumblr user ¯\_(ツ)_/¯