genderqueernerd

[genderqueernerd]

deep need for wen ning & wwx to get caught up in that Magic Incense That Shows You Teen Sex Fantasies from the extras or something similar and they wind up in this like. opulent dark palace stocked with guards concubines etc and wwx is enjoying it and being like ‘huh i don’t remember this exact fantasy but i don’t remember a lot of stuff lol’ meanwhile wen ning is just going gongzi let’s just leave right now immediately in the background. wwx is of course like haha, wen ning, sorry you’re uncomfortable but i just wanna see how i look in thi–wait was that me getting dragged into the main hall. why is my clothing fetchingly ripped. i wasn’t nearly as cognizant of my noncon fantasies in my teens and i feel like i’d remember… wait the dark prince observing my struggles looks familiar

wwx:

wwx: wen ning is this YOUR–

wen ning: oh look over there the door out. or a pool to drown myself in, either one is good, bye

[genderqueernerd]

Thoughts swirling in my head about Northern Vs Southern pronunciation and how the former seems to be more commonly taught to foreigners looking to learn the language even though it's easier to use... The standard... Pronunciation.

[genderqueernerd]

yelling laozu

tis I, euro from twt. I come to bring you ....

the yelling laozu

[genderqueernerd]

This encapsulates a lot of my thoughts as CN-diaspora. I hope y'all will read it with an open heart.

About the pronunciation guide in the MXTX official EN books

I’m still staving off my knee jerk reaction, but I managed to gather my thoughts about the pronunciation guide in the MXTX official EN books. How it’s going to go is disclaimer > what happened > is it that bad > how I feel > what else can be done.

Disclaimer

I’ll do my best to be nuanced and neutral-ish about it, but seeing as this is relatively personal I’m also going to make sure I don’t minimize myself and how I feel. Idk why you’d be looking for nuance on social media, but I do think there’s a certain degree of responsibility that we have over the things we say in public. 

This isn’t meant to denigrate the team of people who worked on the EN official translation or the people who have bought/are planning to buy the books, I’m not looking to yuck your yum. Please enjoy the things that make you happy, especially during the holiday season! 

I’m mostly neutral about the books, actually. Since I have the good fortune to be fluent in CN and as CN diaspora living in an Asian majority country, I have access to the traditional CN and simplified CN versions. CN people and diaspora are not a monolith as they are diverse with vastly different perspectives, so my experience is most likely not universal and I’m not trying to speak on behalf of anyone. 

What happened

So if you or your friends bought a copy of the MXTX EN official translation, you’ll notice that the book contains a pronunciation guide so we can learn how to say the names of our favorite characters and places. They use English sounds and words to describe how these words should be pronounced, which at best is a fair approximation of the actual pronunciation, and at worst is unfortunately wrong. 

I have seen pronunciation guides like these in books like English fantasy novels and if I remember correctly [Language] for Dummies books, and I do think that they do serve the purpose they were written for, but I am curious why alternatives such as hanyu pinyin, the standardized romanization system I personally learned when I went to a Chinese medium school, bopomofo (zhuyin/kaopu I think?) which is another common CN learning system medium that uses symbols, or even the International Phonetic Alphabet (or other pronunciation guides like Wades-Giles) were not used. 

Is it that bad? 

Of course, EN and CN are vastly different languages and in many cases you’d be hard pressed to find the equivalent sound of a word in another language. It would be difficult for a non native speaker to pronounce sounds if they’re not familiar with it or if they haven’t encountered it before. It’s normal to want to be able to say the names of people and places right, and fans of the work will be referring to the pronunciation guide to be able to do so. 

Unfortunately, some of it is wrong, and that means that people who are trying to learn will be relying on a source that isn’t exactly correct. I do think it’s a good thing to help people learn, and I think putting in effort is better than no effort at all, but does this approximation of pronunciation actually help, or does it spread misinformation that causes more harm than good? 

How I feel

For a lot of CN diaspora (I use this here because I am CN diaspora) the pronunciation of names is a sensitive, personal topic. I have an English name, a Chinese surname and a Chinese given name with two syllables, and some of my earliest memories involve me just not bothering to introduce myself with my Chinese name because I didn’t think they would be able to pronounce it correctly, and I didn’t think they would bother trying to do so in the first place. 

In fact, I’ve had my name made fun of or just dismissed outright because it was too much to deal with, and that did make me wonder why more difficult (to my younger self) names like Siobhan and Sean and Dean and Blaiyyid were pronounced correctly, but not mine. Am I not worthy of personhood too? 

Combine that with the complicated feelings surrounding knowing English because I come from a country colonized by British rule for centuries and being told that the English that I know is less than simply because I don’t come from Australia, the US or the UK, and well. That knowledge that I am seen to be less than just because I don’t fit into this specific niche box does kind of hurt. 

I haven’t made fun of the pronunciation guide and I just don’t really want to interact with the books in any way right now because my feelings are still too raw about it, but I do know people who make fun of the guide as a way to cope. If I don’t laugh about it or maintain some distance in some way, I’ll cry, actually, so I’m off social media for a bit until the book hype dies down. It would help a lot if there’s a specific tag for the MXTX EN translation of the books, actually!

I do think that making fun of the guide feels different when it comes from a person who is CN or CN diaspora versus from a person who isn’t - the thing is that this name issue is something that a lot of people live with, and it’s not something I can step away from whenever it’s convenient for me, and it doesn’t feel great to have something that I can’t and don’t want to change about myself be made fun of. It’s only funny when we’re laughing together, and frankly, the pronunciation guide was actually pretty offensive and reminiscent of a lifetime of microaggressions stacked on top of each other for me. 

If you’re making light of the situation, I do think it is your right to, but if you could spare a moment to consider how your friends feel about it, just to hold space for them if they need it, that would be really great, especially if you’re non-CN. It’s also perfectly valid to just not deal with it at all!

What else can be done

The thing is, I’m kind of baffled that this was the route chosen when there were serviceable alternatives like an introduction to pinyin or a QR code leading to an audio pronunciation guide. This pronunciation guide could have been left out and the readers who were invested would have found a way to find the correct pronunciation, since these works have live actions, donghua, audio dramas and a robust fan base to draw from. Google also has an audio pronunciation aid. 

I guess how I feel about this is that it’s not enough to just have the intention not to offend - hurt is still hurt and harm is still harm, whether it’s the feelings of people who have had their names erased and made fun of, or the feelings of people who rely on this guide to do better but unfortunately fall short through no fault of their own. 

For the record and just to cover all my bases, it doesn’t make a difference to me if the pronunciation guide was okayed by the translator team or if it was written by someone who’s CN or CN diaspora, this is just meant to be me getting how I feel out into the void - I’m not particularly interested in debating any of the points I’ve made here, but please be at least civil in the replies etc and keep in mind that CN people aren’t a monolith and that they can and do disagree with each other.

I’d like to think that this pronunciation guide was well intentioned and done out of ignorance, probably because the alternative makes me really sad, but now that I’ve said it and it’s out there, I think we can do better, even if it’s not that deep for some of us.

From this Twitter thread

[genderqueernerd]

white eyes and chinese looks: the observation effect in fandom racism

this essay originally looked a lot different. it was originally just about whitewashing in the mo xiang tong xiu fandom. however i’m uncomfortable writing that essay. and not because i’m scared people will be mean to me, or because i don’t know what to say.

the problem is that in mxtx fandom, public incidents of racism are consistently mined for entertainment. and whether or not the white people who enjoy drama sleuthing intend it, turning racism into a spectacle creates a chilling effect on people of color’s ability to talk about racism. 

i’m going to talk about this in three parts: first, a case study in racism as entertainment; second, my personal reflections on that event; third, the broader historical-cultural context for talking about china, suffering, and entertainment.

Keep reading

[genderqueernerd]

Lock screen my friend's hamster!

Last song: Sleepless by Math Class omg pls support them!

Last photo: my own hamster 土豆！

Tagged by the always wonderful @sarah-yyy 🌸 to post my lock screen, the last song I played, the most recent photo on my camera roll

Lockscreen is Laopo. Ofc. Who else would it be. Last song is KUN’s ‘You Can Be My Girlfriend’ (which high key makes me want to scream YES KUN JIE JIE WILL BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND) and my last photo is a picture of my potato face chilling in my mother’s garden wearing the *shudder* bucket hat from the KimTrue Laopo endorsement purchase ☀️

Tagging, but please don’t feel obligated to do this, @genderqueernerd @weilongfu @zhongwans @xinxiaojie @yeolyeah @lucres

[genderqueernerd]

Tagged by the always wonderful @sarah-yyy 🌸 to post my lock screen, the last song I played, the most recent photo on my camera roll

Lockscreen is Laopo. Ofc. Who else would it be. Last song is KUN’s ‘You Can Be My Girlfriend’ (which high key makes me want to scream YES KUN JIE JIE WILL BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND) and my last photo is a picture of my potato face chilling in my mother’s garden wearing the *shudder* bucket hat from the KimTrue Laopo endorsement purchase ☀️

Tagging, but please don’t feel obligated to do this, @genderqueernerd @weilongfu @zhongwans @xinxiaojie @yeolyeah @lucres

[genderqueernerd]

I think the stress of the pandemic has made all my weird twitch-jerk-head things much worse

[genderqueernerd]

Your honour,

This man. I want his mouth stuffed.

With dick, or with good food, or with a gag as he's weeping it doesn't matter.

Please.

I'm begging y'all.

Thank you.

Word of Honor Challenge ↳ Characters that I wanted to see more of : Jing Bei Yuan l Lord Seven [1 /∞]

[genderqueernerd]

I love that I have friends who are chill with me just up and leaving for like months and when I pop back in they're like 'HEY, how ya doing!'

and like people who understand that I have limited social energy and literally cannot deal with high-energy consumption people most of the time.

[genderqueernerd]

good morning cnovel readers you are not immune to anti northern/central asian racism

[genderqueernerd]

Based on that video of Angela Chang https://youtu.be/p__9AVS_M1k

Ref pic here:

[genderqueernerd]

This is so cute! hahaha, I’m just very basic rn :>

Guuuuuuys! I just found the cutes thing on picrew! Just look what I did:

Link: https://picrew.me/image_maker/70566 I thought maybe some of you might want to give it a try too. Tagging some people I think might enjoy it. No pressure as always! @iwenttomordor @moony-artnstuff @maikhiwi00 @jo-yo @artsywaterlily and everyone else who wants to give it a try.

[genderqueernerd]

Catgirls + Wenzhou

Genderbend Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu!

Commission done for Maladangao on twitter <3

Commissions are still open, dm me on twitter or here if you want one!

10USD per character

5USD per chibi

[genderqueernerd]

Art Commissions open!

Hi, this is Euro. 

I have 2 (or 3) more semesters of school before I graduate, but my financial aid refuses to pay for the extension. Help put me through school <3

5 USD - per chibi 10 USD - per character

More info and examples of my art on my carrd: https://ficwriter103.carrd.co/

I can do NSFW, dead dove, furry etc etc. Contact me on twitter, email, or here <3

[genderqueernerd]

oh my god. 

OH MY GOD. 

I DIE. I DIIIIIE

Modern au where zzs proposes to his bf if you're up for it? 🥺🙏

Hey Nonnie, I hope you don’t mind a somewhat spicy modern au proposal fic 😆 🌶 🍋 coz I wrote it hehe

Tagging @genderqueernerd for the inspiration for this. Always remember kids; true friends are the ones who see pretty butt plugs and go, hm, should send to my friend because they could get inspiration from this 🌹

Dedicated to all my Shanren-men 🌸 I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and that you are safe and happy wherever you are in this big wide world ❤️

—

It occurs to him, quite belatedly, that Lao Wen wouldn’t have minded if the ring he was going to propose to him with, was a bedazzled cock ring. Something incredibly flash but stylish at the same time. Made of supple cow leather. Tan? Or perhaps a warm and deeper shade? Something that would look good nestled on the base of his cock, glinting amongst the dark curls.

If anything, Zishu muses with his brushing against the seam of the Tiffany blue box, the perverted bastard would actually prefer it.

They were an unusual couple. From the get-go they’d run hot and fast and burning like forest fires through every rule book that logically tells each step of what constitutes as proper relationship markers. Where others would have named it as ‘love at first sight’, Zishu has unabashedly and adoringly called Lao Wen his very own ‘professional stalker at first sight’; all those shamelessly showing up where he knew Zishu would be, the always having Zishu’s preferred snacks and drinks at hand, the relentless flirting...

He had tried to get rid of the man very early on by saying that he was straight. Lao Wen had merely calmly smiled and said that there was more than one type of love in the world.

And in the end, what were Zishu’s walls in the face of the tides that swept him into the orbit of his Lao Wen.

So now they were here. With Zishu contemplating the engagement ring he bought, standing in the halogen glow of the street lamp outside their window, wondering a little if he should buy something Lao Wen would actually use.

Maybe a butt plug? Matching butt plugs with a pretty rosette? Or the kind with their names on it? The thought of Lao Wen wearing the weight of their love in such an intimate space has him momentarily weak with desire and soft with love. In truth, he already knows that whatever he gets Lao Wen, his beloved will love it all the same.

Said to-be fiancé is sound asleep in their bed, hair messy and drooling into the pillow with his naked ass bared to the night air. Something he hadn’t expected to like before moving in with Lao Wen was how much he likes sharing space with him. Even if they were doing little else but play games and scroll aimlessly through Weibo, he loves it; this physical being of existing next to another.

Resolving himself, he closes his fist around the box and climbs into bed. Draping himself over Lao Wen’s back, Zishu smiles, pressing adoring kisses down the side of his sleep warm face, pressing chest to bare back as he says, “I love you. Marry me.”

In truth, Zishu doesn’t expect a reply. He is already calculating how to say these words again in the light of day, but as if seized by some unexpected curl of fate, Lao Wen’s eyes shoot wide open, lips parting in a gasp.

Twisting around under him, slender hands come up to cup his cheeks. Disbelief and delight sparkling in the shadows of his eyes, Lao Wen croaks out, “Say that again.”

Zishu huffs, biting his inner cheek as he stretches to flick their bedside lamp. The light suffuses the night dark with a warm glow and he shuffles close to slide their lips together in a slow kiss.

“I love you. Marry me and let’s be a family, hm?”

Another kiss follows that. Tinged with a smile and the taste of happy tears. “Yeah.” Zishu hears breathily murmured. “Yes, a thousand times yes!”

[genderqueernerd]

The original design is from astronichter on Twitter! Please go follow them!

https://twitter.com/astronichter/status/1392946807660032007?s=20