Lovely article+illustrations by Kimono Ichiba (via Tanpopo <3), overviewing famous "scary"patterns... which are in fact often auspicious as traditional Japanese patterns ;)
I believe I have them all on the blog somewhere but it's nice having them in one place so let's go!
Spiderwebs (kumo no su)
In ancient China, spider were seen as auspicious messengers connecting Heaven to Earth.
As the spider catches its prey in its web, spiderweb came to signify "grasping happiness".
Apparently during Edo period, prostitutes and geisha used spiderweb patterned items as a good luck charm (meaning something like "this customer will come back").
A very famous spiderweb depiction is the Lady Rokujo ukiyoe [焔 honô (the flame of passion)] by female artist Uemura Shoen. Wisteria caught in the web could mean ``I hope [Prince Genji] will come tonight'' which is pretty sad considering her story T_T
Skulls (dokuro)
Exact name for human remains pattern is "nozarashi" (lit. "weather beaten") ie bones scattered in a field. This depicts a corpse turned to bones/unveiled from its grave by the elements.
Skulls are thought to ward off evil and bad luck. Bones can also symbolize a do-or-die spirit, or hope for rebirth after death.
OP stresses a theory linking bones pattern to a buddhist saying 色即是空 shikisokuzekū "form is emptiness, matter is void, all is vanity". An interpetation is that we'll all turn to dust one day so we're all equal.
Bones patterns are often seen during Obon (Festival of the dead) season.
Monsters, ogres and ghosts (yôkai / oni / yûrei)
Monsters patterns were then worn to ward off bad luck and evil spirits. Reasoning is: let's repel scary things by wearing an even scarier monster!
Fearsome monsters were especially use by people with dangerous jobs, like Edo period firemen.
Firemen often had the lining of their heavy fire attire (火事装束 kajishouzoku) embelished with lavish designs of brave heroes and fantastic monsters. It was both a talisman and a way to show that they did not fear danger or death.
Another reason behing monsters patterns is the Edo period love for "scary" entertainements, be it ghost stories, parlor or other types of games, art (see for ex. Utagawa Kuniyoshi), etc. And Edo city dwellers were all about being fashionable so a monster pattern would have been considered quite iki!
There is some spicy Chinese discourse about the OTW Election happening on social media right now
Note: This post contains some terms that readers might be unfamiliar with. I've attached ℹ️ links to those terms, which will direct readers to the relevant Wikipedia page.
A Chinese candidate, Tiffany G, is running for the 2022 OTW ℹ️ Board Election [election website] that is currently taking place.
The OTW, in case my followers are not aware, is the nonprofit organization that runs AO3 ℹ️, the world's largest fanfiction hosting web archive, as well as the world's 7th most popular entertainment website [source].
The AO3 website is banned in China, because it hosts content that violates China's censorship laws (see more details at the bottom of this post).
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I wanted to see what Chinese twitter had to say about this Chinese board candidate, so I picked a few tweets at random to translate.
Translation: It's a bit exasperating that this Tiffany G really thinks doing this to ao3 would be a good. But even if ao3 was the same as JìnJiāng, dà diē ("Big Brother") still wouldn't accept it. She is not in line with the global mindset; it wasn't enough for her to "castrate" (impose censorship) in China, she has to go abroad in the spirit of "castrating" other countries……
Respectfully, she should not placed in a position of power.
Translation: 🤡This Tiffany G is a "prawn" (bully/mean girl ETA: I've been informed that in this case "prawn" 虾 refers to a Xiao Zhan fan group who take credit for reporting AO3 to the Chinese authorities and getting it banned)...Who else but a prawn would claim that AO3 was blacklisted because of értóng sèqíng (CP ℹ️)...going so far as misrepresent the charges that were brought against AO3; it's a lie [to claim that] AO3 is a place full of CP.
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Can ppl not wash down the AO3 Tiffany G thing with “oh you’re just xenophobic/racist” when tons of Chinese ppl from mainland China are telling y’all that this is a serious issue???
有些老外对威胁他们创作自由的人完全没有戒备心,居然还帮人家说话… 我要吐了,你们是生活在真空里的吗
— Commander Goose | Levi’s Delivery Service (@CDR_Goose) August 12, 2022 [source]
Translation: There are some foreigners (Westerners) who are totally, dangerously oblivious to those who might threaten their freedom. I don't get how decent people would [defend Tiffany G]... I want to throw up, do y'all 'live in a cave' or what?
— BrokenMesa (@yawezh0902) August 12, 2022 [source]
Translation: Tiffany G says that she's been an AO3 user for 10 years, and that back then she messed up on her college entrance exam being on AO3. That's about how long I've been on AO3. Back in those days, (Chinese) fan communities could speak openly in the mainstream [without worrying about being investigated]. No need to go on a Western fansite like AO3.
Whereas now, regardless of whether you go to Bilibili (B站 ℹ️) or AcFun (A站 ℹ️), the ACG ℹ️ fan culture is the same: any content that government censors might target has been taken down on all [of the Chinese fansites]. You have no way of knowing when the authorities might come for someone.
It's reasonable for me to assume [Tiffany G] is lying, and that her story is fabricated. Smells a little fishy.
⚠️I had a really hard time with this particular tweet, so there's a good chance I mistranslated some things.
— 喘气等待世界毁灭 (@Sierranopatient) August 12, 2022 [source]
Translation: I discussed tiffany g with a friend. [My friend] made me realize that the purpose of [Tiffany G]'s proposals is to try bring AO3 into the mainstream. There's a whole pile of homogeneous apps/platforms in China and that's more than enough for me. Don't make me watch [AO3 turn into yet another mainstream platform] in my lifetime.
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Additionally, one twitter account has been leaving a bunch of replies on various Tiffany G tweets [source], endorsing her candidacy with the same copy-pasted comment:
我是Tiffany G的朋友,我认识Tiffany G很多年,Tiffany G非常有理想正气,我看不惯对Tiffany G泼脏水的人,特意声援支持Tiffany G,ao3不是法外之地,讲好中国好故事,弘扬中国正能量,人人有责,请大家支持Tiffany G
— 小潘女权日报 (@pyx18122270719) August 12, 2022 [source]
Translation: I am Tiffany G's friend. I've known Tiffany G many years. Tiffany G is very righteous and a paragon. I cannot bear to see Tiffany G attacked by mudslingers and I intend to support Tiffany G — ao3 is not above the law. [People should] say good things about China and spread Chinese positivity. It's everyone's responsibility. Please support Tiffany G
The account might be a sockpuppet ℹ️.
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At the beginning of this post, I alluded to the fact that AO3 is banned in China. The ban took place in 2020 [source]. The site is blocked by China's internet firewall.
People in China can still access AO3 if they circumvent the firewall with a VPN. Ironically, China's decision to block AO3 actually resulted in AO3 gaining even more Chinese visitors and members, many of whom had never heard of the website until after it was banned.
In Tiffany G's candidate bio [link] on the OTW election website, she mentions that she works for the government.
I've seen a few Chinese fans on tumblr expressing concerns [source], [source], that she is a government plant, and that if elected, she would use her position on the board to access private user information and doxx AO3 users living in China, reporting their activities to the Chinese authorities.
ETA: I should clarify that these concerns are unfounded. OTW board members do not have access to users' private data. Even if this conspiracy theory were true, OTW board members don't have this kind of power.
I did not find anything explicitly pro-censorship in Tiffany G's campaign platform, however several of the statements she made in the OTW Election Q&A [source] sounded like pro-censorship "dog whistles" ℹ️ to me.
Notably, she implied that AO3 was hosting illegal content. She quickly backtracked when questioned by the interviewer, claiming that her words had been misinterpreted.
The twitter account I mentioned above that has been endorsing her candidacy also implied that AO3 hosts illegal content.
AO3 is an American website subject to American laws. All of the content hosted by AO3 is legal in the USA. Of course, Chinese laws are very different from American laws. A lot of the content on AO3 is in violation of China's very stringent censorship laws.