oh why disrobed truth people eke solemn lies as truth that's your only truth
sunshine is laughing in my balcony
you arm him about aqua sarcophagi
i accidentally let the refrigerator die
jews are arabs are jews slew gardyloo grimy fremen at their borders
your honeycomb heart logarithmic
picks a thousand in a room of thousand
not i or moi thousand one minus one
kill or be killed pressroom briefings chinese first-class red tie
you're beautiful no one interprets you
you're gorgeous and there goes holi
a handful of halogen love potions currency speculation tipsy
sea and spring and chrysanthemums
someone drowing herself with you as you
with your reflection your planetary influence your impaired glutes
tax avoidance for coke zero coitus
someone is walking like a bazaar with russia eyes with an individualistic salt
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regarding sumeru...
hi friends! this is my quick take on what's happening with hoyoverse, the general design of sumeru, and the stream of racism allegations that have resurged recently. i think it's worth trying to analyze why hoyoverse designed sumeru the way it looks like so far (and because i want to add my two cents to the discourse lol).
here are some context:
hoyoverse is a chinese game dev company
sumeru is inspired by the people, religions, architecture, and cultures of south asian countries (india, nepal, pakistan, etc.) and countries in SWANA* (egypt, iran, the UAE, turkey, etc.)
we are only getting a portion of sumeru and 3 new characters in the 3.0 update
here are some of the main problems players have with the current status of sumeru:
the combination of the different countries and their cultures and religions
the lack of diversity
the general lack of effort put into sumeru's design, given the release of the fatui harbingers and the outstanding quality demonstrated in the interlude teaser
in order to address these concerns, i think it's important to think about hoyoverse and the stances its employees have on this issue. this does not mean i am playing devil's advocate or excusing the company's ignorance, but i think it's critical to understand the potential root causes.
because hoyoverse is based in china, their standard of diversity is much, much lower compared to that of other countries, such as the US and canada, which experience decades worth of immigration and are known as melting pots. coupled with east asia's internalized colorism and xenophobia, mainland folks simply do not get much exposure to POC. this means two things. first, they might not understand why global players are so adamant about POC representation and diversity – the developers may not even know how to go about bringing diversity because what they think is diverse is different from our understanding. second, hoyoverse will prioritize its east asian, particularly its chinese, fanbases, and let's be real, any character that's not flour-pale will not be as popular with the latter.**
the lack of popularity then becomes a financial issue for hoyoverse. hoyoverse generates a large portion of its money from the wishing system. it's thriving because so many people whale for 5-star characters and C6-ing them. if hoyoverse's largest community stops pulling for characters, they won't be able to keep up and maintain high quality with future productions (both for genshin and other games).
i promise y'all that there are at least a few designers and staff members in hoyoverse who want diversity in the same way that we do, who want unique characters with intricate lore, and who are willing to put in the effort. but at the end of the day, they are just designers and many of them will be forced to revise darker-skinned character drafts.
besides literal money, another currency that hoyoverse is limited to is time. one thing that i think hoyoverse hasn't disappointed fans in is the consistency of the game. there is always new content, and even during its hiatus in response to the shanghai mass quarantine in may, they provided mini events and extended the banners to make it more accessible for F2P players. while having constant releases is wonderful and retains interest, that means quality will be compromised in other aspects.
in this case, it means the design and intention put into sumeru. to elaborate, by design, i don't just mean character designs (though this is debatable because the community has a pretty bad habit of hating new characters, especially 5-stars, but then growing to love them) but also the geography, architecture, and personality of sumeru.
as sumeru is marketed right now, its concept is that it is a collage of all the aforementioned countries and their respective cultures. unless sumeru is separated into geographical sections to represent the distinct cultural influences, to mish-mash these countries' religions, peoples, and traditions together is disrespectful and reinforces harmful monolithic stereotypes.***
sumeru will be a literal game-changing region because it has so much information to bring: in-depth lore, the dendro element and everything that entails, etc. this is a pivoting point, so that's why it's frankly saddening and anticlimactic for hoyoverse to not put in the effort. i understand that in update 3.0, we will only be getting a taste of sumeru, so while it's hard to judge the production of the region with the limited information we have right now, it's important to push for diversity and representation while we still can and also give hoyoverse time to make the necessary changes correctly.
to summarize: i don't think hoyoverse is being intentionally or actively racist. i think it comes from a place of ignorance, so i personally think it's better to approach this problem with constructive criticism than to send hate messages to hoyoverse staff members who work so hard regardless. if we don't tell them why and what they're doing is wrong, then the game developers won't know how to resolve the concerns. furthermore, sumeru hasn't officially come out yet, and what we have seen in the teasers will be more refined and polished in the released product. i don't think we need to panic or retaliate, i just think we should remind hoyoverse so that they don't put representation on the back burner.
as for solutions, sending messages through different media platforms, emails, etc. has worked in the past (e.g. during genshin's 1st anniversary).**** but it doesn't stop there. just like every other region released so far, sumeru isn't just limited to the 3.0 patch; we will continue getting content for it for the rest of the game, so unless we see results, we have to be consistent with the feedback. that looks like continuing to send messages until we see tangible, permanent change, not being complacent in the lack of POC representation, and more.
i probably missed a lot of great points out there, but this is all my last brain cell can come up with. please repost and add your own thoughts because the more ideas, the better! (if you want to repost this onto other platforms, just make sure you credit me!!)
hope everyone gets their kazuhas, heizous, and yoimiyas in 2.8!!!
--
*i recognize that the name "the middle east" has colonial roots, but because the region is so popularly known as such, i'm using it so that no one gets confused.
edit: thanks to @najmaviper for pointing this out, but a decolonized term that is often used is SWANA. you can find more information at the initiative's website: https://swanaalliance.com/about#:~:text=S.W.A.N.A.%20is%20a%20decolonial%20word,contain%20and%20dehumanize%20our%20people.
**this is not to say that all individuals from south asian or SWANA are darker-skinned, but it's crucial to push for change to help gamers who are tan, brown, and black. this is especially important to do with games as popular as genshin impact because it can cause ripple effects.
***here's a tweet that states this argument eloquently: https://twitter.com/timelysumeru/status/1546500639970435072
****i know another method that has worked has been leaving a bunch of bad reviews in app stores, but i don't think it's applicable right now since we know so little about sumeru. if the problem persists, sure, but i think sending bad reviews right now just antagonizes the situation even further.
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Unsafe
Spells and Artefacts
• Lantern of Diogenes (lamp): Forces the bearer to relentlessly detect and forcefully reject falsehood. Extended exposure may cause Apostasy, Atheism, Antiauthoritarianism, Public Nudity, Obscenity, Poor Grammar, Debasement of Currency, and Ostracism.
• Curse of The Chinese Room (spatial curse): Renders the inhabitants unable to subjectively comprehend language. They retain the ability to respond coherently, and will continue to do so, disguising the Curse. They will effortlessly answer questions and converse, despite having no subjective clue what is being said, even by them.
• Laplace’s Demons (set of figurines): “Observes” all quantum mechanical interactions within its sphere of influence, collapsing waveforms and rendering local Reality Classically Deterministic. Exposure to this “Determinism Field” interferes with cognition in higher mammals and with cellular metabolism in all living organisms, as chemical equilibria are shifted by Entropy behaving Classically
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🧑🔬🧑🔬🧪🧪 Chemical elements (化学元素) 🥼🥼⚗️⚗️
I have learned something amazing which is that the Chinese word for sodium (Na) is … 钠 (nà)! If only they all matched like that!!
Ex: 低钠酱油 (dī nà jiàng yóu) - low sodium soy sauce
Sometimes you may see the word 卤 (鹵/滷,lǔ, halogen or salt) used to describe dishes or sauces, such as 卤肉饭 (lǔ ròu fàn, braised pork rice), 打卤面 (dǎ lǔ miàn, noodles with thick gravy), 卤虾油 (lǔ xiā yóu, shrimp sauce).
Here is the first three rows of the periodic table!
Hydrogen (H) - 氢 (qīng)
Helium (He) - 氦 (hài)
Lithium (Li) - 锂 (lǐ)
Beryllium (Be) - 铍 (pí)
Boron (B) - 硼 (péng)
Carbon (C) - 碳 (tàn)
Nitrogen (N) - 氮 (dàn)
Oxygen (O) - 氧 (yǎng)
Fluorine (F) - 氟 (fú)
Neon (Ne) - 氖 (nǎi)
Sodium (Na) - 钠 (nà)
Magnesium (Mg) - 镁 (měi)
Aluminum (Al) - 铝 (lǚ)
Silicon (Si) - 硅 (guī)
Phosphorus (P) - 磷 (lín)
Sulfur (S) - 硫 (líu)
Chlorine (Cl) - 氯 (lǜ)
Argon (Ar) - 氩 (yà)
And a few more useful ones:
Iron (Fe) - 铁 (tiě)
Gold (Au) - 金 (jīn)
Silver (Ag) - 银 (yín)
Examples:
地铁 (dì tiě) - subway; short for (地下铁道, “underground iron path”)
金银 (jīn yín) - gold and silver, can be used to refer to ancient currency
穿金戴银 (chuān jīn dài yín) - to be dressed in gold (clothes) and silver (ornamentation) (idiom)
Radical practice
Notice how all of the above (except gold) have a radical based on 金 (钅, metal, gold), 气 (air, gas), or 石 (stone). Makes sense based on each element right? ;)
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Money in Mandarin
The topic of money in Mandarin has always been very confusing for me, so I hope writing this post will help me order my ideas.
The official currency of the People's Republic of China is the 人民币 (rénmínbì), abbreviated as RMB and ¥, which literally means "people's currency". However, its ISO code CNY stands for "Chinese yuan". This is where confusion may arise, as the 元 (yuán) is the basic unit of the RMB, but the word is also used to refer to the Chinese currency generally, especially in international contexts. Another confusing aspect is the fact that 元 is used in formal writing, while 块 (kuài) is used in colloquial, everyday language.
One yuan is divided into 10 角 (jiǎo), and one 角 is further subdivided into 10 分 (fēn), so one yuan is equal to 100 分. However, 分 is not very commonly used nowadays. 角's informal name is 毛 (máo). In spoken Chinese, 毛 and 分 are often omitted.
Chinese bills (纸币, zhǐbì) include 1角, 5角, 1元, 5元, 10元, 20元, 50元, and 100元. There are 1角, 5角, and 1元 coins (硬币, yìngbì).
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