#jazıp

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actually if someone did truly read thru whatever those essays said can yall tell me if they are arguing that racism and ethnoreligious oppression isnt a massive issue in china today. i will have a field day over here if so

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some people on twitter have started talking out m*t* and shitember's racism, which is good, but they're calling it fetishization of arabic culture. I just wanted to ask if it's accurate, or if it should be called something else?

this is a great question! the answer is no, starember and mxtx are not fetishizing arab culture. they are directly fetishizing central asian cultures. this is a very important point that i need to stress to everyone engaging with tgcf, cnovels, and related Han media.

to introduce myself again, i am a MENA-casian. if you're unfamiliar with those terms, i'll break them down for you. it means that half of my family is from the middle east/north africa (MENA) while the other half is from central/inner asia (casia). all of this is to say that i am very familiar with middle eastern and arab cultures, and i am even more familiar with the distinction between arab cultures and casian cultures. because of this, i feel confident saying that in no way was the depiction of central asians in any of mxtx's novels influenced by modern arab culture. the misinformation being spread saying it is directly harms the central asian groups working to gain recognition and equality in our own countries. we exist, we are here, and we deserve for our struggles to be recognized as our own.

so, why do people think that racism against casians is actually against arab people? it's because very few people know what casians look like. i don't know a singular person that isn't casian themselves that could describe traditional casian features and clothing. despite me having extremely and loudly central asian facial features, people have seen me and confused me for an indigenous american, a turk, an arab, an east asian, a pacific islander, a south american, an italian; you name it, i've been called it. so, i can understand why people see the poorly construed representations of casians and immediately think of another, much more visible culture. there is also quite a bit of casian traditional clothing that lets me understand the confusion a bit! to one unfamiliar with casian or arab cultures, these might cause someone to mix them up

these were all obtained from a quick google search of the names of some traditional casian (mostly kyrgyz) headdresses, so if you're interested in seeing more, they're very easy to find. i'll add an image description once i get back from work, but if someone wants to do it in the meantime, that would be greatly appreciated!

looking at these images, you can see many casian cultures use elaborate fabric wraps around our heads, similar to some arab cultures. like most arab cultures, casia has also been incredibly influenced by islam, with the countries now being a majority islamic rather than our historical majority of native totemistic religions. however, the similarity ends there. the islam practiced in arab cultures and the islam practiced here are two entirely different religions that do each other a disservice to compare them as similar. we are not arab, and the arab people are not central asian. the last time our cultures directly influenced each other is most likely around 4th century AD. so, really not a lot of overlap there, given the fact that it's been thousands of years since then

to sum it up, the racism and fetishization in starember's work, mxtx's works, and cmedia as a whole are not directed against arab cultures. they are a direct attack on central asian cultures, and saying otherwise takes away the exceedingly limited societal presence we have, so i would greatly appreciate it if those interested in helping casian visibility were all clear on this! barely anyone knows we exist, and those that have heard of us often don't even know what casia is. it is incredibly harmful to have the first big break we have in media discussing racist stereotypes against us be immediately attributed to any unrelated culture

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out of curiosity, why are you against the book publication?

to put it simply, i would rather die than have more westerners engage with eastern media without making a concentrated effort to understand eastern ideas, morals, and literature. online cnovel circles have already become so white-dominated that its absolutely exhausting to exist in these areas as a chinese person, and the official english publication just means that more people with no background knowledge and no desire to truly learn more are going to be filling online spaces with their own opinions and interpretations of something they dont understand. ive been in online cnovel circles for over 6 years now, and where it was previously an engaging, fun way to connect with other chinese diaspora and people who are interested in chinese culture, its now extremely tiring. every take i see is soaked in western perspective and influence, no one is truly listening to chinese voices, and even when we try to speak up, creating long, informative, polite posts to educate foreigners on our history, morals, culture, religion, practices, and literature, these posts are read and ignored, with people making no real effort to learn more about chinese culture beyond the few paragraphs that are placed onto their dash. its exhausting to constantly be educating people on our culture in a space where we previously were the dominant voices guiding the conversation. official publishing in the west just means more and more people who view our culture as something that has a disposable and surface-level influence on literature are going to be pouring into online spaces, and im far too tired to have anything remotely close to a positive emotion regarding that.

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hi, i wanted to ask if there are any slurs or some misleading in one way or another terms that are being used towards casian people/cultures in any language? of course just just answer if you want to educate on this subject, i couldn’t really find a lot online except one Russian word for ch. i was especially wondering if there are any Chinese words so i would recognise them if i’ll ever stumble across them during learning

of course i understand it might be a delicate subject so i’ll understand if you don’t want to answer this

yeah! i appreciate the intent. it's really important to know what to look out for and avoid. just please keep in mind i haven't lived in the east for 10 years now, i will miss a lot of the more current slang terms and i can't speak for ethnic groups outside of my own. i'm also writing this on about 2 hours of sleep after a long shift so i'm so sorry for how disjointed and messy the organization of the post is 😭😭

but! like you mentioned, for russian, ch*rki is a big one, along with chernozhopy and gastarbeiter (specifically against migrant casian workers in russia). these are pretty much the most common ones, everything else that gets thrown around is just your average islamophobic or sinophobic slur

in general, especially for chinese/eastern languages, youre really just looking for words that mean anything like barbarian/savage/beast and such. any play off genghis khan or mongoloid is also very often used as a derogatory against casians.

for chinese, the concept of a slur gets a bit trickier. there's obvious ones to avoid, like really anything calling someone a barbarian/savage, but otherwise racist insults can get very subtle and hard to avoid. for example, because a logographic writing system is used, most names of ethnic minorities are actually racist/xenophobic pejoratives. while they might be phonetically similar to the ethnic group's name, the characters selected to represent them almost always have the meaning of some kind of beast or barbaric connotation.

the easiest way to see this is with the 犭radical for dog. characters with this radical are very commonly used as the official name for various groups, such as tong/zhuang 獞, yao 猺, di 狄, and guo/lou 猓 (lolo 猓猓 and lahu/luohei 猓黑). some other common radicals used in derogatory names are 革 animal leather/hide, against northwestern "barbarian" groups, 羊 sheep, against nomadic northwestern herders, and any insect/reptile/beast/snake radical against southern and southeastern groups as a whole.

for example, my surname in chinese is ma 马/馬 for horse. the old saying is that ma was chosen because it sounded close to mohammed, and this is a common name for the casian muslims in china. it is said to be a common surname as a whole in china. the character chosen, however, is used as a surname almost exclusively in the northwest of the country by chinese muslims. the same goes for many other ethnic minorities, with the phonetics matching but us being labeled as beasts. growing up, i was often referred to as the "horse girl", not in the english farmgirl connotation, but as in likening me to livestock. the han adults in xinjiang would often make jokes about selling my siblings off to make some money, just like a farm animal. so, while ma might not be a racist insult, it's really important to look at chinese names for groups and individuals and look at what those characters are saying. if you don't try and dig deeper than the surface level impression you get, then you'll never see the layers of racism embedded into the language. these words and the context we have been spoken of for thousands of years creates an incredibly negative conditioning, leading people to internalize these racist concepts and connotations against us. it is a subtle, pervasive, invasion into mass consciousness that enforces stereotypes to the point that we have accepted these titles against us, identifying with them and using them as labels for ourselves willingly. there are some great papers (in english, too!) on ethnic logographic pejoratives i've seen; if you're interested, i can link some of my favourites!

for some more specific chinese examples, guizi 鬼子 and guilao 鬼佬 are both xenophobic terms used against both foreigners and ethnic minorities as a whole. laowai 老外 is a more neutral way to refer to foreigners that aren't asian that certainly isn't polite but isn't necessarily rude. but when it's used in reference to asian ethnicities, esp chinese minorities, it takes on a very xenophobic context. against uyghurs, there's chantou 缠头/纏頭, which is a derogatory reference to our traditional head coverings. additionally, any character that means slave in any context is used to refer to casians or seasians a lot, like the character named "gaoshan slave" in tian ya ke.

with the hui people, they are also a chinese ethnic minority, but pretty much generated half of the anti-casian language in chinese themselves. if you want to learn about racism and slurs against kyrgyz, uyghur, and kazakh people, read any hui article on casia/xinjiang. your vocabulary will extend an incredible amount

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how r u gonna be indigenous if ur asian ??? asia was never colonized stop appropriating terms that dont belong to u

thank you for the ask! ive been avoiding logging into tumblr for a couple days because i didnt want to deal with the incredible number of racist anons ive gotten, but this one question especially merits answering, so im breaking my “im not answering racist anons” and "log off for a bit when people are racist" rules! this one is gonna be kind of long, so it’s under a cut for the convenience of others. thank you again for your query!

ok uhm. anyways so in onmyoji i’m almost at level 59 which im super happy abt! I just hit 200 days iirc so i think thats p good progress, esp being in a v small guild w just friends. i love this guild sm but holy shit growing an acct in a tiny guild is hard. anyways . look at my sps

my pride and joy in this game is that i’ve managed to get TWO sp ubumes like. im shaking still just thinking about it. i love her so much. bt um. out of all my sps, only 1 ubume, shuten, and ootake are fullskilled it’s so bad. sp yama was my first sp and he still doesn’t have a single daruma in him…… child neglect. BUT !! i just got sp kingyo a couple days ago and im sooooooooooooo happy i love her so much shes the only sp i ever planned on sharding <3 she and kani-hime occupy my brain 24/7 theyre my daughters. my sp ren,,, he just kind of sits there honestly. being gay and whatever. miketsu sits there and activates my lesbianism but also does nothing outside of that. rn my skill plan is 12 to yama, 8 to kingyo, 12 to menreiki, and then start on my poor neglected ssrs, same priority w g6ing (ignoring the fact that i splurge g6d sp kingyo in a moment of weakness. a terrible decision but i stand by it). soul set wise,,,,,, i want to cry when i think abt their souls theyre genuinely so ugly it’s unreal. i have maybe two good souls and they just switch between whatever shiki im using at the time. i need to get off shadow souls so bad bro like literally all i use is shadow. im gonna try branching out to moving some shiki onto fortune cat, seductress, and fenikkusu, but I ,,, Dont Want To. OH ALSO LMAO I FORGOT ….. MENREIKI. so her event is going on rn, her sp JUST got released, and i got her on my 20th pull! I got a great haul this time with only 60 amus, im so happy mwah mwah rng gods kissing my forehead gently. anyways i finnaallly got a good dedicated puller, and she has a second life form!!! which fucks SO hard considering my teams main shiranui and sp ootake solely for their second forms. i love them so much theyre so fun. i cant wait to add sp menreiki into the mix in place of kamaitachi and make the most headache inducing realm raid team

but anyways. look at my ssrs.

here r my beloveds (sans ubume!). shiranui, kinnara, and enmusubi my loves <3 i will lay down my life for them. kinna, shira, orochi, and enmu are all fullskill, and once im done g6ing my sps im upgrading enmusubi and haku! those 5 r the only ones i use,, i definitely need to start using some more ssrs like menreiki, ootake, and higan, but im too poor to build them. ive had menreiki foreeeverr now, im planning on running her w dps sputen just to fuck with people, but shes completely unbuilt it’s so sad. that team is gonna be such a mess im planning on running the dps as menreiki, sputen, and shiranui. maybe kaguya and kamaitachi as supp once i shard kaguya. i will def lose most of the pvp i fight w that lineup but it wld also be so fucking funny to just bring a speeder/supp lineup that looks like a massive headache with looping but just put them on tanky slow dps builds. BUT! In the recent sp menreiki event, i got a bunch of new uncollecteds!!! i finally sharded hakuzosu (pls. pls his new skin is genuinely so…. god he deserves better), but i got ungaikyo from the frog collection scroll and miss suzuka gozen from the event scroll!! im soooo excited abt them, despite them being at the bottom of the ladder in building priority alksjflskjf. i desperately need ungaikyo to carry in a couple secret zones, but ill j have to wait a couple months until the shiki first in line are built. i dont rly have a use for suzuka atm, but i love her so much that i was gonna shard her right after kaguya :) because i have no fucking good orbers help me. but! in the event summons, i got a couple ssrs there too. uncollected was just ssr shuten, but i got dupe ibaraki, yoto-hime, and kinnara, all of which sans miss kinnara promptly got sold off to the shrine to feed hakuzosu. I have no use for double kinnara. I am building her regardless. i am in love with her

anyways im Planning on sharding kaguya and senhime. I just finished sharding haku, so i put feeding my sp yama on halt to get the lil fox boy up and running. I also rly need an orber that isnt oitsuki, so im gonna grab kaguya but im not v excited abt it. I definitely want senhime waaay moret but ,,, sadly orbs come first.

but !!!! that isnt the pride and joy of my acct !! the thing that keeps me going, the reason i wake up in the morning, the only true beauty in this world:

my ubume collection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

like i said earlier, i already have TWO sp ubumes :) so i only need 3 sr ubumes for my dream team <3. so far i have 2 sr ubumes, i just finished building the 2nd and im ready to start on the 3rd!! i have all of her available skins, im just waiting for smth holy to come down and make NE give us her golden crane skin event again so i can get that.,,, the skin makes me act up so much it’s unreal shes so fucking gorgeous like

uuuwiuifossufoisudfoiasfpodiasoiudf ma’aaaam please ma’am PLEASE,,, i am BEGGING……. . but. anyways . here is the pride and joy of my pride and joy, the shining pinnacle of my ubume collection, the best part of the best thing in my life (ignore the crit oh my god please shes in the middle of being built plesae please its so embarrassing)

ubume wisteria guardian sjade skin!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE HER SJADE!!!!!! i feel delirious it’s so unreal i always thought there was NO fucking way i was ever getting her sjade bc it’s. u know. an sjade. it costs real money and im a f2p player, not to mention incredibly broke to the point that i cldnt be p2p if i wanted. I started playing onmyoji the week before her sjade came out and im not joking bro i spent literal HOURS staring at that thing in the shop just. in so much pain that she wld never come home. however, my friend, the magnificent, wonderful, amazing, godly, kind lao ying bought her for me!!! every single day i wake up and stare at wisteria guardian ubume and light a candle in my heart for lao yings spending habits. but also wish for her eternal health and happiness bc shes genuinely too nice for this earth. like. I know i go on “waaah i love my frieenddsss” rants a lot but also WAAAHHHHH I LOVE MY FRIENDS SO MUCH….. ok ok. if i think abt those freaks(honourary) for too long i’ll start crying so um. the point was. actually i dont rmbr anymore. ubume hot <3 anyways thanks for sending the dumbest fucking question imaginable, i enjoyed infodumping abt onmyoji. please use google instead of harassing random poc, menin akmak, chong rakhmat 🙏🙏🙏

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Genuine question because I really don't understand geography, but what does Central Asia refer to that doesn't also refer to the Middle East? I used to think Nepal, Northern India, and Pakistan were considered Central Asia but I see them referred to more as South Asian and I genuinely don't know

that's a good question! with the obligatory disclaimer that all geographical classifications are inherently invalid due to the fluid nature of people, borders, and culture, this is central asia:

for those using screen readers, the image is a map of larger east/central/west asia with the following countries highlighted: turkmenistan, tajikistan, uzbekistan, kazakhstan, and kyrgyzstan.

i myself am a kyrgyz/kazakh from xinjiang (the uyghur autonomous region of china, just east of kyrgyzstan). my tribe, like most kyrgyz/kazakh people, came from west mongolia. those mongolian people were originally from turkey and various regions of MENA, which is why so many of our languages are turkic and we have a high degree of influence from MENA cultures. due to cultural mixing, the definition of central asia can sometimes stretch to surround various other states, but these five are the most predominant ones! however, a very important thing to note is that mongolia and eastern russia, while considered east/northern asia, are also central asian in this context! because theyre not geographically central, but rather culturally central, we refer to this cultural group as "inner asia", which is a much broader term. tibet is also in inner asia, due to cultural similarities. the main thing to note of inner asia vs east asia is our unifying characteristic is being persecuted by the Han people. i tend not to use the term inner asia as much, because it is frustratingly lacking in specifics, but in terms of Han racism against other mainland asians, inner asia is a good phrase to know.

if you have any interest in learning more, i have several resources linked in my blog, and many posts on central asian racism and stereotypes. a good starting point would be this post! im gonna go through my blog soon and organise my informative posts with tags 😭😭 it's a bit messy now

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I wanted to ask, since I've been reading through your ask replies n such, do you still like tgcf? Iirc you mentioned reading it 4 times or smth and I'm wondering if you still like it, are part of the fandom, or if all the harmfulness of the banyue arc (which I dislike for so many fucking reasons) and everything has ruined it? And I still like the novels, tgcf n mdzs (but mdzs less, I like The Untamed more), and I think that I can recognize harmful portrayals and some people think that even if you see them and know that they're bad that still means you can't like the media that it's from? How do you feel about that? Also no pressure to answer ❤️

that’s a rly good question! i absolutely, wholeheartedly agree with you on the consumption of harmful content. i do like tgcf still, despite its problems. i believe that it has legitimate literary value as a story, and beyond that, it is an entertaining book that has a close place in my heart. i enjoy the book, the characters, the plot, and the world itself. as i have been very clear about advertising, it has problematic content that is harmful to marginalised groups when not consumed critically. however, when processed, discussed, and evaluated, these harmful stereotypes are defanged. when both individuals and the greater community are aware and open about it, then these stereotypes are not internalised and spread. in fact, it’s often much better for people to read problematic content than to drop it entirely- without understanding and seeing the racism, homophobia, sexism, and other issues play out in front of them, you cannot understand how to avoid and combat them. critical consumption does not mean “avoid all problematic material!”, it means look at this content, absorb it, research it, and most of all, understand how these issues impact your interactions with others in real life. as much as many people don’t want to acknowledge it, fiction impacts reality. it is a direct facet and manifestation of reality. no issue exists in a vacuum, and fictional racism absolutely further ingrains real racism, which is why it is so important to confront it head on. it gives you the ability to grasp and change the way that this racism makes you think and act. literature is about experiencing, growing, learning, changing, and understanding. it does a disservice to the concept of literature as a whole to think that we can just drop certain works and disengage with racist behaviours. we cannot. people that condemn others for consuming problematic content frustrate me because of that; our duty as readers is to read, understand, and change. do not ignore racism. look at it directly, examine it, and discuss how to fix the issue. if you do not look these things dead in the eye, then they will fester in the corner and spread throughout communities as they have been doing for generations. the only way we can combat it is to bring it in the light for everyone to see. the only way we will be able to change it is if we understand it

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Wait, I thought when ppl talked about starember fetishizing Arab culture/Orientalism it was specifically in reference to that one fanart she drew? With the belly dancer outfit, the half-moon etc... Although I guess, considering how ignorant ppl are on China and it's cultures/minorities, there are probably plenty misunderstanding the Banyue src reference.

Sorry, I don't mean to come off as annoying! I've been enjoying your posts a lot! I wish more cnovel fans - especially Chinese ones, but not only them! - were open to actually discuss and criticise the issues that are obviously there in the novel and manhua instead of brushing it off as, "That's just how it is here!" (maybe they are and we just see the stubborn ones everywhere?) - Then, maybe, it should change...

it's okay, you're not annoying at all! i appreciate that you're looking for clarity instead of drawing your own assumptions. i can understand the confusion with arab culture specifically in that drawing better, but again, it isn't arab culture at all. it is a very direct fetishization of central asian cultures. the reason people saw it as an arab cultural reference was because of the fetishized outfit, the mosque, and the half moon. as arab culture is very visible in global society, it makes sense that it would be the first thing that people thing of! however, all these symbols are equally present and important in central asian society. as i mentioned before, the vast majority of central asians have converted to islam. due to the nature of our conversion, our native animistic and totemistic practices merged heavily with islam, creating a syncretic belief that is unique in each region. to us, the crescent moon that is so important in islam also has an additional meaning: the meeting of life and death, the celebration of our elders, and the light that guides us in the darkest times. in my tribe in northern kyrgyzstan, we practice a syncretic combination of tengriism and islam, so one of the principle figures we worship is actually the crescent moon, who we believe to be the grandfather of our people! however, i greatly doubt that mxtx and starember are aware of our cultural practices, so i believe that they saw our national and religious symbol being the crescent moon and associated that with us without understanding why. for the mosque in the background of the drawing, again, we are a region predominated by islam. mosques are incredibly common sights, with one of the most important mosques in the world actually being located in xinjiang (ھېيتگاھ مەسچىتى) (for those who don't know, the uyghur language is written in perso-arabic script, along with many other central asian languages, like kyrgyz)! for the belly dancer outfit, that is also another common central asian stereotype. our traditional usage of elaborate, winding fabrics and layered, long jewelry has been corrupted and bastardized by han culture to become a fetishized, sexual thing. central asian women are often depicted as wearing scanty, ""exotic"", overtly sexual clothing. we are valued for our attractiveness as these strange, foreign sexual objects with "sensual dancing" and "exotic allure" while we are just existing in our traditional culture. this is an extremely common phenomenon that, if you pay attention, you will see over and over again in any form of cmedia that has casian characters

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hey! I saw your post and it's really informative! I'd been thinking about it too but I'm not as informed (im from southeast asia, not central) I wanted to ask if you have any book/movie recommendations for learning more about Central Asia? any topic (culture, politics, fiction, etc) is fine

thank you for your interest! this gets a bit tricky, as the vast majority of casian culture, history, and politics remains untranslated. however, there are some good resources out there with enough searching. first and foremost, I will always recommend Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present by Adeeb Khalid. while not comprehensive of northern asia, it does a very good job of documenting casian culture, history, politics, stereotypes, and the like, all while being an easy read with good writing. the main issue with is that it is only accessible on database sites such as jstor and gale as far as I can find (if anyone knows a free to access version please let me know!!!). beyond that, I also highly recommend asianreviewofbooks.com for pan-asian research. the site reviews asian non-fiction, poetry, fiction, and children's literature with essay analyses, making it a very good resource for finding further books to read. there is also centralasiaprogram.org, which is an organization that has a frankly unbelievable amount of vetted educational sources, research papers, events, news sources, cultural documentations, really anything under the sun! you can scroll around a bit, find movies or literature important to casian history, learn about regional music and dance, really anything you want to learn. it is a bit difficult to navigate, do be warned. these are both good starting points that will enable you to discover cultural resources!

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Confused anon here again. Yeah I get that the dark skin isn't from living in the desert and that the nomads don't just stay there. However I don't understand why you think the Banyuenese are portrayed as evil. The arc sets us up to think that, but Xie Lian and the whole story progression subvert that expectation completely. The Banyuenese were large, powerful fighters, but they were cultured and honorable too. They're victims of racism and genocide, that's the big reveal.

First off, this is not me "thinking the Banyuenese are portrayed as evil". This is me, a central asian, telling you that they are racist caricatures. It is not a matter of opinion. The arc itself is racist.

I want to start by prefacing that I am happy to educate people on racist stereotypes that they might be unaware of and unconsciously engaging with. I will not call you a bigot or anything for not knowing something. However, at this point, after I've made incredibly detailed posts and answered a ridiculous amount of questions qualifying it, I feel a bit justified in my irritation at this ask. As I stated in my last answer to you, I should not have to explain to anyone why it is racist to have your brown characters=evil big monsters and light skinned characters=good protagonists. If you read what I've posted, you'll be familiar with the basics of racist stereotypes against casians. If you aren't, then take a moment to read this post or go through my tags "casia" or "racism in inner asia". The problem itself is the banyue people being these massive hulking fighting barbarians. Just... think. For one moment. Think for just one second why it might be offensive to have your people, who are constantly called barbaric, empty-headed, violent beasts, to be depicted as 8 foot tall fighters. It's not flattering. It's not a compliment. It's dehumanizing. Our own name is an offensive word: mongoloid. I'm a mongoloid person from inner asia. if you've heard the word mongoloid before, you'll know that its current definition is someone with such limited mental capacity that they cannot function alone, very similar to the r-slur. our entire name, our title, is a slur now because we have been so heavily associated with beasts. Think about how we are depicted as big bulky brainless fighters and fighters only and tell me that it isn't racist. Because we aren't warriors; the Han don't value our militaristic prestige. They think we fight like savage beasts, using brute strength and clubs like cavemen to bludgeon our enemies to death, while the art of war, armour, formations, strategies, espionage, and honour are all reserved for the pale, thin, elegant Han scholars. We are not warriors with honour and culture, we are savages to them, and if I have to explain why that is racist then there is a deep underlying problem here. Educate yourself with the resources I've already provided before asking a random person of colour to expend their time and energy on something they have no obligation to do.

I am very familiar with tgcf. I read it both in the original mandarin and the english translation. I've read it multiple times over the past 4 years. I'm not new to cnovels, I'm not new to tgcf, and I'm not new to these blatant stereotypes. I'm aware of the banyue arc and what mxtx wrote. It is not "subverting expectations". It is racist. You cannot get around it.

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The amount of people, who downplay people's struggles on USA America Centric websites is insane. It is not the first time I see people of Central Asia being accused of racefaking. Being told stfu racist White Person, if they are mixed with slavs or something akin to that as well. Really....I am sorry the person accused you of race faking.

yeah, sadly it's a really really common thing, to the point where we're called russians or central europeans by most of the people outside of asia. casians getting accused of racefaking, esp the ones that speak russian (bc we were... u know. colonised by russia) is a really really common event. when that racist sequel to the original racist Borat movie by sacha baron cohen came out, i had to explain to literal countless people that no, central asians are NOT white, no, this movie is Not accurate, and yeah, this is racist propaganda. and people actively did not believe me, a kyrgyz citizen, that kyrgyz/kazakhs are not white. i got into a legitimate argument with a group of white coworker about the race of my country, the name of which they couldn't even pronounce 😭😭😭. mfs just genuinely hate mixed race people and regions that's it that's really all it boils down to

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Sorry, I'm a bit confused about what you're saying regarding the Banyue arc. Is Banyue not a mythical place based on Tangut/Xixia, which is now part of Mongolia? Since Yong An is said to be right on the border of the Gobi, I was thinking it kind of fit the Jin dynasty territory, considering they were known to fight the Tangut so much, and Tangut/Xixia was known as a semi-oasis place. The Mongolian nomads in the Gobi today are fairly dark-skinned, with some light skin too…?

banyue is a general mythical location, though you could claim it has roots in the Tangut Empire. the word Tangut itself just refers to the Tangut people. the empire itself was incredibly large, reaching through both inner and outer Mongolia, four provinces of China, and Xinjiang, so there is also no definitive people or geography to point to as a reference. the Tangut people were also not Mongolian at all, but part of a completely different tribal union, originating directly from southeast asia. they had very little peaceful connection with the Mongols outside of conflict. the banyue people were not Tangut Mongolians. additionally, the Gobi proper is not inhabited. the entire idea of us living in a sandy desert and getting dark from the sun is completely false. yes, people will travel across the Gobi, as it's often fairly temperate and mild, but it has no resources, so the nomadic people live in the steppes surrounding the desert. we get our dark skin from genetics. it's melanin. yes, most of us tan easily, but most of us are also just brown. the issue isn't with being portrayed as brown, im very proud of my skin colour, but the incredibly racist way its done. i dont want to explain why it's racist to make all your light-skinned characters thin, waifish, angelic protagonists while your dark skinned characters are large, hulking, angry, monstrous barbarians. if you cannot recognise racism at that extent, you need to seriously and honestly educate yourself. take an anti-racism class. don't make random poc explain our oppression to you because you don't understand it

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Hi can I ask if there's anything about the mxtx translators' work you have felt is off? I know they're not officially credentialed but are there any passages or scenes you can point to that you think weren't translated well? I think the translators seem to put a lot of work into maintaining a balance between original work and cultural context so I'm just trying to understand where you're coming from. I think the people who are doing at least are far more professional than Exiled Rebels for example

this is something I won't be able to fully explain, as it's something you'll have to mostly research yourself as you look into the field of translation. to summarise it, fan translations by individuals who aren't educated, learned groups of translators do not convey the meaning of the text. they convey the words, but not the intent, background, history, and art of it. to give a classic example, one of the first translation quality comparisons you learn in the industry is the odyssey. fitzgerald's translation, while professional, accurate, and accompanied by minor footnotes, has absolutely nothing on the fagles translation, which brings the history and cultural context into light, and attempts to convey the artistic, poetic sense of the original text. look at heaney's beowulf, using the original text in direct comparison to cross the cultural gap between the author and readers. these fan translators, whose work I have read in direct comparison to the chinese text, have done a fantastic job of giving english audiences the story, and while I am enormously grateful for their unimaginable work, they did not bring the culture, history, and context along with it. I would never ask them to, either, considering that it is a task people attend 6 years of university at a minimum to be considered ready to accomplish, and only then with a team of other people. what people need to understand is that chinese is not just a different language. it is not a different people or country. china is an entirely different society and no matter how much you think you can wrap your head around chinese culture with just one book, you can't. language is a manifestation of philosophy, art, history, culture, and geography. it's a way of thinking, not just a way of speaking. the mere idea that someone believes that this unfathomable large difference can be explained by one fan translator bothers me to no end. the task of a translator is not to tell you to story in your language, it is to transpose an entire society into foreign words. if you want specific examples, then I'll ask you to compare the first couple chapters of TGCF and its various translations. while sakhyu is by no means a professional translator, the difference between their work and suika's is worlds apart. again, as a fan translator, i mean no disrespect to either, i am only using their works to highlight a quality difference. i do not expect fan translators to accomplish a high quality translation, as it would be irresponsible to ask them to do so. we are not equipped to handle professional translations. and, honestly, if you want to know exactly what separates us from professionals, then please just use google. i fully encourage you to go and search up the basic learning courses for masters level translators. look at the field, the classes, the community, the industry. it is much more in-depth than you would think

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dear god here we go again. central asian hairstyles are not cornrows. again, im mixed MENA-casian, and i have Black hair. my kyrgyz family uses traditional casian hairstyles, and let me tell you that casian braids do NOT keep care of my hair like cornrows do; they are structurally completely different. casian braids visually look mildly similar to thin, narrow cornrows until you look twice, so I can understand the confusion, but when cdramas put their nonblack chinese actor in straight up cornrows to indicate that this character is "exotic and not Han", that is cultural appropriation. we do not and historically never have used cornrows. please do not use our hairstyles and traditions to excuse blatant antiblackness and xenophobia

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I saw your post abt the M*T* translations, & your concerns abt the validity and authenticity of the translation; it's the existing CN fan translators who will be doing the translations, not inhouse employees from the publisher. There will still be some executive meddling, but at least there will be a level of cultural awareness and care from the actual CN danmei fans doing the translating

I'm aware of that, and it's part of my concern. I'm a fan translator of many years now, and I've also had some separate works licensed and published themselves. despite the fact that they were scientific literature, so the publication process was a bit different from fiction, I'm familiar enough to be comfortable with the concepts of publication and fan translation. I absolutely respect these fan translators with every bone in my body, the work they do is hard, time-consuming, thankless, and irritating. however, that does not mean that hobbyist translators are equipped to professionally translate literature, not just across languages, but across vast cultural divides. the intrinsic issue with translation is not the specific wording and linguistic knowledge, but the ability to convey cultural connotations and concepts in a way a foreign audience can absorb. most often, this requires formal translation education, extensive footnotes, displaying the original text alongside the translation, and having a team of board certified translators checking and aiding your work. remember that translation itself is not a fan hobby, it is a legitimate professional field that requires extensive education and certification. I respect other fan translators, but in comparison to a team of professional translators with master's degrees in this field, the quality of our work pales. fan translation works great for crowds actively seeking eastern translated content that begin reading with a certain understanding of basic chinese culture, but official publication removes all expectations of cultural understanding on the audience. these novels are now catered to an exclusively western audience, and the difference in the type of translation required is extreme. i do not trust this publishing house as far as I could throw it, and I don't have any faith that translators who are ill-equipped for the job assigned to them will manage to miraculously produce a translation that won't induce an influx of absolutely insufferable, loud, uneducated westerners that will continue to drown out chinese voices in our own literary circles.

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YALL ARE DEMONS!!!!😭😭 like ur not Chinese ur not brown ur not black who are YOU to deem wat is or isn’t colorist?? I’m losing my mind cuz niggas really let yaoi ruin ur brain like this 😭😭 (all this damn western politics shit they keep talking I’m so sick of it!!! Like u know damn well colorism and racism exists everywhere)

PLEASE IM GOING INSANE THIS IS...... THE WORST FUCKING TAKE I HAVE SEEN IN WEEKS. GIRLIE................... "what colourism" please read a singular textbook ohhhh my god oohhhhhhhh god racism and nationalism has been an incredible issue in china for literal thousands of years. china fucking invented colourism bro. first as a class issue, then as a han-supremacy tactic against ethnic minorities. i just. Y'ALL LITERALLY COLONISED US AND ARE STILL COLONISING US TODAY!!!! Y'ALL DO NOT GET TO DECIDE WHAT IS RACIST OR NOT!! i went on this person's blog for 2 seconds and they have a post defending the uyghur muslims in xinjiang and then they turn around and say these issues don't exist in china. indigenous asians exist for a reason. if there was no colonisation, no oppression, no violence against the indigenous groups, then we would be considered just "asian". we would be the predominant group living there with our own established society. instead, we are relegated into horrible, dangerous, hostile conditions, threatened and killed, and hunted in our own homeland because of our skin, our religion, our traditions, our clothing, and our practices. ancient china is not some holy intact state that had no interaction with the people they took the land from. it is not separate from all cultural and geographical interactions that every single other global society experienced at that time. the fact that people believe this just shows how far-reaching chinese nationalist propaganda is when they're so willing to believe china has never oppressed ethnic groups. and the entire thing of "when no one ever met a white person"...... bestie.... i hate to break it to you... but europeans have been integrated into china for literal thousands of years. there was an entire italian trading empire in medieval china. they opened major trade with the west in 130 BC bro. far before that, ancient turkic tribes (generally considered to be white) had travelled and established themselves in the northern steppes. god. but that's besides the point so whatever. this person is so willing to ignore blatant racism that has absolutely nothing to do with western politics. which is another point. oh my god. who the fuck mentioned western cultural values because that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the systematic oppression and murder of my people in our own lands. fuck off! fuck off and die! at that point, when someone sees multiple people of colour claiming this is racist, and they claim it isn't........ they're racist there's no way around it. but are we surprised!! brainrot central! also yeah. yeah ur right. they just let yaoi rot their brain LMAO