#releasing this post into the cdrama fandom

[sarah-yyy]

what: period cdrama // 40 eps, roughly 55 mins each  where: youku (you can also dl the app) // youtube // coming up soon on viki (usual disclaimer that i do not use eng subs so i don’t speak to the quality of subs) why: do you love watching a poor little meow-meow get tortured in a variety of ways before he decides to go fuck it, i’ll be a demon lord and kill everyone who wronged me?? do you like enemies to fated to kill you lovers??? do you enjoy PAIN AND SUFFERING??? this is the show for you

meet tantai jin, the cdrama fandom’s newest obsession 

cursed prince of the Jing kingdom who was sent as a hostage to a neighbouring kingdom. he’s been unloved and bullied all his life - think, discarded and left to die by his own father, kicked around by servants, begging for scraps of food, abandoned and slowly betrayed by everyone around him... it’s NOT GOOD buddies, you will watch his life unfold and you will become attached and want to let him do whatever the fuck he wants 

surprise surprise this sad pathetic man will one day become

THE demon lord who destroys all of humanity etc etc. look at this wardrobe upgrade??? amazing. beautiful. bad for humanity but great for him. good job, bud, you did well.

ANYWAY this show opens with demon lord tantai jin (affectionate) going on his lil’ murder spree (understandable). the fate of humanity as we know it to be rests on the shoulders of one li susu

to defeat tantai jin, she will transmigrate to the past into the body of ye xiwu (tantai jin’s evil wife who whips him every night (not in the fun way sorry buds) and tortures/bullies him for because it pleases her) to try to kill him while he’s weak, before he turns evil and amasses power. this is for the good of humanity!!! but also he’s truly so pathetic in the past that she can’t quite seem to put her heart into it (there’s also this whole finding his evil bone and getting rid of that before she can kill him problem but HMMM) and decides that?? maybe if she shows him some care and love??? she’ll subvert his murdermurdermurder tendencies????

this is the gist of the show!! there are a few arcs that we go through like all good xianxia cdramas, so we get to see them live through a few different lives (think: ten miles of peach blossom, pillow book etc etc), and every single dynamic between them is SO GOOD!!!!! we have spicy enemies to lovers!! cutesy arranged marriage between strangers to lovers (who don’t communicate enough for them to be happy)!!! star-crossed lovers fated to kill one another!!! 

the show is so goddamn pretty!! the aesthetics!!! the cgi!!!! the costumes ohmygod, i have never wanted to buy so many headdresses before

LOOK AT THIS!!! HOW PRETTY WAS THIS!!!!

he’s got this whole demon look LOCKED IN who else does it as well as my boy tantai jin

this show is very PRETTY but make no mistake there will be a lot of angst!!! that’s part of what makes it so good!! luo yunxi does Tortured, Feral and Deranged™ SO WELL i weep every time i see him on screen, i have truly not been Okay since this show started airing, buddies please join me in till the end of the moon hell, you will not regret it, promise 😇✨

⚠❗ few post-finale thoughts so y’all go into it with full disclosure (and can’t yell at me for inflicting pain on y’all, just know what i am also Suffering™) - stop reading from here if you want no spoilers for the show at all. 

trigger warning: there is some dubcon in ep 14 (stretches between approx. the 25:00-27:25 min mark) between ming ye and sang jiu 

we were all hoping for a happy ending, but this ends on a bad-open scale, depending on how you look at it. @minmoyu​ has helpfully directed me to a happy audio-epilogue which was apparently shot but didn’t make its way into the episode?? we still dk if the footage will be released as an extra?? we can all form a prayer circle and HOPE i guess

the plot is HMM the further to the end we get, probably because they had to cut the eps down, so it’s a little choppy, esp the last few scenes??? idk idk. it’s a bit exhausting to watch towards the end, because you root for ttj so so much and he tries so so hard and SIGH. i need another few working days to digest this, i’m still a bit :/ about the ending

would i still rec the show, post-watch? yes! this show starts off really solid, and luo yunxi carried the show throughout. like. y’all thought lyx was good in ashes of love?? watch him in this. every single micro-expression was flawless. bai lu’s acting is always so dependable, and it’s the same with this show!  

this show has an a+++ ost (i mean it’s got the king and queen of cdrama osts liu yuning and zhang bichen, literally how could this be bad)!! and CERTAIN side characters are so so good (pian ran my baby girl, ye qingyu who grows on you, decidedly NOT bingchang/tian huan/mo nv although i will concede that chen duling’s acting in this show was Incredible). 

[tavina-writes]

This is a random question wondering if you can help me out with I took a 2+ break from dramas cause of person life and was wondering if there is a way to get caught up on all the dramas I missed is there a way to search a list of dramas by year? idk even how you guys keep track of current dramas but y'all are always in the know. thanks for taking the time to read my ask! loving you loch posts btw

Hmmm, I'm just constantly in the boiling pot of cdrama fandoms at all times, and I follow a number of blogs that do gifs and stuff so I end up seeing what's popular, but I think if you head over to MyDramaList

you can see the currently airing dramas here. And I think there's also a sort by year function? I'm pretty sure! Most of the time I just follow the MDL pages for actors and actresses that I like and that's how I find new upcoming stuff!

If anyone who follows me has a better searching system, please chime in to help nonny find stuff!

[sunshine304]

For the fandom asks, 3,4,19, or 20?

Oh I'll just answer all of them. XD

3. a character that fandom has helped you appreciate

Hm, I think Yu Ziyuan gained much more depth for me through reading meta about her/the family dynamics and genre conventions behind it. She’s a divisive character for sure, but I never saw her as extremely negative as some other fans seem to have. She always seemed like a commentary on the tiger mom stereotype to me, and I couldn’t help but also at times think she’s kinda justified in her bitchiness? Because Jiang Fengmian is like that… But yeah, her character definitely became more interesting and tragic to me through fandom.

None of the others needed any help, I think, I could appreciate all of them for what they brought to the story (I mean, except for Jin Guangshan, no-one appreciate shim and he can go die in a ditch).

4. say something nice about a ship you don't ship (it can be another ship in your fandom, a mutual's OTP, etc)

Sparrabeth. I very much refused to engage with this ship back in my PotC days because the shipping wars between Willabeth and Sparrabeth shippers became incredibly obnoxious after the second movie. As I really enjoyed Willabeth and was more of a Jack/Anamaria shipper (if we have to pair him with anyone… that was before I discovered slash XD), I did not like Sparrabeth at all.

I can see the appeal, though! Elizabeth became ever more of a pirate as the movies progressed, showing a side of herself that had mostly been suppressed in her previous sheltered, prim and proper life. She obviously had a taste for adventure and overall seemed actually more suited for and interested in this kind of life than Will, who gets rather reluctantly dragged into it all again and again. To have her as a counterpoint to Jack, as someone who can hold her own against his scheming and word games and teasing, can be intriguing. They’ll banter, he can teach her all kinds of stuff about life on the high seas, and they’ll definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

19. your current fandom(s)

Since 2020, it’s The Untamed/MDZS – still going strong, with no sign of slowing down. I tend to fixate on one main fandom for quite a while and it really takes a lot to make me switch to something else. And still, the old ones never really leave me – I recently reread some Teen Wolf fic, last year had a bit of a Sherlock revival with selected rereads. Now and then, I revisit some old PotC favs etc.

But yeah, now it’s CQL/MDZS with a side of some other cdramas/thai dramas like KinnPorsche or Word of Honor. It feels like the fandom is slowing down a bit as people move on to other dramas, but I’m still very much in love with it.

20. your very first fandom!

That depends a bit on how you’d define this. The first thing I was totally obsessed with was The Animals of Farthing Wood, a truly great animated tv series based on Colin Dann’s book(s). I drew so many fox pictures for that series, had a whole bunch of OC foxes and invented new stories with them (yes, only the foxes! XD). Of course, I was somewhere between 7 – 10 years old at the time and had no idea what “fandom” was!

I think I became aware of fandom as we know it when I looked for content for LotR online. I discovered message boards that were full of fans of the book and recently released movies.

The first fandom I was actually in, with the full awareness of it being a fandom, was Pirates of the Caribbean. That trilogy was incredibly important to me for many years and I’ve met a few friends through it that I’m still in contact with to this day. <3

I actually was asked this for a meme on Dreamwidth, so check out this post for a bit more on this topic.

Fandom question meme

[zelzenik]

an essay on the fetishization of east asians in fandom

ok y'all

i've got multiple asks about my opinion regarding the whole Sh*rtless Z/ko Sunday thing, and i do want to preface this all by saying that i do have friends and mutuals who participate(?) in this event(?) so i am in no way meaning to shame anyone or be the fandom's purity police as some anons have been claiming i'm attempting to be, lol

that all being said, i am half East Asian, and upon really thinking on the reasons why this "event" in particular irks me personally, i've come to the following conclusions which i hope you will read through with an open mind.

there's nothing necessarily "wrong" with this "event" to most people. yes, Z/ko is a bunch of pixels. yes, he's a cartoon character. yes, plenty of ppl draw diff characters shirtless. i'm in plenty of different fandoms that draw characters shirtless. whatever. Z/ko, however, is an East Asian coded character so i do believe that i have the right to speak on this

this "event" isn't necessarily "wrong" in terms of the fact that it technically does not actually hurt East Asians physically; however, i do believe that it is a SYMPTOM of a larger issue at hand

of course there are people who are participating in the "event" harmlessly and do not realize that they are worsening such a symptom. but there are others who are doing it intentionally which i think is very worrisome as someone who's an East Asian

the mass consumption of anime, kpop, jpop, kdramas, cdramas, media based on Asian culture such as ATLA, etc, etc, etc has led to a WIDESPREAD issue within fandom regarding the fetishization of East Asians

before you argue with me and say that is not true, i ask that you peruse the fandoms of popular animes or kpop groups (like BTS)

for years, East Asians have dealt with racism and hate and dehumanization regarding sex work and war brides and the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Japanese internment camps and all this other really terrible stuff that i will not get into at the moment because it's too upsetting for me to even discuss (i urge you to Google). that all being said, now, we (East Asians) not only have to deal with the trauma of those sorts of issues, but we also are forced to watch as our people are sexualized and fetishized to disturbing degrees

Sh*rtless Z/ko Sunday is an example of how this phenomenon has manifested itself even in the Z/tara fandom. in the past year or so, a few key members of the Z/tara fandom has always insisted that the Z/kka fandom fetishizes both Z/ko and S/kka. but, if that's the case, then what is Sh*rtless Z/ko Sunday?

it's yet another way that a bunch of pixels that are meant to represent an East Asian coded boy (don't you dare tell me he's "just from the Fire Nation" shut the hell up) wind up fetishized by primarily wh/te women!!

again, i don't give a damn about what you do or what you post as long as it's tagged properly, but i do want you to understand the ramifications of what you post. think of all the East Asians who are literally traumatized because of people constantly pulling their eyes at us or using our cultures/looks as an aesthetic (like the foxeye trend) or fetishizing us and our culture while k/lling us and being racist to us (like the mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, where several East Asian women who were working at spas were m/rdered)

even the argument "Z/ko's just a bunch of pixels!!" pisses me off because who do you think he's supposed to represent??!! what do you think he means to all the little East Asian kids who've never seen themselves represented onscreen before?!!!

don't even get me STARTED on the way that K/tara is dealt with within the Z/tara fandom. i'm not brown so i won't speak on such an issue personally, but i do know that many of my friends who are have been incredibly frustrated with the way K/tara is treated in fandom too

if you're wh/te or even just not East Asian, please consider what i've said. before you release content, consider what you're contributing toward the dehumanization and fetishization of East Asians. it's frustrating and painful to constantly see our people or characters who are supposed to be representative of our people fetishized in fandom, esp by wh/te people.

[unforth]

Hello unforth! Thank you for your wonderful blog, and the the untamed art blog!! I followed you years ago for destiel, and you were one of the people that got me into the untamed. I watched it last summer and have been binging various cdramas ever since!! I had a question for you about reading. After watching the untamed I read the novel, and didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I think you’re someone who prefers the show, but if not, sorry if I’m remembering wrong… hoping you understand. I want to try reading other novels but I found the romance in mdzs to be kinda off. I guess I’m wondering if you have a recommendation for the best novel you’ve read so far? It would be great if it’s one with fanfic but if not I’m still curious to try! I hope this didn’t come off as rude about the untamed, it’s just a personal preference. Thanks in advance, and thanks again for all your work in fandom!

Howdy! *waves*

You have not misremembered, I definitely prefer the Untamed to the novel of MDZS (and I'm with you, no shade on people with different preferences, of course!). I also didn't enjoy the novel of MDZS as much as I thought I would, though I think some of that was because I read the Exiled Rebels Scanalations translation which - again, no shade, translating that was a HUGE job and kudos to them - but I do here from native speakers that some questionable translation choices were made, which can detract from some people's enjoyment of the novel (and can enhance other people's, it just depends how those translation choices relate to each person's personal likes and dislikes).

Now, I can tell you what I've read and what I've thought of each one, happily - I don't know what turned you off about MDZS specifically, beyond an aspect of the relationship dynamic, so it'll be hard for me to say which of these might appeal to you more? But, here's a list of which danmei novels I've read, and my opinion. The list is shorter than you'd think - danmei novels are long and I read slow, lol.

Note that all of these end happy, for various definitions of "happy," and the main ship is canon in all of them. Also note that I tried to avoid spoilers, but sometimes it's hard to even talk about the ship dynamic without some mild spoilers.

These are (roughly) in the order I've read them; I just finished the last a few days ago. All art is by the official artists, but I'm not always sure what their names are, sorry - I've tried to figure them out for my art blogs but it's REALLY hard.

1. Mo Dao Zu Shi, by MXTX.

(since I'm writing this post for you, and you're already familiar with it, I'm not putting in TW and plot)

My take: I figure knowing my opinion of MDZS will help you assess all this? There are things I loved about MDZS, including the book, but MDZS is still obviously trying to figure out pacing. Whereas in SVSSS, the storyline doesn't always flow that smoothly and the ending is rushed, in MDZS in my opinion the biggest issue is that she clearly didn't plan some things ahead. For example, Miangmian and Wen Ning are both introduced within a few pages of when they'll be needed to Do Shit. It shows that she hadn't quite worked everything out as she was going, and every once in a while was like, "shit shit I need a character for this thing" and hastily added them. The plot itself is better paced, though, though I could have wished for a less talky denouement. When it was the only one I read, I also often thought, "this author doesn't understand consent," and, "this author has kinks I don't share." Now that I've read all three of her books, I completely retract the first one. MXTX absolutely understands consent, and was intentionally playing with it in MDZS. Not sure if the evidence of that got lost in translation, or what, but...yeah.

Relationship Dynamic: ...the second of those opinions, I still kinda feel. The consensual non-con is just not really my thing, like I'm okay with it in small doses? And I don't love some aspects of Lan Wangji's domineering attitudes and Wei Wuxian's act of bare tolerating it. And don't get me wrong, now that I'm more familiar with her work, I think it was an intentional writing choice and I also think they're both largely roleplaying it a lot of the time...but I still don't personally enjoy it much.

2. Scum Villain Self-Saving System, by MXTX.

Genre: modern transmigration into a fantasy xianxia world.

Where to find it: English translation by BC Novels | donghua season 1

Trigger warnings for: graphic descriptions of suffering, non-con of the "fuck or die" variety, and body horror...I can't think of anything else rn?)

Plot: SVSSS is MXTX's first novel, and is a satire of classic stag harem novels. Shen Yuan, the protagonist and half the main ship, is reading a serialized web novel by "Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky" about a demon named Luo Binghe who has a harem of over 3,000 women and has done all kinds of ghastly awful things. He hates this novel but has read all, like, 3 million words of it or something, and trolls every chapter...until one gets him so angry that he dies...and then he wakes up in the book right around when the book starts, in the body of one of the early antagonists, a cultivator named Shen Qingqiu who abuses a young, innocent Luo Binghe physically and emotionally and, ultimately, is horribly tortured to death. Shen Yuan, in Shen Qingqiu's body, thus sets out to not be horribly tortured to death by Luo Binghe. Hijinks ensue.

My Take: In terms of my opinion of it...SVSSS secured for me that MXTX is a much more brilliant author than I thought when I'd only read MDZS. She understands tropes and subverts them brilliantly throughout the story, and from a writing standpoint, I was impressed with her. However, from a plot standpoint...she's got all the ideas but hasn't, imo, yet figured out how exactly to bring them all together. The pacing is off at times, and the ending felt abrupt to me. It's also the only danmei I've read where I ship a side ship more than the primary one (which is, of course, Shen Yuan (as Shen Qingqiu)/Luo Binghe. (also, oops...I read SVSSS after TGCF and just put them in the wrong order, oh well, not gonna change it now.)

Relationship Dynamic: In terms of relationship weirdness...it's hard to sort in that regard, because, like, it's supposed to be weird? I think it's a really interest book but I'm not sure I'd recommend it in your situation. Bingqiu's main dynamic is...uh...tolerance and obsession? They're kinda hard to describe. Shen Yuan often seems like he's just kinda putting up with Luo Binghe, whereas Luo Binghe is...god. So hard to describe, lmao. He's a big clumsy ox in a museum full of porcelain dishes and he really, really loves his Shizun. (also note that Shen Qingqiu is Luo Binghe's teacher. They don't get together until after they're not master/student, but if that's not your thing, another reason to avoid.)

3. Tian Guan Ci Fu, by MXTX.

(art is by Starember)

Genre: historical China (loosely), xianxia (note that I'm still figuring out exactly how stuff gets classified so sorry if I get one wrong, but I think I kinda get it???)

Where to Access It: English Translation by the astonishing yummysuika | manhua (this is an official translation by Bilibili! It's a few chapters behind the actual release, but still...) | donghua season 1 is on Netflix | a live action adaptation is juuuuust getting started on script reading and filing

Trigger warnings for: MCD, temporary MCD, body horror, graphic violence, epic levels of mind fuckery, uh...genocide?...again, racism/colorism, probably other stuff, sorry, I can't take as long as I'd like to for this post so I'm not being as thorough as I oughta be.

Plot: TGCF is about Xie Lian, an 800 year old man, and it commences at the moment when, unexpectedly, he ascends to godhood...for the third time. Unfortunately, when he ascends, he accidentally does some damage in Heaven, and he has to repay that, so he gets sent back to earth to deal with a ghost who's been causing some problems. Hijinks ensue...and then fucktons of angst ensue...then more hijinks...then more angst...and basically it broke my heart like four times and I am grateful for it every day? The main ship is Xie Lian and a ghost named Hua Cheng, but it's hard to even talk about without some spoilers because of some identity shenanigans. (they're VERY mildly identity shenanigans, but still).

My Take: So, you asked what my favorite of the danmei novels I've read is? It's TGCF. TGCF is one of my favorite novels ever, and it has a growing fandom, a donghua that's on Netflix, and a live action that's just starting to film. TGCF is the culmination of the skills MXTX developed through her first two works, imo. She clearly plotted it out all from the start, and while Book 1 especially often seems kind of random - lots of elements are introduced and then kinda...apparently...forgotten? And never explained? But she actually DOES bring it ALL together and it's flat-out masterful. I'm a big fan, obviously.

Relationship Dynamic: it again depends on your preferences and what you didn't like about MDZS, and there's no way to talk about it without spoilers, so consider yourselves warned. Xie Lian ascended to godhood first at the age of 17, and right around then he also saved the life of a 10 year old boy...and that boy is Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng is a follower of Xie Lian's, in that Xie Lian is literally a god, and Hua Cheng is literally one of his followers. However, they're separated for almost 800 years, so the age difference is largely irrelevant, and while some people complain about Hua Cheng's behavior being stalkery and obsessive, I honestly think they're dead wrong. It's more like when you read a celebrity/fan AU, and it starts weird, and then they really genuinely fall in love. Like, the fan may have been in love the whole time, and how they felt about the celebrity before they really met might feel slightly ooky, but it's how they act AFTER they meet their idol that matters more, and...yeah, Hua Cheng is great, they're both great, antis fight me. Xie Lian is easily one of my favorite characters EVER, he is all my favorite tropes in one horribly, wonderfully fucked up martyristic idealistic sweet kind laid back package. I would kill for him, lmao. In terms of their relationship dynamic...they love and respect each other? There's really nothing that weird about it other than the aspects of the "fan" Hua Cheng that get revealed over time - and he's always terrified that when Xie Lian realizes what a fanboy he was, Xie Lian will be upset or disgusted, but of course Xie Lian never is. They adore each other. It's glorious. Highly recommend. :D There's also no explicit content in TGCF (unlike MXTX's other two books).

4. The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (aka 2ha) by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat.

Genre: original world, xianxia, time travel, dimension hopping, it's so many things, 2ha is so hard to describe lmao

Where to Access it: English Translation by the amazing yummysuika (things are complicated, though, and it's not finished) | a manhua is in the works and should be out this year | a live action called "Hao Yixing" or "Immortality" is already filmed and could theoretically air literally any time cause it's completely ready, but when will it actually come? Who knows!

Trigger warnings: all of them. Literally. MCD, temporary MCD, murder, suicide, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, rape/non-con, abuse, manipulation, gas lighting, torture, graphic violence, body horror, literal graphic onscreen horrible blood murder of a small child (I had to skip that chapter), teacher/student relationship sort of but not exactly, probably other stuff, this book is dark as fuck, and a lot of these tags apply to behavior of one half of the main ship toward the other, but...it's complicated, and there are reasons things happen, and those reasons aren't "well they're just a bad person."

Plot: This is another one that's hard to describe because there's sooooo much mind fuckery going on, but I'll try. 2ha is about Mo Ran, who rises to be the Emperor of the World, Taxian Jun, but slaughtering all who oppose him...and who is so miserable that he commits suicide, only to wake up in his 16 year old body. This is pretty much perfect from Mo Ran's point of view, because he's gone back so far that the love of his life, his fellow disciple Shi Mei, is still alive. He has a chance to fix everything that went wrong, starting with preventing his awful evil Shizun, Chu Wanning, from letting Shi Mei die.

Spoilers: the main ship in this book is Mo Ran/Chu Wanning.

Hijinks do NOT ensue. There are no hijinks in 2ha. It is all pain all the time (but I swear it ends happy).

My Take: ...well, from a structural standpoint there are some pacing issues. The book is incredibly long (over 300 chapters, over 1 million words) and there are definitely some chunks that could just be excised and it'd still be fine. However, other than that, it's pretty amazing and absolutely masterful how it's plotted. As a reader you'll spend 100+ chapters thinking you know what's going on, and who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are, and how they relate to each other...and then Meatbun starts in on revealing what's ACTUALLY going on and she then spends 200 chapters repeatedly punching you in the face! Like, I went in knowing a LOT of spoilers, because the tags were so dark that I felt that for my mental health it was important I have a general idea what was going on, and I STILL ended up sobbing my eyes out (and I am NOT an easy crier and don't usually cry at books) over something I knew was coming.

Relationship Dynamic: That's about the only thing that the title accurately conveys about this book. "The Husky and His White Cat Shizun," sounds so soft and fluffy, right? That's how they get you, ha. But, Mo Ran is absolutely a big dumb husky who wants to do the right thing (well, sometimes he does) but just completely fails depressingly often. When he sees someone he likes come in the front door he WILL jump all over them and bark in their face as his way of trying to communicate affection. And Chu Wanning is equally absolutely a cat. He is emotionally constipated, poor at expressing himself, uptight, touch starved, desperate for affection, and so lonely my chest hurts when I think about him. And for how they relate to each other...well, picture that big dog greeting a loved one at the door...except that loved one is the most hide-bound proud white cat you can imagine.

That's their dynamic.

(However, also...there are multiple timelines at play, and Taxian Jun does some truly awful things to "his" Chu Wanning in the original timeline, and many of these things are graphically described, and while it's ultimately all explained, it still all HAPPENS, so if you're going to have trouble reading fucktons of abuse between the main ship, I would not recommend this book)

5. Thousand Autumns (Qianqiu) by Meng Xi Shi.

Genre: historical China (like, references actual people, as far as I can tell), xianxia

Where to Access it: ...reading Thousand Autumns is HARD, it's split over like four websites/translators. This Carrd can kinda help? I can get you the rest if you want | donghua season 1 | I heard there's a live action in the works? But I don't know more than that.

Trigger warnings: graphic violence, mentions/threats of sexual violence (but it's all stopped before things really go wrong), starvation, description of child death (from starvation), near-death, emotional/mental abuse, major semi-permanent character injury, god, minor character death, they're major characters depending on your pov, I can't actually think of others, after writing about 2ha it feels positively fluffy). Note that there's not really any explicit content, just implications of smut, and not til basically the very end and extras.

Plot: Yan Wushi, sect leader of a demonic sect, has just come out of an extended seclusion to improve his cultivation when he and one of his disciples come across a man who is wounded to the point of near death. This turns out to be Shen Qiao, the sect leader of Mount Xuandu. When Shen Qiao awakens from his wounds, he's lost his memory, AND he's blind, and Yan Wushi decides it would be great fun and an excellent use of his time to fuck with Shen Qiao by trying to turn him evil - because Yan Wushi is certain that ALL people are inherently evil, and shattering Shen Qiao's veneer of righteousness will just help prove that.

Spoilers: it's not a veneer.

Not spoilers: Not many hijinks ensue, but there are a few hijinks, and even when it's not hijinxed, it's still not that painful...usually.

My Take: despite that synopsis, a lot of the plot of Thousand Autumns is actually political, and I like political plots, so I liked that aspect of it. However, it has some serious pacing issues imo, and it's also hard to read in English atm because it's not fully translated; it's close, now, much closer than when I read it a few months ago, so it'll be easier to read soon. Or maybe I shouldn't say it's pacing problems, but rather, it's more of a sequence of multiple major plots, strung together, with the growing relationship between Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao playing out in the background. I think if I'd known there was no "one big plot" that would have actually helped me, because it kept feeling like, "Oh, THIS is the main thing," but it never was. Things would feel climactic...except then there'd be more. So it's probably better to actually think of it as more...episodic? And the episodes/stories build, and interrelate, and do have a culmination, but not all of them directly tie in, and not all the threads end up coming together/getting resolved.

Relationship Dynamic: early on, Yan Wushi is definitely abusive and manipulative, intentionally so, and I would argue that, imo, Shen Qiao falls for it. However, mid-way through, there's some big reveals, and after that when they're reunited Shen Qiao no longer takes any shit and Yan Wushi continues to act like he doesn't care even when he clearly does. They're not a typical ship in ANY WAY, and I'd say their relationship is more founded on mutual respect than on love. Indeed, in the author's notes at one point MXS actually says they doesn't see them as the kind of couple to ever exchange love declarations, and I thought that was really interesting and it really helped me to understand how they worked together because I'll own I struggled with at times. Yan Wushi is self-interested, often cruel, and ethically and morally dubious. Shen Qiao, on the other hand, could probably ascend to Daoist godhood, he's so pure. Yet...they DO work. I'd say "opposites attract" but that's ALSO not their main trope, not exactly. They're a VERY hard ship to explain, and I know some people who've read the whole book and still don't really...get them...and I've had to really think about them to wrap my head around them...but the more I've thought about them, the more I like them.

6. Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine by Man Man He Qi Duo.

Genre: historical fiction set in either actual China or make-believe China, I'm not sure if this is directly incorporated any real people

Where to Access It: English Translation by Perpetual Daydreams | manhua (untranslated, I'm not sure if there's anyone translating it into English) | I think there's a live action in the works? Not sure beyond that though.

Trigger Warnings: suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, drug addiction, drug abuse, chronic illness (different character than the drugs), manipulation, abusive, awful parents and parental figures (not all, but definitely some), some homophobia (but way less than there could have been), probably other stuff

Plot: After 7 years away, Zhong Wan returns to the capital of the Empire with the three children of his benefactor, the seven-years-dead Prince Ning. Prince Ning was executed for treason against the previous Emperor, and Zhong Wan has done all he can to protect and raise the three kids, but he's got a lot of worries about returning to the capital and what could happen to his charges if they get pulled into the politics surrounded the Emperor. But, even worse, he's got even more worries about being reunited with Yu She, nephew of the Emperor, with whom he has more than a little history...and about whom he has been lying for the past 7 years, claiming that he is Yu She's lover, in a bid to help use Yu She's reputation to protect Prince Ning's children.

Hijinks ensue.

And so does a political nightmare.

My Take: TYQHM was a hard book to get into because there are just so many characters and it's all about politics - this is NOT a xianxia or wuxia novel, and these characters are NOT cultivators. There's basically nothing supernatural in the whole book; instead, it's about Zhong Wan and Yu She figuring out their own histories, and accepting each other, while trying to survive in a political world that increasingly wants both of them dead. However, I adore political plots, and when all was said and done I really enjoyed it, and I'm trying tooth and nail to claw other people into the fandom with me, so far with basically no success. It only has like 15 works in English on AO3. And so not only does it not fit that requirement of yours...

Relationship Dynamic: ...I think you would also probably not like the relationship dynamic? Zhong Wan is a bit like Wei Wuxian-as-Mo Xuanyu, except more...genuinely? Like, it's his actual personality, not an act, in quite the same way. I don't mean the "flamboyantly gay" part...usually...he definitely has his moments...but he's just...like, he's been through so much that he'll basically say anything, and drag himself entirely through the mud, to distract people who might hurt the three kids (they're like 16, 13, 13, now I think? It was never THAT clear to me, tbh...certainly, all are at least 10...) and, later, Yu She. He has zero face, and doesn't mind having negative face when he feels the situation demands it...and Yu She, on the other hand, has MAJOR depression issues, is sure he deserves nothing, and mostly wants to destroy everyone around him and then kill himself, at least until Zhong Wan starts giving him a reason to live again. But, more than that...Zhong Wan is like the fucking epitome of a bratty subby bottom. He wants to get fucked SO bad. And Yu She is an incredibly reluctant dom, hilariously so at times, uncomfortably/manipulative so at others. When all was said and done, I was pretty fond of them both, but there were definitely moments that made me grimace, and given what you say of how you felt about MDZS, I think this one is less likely to be to your taste?

Bonus 7: Guardian by Priest. I never finished the novel version of Guardian because the translation had some issues that caused me not to enjoy it, so I won't get into it too much, but again, Guardian is a very different book than any of the others, because it's modern fantasy(ish, like, it's still deeply embedded in Daoist-related tropes but it's more "magic spells" and less "cultivation." Like, in terms of what it's like, it felt more like Japanese modern Onmyoji style stories, to me, than it felt like the ancient Chinese wuxia/xianxia cultivation stories.). I'm not gonna get into lots of details, because I read part of the book more than a year ago, and have seen the show (which is VERY different) like three times, so I can hardly even remember what they're like in the novel. There was definitely some weirdness, though? If you're potentially interested, I'd suggest starting with the drama instead. The plot for that is...

Plot: Zhao Yunlan heads a Special Investigation Unit in the human world tasked with maintaining a treaty between humans and the dixigren ("undergrounders") who are (in the show) aliens (in the book...it's the world of the dead). While doing this job, he keeps running into this professor, Shen Wei, who definitely knows more than he oughta.

Hijinks ensue.

And then it murders you with feels.

The live action streams from YouTube - here.

(Warning: uh, I don't want to give spoilers, but my "guaranteed happy ending" does NOT apply to the Guardian TV show...but it does apply to the book, as I understand it.)

*

Anyway, this was a terrible use of my time but it was definitely more fun than what I should be doing, and it's probably way more information than you wanted or needed, but since I wasn't sure what exactly you had in mind, I figured...might as well be thorough?

(Today's hyper-focus fail: this post, ha...)

[dilirebas]

Is TLB a TV drama or web drama?? This drama is damn good but it hasn't scored as much as I thought. It's definitely shown in other countries but in the end Reba's YAMG and Zhan's DC became the most hit. Even Novoland, Luoyang scored big.. but I find TLB very good.. is it bcuz of lack of promoting?? Another thing is that many ppl talk bad about main CP and their chemistry. I still don't get the reason.. still now I'm stuck with gesun ❤️

It's technically not a web drama because it aired on a provincial channel. By scoring, do you mean viewership ratings? XZ has by far the most powerful fanbase in China (like it's not even close) so his ratings are always going to be really high haha... You also can’t compare dramas after March 2021 to dramas before March 2021 because Tencent changed the way they count views. TLB still ended up being the most internationally profitable cdrama ever, so internationally it was a huge success.

TLB's problem wasn't lack of promotion but negative promotion. The two leads, their appearances, and their chemistry were all attacked by paid accounts to make way for the 2nd female lead. Paid accounts posted about how the 2nd female lead is better-looking than the 1st and how the 2nd ship is cuter than the 1st. ZLS is known for this type of comparative marketing, and Tencent also has a significant investment in ZLS so they need her to gain more hype, so all the marketing was directed at HaoYan. ZLS's solo fans were also posing as HaoYan shippers (which ended up causing fights with LYN fans). This marketing was unhelpful to the ratings because HaoYan shippers said they were boycotting the drama since TLB ratings counted as success for the leads and not for ZLS. A lot of people who were going to watch TLB for the leads got turned off by the negative promotion, and the drama ended up getting marketed to a crowd that was boycotting the drama.

There are always differences in personal taste, and what we like isn’t necessarily what other people like. But the HaoYan fandom completely fell apart and their data plummeted the moment the final episode was released, so a lot of it was clearly artificial. There are also a lot of new viewers posting in the TLB search who talk about how they initially didn’t watch TLB because of the negative hype, but now after watching it they think it’s a great drama and GeSun has great chemistry. This is how you find out what normal passerby viewers think when they watch the drama.

[mejomonster]

This morning has been wild for 2ha fandom and the day is not finished yet. First, Tencent uploads a post with their upcoming dramas and Hyx is not included, then they deleted it, later they said they will increase the cost of their membership, people started speculating it's because Hyx will drop soon, because it's their most expensive proyect to date, later the director of Hyx posted a leaked video of Ranwan and deleted it shortly after. The fandom has now fallen in conspiracy theories like if you search for Mariah Carey's Without you on Youtube, the first result you get last 4:15 minutes, hinting at the possible 4/15 date for Hyx. At this point, I'm laughing for not to cry tbh

1 thanks for the update this sounds freaking wild

2 don’t mind me just browsing wtf happened on Twitter and Weibo

I mean all of these things might have meant something. But also to calm myself down lol I do think there’s chiller possible explanations? ToT

1 I think them not including an hyx poster may not be that weird at all? I heard shows deal with censorship backlash less if they do not advertise at all pre-airing (so no trailers until the day it’s airing already, no banners on the website about it upcoming ahead of time, etc). I heard that’s what happened with word of honor, which is why there was zero news of the show until it had already started airing. I wasn’t around in the cdrama fandom when The Untamed was released but I heard they also had no advertising or news about it about to air, til the day it released. So for hyx to get no official advertising/hype material released by Tencent itself seems pretty normal whether it’s gonna air or not. (I’m just guessing - I don’t think youku released absolutely any info of word of honor before it started airing? I don’t remember even a banner on their sites or trailer ahead of time. Whereas Rattan was able to release both of those several days ahead of airing).

Though, Tencent deleting the thing about upcoming dramas might have been to calm down panic about hyx not being on it. (Imma... get on Weibo see what ppl are saying...)

2 idk why cost of membership would increase just for one single show. This is probably just coincidental timing?

(Into theory mode it could more be they are concerned their planned/airing shows would split their audience instead of drawing additional so they wanna make up the difference, or contrastingly they think it will bring them new audiences and wanna milk it for all its worth... which could apply to shows we already see airing as much as future ones they know are slated..?)

3 ok I want a link to the director posting a leaked ranwan video surely someone backed it up... ;-; screenshot what happened... that’s the only ???!!?? Thing that is distinctly a member of the hyx team doing something. (Although also not sure director has anything to do with air date, he could just have wanted to share/build hype/who knows, since a video doesn’t = a confirm release date, it is fun tho). I mean... unless his post had some date mentioned in it...ahhh

Yeah this is a messy day dang

[alwaysfortracer85]

Hi, anon, sorry for the late reply. Funny thing - Zhao Wei was seen in her hometown, alive and well, also I saw people saying her wb acc was back too. I remember when the news about her getting into trouble reached twt - only then I found out how small is the knowledge on cent among the majority of twt cdrama fandoms. Because people were like "omg, purge in cent, no one is safe bla bla bla". They didn't even know about all the things Zhao Wei and her husband did, their connections etc. In this twt environment it is so easy to brainwash people and sell any narrative. Most of melon accs on twt belong to shrimps and gyegye-biased cpf and of course they created this narrative about everyone being cancelled left and right, people losing projects bla bla bla. YB being eliminated from ddu, invited to all the concerts and being thrown away etc. Of course Qing Lang is happening, and like I said before - some things will never be the same. And other things will go back to normal next year. But lets remember how it was reported by biased melon accs here - doom and gloom, darkness. And funny thing - this happened around the time when it was obvious that OOL is not getting aired. Like, lets stop pretending here - if I knew OOL was not coming home a week before it was officially announced, shrimps knew about that too. And what was the easiest way to cover up for gyegye's troubles - to create the narrative that everyone was in huge trouble. I wonder how people still buy these melon accs' info when all they do is cover up for gyegye, often acting as his clarifications accs. They post explanations about him not being in variety, explanations about OOL not airing. Do they do that for other celebs? Nope lol. Also that cpf melon acc that always reported on YB's fandom fight with ZLY fandom, GJ and ZYL incident with shrine, troubles in fanclubs of survival show trainees, CXK troubles with his album release. But where is info about Li-Ning being called out for poor quality of their merch? It was #1 topic in Ch-na. If that acc is so interested in fandoms, where is report on gyegye's fans being criticized by CCTV? I wonder why these important issues were ignored by "unbiased" melon acc. Do I consume melons? Yep, I am not going to act superior and be a snob. Of course not those rotten melons by twt melon accs, I love my melons juicy and fresh, not the shit brought here by cpf and shrimps. We are all humans, we all get curious, we all want to know what to wait for in the future. But we always need to remind ourselves - even the most trustworthy melon sources can be mistaken or their info becomes outdated since things tend to change in cent every five minutes

[shenergyx]

how is it westernization when it's a CHINESE company deciding to produce a movie that's an adaptation of an italian opera?? sounds pretty infantilizing to me...

I wondered whether I should respond to this or not, but I'm going to just incase anybody else is wondering.

I am not in any way claiming that Chinese entities cannot make decisions for themselves. I am claiming that capitalism has a one track mind and the end result of globalization tends to be light-bright faces capitalizing on others.

As stated in both of my posts about it, I was having a really bad day that day, so I reacted really intensely. But it was not just this Italian Opera Cdrama that made me concerned. It was the recent occurrence of ZZH in danger of being doxed due to western influence. It was recently reading several break downs of the current western fandom behaviors by the Chinese diaspora. It was knowing that MXTX getting official ENG releases directly means that it is known that there is a substantial western fan base.

This all happened recently, so to see Dylan Sprouse's face in this space is jarring. As I said, it just felt too "Let's test the waters". That's it. All of this is what I meant at the time, and what I mean now. If this cdrama is wonderful and somebody's pet project and then that's it, cool. But if after that we start getting all sorts of random topic shows with like.... Dylan O'Brien, or Joe Keery, I'm concerned.

[zelzenik]

an essay on the fetishization of east asians in fandom

ok y'all

i've got multiple asks about my opinion regarding the whole Sh*rtless Z/ko Sunday thing, and i do want to preface this all by saying that i do have friends and mutuals who participate(?) in this event(?) so i am in no way meaning to shame anyone or be the fandom's purity police as some anons have been claiming i'm attempting to be, lol

that all being said, i am half East Asian, and upon really thinking on the reasons why this "event" in particular irks me personally, i've come to the following conclusions which i hope you will read through with an open mind.

there's nothing necessarily "wrong" with this "event" to most people. yes, Z/ko is a bunch of pixels. yes, he's a cartoon character. yes, plenty of ppl draw diff characters shirtless. i'm in plenty of different fandoms that draw characters shirtless. whatever. Z/ko, however, is an East Asian coded character so i do believe that i have the right to speak on this

this "event" isn't necessarily "wrong" in terms of the fact that it technically does not actually hurt East Asians physically; however, i do believe that it is a SYMPTOM of a larger issue at hand

of course there are people who are participating in the "event" harmlessly and do not realize that they are worsening such a symptom. but there are others who are doing it intentionally which i think is very worrisome as someone who's an East Asian

the mass consumption of anime, kpop, jpop, kdramas, cdramas, media based on Asian culture such as ATLA, etc, etc, etc has led to a WIDESPREAD issue within fandom regarding the fetishization of East Asians

before you argue with me and say that is not true, i ask that you peruse the fandoms of popular animes or kpop groups (like BTS)

for years, East Asians have dealt with racism and hate and dehumanization regarding sex work and war brides and the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Japanese internment camps and all this other really terrible stuff that i will not get into at the moment because it's too upsetting for me to even discuss (i urge you to Google). that all being said, now, we (East Asians) not only have to deal with the trauma of those sorts of issues, but we also are forced to watch as our people are sexualized and fetishized to disturbing degrees

Sh*rtless Z/ko Sunday is an example of how this phenomenon has manifested itself even in the Z/tara fandom. in the past year or so, a few key members of the Z/tara fandom has always insisted that the Z/kka fandom fetishizes both Z/ko and S/kka. but, if that's the case, then what is Sh*rtless Z/ko Sunday?

it's yet another way that a bunch of pixels that are meant to represent an East Asian coded boy (don't you dare tell me he's "just from the Fire Nation" shut the hell up) wind up fetishized by primarily wh/te women!!

again, i don't give a damn about what you do or what you post as long as it's tagged properly, but i do want you to understand the ramifications of what you post. think of all the East Asians who are literally traumatized because of people constantly pulling their eyes at us or using our cultures/looks as an aesthetic (like the foxeye trend) or fetishizing us and our culture while k/lling us and being racist to us (like the mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, where several East Asian women who were working at spas were m/rdered)

even the argument "Z/ko's just a bunch of pixels!!" pisses me off because who do you think he's supposed to represent??!! what do you think he means to all the little East Asian kids who've never seen themselves represented onscreen before?!!!

don't even get me STARTED on the way that K/tara is dealt with within the Z/tara fandom. i'm not brown so i won't speak on such an issue personally, but i do know that many of my friends who are have been incredibly frustrated with the way K/tara is treated in fandom too

if you're wh/te or even just not East Asian, please consider what i've said. before you release content, consider what you're contributing toward the dehumanization and fetishization of East Asians. it's frustrating and painful to constantly see our people or characters who are supposed to be representative of our people fetishized in fandom, esp by wh/te people.