#also I am not Chinese but I have read so many threads on Twitter by actual Chinese ppl who explain that they r not even viewed as adopted

[nomadicism]

Any more thoughts about the whole Twitter situation? What do you think will happen to that site over the next while?

Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!

By the gods, what to even say now?

I wish that I had the wit to voice my thoughts with brevity and good humor. The Twitter Musk situation is hilarious-but-also-serious, and alas, I am verbose in my thoughts and not very funny.

I'm not sure that Twitter will survive, if I have time I'll post more deeply on what I think will happen with that.

I don't follow much outside of USA Twitter, so I can see all of this going in a lot of directions, such as the platform being irrelevant in the US, while remaining utilized outside of the USA.

We can still use Twitter and curate our experience by muting every slur that ever existed while using mega block on shitty tweets to expand our block lists, but that's not gonna change the fact if Twitter survives—without Furry Musk-gland backtracking on moderation—then the winners will be authoritarian regimes and con artists. Both rely upon sowing disinformation, distrust, propaganda, and conspiracies.

There are many choice threads on Twitter that reveal the convergence of serious issues, and I don’t even know where to begin summarizing them all. I’ve included a list of URLs to a variety of threads that might be of interest. What's happening here is not a simple thing, it's bigger than one spoiled mediocre man's ego.

Content is king, and Black people did a lot of labor in creating the kind of content that draws users to Twitter. Michael Harriot of The Grio has some words.

Hark! A graph showing Mastodon new user sign up spikes plotted against new user sign-ups on Twitter

A kind and thoughtful thread by Gerard K Cohen about his team members. Their entire team (Accessibility Experience Team) was among the mass firings at Twitter last week.

Of which, the unsurprising firing of thousands of employees (not all of them whom are software engineers) potentially poses as serious legal issue for Twitter due to California’s WARN law.

Also in Ireland (though small potatoes I suppose).

Apartheid Clyde (thank you Black Twitter for this most excellent name for Elon Musk) tries to blame advertisers bailing on the platform on activists. Gets called out by the president and Chief Operating Officer of MMA Global (a multi-national marketing trade association) whom he had just had a call with.

On the value of experts discussing in an open public forum

Concerns from a Chinese dissident

Discount Stark is fact-checked on his lie about advertising

Profoundly bad business decisions. There is no 5D chess here folks. There may well be a case for Tesla stock-holders to sue for breach of fiduciary responsibility.

Being an asshole to everyone and then firing the security team (who were already pissed at you very likely) as you’re rolling out a feature that requires both financial and personal data to be transmitted and stored is beyond foolish.

Ohhhh, hmmm about those critical employees…

Some of the fired employees are here on work visas

Potentially disruptive for upcoming elections in the USA.

Listen, I work in tech. I co-founded a startup back in 2013. No job is worth a 9:30pm stand-up while your colleagues are being fired by a useless billionaire.

Does Twitter really matter though?

Learn to host your own content.

Make a list of your fave Twitter artists, authors, etc.

When parody is only comedy if it comes with a disclaimer

Comedy as a venn diagram

Use lists to get around shadow banning of un-verified accounts

Paying for verification reduces identity to a trademark. The average person does not have the resources to continuously litigate their identity, such people who are recognized experts in their field, journalists, government officials, etc will be the ones impersonated.

A must-read thread about Twitter and counter-convergence (spoiler, Harry Potter was a counter-convergence)

Faith and trust rely on knowing that people are who they claim to be when they speak on subjects with authority and expertise. Undercutting the ability of such people to verify themselves is a form of discrediting, and when that happens systematically to scientists, educators, and public servants, then we have fascist propaganda tactics on our hands.

I hope you find these useful Anon!

(Y'all give me some reblogs because I'm not sure if this post will show up organically since it has links in it.)

#twitter #blue checkmark #verification #apartheid clyde #furry musk gland takeover #ask me anything #anonymous

[sketching-shark]

I always appreciate people who are willing to criticize LMK. Even if I don't agree with all your points. There's a vocal section of the fandom that do nothing but praise it and get upset when you find fault with it or any of their beloved characters. I like the show too but there are plenty of flaws and room for improvement. But many don't want to have that discussion. So it's just nice to see some watchers not mindlessly soak up everything the writers give us. Because despite what people say ad nauseum, the show isn't perfect.

Monkie Kid spoilers below:

Huh well anon firstly while I am aware that it can be hard to convey sincerity on the internet, genuinely thanks for messaging me with the approach that you can appreciate me complaining about a lego cartoon even while you don't agree with everything I'm saying. Too often I've seen even what started out as little disagreements in fandom circles explode into gigantic messes because of this all or nothing attitude that's engulfing more and more of fandom. I feel like that more than anything is the reason why I've adopted an perspective of "don't like don't read goes both ways" when it comes to fandom stuff; people should be free to praise or criticize a piece of media as much as they please as long as they're not harassing people over it, and one can follow, ignore, or block as one sees fit.

But hmmmm I know every fandom has its absolute admirers, but in terms of JTTW understandings in the west I feel like that's a liiiiiiitle bit worrisome here because of the way Monkie Kid--at least to me (haha yea subjective opinions ahoy)--seems to rapidly be falling victim to the storytelling detriments of "moar epic!," fandom character favoratism, and demand for angst. I mean, this show started out with the premise that it was going to be a fun adventure aimed at children where they'd get to by-proxy do cool things with one of the most beloved characters from Chinese mythology. But seasons 2, 3, and now 4 have been following this pattern of "Sun Wukong is largely absent--something really bad happens partially because of the big villain but also because the Monkey King made a massive miscalcuation that made everything 1000 times worse--Qi Xiaotian gets trauma upon trauma as a result--we all get together to blow something up at the end which magically fixes everything. FOR NOW."

So yea, in accordance with what seems to be general fandom tastes we get an increasingly traumatized Qi Xiaotian. We get a Six-Eared Macaque (the obvious fandom meow-meow) who now apparently used to be the main member of Sun Wukong's Best Friends Forever club and who obviously never did anything wrong evaaaaaar (what with the show forgetting about all the stuff he put Qi Xiaotian through & everything in the plot so far indicating the shadow monkey believed wholeheartedly in the Monkey King right before Sun Wukong the evil betraying bastard bonked him to death), and we get stakes that are literally about the fate of the entire world or even all of reality every season. But the cost of all of that was a plot structure that is increasingly failing to address many of its threads (hey remember how the Demon Bull family were the ones who released Lady Bone Demon? R we ever going to address that?), less and less and less genuine interactions between Sun Wukong and Qi Xiaotian, and, well, an increasing tendency in both fanon and canon to depict Sun Wukong as a careless screw-up at best and a selfish asshole at worst, or as a traumatized & miserable mess who needs to spend at least 100 years in therapy before he could even think about being anyone's mentor.

I mean hell, based on what I understand from the last twitter blow-up about all of this the response to the possibility that Sun Wukong was Qi Xiaotian's bio dad--you know, something that in a different context could have been a source of joy and excitement if it was about a father and son who had been torn apart through outside circumstances and were finally reunited--was first even MORE anger at the Monkey King for being a deadbeat dad on top of all his other screw-ups, and then relief when a lego show writer felt compelled to make it clear Sun Wukong was not the father. Because at this point if he was indeed Qi Xiaotian's bio dad, especially if Sun Wukong knew it the whole time, the implications would be really, really bad. Add all of that to every other character in Monkie Kid yelling at Sun Wukong for being a dumb idiot and/or terrible person, the absolute silence (except for some very brief flashbacks) on Sun Wukong's thoughts about any of this, and the "chaos monkey uwu" framework that Sun Wukong and his journey is already commonly understood through in the west (plus this weird reluctance and even refusal to consider what happened in the og classic that I've seen in some circles), and it feels like a lot of the Monkey King & co.'s nuance, complexity, and more fascinating aspects are being erased from common western perceptions of Journey to the West. And YEA obviously a silly lego show isn't going to get into the theological & moral complexities of a ~1,400 page novel, but given that Monkie Kid seems to have become one of THE primary ways that a western audience is being introduced to this story, I do wish that there was more of an effort to at least acknowledge what happened in the og classic.

IDK, in terms of Monkie Kid maybe future episodes will finally give us some answers for what happened to the og pilgrims that will be satisfying. Maybe they'll finally provide a decent aswer for why the Monkey King betrayed his sworn brotherhood and became a isolated failure who's hated by basically everyone who actually knows him. But as it currently stands I just think that if you've got a plot where the shifu and tudi pair now barely interact & a fan base where a significant portion is THAT quick to think the absolute worst of the Monkey King even though this is literally a silly lego show about having adventures with the Great Sage, then you really need to pause and think about why we're at this point :I

#anon answered #monkie kid

[iamayansarkar]

What happened to Redmi K series in India & POCO F Series??

This blog was originally available on Revue (by Twitter) & was written back in June, 2022 before the launch of Redmi K50i,

As the Revue is getting discontinued, I am making this interesting thread available on Tumblr,

I have tried some alternative platforms to continue my blogs & finally decided to do that on Tumblr. This will be the place, where I will share the details which I can't share on any Community

My Twitter handle will be my primary platform to communicate with everyone & everything that I would do in other platforms will be shared to there.

Many of you must be wondering what Redmi is doing like literally after Redmi K20 Series launch in 2019, they are going to bring back Redmi K series as Redmi K50i in 2022 in India (it’s the renamed version of Redmi Note 11T Pro for India) & why POCO is rebranding original Redmi K phones under POCO F series, right?

Give me a chance, I am explaining what has actually happened in past few years. If you found this article useful, informative & interesting then please share to your friends & family members who might be interested in this.

Why this has happened?

Xiaomi's thinking of flagship market in India: -

Redmi in India always had the plans to bring the successor of Redmi K20 Pro in India, as POCO had for POCO F1’s successor as in form of POCO F2 originally in 2019 (yes, you read it right) In Q1, 2020, we had the Covid outbreak throughout the country. Redmi K30 4G was introduced to India as POCO X2 for POCO’s comeback.

POCO F2 was originally planned

Long before, people had asked the Xiaomi team to bring flagships to Indian market. This had happened till Mi 5. But Xiaomi India wanted to focus on majority share of Indian Smartphone market which is in budget segment (>₹5k - ₹15k), so they established the identity of “M-I” as budget friendly brand & missed the great opportunity for flagship competition with OnePlus in India. 

Observing people’s request for flagships priced at aggressive pricing Mi MIX 2 was introduced. But this didn’t set that great impact on the Indian industry. And for this Xiaomi India didn’t bring that much flagships till 2018, later in 2020 with the introduction of Mi 10 in Indian market, this thing got changed.

In 2018, to change the scenario POCO brand was introduced. F1 did that what we all know. Looking at the success of POCO F1, Xiaomi decided to do the same on with Redmi. So, they introduced Redmi as their 2nd sub brand after POCO during the launch event of Redmi Note 7 series in Q1 2019. (Source)

POCO was the reason for the birth of Redmi K

Redmi K series was introduced to walk on the same path of POCO F1. Few guys still don’t know that how “K20” word came up. This actually made up from “Flagship Killer 2.0”. 

POCO's point of view on this: -

Many people must not know that POCO F2 was a thing. Yes, it was planned to be launched back in 2019 in its original form. This was scheduled to happen just after Redmi K20 series India launch/ Mi 9T series global launch. After this device got launched to Global markets, few days later this was planned to be launched as Redmi K20S for Chinese market. But, very sadly this plan was cancelled. If this had happened, we shouldn’t be seeing POCO to be called as “rebranding brand”. We may have seen the alter reality.

I have covered POCO F2 in POCO Community India (Here’s the link of that thread, I have shared the details in here), and after getting the invitation for the beta testing of it, my first ever thread was on POCO F2 (by this I think you guys can get an idea how I am emotionally attached to POCO, I even had made this silly Tweet once, now don’t take this Tweet seriously 🙈🙈)

POCO F2 Black variant Prototype

POCO F2 Green Variant Prototype

POCO was also determined to re-enter the Indian & Global smartphone market.

Redmi in India always had the plans to bring the successor of Redmi K20 Pro in India. In Q1, 2020, we had the Covid outbreak throughout the country. Redmi K30 4G was introduced to India as POCO X2 for POCO’s comeback. 

You guys must know that Redmi K30 Pro came to global markets as the POCO F2 Pro. But this wasn’t planned for Indian market. C Manmohan had said POCO F2 Pro won’t be coming to India & this won’t be POCO F1’s successor. (This is the source article confirming my statement. In this article you will see that C Manmohan had addressed this on an interview with Amit Bhawani.)

During a fan meet-up at this same time, Manu Kumar Jain had said that Redmi K30 Pro was coming to India as Redmi K30 Pro only. The source of this statement is from Techno Ruhez’s Tech news (at that time I didn’t know about Mi FCs & that the people in these FCs get chance to meet/ talk with Xiaomi officials, so after knowing this I joined the Mi FC Kolkata Telegram group actually🙈🙈. And during this time like a normal fellow, I used to watch Tech Youtuber’s contents daily)

Redmi K30 Pro was coming to India as Redmi K30 Pro only

But, as the Covid situations got worse & the lockdowns got extended, launching a ₹40K phone right after Mi 10 was big gamble for them.

In an online meeting on Zoom, Manu Kumar Jain was talking about Redmi K30 Pro (Screenshot taken from YouTube)

At this time, many people came to online (who weren’t that much active on internet before), online classes, job meetings, more OTT contents consumption happened like never before. So, people preferred budget smartphones for this & it’s the same reason why Android Tablets are back again in the market.

So, observing the industry needs of that, Redmi K30 Pro was dropped for Indian market. Maybe Redmi K30 5G/ Redmi K30i could have been in their plans to bring as non pro version of Redmi K30 Pro in India, I don’t know about this.

Redmi K30 Series was planned to be launched for India

Even Mi Note 10, Note 10 Lite were in their plans for bringing in the Indian market, but this decision was also dropped.

They focused on budget Redmi 9 series & Note 9 series for the demand of public back in that time (and Mi Community India ban also happened by this).

Later Mi 10T series was brought to Indian market as to provide the essence of budget flagship (but it lacked Amoled for which it didn’t receive well response)

In the meantime, POCO originally had the plans to bring F1’s successor to India, introduce M series right after X2’s launch. But, Covid + Lockdown hit their plans. It’s believed that they had the plans for recreating POCO F2 for India. Redmi K30 Ultra was planned to be brought as the “POCO F2”.

But after observing the situation which wasn’t right in that moment, the plan was again dropped. Their main focus was to work on their biggest product for 2020 “POCO X3”. This is why C series was introduced. As the C series was introduced in the 3rd Generation, that’s why it has “POCO C3” naming. (If you guys follow me on Twitter, then you guys should have seen that I have explained their nomenclature & recently discussed about the updated naming scheme in their 4th Generation, I’m sharing the link of that Twitter thread)

C series wasn’t planned in the first place

The things we started seeing from 2021: -

In early February 2021, Redmi K40 series was launched in mainland China. In March 2021, Redmi India introduced Redmi Note 10 Series Globally.

In this year, Xiaomi India had planned to differentiate their products in Xiaomi & Redmi brands.

I can still remember that we had been invited in the “Redmi Note 10 Series Indian launch Event Watch Party” which was happening on over a Zoom Call arranged by Gitansh Anand Sir.

After the Launch Event was done & all of us went wild after watching the prices of Redmi Note 10, Note 10 Pro, Note 10 Pro Max, a Q&A Session on these products was arranged with Raghu Reddy Sir (Ex CBO, Xiaomi India). In that session we were given a hint that “Redmi K40 Series was coming to India”.

Later you all know that Redmi K40 became POCO F3 for Global & Mi 11X for Indian market and Redmi K40 Pro+ became Mi 11i for Global & Mi 11X Pro for Indian market.

Finally, Redmi K40 Gaming got launched in Chinese market & this came to Indian market as POCO F3 GT.

Why rebranding happened?

From 4th generation of K series, Redmi made it as budget flagship with aggressive price point. Since in global markets the og “Xiaomi” phones & various accessories do sell well, that’s why og Xiaomi products work in global markets.

POCO Global introduced F3 as almost at the same price of Pocophone F1, they were able to utilise that opportunity. And POCO India had brought POCO X3 Pro as the successor to POCO F1, but to redefine POCO F, they needed to go with K40G as POCO F3 GT.

In other hand, Indian smartphone Industry has the mammoth share of market in “₹7k - ₹15K”, the >₹20K market has slightly evolved & people who were buying flagships were directly preferring phones >₹40K. Phones at ~₹50k were placed as flagships by Oneplus (iQOO wasn’t in the competition before this). If one was going up >₹55K, then people were preferring Samsung Galaxy S in Android & Apple iphones.

So, bringing actual Xiaomi branded Mi 11, Mi 11 Pro was like a gamble which Xiaomi India understood with Mi 10. So, budget flagships with aggressive pricing were their choice to go with. That’s why, Mi 11X series happened.

This is why we are watching og Redmi products in Indian market with either Xiaomi or POCO branding nowadays.

And for Global markets POCO is launching the Redmi Products with their customizations to bring in aggressive pricing.

POCO-Redmi was planned with POCO F2 - Redmi K20S from 2019

This is why we have now POCO F4 series.

Return of Redmi K in India: -

I have said in this blog that, Redmi India has always tried to bring the K series back to Indian market. But since, Redmi K series is flagship offering from “Redmi” brand, now Redmi in India can’t put the K in their desirable price point, this can become too much expensive & a crazy gamble in 2021 right after lockdowns of 2020.

So, finally in 2022 the Redmi K is coming back to India in the form of “Redmi K5Oi”. Here “i” stands for “India”, i.e., “i = For India”.

Well, this is an unreleased product at the time of my writing, so I should not be talking about it that much, but I can assure that in that price segment where it’s coming in, will be the “most powerfull smartphone” and gamer’s delight. For your kind information Redmi Note 11T Pro which is launched in Global markets as POCO X4 GT & this is coming as Redmi K50i in India.

This was also planned to be launched as POCO X4 GT in India as the successor to POCO X3 Pro’s performance icon, but Redmi needed this device to reboot K series for India.

Hope that you guys liked my blog & understand what has happened in past 3-4 years with POCO F & Redmi K. I also hope that you have understood why this happened. I tried my best to make this in simple language with interesting & informative presentation.

I have one request, if you guys liked & found this blog as helpful, please share this to your friends & family members who are also interested in Xiaomi & POCO.

I personally want all Xiaomi & POCO Fans to know about this Globally. I have explained those topics which used to be unknown/ not understandable to most of the people. Hope that everyone read this blog.

#POCO #Redmi #Xiaomi

[shigarakitomura]

i don’t go here but arent kaeya and diluc brothers 🤨🤨😟

yes they r adopted brothers they r also not real

#anonymous #asks #send me asks #I don't feel like explaining proship and profiction rn but alright #also I am not Chinese but I have read so many threads on Twitter by actual Chinese ppl who explain that they r not even viewed as adopted #they r sworn brothers which doesn't even have an equivalent in English #anywayz vibing in my little corner w the red and blue bitches

[pumpkinpaix]

mdzs fandom, diaspora, and cultural exchange

Hey everyone. This post contains a statement that’s been posted to my twitter, but was a collaborative effort between several diaspora fans over the last few weeks. Some of the specifics are part of a twitter-localized discourse, but the general sentiments and issues raised are applicable across the board, including here on tumblr.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably seen a few of my posts about this fandom, cultural exchange, and diasporic identity. For example, here, here, and here. This statement more directly criticizes some of the general issues I and others have raised in the past, and also hopefully provides a little more insight into where those issues come from. I would be happy if people took the time to read and reblog this, as the thought that went into it is not trivial, and neither is the subject matter. Thank you.

Introduction

Hello. I'm a member of a Chinese diaspora discord server - I volunteered to try and compile a thread of some thoughts regarding our place and roles in the fandom expressed in some of our recent discussions. This was primarily drafted by me and reviewed/edited by others with the hopes that we can share a cohesive statement on our honest feelings instead of repeatedly sharing multiple, fragmented versions of similar threads in isolation.

This was compiled by one group of diaspora and cannot be taken to represent diaspora as a whole, but we hope that our input can be considered with compassion and understanding of such.

For context, we are referencing two connected instances: the conflict described in these two threads (here and here), and when @/jelenedra tweeted about giving Jewish practices to the Lans. Regarding the latter, we felt that it tread into the territory of cultural erasure, and that it came from a person who had already disrespected diaspora’s work and input.

Context

The Lans have their own religious and cultural practices, rooted both in the cultural history of China and the genre of xianxia. Superimposing a different religious practice onto the Lans amidst other researched, canonical or culturally accurate details felt as if something important of ours was being overwritten for another’s personal satisfaction. Because canon is so intrinsically tied to real cultural, historical, and religious practices, replacing those practices in a canon setting fic feels like erasure. While MDZS is a fantasy novel, the religious practices contained therein are not. This was uncomfortable for many of us, and we wanted to point it out and have it resolved amicably. We were hoping for a discussion or exchange as there are many parallels and points of relation between Chinese and Jewish cultures, but that did not turn out quite as expected.

What happened next felt like a long game of outrage telephone that resulted in a confusion of issues that deflected responsibility, distracted from the origin of the conflict, and swept our concern under the rug.

Specifically, we are concerned about how these two incidents are part of what we feel is a repeated, widespread pattern of the devaluing of Chinese fans’ work and concerns within this fandom. This recent round of discourse is just one of many instances where we have found ourselves in a position of feeling spoken over within a space that is nominally ours. Regardless of what the telephone game was actually about, the way it played out revealed something about how issues are prioritized.

Background

MDZS is one of the first and largest franchises of cmedia that has become popular and easily accessible outside of China. Moreover, it’s a piece of queer Chinese media that is easily accessible to those of us overseas. For many non-Chinese fans, this is the first piece of cmedia they have connected with, and it’s serving as their introduction to a culture previously opaque to them. What perhaps is less obvious is that for many Chinese diaspora fans, this is also the first piece of cmedia THEY have connected with, found community with, seen themselves in.

Many, many of us have a fraught relationship with our heritage, our language—we often suffer from a sense of alienation, both from our families and from our surrounding peers. For our families, our command of the language and culture is often considered superficial, clunky, childish. Often, connecting with our culture is framed as a mandatory academic duty, and such an approach often fosters resentment towards our own heritage. For our non-Chinese peers, our culture is seen as exotic and strange and other, something shiny and interesting to observe, while we, trapped in the middle, find ourselves uprooted and adrift.

MDZS holds an incredibly important place in many diaspora’s hearts. Speaking for myself, this is literally the first time in my life I have felt motivated and excited about my own native tongue. It's the first time I have felt genuine hope that I might one day be able to speak and read it without fear and self-doubt. It is also the first time that so many people have expressed interest in learning from me, in hearing my thoughts and opinions about my culture.

This past year and a half in fandom has been an incredible experience. I know that I am not alone in this. So many diaspora I have spoken to just in the last week have expressed similar sentiments about the place MDZS holds in their lives. It is a precious thing to us, both because we love the story itself, and because it represents a lifeline to a heritage that’s never felt fully ours to grasp.

It’s wonderful to feel like we are able to welcome our friends into our home and show them all these things that have been so formative to our identities, and to be received with such enthusiasm and interest. Introducing this to non-Chinese friends and fans has also been an opportunity to bridge gaps and be humanized in a way that has been especially important in a year where yellow peril fear mongering has been at an all-time high.  

History

However, MDZS’ rise in popularity among non-Chinese audiences has also come with certain difficulties. It is natural to want to take a story you love and make it your own: that’s what transformative fandom is all about. It is also natural that misunderstandings and unintentional missteps might happen when you aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of the culture and political history of the story in question. This is understandable and forgivable—perfection is impossible, even for ourselves.

We hope for consideration and respect when we give our knowledge freely and when we raise the issue of our own discomfort with certain statements or actions regarding our culture. Please remember that what is an isolated incident to you might be a pattern of growing microaggressions to us. In non-Asian spaces, Asian diaspora are often lumped together under one umbrella. In the west, a lot of Chinese diaspora attach themselves to Korean and Japanese media in order to feel some semblance of connection to a media which approximates our cultures because there are cultural similarities. This is the first time we've collectively found community around something that is actually ours, so the specificities matter.

There is a bitterness about being Asian diaspora and a misery in having to put up a united front about racial issues. Enmity towards one group becomes a danger to all of us, all while our own conflicted histories with one another continue to pass trauma down through the generations. Many of us don’t even watch anime in front of our grandparents because of that lingering cultural antipathy. When the distinctions between our cultures are muddled, it feels once again like that very fraught history is flattened and forgotten.

Without the lived experience of it, it’s hard to understand how pervasive the contradictory web of anti-Asian and, more specifically, anti-Chinese racial aggressions are and how insidious its effects are. The conflation of China the political entity (as perceived and presented by the US and Europe) with its people, culture, and diaspora results in an exhausting litany of criticism levied like a bludgeon, often by people who don’t understand the complicated nature of a situation against those of us who do.

There is often a frankly stunning lack of self-awareness re: cultural biases and blind spots when it comes to discussions of MDZS, particularly moral ones. There are countless righteous claims and hot takes on certain aspects of the story, its author, and the characters that are so clearly rooted in a Euroamerican political and moral framework that does not reflect Chinese cultural realities and experiences. Some of these takes have become so widespread they are essentially accepted as fanon.

This is a pattern of behavior within the fandom. It is not limited to any specific group, nor does it even exclude ourselves—we are, after all, not a monolith, and we should not be placed on pedestals to have our differing opinions weaponized against one another in fandom squabbles. We are not flawless in our own understandings and approaches, and we would appreciate it if others would remember this before using any of us as ultimate authorities to settle a personal score.

It is difficult not to be disheartened when enthusiastic interest crosses the line into entitled demand and when transformative work crosses into erasure, especially when the reactions to our raised concerns have so frequently been dismissive and hostile. The overwhelming cultural and emotional labor we bring to the table is often taken advantage of and then criticized in bad faith. We are bombarded with racist aggressions, micro and macro, and then met with ridicule and annoyance when we push back. Worse, we sometimes face accusations of hostility that force us to apologize, back down, and let the matter go.

When we bring up our issues, it usually seems to come with the expectation that there are other issues that should be addressed before we can address ours. It feels like it’s never really the time to talk about Asian issues.

On the internet and in fandom spaces, Western-coded media, politics and perspectives are assumed to be general knowledge and experience that everyone knows and has. It feels like a double standard that we are expected to know the ins and outs of western politics and to engage on these terms, but most non-Chinese have not even the slightest grasp of the sort of politics that are at play within our communities. We end up feeling used for our specialized knowledge and cultural background and then dismissed when our opinions and problems are inconvenient.

As the culture represented in MDZS is not a culture that most non-Chinese fans are familiar with, we’d like to remind you that you do not get to decide which parts of it are or are not important. While sharing this space with Chinese diaspora who have a close connection to the work and the painful history that goes along with being diaspora, we ask that you be mindful of listening to our concerns.

Cultural erasure is tied to a lot of intense historical and generational trauma for us that maybe isn't immediately evident: the horrors of the Pacific theatre, the far-reaching consequences of colonization, racial tensions both among ourselves and with non-Chinese etc. These are not minor or simple things, and when we talk about our issues within fandom, this is often what underlies them. This is one of the first and only places many of us have been able to find community to discuss our unique issues without feeling as if we’re speaking out of turn.

With the HK protests, COVID, the anti-Chinese platforms of the US election etc., anti-Chinese sentiment has been at the forefront of the global news cycle for some time now, and it is with complete sincerity that we emphasize once again how important MDZS fandom has been as a haven for humanizing and valuing Chinese people through cultural exchange.

Experiencing racial aggression within that space stings, not just because it’s a space we love, but because it feels like we’ve been swimming in rapidly rising racial aggression for over a year at this point.

Feelings

This is a difficult topic to broach at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. Many of us have a wariness of rocking the boat instilled in us from our upbringings, and it is not uncommon for us to feel like we should be grateful that people want to engage with something of ours at all. When we do decide to speak up, we’ve learned that there is a not insignificant chance that we’ll be turned on and trampled over because what we’ve said is inconvenient or uncomfortable. When it is already so difficult to speak up, we end up second-guessing and gaslighting ourselves into wondering whether there really was a problem at all.

We’d like to be able to share what we know about our culture and have our knowledge and experience be taken seriously and treated with courtesy. This is a beautiful, rich world built with the history of our ancestors, one that we too are trying to connect with. When we find it in ourselves to speak up about it, we would appreciate being met with consideration instead of hostility.

We don't have the luxury of stepping away from our culture when we get tired of it. We don't get to put it down and walk away when it’s difficult. But if you're not Chinese or Chinese diaspora, you get to put this book down—we'd like to kindly request that you put it down gently because of how much it matters to all of us in this fandom, regardless of heritage.

What we are asking for is reflection and thoughtfulness as we continue to engage with this work and with one another, especially with regards to how Chinese issues are positioned. When we raise issues of our own discomfort, please take a moment to reflect before reacting defensively or trying to shut us down for spoiling the fun—don’t deprioritize our concerns, especially in a fandom for a piece of Chinese media. We promise most of us are not trying to start shit for the sake of a fight. Most of the time, all we want is acknowledgement and a genuine attempt at understanding.

Our hope with this statement is to encourage more openness and understanding between diaspora and non-Chinese fans while we navigate this place that we’re sharing. Please remember that for many of us, MDZS is far more intense than a typical fandom experience. Remember that the knowledge we have and research we do is freely and happily given, and that it costs us both materially and emotionally. Please don’t take that for granted. Remember too that sometimes the reason for our discomfort may not be immediately evident to you: what seems culturally neutral and harmless might touch upon specific loaded issues for us. We ask for patience, and we ask for sincerity as we try to communicate with one another.

We are writing this because there’s a collective sense of imposed silence—that every time the newest round of discourse crops up, we often feel as if we’re walking away having created no meaningful change, and nursing new wounds that we’ll never get to address. But without speaking up about it, this is a cycle that will keep repeating.

This is not meant to shame or guilt the fandom into throwing themselves at our feet, either to thank us or beg for forgiveness—far from that. We’re just your friends and your fellow fans. We are happy to have you here, and we’re happy to create and share and play together. We just ask to be respected and heard.

Thank you. Thank you for listening. Several of us will be stepping back from twitter for a while. We’ll see you when we get back. ❤️

* A final addendum: here are two articles with solid practical advice on writing stories regarding a culture other than your own.

Cultural Appropriation for the Worried Writer: Some Practical Advice

Cultural Appropriation: Some More Practical Advice

The thread on twitter is linked in the source of this post. Thanks everyone.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #the untamed #the untamed meta #cql #asian diaspora #chinese diaspora #race #racism #mine #mymeta #once again my tag failing me because this is a collaborative work #but! for the sake of organization #statistically average #cultural appropriation #cultural erasure #what else do i tag this im so wired

[kenmascat]

Someone made a whole thread talking about @/yummysuika leaving the honorifics in mdzs.

and said that it means the translator is targetting a certain type of audience instead of a large western audience that is unfamiliar with the terms and may not pick up the books after looking at the glossary and foreign terms.

I'd like to add my two cents to this opinion of that person. First of all, the translator is also adding glossary of all the cultural references and the word meanings that people would be unfamiliar with, literally have meanings wrire below on the page, at the bottom, as shared in the translators tweet .

The next thing is, why do i see nobody complaining about learning foreign terms in western fantasy novels and media, like people will read fantasy novels with made up languages like Elvish and many new terminology, even in game of thrones a lot of terms were probably very new to a lot of people [ i have not consumed anything game of thrones related, I only know things from friend's who do]

people learn made up languages but how is it an issue when it comes to a real language, that is chinese and this is about real honorifics, not made up. Also, Shakespeare, something i am familiar with has many footnotes and people read it for both academic and leisure purposes.

Non-Western people are always expected to learn new terms in English all the time for various reasons, but why is it something to complain about when the tables are turned.

Also calling this decision something that makes the work intended for a "VERY specific audience" makes no sense.The official English Translation is aimed at anyone who understands in english, not only western english speakers but english speaking people anywhere, why do they have to cater to every little need from a western perspective, are people so used to being spoon fed that its hard to read a word meaning and process it for 10 seconds.

personally, as an asian who 99% of the time only speaks, reads and writes in English and is also majoring in English [eng& cultural studies] i did not seem to face any major issue while consuming danmei novels, it must have only took me one reading to adjust maybe, while i read mdzs. and also, im GLAD the translator kept these few terms and honorifics in the official english translation. This is how you also get to share new things from a culture to culture instead of always being cooped up in your western bubble.

In conclusion, as a twitter user @/dcyiyou said in their tweet, when you consume a work frkm another culture implicitly agree to meet it on its own terms and not demand that it fit *your* cultural framework, which is neither objective nor default.

#danmei discourse #racism in danmei fandom #danmei #western people :/ #mdzs #translation

[leatherbookmarking]

until now i saw the story of lxc and lwj’s parents as a parallel primarily to wgxn -- it’s much more wgxn-flavoured in the show, since right before lxc tells wwx the source of lwj’s scars, and right after he makes a comparison between lwj unable to reach his mother and lwj unable to reach wwx. and uhhh because i rarely use my own brain. i think i’ve once seen a meta or a twitter thread linking it to xiyao, but in my mind it was more like a... secondary interpretation, right.

but i’m reading this scene in the novel now, and it’s... primarily a way for lxc to express his internal conflict, a sort of a ‘see, things aren’t that simple as you think they are’ to wwx, who’s just came to tell him his best friends of over a decade is a liar and a murderer, source: this was once revealed to me in a dream

as i’ve read in someone’s meta 298 years ago, i’m sorry, i can’t remember -- and as you can notice yourself if you pay attention, characters often turn their face or whole body away from the people they’re talking to when, for example the topic is particularly emotional/too personal or revealing to say to someone’s face, or when they’re unsure about what they’re feeling or thinking. i’m not sure, but i have a feeling this kind of body language also appears in anime, during the characters’ dramatic declarations. or, yknow, anime characters sometimes just do talk with their backs to each other.

and in the show, indeed, just from this episode:

lxc turns around, the famous speech about thinking he knows the true a-yao happens; and later

lxc turns around and asks wwx if he knows what house it is, starting the story of their parents. he does face wwx back for a moment, but i’d say he spends a considerable part of this interaction with his back to him. this is not the behaviour of someone who’s open and confident about everything they feel.

the random flute solo is yet another thing the fandom considers hilarious, but in the novel,

Lan Xichen said, “In my memories, Mother was indeed so. I don’t know why she did such a thing back then. And, in truth, I…” He took in a deep breath before confessing, “I don’t want to know either.”

After a few moments of silence, Lan Xichen closed his eyes. He took out Liebing. A gust of night wind suddenly sent forth a sobbing note from the xiao flute. The sound was deep, like a heavy sigh. Wei Wuxian had heard Lan Xichen play Liebing before. Its timbre was just like Lan Xichen himself, as warm and graceful as the breeze and the rain of spring. Yet, now, although his technique was as excellent as ever, the tone evoked a strange mixture of feelings.

The night wind swept by. Lan Xichen’s hair and forehead ribbon were already somewhat disheveled. However, Gusu Lan’s sect leader, who had always valued appearance highly, didn’t pay any attention. He only put down Liebing after the song had finished, (...)

the quote is long, but it’s important.

it’s a bit of a musical-like moment -- lxc admits something personal, not entirely fitting a just, noble sect leader: he doesn’t want to learn the truth about his mother’s crime, possibly: because the memories of her are already tinted with pain, and he fears that learning everything will ruin the beloved image of his mother in his heart, or: that having learnt the truth, he’ll have to condemn her.

he’s clearly conflicted and emotional, and he’s still handling it well -- in a manner different from, say, jiang cheng would adapt if he was to tell a story about his parents -- but he still feels strongly about this whole situation, so when he can’t find proper words, he chooses music. and indeed, you can see that he’s expressing his emotional state; there’s “sobbing”, a “deep, heavy sigh”, “evokes a strange mixture of feelings”. the gusu lan sect is known for their musical cultivation, and they use it to fight, to suppress evil beings (and wen swords), but obviously also to express their feelings. lwj has wangxian, lxc has the deep, emotional melody of a conflict between doing what’s right (what is right?) and protecting the person you love.

then, finally, the little mention of his hair and ribbon. the narration constructs a convenient gust of wind, but even so the situation seems simple: lan xichen must be really moved by this, since he allowed himself to look disheleved. easy enough.

Except! (fun fact time.) i’m more (or: at all) familiar with the japanese side, so forgive me if the chinese side is different, but in this case, i think it shouldn’t be that much...? anyway, tangled, disheveled hair is a metaphor for internal turmoil -- often caused by missing your lover, as in many love poems (an interesting read, in particular page 78), but also, i feel, in general. in yosano akiko’s poem from 1901 (and her poetry collection, called midaregami which simply means tangled/disheveled hair), she makes a connection between the thousands of tangled strands of her hair and her equally tangled feelings. tl;dr lan xichen’s hair shows his internal conflict both literally and metaphorically. the more you know!!!

lol i spent more than an hour reading about this but the result is just... one paragraph.... sob

ANYWAY man what a lxc-centric softly xiyao-flavoured little scene. delight. delight. he not only reveals a story he shouldn’t have even mentioned But Also gets personal with a technical stranger and plays music after dark. he apologizes!, even though probably in jiang sect point of view, he’s done nothing that scandalous. modern equivalent for lxc would be probably like, shouting about your feelings to a dude you don’t even know that well with evanescence loud on your speakers at 2am. what am i supposed to do now?!, etc lol

#shrimp reads mdzs #shut up shrimp

[blindbeta]

Stop Asian Hate - a small resource collection

I realized I had neglected my tumblr and hadn’t posted anything about this on here. For those who don’t know, six Asian women were killed in Atlanta. This crime is one of many increasing hate crimes in the United States against Asian people. I wanted to include some donation links for those who want to express support and solidarity either by reblogging or by donating. You can also read about the intersection between racism and misogyny that makes it so dangerous for Asian women. I am also including links to support Asian migrant sex workers, who even more vulnerable. Even though the victims were not sex workers, many people have been making jokes about it and excusing the actions of the murderer based on the stereotype that all Asian women are sex workers and with the terrible justification that all sex workers deserve to die. All of these things do not exist in a vacuum. They are all connected. It is important to be educated about the impact of racism and misogyny and to uplift the voices of marginalized people.

RESOURCES:

An article on the intersection between racism and sexism.

Trainings on bystander intervention.

A video on the topic by a Chinese Canadian author.

Here is Twitter thread about a woman’s experience with both misogyny and racism.

Additional resources.

DONATE:

Two of these links were already shared in the description of the video, but I wanted to add them here just in case.

For families of the victims.

Community Fund for AAPI organizations.

For Elcias Hernandez Ortiz’s medical bills.

For the memory and family of Hyun Jung Kim.

For Paul Michels.

For Delaina Ashley Yuan Gonzalez.

Red Canary Song, an organization run by Asian migrant sex workers, for Asian migrant sex workers.

Butterfly, another network supporting Asian migrant sex workers.

#stop asian violence #stop asian hate #racism #atlanta

[chemicalarospec]

Making a new pinned post...

Addition: HERE is a list of “Asian American community and justice organizations to look into, mutual aid links etc. Many of the orgs linked need donations.” It’s very helpful if you need a quick list for something local!

Links of a series of posts about the anti-Asian attacks which in turn link to many other resources. 

1. “If you are a non-Asian person that enjoys Asian things like kpop, anime, asian cuisine, etc; please don't ignore the rise in Asian hate crime that's been increasing since the beginning of covid....” I made a post about this twitter thread. Has lots of resources for non-Asians and Asian -- also has some great stuff to help Asian bring support of BLM to their community. 

2. “lately there have been some truly horrific hate crimes committed against the elderly and working class asian american community...” A message, a rallying call, I dunno what to call this. Just please, please, help us speak up. (also described violence tw for this one. all the others has their tws in the post) No further links in this one. 

3. "I don’t think I’ve seen a single post about this yet. Can we please talk about all the anti Asian hate that’s been going on recently?...”  DO NOT LEAVE ASIANS OUT OF YOUR ANTI-RACISM. This one lists some of the more prominent, older attacks (it’s an old post). 

4. "trigger warning for violence. recently there has been a lot of violence and abuse towards the asian community, particularly to the elderly....” Please look at what is happening to us. Another list of (older) attacks with points on the treatment of (East) Asians in general. 

5. "stay safe, stay informed, stay connected, support aapi, check on your aapi loved ones, stand with your aapi loved ones, stop the violence towards aapi, hate is a virus...” Mainly a repost of an Instagram post, also has links to many informational carrds. Go look at it, please. 

6. "IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE ASIAN COMMUNITY AND WHATS HAPPENING TO THEM!....” Masterpost for helping resources and education resources and fundraisers and please please please just check this out. 

7. AMAZING conversation between Anti-Racism Daily and Michelle Kim on Instagram.  I LOVED watching this; it was incredible. Highly recommend. This is a galaxy-brain tier discussion. 

If it seems like I’m begging you, it’s because I am. Nothing else has worked, and honestly I’ve tried this before and it hasn’t either. I know I’m liked more when I’m not aggressive, but I’m not hiding my anger here. I’ve almost given up; I know better than to keep throwing myself at a brick wall. I feel vurnable and empty. 

Please. I know resources can be overwhelming.

I know it’s difficult for human, by the nature of our brains, to care about things that do not directly affect us.

I know that there is so much going on in the world taking up your emotional energy.

But please, please, please take the time out of your day to look at least one of these. 

Do you know about the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese Internment? Search that up. Read the Wikipedia summary. That’s good. You can do more, but every little thing you do to better yourself helps. You don’t have to feel bad if that’s all you do. 

Do you know about the model minority myth? You can freaking message me or send asks and I will explain it to you personally. I don’t care. I’ll do anything to help people understand us. 

Are you in a position of power over others? (Aka, do you run workshops or are you a teacher or an admin?) (look, both my parents are teachers; I have no idea how hierarchal job structure works outside of public education.) Please bring attention to this among your employees/students/subordinates/idk just your friends. You could literally just send them a slideshow of an Instagram post. I know at least one or two major news outlets have finally reported on this. Just play that clip for them. 

Please. I am begging every one who reads this to do something, any one small thing to help or better understand or support the East Asian community. If you’re a Black or brown or Native activist, keep focusing on your causes, but please don’t use that as an excuse to not help us just a tiny bit in ours. Your rising tide may list all boats, but do not ignore our sinking ship. 

In 1968, college students across ethnic backgrounds banded together to from the Third World Liberation Front. It was “instrumental in creating and establishing Ethnic Studies and other identity studies as majors in universities across the United States.” We did it before. We can do it again. 

#asian #asian american #resources #important #psa #racial justice #race #chinese #covid-19 #I said this #things I've said #racism #links #education #racial education #please #feel free to reblogg #i started this to be a pinned post but now it's pretty good for other bloggs too

[zedecksiew]

“Exotic Warrior”

(Am writing this because it’s been bubbling over in my mind. This post is an exorcism of bad vibes over bad ideas that have held me hostage, the past few days.)

+

There is now criticism on Twitter arguing that the “Exotic Warrior”, one of Troika!’s d66 Backgrounds, is racist because it is coded as Orientalist / Asian.

I would like to respectfully disagree.

(There are other arguments in the initial complaint. I am commenting the “Exotic Warrior” specifically. Because by being actually East Asian -- part of the diaspora, living in Southeast Asia -- I feel I have some standing to comment.)

+

When I encountered “Exotic Warrior” in the book it stood out as a neat background and helped sell me on Troika!.

As I read it, the Background is a deft piece of work: it references the “adventurer from a foreign land” thing, but occludes said trope’s usual Orientalism -- an attempt at deconstruction.

A foreigner, in Troika!, can be anybody. This isn’t just a platitude; it’s supported by the book’s implied science-fantasy setting -- is essentially Spelljammer, but on more acid.

It is similar to Electric Bastionland / Planescape / etc in that it features a melting-pot, nobody’s-local “city at the centre of creation”-type deal. (I have Thoughts about RPG setttings that focus on metropoles, but that’s a separate post.)

+

Here’s the “Exotic Warrior” ’s text, in full:

24 EXOTIC WARRIOR No one has heard of your homeland. Your habits are peculiar, your clothes are outrageous, and in a land jaded to the outlandish and new you still somehow manage to stand out.

POSSESSIONS - A WEIRD & WONDERFUL WEAPON. - STRANGE CLOTHES. - EXCITING ACCENT. - A TEA SET or 3 POCKET GODS or ASTROLOGICAL EQUIPMENT.

ADVANCED SKILLS 6 Language - Exotic Language 3 Fighting in your Weird Weapon 2 Language - Local Language 2 Spell - Random 1 Astrology 1 Etiquette 

Honestly? None of the above reads as particularly problematic. It’s a legit, characterful beginning point for a player-character.

Sure, my Western-media-battered brain jumps to Samurai Warrior -- 

But immediately also to Sufi Missionary or Varangian Guard. And indeed comes to rest at Indeterminately White Gentleperson Naturalist -- the kind of exotic visitor Southeast Asia got, a lot, those scouts of European imperialism.

+

These readings are possible because of the illustration the entry is paired with. Here they are together:

Setting aside the surrealist stylisations:

The shape of the costume, the belt, the “skirt” -- these look like Europeanisms, to me. And the figure’s laughing abandon opposes the standard Orientalist tropes of wise inscrutability or red-faced savagery.

The choice to run “Exotic Warrior” with a decidedly non-Orientalist-coded illustration isn’t an unintentional piece of art direction.

(PS: any critique of an illustrated text that only focuses on the words is incomplete. Image is half the text of an illustrated text.)

+

The nondescript-ness of the entry plus its accompanying image is an open door. Opening this door isn’t without risk: whatever assumptions you make about your particular “Exotic Warrior” are drawn from your own biases.

+

Regarding “Etiquette” and “Astrology” and “Tea Set”?

With my biases: I don’t read these things as uniquely East-Asian. (When I first encountered “tea set” in Troika! I genuinely thought: “English tea service”, instead of: “temae”.)

The one that I did read as real-world Eastern was “Pocket Gods” -- but many human cultures had this, pocket gods are a part of Troika!’s wider fantasy setting, and “Exotic Warrior” isn’t the only Background to start with them.

+

A note on “exotification”:

The criticism of “Exotic Warrior” fundamentally seems to be: “Playing a character from the Other / that is Other-ed = BAD”.

I fundamentally disagree with this notion.

I have no lived experience of a society where being other-ed (in terms of culture, race, class, gender expression, etc) isn't an ever-present thread in the fabric of one's life -- and therefore a crucial and profound source of conflict and insight into the human condition.

(The ethnic fault-lines in Malaysian society have become so unbridgeable today primarily because it was official policy to sweep all that other-ing under the rug of “Malaysia Truly Asia”, as opposed to working through our ugly whispered prejudices towards understanding.)

We are not all the same. Cultural, geographic, and material differences exist. The mismatch in knowledge and understanding this creates? It matters.

In fact: To insist on universal cultural-knowledge parity; To push for “nobody’s born here, everybody belongs” melting-pots as the default framing; To nudge questions of difference and arrival into ghettos (to paraphrase one of the tweets I saw: “you can only explore issues surrounding the Other in a game specifically designed to do so”);

All that comes off to me as a very neo-liberal position, designed to safeguard and disguise the privileges of “mainstream” metropolitan melting-pots.

I read it as:

“Post-modern cosmopolitan societies want to be inclusive but don’t want to pay the admission price of history and discomfort, so they generally opt for erasure instead.”  

+++

Throughout this post I have been careful to speak from my particular context. Because context matters.

More context:

I like Troika!. Like, a lot. I think its creator, UK-based Daniel Sell, strives and succeeds at making thoughtful work. I consider him a friend, whom I’ve had personal (albeit Internet-bound) interactions now and again.

+

I have BJ Recio to thank for the following insight. Talking to him about “Exotic Warrior”, BJ brought up a crucial point that I’ll paraphrase here:

Roleplaying the outsider can be bad, especially when it is used as an excuse by the West to do fucked-up shit. But it is not default bad. Assuming it is default bad centres the discussion on “Will White people fuck this up? (Yes.)”

Essentially, the argument against “Playing a character from the Other / that is Other-ed = BAD" assumes two things:

(a) Western participants as default; (b) harm (because of ignorance or bad faith) as default.

+

If your context -- your Background, hah! -- prompts you to experience Troika! with those assumptions; and therefore read “Exotic Warrior” as necessarily Orientalist, and racially-charged?

Your context is your context; I’m not going to invalidate it.

If you are located in a society where the binary of White / non-White overpowers everything, I certainly understand the whys and hows of your position.

Your context matters.

+

So does mine.

+++

I think I’m reacting badly to this because I personally feel turned away by this RPG Discourse Around Representation (tm), supposedly done in the name of my East-Asian ass.

I resent the idea that “Playing a character from the Other / that is Other-ed = BAD”. It threatens to render verboten the entirety of my RPG work.

I am a SEA creator trying to explore and be true to my context. If there is one constant throughout SEAsian experience, it is difference.

Our peoples have ever encountered and glamourised and hated each other, all of us simultaneously Us and the Other:

Japanese and Malay enclaves in Ayutthaya; Mongol invaders in Java, who never left; Luzones mercenaries, employed by both the Sultan of Melaka and his Portuguese enemies; The reputation of the Ilanun / Bajak Laut; White conquistadors (aforementioned above); The entire history of diaspora Chinese identities (my identity!) in SEA, generally;

Foreigners from foreign lands -- feared, not fully understood, not fully understanding, simultaneously conquering and settling and finding modes of belonging, becoming a part of the land.

Always arriving.

+

That the background music of my geography, discordant though it may be, is somehow so harmful it may only be meaningfully depicted in the hermetic context of a “game specifically designed to explore that”?

This feels bad, and extremely unwelcoming. It feels like a shut gate instead of an open door.

I refuse to be turned away.

+++

(Hopefully I can finally stop thinking about this shit.)

#rants #rpgs #southeastasia #troika #representation #dramarama #exorcisms

[yeonchi]

The state of tokusatsu in the West in 2021

The events of the past few weeks have taken the Western toku fanbase by storm. Amidst the shitstorm of spergs and a-logs who think they’re being rational but are really low-key spergs, unexpected turns in events are heralding the death knell for tokusatsu fansubs (that was going to be the name of this post initially). In addition, these events have also exposed the state of tokusatsu in the West in 2021, whether it be in regards to fansubs and streaming or Shirakura and the fanbase.

An update on the current situation

This is an update to the two posts I made in the past few weeks regarding the subject.

So some Indonesian wrote a Twitter thread about tokusatsu in general and in one of those tweets, he mentions Shirakura and the recent fansub scandal in a passing manner. Another Indonesian quote retweets him and tags Shirakura and this is what he got:

A few hours later, Shirakura wrote a few tweets about the situation (which are after the break):

(Tweets 1 and 3 translated by killadelfo, tweets 2, 4 and 5 translated by me because Shirakura and other a-logs won’t do it)

Some context:

Tweet 1 - 「雉も鳴かずば打たれまい」 directly translates to "If the pheasant didn't ring, then it wouldn't have been hit". At a stretch, it sounds like victim-blaming in rape culture. Also, the “semi-official streaming site” Shirakura is referring to is TokuHD, who are currently streaming Kamen Rider Agito and 555 with abysmal subtitle translation quality (Honshin and Olfenok) and were apparently licenced by an unknown third-party (if anyone knows, please tell me and I’ll update this).

Tweet 2 - The North Wind and the Sun, one of Aesop’s fables that teaches the superiority of persuasion over force. You can read the story here if you’re too infantile to read Wikipedia.

Later on, TV-Nihon officially announced that they have decided to stop subbing Saber and Zenkaiger, softsubs or hardsubs alike, with Takenoko stating that he doesn’t want to worry about legal trouble on their team. Whether or not they will sub future series is still unknown at the moment. Nothing has come back regarding the apparent C&D from Toei, particularly as NewZect and KRDL haven’t received anything else from them apart from one email (and KRDL received theirs in 2019 apparently).

Despite this, Shirakura has expressed his gratitude for fans across the world who watch Toei’s shows, no matter how they watch them. It’s a far cry from “I believe there’s no fanbase of Kamen Rider in the west practically.”

So now, let’s dissect the whole situation, from fansubbing, streaming and official releases to Shirakura and the Western fanbase.

Fansubbing, streaming and official releases: le Happy Merchant intensifies

There was a time when TV-Nihon held a monopoly in tokusatsu fansubbing, subbing series that other people normally wouldn’t have cared about, including the Chouseishin and Tomica Hero series. They were known for their mistakes in translation and extensive use of different fonts and effects, which led to groups like Over-Time springing up over the past decade in an effort to diversify the fansubbing scene and break up TV-Nihon’s monopoly. (It’s time to #ReleaseTheFonts, TV-Nihon. Get that hashtag trending.) Though TV-Nihon seem to have this unspoken rule to not mention other sub groups on their forums, the recent C&D debacle has resulted in a truce of sorts between them.

Many tokusatsu fans outside of Japan will have known of the genre through fansubs and I am no exception. It’s very likely that for a long time, Japanese executives thought the only toku Westerners liked was Power Rangers, but in recent years, the increasing popularity of tokusatsu in the West has led to companies like Toei and Tsuburaya drawing up plans to release their series in the West. Presumably due to the two companies’ different attitudes to copyright, their IPs are being treated differently, as I will detail.

Tsuburaya - Based and redpilled For some reason, Ultraman is a franchise that very few fansub groups have cared about over the years, which makes Tsuburaya’s Western expansion that much more special.

Before 2018, Crunchyroll streamed Leo, 80, Gaia, Nexus, Max, Mebius, Ginga (S), X, Orb and Geed, but they have now been removed from the platform as Mill Creek Blu-rays, TokuHD, TokuSHOUTsu and Tsuburaya’s YouTube channel became more prolific.

Tsuburaya has been streaming the newest episodes of Ultraman weekly on their YouTube channel since 2012, presumably because their coverage on TV Tokyo and their affiliates don’t cover all of Japan. They have added Chinese subtitles to their episodes since either Geed or R/B and even though their translations of some names can be a bit autistic, they have added English subtitles to their episodes since Z following the release of Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes with dual audio and multi-language subtitles (including English). Alongside reruns of older series, Tsuburaya releases episodes on YouTube every week, which are then available for two weeks. In addition, they also have separate channels where they publish dubs for Ultraman episodes in Mandarin, Korean and even Cantonese (official TVB Tiga-Mebius dub release when), which is pretty based if you ask me.

Tsuburaya doesn’t seem to do takedowns of their materials on YouTube, though they do claim ownership of the material posted by other channels so that ad revenue goes to them. It’s the reason why whole series of Ultraman and various compilations using footage from various episodes are still surviving on YouTube today. Cynically though, I suspect that the main reason they don’t do takedowns is because they can’t afford to following years of financial problems and their decades-long conflict with Chaiyo Productions. They probably thought that it wouldn’t be worth it.

Toei - Cringe and bluepilled Is it any wonder that the one company with the more popular series amongst a niche fanbase would be so Jewish with their copyrights? While entire series and various compilations have been taken down by Toei over the years (which they technically have the right to do), they don’t give fans (particularly outside of the US) a lot of options to support them officially, so they only dug this hole for themselves. It’s also very naive of people to presume that Toei doesn’t know about fansubs; it would be fair to say that it’s an open secret that neither Toei nor fansub groups can acknowledge for fear of legal retribution.

From 2015 to 2019, Shout! Factory have released Super Sentai series from Jetman (the first pre-Mighty Morphin series to be released in the West) to Hurricaneger, but since Power Rangers was sold from Saban to Hasbro, Shout! Factory have not regained the rights to distribute any further series and Toei hasn’t done much lobbying in that regard. However, Shout! Factory have begun streaming some Kamen Rider series from 2020 on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout! Factory TV) and Tubi (in addition to the Super Sentai series they had already licenced), namely the original series, Kuuga, Ryuki, Zero-One and the Heisei Generations FOREVER movie. Agito and 555 are streaming on TokuHD (as I mentioned before) and Amazons is streaming on Amazon Prime.

While Toei does have an official tokusatsu YouTube channel, where they stream their library of series similar to how Tsuburaya does with their YouTube channel, it is only available in Japan. In April 2020, Toei began uploading their series on Toei Tokusatsu World, a separate YouTube channel created specifically for their Western fans that immediately got taken down by copyright strikes on their own content. Aside from streaming Metal Hero series and other toku series nobody cares about, they’ve only bothered to upload the first two episodes of every Kamen Rider series on there, with no plans to follow through with the rest of the episodes (Super Sentai is only available in Asia because of the last paragraph). Apparently, the official subtitled release of the first two Kamen Rider episodes was funded by the J-LOD scheme (Japan Content LOcalisation and Distribution) established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and that they hope that fans would provide subtitles for the rest of the episodes. The only problem is that YouTube discontinued its community captions feature last year and I have been unable to find any evidence of Toei suggesting such a thing from their fans, so I can only assume that they either weren’t transparent about it or had no intention of doing so at all. You can see why I prefer Tsuburaya’s approach better. Frankly, I think Toei should have just uploaded TV-Nihon’s releases and called it a day.

There’s a Europoor sperg on Twitter (and the TV-Nihon forums) by the name of HowlingSnail who always complains about tokusatsu series only being licensed in the US. Like him or not, you’ve got to admit that he does have a point. Even in the age of VPNs and multi-region DVD players, the entire world has to be considered when it comes to international licencing and expansion because believe it or not, the “West” isn’t made up of just the US alone. Things shouldn’t have to be like this, and yet, things are the way they are.

Around the time that TV-Nihon (apparently) got C&D’d, Western fans were pissed that The Tokusatsu Network posted news of Toei streaming Kamen Rider Drive on their Japanese-exclusive channel, rubbing salt into their wounds, while also not saying anything about the current situation with fansubs. In TokuNet’s defence, I can understand why they wouldn’t do that; on top of being based in Japan, they’ve done interviews with various actors and producers on their YouTube channel, plus their senior editor, Tom Constantine, has made cameo appearances on a few episodes and movies. So if anything, TokuNet are closer to Toei than any other news site covering tokusatsu.

In summary, Toei are complicit in enabling this shitstorm that could have been preventable if they weren’t so incompetent and out-of-touch with their Western fanbase. If more scrutiny was exercised during the negotiation of Western licencing, we probably wouldn’t have had the TokuHD disaster. If Toei were more transparent with their intentions for streaming their toku series in the West, fansub groups would be more than happy to contribute to the official subtitles and/or take their (unofficial) releases down (though I don’t necessarily agree with this practice entirely). Or maybe if Toei actually made a media release saying that it was actually them who sent the C&D’s to KRDL, NewZect and TV-Nihon, we wouldn’t have had this debacle and this post would just be me talking about the death knell for tokusatsu fansubs (which would probably be just this section of the post).

In the lack of free and easily accessible means to access media protected behind paywalls and geoblocks, people will always turn to things like “illegal” streaming sites and torrenting, particularly when they believe that multi-million dollar companies don’t deserve their hard-earned money just because they keep bugging everyone to give it all to them.

(Also, I know someone called me out in one of my linked posts where I described Toei’s attitude to copyright as “Jewish”, but fuck you, my stance doesn’t change just because a few people got their fee-fees hurt from poking their noses into other people’s business. If Toei changes their attitude and gives us a plan for international distribution, then I might soften my stance.)

Shirakura and the Western fanbase: lolcows in their own right

So it’s been established that it’s a bad idea to tag Shirakura or anyone affiliated with Toei regarding this situation with the TV-Nihon C&D (or fansubs or leaks or whatever in general) because we don’t have the full details and they probably have no idea of what’s going on. Look, I know Shirakura is worthy of criticism for some things, but this is not one of them because he is the director of planning and production at Toei - he’s not responsible for international distribution or copyright takedowns. All that these spergs on TokuTwitter have done is prove that Shirakura has no idea what is going on and made Japanese fans aware (to some extent) that spergs like them exist. The irony behind Shirakura’s actions as the producer of some Kamen Rider series and his interactions with Western fans is the reason why I lovingly coin “The Shirakura Paradox” as a phrase to describe it.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people on TokuTwitter are very paranoid and reactionary. They believe in conspiracy theories like “TV-Nihon actually got C&D’d” and “Over-Time got C&D’d as well” when 1) the notice they got wasn’t a C&D per se or even a DMCA and 2) Over-Time never got C&D’d, though they did help TV-Nihon analyse the email and decided to stop posting about their releases when they were convinced that the email was somewhat legit (because a Toei email can’t be faked due to the Sender Policy Framework, or SPF).

With regards to the “reactionary” part, the main example relating to this is twt_tokusatsu, who has been blamed for causing this debacle with fansubs because Shirakura replied to her tweets (that did NOT mention fansubs) with a joke. However, another big example is WeiWenn and Ichi of the Castranger podcast. “What?”, I hear you ask in a surprised tone, “What do they have to do with all this?” If you want to know the story behind them, take a look at my Shirakura Paradox post under “You are supposed not to know about Trinity”.

I know this debacle was two years ago and that Ichi has deserved enough blame (and apologised) for posting scans from a toy catalog targeted at distributors and not consumers, but why the hell is WeiWenn being blamed when he only mentioned “Trinity” (in verbatim) possibly referring to Agito Trinity and not Zi-O Trinity? WeiWenn has been sent death threats because entitled manbabies with gunts can never read the latest leaks about new toys. As a result, WeiWenn has deleted his Twitter account, claiming that Shirakura’s joke was the last straw (Ichi has also deleted his Twitter account as well). Anyone who blames WeiWenn (or Ichi) for somehow causing the TV-Nihon C&D’s is just as retarded, if not more, than the people who still blame twt_tokusatsu, especially when the damage has already been done and the debacle is already two years old. As such, I stand behind #RespectWeiWenn and #RespectIchi. For more information, check out this Twitter thread and the below video.

Things like this are the reason why the tokusatsu fanbase in the West is seemingly on thin ice with Toei. If you ask me, TokuTwitter as a whole deserves to be discussed and mocked on sites like 4chan and Kiwi Farms, because some individuals seem to act in a manner resembling lolcows. On top of that, I wish that tokusatsu fans in Japan would talk more about this retardation and join in the circlejerking with their Western counterparts who are more sophisticated and logical.

In conclusion, the whole debacle with Toei and TV-Nihon has been a ticking time bomb fuelled by Toei’s incompetence and lack of awareness of their Western fanbase, who are no saints either with their lolcow attitudes. Tsuburaya is pretty based with their international distribution and TV-Nihon’s typesetters should #ReleaseTheFonts.

#tokusatsu #kamen rider #super sentai #ultraman #tv-nihon #releasethefonts #respectweiwenn #respectichi

[xiyao-feels]

stupid questions ahoy! what's the meaning of gege? everyone seems to simp over the word and here I am with no knowledge of Chinese just vibing with the xiyao lmao. does jgy even call lxc that...? also, many fics have wwx be jgy's fault but I can't recall how? cql is a bit confusing for a first-time viewer with no other mdzs knowledge...

Not at all, I'm happy to answer! I'm going to answer for gege first and then the WWX question in a separate post, so that you're not waiting around for the answer to this while I work on the second part.

So, this is my understanding, which is synthesized from a bunch of various sources over the years, mostly through fandom, and could definitely be wrong. There's also the issue that cultures are, you know, large and multifaceted, and what's correct in one context or subculture could be wrong elsewhere. But that said, this is my understanding of the matter, and I've linked a bunch of further reading after my summary.

gege is 哥哥. 哥 literally means older brother, but it doesn't actually necessarily indicate an actual familial relationship! I definitely don't have a good enough handle on its use independently but my understanding is that used as a suffix it can also indicate closeness/respect, e.g. NHS calling LXC Xichen-ge. (For more examples on use as a suffix, you can see the first hunxi-guilai post I linked below.)

哥哥 used twice as a suffix is, I gather, both more childish and kind of flirty, and 哥哥 is also something you might call your hypothetical boyfriend or husband; we actually see a wife call her husband er-gege in ch 66 (wangxian encounter a random family on their way to the second siege in MDZS, rather than Mianmian and her family; that happens later). Though I think it can be used outside of that context; IIRC HC spends the entire damn present timeline calling XL gege in TGCF, from well before they get together, and an amnesiac XL calls him gege in the extra. And when e.g. A-Yuan calls WWX and LWJ gege, that's clearly a child thing and not a flirtation thing; when NHS calls LXC Xichen-gege in chapter 16, I think it's similarly positioning NHS as childish. On the other hand from a like—tropey/genre pov, I think it's meant to be narratively significant that HC /does/ call XL gege (and he definitely has a Moment when XL calls him gege in said extra). So, it can definitely be significant!!! But it also depends on context.

Further reading: the answer to this Quora post ("What does it mean if I get called gege by a Chinese girl who I have a crush on"), this reddit post, these posts from hunxi-guilai (1 2 3 4), this post from wangxianbunnydoodles, this other reddit post, this twitter thread by chiharuzishi.

JGY does not ever, to my knowledge, call LXC 'gege' (though WWX does call LWJ Lan-er-gege). He usually calls him er-ge (二哥), after the sworn brotherhood, and IIRC usually Zewu-jun before (in CQL we also see Lan-zongzhu which means Clan Leader Lan); the 二 here means 'two', and it's because they're LXC is the second-eldest in their sworn brotherhood. They both call NMJ da-ge (大哥, oldest brother) after the sworn brothehood; I believe LXC usually calls NMJ 'Mingjue-xiong' before that (MY calls him Nie-zongzhu—Clan Leader Nie—and Chifeng-zun). LXC calls JGY A-Yao (阿瑶, 阿 being a familiarizing prefix) (before the sworn brotherhood, and in the current timeline), and san-di (三弟, third younger brother) at least up until the stairs incident (that being the last time we see it in the text) and presumably at least until NMJ's death, though he switches back to A-Yao at some point before the present timeline—if I personally were going to pick, I'd guess he switches back after JGS' death, which happens not too long after NMJ's. (The san-di stuff is in MDZS, to be clear; in CQL IIRC he just calls him A-Yao the whole time.) NHS also calls NMJ da-ge, and he calls LXC Xichen-ge from even before the sworn brotherhood (and Xichen-gege the once), and JGY san-ge (三哥, third older brother).

Anyway, yes, a lot of fics will have JGY call LXC 'gege' because it's flirtatious. A friend of mine wrote a fic where a deaged fifteen-year-old LXC who has the world's biggest crush on Lianfang-zun!!!!!! daringly asks to call him gege, as flirtation, and it's extremely adorable and very much recommended. You can find it here, if you'd like to check it out. (There's no sexual contact between young LXC and JGY—you can see the tags for more details—but young LXC's crush is definitely sexual in nature, in case that bothers you.)

[arcticdementor]

There's some interesting stuff in here, but it still has to be read as propaganda from the New Yorker. Start with the subtitle:

The behavior geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden is waging a two-front campaign: on her left are those who assume that genes are irrelevant, on her right those who insist that they’re everything.

This is obviously a strawman; I don't know of anyone serious, on the right or otherwise, who claims that genes are "everything", that is, that environment has no impact. There are many leftists, on the other hand, who do insist, as one can see in this article, that genes have no real effect on behavior. This is such a wildly absurd belief that it should prevent them from ever being taken seriously on this subject, but for some reason the likes of Harden think they should set the terms of the debate:

I don’t disagree with you about insisting on intellectual honesty, but I think of it as ‘both/and’—I think that that value is very important, but I also find it very important to listen to people when they say, ‘I’m worried about how this idea might be used to harm me or my family or my neighborhood or my group.’

(In response to Sam Harris.) The connection to Turkheimer is interesting, as he has explicitly argued here that we just shouldn't study things that make him feel uncomfortable, and that people like Murray who do study them should therefore be ostracized. Here's Turkheimer:

If I may address my fellow Jews for a moment, consider this. How would you feel about a line of research into the question of whether Jews have a genetic tendency to be more concerned with money than other groups?... Hopefully I am beginning to offend you. Why? Why don’t we accept racial stereotypes as reasonable hypotheses, okay to consider until they have been scientifically proven false? They are offensive precisely because they violate our intuition about the balance between innateness and self-determination of the moral and cultural qualities of human beings.... But we can recognize a contention that Chinese people are genetically predisposed to be better table tennis players than Africans as silly, and the contention that they are smarter than Africans as ugly, because it is a matter of ethical principle that individual and cultural accomplishment is not tied to the genes in the same way as the appearance of our hair.

So Turkheimer is a dishonest hack; as far as I'm concerned, anyone who wrote this should be disregarded as a scientist. It appears that the apprentice, Harden, has learned from the master. Here she is sounding very much like him:

There is a middle ground between ‘let’s never talk about genes and pretend cognitive ability doesn’t exist’ and ‘let’s just ask some questions that pander to a virulent on-line community populated by racists with swastikas in their Twitter bios.’

Don't ask certain questions if I claim they pander to big meanies on the internet! So Turkheimer and Harden seem to share this outlook: certain questions shouldn't be asked, and certain answers to those questions are a priori immoral. It's no wonder then that the Vox article they helped write concludes, as this article puts it:

But there was simply no good scientific reason to conclude that observed racial gaps were anything but the fallout from the effects of racism.

Which also proves that the white-Asian gaps are caused by Asians oppressing whites. This is not a serious belief, but then again, these are not serious people.

#reddit #culture war roundup

[shijiujun]

On Translations

Once again, I’m just plain incensed by dumbasses who think it’s okay to firstly, steal someone else’s hard work and secondly, think they’ve got some right to edit that person’s work because they think they’ve got a better grip on English (not true btw) - It didn’t happen to me (well, as far as I know) and I’m not in the Guardian fandom and I don’t personally know the person who’s dealing with this ridiculous shit, but oof am I angry after seeing the tweet.

Just saw on twitter that some asshole stole a translator’s works (Guardian, Chinese to English) and edited it - Yes it’s just like the MDZS saga a few weeks ago when some white person who doesn’t have any Chinese language knowledge, tried to ‘improve’ translations done by another person who actually knows what they’re doing in both Chinese and English - And then put in on Wattpad with a ridiculous letter and intro where they said: “Great things can be made greater” to explain why they edited the English of the original translation.

“Great things can be made greater,” said the thief.

“I hope my actions will be appreciated,” said the thief again.

Like wow, once again, the audacity - There’ve been extensive arguments on translations since the MDZS saga a few weeks ago and obviously the fan who took ExR’s translations and ‘made them better’ stupidly stepped on a landmine by fucking with the MDZS fandom that has a longer history, more resources and clout than the amount of time she’s been exposed to MDZS via CQL, and got bitch-slapped by the rest of the fandom where there exists a majority of fans knowing clearly what to do and not to do.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of all fandoms, especially smaller ones - The user i saw is a translator for Guardian and the mofo 1. Stole their translations 2. Edited the translations to ‘better english’ 3. Wrote that they don’t know who did the original translations but “they know where to find me” *cue my eyeroll* 4. And after op commented to say please credit at the very least in May, they’ve been ignored so far - but luckily they’ve got some supporters as well to help report the mofo.

Aside from the ridiculous thievery (not crediting, blatantly lying and stealing, being an arrogant, indecent person stuck on that high horse) of course, the “I believe that great things can be made greater” is a fucking load of bullshit in this instance, and I mean taking someone else’s translations and adding your own spin to it because you think you’ve taken tests in English as a first language in school all your life (fuck off, a lot of these translators did too), that you’ve got some superiority over English or because you think it reads funny?

Granted, most fan translators don’t put up flawless translations (once again, these translators are FREE LABOUR), but you get it for free and you don’t have to (and can’t) read the original text, so suck it up.

Moreover, the disgust that I feel at the claim that the thief’s work is now ‘greater’ is extremely visceral - It’s not a greater piece of work because the thief stole it, period. No one asked for the thief’s help.

(In case you guys are curious the stolen post on Wattpad is here: https://my.w.tt/7dehLj7D56 and if you’d like to report just follow the instructions)

On Chinese to English translations:

1. If you don’t have good grasp of the original language, you have no right editing the translated work after, regardless of language. Until you can clearly understand the original idioms, context, characters etc. or have at least lived with the language for a substantial part of your life, honestly, just stop, you’ve got no right! 

Sure, some translators aren’t as good as you like them to be, but the argument is always, well, you wouldn’t even have this minimal translation if they didn’t do it, so yay you’re like a few sentences and words closer to the text than you were before. If it’s really that bad, hopefully there are better translations and you can ignore the one you’re looking at, but the same rules apply across all translations!! Don’t disrespect the translator (especially when they’ve done nothing wrong except try to give you access to more content).

2. For Chinese, it’s even worse because the language is known for its hidden nuances and complexities within just two to four characters that, when translated into English, can sometimes take up to two long sentences to explain. That’s why sometimes shit reads funny. It’s not that these translators can’t do English, but Chinese to English acrobatics is beyond your comprehension, hell sometimes it’s beyond translators’ comprehension, so thanks for editing something you’ve got no idea about. This user Bee made a very good argument thread IMO about this on Twitter which I suggest people read

3. Adding your edits to a translated piece of work especially without permission or discussion with the translator, honestly who the fuck are you to do that? Either work your damn ass off by painstakingly translating the original and then editing it however you like, or just... enjoy the free content. Chinese BL novels (in this instance and as in many instances i’ve seen) and some of these translators have been around for longer than you’ve been in the fandom, so suddenly when you have an interest in the content, in a culture and language that you’ve never seen before, are unfamiliar with and have zero knowledge about, you think that as a fan you now have the right to edit someone else’s work that was already done correctly? 

The fact is if the translator wrote a bogus line in the English translations, you wouldn’t have known, and when you upload it as your own and ‘improve’ it, you would be a joke, but you didn’t read the original text did you, so what makes you are any sort of authority to edit the translations?

4. Of course this is not to say that non-Chinese speaking people can’t enjoy the same content or have excellent, poignant discussions and understanding over the content, but honestly a lot of translations don’t capture 100% of a Chinese novel because the nuances are just that complex, and translators do their best to convey it regardless - This is why RESPECT FOR THE TRANSLATOR IS IMPORTANT. And I don’t mean simply paying lip service and typing “we respect all translators for their hard work on this work”, and then disrespect it entirely by not crediting, by the simple act of editing without permission etc.

Respect their interpretation and translations, because it can differ from translator to translator translating the same sentence (and people who don’t speak the original language want to compete with that, I don’t understand?!)

5. Honestly, considering how people are still arguing on the semantics of the Bible for example, not only in its original language but also in English alone - if people can’t agree on every sentence of the holy text and what each sentence means to different people, fan translators get a fucking pass

6. I read in Bee’s threads where someone disagreed with their argument of ‘only people who understand the original language can translate and edit’, saying that it’s okay if the editor doesn’t have a grasp of the original language - I understand that yes, someone else’s English might truly be better (for e.g. actual editors but also please don’t proclaim that you’re one just because you think the translator hasn’t lived with English for most of their lives or whatever), but even then, the editor has to work really closely with the translator because the translator is the primary source of the translation i.e. they know exactly what is going on in a particular sentence in their heads that may not have been translated fully, so how can non-Chinese reading editors truly understand the translated text on its own, editing in silos?

7. Perhaps in actual publishing houses that deal with official translations, this is a fallacy that is ever-present and editors do that anyway without understanding the original text (not sure about this, I’m bringing up the point for consideration, hypothetically putting this out here), but my issue with ‘editors’ in the fan translations space is that they come off sitting on some high horse because they think they’re better in English than you are (which of course yes, might be true, but then read points 1-6 again)

8. A thief is a thief, don’t put up an open letter or disclaimer explaining your motivations. It’s plain and simple, you stole someone else’s work, claimed it for your own and are riding on the great (sometimes not so great but still great, if you get what I mean) work that the translator did. You don’t get to claim ownership for any part of it, even your edits. And once again, “original work belongs to the translators” without actually naming the translators? Fuck off.

9. God, I hate Wattpad and Instagram (okay sometimes Twitter but Twitter seems to be a halfway point) - The Sanctuaries for Lazy Content Thieves Where The Platform Endorses Their Shitty Behaviour

10. Aside from translations, I’ve also seen assholes stealing like shitposts and jokes - These are the hardest to prove as well and it’s almost impossible to claim ownership when someone steals your jokes. Thieves only wish they had as creative a brain as some of you (didn’t happen to me but to a mutual) do. The audacity. The audacity! if the work was actually done and paid and recorded, if TurnItIn.com was available for fandom posts, these thieves would be out of gas.

11. Fan translators are not obligated to answer to any of their readers when it comes to why they translated something a certain way. You don’t like it or don’t agree with it, simply ignore, close the tab and go find another translation you like, it’s that simple. Nowadays readers 1. Threaten/Diss the translator directly and rudely 2. Steal the work 3. Add their own spin on it without understanding the original content and say: Yay! Look at this I made it so much better so give me some attention 

*****

The point of this post is not to claim ownership over any fandom or content just because translators or Chinese-speaking/reading people in the fandom know the content better. It’s also not to say that non-Chinese speaking/reading people can’t enjoy, understand, have great discussions over original Chinese content, because just from MDZS alone you can see that they can. Of course there are also individuals who might not be able to speak the language but are familiar with Chinese culture etc. because they’ve studied or lived it well, or maybe they’ve actually watched decades of Chinese drama to be able to analyse it properly now, all that’s awesome. 

Also, I’m all for people who are learning Chinese (or any language for that matter) to translate something as practice. That’s great, that’s good, that’s to be admired!! 

It’s non-Chinese speaking/reading people who claim they know the original content better than translators without any discussions, claiming some superiority over the content because they think the translation is not done well enough without doing any of the ground work that I really have an issue with (and also the fuckers who steal of course XD).

*****

And unfortunately I had too much time on my hands today and got pissed off after seeing the tweet so some of you have to read through this drivel XD

#translations #guardian #mdzs #rambles #stealing #again XD #not me this time #but then again i keep seeing my stolen shit so it's pent up anger #HAHAHAHA #you'd think i would have learnt #but i also think it's important to get angry each time it happens #even if it's tiring and futile? #if in 100 complaints only 1 gets answered #then that's 1 less mofo and thief who got away #you know? #idk sometimes

[pumpkinpaix]

Hello! and PSA

*waves* hi everyone! so uh, I’ve kind of had a bit of a surge in followers recently, and I thought I would make a bit of a PSA/intro post with a bit more targeted info than my about page.

anyways, I’m cyan! statistically speaking, you are probably here for one of the following reasons:

my fic

my meta

my gifs

my translation

all of the above

this is pretty much an mdzs blog on main these days, but I also rb a lot of other misc things because I have never been good at keeping my interests separate. it’s also my personal blog, so expect some of that? i am very all or nothing ahaha. my opinions change very quickly as I process new information, so like, something I said last week or yesterday might be different now! I’ve seen several people going through some of my older posts, and I’m just like oh dear, I said a lot of things six months ago that I no longer vibe with. /o\ please keep that in mind as you go diving in my blog!

i don’t have a BYF or DNI policy, but I reserve the right to block anyone for any reason because this is a personal blog first and foremost, and I do need to be better about setting my boundaries and curating my own online space! on that same token, you are free to follow, unfollow, block, whatever, even if we’re mutuals. <3

you’re free to come talk to me in my inbox or dms, but please be aware that there’s a very high chance I will never get back to you /o\ it isn’t personal!! I am just very mentally ill and have many difficulties with keeping up social interactions or talking to people.

in the interest of trying to be more open about myself, my brain, and what that means for me in an online/fandom space, I’m gonna do a boatload of mental health talk under the cut (or, if you’re looking at this on my blog proper or somewhere where the cut doesn’t display, it starts right after this paragraph), including mentions of self-harm/thoughts of specific self-harm etc, just so you are warned! I’ve been thinking recently that it’s good to try and take steps towards being more open about my issues, both for my own sake and others’. It’s long, because one of the fun things about my mental illness is that I am hyperverbal ahahaha (if that... wasn’t already obvious orz)

so if you’ve read pfmmpd, you can kind of get a sense of what I’m working with. a lot of how i wrote lwj was drawn directly from shit happening in my own brain, but like? dial that up from the specific issues that lwj had in that fic and apply it unilaterally across the board to almost anything you can think of.

I hesitate to describe my OCD as debilitating, but only because my specific cocktail of compulsions and anxieties and triggers push me to be hyperachieving and hyperfunctional. I consider myself pretty fortunate (?) in that regard. on paper, you could never tell how absolutely batshit my internal landscape is! which is very good for me practically in that I can hold down a job, keep scholarships, graduate with honors, have good prospects for my future, hold onto relationships (usually yikes) etc. but the fact of the matter is, I’m like. oh boy.

to give you a peek, here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that have triggered me to varying degrees of severity within the last like, week or so:

my dog

a chinese folk song

my mother reading a chinese haiku to me written by a young gay man

a chinese reader of my fic lovingly and gently giving me a history lesson on china and on mdzs while praising me

stepping on a piece of snow that didn’t collapse in the precise way i expected it to

writing meta

reading meta

ruminating on my triggers (honestly, I played myself)

seeing a twitter thread going around tumblr with decent information but the OP is someone who was exceedingly cruel to a good friend of mine

visiting my grandmother’s grave

deciding to visit my grandmother’s grave

discussing the concept of cuddling my partner whom i love and have been with for four years

self-harming (truly the height of irony, being triggered into self-harm and then getting triggered by the result of the self-harm hahahahahaha)

dropping off a package

trying to explain queer-coding to my parents

talking about stressors in my life related to covid19

having a very pleasant conversation with a person i admire

editing my translation

the fact that the “close” button on my accessibility sidebar on the translation website is the wrong color

choosing between eating all the shiitake mushrooms in my soup and purposefully giving myself a bad reaction or throwing one out and wasting food

thinking about playing a fun game with my partner and a mutual friend

my mom asking me to take a photo of some tea for her

my mom asking my opinion on a photo she was photoshopping

animal crossing

writing this fucking post HAHAHAHA

like!! it goes on!! endlessly! obviously, these triggers are not simply “bad” things. the chinese folk song and the haiku were both really beautiful and i love them! but I did spend a good amount of time curled up on my floor in the dark sobbing as i played the song on repeat. the haiku was one of the last straws that ended up with me screaming and crying and hurting myself. the snow??? like wtf the snow thing. I stepped on the snow and it felt wrong and my brain just started screaming SMASH YOUR KNEECAP. ???? (I didn’t, for the record, and I would never.) I love my partner very much! I love my friends very much, and my mother, and my grandmother etc. my triggers are infinite, unpredictable, and bizarre.

I’m saying all of this because I want to be clear that MDZS/CQL fandom specifically triggers me on a daily basis, sometimes very very badly. this is just a fact! it is no one’s fault! I have decided it is worth it for me to stay anyways. it is impossible for me to request people tag for certain things because I myself have no idea what my triggers are until I encounter them. It’s like a fun mystery boss encounter! sometimes it’s low level and i’m well-equipped to handle it. other times it’s a one-hit KO. We just don’t know! there are lots of very cool content creators in this fandom that I can’t follow because it would make my dash that much more high stakes. the original source canon material triggers me! all the events leading up to Lotus Cove massacre? I was shaking at work for three hours after consuming it for the first time.

Meta specifically is something I know a lot of people like me for, but it’s 100% the most triggering activity I participate in for this fandom. like, that suibian meta post I wrote that’s currently going around? Probably took me four or five hours of concentrated effort to write because I was compulsively panicking and rewriting and editing and panicking more and qualifying and editing and qualifying some more and then debating whether I should post it or not and then fighting with myself about my wording and then immediately regretting it and then every time someone commented on it (regardless of positive or negative!) my anxiety spiked. I started a reply to a response on that post and had to stop after a few minutes because I was already starting to trigger myself over it.

this is actually a pretty good outcome when it comes to meta! I recognized that I was hurting myself before I got any further, and I only spent like, five hours on it! it was good exposure therapy for me! the bad outcome is. well. bad, as you might imagine lmao.

I like writing meta. I like talking to people about it too! I like participating in fandom, I like writing, I like translating, I like all of these things. they’re just also really hard for me! there’s a couple meta requests sitting in my inbox right now that I want to get to, but it might take me like. a long time because of. you know! *gestures* Everything takes me a long time. that first chapter of the translation took me literally five months from beginning the project to posting a final edited version. It’s just over 1k words. D8

I try really hard to be chill and kind in public and I largely think I succeed on the kind part (I hope!). If you thought I had even an ounce of chill before this, perhaps I have disabused of that notion entirely now lmao. I’m not saying this for pity, but like? just so we all know what we’re dealing with here. I don’t want anyone to get hurt when I don’t engage with them or feel snubbed if I never reply to them. and also like, hey, if someone relates it’s like hooray, high fave, solidarity! we’re not alone in this world! or maybe this will help someone understand OCD a little better! I don’t know. I hope this post is a positive thing. BUT! I’ve spent three hours on it already, and i’m definitely starting to compulsively spiral, so instead of going back and editing it over and over, I’m just going to post it. thank you everyone for your understanding! I hope you enjoy your time on my blog! (*´▽`*)

#/ #// #/// #//// #///// #personal #psa #cyan gets too deep in the weeds #HA HA HA. #can't believe i'm using that tag on a personal post except like. of course i am #hello everyone are you ready for some cyan dlc? #well you're getting it #im anxious about this thing because i'm anxious about everything but! #we are doing exposure therapy this year!! #even if the world is burning down around us i can still try to confront my problems!!! #about

[alexis-vaughn]

Get to know the mun! Repost, don’t reblog.

———  𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒.

(PEN)NAME: Serena

PRONOUNS: she/her

ZODIAC SIGN: Gemini, Chinese Zodiac: Dragon

TAKEN OR SINGLE: Single

———  𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄  𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒.

1! ♡    Japan is my favorite country and I feel very connected to the culture and people. I visit it every 1-2 years and also lived a while in tokyo and really loved it. I really am homesick due to the pandemic cause I couldn’t travel there last year :(

2! ♡ I’m a big fan of sailor moon and you will find pieces of merchandise and stuff from it everywhere in my flat. That’s also where I got my love for pink from so nearly half of my flat is pink... walls, furniture, clothes, carpets, blankets, decorations etc (also my hair is pink since 10 years if I don’t change it when the color runs out 😂) and some people think I live here with a daughter I don’t have when they come in the first time 😂

3! ♡  If I love something, I start collecting it right away. I can’t go half in, I’m always all in cause I’m very passionate about everything I love. No matter if certain franchises, bands, brands, candy etc 👀 (my biggest collections are cups, frogs, unicorns, Pokémon, sailor moon, Dir en grey, TWD, rilakkuma, snowmen, clothes, plushees, jewelry and of course everything pink)

———  𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄.

I started roleplaying on Myspace in 2006. I started with one single muse, but back then exclusivity was a big thing and things like multi shipping didn’t really exist, so I created more than one version of this character very soon so I could have different profiles and partners. It got way out of hand so in the end I had like 10 profiles and some of them with multi muses where you could request muses and ugh 😂 crazy times. I left for a few years after the drama took over (jealousy is a big thing in rpc it seems, also affecting rl back then 🙄) and rl got too busy. I started writing Rick in 2019 and tried different platforms like Amino and even Twitter for rp, but deleted them after one day 😂 after reading randomly some rps on tumblr on my timeline, I created these profiles in 2020, after I struggled a whole year with the decision if I really dare to put up another Rick on here or just go with Alexis, cause I was highly aware of how jealousy in rp between different portrayals of a main character could affect the fun (like I made the experience in 2006 already), but in the end I’m very happy I put my two babies on here and that my portrayal of Rick got accepted, cause I met so many great people and love you all so much 🥺 I’m so happy to see different portrayals of every character and I’m glad a lot changed since back then, even if some problems are still there. But I love this place so thank u 🥺

———  𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄  𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄.

Anti Hero’s. Yes, many claim that Rick is the typical “hero” persona, but I definitely don’t think so. He can be such a beast and has such a troubled soul, that I absolutely love to play a complex character like him. Complexity is important for me, that’s why also my Alex has so many different traits, some that I see in myself and some I just love to watch to get inspired by it. Even in the past I loved characters like Prue from Charmed (who many fans hated cause she was a bit bitchy or seemed cold) or Buffy (who had this struggle about her depression and the love triangle) and of course Sailor Moon (yes, she is an Anti hero for me cause SPOILER in one version of her story she killed everyone and was reborn to change this past and yes she also had love triangles and let’s be honest she was not a good fighter 😂) who I never considered the “perfect hero’s” as well. I just like that concept ♥︎

———  𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐅𝐅  /  𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐒𝐓  /  𝐒𝐌𝐔𝐓.  

FLUFF:  I love fluff cause I’m a hopeless romantic. But I could never write only fluff. Usually my characters are deeply struggling and it needs a while until they get fluffy in a relationship, but if they do it gets very corny. But the best fluff is the one after a big plot of struggles and angst cause then it feels even more rewarding.

ANGST:  my favorite ♥︎ I think angst is the reason why I rp and also why I prefer to write complicated relationships. In friendship or family rp there is not much angst included for me and that’s why I rather focus on complex stories with difficult topics cause I use rp to compensate things that happen in my life and that works best with angst for me.

SMUT: I love smut! I love to read it, I love to create it, but sometimes I absolutely despite anything I write 😂 I always think smut is my weakest point to write, but I love to read and play it so much that I’m sometimes only in the mood for smut for example when I’m in a bad mood. Somehow it helps me compensating when I feel bad. But yeah, I adore it and have nearly no limits, but I consider myself a horrible smut writer 😂 (in my fanfic the next chapter would include smut and I postpone to write it since over a year now cause I’m so scared to ruin it 😂)

PLOT / MEMES: I love plotting! I actually need a good communication with the other mun to develop a nice complex story, cause if I click with the mun, I could write hundreds of parallel stories and characters with them. I need that kind of trust for writing tbh cause this is my safe place and I create friendships here. That’s why I have no time for hate or ignorance or jealousy cause this is something I love and the muns are giving me a chance to connect. But I absolutely don’t mind starting with memes and short threads to see how it’s going and jump from thread to thread if motivation fades for one certain part. Sometimes you just wanna write a short meme and not continue a thread/story, but that’s really an individual thing.

Tagged by: @betaofthedead thank u ♥︎

Tagging: @mettleborn @justacomedy @wexarethewalkingxdead @gcverncr @mxlodic @merlexxdixon and everyone who wants

#dashboard game #mun answered #((I think I answered a quote similar one on my Rick profile already so the facts and preferences are copied)) #((I exposed myself with the love triangle thing 😂 it’s so funny to read that and realize it 😂))