tommoholland2013

[tommoholland2013]

ANDREW GARFIELD, TOM HOLLAND, & TOBEY MAGUIRE behind the scenes of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (2021)

#EVERYBODY SHUT UP #This is my whole childhood right here omg #this is beautiful #Andrew Garfield #tobey maguire #tom holland #SM:NWH

[tommoholland2013]

TOM HOLLAND 2021, GQ’s Men of the Year

#I’m obsessed 😩 #Tom Holland gifs #GQ men of the year 2021

[tommoholland2013]

TOM HOLLAND

Behind the Scenes of GQ’s Men Of The Year Photoshoot (2021)

#sweet Jesus almighty #he looks so good #tom holland

[tommoholland2013]

[tommoholland2013]

a quick primer to chinese naming/addresses/(some) culture for shang-chi fans

first psa: apparently some ppl need to hear this but for the love of god if chinese characters don’t introduce themselves with a single-character name, DO NOT SHORTEN THEIR NAME TO ONE CHARACTER ALONE. we never do that because chinese is a homophonous language!!

and also our names are made of characters that function as morphemes (words,, kinda) in their own right!! if i speak in chinese and call my sister by one character of her name only i could simply be using that character as a morpheme instead of addressing her. she wouldn’t know i was addressing her.

(some chinese ppl do shorten our names to one character when in the west or when not speaking chinese, yes. for example, my name is ruiqian, but i introduce myself as rui (pronounced ‘rey’ btw. it’s chinese, not japanese) because rui is less easy for non-chinese speakers to screw up than ruiqian (the ‘q’ sound is notoriously hard) and so it’s just easier and less painful all around to introduce myself as rui.)

so pls, do not shorten ying li’s name to li or shangqi’s name to shang. that’s not how it works. don’t do it. i lose ten years of my life every time this is done.

and yes, it’s ying li and ying nan. i know some places have their names as jiang li and jiang nan (??) but the ‘ying’ character of their names only has one pronunciation. and also honestly why would you name your kid jiang nan when a whole place called jiangnan exists.

[edit: i initially said that ying li and ying nan are given names but apparently the subtitles my cinema had were wrong lol. the ying character is the same on the wiki, and since ying nan didn’t give any other family name when introducing herself in chinese, i will assume this is their family name]

finally, a primer on how chinese names should be written (since these characters are from the mainland. other countries have different conventions):

Xu Shangqi ✔️

Xu ShangQi ❌

Xu Shang-Qi ❌

Xu Shang Qi ❌

i’ve written his name as shangqi here instead of shang-chi for two reasons:

shang-chi is the only name in wades-giles romanisation. not even his family name (xu) is in wades-giles, otherwise it would be written as hsu shang-chi (i’m pretty sure. honestly i stay far, far away from the madness of wades-giles because i don’t want to break down crying every time i use it)

i’m quite sure shangqi is the only character marvel took from the comics? since the other names are written in pinyin (aka the SUPERIOR option to wades-giles)

edit: also, as has been mentioned in the notes, my personal opinion on wades-giles is influenced by the fact that british diplomats created it, and my country was colonised by british people lol. in particular, taiwan still uses wades-giles! it’s just that the wades-giles system is outdated in the mainland, which is where the shang-chi characters come from. i didn’t mean to imply that wades-giles is outdated everywhere, and i apologise for that

ALSO ALSO ALSO!! i’ve seen this a lot in c-media fandom but in chinese culture, we do not address our elders by name alone. yes, that includes our older siblings. unless you want xialing to be incredibly rude to shangqi, in which case, go ahead, she can definitely call him shangqi as a sign of her anger. otherwise, she should be calling him 哥 ge / older brother.

some other addresses that might be relevant:

爸 ba / dad | 父亲 fuqin / father

妈 ma / mum | 母亲 muqin / mother

妹 mei / younger sister

these three (single-character) addresses (+ 哥 ge / older brother) can be doubled to form 爸爸 baba, 妈妈 mama, 哥哥 gege, 妹妹 meimei for the same meaning, but 爸爸/妈妈哥哥 baba/mama/gege is generally more childish. except, and this is important, 哥哥 gege can also be used flirtatiously, or to 撒娇 sajiao / act cute (it’s a little bit like aegyo). so just be aware of how you use it

some more addresses:

老师 laoshi / teacher: but really it can just be a respectful term to call someone older you respect

小姨 xiaoyi / youngest maternal aunt: what yingnan calls herself when introducing herself to shangqi and xialing

婆婆 popo / grandmother: also a respectful term for an elderly lady

外婆 waipo / maternal grandmother: iirc this is what shangqi calls katy’s grandma?

阿姨 ayi / aunt: also a respectful term for an older woman, or for an adult family friend. shangqi would call katy’s mum [surname]-ayi, since he’s katy’s best friend

chinese women generally don’t change their names after marriage. our family is incredibly important to us (hence we place our family name before our given name, to signify that our family and ancestors come before the self) and so giving up your family name is generally only done in drastic circumstances (you need to change your name to flee from smth, etc)

however, let’s say that shangqi for some reason never finds out what katy’s mum’s family name is. he would just call her chen-ayi then, since chen is katy’s family name

now, let’s say the ten rings organisation is a martial sect (because it sure looks like one to me!!). here are some more addresses you can use:

师父 shifu / teacher-father: god this is hard to translate, but basically it stems from the phrase 一日为师，终身为父 / one day of being their teacher makes you their father for life. wenwu’s disciples would call him this

师母 shimu / teacher-mother: same logic. this is what xialing’s disciples would call her

师哥 shige | 师兄 shixiong / elder martial brother: this is what wenwu’s disciples would call shangqi

the difference is that shixiong can be used for any male disciple in the same generation who started training earlier than you, while shige can only be used for your shifu’s son, or a male disciple trained by your shifu

the same generation basically means: anyone trained by your shifu or his martial siblings. it’s not relevant for wenwu, but it would be if shangqi decides to return to the ten rings organisation and take on disciples of his own

师姐 shijie / elder martial sister: for disciples who came into wenwu’s sect after xialing started her training (and also before she takes control of the ten rings organisation)

师妹 shimei / younger martial sister: for disciples who came into wenwu’s sect before xialing started her training (likewise, also before she takes control of the ten rings organisation)

even though wenwu didn’t train xialing, she’s still his daughter, hence his disciples would refer to her as shijie/shimei

宗主 zongzhu / sect/clan leader | 掌门 zhangmen / sect leader: this is what disciples would call wenwu when he’s the head, and xialing when she takes over after

师伯 shibo / elder martial uncle: this is what xialing’s disciples would call shangqi

god okay i think i’m done. this post is way too fucking long but i sincerely hope this helps

if you’ve read this far and appreciated my work, please consider supporting me on ko-fi! <3

[tommoholland2013]

shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings +letterboxd reviews

[tommoholland2013]

SHANG CHI: TEASER TRAILER dir. Destin Daniel Cretton (2021)

[tommoholland2013]

Holy shit. Just saw Shang-Chi and it is IT. Before getting into the Chinese cultural parts of it, I'd like to note that it had a solid plot and wonderfully developed characters. The worldbuilding and CGI and the relationship building was absolutely phenomenal and I was absolutely hooked. The fight choreography was THE best choreography I've ever seen in the entirety of the MCU and the cinematography is amazing.

Now, onto the Chinese cultural references.

My god. I've never felt so seen. As a Chinese woman living in a western diaspora I've genuinely never seen something that so genuinely felt right and that truly felt like it connected to me personally. There were so many little details that I could connect to that made me feel emotional because I've never had any media that connected to me this way. It was so well done and it was so obviously done by people who lived through it.

(minor) Spoilers ahead! Just small details about the Chinese Diaspora experience in the movie.

Some little details that stood out to me included:

The food! All the food shown on screen was Chinese food - be it homemade food or dim sum platters - and those were exactly the types of plates that I grew up eating.

When Shang-Chi took off his shoes to go into Katy's house and she was wearing slippers inside the house

When he was talking through the little Chinatown area and there were the fruit cardboard boxes outside the Chinese CL groceries and the white sketchy dim sum sign with English on top of the Chinese

Katy struggling with her Chinese as a diaspora kid because she's only a heritage speaker and her first language is english

When Katy was struggling to pronounce Shang-Chi's Chinese name asldhhdjskala I felt that

Katy sticking to her English name despite also having a Chinese name bc she's a diaspora kid and is used to using the English name

Every single one of the magical creatures inside Ta Lo were inspired by Chinese mythology.

THE DRAGON IS A PROPER CHINESE DRAGON

Katy's parents comparing her to others and asking her to "get a better job" with her H. B. from Berkeley (I felt that)

The whole thing about familial expectations and relationships in Chinese families?? Bro. I felt that. Holy shit.

So. Much. Mandarin. I can't explain how happy I am to hear that language. Many western movies have a tendency to mainly use English with an accent but this movie used a LOT of (accurate!) mando and it makes me so happy

The architecture?? The art?? Phenomenal. Amazing. So accurate.

The shrine to the mother and the other deceased looks EXACTLY like every single Chinese cemetery I've been to, down to the photos and the incense and the fruits and all the people paying tribute to it.

The martial arts?? Oh my god. So good. I recognize it. Having trained in it and having watched multiple family members practice varying Chinese martial arts over the years I can't express how fucking happy I was to see arts such as Tai Chi and Wing Chun and Wushu on screen. I could recognize it. The forms, the movements - I can't explain how, but it felt right. It felt familiar. It felt so wonderfully connected to me.

There's probably more but it's late at night so more to come later, maybe. I'm going to just bask in the fact that this was a fantastic movie for chinese representation and I felt so seen. I went to see it with several other Chinese friends and. We came away so happy. We felt seen. We felt heard. I can't express how much this meant to us.

Representation matters.

#go see it #representation matters #shang chi

[tommoholland2013]

i am logging onto this website to beg you all to shut up about spider man and loki for one fucking second and get shang chi trending on its own opening night please for the love of god

[tommoholland2013]

You are a product of all who came before you. The legacy of your family. You are your mother, and whether you like it or not, you are also your father. Stop hiding who you are. SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS 2021 • dir. Destin Daniel Cretton

#shut up and go watch the movie #absolutely amazing cinematography #amazing story line #I’m officially obsessed with Simu Liu

[tommoholland2013]

Agent Jimmy Woo watching the news and realizing that fun asian superheroes were running around back in san francisco while he was stuck trying to convince a white woman not to hold thousands of innocent townspeople hostage and torture them

[tommoholland2013]

Something I've seen floating around with this whole Anthony Mackie thing is people going "Sebastian Stan said we could interpret the relationship between Sam and Bucky however we want, even though he doesn't think they're a couple, Mackie should've said something like that" and boy do I have an opinion about it.

@wenellyb has expressed before that Sebastian once got hate for saying he didn't ship Steve and Bucky, which could be a reason why he knows how to handle a shipping question these days. But another thing is true: Anthony has really strong opinions about the representation of male friendships and male romance, especially of black relationships. He's advocated strongly for both, saying multiple times (and even making a Black Mirror episode about this) that the idea of "bromance" or the relationship between men in media blurring the line of friends and partners can be really harmful to male relationships as a whole. Movie studios making close male friendships lean into a "bromance", but never actually committing to gay characters is a way to make things "twisted and convoluted" you could say.

Some links of Mackie speaking up for male friendships and romance in media here, here, here, here and here (some of these go as far back as 2004).

Also, in that Variety interview, Mackie did say fans can do what they want in fandom and that he doesn't care, but the interviewer went ahead and insisted in asking about fandom, saying (paraphrased): "fans want Sam and Bucky to be together, but male friendships are so rare in the superhero context, what's it like for you to play Sam and Bucky as friends?" If you read any of the articles I linked or just read this post, you have to know that Anthony feels strongly about both subjects, about the representation of male friendships AND gay representation.

So yeah Mackie could've stayed quiet and let it slide, could've gone the Sebastian Stan route and just left it at "the fandom can do whatever it wants", but instead he thought to bring his opinion over gay and straight friendship representation all in one answer.

For some reason, when Mackie defended gay representation, participated in conveying said representation, and even analyzed his own biases to call out homophobia in media, I didn't see any "Anthony Mackie said gay rights" tweets going viral, but now that people have a way to twist his words to call him a homophobe, he's f*king everywhere, in every article.

Listen, I'm not saying Mackie is exempted from saying problematic things, I personally don't agree with things he's said in the past, but he's a mainstream/popular black actor asking studios to represent LGBT characters, while trying to bring sensitive men to our screens instead of that toxic masculinity we're used to seeing. Him receiving hate over that Variety article is very telling. Criticize him, call him out on what he said, I think that's all perfectly fine. Yet for someone with a history of being a pretty strong ally, a very small amount of people (in Twitter at least) seem to be bringing up his past statements to try and understand where Mackie is coming from.

It's incredible to me that as a black man who's publicly and consistently supported LGBT representation, only weeks after his debut as Captain America, he's involved in a "scandal" about his "homophobia"...It's like @wenellyb and many others have said, it may be because a lot of people had their minds made up about Anthony before this even happened.

[tommoholland2013]

Of all the parallels we've seen so far, I think this one best demonstrates the difference between John Walker and Steve Rogers.

Steve easily could have killed Tony at the end of Civil War. In fact, Tony seemed to expect it; he raised his hands to protect his head from what he probably thought was the inevitable.

But Steve wasn't like that. Even in the midst of pure rage, he could never kill someone unnecessarily- good moral standards were at the core of every decision he made, regardless of his own emotional state.

John Walker is different. When he gets angry, morality is not his priority because ultimately he isn't a man of the people, he's a man who centres his own desires, no matter the cost. He doesn't stop to question himself because his ego won't let him.

Where Steve Rogers was measured, John Walker is impulsive. Where Steve Rogers looked out for everyone's best interests, John Walker looks out for his own.

Where Steve Rogers showed self-restraint, John Walker takes the kill strike.

#hehe I’m back #tfatws spoilers

[tommoholland2013]

Reblog if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, transgender or a supporter.

This should be reblogged by everyone. Even if you’re straight, you should be a supporter.

[tommoholland2013]

An info graphic on what’s happening in Nigeria made by itssimply.sandra on ig #EndSARS

#so I know I’ve been gone for a minute #but I’m back #I have midterms next week #anyway #this is an important message and I felt I should share it since I’m ✨African✨ #black lives matter #end sars #nigeria

[tommoholland2013]

Why This Chris Must Go

I didn’t post this until I’d waded through seventeen different sources - including The New York Times and California political donor records (which are public) and wasted too much time that should have been spent harassing my daughter about her homework. But there was a joking little Twitter poll about Which Chris Must Go? that went viral when people starting posting about Chris Pratt’s political and “spiritual” leanings. I was on the fence about Pratt since he abruptly divorced Anna Faris and left their special needs son to hastily marry Katherine Schwarzenegger. Then, he joined the GOP Schwarzenegger family’s church, The Hillsong Church, which considers LGBTQ+ an “offense against god” and advocates for electroshock therapy to get rid of the gay. (Remember that barbaric shit? Even my backwards ass state banned it.) He also works with Jews for Jesus, who attempt to convert people from the Jewish faith to Christianity (I guess with electroshock therapy, since that’s working for the gays, right Chris?) Aaaand, he and his adorable bride donated a heavy chunk of change to Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. I’m no political scientist, but that sounds like a pretty staunch support for this psycho to get re-elected. Frankly, I don’t care. That’s not why I’m disgusted.

It was quite the backlash. And so guess who leaps to his defense? Some of the rich, white straight guys from Marvel. Robert Downey Jr. who initially posted “Fuck you all.” in response on his Instagram account deleted it before adding this lovely moment of concern. My sweet Mark Ruffalo (oh, Mark, how could you?) did as well.

You know who didn’t leap to his defense? Brie Larsen. Tessa Thompson. Zendaya. (Nor any of the other Chrises, by the way.) So, where was the support when these women were viciously bullied online? Brie got death threats for daring to become Captain America. Tessa and Z were ruthlessly subjected to racism and misogyny for acting in the Marvel Universe. Not a fucking word of defense for these women- who were truly being brutalized. So, RDJ? Fuck you, kitten. Fuck you for being a hypocrite and defending the guy just because the public learned about his leanings and “spiritual” activities. And Mark, I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed. And for the other rich, white, straight Hollywood guys to leapt to his defense? Brie, Tessa and Z are still waiting for your passionate words of support.

[tommoholland2013]

US Open 2020: Naomi Osaka’s important way to the Title

#it’s what she deserves #naomi osaka #black lives matter #us open 2020