sweettiramisu

douqi posting in

(This isn't strictly about baihe but I'm posting this here anyway since I'll be using a couple of examples from baihe media.)

Let's say you're writing something inspired by on based on a c-novel. And you've come to the exciting part, which is choosing names for your characters. And you find yourself stuck.

Well, not to worry! We have a several-millennia-long tradition of poetry to assist us. All you have to do is this.

Take a line from a Book of Odes poem, or a Tang poem, or really any poem. Then pick out the name-like elements and smoosh them together. Voilà, you've got yourself a name.

Thus, from the Book of Odes the line 蒹葭苍苍, 白露为霜 (pinyin: jianjia cangcang, bailu wei shuang) (Legge's translation: 'The reeds and rushes are deeply green / And the white dew is turned into hoarfrost) gives us Bai Jianjia, which is suitable for either a refined young lady or a courtesan of the high-class, scholarly sort. Also from the Book of Odes, the line 昔我往矣，杨柳依依 (pinyin: xi wo wang yi, yangliu yiyi) (Legge's translation: At first, when we set out / The willows were fresh and green) gives us Liu Yiyi, also a good courtesan or high-class maidservant name (IMO the Book of Odes link might just about make it learned enough to be a young gentlewoman's name, but I don't usually like repeated-syllable names for upper-class or scholarly women, unless it's a nickname).

This trick is pretty commonly used in popular media. The drama version of The Message has a character named (or rather, re-named) He Jianzhu (何剪烛). This is clearly taken from the line 何当共剪西窗烛 (pinyin: he dang gong jian xichuang zhu) from Li Shangyin's poem 'Sending a Letter North on a Rainy Night'(夜雨寄北). The love interest from The Beauty's Blade is called Yu Shengyan (玉生烟), and so is a secondary character from the danmei novel Thousand Autumns, courtesy of the line 蓝田日暖玉生烟 (pinyin: lantian ri nuan yu sheng yan) from another Li Shangyin poem, 'The Brocade Zither' (錦瑟).

'But, douqi,' I hear you cry, 'what if I don't know any Chinese poetry or enough Chinese to know what are appropriate name elements to pick out of verses?'

Ah. Then I'm afraid this post will be of no help at all. Sorry.

douqi posting in

baihe_media

Pre-orders are currently open for The World Knows (全世界都知道, pinyin: quan shijie dou zhidao) by Yu Shuang (鱼霜), serialised online as The Whole World Knows She Loves Me (全世界都知道她爱我, pinyin: quan shijie dou zhidao ta ai wo). This is a contemporary romance featuring a relationship between an artist and a professional pianist. Pre-orders can be made via the following bookshops:

The web version of the novel can be read here on JJWXC.

Pre-orders are also open for What Era Do You Think This Is (都什么年代了啊, pinyin: dou shenme niandai le a) by Qi Xiao Huang Shu (七小皇叔). The publisher-provided English title for this was Kissing a Gardenia, but that seems to have been scrapped now. This is also a contemporary romance, set in baihe voice acting circles. Pre-orders can be made via the following bookshops:

Fengrusong
Hanlin
Kuaile
Kuaile (extra merch)
Xinshijiao
Xinshijiao (extra merch)

The web version of the novel can be read here on Changpei.

douqi posting in

baihe_media

Across the Empire (纵横, pinyin: zongheng) is, by webnovel standards, an ancient relic. First published on JJWXC in 2005 (for reference, JJWXC itself was founded in 2003), it's one of the earliest court intrigue novels in the baihe genre. It was actually planned as a trilogy of novels chronicling the life and death of protagonist Lin Zong, but only the first volume was fully written. The author started the second volume, but discontinued it after eighteen chapters. In an addendum to the second volume, she provides an outline of how her planned story would have gone.

The protagonist Lin Zong is an interesting twist on the popular cross-dressing lead. She is, at the start of the novel, the only living child of Prince Chu, one of the emperor's brothers. We're told that, being a very sickly child, she was brought up as a boy in order to ensure her good health (this is a superstition/folk belief/tradition that's still extant in some communities; the idea seems to be that, if you raise a child as the 'opposite' gender, you confuse the malevolent forces responsible for their poor health).* So from a very young age, Lin Zong has been treated (and dresses as) a boy, and her father has even designated her his heir, but everyone knows that she was born a girl. This creates interesting tensions down the line.

*This was also the premise of the 2015 Taiwanese drama Bromance, the most accidentally(?) queer cross-dressing drama I've ever watched. Seriously, the protagonist is easily readable as non-binary up to the very last frame of the drama.

Prince Chu is one of those extremely competent, charismatic, loyalty-inspiring princes who are the bane of their emperor brothers' existences. The emperor therefore devises a loyalty test: he arranges for Lin Zong to be married to a high-ranking young noblewoman named Chu Yanran, to see how Prince Chu will respond. Prince Chu and Lin Zong don't really have a choice but to accept the match (the other option is to kick off and basically start a rebellion), and so we end up with the rather surreal scenario of a lesbian marriage sanctioned, nay compelled, by an otherwise institutionally homophobic state.

( some mild spoilers )

I read the Chinese original of both volumes here and here on JJWXC.

douqi posting in

baihe_media

yuerstruly and I came up with this (extremely short, and not all danmei) list for fun. We were seriously hampered in this task by the fact that neither of us reads all that much danmei (and in fact, such danmei I've read consists mainly of the Erha and MDZS sex scenes, at the instigation of friends who wanted to know if they were sexy in the original). There's also the usual problem that there are no non-MTL translations for most of the baihe novels in the list. But ANYWAY.

If you liked Sha Po Lang, you might also like Minister Xie (谢相, pinyin: xie xiang) by Ruo Hua Ci Shu (若花辞树). In Minister Xie, teenage emperor Liu Zao tries to get to grips with ruling an empire while also doing her best to turn her prime minister Xie Yi (who is 14 years older than her, and also her sort-of aunt) into her wife. I have been reliably informed that she is even more Obsessed and Dramatique about the latter task than Changgeng is in relation to Gu Yun. Brief reviews are available here and here.
If you liked Erha, you might also like the first 40% of The Abandoned (弃仙, pinyin: qi xian) by Mu Feng Qing Nian (沐枫轻年). Featuring extreme xianxia shizunfuckery and multiple rebirths, the first chapter of The Abandoned alone has the protagonist masturbating to a painting of her shizun, a curse that's basically the xianxia version of sex pollen, multiple instances of hurt/comfort, stratospheric levels of unhealthy disciple/shizun co-dependence, a double rebirth, the protagonist allowing her shizun to stab her in the shoulder so that she could get close enough to kiss her shizun, and the protagonist stealing her shizun's jade pendant for use as a masturbation aid. I say the first 40% because the remainder of the novel is unfortunately a bit of a drag (though for all I know, the back half of Erha also overstays its welcome). Brief review here.
If you liked SVSSS, you might also like An Incantation for Subduing a Dragon/Dragon Subjugation Incantation (降龙诀, pinyin: xiang long jue) by Shi Wei Yue Shang (时微月上). Protagonist Luo Qingci transmigrates into a xianxia novel and into the body of female lead Ruan Li's evil, conniving shizun. Being genre savvy, Luo Qingci tries her best to avoid the character's canonical grisly fate, only to discover that her disciple might just be falling in love with her. Oh, and Ruan Li is also a dragon. Ongoing fan translation here.
If you liked Qiang Jin Jiu, you might also like At Her Mercy (我为鱼肉, pinyin: wo wei yurou) by Ning Yuan (宁远). Except that everyone in At Her Mercy is evil. An English-language translation of At Her Mercy has been licensed by Rosmei (under the title At the World's Mercy), though the publication date is not yet known.

And now we come to the non-danmei though still danmei-adjacent comps:

If you liked Nirvana in Fire/The Langya List, you might also like At Her Mercy, except that as noted above, everyone in At Her Mercy is evil.
If you liked the Daomu Biji/The Lost Tomb series, you might also like Exploring an Empty Tomb (探虚陵, pinyin: tan xu ling) by Jun Sola (君sola) and Reading the Remnants (问棺, pinyin: wen guan) by Qi Xiao Huang Shu (七小皇叔). Obviously I don't know anything about the Daomu Biji series except that they're tomb-raiding novels, and both Exploring an Empty Tomb and Reading the Remnants are also tomb-raiding novels, so... close enough, I hope? Exploring an Empty Tomb is also literally millions of words long. A partial fan translation of Exploring an Empty Tomb is available here. A partial fan translation of Reading the Remnants is available here, and a fuller one here.

Comment with your own comps, if you have them! Also, feel free to post a danmei title, say what you liked about it and/or what its most notable qualities are, and people who read more baihe can hopefully find some comps for you!

nnozomi posting in

senzenwomen

Minakata Matsue was born in 1878 in Wakayama, where her father was a Shinto priest; her maiden name was Tamura. She remained unmarried longer than was usual for the time, having been devoted to supporting her destitute family through sewing and flower arrangement. At twenty-eight she married the biologist Minakata Kumagusu, who was then forty. He had spent the previous decade as a researcher in the West and was then settled near Matsue’s hometown, near his own birthplace, to study slime molds.

Minakata said that his motive for marriage was “the inconvenience of single life,” but he was apparently fond of his wife, in particular her encyclopedic knowledge of local customs and folktales, naturally acquired from her background at the family shrine. Their marriage was celebrated by the gift of a diamond ring from Frederick Dickins, Minakata’s former supervisor at London University. Unfortunately, this romantic beginning was ruined by Matsue’s discovery of lice in the marital bed, which she had to clean out thoroughly before venturing on any activities there.

The Minakatas’ son Kumaya was born in 1907 and their daughter Fumie four years later. Minakata, absorbed in scientific research, copying religious texts, political-religious activism, and drinking, was inclined to leave the management of his household and his children to Matsue, complaining fiercely when she made any attempt to tidy up his belongings: he was busy using them to grow molds for observation. Matsue put up with her oddball husband and assisted in later years with his research, responsible along with Fumie for the publication of his later collected works. She died in 1955, fourteen years after her husband.

Sources
Nakae

douqi posting in

baihe_media

Pre-orders are currently open for the second (and final) volume of university novel Leap into Summer (跃入夏天, pinyin: yue ru xiatian) by Jin Ke (今轲), originally serialised online as I Jump Up and Kiss You (跳起来亲你, pinyin: tiao qilai qin ni). Pre-orders can be made via the following bookshops:

The web version of the novel can be read here on JJWXC.

Pre-orders are also open for the print edition of Republican Era tragedy Memories of a Shanghai Summer (沪夏往事, pinyin: hu xia wangshi) by Shi Ci (是辞). First published online in 2023, this novel has been making a bit of a splash in baihe circles recently, having also been licensed for an full-cast audiobook and an audio drama. This is even more notable given that the author isn't currently under contract with JJWXC. Pre-orders for the print edition can be made via the following bookshops:

The web version of the novel can be read here on JJWXC.

These are both mainland print editions, so will be in simplified Chinese and subject to censorship.

rocky41_7 posting in

fffriday

My latest commute audiobook was A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, a vampire novel that strides along at a brisk 5 hours run time. I have to admit upfront I did not have high hopes for this book. I somewhat warily added it to my TBR list, but I feared tired romantasy tropes that don't hit for me, and that the queerness which had landed it on my radar would turn out to be little more than additional titillation for a straight audience looking for a tale of decadence and indecency. I'm quite pleased to report neither of those concerns came to fruition!

As the title might suggest, there's a level of melodrama in this book you have to accept to enjoy the story. It reminded me in some ways of AMC's Interview with the Vampire in its shameless embrace of all those usual vampiric tropes and in the extravagances of its characters and its prose. Throughout the introduction, I was trying to decide if this was fun, or overwrought. I came down on the side of fun.

( Read more... )

douqi posting in

baihe_media

Interview with Xen Wu/Wu Chuanxin

I posted here that Xen Wu/Wu Chuanxin, the director of baihe live action adaptation When We Met (去年烟火, pinyin: qunian yanhuo), was scheduled to appear on a livestream hosted by Wu Yanling of the Juzi Niannian team. An official recording of the whole session is available on Bilibili (under the cut, because it autoplays), and makes for interesting viewing. There are no English subtitles available at the moment, but if any comm members are interested in trying their hand at subtitling, I think this would be a nice-sized project.

( Read more... )

Won't Let You Go Again (错过十八岁) round-up

I initially posted about this mini-drama featuring Han Jiale and Jiang Shuting of girl group SNH48 here. For ease of reference, here's the official synopsis again:

thirty-year-old Lin Huaide (played by Han Jiale) travels back in time to secondary school, and tries to save her then-best friend Ji Nian (played by Jiang Shuting) from committing suicide. In the process, she ends up changing their lives and those of their classmates.

I've now watched the whole thing and it's definitely about as much of a GL as Douyin will let you get away with. Neither the acting, writing nor production value is particularly great (even relative to other mini-dramas I've seen), and one of the episodes is basically a (I think unintentionally) hilarious adaptation of, all things, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, so calibrate your expectations accordingly. It also has an open ending, if you mind that sort of thing.

The original episodes can be viewed via this playlist on the show's official Douyin channel. There is also a multi-language (including English) subtitled version available on one of the YouTube channels that licenses and aggregates mini-dramas from the various Chinese short video platforms. Since the subtitles are almost certainly MTL, I'm not going to link specifically to that here, but you should be able to find it by plugging the show's Chinese name into YouTube.

nnozomi posting in

senzenwomen

Sasaki Nobuko was born in 1878 in Tokyo, where her father ran a hospital and her mother, Sasaki Toyoju, was the head of the Japan Women’s Christian Temperance Union (founded jointly with Yajima Kajiko), working actively for monogamy and against prostitution and alcoholism; Toyoju was also aunt to Soma Kokko. Nobuko spent her youth studying at mission schools; her mother hoped to have her study in the United States and become a journalist.

In 1895, when Nobuko was eighteen, the Sasakis held a party for writers who had reported on the First Sino-Japanese War, among them the 25-year-old journalist Kunikida Doppo. Immediately struck by Nobuko’s straightforward intelligence and beauty, he began to court her with English poetry of his own as well as recitations of Wordworth. Nobuko was charmed enough to agree to his proposal of marriage, but her mother was fiercely opposed, and eventually gave in only on the condition that they married quietly and lived outside Tokyo. However, the marriage did not go well: Doppo, trying to make a living from his writing, was desperately poor, barely able to put rice on the table. He was also short-tempered and high-handed. Nobuko fled back to her parents less than six months later, where she shortly gave birth to a daughter called Urako, who was added to the family register in the guise of her younger sister.

Both her parents died not long after. In 1901, relatives sent her to America to marry a politician’s son called Mori Hiroshi; they did not expect, however, that on the long boat trip she would fall in love with the chief purser, Takei Kanzaburo, and he (although married), with her. Instead of staying in the US, she got straight back on the boat to return to Japan with Takei.
This “scandalous” behavior was leaked to the newspapers by a fellow passenger, the educationalist Hatoyama Haruko, which left Nobuko exposed to fierce criticism and slander as a “loose woman” “unbefitting to her class” and so on. The writer Arishima Takeo (a close friend of Nobuko’s unsuccessful fiancé Mori) picked up her story and made a novel out of it, Aru Onna [A Certain Woman] (in which the Nobuko figure dies in the end). Nobuko’s little sister Yoshie, furious, demanded to meet with Arishima and defend her sister’s honor, but Arishima committed suicide along with his lover Hatano Akiko before she could make this happen.

Once the furor had died down, Nobuko and Takei (until his death in 1921) ran an inn in the southern city of Sasebo, raising their daughter Ruriko. One of their guests, Okabe Kansuke, eventually married Sasaki Yoshie and took her to his hometown of Maoka in Tochigi. In 1925, when Yoshie became ill after childbirth, Nobuko took Ruriko and moved to Maoka to help look after her. There, as well as looking after her sister’s family, she ran a Sunday school which made her very popular among the local children, continuing it throughout World War II even when Christianity was not well regarded. She died in 1949 at the age of seventy-one.

Sources
Nakae
https://kusanomido.com/study/history/japan/shouwa/101171/ (Japanese) Biographical article with photographs of some of the relevant people

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Reading

One Weird (Read: Useless) Trick for Naming Your C-Novel Inspired Characters

Pre-Orders Open for Two More Print Novels

Across the Empire (纵横) by Lin Cuo (林错): Review

If You Liked This Danmei, You Might Like That Baihe

Minakata Matsue (1878-1955)

Pre-Orders Open for Two Print Novels

Recent Reading: A Dowry of Blood

Two Live Action Items

Sasaki Nobuko (1878-1949)

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November 2024

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