sunshinewarrior11

[sunshinewarrior11]

Monday, 11 October 2021

Today, I emailed my CV and choice form into Hazel. She almost immediately messaged me to say that she had contacted them. Hopefully, I can get a place.

[sunshinewarrior11]

Wednesday, 6 October 2021

Tonight, was the beginning of the course. We all went to Durham University’s Oriental Museum, where we were able to meet with a variety of most the placement options, we had available to us. I had been particularly interested in working with the Durham University Library and Collections with Learning resources, online exhibitions, the Oriental Museum, and Durham Castle. Beyond that, potentially working with Durham 6th Form Centre. Primarily, these projects were of interest, but the ease of accessing their location also played a large role. While working with BALTIC or Ushaw had sounded interesting, it would not have been feasible for me to travel there. However, while talking to Hazel, she had mentioned that it might be possible to work at Woon Art Gallery in Newcastle, which was just a quick train ride over. Personally, after discussing Woon, it became my number one option because I have already worked at the Oriental Museum and most of my artistic knowledge sits in Oriental Art, which Woon also specialised in.

[sunshinewarrior11]

hello, I want to write an Arab character and I don't want to mess anything up so I just wanted to ask some things, I hope I'm not bothering or going the wrong direction, I just don't want to misinterpret Arab people and want to be sure

I read on your page something about nicknames, i have no problem with calling the character by their full name, but i just wanted to ask if having other characters calling them by a nickname is very wrong?

can I have the character and their family live in the same country as the other characters (in this case Spain)?

another one of my questions is about sexuality, how should I write it? can I make the character non-straight?

thank you so much for your answers, I hope none of the questions sound offensive, because they aren't supposed to

Hi, so sorry I am just seeing this. To answer you, 1. nicknames are fine and a common practice in Arabic. The importance here is that the nickname does not exist because the people who gave it struggle with the name. For example Mo for Mohammed to make it easier for western speakers = bad. However, my name is Noor and I've always had the nicknames of Noori or Nooni from my family members. It's like Johnny instead of John. Or we even have nicknames like Dick = Richard. My uncle's name is Mortada, but we all call him Ridda. Additionally, it is more common to nickname your friends/family of a same generation based off a trait. For example my dad's friend's call him Abu Guyora which means 'dad of anger' because he gets frustrated a lot. My cousins call me huckteera which means like 'dangerous/badass', mostly bc my job requires a lot of dumb travelling and come back with all these stories about how I manage to injure myself monthly. But these are endearing, I promise.

2. Yes, I do not know why they wouldn't live with the other characters. Especially if Spain is the setting there is a long history of Arabs and North African ethnic groups such as the Amazaigh (referred to as Berbers or Moors - the latter is common in Spain but be careful because Moro is a slur. Also neither of these groups are Arab, however, they can be mixed, many speak Arabic, but they also have their own languages and customs). Also, like make sure to mention where they are initially from and do the research of that country. It will affect naming practices, foods eaten, religions (not everyone is Muslim nor practices the same type of Islam if they are). They can't just be 'Arabs'. Its very vague and will leave you're reader feeling lost.

3. Absolutely. I'm trans and gay myself. We exist. There are many Arab families who support it and many who don't though. So choose which you're character will experience. Also, fun fact, SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) used to be the place all the European gays ran to until recently as the laws in these areas were much more relaxed and it was more accepted than in Europe. There is a long history of Queerness. But like with everywhere, there are ppl who disagree with it. Also if youre interested in making a non-binary character, Arabic has a few gender netural names which can be easily used. Noor/Nour/Nür (light/divine light) [Noori is masculine and Noura is feminine], Bahr (sea), Qamar/Kamar (moon).

Hope these help.

[sunshinewarrior11]

whew chillay

[sunshinewarrior11]

malewife this and malewife that WHY have we forgotten about our boytoys?

[sunshinewarrior11]

Offense intended, some of you are dumb

[sunshinewarrior11]

[sunshinewarrior11]

my friend Alicia made this video to show you the correct way to pronounce "axolotl"! it's a Nahuatl word that gets mispronounced so often, often for puns right here on tumblr dot com, so I wanted to share this with you all because it's important to respect Indigenous languages. you can find her artwork here!

[sunshinewarrior11]

Middle Easterners: A guide to what no one seems to know

Hi, I’m arab and exhausted. I’m exhausted of all the subtle ways I’ve been treated bc of who I am. And I’ve come to realise that treating Middle Easterners like this is so subconscious now that people don’t even realise a lot of the time what they are doing. Though this list will also include some more well known ones, as well as, some religion based things but over all I am talking about the racism that’s perpetuated on Arabs and other Middle Easterners and North Africans. Please add on if you are MENA, as this won’t ve exhaustive.

It’s NOT pronounced A-rab (A like the single letter + rab s as in rabbit) it IS pronounced Arab (air + ab - like the abdominal muslce). [this point specifically applies to people with American/Canadian accents]

Within the Middle East there are all types of landscapes from desert to green, farmable lands. Where you live does dictate what you eat more of (traditionally). Soo it’s not all sand. However, I’m from where the sand is and that’s where you find the more nomadic tribes. These are the peoples who keep camels and they move a lot. They are referred to as Bedu (BEH-doo). Today, not all of them live normadic desert lifestyles. But most Arabs are able to trace their lineage to different tribes. However, not all Arabs tribes were Bedu or nomadic.

Slurs: DO NOT USE THESE, this has been included in case you don’t know: Dune Coon, Sand N*gger, Towel Head, Terrorist, A-Rab, Lizard Eater, Snake Charmers, calling us all Ali Baba, Jihadis, Savages, Barbarians.

Misconceptions and Myths: we all ride camels, we all work with oil, we are all Muslim, we are all terrorists, we are Indian (from the sub-continent), Turks are Arabs (they are a fun mix after centuries of colonisation), we are all liars/swindlers/untrustworthy, not everyone speaks Arabic, we don’t live in the 21st century, we are very backwards about everything. We all have loads of money and drive Rolls-Royce. We aren’t all super conservative or sexist or homophobic or transphobic. Gay and Transgender MENA exist and have existed for a long time.

Who is in the Middle East? What ethnicities? Arabs, Egyptians, Kurds, Persians, Areminians, Azerbaijanis, Copts, Jews (the list goes on but these are the larger groups - there are Ethnic Jews of ME descent which live outside of Palestine, as well as ethnically Palestinian Jews). Though Arabs is normally used as an umbrella term for anyone residing in MENA. It depends on the person if they find that offensive. But if you know where they are from better to say that.

What are we racially? This is a point of contention in the MENA community. As we have been labelled as different races over the years. The important thing to recognise that we prove Race is a dumb concept that has no validity. But to clarify we are a literal mix of just about everything from thousands of years of trade in the Silk Road and colonisation. There’s no one look for Middle Easterners at all. Proof, me and my family who range from being White passing to full blown brown, with hair that’s straight to wavy to tight curls, with eyes that are brown, hazel, blue and green. And the Arab kids I went to school with who had bright red hair and green eyes. But, would I say any of us are White? Uhhh, maybe some Turks and some of the Jewish peoples currently in Palestine. But really none of us are White as White here tend to mean of European descent. My best guess is that was said so white ppl could claim Jesus.

Languages of the Middle East: Arabic is the most popular language though the dialect varies highly between countries to the point that the Moroccans can’t really be understood by the peoples in the Levant and Peninsula normally. Persian/Farsi spoken throughout modern day Iran. These are the big two with Hebrew and Turkish also being popular languages. The diagram below shows more. Though it doesn’t show all of North African, but they speak Arabic for the most part, though some can speak the colonisers languages as well (eg French)

[Photo ID: Map of South West Asia region colloquially referred to as the Middle East. It has modern country borders as well as a colour coded system that extents out of borders to denote the majority language spoken in different areas. Countries w/ languages in brackets: Egypt (Arabic), Yemen (Arabic), Oman (Arabic), UAE (Arabic), Baharain (Arabic), Qatar (Arabic), Saudi Arabia (Arabic), Jordon (Arabic), Lebanon (Arabic), Palestine/Israel (Arabic/Hebrew), Syria (Arabic/Kurdik), Iraq (Arabic/Kurdik/Lun), Turkey (Turkish/Zazai/Kurdik), Armenia (Armenian), Azerbaijan (Azeri), Iran (Farsi/Arabic/Kurdik/Lun/Azeri/Talysh/Gilaki/Mazani/Qashqai/Baluchi/Dari/Turkmen), Turkmenistan (Turkmen), Afghanistan (Turkmen/Dari/Pashto/Baluchi/Braha/Tajik), Pakistan (Baluchi/Pashto/Braha/Punjabi/Sindhi), Uzbekistan (Kæakh/Uzbek), Tajikistan (Tajik/Uzbek) End ID]

8. Being anti Hijab/Niqab/Burka is just as racist as it is Islamiphobic. The practice of wearing these pre-dates Islam and they are considered traditional head dresses. They are sand/sun protection and almost around the world you had women wearing some sort of head wrap well into the 1960s. Furthermore, while Islam does say one should dress modestly and women should wear a head wrap (especially to pray), there is nothing religious about the niqab or burka. Additionally Islam says it should be the woman’s choice. Soo when you hear about families forcing girls, that’s more cultural than religious. Make the distinction. AND NEVER TRY TO REMOVE A WOMAN’S HEADDRESS. That’s like pulling down someone’s pants. And ESPECIALLY DO NOT SAY you are ‘freeing her’ or ‘saving her’ .

9. Not all Muslims are MENA: just a quick reminder that Islam is a religion. Muslims are the people who follow it. Muslims can be from any ethnic background and there are European, African, Chinese, South Asian and South East Asian, Arabs, Persians, Turks, etc. Oh, and like in the Jewish and Christian religions you get different sects and schools of thought that can alter the original religion to being more conservative or liberal. People practice differently. Don’t assume all Muslims are radical, misogynists. Actually most the stereotypes of the average Muslim (and I mean a lot of people do practice it that way) are very against the religion and what it teaches at it’s core. It’s like the joke about Christianity. The Qaran is the canon, but the fandom sometimes completely ignores it for its own headcanons.

10. In MENA, there are many people who follow other religions: Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, forms of Paganism, Buddists, Hindus, etc. Remember, it’s always been a hub of peoples from around the worlds. They don’t just give up their religions when they move over. And more importantly, forceful conversation or missionary type of work is banned in Islam. This is why there are still Christians and Jewish peoples and the likes.

11. Don’t assume we all know each other. We don’t. Okay..... sometimes we do. But it’s not everyone. We are just very friendly and we do things in a ‘oh well I got a friend of friend of a friend who does that and can help’ way. Though we just call everyone friend or brother or sister.

12. DO NOT compare our culture to European past cultures. Okay we get it we are more socially conservative, but when people use turns of phrase saying we are x numbers of years behind civilisation, or oh how Victorian of us or we are stuck in the dark ages, it hurts, like a lot. We are not somebackwards people, we are not less evolved and we sure as hell don’t need to be compared to our oppressors. And guess what statements like that are what western powers use as excuses to attack us, start wars. These lead to mass diasporas you see of MENA around the world, either being forced into refugee camps to survive, drowning/dying trying to evacuate when invaders want to use our lands as test grounds for their weapons and military’s and to keep us in line. It makes a myth that makes ppl more comfortable with invading us too, that they are helping us in some way. But also A LOT of the ‘backwards’ things that are said we do can be found in western and European countries. And a lot of the ways we are ‘behind’ directly link to multiple points of colonisation.

13. This is kinda in general (not MENA specific), but if you are from a western democracy (especially capitalist) DO NOT even open ur mouth about countries that have monarchies or whatever. It may not be the best system, but neither is any democracy. But one thing is certain, the desire to make us into ‘morally upright’ peoples with democracy is Imperialistic af. Like the entire Cold War was just america going only Capitalist Democracy for everyone. Like congrats you are perpetuating that notion everytime I have someone tell me I must be happy to have escaped to a democracy or even when I see ppl be like oh, this fantasy story is very good I like it but it would be better if it ended with the abolishment of their very non western government system. Also, fun fact, culture effects government, and it effects whichever governmental system might be being used. A monarchy in MENA or East Asia or Africa is going to be SO different that the British Monarchy. So yeah, it might not be the best system but it’s no westerners place to but in and say that. Like just don’t.

14. I want to draw attention to how we are systematically mistreated by the world on a regular basis. Refugees can be forced into unclean camps, loose their lives trying to escape, be forced into camps for over a decade. Get poorly mistreated when arriving in a host country. Various world policies like the White Australian policy. Being forced to assimilate to survive in non MENA countries, not being allowed to openly practice Islam. Hate crimes, HATE CRIMES. Being fired for being suspicious, being sent home from school for being loud when defending yourself, being told that we look exotic and beautiful but only if we have the right mix of arabesque and white features. Having various plastic surgeries encouraged to groups of us to make us ‘prettier’ (mostly nose jobs). REFUGEE CAMPS, they are literally so awful and there are refugees from the Lebanese and Syrian diasporas who are still in camps (THAT IS A DECADE +). LITERAL FUCKING GENOCIDES. Having the media constantly demonise us. Being always chosen for ‘random checks’ and the airport and being overly patted down to ‘make sure’. It’s not the biggest thing but it’s so dehumanising to travel.

Lastly, what is the culture actually like? Overall, I think we have a sense of community I rarely see elsewhere. What do I mean by this? We will treat strangers like family, providing help to them in anyway we can. I s2g the number of times I’m abroad and I go to the Arab markets and they find out I’m living there by myself and I just get adopted into their family to have dinners with them and they look out for me. It’s just part of the lifestyle. Food is probably the communal love language lol. We feed everybody. You won’t ever go hungry in an arabs house. Actually I can guarantee you will put on weight. We have a strong oral tradition of sharing stories and poetry through word of mouth. It’s honestly amazing to listen to, when we speak poetry, it’s like we are singing. We love to share our stories with anyone who will listen respectfully, though in more recent years I’ve seen people become reluctant either because the stereotypes of us makes people do not care, etc. We also have the preforming arts. We have beautiful instruments and styles of singing throughout the lands. We have our own dances. And most importantly something we all have always treasured is knowledge. We have been the hubs of knowledge for centuries (quite literally until the Ottomans took over). But keep in mind many of the Western Scientists we praise today basically just copy/pasted Middle Eastern scientists and then took the credit in history.

Please feel free to add on if you are MENA, everyone else should reblog but not add on.

[sunshinewarrior11]

[sunshinewarrior11]

[sunshinewarrior11]

Addendum

This applies to me and many other. SWANA is a much better acronym to use. South West Asian and North African as it take away the colonised conotations of the term ‘Middle East’

Middle Easterners: A guide to what no one seems to know

Hi, I’m arab and exhausted. I’m exhausted of all the subtle ways I’ve been treated bc of who I am. And I’ve come to realise that treating Middle Easterners like this is so subconscious now that people don’t even realise a lot of the time what they are doing. Though this list will also include some more well known ones, as well as, some religion based things but over all I am talking about the racism that’s perpetuated on Arabs and other Middle Easterners and North Africans. Please add on if you are MENA, as this won’t ve exhaustive.

It’s NOT pronounced A-rab (A like the single letter + rab s as in rabbit) it IS pronounced Arab (air + ab - like the abdominal muslce). [this point specifically applies to people with American/Canadian accents]

Within the Middle East there are all types of landscapes from desert to green, farmable lands. Where you live does dictate what you eat more of (traditionally). Soo it’s not all sand. However, I’m from where the sand is and that’s where you find the more nomadic tribes. These are the peoples who keep camels and they move a lot. They are referred to as Bedu (BEH-doo). Today, not all of them live normadic desert lifestyles. But most Arabs are able to trace their lineage to different tribes. However, not all Arabs tribes were Bedu or nomadic.

Slurs: DO NOT USE THESE, this has been included in case you don’t know: Dune Coon, Sand N*gger, Towel Head, Terrorist, A-Rab, Lizard Eater, Snake Charmers, calling us all Ali Baba, Jihadis, Savages, Barbarians.

Misconceptions and Myths: we all ride camels, we all work with oil, we are all Muslim, we are all terrorists, we are Indian (from the sub-continent), Turks are Arabs (they are a fun mix after centuries of colonisation), we are all liars/swindlers/untrustworthy, not everyone speaks Arabic, we don’t live in the 21st century, we are very backwards about everything. We all have loads of money and drive Rolls-Royce. We aren’t all super conservative or sexist or homophobic or transphobic. Gay and Transgender MENA exist and have existed for a long time.

Who is in the Middle East? What ethnicities? Arabs, Egyptians, Kurds, Persians, Areminians, Azerbaijanis, Copts, Jews (the list goes on but these are the larger groups - there are Ethnic Jews of ME descent which live outside of Palestine, as well as ethnically Palestinian Jews). Though Arabs is normally used as an umbrella term for anyone residing in MENA. It depends on the person if they find that offensive. But if you know where they are from better to say that.

What are we racially? This is a point of contention in the MENA community. As we have been labelled as different races over the years. The important thing to recognise that we prove Race is a dumb concept that has no validity. But to clarify we are a literal mix of just about everything from thousands of years of trade in the Silk Road and colonisation. There’s no one look for Middle Easterners at all. Proof, me and my family who range from being White passing to full blown brown, with hair that’s straight to wavy to tight curls, with eyes that are brown, hazel, blue and green. And the Arab kids I went to school with who had bright red hair and green eyes. But, would I say any of us are White? Uhhh, maybe some Turks and some of the Jewish peoples currently in Palestine. But really none of us are White as White here tend to mean of European descent. My best guess is that was said so white ppl could claim Jesus.

Languages of the Middle East: Arabic is the most popular language though the dialect varies highly between countries to the point that the Moroccans can’t really be understood by the peoples in the Levant and Peninsula normally. Persian/Farsi spoken throughout modern day Iran. These are the big two with Hebrew and Turkish also being popular languages. The diagram below shows more. Though it doesn’t show all of North African, but they speak Arabic for the most part, though some can speak the colonisers languages as well (eg French)

[Photo ID: Map of South West Asia region colloquially referred to as the Middle East. It has modern country borders as well as a colour coded system that extents out of borders to denote the majority language spoken in different areas. Countries w/ languages in brackets: Egypt (Arabic), Yemen (Arabic), Oman (Arabic), UAE (Arabic), Baharain (Arabic), Qatar (Arabic), Saudi Arabia (Arabic), Jordon (Arabic), Lebanon (Arabic), Palestine/Israel (Arabic/Hebrew), Syria (Arabic/Kurdik), Iraq (Arabic/Kurdik/Lun), Turkey (Turkish/Zazai/Kurdik), Armenia (Armenian), Azerbaijan (Azeri), Iran (Farsi/Arabic/Kurdik/Lun/Azeri/Talysh/Gilaki/Mazani/Qashqai/Baluchi/Dari/Turkmen), Turkmenistan (Turkmen), Afghanistan (Turkmen/Dari/Pashto/Baluchi/Braha/Tajik), Pakistan (Baluchi/Pashto/Braha/Punjabi/Sindhi), Uzbekistan (Kæakh/Uzbek), Tajikistan (Tajik/Uzbek) End ID]

8. Being anti Hijab/Niqab/Burka is just as racist as it is Islamiphobic. The practice of wearing these pre-dates Islam and they are considered traditional head dresses. They are sand/sun protection and almost around the world you had women wearing some sort of head wrap well into the 1960s. Furthermore, while Islam does say one should dress modestly and women should wear a head wrap (especially to pray), there is nothing religious about the niqab or burka. Additionally Islam says it should be the woman’s choice. Soo when you hear about families forcing girls, that’s more cultural than religious. Make the distinction. AND NEVER TRY TO REMOVE A WOMAN’S HEADDRESS. That’s like pulling down someone’s pants. And ESPECIALLY DO NOT SAY you are ‘freeing her’ or ‘saving her’ .

9. Not all Muslims are MENA: just a quick reminder that Islam is a religion. Muslims are the people who follow it. Muslims can be from any ethnic background and there are European, African, Chinese, South Asian and South East Asian, Arabs, Persians, Turks, etc. Oh, and like in the Jewish and Christian religions you get different sects and schools of thought that can alter the original religion to being more conservative or liberal. People practice differently. Don’t assume all Muslims are radical, misogynists. Actually most the stereotypes of the average Muslim (and I mean a lot of people do practice it that way) are very against the religion and what it teaches at it’s core. It’s like the joke about Christianity. The Qaran is the canon, but the fandom sometimes completely ignores it for its own headcanons.

10. In MENA, there are many people who follow other religions: Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, forms of Paganism, Buddists, Hindus, etc. Remember, it’s always been a hub of peoples from around the worlds. They don’t just give up their religions when they move over. And more importantly, forceful conversation or missionary type of work is banned in Islam. This is why there are still Christians and Jewish peoples and the likes.

11. Don’t assume we all know each other. We don’t. Okay..... sometimes we do. But it’s not everyone. We are just very friendly and we do things in a ‘oh well I got a friend of friend of a friend who does that and can help’ way. Though we just call everyone friend or brother or sister.

12. DO NOT compare our culture to European past cultures. Okay we get it we are more socially conservative, but when people use turns of phrase saying we are x numbers of years behind civilisation, or oh how Victorian of us or we are stuck in the dark ages, it hurts, like a lot. We are not somebackwards people, we are not less evolved and we sure as hell don’t need to be compared to our oppressors. And guess what statements like that are what western powers use as excuses to attack us, start wars. These lead to mass diasporas you see of MENA around the world, either being forced into refugee camps to survive, drowning/dying trying to evacuate when invaders want to use our lands as test grounds for their weapons and military’s and to keep us in line. It makes a myth that makes ppl more comfortable with invading us too, that they are helping us in some way. But also A LOT of the ‘backwards’ things that are said we do can be found in western and European countries. And a lot of the ways we are ‘behind’ directly link to multiple points of colonisation.

13. This is kinda in general (not MENA specific), but if you are from a western democracy (especially capitalist) DO NOT even open ur mouth about countries that have monarchies or whatever. It may not be the best system, but neither is any democracy. But one thing is certain, the desire to make us into ‘morally upright’ peoples with democracy is Imperialistic af. Like the entire Cold War was just america going only Capitalist Democracy for everyone. Like congrats you are perpetuating that notion everytime I have someone tell me I must be happy to have escaped to a democracy or even when I see ppl be like oh, this fantasy story is very good I like it but it would be better if it ended with the abolishment of their very non western government system. Also, fun fact, culture effects government, and it effects whichever governmental system might be being used. A monarchy in MENA or East Asia or Africa is going to be SO different that the British Monarchy. So yeah, it might not be the best system but it’s no westerners place to but in and say that. Like just don’t.

14. I want to draw attention to how we are systematically mistreated by the world on a regular basis. Refugees can be forced into unclean camps, loose their lives trying to escape, be forced into camps for over a decade. Get poorly mistreated when arriving in a host country. Various world policies like the White Australian policy. Being forced to assimilate to survive in non MENA countries, not being allowed to openly practice Islam. Hate crimes, HATE CRIMES. Being fired for being suspicious, being sent home from school for being loud when defending yourself, being told that we look exotic and beautiful but only if we have the right mix of arabesque and white features. Having various plastic surgeries encouraged to groups of us to make us ‘prettier’ (mostly nose jobs). REFUGEE CAMPS, they are literally so awful and there are refugees from the Lebanese and Syrian diasporas who are still in camps (THAT IS A DECADE +). LITERAL FUCKING GENOCIDES. Having the media constantly demonise us. Being always chosen for ‘random checks’ and the airport and being overly patted down to ‘make sure’. It’s not the biggest thing but it’s so dehumanising to travel.

Lastly, what is the culture actually like? Overall, I think we have a sense of community I rarely see elsewhere. What do I mean by this? We will treat strangers like family, providing help to them in anyway we can. I s2g the number of times I’m abroad and I go to the Arab markets and they find out I’m living there by myself and I just get adopted into their family to have dinners with them and they look out for me. It’s just part of the lifestyle. Food is probably the communal love language lol. We feed everybody. You won’t ever go hungry in an arabs house. Actually I can guarantee you will put on weight. We have a strong oral tradition of sharing stories and poetry through word of mouth. It’s honestly amazing to listen to, when we speak poetry, it’s like we are singing. We love to share our stories with anyone who will listen respectfully, though in more recent years I’ve seen people become reluctant either because the stereotypes of us makes people do not care, etc. We also have the preforming arts. We have beautiful instruments and styles of singing throughout the lands. We have our own dances. And most importantly something we all have always treasured is knowledge. We have been the hubs of knowledge for centuries (quite literally until the Ottomans took over). But keep in mind many of the Western Scientists we praise today basically just copy/pasted Middle Eastern scientists and then took the credit in history.

Please feel free to add on if you are MENA, everyone else should reblog but not add on.

[sunshinewarrior11]

Chinese emperor Ai of Han, fell in love with a minor official, a man named Dong Xian, and bestowed upon him great political power and a magnificent palace. Legend has it that one day while the two men were sleeping in the same bed, the emperor was roused from his sleep by pressing business. Dong Xian had fallen asleep across the emperor’s robe, but rather than awaken his peaceful lover, the Emperor cut his robe free at the sleeve. Thus “the passion of the cut sleeve” became a euphemism for same-sex love in China. — R.G.L.

[sunshinewarrior11]

A thought I had...a year ago? It was after I'd finished binging The Untamed for the first time, anyway; what if Madam Lan, Wangji and Xichen's mother, was a Wen and that's why Sizhui (possibly) resembled Lan Zhan.

Like, the sects were on okay terms or whatever, and this Wen chick goes out adventuring (for whatever reason) which (somehow) leads to the teacher's death (not the adventuring, I figured out how that ties in yet). But she's like, a really high level Wen or from a high level family so Qingheng-Jun already knew her through sect meetings/conferences/whatever and fell in love with her through those interactions which is why he married her to save her. Or they could have met when she was out night hunting/adventuring.

Either way, my point boils down to: she was a Wen, she and Qingheng-Jun knew eachother before the teacher murdering thing, and they married not only to spare life to avoid intersect war (for a dash of drama as a treat) and this is why Sizhui resembles Lan Zhan.

[sunshinewarrior11]

Queer Vietnamese American art we can get behind! These pieces by Antonius-Tín Bui reclaim the Asian craft tradition of paper cutting. “As a queer, gender-nonbinary, Vietnamese-American artist, Bui’s work celebrates, honors, and challenges assumptions about intersectional identities.” Learn more at antoniusbui.com

[sunshinewarrior11]

“As early as the 1920s, researchers giving IQ tests to non-Westerners realized that any test of intelligence is strongly, if subtly, imbued with cultural biases… Samoans, when given a test requiring them to trace a route form point A to point B, often chose not the most direct route (the “correct” answer), but rather the most aesthetically pleasing one. Australian aborigines find it difficult to understand why a friend would ask them to solve a difficult puzzle and not help them with it. Indeed, the assumption that one must provide answers alone, without assistance from those who are older and wiser, is a statement about the culture-bound view of intelligence. Certainly the smartest thing to do, when face with a difficult problem, is to seek the advice of more experienced relatives and friends!”

— Jonathan Marks - Anthropology and the Bell Curve (via leofarto)

[sunshinewarrior11]