#Appreciate my effort for translating from chinese

[lucifugousart]

There's no fucking way i'll have this go lost because of Twitter's downfall

"Design inspiration, symbolism and references behind the water beasts in New Gods: Nezha Reborn"

❗ Premise. DO NOT take what I write for absolute truth or canon material, regardless of the sources. I drew my own conclusions, heavily influenced by my own reading key. Take it as a theory!

The first creature coming to mind when looking at them is surely the Xièzhì (獬豸), a mythical beast that appears multiple times in East Asian legends. We can find a detailed description of these creatures in the Shou Pu (獸譜), a painted album created for the Qianlong Emperor from 1750 to 1761 by court artists Yu Sheng and Zhang Weibang, depicting terrestrial animals and legendary beasts and part of the Emperor's personal encyclopedia. Also known with the korean name "Haetae", the Xiezhi is depicted as a muscular beast with a likeness to a lion, goat, and unicorn (sometimes referred to exactly as a “unicorn lion”) living in the northeastern wilderness.

In Shou Pu, and also in many legends, it's said they're naturally able to distinguish innocent from guilty, right from wrong, making them an ultimate symbol of justice that appears a lot in decorations, paintings, buldings and clothing, giving also the name to the judicial hat (法冠) that symbolizes the impartial and effective enforcement of the law.

It's also known as a guardian against disaster, a symbol of water due to its fire-eating qualities and a messenger of the heaven, which also stands for a sense of justice. The attention on justice's symbolism is also drawn by another design detail of the water beasts: the third eye on their forehead. Comes natural the association with “the Eye of Heaven” (天眼), able to differentiate truth from lies, and with "the embodiment of justice" himself: the noble and powerful warrior god Erlang Shen, who is also related to hydrology in a very interesting way.

Now stay with me, because this will lead to another creature that also possibly inspired the water beasts and that brings EVERYTHING together: justice, water and floods. But to better introduce them, first we have to understand why the reference to Erlang is important.

In Chinese myths, Erlang Shen is also a folk hero that helped alleviate the terrible flooding of the Min river. With his name meaning "godly second son" (er = two; lang = boy; shen = god), he was believed to be the second son of the engineer Li Bing, hired to prevent the yearly flooding that would affect the lives of the people of the Chengdu Plains and Dujiangyan city (Sichuan). However, Li Bing couldn't discover the source of the flooding, as it appeared that the flooding wasn't natural. Legend has it that Li Bing sent Erlang to sail up and down the river for a year to attempt to discover the source of the annual flood, but he couldn't discover the cause either.

One day, as Erlang is walking with seven hunters who had witnessed his bravery in slaying a rogue tiger, they chance upon an old woman who is crying at the edge of the river near Dujiangyan. She tells Erlang that she is distraught, as one of her grandsons is to be sacrificed to a dragon that has held dominion over the river for generations. Believing that he has discovered the source of the river’s flooding, Erlang volunteered to take the place of the woman’s grandson to be offered as sacrifice to the dragon instead.

When the ancient dragon arrived to take his sacrifice, Erlang and his friends leapt from hiding and chased the dragon to the river, where the old woman trapped it with chains in a pool below the Dragon Taming Temple.

With the dragon immobile, Erlang splitted the creature in half with his double-edged lance. And with the dragon dead, the annual flooding ended and peace and tranquility came to the Chengdu Plains. To thank Erlang for his bravery, the people elevated him and his father to godhood and dedicated a local temple as Two Kings Temple in their honor (The Erwang Temple in Dujiangyan).

The myth of the water dragon being chained to control the hydrology of the province instantly felt familiar. And it's here that we find the connection to the water beasts.

Li Bing and his son Erlang worked at the complex irrigation system that protected the area and the people from the severe flood of the Min River: the Dujiangyan irrigation system, constructed in 256 BC, which is still in use today. In literature's classic "Huayang Guozhi·Shuzhi" is recorded that, along other clever solutions to avoid a dam, Li Bing also created 5 massive statues referred to as "Water town god beast" (鎮水神獸 if the translation is wrong please correct me!) which resembled a single horned creature similar to a rhino. With a length of more than 3m and a weight of 8 tons, two of these statues were buried in the river to "tame the water spirits". The resemblance with the water beasts, able to trap the river dragons, is astonishing. Curiously, when in July 2013 one of these statues was brought to the surface by archaeologists, heavy rainfalls occurred in Sichuan causing successive floods, and rumors spread saying "that removing the beast from its place, the water spirits couldn't be trapped anymore", followed by the request to put it back in its place claiming their ancestors "buried it there for a reason". According to a popular local tradition, rhinos are a divine beast that can help stop flooding and the newfound statues were supposedly buried by a local folk hero, more likely Erlang himself.

Back to Nezha Reborn, even if Donghai is a fictional city with the name of the raging sea where Nezha kills Ao Bing, it's located near the Eastern Sea. According to what Ao Guang says, is VERY likely that most of the water drawn in by the beasts is from the Yangtze river and its tributary the Min river itself, which would make everything coherent.

In addition to the justice symbolism of the water beasts (and this is my personal interpretation), Ao Guang's control of the waters (and, as a result, of Donghai itself) can also be represented by the chained water beasts themselves, being them the associated with a benevolent and righteous ruler. Therefore, the ending scene with Su Junzhu carrying the beast cub, can be read as justice finally being brought in Donghai following Ao Guang's demise, as the comeback of water finally marks the city's rebirth.

📚 References:

-Qianlong's encyclopedias, republished as "Natural History in the Palace Museum" by the Palace Museum Press and CITIC Press in Beijing

-A Study of Criminal Proceeding Conventions in Tang Dynasty,  Xi Chen

-Lunheng 論衡, Wang Chong -Collier I. D. Chinese Mythology

-The Chronicles of Huayang (Huayang Guo Zhi 华阳国志)

-The Collection of Imperial Books of Ancient and Modern Times (Qing Dynasty) Jiang Tingxi, Chen Menglei, etc.

-Probably more I forgot to take note of 🧍

[1-800-i-ship-it]

thank you for the tag @aomitois!

OverThink by 飯卡

The Best by Future Royalty

The Fever by Foreign Figures

盜火者 by 飯卡

Dive Back In Time by BaishaJAWS

出借 by 覃雲

Hot by Confetti

3,2,1! by 程小時，陸光，喬苓

孤芳自賞 by 飯卡

灼熱宮殿 by 飯卡

tagging: @dimobserver @khunned @p0l-anka @suwashii and anyone else who wants to, feel free to join!

pinyin/translation/my illiterate guesses under cut for anyone curious

(1, 4, 9, 10) 飯卡 = fàn kǎ (literal translation: rice card? but it means meal card i think...idk if there's also some pun im missing)

(4) 盜火者 = dào huǒ zhě (burnint star and/or reference to the Chinese film Burning Star?)

(6) 出借 = chū jiè (to lend?)

(6) 覃雲 = tán/qín yún (surname surname? something cloud? idk lmao)

(8) 程小時，陸光，喬苓 = cheng xiaoshi (cxs), lu guang, qiao ling

(9) 孤芳自賞 = gūfāng zìshǎng (self-love; idiom for flower in love with its own fragrance (narcissism))

(10) 灼熱宮殿 = zhuórè gōngdiàn (scorching hot/searing (imperial) palace)

rules: shuffle your spotify 'on repeat' playlist and list the first ten songs

thanks for the tag pookiebear @sojabeean-main 🥰🥰💥‼

idk what's "on repeat" playlist; i'll just use my usual one. links to yt in text hyperlinks

Divide Music - Bedroom

Breaking Benjamin - Failure

Rockit Music - The Machine

Avril Lavigne - Unwanted

All Good Things - The Reaper

Miura Jam - New Era (from yashahime)

Skillet - Feel Invincible

Unlike Pluto - My life away

Linkin Park - Burn it down

Yasuharu Takanashi - Chichi to ko (from kamen rider)

tagging; @meiyanaalexia , @unshifted, @amus-ssi, @shower-man, @sanattafrank, @desi-pluto, @usagi-michi, @sasukkee, @tooweirdfortheworld, @aoishoutafan1997, @abyssalmusician, @loveandmeat, @aykrivwassup, @spacentimecreature, @the-specters-stag, @acespacecadet, @1-800-blurambles, @1-800-i-ship-it

[darkpetal16]

Hello! I am one of your avid fans from China, and I absolutely adore the games you've created. They are truly remarkable! In an effort to introduce your work to a wider audience of Undertale fans in China, I have compiled a bilingual (Chinese-English) version of IF-Dusttale. (I have made sure to credit your work and included the original link to your game.)

The promotional post for the game has garnered over six hundred likes and eight hundred shares already, indicating the enthusiasm and appreciation of many Chinese players for your creations!

Furthermore, I commissioned an artist to design a promotional cover for the game, hoping that you would find it to your liking. Thank you for your incredible work, and please know that your dedication is deeply admired. With love and appreciation～☺♥

Oh wow!! I’m so honored you translated my game into Mandarin, thank you very much!! I really hope everyone enjoys it. ! Is there a specific handle or username I can credit you in my game page (ie Game translated into Madarin by copiklagrogu at etc.com)?

Also wow that art! :O!! That is gorgeous.

[radarchives]

I dont think youve gotten an ask like this before since this is an om! blog and all and this is possibly gonna sound weird or dumb of me to ask a german native this, but how hard is your grammar really?

Reason (1-1) for my question: languages are my guilty pleasure. I'm only fluent in arabic and english rn but I wanna learn as much as I can, even if just basic facts, not a language itself

Reason (1-2): people learning german insist that the grammar is "brutal" especially for english-speakers but frankly it kinda feels that theres exaggeration or a "trend" along the lines of "german grammar is impossible because everyone says so" even if it's not THAT gory, yk?

Any new language IS gonna be hard at first- thats a given. And some languages like arabic / chinese / japanese / korean are listed at the top for difficulty. Ik that german grammar has many many rules and has exceptions... Linguistic sites say thats a reason for its complexity and the majority of learners agree with "yeah it's too difficult"

But tbh?? Idk

At this point it feels like a stereotype that was based off facts at first but then got negatively exaggerated?? I think yes german grammar is more "detailed" than the english norm / other grammar rules but it isnt monstrous like whats being often said and spread about it?

Thats why I wanna hear an authentic objective thought on this from a german if you dont mind🎤

hey there!

i really don't think German is one of the most difficult languages to learn. if you're an english native speaker the things you might struggle the most with are:

- pronunciation (harsher sounds, less soft than english, äöü sounds. when you have someone who can correct you this isn't as difficult to learn)

- grammar (lots of rules and lots of exceptions as well. words are gendered with der, die, das /feminine, masculine, neutral. also learning how to decline words can be tricky as well, but i think that just comes down to memorisation and practice)

- the sheer volume of vocabulary. a lot of words are HIGHLY specific (which is the fun part to be honest. there's lots of german words that are difficult to translate to english bc of this. an example would be the German word "doch" which is something similar to "yes it is" or "is not, is too")

i can imagine the difficulty level might be similar to learning french (at least from what i can compare). honestly i can only judge this so far, at work i do have lots of people around me who are just starting to learn the language, these are a few things that i saw them struggle with as well.

i think it mostly comes down to dedication and interest. you do have to put in a lot of effort, but you obviously have to do that for every language.

i think German gets a bad rep for sounding harsh and brutal, but i think it sounds quite beautiful. here's a little comp of German words i appreciate.

Nickerchen - nap

Maus - literally means mouse, but more recently has become youth slang. you can call someone "eine süße Maus" / literally a cute mouse / when they did something nice for example. Maus is originally gendered female = die Maus, but is used in a gn way like this. Meine Follower sind zum Beispiel richtig süße Mäuse 🥰

also used as an adjective (mausig)

Fremdschämen - being embarrassed for someone else. Wenn ich sehe, dass Lucifer redet als hätte er drei Wörterbücher verschluckt, schäme ich mich fremd.

unschön - unattractive, unpleasant. this one isn't special but it's my morally acceptable way of saying "well that fucking sucked" at work. Das ist jetzt aber unschön verlaufen.

so yeah! if you want to learn it don't let the naysayers stop you!

[benevolenterrancy]

Fic author interview!

Thanks for tagging me @morporkian-cryptid I'm taking a leaf out of your book and being a bit late responding, oops ;;; (also, like my last one, posting this on my art/writing blog despite getting tagged on my other blog :P)

@meso-mijali @rose-of-pollux @yarrayora @sorrel-scribbles @auxiliarydetective @pazithigallifreya

1 How many works do you have on AO3?

76!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

667,467 apparently, which feels like way more than I expected. Then again, I also didn't expect to have seventy six fics on there either...

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Lost In Translation (7,256 kudos) An Overwatch fic. I was baffled when it did as well as it did while I was actively posting it and frankly I'm not sure how to deal with the fact that it's still head and shoulders above every other fic I've written. I think it must be from people sorting by kudos and creating a weird positive feedback loop.

How To Torment Cats (And Witchers) (2,124 kudoes) A very light-hearted Witcher one-shot with Ciri and Dandelion

Standard-Issue (1,143 kudos) Another Overwatch fic, this one about McCree's recruitment into Overwatch

Sunlight and Sea Foam (1,102 kudos) A Witcher mermaid!au. This one I'm still pretty pleased with, it was a lot of fun to write.

Mark My Place (952 kudos) A post-canon MDZS fic in which I get to lavish love on Wei Wuxian! A pretty impressive kudo count given that it's only a few months old

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Generally I try to! I really appreciate getting comments and I want to let people know that <3 Fandom is the most fun when it's a community and the only way to get that is to actually connect with people. Also I personally appreciate it when an author responds to comments when a new chapter drops because it helps me keep track of fic updates, so I often do that too for on-going stories :3

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really go in for anything without a happy ending ^^;; Maybe In My Hands I Held The World purely because I didn't finish it and stopped writing in the middle of the all the hurt and never made it to the comfort? Or Promises Misconstrued just by virtue of it.... well, being what it is.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

We only believe in happy endings here!! I really couldn't narrow it down, I like a happy ending... The Celestial Shell Game was a pretty recent one MDZS fic that was just pure post-canon fix-it and reconciliation and lightly bullying the juniors

7. Do you write crossovers?

I do from time to time, but most aren't ever cleaned up or completed to the point of posting -- they're just Fun For Me fics.

My only completed crossover is a Torchwood/MASH fic called An Officer's Guide to Surgery, Shelling & Pterosaurs. It was honestly just a wild ride to write. Very proud of how that one turned out

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A bit, but not for years. The only one I specifically remember was someone who was very unhappy that I wasn't including individual chapter content warnings, I guess because they've never read a novel?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not often, I am Very Ace, but it does happen occasionally. Bound and Held was my most recent one, which was really just 20k of pure kink exploration because Geralt and Dandelion just have the vibe

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so...

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

One! An old Les Mis fic got translated into Chinese years back :3 that was very flattering that someone would want to go to that amount of effort

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Me and @meso-mijali will co-write stuff from time to time, but nothing that's ever made it to completion. I do use her relentlessly to help me solve plot dilemmas (or make new plot dilemmas, depending on how things are going)

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Could not tell you, 100% depends on sort of mood I'm in sorry xD I bounce all over the place. At the moment I am deeply into wangxian, to the surprise of no one following me on tumblr at the moment

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Well, any of my three current fics I'd love to make some progress on >:/ but I'm still hopeful about getting them finished, albeit slowly and painfully. I have a Hogan's Heroes dating sim that me and @meso-mijali have been working on but the longer it goes undone the more I suspect it never will be *sigh* it took so much planning but it's hard to pick up again in the middle. I also had a Lupin soulmate au called Mosiac that I feel bad about dropping. I still quite like the concept but I'm stuck on where to go next with it...

15. What are your writing strengths?

Uhh... I dunno, there must be something because people seem to enjoy my work well enough but I'll be damned if I know what it is. I think I write high intensity, sensory-based scenes pretty well? At least I like doing them a lot. And I get complimented on my character voices sometimes, so hopefully that!

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing >:/ I will ramble and ramble and ramble and then need to go back and cull things until I have a fic that's even halfway readable. It's so hard to get good pacing down.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Big fan, I'm always here for a bilingual bonus. Either I understand it and get a little thrill out of it or else I just google translate it real quick. As for me writing it I generally don't because I don't want to fuck it up beyond reason... sometimes I might dabble with French if it's character appropriate.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Les Mis! I'm too terrified to reread anything from my Les Mis era because god only knows what my writing was like back then, but it was such a warm and welcoming fandom it's what finally gave me the nerve to starting engaging in fandom space as more than observer

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

...I'm not sure I have one, if I want to write about something I generally do, even if I don't get it to be "publishing" worthy... Maybe Hogan/Kinch? I really like that ship, but I've never written much Hogan's Heroes fic to begin with, I think I only have one published work, and I find it a hard one to write shippy things for

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Huh... I'm not sure. There a number of fics I've written that I still really really like and will reread (the author's amazing! she knows exactly what I like!) I'm really proud of my Torchwood/MASH crossover, it's my longest fic and took the highest level of technical skill to write. I also tend to reread A Poet Under Pressure fairly often because I do love tormenting Dandelion u.u

[vashhanamichi]

Hello. Thank you for the service you have done. You do not know how long I have wanted for housewife Harry, and by extension, housewife Albus. It is like a secret I have to hide even within the "forgiving and creative" fandom. I do not understand their neglect and disinterest. Why afraid of domestic bliss? The horror in the home is the best kind of horror, no? There is nowhere to run if you distrust the one you trust the most. As I scroll through your ideas of locking Albus in a castle and keeping him pregnant all the time, I remembered a fic I have read that explored similar themes: Professor Dumbledore, who was tortured to amnesia by the Ministry of Magic in the name of the Dark Lord's accomplices, was taken back to the snowy mountain villa by Grindelwald. When he woke up, he found that he was already a wife, and was cared for by the man in front of him. His life was happy and perfect... But under the peaceful life, there were always dark waves...

Here is the link: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4966357 Another one I haven't read but I think might catch your interest with its religious themes: Italy Sicily island Mafia's new Godfather Gellert Grindelwald, who has just escaped from prison, protested in a public meeting against the young Pope Pius XIII Albus Dumbledore. As he pledged to support a new leader of Christianity with the aid of Italy's Prime Minister, a storm looms on the horizon.

However, no one knows, the real story does not begin here... Link: http://zhj1006.lofter.com/

(Forgive my loose translations as I am not a Chinese/English native speaker.) If you do not have a lofter account (which requires a WeChat account, and as of 2024 the effort to create a WC acc outside of Mother Land China is...), you can translate from the Vie version here: https://truyenwikidich.net/truyen/hp-ggad-xuc-pham-blasphemy-XnwlK0bIjl_aJmEB I hope you haven't read these two fics and they can be somewhat of a comfort to you. If you want, I will try to find some more fics that are to your taste.

Forgive me for taking so long to answer! And thank you for this lovely message!

Please don’t hide your preferences for domestic prisoners Albus and Harry!! I wish there were more fics featuring that scenario, I absolutely love it. I think family is the first horror and one comes back to what one knows. Home can be a horror. I think both Harry and Albus have the makings of attic wives in them, especially taking into account the men in their lives.

I love the Chinese fandom. The writers there are imaginative and unforgiving and they give me exactly what I want, especially in the Grindeldore tag. I must learn Mandarim so I can fully appreciate their prose and talent.

Please do not apologise for your translation and thank you so much for linking these beautiful fics, I’ll make sure to read them! I wish the anglo fandom treated Albus like that…

Thank you!!!

[irismfrost]

July 28 - Mikan

Today, we traveled from Taitung to Kaohsiung which was about a 3.5 hour bus ride (including bathroom and 7/11 stops). We saw the Pacific Ocean for the last time. We had a special secret surprise as our first stop. Yeh Laoshi 老師(laoshi = teacher) is from Kaohsiung and we drove past her parents place which was cool. There is also a very famous cat that lives at the train station, Mikan. We were veryyyyy lucky and got to take a picture with him. He is seriously famous; he's in commercials, has stickers on Line (the go-to messaging app here), and people go crazy over this cat. There were people surrounding the station at all times. They were definitely jealous that we got the special privilege of taking a picture with him. However, he was NOT into it. We got food in the surrounding area and I got food by myself, and I only used Google Translate for one sentence. It was a very small stand in the far back (like I was wandering pretty far off course to find this place) and I just talked to this one lady and I'm mostly sure that what I got was vegetarian - I'm pretty sure it had scallions, glass noodles, egg, and mushrooms. I am trying my hardest to learn important words like "vegetarian" = "sùshí" 素食. I'm still working on pronunciation though - tonal languages are tough coming from a language that doesn't have any. People aren't really understanding me, but I hope they at least appreciate the effort.

The last thing we did was load up our metro cards for Kaohsiung and we visited the Mikan merch store. I got a little Mikan patch to add to my duffel bag.

Went to get sushi for dinner and it was relatively good. It's hard to get raw fish that's good and actually cold and I'm not sure they calculated our check right because we calculated everything separately beforehand and we got different numbers (we included the automatic gratuity fee). I had this pear cider thing which was great. It's nice to be in a big city again.

Reflection

Languages are hard to learn. It's especially hard to go from an alphabet-based language to a character-based language, and to a tonal language from one without one. I came here with no background in Chinese. I did a few Doulingo exercises, but that did nothing for me. I've been learning from my classmates - they are helping me with the tones and teaching me new words even though I forget them immediately after I've heard them. Most of them are majoring or minoring in Chinese. The more I hear the words, the more likely I am to remember them. It's also hard to learn when so many people here speak a little bit of English. Instead of having to adapt to Chinese, these people are adapting to English. It makes it easier for me to get around, but also doesn't force me to learn Chinese. Even my name is so hard to say. My first name is Ruì sī - the first part is pronounced like ray but sort of angrily at the end like you're scowling a child. And the R is pronounced with your tongue a little farther back but still sounds like an R. It's hard to explain and I'm sure you could Americanize it and there wouldn't be much of a difference with that word. The sī part is supposed to be short and a little higher but HAS to stay flat. If pronounced wrong, it can mean death, so I have to be super careful with that. End of story it is hard to pronounce and I've probably said it over 200 times by now and my classmates keep correcting me. I have it for a little bit then keep saying it and mess up. It's nice to have people who know more than me share what they know with me. Slight differences in pronunciations can mean an entirely different word, while in English, you could have words that mean totally different things and are pronounced the exact same - context is the only clue. I'm sure it's just as hard for people who speak Chinese to learn English because of the differences listed above.

[otterandterrier]

20 fanfic questions

Took this from @displayheartcode! You tagged me for a different one but I don't even remember what the last sentence I wrote was, so 😅

How many works do you have on AO3?

110

2. What's your total AO3 words count?

367,678

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars, but used to write for Harry Potter.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

One look and my heartbeat stops (Han/Leia, 197) Hungry hearts (Han/Leia, 194) And I saw sparks (Ron/Hermione, 189) Ignite my circuits and start a flame (Han/Leia, 162) Left unsaid (Ron/Hermione, 148)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Because not everybody who reads leaves a comment (or even kudos), so I like letting that person know that I appreciate the extra effort, and I love interaction as part of the fandom experience.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

For SW, this chapter of Hungry Hearts I think?? For HP, unquestionably, And they put a wreath of flowers over his head

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

God most of my fics have sappy endings lol, how can I even choose.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did when I still posted on FFN, Home of Trolls.

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind?

Yes I most certainly do! Generally, explicit and spicy and full of feelings. Probably still vanilla for some standards? 😅

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't! And I don't think I ever will.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I've had my fics reposted on archives I didn't authorize, although with attribution. Properly stolen, I don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had two Ron/Hermione fics translated to Chinese!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nope! Maybe one day?

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Well I have to say Han/Leia don't I

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I refuse to give up on WIPs. That said, I started a H/L honeymoon fic years ago that I might never finish because it had no plot just vibes. It might get repurposed for another fic.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I honestly don't know, not as in I think my writing sucks, I just can't pick anything specific? Okay, I guess I think I do a good job at getting into a character's mindset and exploring their thoughts and feelings?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I write sooo slowly. I'm incapable of writing a "shitty first draft"; I need to get my ideas down as closely as possible to the way I want them to on the first try. It's not because I need it to be perfect, it's just that if I write something down differently then I think I'll forget the way I wanted to do it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I mean, I am writing everything in another language already lol. But pretending I'm not... I think as long as it's genuinely respectful and researched, go for it!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

That's like asking about your favourite child (yes I know that's a cliche, but really). Also, I have a terrible memory and don't reread my fics often. Some of my faves are Under starless skies we are lost, keep with me forward (all through the night) and Homecoming.

Tagging a few writer friends, if you want to do it! @lajulie24 @walkawaytallblogs @diplomaticprincess @madame-alexandra @virtie333

[novelcain]

Hey I really like your art and au! But can you please not refer to the disciples by their Arthur Waley names? That's not their names. As a Chinese fan, I really find it hurtful when non Chinese people don't at least try to use the Pinyin names. 😞

Thanks I appreciate it. And to be honest I had no idea what you meant for a second because I didn't know who Arthur Waley is since I don't read his translation but I'm assuming you mean calling Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing (their Pinyin names which I use more than their english nicknames because those are their actual names) Pigsy and Sandy who got those nicknames because of the translations of the traditional Chinese characters of their names.

Just in case tho I looked up anywhere I could to find whether or not these names where somehow disrespectful to say and I can't find a single thing for what you are talking about. These are the names I grew up hearing so that's why I use them interchangeably. Not to mention that's what they are called on lmk (I'm assuming you were talking about my Triad au since that's the only au I have which is lmk)

Now I know that I have a LOT to learn about Chinese culture but I am willing to learn and have put a lot of time and effort into doing so. (I do a great deal of research on cultures and religions so that I can remain respectful) That being said if I'm wrong about something or any of you feel like I'm being disrespectful (if I'm ever disrespectful about something like this I swear it's on accident) you guys can absolutely feel free to come to me and tell me and I'll do the research and admit when I'm wrong. It doesn't bother me to be wrong at all. A little embarrassing maybe but I can get over it. What's important to me is doing what's right, so if I have to correct my behavior that's fine by me. However, you do need to bring proof that you're right if you're going to call me wrong let alone accuse me of doing something I'm not. I do use their pinyin names I just don't put the accents. (tho I do say the accents when I say their names. I put a lot of time into researching how to say names from other cultures before I ever say them.)

[tavina-writes]

about loch-are there really no good available translations? it's a shame. 2017 is really good, are any of the other adaptations worth looking at? does 1983 have subtitles?

Hi Nonny! Oh boy, this is going to be long, so answers to this under the cut.

Regarding LOCH, which I love dearly but find myself frustrated with consistently regarding translation style and quality, there is an official English translation, which I cannot in good faith recommend given that uh, there are whole sentences and passages that Jin Yong never wrote in there. There are character names translated literally and others left in their original format. There's just, mmmm stuff I could never in good faith recommend to people as someone who dearly loves this book. The translator took it upon themselves to also make major writing related edits which as someone who has a long history in fan translation myself, I could never in good conscience recommend. It's kind of like how we have routine "why didn't the mdzs translators do x?" about some things people mention as differences between the Chinese edition and the English edition, except, the edits were absolutely on purpose and uh, not an improvement! Imagine a translation of MDZS where Lan Wangji's name gets translated as "Blue." His name is just Blue now. Wei Ying calls him Blue. Lots of other beloved characters will now get weird English translated names that flatten their nuances. Lan the Teacher. Separation Jiang. Jade Meng. Mulberry Nie. That's. The severity of the problems with the official English translation, and it kind of breaks my heart that it's like that. Why would you read that and why would I suggest that you read that? The sheer condescension towards both the original text and the abilities of the English language readers just drips from these name changes alone.

The fan translated version of LOCH that I know of is here. It's quite rough in some parts grammar wise, and due to the sheer number of translators that worked on this, not always entirely consistent in formating/spelling/etc, but I have spent a lot of time on the spcnet forums, and wholeheartedly appreciate the efforts of the translators there. I think the issues with translating Jin Yong is a matter of both scope and depth. Jin Yong's books are extremely long. Most of his major novels are close to if not over a million Chinese characters each, and DGSD famously features over 200+ named characters. The spcnet translation of DGSD, for example, took 12 years and countless translators to complete and burned out so many of us. It is a major work to translate a Jin Yong book on length and time input alone.

Further complicating matters, Jin Yong wrote wuxia with the insistence that it could be literature instead of merely genre pulp fiction, and his books are deeply rooted in references to Chinese history and literature. I distinctly remember at least four poems and one song as well as an extended discussion of the Jingkang Incident, (also if you've seen the Temple of the Iron Spear sequence in 2017, you can start to understand the scope of the "Jin Yong writes in a way that is rooted in his book being in Chinese for the wordplay alone and it sounds SO WONKY outside of that Chinese context") among lots of other things I probably didn't catch in LOCH alone, which also makes the task of translating his books harder, especially when you have to not only get the plot across, but somehow make accessible all of his wordplay and references as well as the poetry he interjects at various points to heighten certain scenes and their emotionality.

So yeah, it's a task. I'd recommend checking out the fan translation I've linked above if you want to read it though instead of paying money for a book where the Love Interest gets translated to Lotus Huang because the translator....could? Like bonkers English naming conventions aside, I'm not a great recommender of Blue Lan and I'm not a recommender of Huang Rong being turned into Lotus Huang either.

REGARDING THE ADAPTATIONS:

1983 is my beloved childhood adaptation but please remember it is also. It is. It was made by TVB in the 1980s. The accessibility of this to people who do not speak Chinese is rather...low, given the lack of desire from subtitlers to subtitle things made by TVB in the 1980s. (It's also more readily available in Canto though there WAS a Mandarin Dub, that I watched because I don't speak Cantonese.) I think the first third of the series is available on Youtube with the English autotranslate feature? I can dig up this link for you if you would like to see it because 83 is dear to my heart, but I would not make anyone who isn't a LOCH fanatic sit through this merely for my sake, yknow.

1994 I am unfortunately not really that impressed with 1994, and 94 is kind of like the ignored middle child of LOCH adaptations so there is also no english subtitling anywhere and it's also more widely available in Cantonese. This was a 90s TVB production. I am not sure you want to watch this one.

2003 is one of my favorite adaptations! when it's going well. When it's not going well [lolsob] truly the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, the hands down best in some areas and the "I fear you did not realize this CGI would not be cool" in others. Find the first 41 episodes here and the last episode here. This is LOCH for LOCH/Jin Yong nerds, the pacing is incredibly tight for the first 3/4ths and the expansions were made with the book in hand and the themes in mind. I would say though that 8 episodes of Mongolia is likely not where one wants to begin when watching LOCH 😔.

2008 .....I am a professional 08 LOCH hater. 😔It decided a sex pest needed nuance when the original rightfully gives him NOTHING. NO INTERIORITY. THE MALE EQUIVALENT OF A SEXY LAMP. I cannot explain to you how much I hate the Ouyang Ke - Mu Nianci - Yang Kang love triangle in 08 because my homeboy (evil trash son) Yang Kang does NOT have enough good qualities for you to subtract some so a 30+ year old sex pest can share. The storyline edits were at times just "I see you did this for drama, but tell me why???" 😔 It does have Hu Ge in it though, though I would say that this was not Hu Ge's best work given that he was coming off of a really bad car crash.

2017 I think this one is the most accessible and most book faithful adaptation for LOCH and also the one that I'd most recommend people to see, since it both has good English Subtitles (and is on Youtube and IQiYi if you look for Legend of the Condor Heroes 2017). Also great fight scenes. 2017 loves its fight scenes. And is also a remake of 1983.

2023/2024/the Yao Ke LOCH - This one isn't out yet! The trailer looks absolutely BANGING though. This one is uhhh apparently a more deconstructed LOCH version where we get extra backstory details so I have no idea what we're getting into here but the production quality looks insane. Anyway who knows when the censorship board will have mercy on us and lolsob when this will appear or if it'll get lost in Tencent's giant cdrama vault to haunt me from now until the end of time. You'll hear me scream if it comes out.

https://m.weibo.cn/status/N5ZMnAMmw?refer_flag=1001030103_

Thanks for the ask Nonny! Uh! I'm not sure if all this was helpful but maybe it was? I love LOCH very much so if you have more questions and or thoughts come back to my inbox and tell me! (also who's your favorite character from 2017 so far?)

[valdotpng]

Hi val! My name is Xin and I’m a Hollow Knight player from China. I have to say that your fanarts of HK are truly awesome, and I think Chinese players like me would love them too! Can I translate your HK fanarts and post it on a Chinese website called LOFTER? I would mark your name as the author and I would translate the comments from Chinese fans if you agree. Hope to see your reply and best wishes!

hello, hello! first of all-- sorry for replying so late! i was on hiatus.

secondly-- yes, of course! as long as im credited as the original artist, i'm 100% ok with this :] in fact, im very grateful that you want to put the time and effort into translating things that i made!! and i appreciate your suggestion of translating any comments that my works might receive, thats very sweet, thank you! if u want to, u can totally do that too.. but it's ok if u dont! no pressure ^_^

[rivalsforlife]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I saw this going around a little while ago and wanted to do it myself mostly because it doesn't involve me having to answer about anything I did this year.

1. How many works do you have on A03?

20

2. What's your total A03 word count?

262,994, apparently

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Ace Attorney! I have to admit I've been writing persona 5 fanfic for most of this year but am still undecided on if I actually want to publish that. if I ever finish it.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

A Rose By Any Name (by a margin of like 1000 kudos), Deep Dark Secrets, Childswap, The Catch-Up Game, Love Languages.

I am eternally going to feel a bit bitter that the first one is that high.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to respond to them all the time because I love the interactions, but then I started getting burnt out by school and now have such a massive backlog..... so I pretty much never do these days. I'm very sorry and I still read and really appreciate all the comments I get!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't write a lot of angst... and I definitely don't have a tendency to leave things on an angsty note. Maybe Need Not to Need which was in early disbarment era, or Left Behind, Looking Ahead because it's a missing scene in the middle of aai2, and Franziska ends it on the conclusion that she should prepare to not have Edgeworth in her life anymore.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Since I don't write a lot of angsty endings most of them are happy lol. Maybe The Opposing Council's Proposal because it ends on a proposal, which is a pretty happy event.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope! Everyone's been really nice.

9. Do you write smut?

Definitely not. It takes me like five minutes to work myself up to writing a kiss. I'm too squeamish about that kind of thing.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No, and I feel like that's not something I'd be very good at doing. There's so much work involved and I haven't had any situations where I feel like characters from different franchises have to meet in order to express some aspect of characterization that they couldn't do otherwise, which would be my main motivation for writing one.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I'm aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! Plenty of my fics have been translated into Chinese. I had one person write an entire rec list for my works in Chinese before and was so happy about it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, I feel like I wouldn't be good at this either, I've always been the kind of person who isn't good at playing with others and would want to take control of the whole thing lol.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Narumitsu without question. It takes a lot to get me to actively care about romance, much less write it.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a PLvsAA canon divergence fic where everyone stays brainwashed for a much longer time (and Edgeworth also gets brainwashed) that I wish I could finish, but I feel like it's a lost cause at this point. I have an earlier version of that fic which went in a completely different direction and is less than one chapter away from being complete. There's also One Good Narumitsu Story left in me that I've had in my head since 2018, never been able to bring myself to write it, and am not sure if I ever will. I hope I do someday, though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think one of my favorite comments I've ever gotten talked about putting effort into developing relationships and characters outside of the main focuses of the fic - Catch-Up Game being an example, even though narumitsu is the focus, I spent some time paying attention to Phoenix's relationships with Trucy, Maya, Iris, and generally tried to make it seem like the characters had their own lives outside of what Phoenix and Edgeworth had going on. That's something I still feel pretty proud of and try to keep up when I can.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

DESCRIPTIONS. I can't describe people very well at all, probably at least partially because my facial recognition skills are atrocious. I can't describe locations or settings, either. I sometimes feel like it becomes far too obvious that I rarely leave the house.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think it's fine on a one-off but not extensively. Like with Klavier as an example, the occasional Achtung or pet name or whatever is fine, but when it starts to be longer sentences or full conversations I draw the line.

Overall I think the best way to handle it (in a hypothetical conversation between Franziska and Edgeworth, depending on if the POV character is Edgeworth or Phoenix):

a) If the POV character speaks the language (like Edgeworth), doing something like "Franziska switched to German, so Phoenix couldn't overhear. "I am speaking in German, but you are reading it in English.""

b) If the POV character does not speak the language (like Phoenix), saying "Franziska switched to German and started yelling at Edgeworth" makes more sense - when I hear a foreign language, at least, I wouldn't be able to repeat it afterwards, because my brain does not process the words like it would English words, so I don't think it should stay in writing either.

There are practical purposes too: I wouldn't trust google translate to capture any nuance, and don't speak any other languages, so I'd want to find someone who knows the language to translate for me, which can be annoying and inconvenient for them. Also, readability. I don't think a reader should have to open up a new tab to understand your fic, is the point.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior cats!! Way back in 2012 or so.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

The Catch-Up Game is still my favorite, at least partially because I got so much engagement while posting it that it was a lot of fun to go through comments on it. The narumitsu server talked about it a lot, and I'll forever be bitter that a rogue mod wiped those channels, because it's a really good feeling when something you write can inspire discussion like that. Also, I'm still satisfied with most aspects of that fic on its own - I reread a couple of chapters just the other day and was enjoying myself, which is always a win.

[aworldforastage]

my first danmei playlist -- part 2: the classics, historical style

[see more in this series are under the tag #my first danmei playlist]

Since modern "historical Chinese style" songs are infamous for containing incorrect traditional-style grammar, so the lyric translations are very rough ...

(links are to Mao'er/Missevan unless otherwise stated)

忘羡/"Wang Xian" by 吾恩，余夏 from 魔道祖师/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS), Season 2

原来 陈情俱是旧人 / 撩动 心事如何能避尘 And so it turns out, old feelings are all stirred up by old acquaintances; how can one remain unattached to mortal affairs

I started reading danmei novels in 2022, but I read the MDZS novel and listened to the audio drama back in 2019 after the live action came out. This is like my gateway to the danmei fandom before I fully committed to coming here.

P.S. This is also my favorite version of WangXian. I still remember looping this song in my hotel room during several work trips that fall while I was frantically editing my slide decks.

晚夜微雨问海棠/"A Nighttime drizzle over haitang flowers" by 陈亦洺 · 喧笑lirz · 镜予歌 [youtube], fan-made music for 二哈和他的白猫师尊/Husky and his White Cat Shizhun (2Ha)

念想从未消亡 / 踏断红尘不肯相忘 The desire has never faded / and cannot be forgotten even with desperate efforts

Between it's length and content warnings, I never wanted to read 2Ha, but every time I slow down to listen to this song I get so tempted. Not because it gives a better idea of what happens in 2Ha, but I just feel like it has to be really good to inspire this much creativity from its fans.

悦神/"Pleasing the Gods" by KBShinya [youtube], fan-made music for 天官赐福/Heaven Official's Blessings aka TGCF

雨中红伞探白花 华服金面高楼下 一念间 桃源已成飞沙 Red umbrella seeks white flowers in the rain, fine robes with the gold mask descend from the high towers In a single moment, paradise has become dust

I started and stopped the TGCF novel several times and didn't finish it until earlier this year, but I have been obsessed with that little melody at the beginning of this song ever since I heard it in the donghua trailer but in 2020.

天涯寻春/"Seeking far and wide for spring" by 柯暮卿, from 天涯客/Faraway Wanderers, Season 2

不过蓬蒿旧梦自在余生/懒知欢与恨 Only a humble old dream to live freely for the rest of my years / and be unaffected by joy or hatred

Faraway Wanderers is my first audiodrama (excluding MDZS in 2019). The entire "danmei ecosystem" -- authors, novels, voice actors, and musical artists -- was all so new to me back then. I remember really liking this song and looking up the artist, learning he is also the director for the drama, and a famous voice actor, and ... ooh boy I'm still in that rabbit hole today ...

把盏/"Raise a glass" by 落樱风, from 将进酒/Qiang Jin Jiu, Season 1

亦同他与天道比高 / 不负这年少 To challenge the way of the world alongside him / is not a waste of these youth years

Unlike most other titles on this list, this one didn't hook me right off the bat. I didn't truly appreciate it until after I really got into the story and understood all the references in the lyrics. After I fell in love with QJJ, I really like the feeling of this song, like it's a story slowly being retold by Xiao Chiye.

吹雪/"Flying Snow" cover by 贾诩, 梁毅, from 黄金台/The Golden Terrance, Episode 3 ending theme

风华流年/只怕今生缘浅 The best years are slipping by / I only fear we are not destined to have this lifetime together

The Golden Terrance is the first free (网配) audiodrama I listened to, and the amount of work people have put into their labour of love truly amazed me. I love this song so much I made a shortcut to it on my phone's home screen, just so I can pull it up with a single click.

[phenrexcreates]

Hi! I just want to say that I really love your work so far. The prose is amazing and immersive. I also like how intricate the character creation is. It really adds to the roleplaying aspect and I think would affect replayability. The symbols and everything give the story a visual novel vibe, if that makes sense.

Anyway, I also really appreciate your work assomeone with Chinese blood but is toodisconnected with it 🥰

This is honestly very touching, I don't really know what else to say except that. Thank you, I'm glad you have enjoyed the game so far, I feel at times anxious about whether the story I'm telling is 'good enough' but hearing how people take joy from it is encouraging to help me continue to put my energy into improving myself for it! 💞

I hope you will enjoy the upcoming Translation Update, I'm hoping to fix a lot of strange things and mistakes from the current public version! I'm unsure of when it will make its way to public release, since I want to also add the latter half of Chapter 2, but know that I am making active efforts on it!

[severnlight]

Hello, I come to Tumblr from your article “Heartstrings” on Archiveofourown .I just wanted to say that your post was just wonderful! Thank you for a healing journey！ I really enjoyed reading it before my bedtime! So I wanted to ask you if I would be lucky enough to translate this article into Chinese and publish in on lofter and Mtslash (both Chinese fandom site)? If I can, I'll pair it with your permission screenshot as well as attach the original links to this article. Thank you!

Thank you for reaching out to me, and I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed this story. I think it would be wonderful to have it translated to Chinese, so please feel free! I deeply appreciate the effort it would take to translate it, and I thank you for showing the story such love. If you get around to it, I would like a link to your translation, so I can post it from the English version on AO3 as well, with full credit to you. <3 <3 <3

[kukuandkookie]

To all the Chinese animation and mythology fans out there, I know some of us are like super super excited to finally watch New Gods: Yang Jian for ourselves. I definitely am—and in my excitement, I decided to try my hand at subbing this production featurette/trailer into English!

You can watch it below~:

Now as per usual I need to give you a warning that there may be imperfect translations within because my first language will always be English. I’m of Chinese descent, but I was born and raised here in the west, so my Chinese isn’t perfect.

I hope you guys enjoy!! And that this production featurette gets you all as hyped as I am, because holy shit they put so much effort into this! 👀

On the topic of me not being 100% fluent in Chinese though: this was actually such a challenge because I would pause the video every line and write characters out by hand before inputting them into the dictionary (for definition) and Google Translate (for pronunciation). The really fancy stylistic Chinese text was also extra hard because those I really had to put in a lot of effort to identify them by rewriting the characters by hand.

So from there, the video was basically translated character by character ahaha—but I do think the diligence paid off, and I’m pretty proud of it! Taking this project on definitely helped me understand the video even better myself, which has allowed me to appreciate even more all the hard work the film and animation crew put into this. 🥺

Oh, also I was hoping to add hard subs to another upload of this video along with these soft subs, but my editing program kept freezing my laptop, so maybe next time. 🥲

For the original version of the video without subs, you can watch it here on Light Chaser Animation’s official YouTube account!