#CHINESE ADAPTATION

[blbambeyond-nonblblog-hyd-mg-bof]

METEOR GARDEN (2018 CHINESE ADAPTATION)

Good girl Shancai (SHEN YUE) couldn't leave her friend lost in a blizzard so she had to go looking, completely unaware that some mean girls lied to her. She was caught in the storm basically prepared to die when the man that loves her came to her aid.

Daoming Si (DYLAN WANG) found Shancai near death and jump into action. Warming her up in the cabin by stripping down and cuddling they were awaken when two Canadians entered the cabin.

Daoming Si and Shancai get dressed and he gallantly carries her on his back to his luxurious home. Can't deny Daoming Si went about it in the wrong way often times but he definitely loved a girl called Dong Shancai.

@pose4photoml

[madeinchinataiwanhk-blbambeyond]

MADE IN CHINA

SHEN YUE

DYLAN WANG

DARREN CHEN

[save-the-data]

Meet You at the Blossom | S01E12

Chinese Drama - 2024, 12 episodes

Episodes | GAGA |  YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Viki | Youku | Catalogue

Native Title: #花开有时颓靡无声

A: “Hua Kai You Shi, Tui Mi Wu Sheng” (花开有时, 颓靡无声)

Genres: #Romance #Historical #LGBTQ+

Tags: #Adapted from a Novel

Cast: #Li Le #Wang Yun Kai #Li Jun Liang

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

A-Qing, the little fox.

[xinyuehui]

If I told you that you could travel back in time through photos, would you like to take the chance?

LINK CLICK LIVE ACTION

[thirrith]

A guide to Dream of the Red Chamber for English speakers

I've been posting about a book called Dream of the Red Chamber for a while. I'm kinda obsessed with it but the tags here on tumblr are pretty much barren. I want to get more people to be interested in it, so here's something more informative with minimal screaming.

Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) is a 18th century Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin. It isn't very well-known outside of the Sinophone aka the Chinese-speaking world, whereas where I come from it's considered a masterpiece and classic and is so well-known and holds so much cultural significance even the people who haven't necessarily read the book make references to it - like, basically everybody knows about the book. It certainly deserves to be known and loved by more people - that's why I'm making a post about it. This post is NOT going to be an attempt to cover everything, though, because there is just so, so much to the book; instead, I am creating a guide to make it easier for people to get started if they are interested.

What is Dream of the Red Chamber about? Why do people love it?

The best way to sum it up is calling it a family saga mixed with a bit of fantasy. It tells the story of the rise and fall of a big and powerful family, focusing on the story of the young girls, the maid servants, and the wives that all live together and run the household. The only male main character Jia Baoyu is a young heir of the family, who grew up among these women and girls. He loves and understands them, loves being surrounded by them, and deeply identifies with them. My dad, who is also a fan of the book, loves saying that Baoyu 'has the heart of a maiden'.

The book is funny and full of drama, and at the same time it's also poetic, tragic and profound, and the tragedy of the characters is written in such a kind way, as if the author wants you to love them and remember how wonderful and alive they are despite the fact that a gloomy fate will claim them all.

The book is also so queer in a way that no other Ming/Qing dynasty Chinese novels can compare. Obviously there are no modern queer labels because it was written in imperial China, but there are characters who are interested in both men and women, characters who are interested in no one, and affairs between boys and between girls; many main characters have the kind of relationships with their gender that make my Chinese transgender heart sing with empathy.

If you want to hear from English speakers who fell in love with the book and learn more about the context and literary/cultural value of the book, I recommend starting with 'Why is China’s greatest novel virtually unknown in the west?' by Michael Wood on The Guardian and 'Why you should read China’s vast, 18th century novel, Dream of the Red Chamber' by Josh Stenberg on The Conversation.

Dream of the Red Chamber is a long novel with many different versions and possibly hundreds of adaptations. How should I begin?

There are two translations that I know have received good reviews:

A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. My partner is reading this version. It's a very faithful translation with footnotes to make up for the language and cultural barriers. (Note: the Yangs finished their translation in prison in China during the Cultural Revolution.)

The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes and John Minford. It's a translation that takes more artistic liberties than the Yangs version. For example it differs in the way it translates character names and its writing style. Hawkes wanted to recreate the experience of reading the novel in Chinese for English speaking readers, but it may also be harder for you to talk to those who read the book in Chinese about certain characters and details.

There is also a public domain translation by H. Bencraft Joly, which was first published in the 19th century, and you can find it on Project Gutenberg.

The 1987 36-episode TV adaptation Dream of the Red Chamber is well-loved and considered by many Chinese people to be the best adaptation of the book. Every later adaptation would be compared with the 1987 one and found lacking. I personally love this adaptation a lot, and I think out of all the adaptations I've seen (including TV series, films and Chinese opera) it has the best interpretations of the book and the characters. It also has the best songs, which were adapted from the poems in the book. You can stream the series with English subtitles on the Internet Archive.

If you want something shorter that covers the main romance plot line and includes a few iconic scenes from the book, I recommend the 1977 film adaptation The Dream of the Red Chamber casting legendary actress Brigitte Lin as Jia Baoyu (she also portrayed an iconic classic wuxia character as a trans woman in another film franchise, but I digress). You can find the film with English subtitles on Youtube.

This is not all, but it's a good start. If you ever decide to give it a go, it doesn't matter if you watch one of the adaptations first or read the book first. Don't stress, take your time, and enjoy the ride!

[iron-sparrow]

"Good friends on this star bring heaven's gate right next door."

ft. @verysmallcyborg's Fornax and @oneiroy's Ryssrael

[poomphuripan]

Poster of My Stand-In EP.11 - Love is Merely Madness

Producer Yuan tweeted that the English tagline took inspiration from Shakespeare's As You Like It

Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.

The Chinese tagline is "有美人兮，见之不忘" which can be translated as "There is a beautiful person, I will never forget them after seeing them"

Producer Yuan explained that this Chinese tagline comes from an ancient Chinese poem and she feels that it describes the visible yearning and longing Ming has for Joe in EP.11

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

chinese guzhuang fashion

[bl-bam-beyond]

Watch "[OFFICIAL TEASER] Addicted Heroin รักร้าย นายเสพติด (上瘾) #addictedheroinTeaser" on YouTube

ADDICTED HEROIN TEASER.

Thailand Remake

@pose4photoml @absolutebl @kingofthereblog-boysloveed @wanderlust-in-my-soul

[r-aindr0p]

Finding old oc designs in sketchbooks and revamping them, I love doing that

Gentlemen thieves/ top hat classy thieves are characters that I love really much so of course I created one myself !

I don't have a precise background for him yet, something along the lines of "retrieving lost family heirlooms and seeking revenge"

His family mysteriously disappeared in a fire when he was a child, and he got adopted by an older noblewoman under a new identity. Now working as a police officer alongside his shenanigans, he tries to find by who and why did his family perish in that fire at their home many years ago. He commits heists under the name of "Le Lièvre" (The Hare) Has a pet bunny he calls his little "Arsène Lapin"

[blbambeyond-nonblblog-hyd-mg-bof]

METEOR GARDEN (2018, CHINESE ADAPTATION)

As fans of this series know after Mrs. Daoming chased off Shancai with the threat of going after Shancai's (SHEN YUE) friends and their families.

Shancai joined her parents in the fishing village where they lived (remember Meteor Garden is the only version in which the female lead did not have a kid brother)

Hauze Lei (DARREN CHEN) found her and brought her home.

Later Hauze Lei told Daoming Si he planned on pursuing Shancai since she and Si broke up. Si pretended it didn't matter and later got drunken crying in front of Meizuo and Ximen.

However later Daoming Si (DYLAN WANG) decided he couldn't live without Shancai and told Lei.

A scheming Lei says to let Shancai decide. Then Lei called Shancai and requested she turn off her phone for 48 hours and stay with her best friend. She reluctantly agreed. During this time Si searched high and low for Shancai to no avail.

When he did find Shancai she was with Lei walking on the street, Si confessed he could not live without her. Shancai makes her choice and boards a bus with Lei. Si chases after the bus until it is out of sight and he is out of breath.

He turns slowly defeated.

But then he hears Shancai calling out his name. Shancai chooses Si over Lei.

Lei later claims he did it to get Si jealous (more or less) Lei lets go of Shancai and leaves for Taiwan.

Note: Hauze Lei was a decent guy. He always stood up for Shancai when Si let her down (mainly because of his mom) even when Si abandoned Shancai when she traveled to London to find him where she was robbed. My point Lei should not have ended up alone. But that's just my opinion.

@pose4photoml

[madeinchinataiwanhk-blbambeyond]

MADE IN CHINA

SHEN YUE

DYLAN WANG

[save-the-data]

The Untamed | S01E22

Chinese Drama - 2019, 50 episodes

Episodes | Viki | YouTube | Netflix | WeTV | Tencent | Prime | Catalogue

[chicademartinica]

The rumor is so delicious because if the white people dem starts to make money with censored Chinese material ?!!?

[technicolouredmonochrome]

so i've been falling down the danmei productions (chinese censored productions of BL novels) rabbit hole and i've figured out the basic BL starter pack:

1. BANTER. the two protagonists need to make a ton of thinly veiled jokes at each other about being in love. because censors! so in order to get any of it aired it's all gotta be nudge nudge wink wink. let me insert an episode where everyone suddenly acts out of character due to magic! or let me make the shameless one dress as a woman for an episode! they will find any and every way to let the two leads f l i r t and make us all wonder: why don't these two just get married already?

2. YEARNING. because if one half of our main couple has not waited at least 10 years for the other to either show up in their life or resurrect from the dead, are they really in love?

3. OPPOSITES ATTRACT. we need the flirty one! endlessly grinning and touching and teasing the silent one! and the cold quiet one is only soft for the sunshine one! how else can we know that their love is true!

4. SUFFERING. and i mean SUFFERING. dead parents. entire families annihilated. torture. tragic backstories abound. these men have never known happiness until they've met their other half. and then all they want to do is watch the world burn together. (and can we really blame them for that?)

5. ACTS OF ("brotherly") LOVE. they were brothers, historians would say, but they're almost always nearly dying for each other, and longing after each other, and siding with each other against the entire world.

5.1 OH BUT THEY WERE IN LOVE IN LOVE. there's gotta be at least one scene somewhere when our two main protagonists speculate about their possible future together. especially if it's just before some incredibly terrifyingly intense climax of the story (where one of our leads may *gasps* die) they talk about running a noodle shop together, or roaming the world together, or travelling from town to town fighting crime together.

5.2 AND THEY WERE SOULMATES. the word soulmates comes up somewhere. it technically translates to confidant (or person who knows me) but. if the translators decide to subtitle it as soulmate who am i to tell them otherwise.

6. FOUND FAMILY. they also have to adopt a kid who's gonna follow them through their adventures. sometimes it's two kids, sometimes it's a whole baseball team of children (of all ages and genders, they are incredibly inclusive on this point in this way). these kids are going to represent every single viewer, watching the main leads flirt while wondering, why don't i have two dads? why must one always go away and leave me behind? why is it always the rich dad that's gotta go? please come back and feed me and my poor papa we are starving rich dad.

i could keep going but these are the main requirements in our basic chinese BL novel adaptation starter packs. oh also most of the budget goes into hiring the two most attractive main leads possible and you get to watch as the cgi gets worse episode after episode as the show loses funding through its run. but it doesn't matter because these two men are clearly in love and i'm still 100% here for it.