#I get that my culture as a Vietnamese person may differ from that of a Chinese but there's a lot of similar habits

[just-some-friendly-fun]

Maybe, I sound a little nitpicky here, or some other word that I can't figure out right now to determine the current tone of my words but.

Looking through some of the fanfiction, in regards to Bi-Han, I think some baffled me in particular and it's not even that big of a deal or anything but it just scratches beneath my skin a little. Like, oh! Bi-Han cooking something for you! I can see that!-- what do you mean he's making you a complete English meal.

Unless it's something that the reader enjoys, and he's making it in favor to their taste preference, then that's sweet! But.... Where's my stuff..... Where's the chicken congee... Where is- where is all the traditional recipes he should know? I get that making eggs, bacon, and french toast are easy (sometimes) but-- there is other easy to make stuff. I'm not expecting Bi-Han to be headcanoned as some top tier chef but, him knowing some traditional home recipes should be natural thing to him, no? Maybe he learned from his mother, or some other. I think that'd be neat to think about, just simple basic home meals he's learned and makes for himself and rarely, but sometimes, for others. I think all in general, I just really want to see like some proper representation of Bi-Han, or just even Kuai Liang, maybe even Tomas adapting to some of his adoptive family's behaviors while he was raised, like some stuff like how some people can't properly apologize so in form of apology, people mainly serve a plate of fruit as an act of forgiveness rather than outright saying it, or just ANYTHING ELSE.

[fatphobiabusters]

hello!! i love seeing your fatshion and fat art posts on my dash :]) they really brighten my day! how do you find these posts? I've gone back to the original source of them and they aren't often tagged with "plus size" or anything :o

Hi, I'm glad you enjoy the posts. I've created many strategies to find fat positive content on this website since, sadly, fat representation is very difficult to find.

The easiest strategy is to search popular fat positive tags, like "fatshion" or "fat positive." However, most people don't tag fat representation, and many fat-related tags are overrun by thinspo blogs, fat fetishists, and fatphobes.

Sometimes I search "plus size" and another word to try to find specific posts. For example, I queued posts with a Valentine's Day theme for Valentine's Day. One of the strategies I used for that was to search "plus size pink," "plus size red," "plus size lovecore," "plus size valentines day," etc. I have to get creative like this when trying to find content of specific groups of fat people. As another example, when I want to find content for fat Asian people, I may search "plus size hanfu," "plus size jfashion," "Vietnamese fatshion," and any combination of words involving fatness and usually either a specific cultural clothing or country. If I just use normal search terms, I likely won't find anything.

Sometimes I look at popular tags like "artists on tumblr" and scroll through hundreds of posts to find a single drawing of a fat person. Usually said drawing didn't use any tags for the fat representation. This strategy is extremely based on luck and will involve spending way more time before seeing any posts of fat people, but this is one of the few ways to find posts of fat representation that weren't tagged with words related to fatness. What I would give just to get people to tag their posts of fat representation, you have no idea. Even if no one else started drawing fat people, there would be a mountain of more fat positive posts to reblog if those posts were simply tagged in a way to make them possible for fat positive blogs to find.

Some tags are more likely to include fat people, like tags for Mermay. Fat people are barely represented, but some artists are willing to be slightly inclusive when drawing mermaids. The likelihood of size inclusivity also goes up with events like Mermay since some of the artists who participate will draw a different mermaid design for every day of the month. It's hard to not draw a single fat mermaid design when a person is drawing 31 mermaids.

When I find an old fat positive or fatshion blog, I'll usually comb through the entire blog for posts. Not only do I find posts that way, but I also usually find other blogs with posts I can also queue. This ends up with me going through a chain of old blogs and why you'll see us post content that was made anywhere from 5 to a whopping 12 years ago. I usually keep at least one post from each of these blogs in my queue at all times to remind me to continue searching the blogs for fat positive content. I've had some posts in the queue of Fatphobia Busters for two years because I keep them as reminders for what blogs I need to search. For every post we share, I try to thoroughly look through the blog of the op for any other scraps of fat positivity I can queue. This is another reason why some posts stay in the queue for months or years. Since fat representation on this website is abysmal, I usually only put posts at the front of the queue that were either made by blogs I've already combed, blogs that still have posts in the queue so I can search those blogs a different day, or if the post was queued by Mod Squirrel. I don't have a lot of energy to search blogs, which is why those posts stay in the queue for so long. That's also why you may notice certain blogs being posted a lot for a period of time—they're blogs I'm safe to post without missing any content I could have queued.

Tumblr has a pretty terrible search function, and I've basically never been recommended a blog by Tumblr that actually posted fat representation. However, the one helpful function Tumblr has actually been good at is the similar posts section called "More like this," which looks like this on desktop:

It's to the right of whatever post you look at on a blog. On mobile, it looks like this:

I looked at the same post for both of these screenshots. In the "More like this" (or "More posts like this") section, Tumblr will usually include other posts by the user, posts by other blogs who interact with the user, posts with similar tags, etc. etc. For whatever reason, I'll sometimes be able to use this Tumblr function to find more fat representation. As an example, Tumblr showed me the same grayscale drawing of a fat person in both of these screenshots. That drawing was posted by an entirely different blog and with no tags related to fatness or fat positivity at all, but the "More like this" Tumblr function is the only time that Tumblr realizes "Oh, for the past five years of running and modding for fat positive blogs, you've actually wanted to see posts of fat people and not all of the posts of thin people I've suggested to you all this time?"

Sometimes I'll try my luck with certain fandoms when I know the media the fandom is for actually has a fat character or if I know that the fandom is somewhat size inclusive. There are times where an artist who draws the media's fat character also has fat OCs or draws other fat people. For instance, I'll probably have more luck finding artists who draw fat people in the Magnus Archives fandom than I will in a fandom for a media that's very fatphobic or pretends thinness is an art style, like Hazbin Hotel.

If I find a fat person who posts selfies or photography of themself, I'll look at their tags to try to decipher what tags they use for posting those photos. They may have a specific tag just for their photos, like "my face," or they may tag all of their photos with a tag like "ootd," "melanin," "cosplay," "black girl magic," "lolita," "jfashion," etc. It's also important to make sure not to share any posts that have tags like "do not reblog." If a post has the tag "personal," I'll usually either skip it or ask the user if they're okay with the post being reblogged. This is especially important for text posts about fatphobia since sometimes a person just wanted to vent and doesn't want their post to be shared. Whenever I'm in doubt, I write a reply on the post and ask the op if they're okay with me reblogging it.

On some occasions, I'll see the url or tags of someone on our posts that makes me think they may have more fat positive content. When that is the case, I'll queue posts that a follower made. Said posts are usually selfies or text posts. Sometimes this means queuing a post they made about a specific product they sell on Etsy that otherwise isn't accessible for fat people, or this could mean queueing a well-written rant that they've okayed for people to reblog.

That's basically the gist of most of my strategies I can think of. You can see that running and modding for fat positive blogs involves a lot of work and strategizing just to find content. But you can help make it easier. If you:

Tag your posts of fat representation with fat positive tags

Send posts you find of fat people to fat positive blogs

Tell artists who draw fat people to tag their art with fat positive tags

Ask artists who only draw thin people to make their art size inclusive

Make posts about fatphobia and tag those posts with tags like "fatphobia" to make them searchable

Or even just reblog posts from fat positive blogs to help spread them and encourage those OPs to keep representing fat people

By doing those things, you help us a lot and also help more fat people see themselves in the media they look at.

If you do tag your posts for this purpose, I strongly suggest using more than just tags like "body positivity." That tag on Tumblr is full of mostly porn, thin people, and celebrations of weight loss, so I've given up on looking at that tag at all and would assume many other fat positive blogs don't use that tag either.

-Mod Worthy

[persephone-s-moon]

Asian Lost Boys Personal Names!

Personal names tend to vary from culture to culture in terms of usage, but essentially it's someones "Asian name" as opposed to their English name. They're typically used by family members and, on occasion, very close friends because (in my experience) using them is intimate. The characters will still HAVE their English names, but The Lost Boys and family members (the Emersons and the Frogs) will Mostly refer to each other by their personal names.

DISCLAIMER: I'm Taiwanese, therefore I'm more savvy to East Asian cultures, particularly Chinese and Japanese. If anyone who is more knowledgeable about Filipino, Hmong, Thai, Indian, or Vietnamese cultures sees something they want to critique/has more culturally accurate suggestions, I encourage messages/comments/replies!

David: Huang Zhao-Yi

Culture: Taiwanese, of Chinese descent Loose Pronunciation: Hw-ah-ng Sh-ow-yee Surname: Huang, meaning "yellow, to fall through" Personal name: Zhao-Yi, Zhao meaning "bright, luminous" and Yi meaning "happy, joyful, harmony" Notes: I was originally going to name David "Hou Yi" after a mythological Chinese archer because OG Hou Yi destroys 9/10 of the original suns (long story) and there's a version where he and his wife Chang'e become immortal/gods, but there are so many different versions of the story that I decided against it. I also decided that I wanted him to be a Farm Boy™ and naming him after a god seemed a little strange imo.

Paul: Paolo FACUNDO LIWANAG

Culture: Filipino Loose Pronunciation: Pow-low FAK-OON-DO LEE-WAN-AG Personal name: Paolo, meaning "small" Surnames: FACUNDO meaning "talkative", LIWANAG meaning "light" Notes: A lot of Filipino names are Spanish or Italian with biblical roots because of colonization in the 1500s, so I wanted to keep his personal name semi-similar to his English name since it was already biblical. Honestly I could've left it as "Paul" but what's the fun in that? I'm not too sold on his surnames so they might change later and I may try to find a Tagalog name instead for his personal name, we'll see.

Marko: YANG Vam Meej

Culture: White Hmong, from Laos Loose Pronunciation: YANG Va Mae Clan name: YANG, associated with the ram and bear Personal name: Vam Meej, meaning "to prosper, succeed" Notes: Hmong names in particular are a Struggle for me since most of the Hmong people I know are second generation like me and either don't really know their personal names or we're not close enough for me to ask. I am familiar with the concept of clan names though. Marko's name is definitely subject to change in the future (I might pick a clan name more associated with birds just for fun who knows).

Dwayne: Khemkhaeng LUANG

Culture: Thai Loose Pronunciation: Kehm-key-ng LOO-ANG Personal name: Khemkhaeng, meaning "strong" Old personal name: Kasem, meaning "happiness, pure joy" Surname: LUANG, meaning "royal, venerable" Notes: It's common for Thai people to change their names after something either significant or bad happens to them, hence Kasem. I'm only making note of it to alleviate confusion in the event that I decide to do some stuff regarding backstories, no one will refer to him as Kasem otherwise. Also, surnames are still relatively new to Thailand and they were only introduced in the 20th century, so Dwayne gets a shorter surname in comparison to modern Thai surnames (which are required to be unique, hence the longer modern surnames) since I have him and the other boys being born in the 1880s.

Star: Ruchika Chawla

Culture: Indian Loose Pronunciation: Roo-chee-ka Chow-la Personal name: Ruchika, meaning "shining, beautiful, desirous, brilliance" Surname: Chawla, meaning "rice" Notes: I found the name Ruchika and immediately thought of Star ngl, I didn't even consider other names for her. It was like love at first sight. I think a lot of stuff with Star just clicked when I was doing research for her name and design, it just suited her so well. I did have her surname written down wrong in my personal notes so I'm glad I didn't post her character sheet immediately lmao

Laddie: Nino HALILI DEL ROSARIO

Culture: Filipino Loose Pronunciation: Nee-no HA-LEE-LEE DAY ROSE-ARI-O Personal name: Nino, meaning "little boy" Surname: HALILI meaning "successor", DEL ROSARIO meaing "of the rosary" Notes: I went so back and forth on his surnames it's not even funny, but I think I'm happier with Laddie's surnames in comparison to Paul's. "Nino" felt really obvious and clicked really well just like Star's name did, though I did consider a few other names that I don't have written down anywhere. Nino was just superior because he's simply a little guy.

Michael: EMERSON Manh Tien

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: EMERSON Man Tee-en Surname: EMERSON, inherited from white father Middle name: Manh, meaning "first-born" Personal name: Tien, meaning "fairy, celestial being" Notes: I'll be honest, the main contibuting factor behind Michael's personal name was how he was almost named "Moonbeam" during his mom's hippie phase. I have this idea where their dad was white and insisted on using exclusively their English names, and Michael wouldn't initially like his personal name because it feels girly to him anyway, but he'd grow to cherish his name and culture after meeting the lost boys <3

Sam: EMERSON Trong Binh

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: EMERSON Ch-ung Bin Surname: EMERSON, inherited by white father Middle name: Trong, meaning "second-born" Personal name: Binh, meaning "peaceful" Notes: I think overall for the Emerson family I was most concerned with meanings, which wasn't necessarily the case for the boys. Sam is the most peaceful in the sense that he discouraged the Frog brothers from killing Marko, even though he failed. Like Michael, I think his personal name is something that he grows into when he starts making friends, but would use his English name when first coming to Santa Carla.

Lucy: VINH Lan Huong

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: VIN Surname: VINH, meaning "glory" Middle name: Lan, meaning "orchid" Personal name: Huong, meaning "pink rose" Notes: Naming Lucy after flowers just felt right. Let it be known that I have serious beef with hippies, but I feel like she still had a well-intentioned hippie phase and this just adds to it. In Vietnamese culture, women don't change their surnames after marriage (as far as I'm aware) which I think would be a contributing factor in her divorce with her white all-American husband.

Grandpa: VINH Mac Dieu

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: VIN Mac Dee-oo Surname: VINH, meaning "glory" Middle name: Mac, meaning "nothing, nonexistent" Personal name: Dieu, meaning "mysterious, subtle" Notes: Grandpa! Needed! A! Name! He doesn't have one in the original! I'm basically saying he's not subtle about his knowledge of vampires and he's not trying to be subtle, it's just that no one ever asked. I think I tried to pick older-sounding names for him but it's been a little while since I picked these and I don't remember if I'm honest.

Edgar: Kaeru Matsuo

Culture: Japanese Loose Pronunciation: Keh-roo Mat-soo-oh Surname: Kaeru, meaning "frog" Personal name: Matsuo, meaning "pine tree, life" Notes: I named the Frog brothers after the famous Japanese poet Matsuo Basho because their English names remind me of Edgar Allan Poe, so I thought it'd be kind of funny. Matsuo is the surname of the poet, but I felt that Matsuo suited Edgar more than Alan. The surname I picked for the Frogs was obvious, I don't think anything else other than some variation of "frog" would've worked.

Alan: Kaeru Basho

Culture: Japanese Loose Pronunciation: Keh-roo Ba-show Surname: Kaeru, meaning "frog" Personal name: Basho, meaning "banana tree" Notes: Alan got the pen name of Matsuo Basho, who also went by "Sobo" and "Tose". I debated on giving him Matsuo's true given name, which is Kinsaku meaning "to be happy" but Matsuo Basho is better known as Basho and it's much funnier for this very serious 15-16 year old to be named "banana tree".

Sorry if the formatting is weird, I'm trying to make it as reader friendly as possible on account of my own dyslexia. Please let me know if the blocks of text blend in with each other too much lmao

[rainbabbles]

research before story

having different original worlds and hyper fixations for research in them makes your mind expand because now I know so much about certain topics because of my stories. while i'm not an expert in anything of course, my mind gets blown each time with new shit like:

Sohrab's Rebirth

How pantheons were created

Christian mythology

ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences + my own education background)

The Sea King's Mermaid

Asian history, culture, and music TO THE MAX

More knowledge on North and West Asia as well as indigenous cultures of Asia

The Ashbourns

Irish history, customs, language

Ireland in the 40's

The history of Irish undertakers and mortuary practices themselves

Happy Asian Market

Viet diaspora businesses

Viet Cali gangs (and other asian gang dynamics)

Mahayana Buddhism ( + my own upbringing)

I'm just showcasing this because while the phrase "just start your comic/book!" for certain projects has its merits, I personally think exhausting every research outlet before starting a story is crucial.

I always think to this: if I saw someone doing something wholly Vietnamese and they were not Vietnamese and did it on a whim with basic knowledge- I might go ballistic apeshit. I might beat someone's ass through the screen!!!! OWO So obviously- other people might feel the same as me!

If you're not from that culture and you're doing extensive shit on it, sometimes I don't think you should. There are some experiences/cultures even I won't touch because it's not my place, and I've dropped some concepts because of that out of respect.

But if someone really believes in a project to do that, they better drown themselves in research and I'm talking the WHOLE 9 yards:

read books by Viets

research/interview articles (in English AND in Viet)

watch documentaries

view propaganda/politics from the good and bad of Vietnam

watch youtube videos and tiktok's made by viet people

listen to the music

watch our movies

learn some of the language/phrases/customs

read our folklore

actually talk to viet people (social anxiety forbid)

fucking travel to vietnam (ofc this may not be feasible but damn, dedication)

love vietnam- ALL of that

And that's what I've essentially done with each of these topics, I ran through all the research medias I can and I'm still not done!! It's the least I could do for something completely out of my circle of experience! It's time consuming, but it's really been rewarding implementing these things into my creations and connecting more to the realness that flows in these characters. Also, having big respect for the real people and history these aspects come from!!

big ramble, but I fucking love research ya'll. go big or go home!!!!!

[scentedchildnacho]

Yea i liked the Chinatown documentary.....i like don't put that there though about a jail....

My life as homeless has been really really sad and abusive and Freudian you will meet every evil.....and there is a lot of criminality and it all wants head lights to shoot across your eye balls....so I think so they called the states a dump so they should have to give us better police conditions

Whales they will sound bombs if their not given cells

They should have to renew some county jails...if their going to do cellular then they should have to renew those though

I was reading a time to kill so I don't know anymore if gang based white violence is racist

Light power can really alter people emotionally and hallucinatorily so sometimes they were maybe very normal people

I was kind of culture shocked at how controlled by very black Africans Mississippi is and they will also throw white kids into scary metal extreme ride contraptions so I think gang violence elsewhere causes gang violence elsewhere

They try to hit white kids with their cars....or these scary clinic rapes

So I think if the victims names are listed it was so a sense of structure was lost it's if you do this to us they do it to you

Africons start clear cutting around white camps or white homeless get left to die with clear cutting machines at them....and so if we go missing as a structure then they can't control aggression I guess

There were irish and jews and Africons would need work to finish their criminal obligations and someone ordered if you help that they will

I found a collage artist betya saar at the library and she was fascinated with folk depictions of southern black men and women who were criminally insane maybe I will do one of those about racist whites

White violence as about hunting has some of the most beautiful landscape aesthetics

Its Mississippi it's where people get so angry at black people they will lynch them....like the icey truck that almost made me collapse of a cold headache heart attack

Or the cult go ye house a group of black militant lesbians wanted to teach me child abuse and forced sex slavery to their strength

Shit beach

There was only one Chinese restaurant downtown in my birth town....because zapatistas attack Irish people and other fair people around irish people

Loud abusive cruel rock star gatherings people who attack Irish people and other unprotected fair groups around Irish people

Hi peng the owner....i didn't really know her but I think she had to go through a lot hosting military brats like heyroth....

If heyroth was gone from my life a lot of addictive obsessive compulsive problems left my life

I don't know hi peng to speculate on her character as mafia obligated or not

Is hi peng a wanted Italian that creates puppet?

Irish people are you secretly people from Germany that fled a neo Nazi coup did they keep finding you here

I am a suggestible person so if my friends change that doesn't happen anymore

Then a lot of the diaspora in oriental segregation in my birth town was south east Asian Cambodian not Chinese

Now my needs require little Korean or Thai places or Taiwan but China has really vacated addiction did really attach to China

Or it's technological exploitation so I need a Vietnamese advise about cognitive literacy therapies and hospitality

If people are criminals the state gets to with no complaints recover the property of......

Its Greek theory the royal blood ones are truly introverted

The oriental segregation was not ever business in my birth town that's Mexicans also it's the state social traditions they may go to school and be around hosting cultures so there was a distinct difference there

My birth father was also murdered for hosting military.....confederate trials they can't tell that he was very different looking from German military doctors.....

They can't understand the differences between white people and German military

She was an idiot and gets to be a prescriber

It was my birth fathers hair his straight fair manners

Jolene Rickard looks a lot like a German that killed five Turkish emigrationists

Jolene Rickard with the Smithsonian....

I dont know but I do get told if I was called white China cannot help me and I will have to appeal to the super power vietnam or my psychological condition provokes people about gender exploitation

The African mushrooms to try to practice things Jews and Irish do you have to have extensive hidden home help

If your not aware of extensive agricultural mediation from Africa China areas really really hurt people with class action substances

The drugs in food are different if oriental segregations become diasporas instead of China

My advise if called white is with Irish and Jews is I can introduce myself so their not freaked out by unknown strangers but I should not get involved in that as eventually the African mushrooms became a virus and that kind of comes and goes as it can it's experimental and not with Indians

Thailand was the first Asians that would understand white people about emergency

No I don't blame Jews for violence towards me from people claiming their Jews....they claim their Jews and their scary Europeans that look like some of the toughest facilities in the world

Pharma....he has a serial wealth record and calls public funds his personal billions....

They claim their Jews but will want to spend very close personal time with me....and white dog tags are not Jewish dog tags and we should not get involved

The Indians show me about violence that India is subject to industrial pollution and to survive power madness you have to live very modestly and cleverly

Then the Irish the fair observance is around so I can go to black and tans and be patient with The English about law....but it's pale face times around so you can't go till a Muslim is like who decides how religion should organize

Then the Irish don't work here so I notice Asian businesses dramatically increase in consumers till COVID....

[umichenginabroad]

Visiting Vietnam Part 2 (Week 17)

With one day left in the Hanoi area, we scheduled a day tour to Ninh Binh where we biked around rice fields surrounded by mountains, took a boat trip down a river in Tam Coc which went through three different caves, climbed up steps to Lying Dragon Mountain, and visited Dinh King temple. The various mini-adventures were all stunning, but it was hard for me to properly appreciate them after spending three days in the most beautiful environment I’ve ever laid eyes on. The intensely hot and humid weather (which wasn’t a problem in the mountains of Ha Giang) didn’t help either. Just a few minutes of walking outside was followed by sweat and dehydration. If anything, this weather encouraged us to always have a smoothie or juice of some sort in our hands. For $1-2, the drink options are endless and we sure took advantage. Once we returned to Hanoi, we quickly made our way to the airport and flew to Ho Chi Minh City where we were spending the next two days.

^ The view from Lying Dragon Mountain

Our first day in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was spent exploring the city and doing a food tour in which we once again rode on motorbikes, but this time in the city. Let me tell you, being on the back of a motorbike in a Vietnamese city is not for the faint of heart. Bikes and cars are constantly appearing out of nowhere and are often on a collision course with you until the very last second. The stream of vehicles never stops — not for pedestrians, not for other vehicles, sometimes not even for an ambulance. A perk of the food tour was that our three drivers were young university students who knew a good bit of English, so we could finally ask questions about their lives and experiences as well as Vietnamese culture. The other highlight was the food. I had the guides help me make a list of all the foods we tried:

Bun bo hue - spicy noodles soup

Banh xeo - Vietnamese pancake/crepe eaten in lettuce wraps with shrimp, bean sprouts, and a variety of leaves including basil and mint. It is dipped in a sweat sauce. (This was a personal favorite)

Dim sum

Banh mi - Vietnamese sandwich

Banh trang nuong - Vietnamese pizza

Bo lui xa - grill beef and lemongrass

Kumquat & sugarcane iced tea (personal favorite)

Coffee Banh flan - flan cake (personal favorite)

^ Banh Xeo - A very yummy dish which requires skilled rolling to produce.

^ Banh flan - literally the best flan I’ve ever had over a bed of crushed ice and coffee.

It goes without saying that we left that food tour with happy stomachs and a strong desire for a nap. Later that day we did some shopping! It turns out that Vietnam has endless stalls of knock-off (but very high quality) backpacks, bags, clothing, and so much more. We were particularly eager to buy backpacks and fanny packs which were significantly cheaper than normal prices. As crazy as it may sound, over those two days in Ho Chi Minh, the three of us bought 13 bags/backpacks for us and our friends/family in addition to other clothing, coats, and souvenirs. To this day I will never know how I managed to bring everything I bought back to Sydney in addition to my already full backpack and one-weeks-worth of clothes. I do always love a packing challenge!

With one day left in Ho Chi Minh, we had to take a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels not too far away. These tunnels were the site of many battles between American forces and the Vietcong during the Vietnam war. In addition to getting to see several traps used by the Vietcong and learning about how the Vietcong formed (and survived in) the tunnel system, we got to walk 100m in the tunnels ourselves! Walking so far crouched over in a tunnel with a height of 1.5 meters was not easy, so you can imagine our shock when we got out and learned that the tunnel we went through was made 1.5x larger than the actual tunnels used in order to accommodate tourists.

^ examples of traps used in the Vietnam War

^ A cross-section view of the underground tunnels used by the Vietcong. Traps were set at the entrances and throughout the tunnels in case intruders found their way in. The kitchen was strategically designed so that smoke from a fire would leave through incremental holes making it less visible near the ground. To prevent wild dogs from approaching the smoke and revealing its position, spices were mixed with water and poured around the smoke’s backdoor to scare them away. The tunnels were only built at night as well so as not to draw attention, and all entrances were covered with leaves to blend into the environment.

Between the nature, people, culture, food, and shopping, Vietnam was hands down one of the best trips I had the chance to go on and I can’t wait to return one day. Cheers!

David Bayer

Biomedical Engineering

University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia

[jops08]

Managing Differences

I do not think that I would struggle that much if I ever went back to the Philippines whether as a vacation or to live there. Having a parent from the culture try to raise my brothers and I the best they can while exposing us to traditions and customs from the Philippines. The challenges I would say would be the hardest would be the worldview and nonverbal languages. I am not so involved in the church anymore and Catholicism is important in the culture so there will be times that I may find it difficult on certain topics. Nonverbal language in the Philippines is something I tried getting use to because of my mom but it caused communication errors. One thing I can do today is learn about the host culture. I can go call my mom and gather the best tips to prepare myself or I can go on YouTube and listen to other people’s experiences within the country.  

I think the advice and the lessons the book informs us of are noble pursuits when it comes to experiencing another culture other than our own. Respect others, seek commonalities, and recognize & respect cultural differences these are all good lessons when we are trying to experience someone from another culture or entering a different country. I think internalizing these beliefs now can help me be a better person all around when it comes to my future intercultural interactions. Having internal respect and seeking common ground with another person can only better myself but also my communication with other people. Looking into the cultural differences and finding ways to appreciate them. I can find commonalities in other cultures that can make me feel more comfortable but also at ease any doubts that I may have about struggling in the culture. Overall, I think these traits can help me better understand someone from another culutre but it can also help me be a better person in the end because these are good traits to practice universally across all the people you may meet.  

One thing I can do now is investigate any clubs that the University of Idaho may have. I know there is an AAPI (Asian American & Pacific Islander) club that holds events regularly events throughout the academic year. Some of the events are revolve around Asian or pacific islander holidays such as Vietnamese new year or lantern festival. Joining the club may get me closer to meeting someone from the culture which can enrich and expand my knowledge of the culture. Another way for me to better understand the culture is also going to the University of Idaho library and looking up any literature on the Philippines. Looking into books or magazines is a useful resource for learning about the country but also learning the author’s perspective about their time in the country. Finally, I am very much a visual person when it comes to learning about certain topics so looking into documentaries or historical programs about the country may help me expand my knowledge on the culture and the country.  

[southeastasiadiary]

Day Eleven, Part Two: A Day of War and Art in Ho Chi Minh City

As some of you know, my trip to Southeast Asia was originally supposed to have gone from September 6-28, 2023, with arrangements made by an entirely different company from the company I ended up using. But on May 24, that itinerary was suddenly cancelled “for operational reasons” (whatever that means). At first, I was furious. But, on the principle of making lemonade out of lemons, I worked with a new company (VietnamStay) to develop an even better itinerary: more suited to my personal taste, and including some days in Laos (which was omitted by the first company). No longer a group tour, I would now have a solo tour and a guaranteed departure date.

One big difference between the two itineraries was that the original trip was supposed to start in Ho Chi Minh City, not Hanoi. So, just as I went to the Thang Long Water Puppet Show on the day after my arrival on this trip as a way of doing something light and fun while I was still jet-lagged, originally I was going to attend something called the A O Show at the Saigon Opera House. It was described as a combination of Vietnamese culture and acrobatics, sort of a “Cirque du Saigon.”

Well, yesterday, as we passed the opera house, I went in and bought a ticket for tonight’s performance of the A O Show.

I arrived early (when am I never not early?), and so got a brief tour of the opera house itself. It currently has 468 seats

and was built largely of materials imported from France.

Like the Hoi An Memories Show, it was forbidden to take photos or movies during the performance, but you can get some sense of the A O Show from this YouTube video:

[hadesisqueer]

This. I do agree with the point that interacial relationships in media are almost always a POC person and a white person and I wish there was more representation of POC couples and specifically interacial relationships in which both characters are POC (example: Fatou and Kieu My from Druck, which is a sapphic interacial relationship between a Black lesbian and a Vietnamese bisexual girl. Amazing). And I do agree that several of those relationships in media are, again, fetishized.

However, lately I've been seeing people from all races talking about interacial relationships in general in a bad manner or judging real people for being in them and it's like. Wow. We are really doing this. I understand, mostly for POC, the thing about wanting to date someone your same ethnicity or nationality, since you'll share experiences and may be able to relate to each other more. However, that doesn't mean interacial relationships have to be worse or toxic? A good bunch of my relatives, including my sister, are in healthy relationships with someone from a different ethnicity; in her case, also a different religion, since she's Catholic and he's Muslim. People can be respectful of others' differences and cultures. And real people can date whoever they want, too, regardless of gender or ethnicity and other people (like this guy who tried to be so woke he ended up sounding bigoted) simply don't get to judge them over that.

Can't believe someone irl just tried to explain to me in a "woke" way that interracial relationships are bad. And it wasn't even with the argument that interracial relationships in media often always have to include a white person and that sometimes it's fetishized. He was judging a irl couple???

[writingwithcolor]

Blending Mythos Respectfully

@sapphicq submitted:

Hi all! I’m trying to write an urban fantasy that explores oppression in a world that is basically the same as ours, except with magic, while incorporating magical systems and mythologies of multiple cultures. I’ve done an okay amount of research on each one that I’d like to include (still need to do more for sure, especially considering how colonization has effected mythologies). However, I’m struggling a bit on how they should coexist, since in the world I’m writing about they’re present and tangible. One example of this is fox spirits in East Asian mythology. Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese mythologies each have a nine-tailed fox, and though my research says that the myth originates from Chinese mythology, it also says that each of the fox spirits carry different connotations of malevolence, benevolence, and how widespread they are, depending on which culture’s mythology is being referred to. 

The same sort of thing has been popping up quite a lot in a lot of my research. I started to wonder if I could explain these similarities within world as “different cultures have come up with different names and customs surrounding the ‘same’ thing,” considering mythology in the real world from an anthropological perspective. However I don’t want to overgeneralize, especially considering that these different mythological figures are meant to be present and tangible. If I went that route, I wouldn’t want to say something like ‘actually, benevolent fox spirits do exist, and Korean mythology about fox spirits is wrong since Kumiho are pretty strictly malevolent,’ which would obviously be an implication. All this to say: do you have any tips for multiple mythos coexisting in a way that respects the various cultures they come from?

Avoid Round Pegs in Square Holes

A mistake you sometimes see Western authors make when dealing with mythology in urban fantasy settings is to confine the universe’s worldbuilding to a particular mythology or force the rules of a single culture’s folklore onto other cultures. For instance, here at WWC, we get a lot of questions asking how to represent supernatural creatures from multiple cultures respectfully alongside fae from Western Europe, and it's fairly obvious that the author plans to treat all supernatural creatures as fae. Urban fantasy based on Greek mythology or Christian mythology often falls into the same trap. 

I think a writer can demonstrate greater creativity by embracing these differences. I think a potential way to deal with contradicting mythos between cultures is to come up with compelling reasons why differences exist. What world-building systems, philosophies and real-life phenomena allow for a framework that explains the simultaneous existence of commonalities and differences? As you know, in anthropology, there are theories that emphasize cultural diffusion as a way to explain similar customs within the same region, but there are also theories that hold that multiple cultures can develop the same traditions and principles independent of each other (See: existence of 0, lost-wax bronze casting, astronomical calendars and the use of wheels). The answers I’ve given are mostly technological. However myths and belief systems serve very real social functions as ways to keep people together and cultivate norms and mores. Lesya expands on the utility of intentional cultural diffusion below.

Similarly, within evolution, there are instances of species having common features because of a shared ancestor, but also instances where species without shared ancestors evolve to have similar features because they exist in the same environment. I believe flippers are examples of both types of evolution in marine animals.  Thus, I think you need to question your assumption that “different cultures have come up with different names and customs surrounding the ‘same’ thing.” As the world is daily proof, they sometimes do, but they also sometimes don’t. 

-Marika

First, props to you for sending us this ask. You have been thinking about this a lot and have done research into building an urban fantasy that doesn’t do the thing of putting all Asians under one umbrella. 

Second, I’m going to agree with Marika here. Rather than go for the generalization route, revel in everyone's differences. It's a way for you to acknowledge the variations in the mythology, that not all have the same origins though there may be some similarities. Instead, they may have reached the same conclusions. My advice for blending mythologies is to lean into it, and not create a homogeneous umbrella. You can make something amazing with that. 

-Jaya

Hybridity Through Diffusion

So a myth originated in China. This does not mean Chinese tellings have the monopoly on what a telling is. Marika and Jaya have gone into a possible solution, here, but what I’m going to examine here is a mental framework that a lot of people get stuck in that is actually ahistorical.

Cultural appropriation as we know it is shockingly recent when it comes to history. In the modern day, ownership boundaries of myths have become very strict because of primarily European colonialism picking and choosing everything it likes about a mythos, and, this is important: not letting up on the oppression of those peoples. There’s also a strong preference to kill those colonialism deems “wrong”, instead of creating a hybrid culture.

Historically, this got a lot more fluid.

What happened historically was primarily cultural diffusion, wherein open trade, intermarriage, and shared borders made it that myths, customs, and cultural practices were (mostly) freely exchanged without massive power imbalances happening, and then modified to fit local beliefs.

Key word: mostly. Because yes sometimes it happened that one place took over another place and imported all of its customs (see: China, Rome, the Mughals), but�� often* the ruling power either backed off, was fought of, or otherwise left the region, leaving the common people to do whatever they wanted with the carcass of what had been imposed on them. Or sometimes, even, the imperial forces would actively create a hybridized culture in order to better rule others.

* in places where the ruling power has NOT backed off on oppression and assimilation, even if the colonialism is very old, then this is invalid and the power dynamics of appropriation are still at play.

Because, historically, there was a lot less incentive to simply genocide the peoples you took over (which is what made armies that did destroy all they took over so noteworthy). People were needed to keep providing food and materials, even if the new person got the resulting taxes. 

This meant there were a lot more common people to play with the stuff imported by the imperial culture. And there was a lot more incentive to hybridize your customs to the common people’s customs, leading to the sometimes-hilarious situations like “Rome assigns an equivalence in their pantheon for literally every mythology they encountered, which was a lot.” 

This also explains early Christianization, because it was a lot safer to simply adapt what you already had to make it better for your own ends than curbstomp everything that was “wrong” to your worldview. Ireland’s mythology survives in huge swaths, because it was either Christianized wholesale, or it was about “historical humans” and not fae. Norse mythology was similarly adapted for Christian worldviews, which means we unfortunately have no idea what the pre-Christian myths were.

So instead of thinking in terms of ownership, think instead in terms of diffusion. 

Myths get imported along with food, cloth, or anything else necessary for life. Myths were, historically, a way for people to explain the world around them, both in place of and alongside science. “Ghost marches” are really common, globally, because if you have wind howling in the forest, it’s going to sound like predators, and predators mean go inside and lock the door. Weaving goddesses are also common, because weaving was so necessary to survive the elements.

Sometimes trade relationships soured, and you get bad associations with the imported stuff. Sometimes the relationship stayed great for long enough it got completely adapted. This doesn’t mean any one myth is “right”, nor does it mean you have to erase historical trade links. It just means you look at the historical context, understand that cultural exchange often used to be a lot more two-way than it is in modern appropriation times, and figure out what that means for your worldbuilding.

~ Mod Lesya

[kazemon15]

Marinette, biracial and whitewashing

Okay, I have been seeing a lot of posts about Marinette Dupain-Cheng from the Miraculous Ladybug series. For those who don't know, Marinette is Half Chinese/Half French-Italian.

She has blue hair and blue eyes, so she looks more "white" than Chinese, but does still have some Asian features to her, albeit subtle. I have been seeing a lot of posts saying she is "whitewashed."

I want to address this because, like Marinette, I am also half Asian, and like Marinette, I have more prominent white features than Asian ones. I am half Vietnamese/Half Scottish-Irish.

I have light brown hair with red highlights due to my Irish side, light brown eyes and look more white than Vietnamese except for subtle Asian features, like straight hair and slightly slanted eyes.

I'm going to break this post up and address each issue.

Issue 1: "Marinette is white washed because she has blue eyes and blue hair! She looks white! Why couldn't they have given her brown eyes and black hair?!"

Okay...

For one thing, that isn't how genetics work. Even if one "gene" is more dominate than the other doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Like I said before, I have RED HIGHLIGHTS in my hair. When I'm in the sun, my hair in a certain angle looks red as heck. It doesn't mean I am any less biracial. I look more like my mom than my dad, who happens to be white.

I have a friend who is half white and half Mexican. She's as white as can be with dirty blonde hair and light HAZEL eyes. I didn't even know she was biracial until I met her mom, who happened to be so dark skinned, I thought she was black, with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair.

Biracial people can look exclusively white. If you don't believe me, look at Keanu Reeves. He's half Chinese and sure doesn't look like it! So yes. It is possible. I will also link some pictures of my family under a cut if no one believes me.

I also want to point out the hypocrisy of this statement. Anime. How many times have we seen anime characters with blonde hair and blue eyes? Yet no one seems to claim those characters are "whitewashed" and they have less chance of getting those features than a biracial person does!

People claim "that's different, it's a stylized choice" ...well, guess what. So is Marinette's blue hair. You can't say one thing for a media and then deny that for another. It's called being a hypocrite. It's even mentioned that Marinette's hair is actually a stylized black and serves as a homage to that kind of style in old comics.

At least Marinette has more chance of having blue eyes than Japanese anime characters, because, you know...she's BIRACIAL.

Issue 2: "Marinette doesn't know her Chinese culture or language/Sabine is a bad parent for not teaching her/She's whitewashed because she doesn't know her other half culture!"

It may come to a surprise to people, but this actually happens a lot. I don't know a lick of Vietnamese or about Vietnamese culture because my dad wanted it that way. He wanted me to fit in, so he never taught me any of it. Does that make him a bad parent? No, it doesn't. He was a great dad (he's long passed now), and I find it insulting that someone who thinks they don't teach their children about their culture is a bad parent. How about appreciating Marinette has kind and loving and supportive parents instead?

Issue 3: "Why make her biracial then if they are just going to whitewash her? What about representation?!"

Yeah... representation. It's still happening. I'm the one being represented. Someone who is biracial who looks white and doesn't know about her culture. Me. And I'm sure many others like it. Just because her "Asian" side isn't being represented as much, doesn't mean she isn't representing.

Issue 4: "Biracial people should look more like their non-white side than white side or else it's whitewashing! Miraculous writers are racist, because they are white!"

As I addressed before...looking exclusively white doesn't make biracial people any less biracial. By saying this and getting offended by "white-looking Marinette", you're basically telling people who look like Marinette that we don't exist or shouldn't exist.

You are invalidating our existence and that, in turn, actually makes you the racist. Being "white" isn't racist. It's just the way people are born. In a time where white supremacy is going around, it's hard to forget that white people can be the object of racism from other communities. It has happened to me A LOT.

Asians are actually EXTREMELY racist at times. I often went to the Asian market to get Asian food with my dad and Chinese friend. Because I was the only "white-looking" person there, I would get stares and whispers from the Asian Community. I have been told I don't "look Asian enough", so I have no say or opinion in how I feel about an Asian issue that involves me, just because I look "white."

ANY race can get racism directed at them, even white people. It's just not as often heard of because "white privilege" or something along those lines. Yes, white privilege exists, but it isn't always prominent. Sometimes white people are the ones who are setup by a minority and those quick to defend a minority will often believe the non-white person over the white person. It does happen.

That is all I have to say on this issue. Thank you all for reading. And as I said, here are some pictures of me and my family, further proving my claim that white looking Asian people do exist.

[iamanemotionaltimebomb]

Oh, that. That was a very interesting read and you raised a lot of great points.

I’m gonna add my two cents as a half Asian (Vietnamese specifically) and half Western kid. I don’t know if that qualifies me to be able to speak about this, but I’m going to anyway because I’ve got brain worms now. 

tl;dr: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with cultural differences among certain cybertronians (and I actually really like difference in cybertronian culture). But the keyword here should be cultural, not biological (or frametype I guess). 

now for the rant:

I think it actually makes sense that different cities on Cybertron or colonies of Cybertron would have their own unique cultures, and we do see this to a degree in canon media (Velocitrian and Caminus are probably the best example of this). And as an asian myself (albeit half) and someone who has grown up multicultural and multicultural cities, I actually really like it because I like that diversity. 

But again, I think people should be looking at culture, not alt-mode/biology. 

Assuming you go with a continuity that states ‘you are born/forged in specific alt mode’, I also think it makes some degree of sense that certain places have hotspots that have a tendency to generate certain alt modes more so then others. Maybe higher mercury content in a particular hotspot means you’re more likely to generate race cars or higher copper content means you’re more likely to develop minibots. This is something that does happen on Earth after all, albeit over years of evolution. 

Now, let’s apply Vos and Seekers to this: 

Vos may generate a higher number of seekers than other hotspots - but that doesn’t mean it will only generate seekers

Other alt mods will also be forged here, other cybertronians will move, work, live here, etc. (assuming  there isn’t a war or a super fascist government anyway)

Other alt modes, particularly ones forged in Vos, would most likely also follow Vos culture (although I think I should make a note as a mixed kid, it can be alienating being part of a culture but not actually seen as ‘part’ of it, this did actually get addressed by Breakdown/Knock Out in IDW 2005 and with the Terrans in Earthspark)

Not all seekers come from Vos - other seekers will be forged in other cities/colonies and (assuming that city/colony did not have a high influx of Vos migrants) would have their own culture and would probably not understand Vos culture (or at least not all aspects of it)

If you go with a continuity where protoforms/newsparks choose their altmodes instead, Vos could still have a higher influx of seekers because of other reasons. In the Aligned novels, Vos was actually made the Cybertronian air command base, which means it would naturally have a high number of fliers (regardless if they were seekers, helicopters, or a Boeing 777) who would most likely form their own culture. Depending on how long they lived/worked together, they would probably carry aspects of this culture even after they leave Vos. Trines could’ve also formed culturally because of the war, whether by choice or necessity (and would probably not even be unique to seekers either). I’m actually convinced Cybertronians as a whole species are like us in that they tend to packbond, regardless of the species (or alt mode).

Now, I didn’t actually interpret the whole “trine special spark bond thing” as orientalism personally. Maybe that’s naive of me, but I was introduced to the concept of spark-merging/bonding first, so I assumed all cybertronians could do this and it was a choice (or a necessity, say if you’re at war). or in some cases, such as split-sparks, it was a rare occurrence (or maybe even a forced one, they did some fucked up shit during the war, it wouldn’t surprise me if they figured out how to force spark-splitting). 

Those are all my brain worms, none of that probably made any sense, but whatever, I rambled. 

[yuyuntianyu]

[2HA analysis blog] To love you is torment but leave you I cannot

I wanted to write this (hopefully not-too-long) blog to give 2HA fandom a different perspective of the events in the past timeline. I noticed that there are many little things that could not be carried over to the English language. These little things can give more explanations to our characters’ actions so I hope sharing this would help the novel make more sense. This blog focuses on Taxian-jun and Chu Fei.

Warning: Spoilers ! ! ! Taxian-jun and Chu Fei are their own trigger warnings ! ! !

Despite the novel having 350 chapters, we really know little about what happened between Taxian-jun and Chu Fei besides the abuse and mistreatment and that little is relayed to us by the Most Unreliable Narrator of the Cultivation World - Mo Ran Mo Weiyu. If we only take Mo Ran for his words then a lot of his and Chu Wanning’s decisions told later on would seem irrational and almost silly. So let’s dive deep in the past so we can understand how the great cultivator Beidou Xian-zun could raise such a dumb husky since the events in the past would explain the more irrational decisions made by both main characters.

Given Mo Ran’s narrator is about as reliable as his character in the first 120 chapters, we have to look at other more subtle clues and some of them are due to cultural and linguistic differences.

1. I used to like you a lot

At his coronation day, Taxian-jun stated that he once greatly looked up to Chu Wanning and that he used to love and respect him dearly. Maybe I am reading into this too much but this is my theory: The flower could erase the memory itself but cannot erase the feelings associated with the memory. He had his memories of the good deeds Chu Wanning did for him erased but still remembered that he used to love and respect him. It doesn’t make sense unless it is indeed that the flower could not erase its host’s feelings. So throughout the novel, Mo Ran’s complicated emotions are complicated possibly because he could not remember how he came to have these feelings. Similarly, Hua Binan could mess with the undead Taxian-jun’s memory to a great extent but could not erase his obsession with Chu Wanning.

2. I gave you a new title

Chu Fei. 楚妃. In the Imperial Chinese harem hierarchy, “Fei” means consort and not concubine (嬪 “Pín"). Consorts were highly respected positions in the palace weidling much political power and were only seconds to the Empress Consort. Another major difference is a consort would be married to the emperor while a concubine would not. So if Taxian-jun had truly wanted to only humiliate Chu Wanning and keep him for the carnal pleasures (I am intentionally ignoring his breeding kink completely), he would keep him as a concubine but he gave Chu Wanning the Consort title and hid him from the world. At this point, Taxian-jun had almost lost Chu Wanning once and had spent a lot of effort to bring him back from the verge of death after hearing Chu Wanning’s apology so his anger might have softened a bit. Also, given that Chu Wanning is a man, having a legitimate offspring ( (I am still intentionally ignoring Mo Ran's breeding kink completely) is not an issue so although this is not clearly stated, I believe Taxian-jun wanted to force a relationship and somewhat proper marriage on Chu Wanning. Another hint of this is in an Extra chapter where Taxian-jun tried to get Chu Wanning a birthday gift. He recalled that in his past timeline, he had wanted Chu Wanning to give him something on his birthday as well and that he had wanted Chu Wanning’s heart.

3. Shizun likes to write letters and poems

On Book 3 Chapter 247, Chu Wanning sat down and wrote a few unsent letters to the people he used to know. He also wrote a few lines of poetry. In the first few lines taken from different literature works, he expressed his sense of helplessness and his wish to remain untainted despite the circumstances. The more important two lines are from a poem written by a real poet named Fàn Chéngdà ( 范成大) who lived in the 12th century Southern-Song dynasty. The two lines read:

“May I be like the stars, may you* be as the moon. Night after night, may we shine together side by side.” **

*In the original work, the character used instead of you is “jun” 君 (as in 踏仙君 Taxian-jun). 君 could mean king, emperor, lord, or gentleman ** This is my rough translation - I haven’t found an English version of this poem

These two lines are commonly used in romantic novels as a way to express one’s unchanging love and loyalty to another person despite the circumstances. He compared himself as the stars and wanted to remain by Taxian-jun whom he viewed as the moon. Chu Wanning wrote this to express his willingness to stay but he would never voice this out loud. In the next timeline, he did the same thing by quietly loving and caring for Mo Ran 1.0 despite the mistreatment and was content with never expressing his feelings vocally. Mo Ran was rather uneducated and thus could not fully comprehend these two lines and misunderstood that Chu Wanning was missing Xue Meng.

4. You are all I have left

In chapter 252, after Chu Wanning returned to The Red Lotus Pavilion, he found Taxian-jun already waiting for him. Taxian-jun told Chu Wanning about a dream he had and said:

“I am afraid I don’t resent you… I want to resent you… Otherwise, I…” “In the end, it’s just you and I”.

This is not the first time he expressed that Chu Wanning was all he had left or they only had each other. I believe that at this point, Taxian-jun might have somewhat believed Chu Wanning and recognized that his memories were missing. His words and behaviors seemed a lot more gentle and he mentioned they did have periods of time where their marriage was easier. I believe it was after this point. He told us about the numerous times he attempted to spoil his consort or expressed his affection through gifts, a trip outside the palace, goods, jewels, and even teaching Chu Wanning how to cook or personally taking care of Chu Wanning when he was sick. At one point, Taxian-jun expressed his wish for a more peaceful marriage with Chu Wanning through his breeding kink by saying that if they had children, perhaps they would be more civil towards each other.

Edit: I really wanted to go about this blog without having to refer to their particular taste in bed

5. Are you still mad?

This is a smaller detail but in the original text and the Vietnamese official translation, the way they talked to each other had a bit more of the “husband-wife” dynamic. Especially Chu Wanning ( l┐(︶▽︶)┌ ), the comment section said he sounded like when your wife is mad that you didn’t take out the trash but still says: “I’m not mad” and Taxian-jun, the husband, would come around and ask “Are you still mad at me?” after every fight.

6. I did not think you would really leave me.

On Chapter 99, Mo Ran recalled the fight between him and Chu Wanning after an assassination attempt. In order to convince Mo Ran to not go to Taxue Palace, Chu Wanning said:

“If you destroy Taxue palace, if you kill Xue Meng, I will die before you”.

Now the line “I will die before you” in my language is less of a suicidal ideation but more of a threat. It's used when a person already knows that they are important to the other person and is using their own death as a threat to make the other person do something. This line is thrown around a lot during heated arguments between people close to each other but they almost never mean it. (Even my mom said it numerous times before T_T . I personally think it’s manipulative). Therefore, it is understandable Taxian-jun did not take this line seriously and replied almost mockingly. After all, they had been married for almost a decade at that point, Taxian-jun probably felt somewhat comfortable that Chu Wanning would not do anything reckless. He could not foresee that Chu Wanning meant what he said and actually followed through with his words. I believe that if Taxian-jun had known that Chu Wanning was serious, Taxian-jun would not have gone to Taxue Palace. 7. Don't leave me, ok?

Then Chu Wanning died and Mo Ran spent two years alone. In those two years, we know he basically went insane because of grief, talked to a corpse everyday, and deep fried his Empress Consort. But strangely enough, Mo Ran 1.0 did not immediately mention this after being reborn although it was the main reason he committed suicide. And at that point, it had been well over a decade since Shi Mei faked his death in the past timeline, yet Mo Ran 1.0 seemed to still hold a lot of resentment towards Chu Wanning. Also, he said he could accept Shi Mei’s death but would never accept Chu Wanning’s. So honestly, it did not make sense to me the first time I read the novel and I believed Mo Ran resented Chu Wanning for a different reason.

The answer was first hinted at in chapter 9 when Mo Ran scolded the sleeping Chu Wanning. He called Chu Wanning a donkey hoof (lol) and this is actually an idiom to scold someone who is disloyal and unfaithful in love. The puzzles came together when the undead Taxian-jun showed up and immediately went after Chu Wanning (and not Shi Mei). He believed Chu Wanning used his death to hurt him and was angry at Chu Wanning for leaving him. This is the resentment Mo Ran 1.0 carried over to the next timeline. He hated Chu Wanning for abandoning him. This is solidified in chapter 262 by the undead Taxian-jun pleading to Chu Wanning:

“Don’t betray me” “Don’t leave me the second time. The first time you left, I could choose death as a relief. This time, even death is not an option any more… I won’t be able to bear it…”

So there it is! I hope this blog brings some new information and feel free to discuss! Let me know if you have any questions for me ＼(￣▽￣)／

Disclaimer: Plenty of this is my conclusion drawn from the already ambiguous original text and various translations. Unless Meatbun says it, it’s not canon. I am looking at the novel in three different languages so I might have made some mistakes. Pls forgive. Also, I am not making excuses for Mo Ran 0.5’s actions nor am I justifying the abuse in any way. Chu Wanning never said Mo Ran 0.5 was innocent of these crimes nor will I.

[cody-apexart]

Day 10

So i talked to my therapist and another Vietnamese person at the cultural meet up a couple days ago about the abortion horror movie-- they havn't seen it, but it sounds like its less about the topic of abortion and more about the Vietnamese culture and different religious view points around death, killing things, and karma. interesting ! anyway, I cried in therapy and then bought myself some yanyans and soju on the walk home. so fun to get a lil treat! like i felt good when i left, did some good thought exercises, or visualization therapy, whatever you wanna call it, but as i walked through the privately owned waterfront development that I had watched the sunset in the night before, back across the bridge to my side of the canal I was rly like 'holy shit fuck this world.' In NY i work in the building associated with Domino Park in Williamsburg, part of my salary is funded directly by the developers. This is a job I wouldn't be able to have in my own neighborhood, because if i was taking payment from the developers causing displacement in my own neighborhood, i think a lot of the people i advocate and organize with would stop fucking with me or taking me seriously. I feel pretty bad about it, like why is it okay I work a job in Williamsburg, where i dont live, that I would never work in my hometown of Flushing? That is to say that making me go to therapy in the private waterfront mega development is like a cruel joke. like, the first thing i clocked when I came here was these six huge towers on the other side of the canal, and now u send me to cry about my feelings there?? maybe i'm a little too sensitive to the impacts of luxury waterfront development, because as you may be able to tell, advocacy around displacement and waterfront development actually consumes all my free time. also btw, the therapist confirmed the waterfront access is privately owned, as I assumed. Every time i cross over the canal it takes all my energy to not climb down this ladder under the bridge. I need to keep reminding myself i am a stranger in a strange land and should probs not trespass. but if i were in my own neighborhood, i wouldn't think twice.

the motorbike food tour tonight was fun. in my art practice i give a lot of tours, but always forget i'm a tour guide, until i tell someone about what I do and they're like "so you're a tour guide?" Me and my student tour guide vibed about the pains of touring people around. it was a fun experience, and funny to see how him and his other tour guide co-workers kinda just circle around each other with diff tourists throughout the evening-- all the tours start at the same time and go to the same places. he said they go to the same places every night, he's been eating the same food with tourist 3-4 times a week every week for 3 months since hes had this job. if i were a local i would probably find this method of touring incredibly annoying. He took me to the Thích Quảng Đức statue commemorating the monk that burned alive in the street advocating for religious freedom. He noted that the photos of the event that were distributed globally in the 1960's edit out the gas canister because it makes it look more profound and like he acted alone. You can see the bad 1960's photoshop blur in the left side of the image under the car tier. super interesting note on propaganda. Im glad I didn't come here without a guide, i would not have known that. I asked if this act of protest was effective, and if it worked to get what the Buddhist community wanted-- he said it got global eyes on the issue due to the distribution of the images. I mentioned to him that an american guy burned himself alive on the supreme court steps because of climate change last year, he was very surprised that there was basically no media coverage of that and he had not heard about it.

The tour groups kept circling around one another when we arrived at a public housing complex. we were basically walking through the projects taking photos, like honestly not a nice thing to be making a spectacle out of the people living in public housing projects. all these tour groups climbed 2-3 flights of stairs and walk around these peoples front doors, it happens every night. super obnoxious tbh. perhaps regrettably, I couldn't help but snap some pics, the lanterns were still up from the tet holiday, and the lighting was just right. These types of developments are what the book im reading is about, titled "building socialism: the afterlife of east german architecture in urban vietnam". I shared a photo of the cover before, these buildings look almost identical.

He pointed out the water tower and then we left.

[landonsvietnameselitblog]

Reflections on a Year of Reading Vietnamese Literature

Titles Read:

Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen

Book of Salt by Monique Truong

Monkey’s Bridge by Lan Cao

Word Count: 695

Getting to spend a year reading Vietnamese literature definitely helped me connect with my heritage more, especially as I was able to learn some new words since I’m not too familiar with the language. It was comforting to see some Vietnamese words mixed in with English, and the names of foods that I frequently enjoy. Some common themes include family and assimilating into the United States. Some of the novels I read included characters who had to immigrate to the U.S. for better opportunity, but in doing so, they had to face racism and microaggressions. The characters would have to adopt aspects of American culture in order to fit in, but language and food would be aspects that they would try to keep. Family is a big element because it’s often the only thing they have when everything is lost. Even if there is separation or tension, they often look back to family for comfort at some point. Another common element is having a setting in France, or Paris specifically. This is likely due to Vietnam having a history of being colonized by the French, so there is some connection and glorification there. Some of the main characters have connections with France so the setting takes place there at times.

What I learned from Things We Lost to the Water was that happiness is a relative thing. At first, all of the different family members enjoyed each others’ presence, but eventually the children began to grow up and go on their own path. One brother joined a gang, but ended up turning his life around and getting a girlfriend. Another brother would do well in school and want to travel to Paris, but he was hit with disillusionment and got into an unhappy relationship. All of the character’s fates were different and they were able to shape it by following their own self interests. In the end though, the only thing that is permanent is relationships with others, which is seen as their home being ravaged by a hurricane.

What I learned from Stealing Buddha’s Dinner was the importance of being in tune with your culture, even if it’s just with food. I loved the fact that every chapter was named after a different food, and each chapter was an interesting story about the author’s life. I saw the importance of building your own identity and not trying to be like everyone else, as tempting as it may be. I was also validated on some experiences of being a Vietnamese American.

What I learned from Book of Salt was that it’s important to create memorable experiences because they can guide you in life. The main character is constantly looking back to conversations he had with family members or former relationships to help guide his current decisions. He often faces things that knock him down, such as getting fired from his employer, but then he gets right back up on his feet and perseveres. 

What I learned from Monkey’s Bridge was that nothing is permanent. The main character faces many traumatic experiences, such as the war, her mother being terribly injured, and her father suddenly dying.  As a child, these are things that she didn’t expect, especially as her family would be perfectly fine the day before. However she would have to move on and continue to grow as a person, for example wanting to pursue a college education. 

In general, I learned that I was capable of making daily commitments. Especially for the beginning of the year, I was incredibly consistent, and there was always an urge in the back of my mind to get it done if I suddenly forgot. I also learned that I am actually quite fond of novels and memoirs. I usually don’t read books unless it’s for a school assignment, so it was nice to explore some different genres and see what I liked. I was also able to learn about a lot of the general experiences of what it was like to immigrate to the U.S., and that things like microaggressions in school aren't uncommon. Overall, I formed better habits and learned more about my own culture.

[a-la-la-llama]

The One Where Marinette Meets Her 2nd Wayne #6

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 7

  Panic. Panic wasn’t an uncommon feeling but one that was not welcomed. She had felt it everyday in Paris. The alarms with their high pitched screeches alerting everyone of the danger. That it was time for their heroes’ to come out and save the day like every time beforehand. Akuma alarms were something she was all for but the sounds they made terrified Marinette to her core. Yet, this wasn’t what was causing her to freak out. No, it was something else entirely but the same amount of panic.

Marinette was running late to school. Her first day of school.

You would think she would have kicked the habit but Marinette still couldn’t get her life together enough to wake up with her alarm.

‘Maybe she should change the ringtone to an akuma alarm? That would surely get her out of bed.”, she thought while hopping down the sidewalk pulling her sock up.

Once secured just below her knee, Marinette took off into a sprint towards her school.

‘If I changed it into an akuma alarm I might transform and jump out my window half-asleep.’, she reasoned with herself.

Slowing her speed down to a fast walk, Marinette started her way towards her first class. She had just toured this god-forsaken building and couldn’t remember for the life of her where to go! Everything looked so different with students now in the hallways, most taller than her. Seriously, what did people in America eat? Everyone looked like they grew like weeds.

Focus! She stared at her schedule shuffling her feet to ensure she didn’t trip. Shifting her gaze just above the paper to avoid bodies coming towards her Marinette began to commit it to memory. There must have been a crowd because she got stuck behind people not walking and had to maneuver her way past all of them. What she didn’t realize was that they were surrounding someone. Then she walked straight into that someone.

///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~///~

  Damian was anything but a ‘happy camper’ this morning. Jon had left that summer on some out of this world mission for who knows how long. His father no longer wanted him to attend the school the two had previously gone to and transferred him to one closer to home. It was his first year of high school and to add to it, he was given the task of babysitting one of Selina’s pets. So no, he was not looking forward to this school year. As if it couldn't get worse, many of Gotham’s Academy's students knew of his name and decided that the best way to interact was to gawk. Seriously, Damian was only rich; it's not like he was an idol or something. He was trudging his way to his class when he felt something ram straight into his back.

‘Breath. Father would be disappointed if you snapped at a fellow student on the first day’, he told himself. Luckily, the person who ran into him spoke before he could insult her.

  Marinette was panicking. Again! Isn't she carrying the goddess of luck in her backpack? Why is her life so unlucky? Not only did she bump into someone, they were super tall compared to her. They were also the person the crowd had been surrounding. Which in turn meant they were important. So what did Marinette do?

“Je suis vraiment désolé monsieur! Je ne voulais pas faire ça, mais je dois y aller!”, she rushed out before walking past him.

( Translation: I'm very sorry sir! I didn't mean to do that, but I must get going! )

Why did she speak in French! Stupid fight or flight instincts making her switch to her native language. Hopefully no one paid attention and wouldn’t question her on it. Cover story, cover story, think of your cover story. Oh who was she kidding, Marinette couldn’t lie to save her life!

  She calmed down before entering the classroom. The desks were the standard science class tables and you were supposed to sit with a partner much like Ms. Mendeleive’s class back in Paris. Most students already knew others from previous grades so it would be easier for her to stay out of peoples ways for now. Her mind drifted back to Paris as she claimed an empty seat. They would have already started school last week. Could they be struggling on the information? Hawkmoth interrupted a lot of school days with his akuma’s. Then again, it was only Ms. Bustier’s class that ever ran off then followed the school's protocols. Alya who would risk anything for the scoop. Lila or Cholé would run because they would be the main targets. Her and Adrien would have run to transform and defeat them.

Marinette knew the Kwami magic protected their identity but she still kicked herself for not recognizing it until Adrien detransformed in front of her. He was very upset that she took his ring without giving him her identity. Adrien eventually understood that as Grand Guardian it would be a liability.

  The bell ringing drew her back to reality as she turned back to what the teacher was saying.

“ Good morning, everyone! I’m Ms. Jones and I’ll be your Pre-AP Biology teacher this year. I’ll call roll while you guys get out your science journals! Be sure to say ‘here’ when I say your name.”, she explained.

Marinette pulled her black bag onto her lap and smiled as she took out the 3-subject spiral. The Kwami’s had encouraged her to make a bag to carry the box back in Paris. It was a simple backpack but had the symbol for each Kwami. Tikki explained the symbols were forms of blessings. Like how Master Fu’s box actually represented prosperity in Chinese culture. Each Kwami symbol gave her blessings, like good luck and protection with Tikki and Wayzz. It even had a false bottom where the condensed version of her Ladybug egg fit. Neither she nor the kwami’s wanted to leave it at the apartment all day. So she sewed some extra material to cover it and put all her school supplies on top. Setting it back down under her desk, she flipped to the first page of her journal. She said here when her name was called and tuned out until Ms. Jones started speaking again.

  “Now that I have taken attendance, feel free to talk to your neighbor while I hand out this year's syllabus! These will be your seats until the end of the six-weeks.”, the teacher announced. This would have been fine for Marinette if it wasn’t for who decided to sit next to her. She turned in her seat to meet the boy from the hallway.

“Je m'appelle Damian. Ravi de vous rencontrer.”, he said. In French.

“I can speak English. My name is Marinette, again sorry for running into you! There were just so many people, some weren’t even moving and I wasn’t paying attention and I am rambling. Sorry.”, she muttered with a shy smile at the end.

“It’s quite alright. May I ask what caused the language change? Usually I make the mistake when I am passionate about something. Though, I don’t think you are passionate about apologizing.”, Damian asked.

  This could go two ways. She could admit she was terrified of him or play it cool and stick to her backstory?

The latter of the two for sure!

“This is my first time in Amer- real school! I have been homeschooled until now. I got nervous about what I was supposed to say, overthinked, and reverted to my first language.”, Marinette explained.

He let out a hum as the teacher put the syllabus on their desk with information on the class, tutorials, and how to contact her. They were told to glue or tape it onto the first page.

“So, your language trigger is the feeling of being overwhelmed. How many do you know?”, he asked.

“I guess you could say that. For sure French, English, and Mandarin. I learned the basics of Japanese and Vietnamese for old acquaintances. Oh, and Italian because of my grandmother!”, she exclaimed. The Guardian language couldn’t be mentioned but that made seven.

  That’s what they did in their free time. The two talked about everything they knew and had learned. Turns out they both were ahead than normal students, but Marinette knew she was anything but normal. They actually had five of the seven classes together. Neither he or she knew sign-language so that was deemed a fun class to Marinette. American school was not as bad as Marinette had thought it would be as she walked to work.

  She tied her apron on before starting her task of meeting each plant's needs. The Daisies were already complaining about how thirsty they were and begged to be water.

“Ah, Hello Mari-gold! Wasn’t today your first day of school?”, Ivy questioned.

Marinette grabbed the water mister, “Yup!”

‘Well, how was it? Harley and Selina would want to know.”, she continued.

“Hmm. It was great! The clubs will be opening in two weeks so I plan to join an art one. Do we have more plant food in the back?”, Marinette said.

“Yes, just behind flower pots. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”, answered Ivy.

“I think I’ll have to start packing lunch, however. I know it’s an academy but the cafeteria food is still terrible.”, she joked.

“Yeah, I think it’s just a school thing. Oh, that reminds me, Harley wants to bake more of those cookies with you. I quote, ‘I would totally adopt her if we had more room at our place just for cookies.’ She has a serious love of chocolate chips!”, sighed out Ivy.

“While the thought is nice, I have to decline the adoption. How does Friday sound?”, Marinette laughed.

“Perfect!”

Guess What! I actually have the outline for this story and how it will end and everything! Now I just have to write it all... T . T

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