#JingWen

[nexthlive]

Introducing 10 Chinese Models

[rrainbowwarriorr]

[wangmiao]

New character posters for the most anticipated crime cdrama of the year - 白夜破晓/Season 2 of Day and Night

[idolsgeneration]

[prplocks]

✧❁ wallpaper 〴 top girls ˗ˏˋ ´ˎ˗

reblog if you save ➳

༶•┈┈┈┈┈┈୨♡୧┈┈┈┈┈•༶

[dare-g]

The New King of Comedy (2019)

[artstationable]

Jingwen Yuan

Concept Artist

artstation

More from «Artstation» here

[lxh-arts]

小雪~ || Xiaoxue~ || Lesser Snow~

The year's best scenery you must remember,

Is the tangerines gold and green.

- Northern Song Dynasty, SU Shi, For LIU Jingwen

[mxtxfanatic]

For the ask game, TGCF please?

Alright, here we go!

Favorite Character: Xie Lian, hands down.

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: the cave of 10,000 gods in the main story as of now, but it used to be the Cave extra (the cave events are just blessed 😇), with the amnesia extra being a real close second/third

Character I Think is Underrated: also Xie Lian. There's too much Xie Lian disrespect in this fandom 😤

Character I Think is Overrated: Mu Qing (does this need an explanation?)

Favorite Ship/Pairing: Hualian. Shoutout to the revisions adding in JingWen (or WenJing?) tho!

Something I Love About the Book: I really love how it shows individuals hitting their absolute lowest but still willfully choosing to remain true to themselves and their morals. I love how the book honors that, which is why I love mxtx novels!

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 1/5

Book Blurb:

Genres collide in this dark and atmospheric reimagining of 1930s Shanghai for fans of Nghi Vo and S. A. Chakraborty.

Jingwen spends her nights as a showgirl at the Paramount, one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai, competing ruthlessly to charm wealthy patrons. To cap off her shifts, she runs money for her grandmother, the exclusive surgeon to the most powerful gang in the city. A position her grandmother is pressuring her to inherit…

When a series of dancers are targeted—the attacker stealing their faces—Jingwen fears she could be next. And as the faces of the dancers start appearing on wealthy foreign socialites, she realizes Shanghai's glittering mirage of carefree luxury comes at a terrible price.

Fighting not just for her own safety but that of the other dancers—women who have simultaneously been her bitterest rivals and only friends—Jingwen has no choice but to delve into the city's underworld. In this treacherous realm of tangled alliances and ancient grudges, silver-armed gangsters haunt every alley, foreign playboys broker deals in exclusive back rooms, and the power of gods is wielded and traded like yuan. Jingwen will have to become something far stranger and more dangerous than her grandmother ever imagined if she hopes to survive the forces waiting to sell Shanghai's bones.

Review:

A reimagining of 1930s Shanghai with a touch of gangster historical fantasy mixed in. The story follows a showgirl who spends her nights dancing in one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai while competing to charm wealthy men. Yet her world of glitz and glamour hides something darker... as girls are being attacked and killed and she'll have to navigate the world of ancient grudges, gangsters, and foreign playboys. Honestly this book sounded so fantastic and fun but ran into the issue that I found many historical books have: it was boring. The book somehow manages to both overexplain and underexplain things. The world is beautiful I will absolutely give the author that, however the actual book itself felt a bit bland and not enough of the characters were actually well fleshed out or interesting. I so badly wanted to like this but it just missed the mark for me. The book mixes in historical crime fantasy with gods and deities and its definitely slow burn. I really just found myself not caring for the main character who's entire personality was : dance, despite going through so many horrific things and then there's the love interest who really didn't even feel like one. Overall, if you enjoy slow slow burn historical books with a touch of romance and crime, I'd say give it a go!

Release Date: June 18,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[lonepower]

i just realized i didn't show yall bg3!Hipaali-! i still prefer her skyrim/li jingwen face but I think she came out pretty cute regardless (◡‿◡✿)

[fayewonglibrary]

"Chesspiece" - A clever metaphor for the dilemma of love (2015)

Composer : Yang Minghuang Lyricist: Pan Liyu Singer: Faye Wong Arranger: Tu Ying Producer: Yang Minghuang Album: Sky Published: 1994 Publishing Company: Decca Interviewees: Pan Liyu / Tu Ying / Huang Guilan Author: Wang Jingxin

"Chesspiece" from Faye Wong's 1994 album "Sky" was a popular mainstream ballad. But it was the good kind that contained new ideas and creativity.

Twenty years have passed and "Chesspiece" is still fresh and worth savoring over and over again. Pan Liyu wrote its lyrics which elaborated on the well-known old expression: "A true gentleman should keep silent while watching a game of chess. A real man doesn't redo his turn once he lets go of the chesspiece." She wrote: "You never hesitated though moves can never be redone. Yet I am still under the control of your hand..."

The song compares humans to chesspieces and uses this metaphor to cleverly describe the dilemma of love. In addition, the memorable melody by the late producer Yang Minghuang is coupled with Tu Ying's intense and gorgeous string arrangement which does not overwhelm the song. Faye Wong's restrained yet emotionally charged vocal performance can easily conquer every pair of discerning ears. It is not only one of Faye Wong's most popular ballads but also one of the most highly rated singles of all time in the Chinese music industry.

Pan Liyu said that the lyrics of "Chesspiece" were developed from a single line in her notebook: "I am not a general in your eyes, but an insignificant soldier." She said that at that time, she was working as a planner at Decca Records and had no time to write songs. She could only use her off-duty time to try and write lyrics, including trivial time such as walking and waiting for the bus. As soon as she got inspiration, she immediately wrote it down in a notebook. "When I woke up in the middle of the night, I would suddenly get an idea, and I would get up and write it in my notebook." "Chesspiece" was just a single line in her notebook when she suddenly got inspiration. "I usually have a humorous personality, but when I write songs, I become more serious." Pan Liyu said this with a smile. Such a contrast may also have caused her to rarely write happy songs. In 1994 , Faye Wong, who was still known as Wang Jingwen, came to Taiwan and released her first Mandarin album "Mystery". It mostly contained adaptions of her Cantonese songs into Mandarin, plus the original song "I'm Willing". More thought was put into the planning and production of her second Mandarin album "Sky".

Huang Shujun, Xu Changde, and Wang Zhongyan were invited to write lyrics for this album. Huang Gui-Lan wrote 'Sky' and 'Shadow', while Pan Liyu remembered the line from her notebook, "I am not a general in your eyes, but an insignificant soldier". With a line that compared people to objects, she wrote "Chesspiece" and gave it to Yang Minghuang to compose the music.

"Mr. Yang used triple meter to write the song. I didn't realize that the rational and emotional triple meter melody would bring the lyrics to life. The beautiful melody brought out the words 'field', 'battle', 'trap', 'dilemma' and other phrases, and made the words jump out from the chessboard." Pan Liyu smiled when recalling: "The demo was sung by Yang Minghuang in female keys. I was scared when I heard it for the first time and I thought it was so scary for Mr. Yang to sing in female keys. The first time I heard it, I didn’t feel it, I couldn’t get into it. The second time I heard it, I thought the melody was very beautiful and it would definitely be a hit.”

"Chesspiece" also had an episode [behind-the-scenes]. Pan Liyu's original lyrics were: "I don't have the power to decide whether to win or lose ." Yang Minghuang changed the word 'power' to 'courage' . "He felt that 'courage' was more suitable and asked if I could change it and I said of course." Emil Chau Wakin's version of "Chesspiece" in 1996 was the most "authentic" [re-sung with the original lyric]. "Mr. Yang also asked me to revise the last two lines. I changed the last two lines to: "You never hesitated though moves can never be redone. Yet I am still under the control of your hand..." only after Faye Wong was done recording." This seemed to give the song a perfect ending.

Huang Guilan added that Yang Minghuang originally composed "Chesspiece" as an allegro. "He attached great importance to the composition of the entire album. He felt that the album needed such a composition. Seeing the potential of "Chesspiece", I tried my best to persuade him to change it to a slower tempo, which is more suitable for the artistic conception of the lyrics." Huang Guilan's suggestion turned the fast song "Chesspiece", which might have been only a B-side, into a No. 1 song on the A-side. And it was given a chance to become one of the main hit songs.

Looking back on "Chesspiece", Pan Liyu emphasized, "The most important thing is to thank Huang Guilan for giving me the opportunity to write lyrics. She is a noble person in my life. She also encourages younger generations who are interested in creating lyrics to write lyrics first. When writing lyrics, you must first set the theme of the lyrics. If you have the theme first, then you can pursue the ideas and wonderful words and sentences. Only when you move yourself can you move others. The most important thing is that you must write!"

The arranger Tu Ying said that the rhythm of this song was indeed relatively rare back then. Therefore, some effort was made to make the song not so stale and heavy. They hoped for some refreshing elements, so he added string orchestration in LA, which added a light but spacious feeling to the song. He also recalls his experience working with Yang Minghuang, "Yang Minghuang was always a producer with a strong musical vision and the ability to communicate clearly, so I didn't have to worry about anything else when working with him, I just needed to focus on the music." 　　 The combination of 'Sky' and 'Chesspiece' made the album 'Sky' sell like hotcakes from the end of 1994 to 1995. The success of "Chesspiece" also led to the emergence of many triple-meter songs in the market, which enriched the auditory level of ballads.

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SOURCE: MUSIC COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF CHINESE TAIPEI // TRANSLATED BY: FAYE WONG FUZAO

[rrainbowwarriorr]

[conjuringturns]

wang qiong as rumpleteazer, liu shiyu as noilly prat, and xu jingwen as tantomile, china 2012 (x)

[idolsgeneration]