#am i going on a chinese drama roll now is that it? i'm not actually complaining 😂

[firstdove15]

I've only known Wei Li and Hao Jia for forty minutes but if anything were to happen to them...well...you know the rest. :P

[randomingoftherandomness]

Your top 10 c-actors and top 10 c-actresses?

Oooo hm. I'll be honest with you and say that I don't actually watch as much Chinese dramas as people might think haha... It takes a very special premise to pull me in and even then, I usually don't end up liking 70% of whatever is on and abandoning it by the 3rd episode.

That said, I'm going to limit my picks to the top 5 off the top my head in each category. These are actors and actresses who, by virtue of their names being attached to a project, will get me interested in making it to episode 5 and of whom I have watched more than 2 projects that they've been a part of.

Actors

Leo Wu

Our family's Fei Liu 🥰 I know, I know. Didi is the furthest thing from Fei Liu these days, but in my mind, he'll forever be Fei Liu and there's a huge part of me that will always adore him for that. Throughout the years, his projects have been a hit or a miss with me. Either I'll like them or I won't. Which is what I like. I don't want to like everything my faves are part of.

Joseph Zeng

(Look at that happy baby hahaha)

I can't remember which project I first saw him in, or how he even pinged on my radar. But before I knew it, I'd watched three of his dramas and I was about to watch more.

Qin Hao

THIS. DUDE. He's such a powerhouse of an actor and I AM--

He chooses some of the most intense projects and I'm so, so here for them. There's this magnetic quality to the way he acts and every time I get to see him onscreen, I'm absolutely mesmerised. I also have to be honest and say that I haven't had a change to work through his body of work, but I think it's just a matter of time (and mental space) before I do.

Liu Yuning

I believe some moots on this hellsite have had front row seats to my thirsting of this tall, thin, sassy da ge and I won't apologise for any of it. 100//10 would climb him in a heartbeat.

I fell for his voice first before I even knew his face (花开早 天知晓 天莫笑 天亦老~~!!!) and then I saw his face and BAM. Goner. Goodbye ovaries. You might be thinking, oh Gab you're just horny on main for him, to which I will say, yes, yes I am. Isn't that reason enough for me to have gone watch the variety show he was on WITHOUT SUBS. My banana ass went through a lot for this man ok? That's love.

Zhang Linghe

HIM. Saw him in Maiden Holmes. Watched how he acts with his eyes. Okay. Sold. Over the last couple of years, the one drama I really wanted to see him in was the TGCF live action adaptation, which as we all will know, won't be seeing the light of day any time soon. He was actually on my fancast list for Hua Cheng and I was pretty gratified when they announced that he was taking on the role.

He's been doing well for himself and I've liked him the dramas that have caught my eye, and I look forward to what he will bring to the table next. Even if he had been, unfairly in my opinion, saddled with this perception that his dramas have a difficult time getting to air.

Actress

Zhao Liying

Zhao Liying is someone with a face that is so sweet that you'd go into her projects thinking that she's going to portray one type of character then getting body slammed into a spiral of a drama length like The Story of Minglan.

Zhao Lusi

This woman is on track to being the best actress of her generation. Period. You can't fight me on this because you know I'm right.

She's an absolute powerhouse and there's this sense about her that she isn't afraid to get ugly, go roll in the mud and get dirty just to portray a character. I love that about her. There's just this sense of joy to watch her act because she's not just embodying the character, she IS the character. I wouldn't be surprised if her international audience reach is really big because it's what a Queen like her deserves.

Tian Xiwei

Now, she is someone that I never thought I would be into. But I think the dimples should have been a good indication that I was gonna get suckered into her projects and for that, I'm glad. I've only seen bits and bobs of three of her projects, but if the way that I am actually intrigued by the projects she takes on is any clue, I think I'll be sufficiently entertained.

Liu Mintao

Every time I see her, I wanna just be on my knees and call her Mother.

She is absolutely fantastic in every role she takes on. The gentle but steely Consort Jing in Nirvana in Fire? The nurturing and protective Ming Jing in The Disguiser? Check and Check. Love her. I low key think she's a chameleon. Her body of work speaks to the quality of her acting.

Esther Yu

(listen. LISTEN. I HAD TO INCLUDE ONE OF THE HOTTEST KISS SCENES IN CDRAMALAND THAT ISN'T A DEAD FISH LIPS SITUATION OK)

The first time she ever pinged on my radar, it was because of her antics with Lisa from Blackpink during her Produce days. Found her cute and endearing, but that was it. And then came Love Between Fairy and Devil. Without knowing, I fell in love with her charms. She is another actress I think isn't afraid to own being neck deep in the nitty and gritty and not looking perfect. I'm very interested to see what sort of projects she takes on, and judging by her Yun Weishan in My Journey to You, I think there'll be much to anticipate.

[bmodiwrites]

Be My Little Baby

Hi friends! I'm here with a small little ficlet that's been stuck in my brain since I heard the song Be My Baby on American Dad. Its broken my writers block so here's hoping it's the start to more things to come. I'll probably do a second part so comment if you want to be on the tag list. Check out a snippet of Be My Little Baby down below - then check out the rest on AO3!

“Tonight’s the night!”

Steve couldn’t stop the grin manifesting on his face – Robin’s words were like music washing over him, radiating throughout his head in the best of ways. Despite being eager and overly excited by their prospect all day, Steve waited until he walked through his apartment door to truly experience the anticipation. The thought of finally going out on date with Eddie already proved to be too much of a distraction; actually allowing himself to acknowledge its occurrence in just a couple of feeble hours would’ve been his doom.

The time at Family Video already moved glacially – looking forward to something always slowed the time suck of his shift down even further.

Home now, Steve allowed the palpable giddiness to finally wash over him. He tossed his keys onto the small table right by the front door, not evening excitement breaking his routine. They landed with a satisfying rattle right where he always left them. Rolling off of that minor, yet fulfilling success, Steve shouldered out of his vest with a sigh before joining Robin on the couch.

As she turned towards him, eyes like pinpricks, Steve took in the rest of his surroundings. The musky scent of weed hit his nostrils, making the smile on his face spread a little wider. “Looks like you’re in for a wild Friday night yourself,” Steve said while reaching out to grab the small glass bowl sitting in Robin’s hands. Her glossy eyes widened for a moment, Steve’s joke settling in.

“I am right where I want to be for the rest of the evening. I even brought out the good Chinese menus.” Her long arm shot out to point at the stack of paper flyers sitting on the coffee table. Like she said, their favorite place’s offerings sat on top.

“Besides, I didn’t want to do anything too crazy. If you need emotional support or whatever, I want to be readily available.” The smirk she sent his way meant Steve wouldn’t have a moments peace until he gave her all the details… the second he walked back through the door.

Though, after months of listening to him pining, Steve figured Robin earned the right to a little dirt hot off the press.

“You’re just too nosy for your own good. Tonight’s going to be great. If I’m extra lucky, I won’t make it back to suffer your questioning until tomorrow morning.” Waggling his eyebrows, Steve flicked the lighter he picked up off the couch cushion to ignite the freshly ground green just waiting to be smoked. The satisfying rush of heat hitting the back of his throat had Steve closing his eyes, really savoring the burning drag. Despite his projected confidence, nerves were bubbling away under Steve’s skin – the immediate head swim of a recognizable high was the perfect medicine.

There was some idle chit chat as they passed the bowl back and forth every now and then the following few minutes. Robin was high enough to expose a handful of new details about her quickly escalating crush on their neighbor two doors down, pulling Steve’s mind away from Eddie and their night together perfectly. His best friends drama always sucked him in.

Check out the rest on AO3!

I'm tagging some peeps I know always enjoy the work! Let me know if you want added/removed for part two: (@writer-in-theory, @thefreakandthehair, @infinite-orangepeel)

[emrinalex]

Dear Xiao Zhan & Wang Yibo,

Hi. You don't know me because I am a slightly eccentric, white, retired lady with a spoiled Shih Tzu and dubious eyesight...but i digress.

As you two may recall, you both shot to fame in The Untamed (or CQL, as you probably know it better).

I watched your show in 2022, at which time I could not spell Beijing, let alone find it on a map.

Actually, it turns out - amusingly enough - i had the entire country of China in the wrong place in the map in my head (the same one where Reno NV is 5 miles from Las Vegas)!

I had China & Mongolia and Siberia/Russia completely flipped about. Who knew the Himalayas weren't near Shanghai! Not me!

Anyway,

Where was I? Oh, your live drama series. I'm a pushover for cute people in hanfu. And, see, I know translations are tricky to do well & can be awful (looking at you, Netflix).

So, i thought to myself, oh, it was somewhere in Episode 20 (around the time i wanted to punch Wei Ying in the face for being mean to Lan Zhan who had just spent 3 looooonng months in the wilderness with Jiang Cheng, aka "Grumpy Bro").

I thought: Self, if you could learn a bit of modern Chinese, you wouldn't be dependent on subtitles!

Yes! A brilliant idea!

And then i thought: Self, if you knew some Chinese history and some things about Chinese politics and culture, both ancient & modern, why if you did that, the drama (and Lan Zhan's speech patterns) would make more sense!

So, i hit the library. I googled. I watched history vids. I read articles.

And here we are, 2 years later, and I am still clueless why calling Lan Zhan "gege" (elder brother) is such a turn- on, but then, I don't get all the biting either. I just roll with it. Kind of like Wei Ying.

Fun fact: The Yangtze River is 6300 km long. It flows from a height of 5 km in the mountains all the way to Shanghai, where it dumps into the ocean in the same place it has for the last 11 million years. Except the Three Gorges Dam (built on ancient earthquake subsidence and fault lines) is stopping the silt from flowing into the area, so eventually poor Shanghai is going to sink beneath the rising tides of climate change. (Sure hope you guys don't own real estate there. Unless you want to swim in your livingroom).

Then there were oracle bones, the meaning of li, Confucious, chengyu, & the entire Han Dynasty, which gave me my favorite emperor, who is (given name) Liu Bang (劉邦). He was not a noble or even gentry. He schmoozed his way, more or less, into a job as a county deputy sheriff who was kind of lazy and drank a lot. A screw up (probably his) in a group prisoner transfer led to him becoming a war lord & then emperor of China. What's not to love!

So, thanks for it all, guys. I started out just wanting to fan girl you, and now I'm at least half-way into an associate degree in China, um, stuff. A bit eccentric of me, yes, but it keeps me off the streets and out of the pool halls, so i can't complain.

[mandajiu]

Prosecution Elite might might might be March 12th - let's chew responsibly, but it looks possible.

I just like the number here for 88's ad. Speaking of 88, we just found out this stealthy lass made a move and wen in Paris at the end of January. The CP fans are going haywire trying to arrange their imagined itineraries for this period. Either way, we love our 3088 together or on separate paths.

From 30, we have lots going on. They finally opened the Weibo for what was formerly referred to as In the Blizzard or During the Snowstorm

Now, the name is - I honestly don't like it and hope it changes because it's the name of a historical romance novel from the US and like super cheezey.

Drum Roll Please: Yes, you read it correctly....

Amidst a Snowstorm of Love

Gah, why? Love Storm is okay, In the Blizzard, In the Snowstorm, Love in the Time of the Blizzard...so many choices but this? (Love is not actually in the Mandarin title of the novel)

Mandarin title: 在暴雪时分

copy for wb search :电视剧在暴雪时分

Pinyin: Diànshìjù zài bàoxuě shífēn

电视 - TV

剧 - drama

在 - Exist/here used as prep "in/at"

暴雪 - Blizzard

时分 - Time

CHARACTERS

The male lead is our 30 who will play 林亦扬

Pronunciation: Lín yì yáng

林 - Forest/Woods common surname

1st Name might be from surname Yang; unclear as I've not read the book

Now for the female lead of Amidst a Snowstorm of Love is Zhao Jin Mai who will be playing the character Yin Guo 殷果

Pronunciation: Yīn guǒ

殷 - Surname, tonal variant Yin3 is thunder （makes me think of 88's dance during TLB - jinglei was it）, and Yin1 flourishing

果 - Fruit, result

There's a lot more tea in the next post, literally and figuratively.

There will be lots of abilities for 30 to reference his favorite number 8, so go crazy 30. Worrying been seeing lots of 4 and 9 which is unusual although I'm told 49 is a positive number. We might have to prepare ourselves for a fall, which is okay; remember card candy is still hard candy and we don't have much to rely on with our CP though we have far less p pictures than most. In the end we support our imaginary couple and trust their decisions.

Encouragingly the first post this morning I saw was of 88 and blueberries again - remember, Lei fans are called blueberries; so if they are be (real) then how cute, right?

The color scheme this time seems to be blue boy/ red girl which is Chinese couple colors (could also be sheep who is blue - hey we don't know). I AM doubtful that it is blue and green though -that's a serious stretch from the normally colorblind crew that can't tell pink from purple. It might reflect the possible direction of Amidst a Snowstorm since ZJM's cheering color is - you guessed it - PURPLE lol so blue and green or emojis for pool make more sense)

[shijiujun]

hey so uh, it's 110% Not Your Job, but can i ask for like a crash course on these chinese bl series that are everywhere around me but i don't know them. like i'm familiar with the untamed or however many names it has but i'm seeing two or three more???? help please if you can thank you

hello!! oh no worries, i happened to be looking for a distraction too so this was timely hahaha although it’s a pretty broad question since there are so many new live adaptations coming out (and some which have already come out which are featured as bromances), but let me see if I can like round this up for you a little. 

*i may be giving you a bit more than you need or like irrelevant stuff, but i guess i’m bound to hit something hahaha

Okay so the chinese BL series you’re talking about is The Untamed, and since you said you’re familiar I won’t get into it in detail, BUT just for like flow’s sake:

The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling) is based on the danmei (BL) novel written by MXTX, called Mo Dao Zu Shi (and yes however many like English translations to this title there is), or MDZS for short. You watched the live-action, and there’s like a lot of other versions of it e.g. the anime, the chibi anime, audio dramas etc. etc. the list goes on. In case you still haven’t seen any of those, just glance through this masterpost made by @the-social-recluse​ - In any case, right now everything is sort of already out EXCEPT:

MDZSQ - chibi donghua, cutest shit you’ll ever see

More MDZS merch 

Some teasers from MDZS mobile game which has been one year and developing

Now moving on to other BL series floating around so frequently - MDZS is the second book that MXTX wrote. So there’s SVSSS (The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving-System), which is also called lovingly by others in the fandom by Scumbag System/Villain in short, this is MXTX’s first danmei novel. Right now if you’ve seen this on Tumblr, it’s the anime (donghua) version - 10 episodes only for Season 1, available on WeTV with subs, finished airing like a few weeks ago. Translations of the novel are definitely out in full somewhere.

An absolute mess, but an organized one

Tried to do a manhua but failed

Everyone thought the donghua wouldn’t air on time either (it has a history of dropping development halfway) but it did

Would probably be the most entertaining if ever dealt with a live-action

And then there’s arguably, the most beloved child out of all three novels (at least right this moment) - TGCF (Tian Guan Ci Fu, or Heaven Official’s Blessing). This is the third and so far last (???) danmei novel MXTX has written, main pairing invented love. Strawhat-wearing scrap collector smiley angel with devoted kid-turned-adult-turned-ghost-king who follows smiley angel for like many years because he loves him. Anyway, if you’re seeing this, once again on Tumblr a lot, it’s the donghua version you’re seeing. Still airing, I think we’re midway through the whole season, the yelling starts Saturday (Asia time zone) and then extends into Sunday, sometimes Monday.

There’s like a god-tier Eng translation in full for TGCF by Suika

There is a manhua for this as well, only like 45 chapters in, but the time Jan/Feb 2021 rolls around, the donghua would have overtaken the manhua progress on the storyline HAHAHA

Apparently the director/production team who did CQL/The Untamed managed to get the rights to filming its live-action, but heh nothing much about that just yet aside from casting rumours and fans worrying that the casting will be done wrongly and also that they won’t be able to do justice to the story.

Alright now that we’ve more or less cleared MXTX and what everyone is hyping over (for good reason), let’s move on to the other CHINESE BL stuff you could be seeing (although I feel like you might not actually be asking about this), and these will all be live-actions (I’m also only clearing SOME of this year’s stuff, so none from before 2020, don’t ask me why I didn’t leave Guardian or SCI up here):

✨✨✨ Already aired, done and dusted or maybe ongoing, just ones I see on my dash and notifs so I definitely am biased ✨✨✨

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (Cheng Hua’s Fourteenth Year) - Many episodes, much bromance, base novel is gay af, but live action is cute af. Read more here and full translation is not yet done I think

My Roommate is a Detective - THIS IS A SPECIAL MENTION. NOT BL. Doesn’t even have like a book to go along with it, it’s just I’ve seen people getting into this again and creating content, so idk, imma just leave this here. It ain’t BL but it got the most glaring BL-esque relationship I’ve ever seen in my life. You’ll get what I mean if you watch it

The Lost Tomb Reboot - AGAIN another special mention, because many handsome young-ish men who you know, head into tombs, much bromance. Based on a huge series of novels, totally not BL, but as always with like a lot of men put into one story, ships happen. This year as well, in case you’ve seen it floating around

✨✨✨  Upcoming Chinese BL live-action adaptations, confirmed + casting + filming. You may have seen some of these because like posters were recently released etc. - As far as I know these are all slated for 2021 ✨✨✨

Faraway Wanderers (Tian Ya Ke) - A danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up, should be airing soon. Leads are pretty cute, although I’m sure they’ll turn this bromance. One of the male leads is known for a lot of period web dramas, and Gong Jun, the other male lead, is known for more contemporary modern dramas, but damn Gong Jun’s jawline

Winner is King (Sha Po Lang) - Another danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up recently as well if I recall? Posters recently released, and this is arguably Priest’s most famous and popular danmei

Immortality (Hao Yi Xing) - A super popular danmei novel called 2ha or The White Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meat Bun. Filming also... wrapped? I think, because posters came out the next day and everyone from Earth to Pluto went mad, definitely one you should look out for next year spring i think, but I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be a hell lot more teasers, posters etc. coming up and then half of danmei Tumblr will probably go into cardiac arrest

The Society of Four Leaves (Zhang Gong An) - Ehhhh I think this hasn’t yet been filmed but casting was recently confirmed (contentiously).  Concept posters are up though. This technically isn’t classified officially as a BL. There are no CPs officially in the novel, but apparently it’s very like idk flirty etc., also slated for next year

*There are a few more by Priest, e.g. Liu Yao, but no concrete news that I’ve seen (by now like at least 60% of her danmeis either have a live-action contract or a donghua contract or both lmao)

✨✨✨  Upcoming Chinese BL donghua adaptations (2021-ish). All by Priest✨✨✨

*Throwing this in just as a by the way thing, because these are also recent news (these two weeks). There might be more but I haven’t seen anything yet personally :D

Imperfection (Can Ci PIn) - Space AU, the novel won like two national literary awards if I recall like last year? Anyway a brief trailer recently came out last week I think, and main lead is handsome af, and once again it’s space and space wars so it’s pretty cool

Silent Reading (Mo Du Zhe) - Novel is called Mo Du, and honestly I think the donghua has been like teasing fans for like idk years, but it looks like we’re finally getting to the donghua as the team previewed the first ep like... two weeks ago live to an audience? Modern crime thriller thing, there’s a masterpost going on Tumblr

Lie Huo Jiao Chou - Another Priest fan favourite, a historical + modern danmei combination. Much angst from what I’ve seen, but donghua teaser looked good also, released also last week

---

anyway hopefully some part of this or at least one part answers your question? if not, just send me another ask or like, DM me hahahaha

[qianoir]

After Midnight 1 - On Melancholy Hill

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧���: college dropout!Ten (WayV) x fem!reader

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: non-idol au, angst with fluff on top

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 13+

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: cursing (censored), lying, family problems, mentions death of reader's father, romance

♡ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1k

Preview < 1 < 2

7:00 PM

A fresh, black apron is thrown overhead the moment you enter Décalcomanie, your mom’s café, feet barely stabilizing shaky legs walking to the back room after a long day of dance class that you refer to as organic chemistry when your mother is present.

“Why are you so shaky?”

“I dissected a cadaver in ana-physio today and it kinda freaked me out..”

“Ah! My daughter is doing so well in school, you’re going to become the top doctor in Korea! I can’t wait to brag to all of my friends at Bible study this week.”

She glides past you with a smile and you have to fight the urge to eye roll in front of her cherished customers.

“Thank you for always working so hard for me. You make me so proud.” Her warm embrace taunts your second facade and a fake smile is placed onto the facade before her.

“Be safe when closing and text me when you get home!” And she leaves in her mid-40s to have the Friday night that the girl in her early 20s should be having instead. Unfortunately, hiding your academic identity from your mother forces the rejection of friendships with the possibility of your true major in dance getting back to her.

The longing feeling for friends presses solemnly at your gut as the elder customers exit the café and young adult students and lovesick couples flood in asking for more sugar than is provided in the ajummah favorite black tea. Every run to each table is accompanied by the slow setting sun, reassuring me of the calm night about to come.

An hour passed, not many people came in this late, except for the insomniacs and sorority girls, but they seemed to be either finally sleeping or out partying tonight.

It was now 11:55 PM and no one else had come into the shop for the past 2 hours, but the café was open until 1 AM. At least time is money, you thought, the time being spent leaning over the counter watching Mystic Pop-up Bar on your phone, obviously very fitting for such a night. That was, until the faint ring of the bell above the front door.

You look up and see the petite Chinese kid that always comes in at 12 AM, sharp. He rarely ever talks as you two are the only ones ever in the shop at this hour, but he is not a bother. To you, he seems like a chill person. The boy always leaves a napkin with some song lyrics scribbled on it, a different song each time. They always find way into the pocket of your apron after he leaves, searching for and listening to whatever song to which the lyrics belong when you get home before throwing the cloth out. He has good taste and you often wonder if they are left behind purposely.

The boy sat down at the table in the very back corner by a large window at the front of the café, as always, separate from the other customers who adored sitting at the pretty tables prior to his arrival. He looked up at the sound of footsteps coming to take his order, greeting you with a dashing smile as always again. His craving was spoken in a soft voice, neither a Chinese nor Korean accent present in his voice.

You turned back to whip up his request. One personal strawberry chantilly cake without the strawberries. Easy.

Plating the cute cake, you looked over at him. He was hunched over a storybook-looking journal writing an artwork of Chinese characters with a brush pen, filling you with the usual curiosity about for what reason he was learning Chinese when he was of the language’s origin himself. In the midst of admiring his hard-working strokes, your finger nearly sliced from the lack of attention, and the cake knife was immediately dropped on instinct.

The noise had the boy's eyes suddenly on you again. "Are you okay?" Words stumbled over your lips as you blushed in embarrassment.

"Yes, just got a little distracted.." you honestly assured him. He let out a small giggle then continued with his writing. You blew out a sad puff of air that had been unsettling your ribcage.

You placed the plated cake slice onto a tray and walked over to the boy, gently setting the cream dessert on his table with some napkins, careful not to touch his notebook. "Thank you very much." He says with another contagious smile before you scurry off back behind the bar, continuing the drama episode prior to the regular nightwalker’s arrival. You glanced up and saw the man nibbling on the cake- which was already almost completely finished.

"Is there anything else you would like, sir?"

"I don’t suppose you know Chinese, do you?" The boy laughed to himself, seemingly desperate to have anyone teach him at this point.

"Oh! I’m taking Mandarin at university, actually. I may be of service."

The boy's eyes widened. "I'm sorry! I didn't expect a real answer.. I don't mean to bother you.. but could you please help me understand the meaning of this?"

Peering down at the paper he showed you:

我们不曲终没有人散

夜未央心还澎湃

今晚没有人要醒过来

(Until our song ends, no one’s leaving. The night is not yet over, hearts are still surging. No one wants to wake up tonight.)

Wow that is some deep sh!t.

You translated the literal meaning of the words since you did not know exactly how they mean in a poetic sense. He understood and thanked you for the help.

It was nearing 1 AM and you went to clean up the café before the closing hour. The boy stayed a while more, writing calligraphic characters on his paper and doodling on napkins. He eventually left at midnight’s 50 minute mark.

When you got around to cleaning his table, sure enough, there was a napkin with lyrics forming a neat stanza. This time, the lyrics were in Chinese. And was that.. his number!?

Moonlight shines at midnight. Heartbeats start to rise. Creating a fluttering surprise. The midnight rhythm arrives. We do not know burnout. Bodies feeling like they’re flying. Touch me when the sun goes down.. Touch me after midnight..

(xxx) xxx-xxxx

ten lee

To be continued...

After Midnight by WayV

𝘲𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘳

[lindwurmkai]

Let me tell you about our latest hyperfixation tho, since half of you are probably wondering wtf it is by now and why it has 15 different names,,

Well, first of all it's a mess. A glorious mess. Originally we just wanted to watch Reunion: The Sound of Providence (also known as The Lost Tomb Reboot) because we like the actor Zhu Yilong. We were vaguely aware of it being a sequel but had probably read reviews that proclaimed it newcomer-friendly (which is true).

No one warned us it was going to be like quicksand tho. Funnily enough there is literal quicksand in it but I'm saying once you've entered the rabbithole, good luck getting back out! Whoops

So basically there's this Chinese adventure webnovel series called Daomu Biji (or Dao Mu Bi Ji; DMBJ - Graverobber's Chronicles in English). It's extensive, with many sequels and prequels and extras. What we've been watching is ... a loosely connected collection of dramas based on various parts of this series, made by ever-changing teams in not even remotely chronological order. Since the original novels already had some continuity issues and each new adaptation may add random shit that wasn't in the novels at all, which the next one will then not follow up on because it's made by different people, the result is absolute chaos.

You just have to roll with it.

It's like, you're going to be very confused and will probably yell at the screen in frustration several times but you will also love it. I cannot explain this!!!

There are entire dramas that end on unresolved cliffhangers, the actors change constantly so it's hard to keep track of supporting characters, one of the directors truly tested our patience with his idea of pacing, multiple female characters are treated badly/fridged, there are too many fat jokes, and yet I am still here 💁🏻‍♂️

Regarding names: some dramas are known by two different titles because one's the "official" English title and the other a direct translation from Chinese or something. We tag everything dmbj plus whichever title we like best/makes the better acronym.

But what is it actually about?

Friendship. 😌

And tombs. So many ancient tombs. We've got mysteries both ancient and modern, conspiracies, giant snakes, deadly bugs, monsters, zombies (which are sometimes totally not zombies for censorship reasons), people with abnormally long lifespans, a ridiculous old white man villain, doppelgangers, an amnesia plot, the occasional weirdly compelling historical flashback...

Some of the female characters are good. An unlikely number of people are motivated by missing uncles and aunts. Who's stealing everyone's uncles and aunts? (Oh wait, that's actually sort of– ... never mind.)

But mostly, this is a tale of epic bromance. *wipes tear from corner of eye* Seriously though, I'll note that the dramas engage in a lot of, shall we say, fanservice. They knew people were shipping certain characters and dialled that up to 11. I have zero complaints. More Zhang Qiling screentime = A+ idea anyway. Thank you. I owe you my life,,

But regardless of whether you ship the 3 main characters (in any combination, top tier being all 3 together of course), watching their friendship evolve is just really moving, okay! And Reunion/Reboot gives us a whole damn found family of misfits :')

Wu Xie, the protagonist, is either an adorable fluffball bursting with compassion and curiosity or a seasoned adventurer with questionable morals depending on when you meet him, and it works. He's also a giant nerd.

At the start of his story, he keeps running into Professional Graverobber Wang Pangzi, soon to become his best friend and platonic life partner (or maybe...? 👀), as well as Mysterious Stranger Zhang Qiling, love of my life (and probably also Wu Xie's). My theory is that they grew attached to him because what is this adorable fluffball doing in a tomb, must protect. And then they were brothers~ 😭

In conclusion, I live here now and Zhu Yilong doesn't even know what he hath wrought.

[shinahbee]

November Favorites 2020!

 Hello!

So as you may have seen I have been uploading a bunch of art all of November, not every week because of my crippling job at the moment taking away my sanity.lol. But i did try my best to update whenever I can. I do have so much more to complete so please look out this December for more digital art being pumped out

How are you all doing?  I'm holding up decently, I'm trying to avoid talking about covid since that's all i've been hearing from work and home and it's really making me anxious since i'm not able to work from home due to the nature of my job. I hope you all are holding up hope and taking care of your selves, let's all remember that there is a time after this and we will get through this.

with that being said I will have a lot more time to spend on my art after January since my work term is going to end and I don't plan to stay for an extension, so maybe then I'll catch up on all of my previous art that I was supposed to upload, a.k.a my hero academia ones.lol

also I'm still chugging along reading more manhwa (web toons ) from korean and chinese artists, i'm so disappointed in myself for not discovering these sooner, these stories are really good and so much effort was put into the art panels, as I have said all I've read was manga so i'm used to just seeing black and white panels, so i never really dove into web toons though I have appreciated the work put into it, now that I'm down the rabbit hole I am discovering really good story lines that are different from the manga I've read thus far and I'm really enjoying it!

so i'm excited to share my thoughts on everything I've been liking

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                           Manhwa/Manga/Webtoon

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so previously in last months recommendations I have talked about a few of the manhwa I've been reading so I'll briefly list those below since they are all still ongoing

1) who's baby is it

2) to be or no to be

3) social temperature

4) salad days

all of them are still ongoing and i'm still in the process of reading them so I can't give a full review till it's completed but so far I am still enjoying them, that's definitely a good sign since i tend to just drop something after I don''t find it interesting anymore at some point in the story. If you have not read my October favorites journal please do so for my initial thoughts on these manhwas. Now i'm actually going to talk about some of the ones that are completed   , so you can definitely read all of them without waiting for the an update from translators, lol

this is in no particular order, just fyi

1) Path to you

"When almost college dropout Jensen attempts to drink away his problems, unemployed Nathaniel( Neil ) suddenly pukes on him and ruins his night. As an apology, Nathaniel offers to help Jensen with his studies. Despite Jensen's difficulties in getting along with people, the two become friends and something deeper begins to grow between them...”

this is the summary from one of the manga websites I was able to find, it does not even describes the emotional plot line that goes along with this later, this is ones of my absolute favorites! I love this manhwa so much, its a great depiction of a coming of age story for collage students going through their life journey and slowly getting though life's difficulties  and challenges, one character is going though emotional trauma and trying to over come it for years and another character is going through anti social disorder and discovering his sexuality, it's a plot line that portrayed human aspects in life quite well. I love the relationship between the two main character and how their relationship developed over time from being friends to being a couple. there is a lot of relationship building and minimal drama, which is really refreshing from mangas that I've read, so if you are just starting to delve into BL webtoons, please read this first! you will not be disappointed

with that being said, I love Neil, so much.... you don't even know. lol. He's so precious, literally like an actual cinnamon roll. LOL. i'm exposing myself ...so i'll leave it at that, i’m also wondering why his name is neil instead of nathan or nate...? lol.

2) Here U Are

"Orientation of  the newcomers is a task for YuYang, and he ends up helping the unsociable and towering LiHuan, the kind of person that does everything to be disliked. But after better knowing each other, he discovers that the giant isn’t that bad of a person at all...”

I really wish I could find better summaries, lol. but it's to the point without giving away too much so i'll take it. This is one of the most popular series and I can totally see why after reading it, this story has every possible human aspect and relationship building  between the two main leads, I actually teared in some parts of this manhwa and I've never done that before! such a good story and plot line, if I were to pick any series in a web toon to be animated then I would choose this series hands down. There's also sub plots between different characters as well and how they deal with their interpersonal relationships and relationships between the two main leads, I love it! This is everything I want in a story, so please check this one out

also yuyang looks a lot like miyuki Kazuya from Daiya no ace and that just made me drawn to him.I really liked his personality and in the manhwa he has girls and guys in love with him and dude...I get it.

3) BJ Alex

"Every night at 10, Dong-gyun locks himself up in his room, grabs a box of tissues, and watches a live cam boy show hosted by Alex, a BJ (broadcast jockey). Timid Dong-gyun admires not only Alex’s ripped body, but his candor in sharing his sexual experiences with viewers. One night, Dong-gyun downs too many drinks at a school networking event and passes out. When he wakes up, he’s in bed staring up at a shirtless hunk. A hunk who looks an awful lot like...Alex.”

so um...this is more yaoi than shounen ai cause of all the graphic scenes in the manhwa, if you are veteran you may have already read this one cause its really popular. It also has a lot of comedic elements to it too so it's not too serious, but the relationship developed between the two characters later on is really sweet despite the infinite amount of sex scenes. Not much else to say about this story, it's easy to follow and the only abuse in here is the emotional kind

I'm not really entirely sure how i felt about it in the beginning but the end is really good

4) No way, vampires don't exist

"Four college housemates — Juwon, Eunho, Seongjae, and Gyumin — are in desperate need of a fifth person to fill a vacant room in their place. But their main concern isn’t about paying rent: they’re ravenous vampires, dying to sink their teeth into a fresh, live human! So they can’t believe their luck when Dongha, who grew up isolated from society, eagerly moves in with no idea of what awaits him. To the vampires’ dismay, however, Dongha doesn’t weigh enough for them to suck his blood! As they shower their unsuspecting new housemate with food and attention to fatten him up, have they gotten too attached to their would-be prey? And is there more to sweet, naive Dongha than meets the hungry vampires’ eyes?”

I have to preface by saying that ever since my twilight phase, I didn't consume anything that had to do with vampires for a very long time, for obvious reasons, but this one I just came across after reading path to you and thought I would at least check it out. It started off really comedic and I was like...what am i reading?  but it gets really light hearted and wholesome later on in the story. What I like about this is the character juwon, If you look at him he's that type of character that would look like the stoic a-hole of the story and those characters never appeal to me. But turns out he's the sweetest person most decent person of this story, it makes you want to route for him  and another thing I like about this story is that it looks like a harem but you can tell that there’s only one person the main character doungha treats differently from the rest and how the two are compatible with one another.  in these kind of stories, it’s always treated as every character is a possible route that leads to their own story but in here....there's only one...let's be real. This is one that is an odd ball cause it's technically completed but the translations are not...so i had to read the rest in korean, which makes it a good practice for me since i'm learning korean at the moment, it’s a good exercise...lol

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                             Anime/ Drama

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                         

Not going to lie this department is lacking...lol. I have only been watching Heavens official blessing as mentioned in the last journal

but I have just found out that there is a remake of Shaman king in the making....and my little girl heart is screaming cause I loved shaman king when i was younger...so I can't wait for that

as for dramas, I've tried watching Start Up but I didn't like it so I dropped it, I might try watching crash landing on you since my best friend was obsessed with it, I watched a little of it but I left it since I was busy so i may get back to watching it from the beginning

-------------------------------------------------------------------

                             Music

--------------------------------------------------------------------       

i'll put together a play list for you when you read these manga/manhwa...lol. cause that's what i've been doing

Playlist

Crush- No words

Sam kim - Breathe

Crush - let us go

Kim feel - falling

Paul kim - Dream

Kim feel - Hallelujah

Davichi - please don't cry

Yoo mirae - say

taeyeon - a poem called you

baek yerin- Here I am again

I wish tumblr has a way to play music on your page, without copy right..lol. I would share all of these songs cause they are so good

------------------------------------------------------------------------

so that's it for the month of November, lets' see what i get up to for December, I will be updating as frequently as possible so please look out for more art from me and follow me on my social media , I will see you all next time

bye!

Sheena

---------------------------------------------

     Social media      

Devianatart: she-be.deviantart.com

Instagram: shinb_art

Tumblr: shinahbee

[farmerlan]

thank you so much for the honorifics post! i was wondering if you have any recommendations for dramas where the cultivation world exists side by side with a royal court? mxtx ignores the existence of any type of empire and i'm curious to see how terms of address, honorifics, and language in general differs with the inclusion of different social ranks (i'm watching 月上重火 right now and the mix of both worlds is super interesting). Thank you again!!

This is a super good question and I’m going to answer it with the limited knowledge that I have haha. If I am way off base here and/or if other people have recommendations, I hope they can add to this!

I’m going to preface this by saying that I’ll play fast and loose with the definitions here and throw in some wuxia (a lot of them have fantasy/martial arts elements even though there’s no specific reference to cultivation) and also some ‘royal court’ settings within the cultivation world. A lot of xianxia actually do have some element of royalty (e.g. characters being royalty of the heavenly realms etc.) and the honorifics employed here for the large part cross over to the imperial dynastic setting. AFAIK there is not really a drama out there with a perfect blend of both xianxia and historical court intrigue in the strictest sense (the two worlds don’t really mix) – hence my taking liberties.

Warning: not all of these shows have a happy ending.

Side note for anyone who needs a quick explanation on wuxia vs. xianxia:

Wuxia is the genre of martial arts stories, sects, often set in ancient China, these tend to be ‘real world’ setting stories except the people practice martial arts, there’s sects and and it’s set in the jianghu, the pugilist world, which… is kind of both a shared world with the secular world of regular human beings and an alternate world upon itself. I know, I’m doing a terrible job of explaining this. It’s basically historical fiction.

At the risk of hugely oversimplifying genres, xianxia is baaaaasically wuxia on fantasy drugs. It adds Daoist influences and that’s how you end up with the concept of cultivation sects (as opposed to martial arts sects), immortality, the realms, ghosts and ghouls etc. Again, I’m grossly oversimplifying, but in terms of honorifics and broad concepts, there’s a huge amount of crossover. Xianxia really exploded as a genre in more recent years and is now the popular kid on the block, but wuxia is the OG. I’m showing my age here.

Ashes of Love (香蜜沉沉烬如霜)

This was like THE hottest drama in recent years until The Untamed came along. Since the protagonists are royalty (in the heavenly realm), there’s a lot of usage of court-specific honorifics (殿下，皇上，臣 etc.) Story is very focused around the love triangle though, which I’m fine with but as with all love triangles, it’s very will-they-won’t-they. Also the soundtrack is really good haha.

Legend of Fuyao (扶摇)

This is more wuxia with fantasy elements. It’s broadly a coming-of-age romance story, but there is a lot more state affairs and politics rolled into it as there’s five kingdoms (all fictional). Starts strong, but ends with a mediocre second half. IMO Fu Yao is a well-written, strong female character that also benefits from Yang Mi’s acting, although a lot of Chinese viewers also think she’s a Mary Sue. So if you do watch this I’m interested to see what you think!

Ever Night (将夜)

Set in the Tang dynasty, this is probably the most relevant to what you’re asking! It’s a combination of cultivation, and kingdoms, with some cultivators leading kingdoms. We follow the path of our male lead protagonist on his quest for vengeance (what else) and cultivation.

With that said, I will say that the relationship between the male protagonist and his love interest has an …interesting and somewhat controversial premise that I won’t spoil here but DM or google if you need to know. Full warning: it suffers from pacing problems, so I don’t know if I would wholeheartedly recommend it, but thought it would be remiss of me not to. If you thought Legend of Fuyao was long, oh boy you’re in for a ride. No lie, I fast forwarded through a bunch of it.

Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜)

This is a non-romance wuxia historical drama. I just wanted to squeeze this in here even though there’s no mention of cultivation anywhere because it’s SO. GOOD. Without the distraction of a huge romance plot, the show really deals with the ideas of rebirth, revenge and politics. It’s also benefits from being extremely well-written from a plot perspective – there’s a lot of believable politicking, both within and outside the palace. We’re talking sects, officials, alliances, princes, wives, concubines. We’re talking characters with depth and ACTUAL logical motives beyond “I had to write it that way to advance the plot”. We’re talking Princess Nihuang, who is THE Merriam-Webster definition of badass. There’s also a Season 2 (completely different story set 50 years after), which I haven’t seen but have heard it’s great.

/side note on honorifics: If you want honorifics, *slaps drama* this bad boy can fit so many honorifics in it. And to be honest, I think that the key to understanding honorifics is to understand the underlying social structures and concepts (respect, familiarity, positions of power) that existed in ancient China as a whole, and that’s not genre specific. And once you’ve grasped it, it really doesn’t hinder your understanding of the novel/drama if you don’t know the exact difference between words like 师傅 and 师父 as long as you grasp the fundamental meaning if I’m being 100% honest.

[listening-to-thunder]

Naye’s Not A Rec of Guardian

I can't even identify the vector: suddenly my Tumblr dashboard was just filled with gifs and fanart featuring two very handsome men men exchanging soft touches and longing glances. Which is how I found out about the Chinese web series Guardian (镇魂, zhènhún).

These are them. I don't know what else to say?? Oh yes: they are the main characters in an gay supernatural romance novel.

Which - because this is China where homosexuality AND superstition are both Things That Get Censored - got turned into a... a science! story about platonic soulmates?

And it's a glorious hot mess. Here is the rec post by @lazulisong​ that got me hooked (she summarizes it as "TRASH GARBAGE but also MY FAVORITE TYPE OF TRASH GARBAGE"), and here is one of the first gif sets I remember seeing going "welp I'll have to watch this". It's an infinitely tender moment where Zhao Yunlan (the scruffy one) falls asleep on Sheng Wei (with the glasses) in the back of a cab, and all Sheng Wei does is gently adjust his head so he'll be more comfortable.

Anyway.

So the background is: actual BL (m/m) novel. I am guessing it was a huge hit, because some producers want to turn it into a drama, only: this is China. NO GAYS ALLOWED. So why they picked this particular story I will never fathom, as that's literally it. That's the heart of the story. It's about Zhao Yunlan and Sheng Wei and the fact that one is a reincarnation of the other's long-lost love. (And the reason only Zhao Yunlan is reincarnated? Sheng Wei is immortal and still in love with him these untold thousands of years later.) And so the censors go NO KISSING but... leave all the longing glances and the flirting and the smoldering. So. Much. Smoldering?

Also: nothing set after the communist party took over is allowed to show anything supernatural, because superstitions are bad and science is good. This leaves us with thoroughly impressive half-assed worldbuilding turning urban fantasy into... a... rational and scientific show?? Except of course that doesn’t work. But instead of spirits and demons they have "aliens" who came from “space” and "merged" with Earth DNA and now just. Live underground. Not in hell or anything just. Hanging out underground. And none of their powers are magic it is science and nobody uses spells or curses it's just. More science! (Specifically “dark energy” because that is 100% scientific and not at all magic.)

Yeah.

But let's ignore the censors and call a mage a mage: the show focuses on a Special Investigation Division that investigate supernatural crimes. Zhao Yunlan is the chief of the department. The vice chief is a cat. (Due to the famous feline reluctance to obey directors, the cat mostly shows up in his human form.) The rest of the department includes a snake lady, a ghost, a sorcerer scientist, a martial artist and a newbie intern who is sort of vaguely the POV character? He's an adorable hapless cinnamon roll and must be protected. (By the stern martial artist, if I have any say in the matter.)

I have only seen fifteen episodes but I am already deeply, deeply charmed by how the two leads are clearly playing a romance, using actual acting to convey lots and lots of emotion through more subtle means than. Uh. Some of the others. (Their cheap scenery is always in danger of being chewed to shreds.) Also the entire Special Investigation Division is a little team-as-family which I love.

There are 40 episodes all in all, and I hear. Uh. I hear nothing because I don't want to spoil myself but I do keep in mind that the censors are probably not going to let it end with a big gay happily ever after? ANYWAY - that's a problem for later, and also the original author of the web novel wrote another epilogue specifically for the tv show? So no matter what, there is super-canon hope for a non-censored resolution!

But yeah. The show has identity porn and reincarnation and pining/slow burn and found family and absolutely compelling (despite the show they're in) leads and that's what I'm in it for.

It also has some of the most amazing subs I have seen this side of the Saiyuuki bootlegs which translated "Shut up!" in Japanese as "Prolix". Like. They're not machine-generated bad? But they are so special there's at least one instance an episode where we have to pause because we're laughing so hard we cry. See for instance - paraphrased from memory:

- Yeap

- The three tribes: Crow, Flower and Snack. 

- "You, a crap!"

- The vice chief (a cat)

- The weather is fine today (this has the meaning of Tsuki ga kirei desu) [yes there was literally a translator's note IN JAPANESE for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON]

And none of the translators can ever stick to one term for the "aliens", so it's: undergroundians, Earth Star People, Dixing-ians, Dixingese... the list goes on. It's always a fun challenge to try and spot it! Also people with titles or appellations change names a lot. Great for trying to identify what they are actually saying in Chinese!

Meanwhile the sound stage they film on is very unconvincingly as a big city, the CGI is... obvious?, the costumes they had to make themselves would embarrass any self-respecting cosplayer, the props are sometimes just clearly made out of papier-mâche, and there is a wig so horrible I am hoping the character in it dies very soon just to spare me having to look at it.

Look, I said this wasn't a rec post! But that's what I am currently binging on. The entire thing is on YouTube - though apparently no longer online in China, because it got taken offline a week after it finished airing because CENSORSHIP. (I have heard rumours it was reported for "excessive violence" but I think we can all agree it just finally dawned on them how incredibly gay* it was, despite the lack of kissing.)

The novel has 106 chapters (they're short!) and four epilogues - a brave soul is translating it all and putting it on Wattpad, where it is freely available and about half done.

*I use the word "gay" as happy and lazy shorthand, but I would be remiss not to mention that Zhao Yunlan is canonically bi and super comfortable with his sexuality, which makes me really happy. Just in general the complete lack of homophobia, internalized or otherwise, is something I am really enjoying in the novel. (And the show! Can’t have homophobia where there are no homos, right?!)