#but not asian enough for the asian world

[raps-hellion]

frank zhang and the perpetual foreigner experience:

he knows some mandarin, but not enough to speak or read/write it fluently.

he has to take mandarin classes and fall back on translating apps. people point out how funny that is, but frank doesn't really think so.

his name has been anglicanised (fai to frank), but people still mispronounce his surname ("ama-zhang").

his family has lived in canada for four generations, but people still ask "no, where are you really from?".

people are surprised to learn that he's directly descended from periclymenus, the prince of pylos, and that he has greek and roman ancestry, because he doesn't "look greek or roman".

someone says in passing that they "hadn't realised the chinese were around then."

his canadian accent catches people off-guard.

he's asked if he has a canadian citizenship when applying for jobs.

the bullies at his high school aren't violent nor openly aggressive.

one says his eyes are so small and eggs him on to stretch them open with his fingers

someone holds up a banana to his arm and says they're the same colour

they've urged other students to complain that he smells like rice and ask to change seats.

his teacher tells him to speak up when he talks, because he's in canada now, not china.

she asks if his parents bound his sister's feet, and seems disappointed when frank says he doesn't have a sister. then she talks about china's one-child policy and it feels like it's frank's fault.

he experiences a weird disconnect between himself and his east asian/south-east asian friends who are second-generation immigrants and live in poorer socio-economic areas.

they joke about needing to help their parents with government paperwork, filing taxes, translating english, and frank sits quietly and isn't sure if he should laugh too.

he listens to his chinese friend talk to their mother on the phone and he can only understand the english that's mixed in with the mandarin.

their houses are filled with repurposed plastic jars that hold homemade pickled goods and pastes and sauces, three rice cookers (only two work), an airfryer that's stained and blackened, and they put lids on half-full pans and pots and keep them in the oven for later. their dining tables are piled with clutter from their mothers hoarding and reusing; and it's all so starkly different to his own that he feels like he's intruding.

someone asks if he can speak any mandarin, and he smiles, and shrugs, and says he's basically white, sorry. though he doesn't know what he's apologising for.

[fortist166]

Daily reminder: Akane is actually super chill compared to how fanon depicts her.

Beside fanfics, I also blame some, if not many anime eps for flanderizing her 😑.

[lubdubu]

Team Gai Modern AU Ethnicity Headcanons

Hai guys no one gaf but here r my gaihan ethnicity hcs... 😻

Maito Gai - Han Chinese

- This is both the most statistically probable and rational choice 🤓☝️I think he and lee are supposed to be based off of bruce lee and jackie chan respectively (and to diff degrees), and im p sure jackie chan is han.

- Chinese fans always talk about how they have the same big nose too aebfvjcdbv but thats where the resemblance stops because Gai is a great father to his gay daughter !

Rock Lee - Half Han, half Manchu

- Disclaimer: China doesn't officially recognize more than one ethnicity in its citizens but 1) im talking about genetics and 2) this is my fake naruto world🥸🤫

- I know i just said that he's based off of Bruce Lee who is Han Chinese & subsequently used that same line of reasoning to say Gai is also han... but . anyway... My reasoning for Manchu Lee is based on his childhood design which is very traditionally Manchu, specifically his hair which is braided like a queue (i'll put a pic below !). The queue hairstyle also has an interesting history in regard to han independence during the qing dynasty, in that han men were forced to wear the style, so cutting it was seen as a sign of rebellion/freedom. I think that could be an interesting thing to consider when thinking about Lee's character arc....But i know kishimoto wasn't thinking ab all that + Lee wasn't forced to wear the hairstyle 🙇‍♀️ the queue just became another stereotypical "chinese" trait that many ppl, like Kishimoto, associate w China. For me though, I think it's a nice way to show lee's potential cultural heritage ! 😻

Tenten - Han Chinese

- This is also just the most statistically probable for her asjdncvajks

- I hc she's from Sichuan cuz of her naruto mobile kung fu collab.. and i think she'll like the spicy food (not as much as lee though)

- sometimes... on certain days.... she is half Uyghur bc of a conversation i had with my sister. We believe 💭 she has Dilraba eyelids🤔

Neji Hyuuga - Japanese

- Omg i know a lot of ppl lump him into the chinese thing cuz of his team but the Hyuuga are soo japanese coded like plz guys...their clothes (off duty), their clan's hierarchical structure (main/branch families), their family naming conventions, etc... Hyuuga literally means "place in the sun" or "turning toward the sun" and what's japan called..oh ya THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN. Like plz guys they are nippon af 😭😭😭🙏🙏🧎‍♀️

- Yes their techniques are based off of a lot of chinese martial arts, esp baguazhang, but that can just be explained by the Sinosphere, like a lot of traditional Japanese cultural elements 🙂‍↕️ China has had a lot of influence on surrounding countries

Anyway if u read all that thank u...i hope i didn't waste ur time🙇‍♀️ Also im chinese btw if u couldnt tell🐼🥮🥠🥡🧧🥮🥢

[aroaessidhe]

Thanks to your recommendation, I read Phoenix Extravagant. It was amazing! I haven't had this much fun with Asian fantasy since She Who Became the Sun and Nghi Vo's Singing Hills cycle.

I am however, baffled about the ending?? What was that? I thought it was a stand alone, but the ending was so.....strange. It didn't necessarily diminish my enjoyment, but a companion novella in the future might help. What did you think?

Ahh, I'm so glad! Yeah I agree, it's fun and unique and I loved it a lot!

I also am a bit baffled by the ending tbh, even a few years later. It's like oh...? I didn't know that was an option in the world and narrative created by the rest of the book lmao? I don't dislike it but I did wonder if I missed something.

Maybe a small sequel would clarify that more, yeah, though it's like other than my confusion over that, I thought it was a perfect standalone story....who knows!

[spacespore]

HI TUMBLRR it’s me

[bijoumikhawal]

"Biden is the best choice and he's actually really empathetic and reasonable but also you can't wait for a candidate that won't do genocide and war crimes because to become a presidential candidate you have to be willing to do that" see what you fundamentally don't understand is I'm not waiting for a candidate that won't do war crimes, because I know that. I cannot morally stomach this system, it's a joke to claim its democratic, and AMERICA DELENDA EST. this country is a plague on this Earth

[canary-song]

Peni when I begin to understand you I swear...

[aq2003]

ANNA RIPLEY IS THE REASON GUN WARFARE EXISTS IN THE FANTASY WORLD OF CRITICAL ROLE SHE IS THE TOTAL EMBODIMENT OF PERCYS GUILT COMPLEX AND REPRESENTATION OF EVERYTHING AWFUL HE COULD BE WHILE BEING HIS CREATOR AND DESTROYER IF YOU DO NOT VOTE HER ON UNHINGED EVIL GIRL POLL ILL BLOW UP THIS WHOLE BUILDIGM

[doodlboy]

1. rice cookers are cheap as fuck mine was $10 2. "they only have one function" they don't they are frequently used to boil/steam/cook meat and vegetables 3. that's like saying people are bougie for having a toaster/electric kettles because it only does one thing 4. rice + rice cookers are racialized foods can you not see how its a bad look to say people (overwhelmingly asian) with rice cookers are fancy rich people. use ur brain.

1. Where I live [in the middle of nowhere] rice cookers are a luxury kitchen item, the cheapest one I can find is $30 and it's at a Walmart that's 30 to 45 minutes away from my home.

2&3. That's really cool & I genuinely didn't know that before, but it still takes up too much counter space for me, personally, to buy one. Electric kettles are also really fancy to me, and we have a regular kettle that works ok on its own, so I wouldn't see the need to buy it either. We have a toaster, but it's 4 or 5 years old by now, and it's barely used often enough to really keep it. But like the other 2 products we're talking about, it is probably more useful to other people who use them more.

4. Ppl with rice cookers aren't fancy rich people. They're probably cheaper in other places, but where I live, it's fancy and expensive bc the market deems them as specialty appliances. So I would rather just buy a pot to cook it in instead of smthn that had its price jacked up bc they think ppl around here don't need it.

[bees-bees-fear]

Morrigan makes me want to do a male Amell playthrough

[belladonnaprice]

.

[savanir]

DP x DC prompt [8]

The observants have been pestering Danny for a while now. Something about a ‘kingly’ duty. 

Apparently there is this collective of ghosts who wish to conquer the infinite realms and have been sporadically trying to do so for the past… give or take six hundred years or so? maybe longer. 

After asking around it’s clear to Danny that they get more zealous with each year that passes.

so, ghost cult, world domination, realm domination? doesn’t matter, but usually dead cult folks settle down after their deaths, in this case however from what Danny understands these people are continuing what they started in life. And this is one hell of an ancient cult that’s somehow still relevant considering that ‘new’ members still show up and join their ranks.

But Danny is King now (much to his dismay) so it would probably be best if he just put an end to this matter once and for all.

Danny went in prepared and with backup that he told to wait for his signal should things go sideways. and then went in.

he expected a big fight, a huge mess, he would probably need help at some point cause unlike with most of his rogues this was a big group who were probably a lot more organized.

he did not expect the haunt of the cult to look like a mix between middle eastern and asian, a bad feeling was starting to creep up Danny’s spine.

The bad feeling got worse when Danny got close enough and was promptly surrounded by a group of ninja’s who had their weapons out. He felt himself promptly fall into a defensive stance that he thought he had long forgotten. Danny isn’t exactly sure what to do now though.

the stalemate is broken when one ninja speaks up in arabic “the heir has finally come to take his rightful position” and all of a sudden the tension is broken and Danny is left dumbfounded and with anxiety creeping up his spine as the ninja’s fall into kneeling positions.

“young master Danyal al Ghul, we are most honored by your arrival and here to serve you in death as we have in life”

Ah

Well shit

[deathsmallcaps]

I tried reading this urban fantasy called Jane Yellowrock or something like that, and she was basically a base-cougar shapeshifter. Like she could spend a lot of time as a cougar comfortably, and it matched her body mass pretty much. When she was little, she had a bobcat or something. Oh, and being shapeshifted gave her twilight-werewolf-kind-of-immortality, though that might’ve just been a her thing. She spent like a century in cat form.

Transforming into other animals was harder. When she needed more mass, I think she ate? And/or used a stone or log lying around and absorbed its mass. It’s been a while. When she turned smaller, she converted her extra mass into a stone and generally tried to get that stone back, because it was magically easier to reintegrate.

She had to keep a body part from the animal to shift into it I think. And she always shifted into that specific individual. And I think she was kind of getting swallowed by the part of her that spent a ton of time as a cat.

I was trying to think about the ole "what would shapeshifters do with their extra mass when they turn into something smaller" and I thought "maybe they just convert it all to energy" and then I thought "uh my guy that's a lot of fucking energy"

[amirasainz]

Do you know the video.of the little Asian girl crying because the school gave her so much homework and the dad comforting her?

Could you do one where it is Lewis and his little daughter. She arrives later to the race week with her Nanny and is crying because of homework. Lewis comforting her while also trying to hold his laughter. Can you also add George and the Mercedes team (maybe they are in a meeting?)

Thank youuuu❤️❤️

Ok, so because I am getting a lot of Lewis daughter requests, I finally gave her a name. Hailey Hamilton (super cute in my opinion)

Enjoy reading and send some requests

-xoxo, Babygirl 💋

A father's comfort

The early morning sun filtered through the tall windows of the Mercedes team headquarters, casting a warm glow on the sleek, modern meeting room. Inside, the air was thick with the tension of strategy and the relentless pursuit of perfection. Lewis, flanked by Toto and George, was deep in conversation about the upcoming race weekend. They discussed tire strategies, car setups, and team dynamics, each voice blending into a symphony of high-pressure motorsport.

Suddenly, the meeting room door swung open with a loud thud, cutting through the serious atmosphere. All heads turned as a small figure burst into the room. It was Hailey, Lewis’s four-year-old daughter, her face streaked with tears, her bright pink backpack bouncing against her back. Her eyes widened when she spotted her father, and without hesitation, she ran straight into his arms.

“Daddy!” she cried, burying her face into his chest, her tiny body trembling with sobs. “I don’t want to do my homework! It’s too hard!”

Lewis’s heart melted as he enveloped her in his strong embrace, a protective barrier against the world’s worries. He glanced at Toto and George, whose expressions mirrored his surprise but quickly transformed into amusement. The rest of the team members looked on with a mix of sympathy and barely contained laughter.

“Shh, it’s okay, sweet pea,” Lewis said softly, holding her close. “What’s all this about homework?” He could feel her small frame shaking with every hiccup, and he fought to keep a straight face, finding it hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

Hailey pulled back just enough to look up at him, her big brown eyes shimmering with tears. “I have to color two pages and remember a poem, but it’s too many things! I don’t want to!” she whimpered, her tiny hands clutching the fabric of his shirt.

“Homework can be tough, can’t it?” Lewis said, trying to soothe her with gentle words. “But I bet you can do it. You’re so smart, just like your daddy.” He glanced over at Toto, who nodded in agreement, a smile breaking through his usually stoic demeanor.

“I can help you with the coloring later, Hailey,” Toto added, leaning down to her level, his voice warm and inviting. “And the poem, too. What’s the poem about?”

Hailey sniffled, her little face scrunching up as she tried to remember. “It’s about a butterfly… it flutters and flies,” she mumbled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

“That sounds beautiful!” George chimed in, crouching down beside her. “Butterflies are so pretty! Maybe you could draw a butterfly for your coloring pages. We can make it the biggest and best one ever!” He flashed her a bright smile, trying to distract her from her tears.

Hailey looked between her father and the two men, still clutching Lewis tightly. “But I just want to play! I don’t want to do homework!” she cried again, a fresh wave of tears spilling down her cheeks.

“I know, love,” Lewis said gently, his heart aching for her. “But what if we make a deal? If you finish your homework, we can go for ice cream after the race. How does that sound?” His voice was soothing, and he brushed her hair back from her forehead, trying to comfort her.

“Ice cream?” she repeated, her eyes lighting up slightly through the tears. “With sprinkles?”

“Of course! And chocolate sauce, if you want it,” Lewis promised, laughing softly now, his heart swelling at the sight of his little girl. “But first, we’ve got to tackle that homework, alright?”

“Okay…” she sniffled, her voice softening as she glanced around the room, taking in the chuckles from the team members who were trying unsuccessfully to maintain a professional demeanor. “But it’s still so hard!” she pouted, climbing onto Lewis's lap as he settled back into his chair.

“Let’s take it one step at a time,” he said, holding her close. “We can color one page together first, and then you can practice the poem. I’ll even help you memorize it! How does that sound?”

Hailey wiped her eyes on his shirt, her face lighting up just a bit at the thought of doing it with him. “You’ll help me?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Of course, Hailey. I’m always here to help you, no matter what,” he assured her, holding her tighter. As he spoke, she rested her head against his chest, her eyelids growing heavy.

“Daddy?” she murmured sleepily, a hint of a smile appearing as she felt safe in his embrace.

“Yes, love?” he replied softly, gently stroking her back.

“Can we read a story after?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper now, fatigue washing over her.

“Absolutely. We’ll read as many stories as you want,” Lewis promised, smiling at her. “But first, we’ve got to get you to finish that homework, okay?”

Hailey didn’t respond; instead, she let out a small yawn and nuzzled into his chest, her small form relaxing against him. The room fell silent, the earlier tension replaced by the warm, tender moment unfolding between father and daughter.

The sight of Lewis holding his daughter, her little body curling up as she fell asleep, made the team erupt in laughter, the sound echoing off the walls. Even Toto struggled to maintain his composure, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

“I think she’s out, Lewis,” Toto chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Yeah, I’d say we’ve officially lost her to the nap,” George added, unable to hide his smile. “What a way to end the meeting!”

Lewis looked down at his daughter, her peaceful face nestled against him, and couldn’t help but laugh himself. “Guess I’m going to have to finish that homework for her,” he said, his voice light with amusement. “But I wouldn’t trade this moment for anything.”

As the laughter continued to bounce around the room, Lewis sat quietly with Hailey, knowing that despite the chaos of the race weekend, there was nothing more important than these little moments with his daughter.

[tybaltsjuliet]

here's the thing about charles dickens. [discussion of his antisemitism, misogyny, and racism ahead.]

his last, unfinished novel, the mystery of edwin drood, features helena and neville landless, heroic and sympathetic south asian (sri lankan, specifically) characters, and the racism they endure in an english town is relevant to the plot to the point where neville ends up falsely accused of murder. in the wake of the indian rebellion of 1857, dickens applauded the english brutality against "that oriental race," and called for genocide.

fagin is called "the jew" 274 times in the first half of oliver twist. an article in the jewish chronicle asked why "jews alone should be excluded from the 'sympathizing heart' of this great author and powerful friend of the oppressed." at first, dickens dismissed this, and claimed he was just being accurate about london's criminal makeup. but he was moved enough by eliza davis's letters to him on the matter that he halted the printing of the latter half of oliver twist so he could change the text and remove the antisemitic language therein.

dickens was an abolitionist who despised chattel slavery in the united states, and called emancipation a "moral duty." dickens didn't think black americans were intelligent enough to vote, and he wrote an entire character in bleak house who is a joke to be disliked and mocked because she'd rather oversee charity missions to help children in africa than be a proper mother and tend to her own family at home in england.

speaking of one's own family at home in england, dickens smeared his wife, catherine hogarth, publicly so he could justify separating from her and taking up with a younger woman. catherine hogarth was likely mentally ill, likely living with postpartum depression. she was also an author in her own right and loved her family dearly. her reputation never recovered in her lifetime from the claims he made about her. in dickens's novels, time and time again, from nicholas nickleby to david copperfield to our mutual friend to the mystery of edwin drood, men who menace and take advantage of vulnerable women are portrayed as the worst kind of villains, deserving of whatever grisly ends come to them.

charles dickens was both privately and publicly a raging asshole in many ways and the world would be worse off without him, because he wrote for bourgeois, comfortable victorians, the very people who so often failed to "think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." in the same breath that he calls agnes fleming, who opens oliver twist as an unwed mother dying in a workhouse, "weak and erring," he dares to add that "i do believe that the shade of that poor girl often hovers about that solemn nook-ay, though it is a church." he calculated jo's death to the page in bleak house for maximum effect. but when he wrote of the orphaned crossing-sweeper, "dead, your majesty. dead, my lords and gentlemen. dead, right reverends and wrong reverends of every order. dead, men and women, born with heavenly compassion in your hearts. and dying thus around us every day," people listened.

i dedicated years of my life to reading him and studying him and thinking about him and writing about him and his novels. now, i turn to condemn him; now, i turn to justify him. i wish i had a time machine so i could shake his hand. i wish i had a time machine so i could publicly debate him. i wish i had a time machine so i could break his nose.

charles dickens gives me courage and hope. charles dickens makes me want to tear my goddamn hair out. he is everything i despise and everything i love about the victorian age in one; the term "a man of his time" ought to have been invented for him. the leaps and bounds the victorians made for progress in the public good are only matched in greatness by the extremity of their atrocities against their "fellow-passengers" on this earth. the way we think about nearly every modern social ill can be traced back to the 19th century; the way we think about nearly every modern idea of social justice can be traced back to the 19th century. every last one is writ large and small in dickens's novels. he and his age are the greatest contradictions in human history and that's why i can't shut up about them, ever, even when i am exhausted by them, even when i am inspired by them, even when it was two centuries ago and it shouldn't matter anymore, but it does. it always will.

[captain-joongz]

Dragonheart; Masterlist

Pairing: OT7 dragon!BTS x knightess!reader

Genre: dragon rider AU, high fantasy, soulmate adjacent, slight enemies to lovers (if you squint), angst, fluff and humour, eventual smut

Summary: The Gong-li Empire has been on the peak of its power for a little over a millenium, and there was a very simple reason for that - dragonkind. When the first emperor of the Li Dynasty struck a deal with a witch that would allow him to bind dragons to the crown and force them into obedience, it was the beginning of its reign of terror and the end of freedom for creatures as old as nature itself.

Now, a woman hoping to change everything enters the ranks of the elite dragon rider unit among the imperial army and meets seven men that not only change her life, but help her change the fate of the whole world.

Warnings and themes: unhealthy family dynamics, fighting against corruption and inequality, revolution, discussions and themes of slavery/sex slavery and forced bondings, violence, war, near death experiences, challenging relationship dynamics, angst, discussions of mortality and death, mating cycles (yes, i'm a slut, thank u), knotting (bc i said so), enough puns and jokes about riding to make you sick of me - each chapter will have it's individual warnings

Current word count: 35.9k

A/N: i've been really craving some good fantasy lately and i'm so in love with dragons, so of course i had to write something for our boys! for this setting, kind of imagine a fusion of asian and western fantasy, the same with clothing - it's going to be a mix of both together. also i'm doing whatever i want with the boys' hairstyles so it's different eras all mashed together, just based on what i liked the most

○ Chapter 1: On the wind of morning

⇝ The first encounter between a girl and a dragon. ⇜

○ Chapter 2: The moon hangs heavy

⇝ When meeting the thunder is bittersweet and family is complicated. ⇜

○ Chapter 3: Prove your heart

⇝ How far does a girl have to go to gain a dragon's trust? ⇜

Character studies

Notes to chapters:

Story lore: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |

Dictionary: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |

Thank you for reading <3

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