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potteresque-ire · 4 years

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I’d like to talk a little about Gg Assistant fic… (Trigger warning: "Me Too” situation; obscene language)

This fic, understandably, has generated quite a bit of excitement among i-turtles because of certain scenes, because of its closeness in POV to what we call fake rumours today. This fic is also, admittedly, a legend among many c-turtles; believed to be first posted before the airing of The Untamed in one of the earliest BJYX forum thread that has since collapsed, the amount of truth hidden within its fanfic status has always been a point of curiosity—largely because the context of the posting was gone. “Fake rumours” (假料), as a genre, didn’t exist yet at the time of its publication, and so it has been referred to as one of the two legendary 助手文s — with 助手 meaning “assistant” and 文 meaning “essay” and likely referring to 同人文, or fan fiction.

For a long time, these 助手文s have largely been kept-in-the-dark candies, similar to certain BTS clips—discussions about them were forbidden on the BYJX supertopic. Moreover, they were candies so old that few new turtles knew about them … until last week, when the opening of the “Candy Analysis” board in the BJYX supertopic led to their “excavation”.

I’d like to talk about this fic because it is an example of a candy that can, or perhaps, has already hurt Gg seriously in subtle ways, though unlikely the intention of the fic’s writer and its propagators. As an example of a candy that we, as i-turtles, may want to think about what makes responsible candy consumption.

I shall not talk about the certain scenes; they’re not what compelled me to write this post —whatever they are, they fall well within the kind of things people outside Gd and Dd’s fandom expect CPFs to be interested in, to daydream about. Those scenes can be ten times wilder and no outsiders would bet an eye.

What I’d like to talk about is one verb that was mis-translated in the English version. That said, please do not take this post as an accusation against anyone—it’s difficult to incorporate full definitions within a translated story, and readers who didn’t pick up the nuance because of the mis-translation are, of course, not at fault in any way.

The verb in question is this one: …among the higher-ups someone wanted to provide for XZ…

In the original Chinese version, “to provide for” is 包養.

包養 is more than “to provide for”. It’s “to provide for” in exchange for exclusive sex service — the person providing the sponsorship would pay a monthly fee, and/or offer gifts of housing and transportation and other necessities, in exchange for exclusive rights to the sponsored ’s bed. It’s considered one of the better options within the “unspoken rule” (潛規則) that I briefly talked about in a previous post, in which (young and beautiful) entertainers are expected to sleep with those with commercial / political power to get opportunities and survive in the industry. It’s “Me too”, except those with power in the country in question have far more power than even the most powerful Hollywood executives do.

And here’s the thing I refrained from saying in the last post, that I’ve considered over the past day whether I should say anything about it at all. But I think i-turtles should know because as real person CPFs, we are often playing closer to the 4th wall than we think. I think i-turtles should know even if what I’ll say may be very upsetting, very difficult for some to hear, and I’d like to apologize ahead for the pain, the unease I may cause.

This is not the first time I read about the rumour that Gg was given the option to be “provided for” between the filming and airing of The Untamed—the assumed background being that his company was unwilling to invest any more in him, and so whether he’d get the resources he’d need would depend on how much of himself he was willing to trade.

And in some versions of these rumours I’ve read—those propagated by Anti’s after 227—Gg didn’t say no. Have any of you heard about WWYXSZD? It’s a play on, a mockery of BJYZSZD, with BJ substituted by the nickname of one of the owners of Gg’s management company, the man Gg supposedly said yes to. Antis are still spreading rumours about WWYXSZD today. I typed in the phrase on Weibo just now, and here’s a screenshot of the latest post I found (from only a few hours ago) under the WWYXSZD tag:

Translation: #WWYXSZD# WWYZ girls never admit failure. Today, did Aunt Zhan’s anus get thrust by WW again to the point of flowing pus? 😍😍

Please don’t ask why this kind of language is allowed on Weibo; it just is—I suppose it doesn’t contest the power of the ruling class in any way.

(Sorry if I sound a little short: this is upsetting.)

I don’t know where Antis got this idea about WWYXSZD. To be fair, Antis probably didn’t need anyone to give them this idea because the “unspoken rule” is very well-known and commonly believed to be rampant in c-ent, but I still wonder, I still think … is it possible that that one sentence in that Gg Assistant fic had given them the idea, or served as proof at some point that even some of Gg’s fans—the turtles—believe Gg was once given the option to be “provided for”?

“And a lot of people know...”, right? Isn’t that what the fic said? Look, on the week of spring equinox, 2021, some c- and i-turtles were rejoicing when they read the story. Doesn’t that confirm the fic is a candy?

And aren’t turtles the ones who both love Gg AND believe candies contain truths?

I suppose this is the question I wish for every turtle, myself included, to ponder a little more. This fic is now in our hands—how should we engage with it? It’s already got a halo—it’s a prized antique in turtledom; it’s legendary. From the language standpoint, it’s fairly well-written, which makes it especially convincing to those who’re not accustomed to fanfics.

As i-turtles, we don’t have supertopic rules; we’re each our own decision maker as to how we’d like to consume our candies. In some ways, our decisions also matter little, and so this is mostly a question of what we feel like is the right thing to do.

What if there’s no truth in the fic at all—then, are we giving Anti’s ammunition? They’re roaming in i-fandom too. We know that.

What if there’s some truth—which part of the fic has the truth, exactly? Is it where we want it to be? Is it worth it to want it to be there, simply for a sugar high in our imagination? Do we have control over which part is perceived as the truth by those outside the fandom?

What if there are real people behind this fic? What if this fic does allude to real events—events that, no matter who they happen to, are bound to be associated with humiliating, horrifying memories?

What answers to these questions do we want?

#pie metas #yizhan #bjyx

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