#chinese republican era

[save-the-data]

Strange Tales of Jiang Cheng | S01E01

Chinese Drama - 2024, 52 episodes

Episodes | Gaga | Viki | YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Youku | Catalogue

Native Title:   #江城诡事

Genres: #Mystery #Horror #Investigation

Tags: #Detective Male Lead #Chinese Republican Era

Cast: #Xia Zhi Guang #Caesar Wu

[dandelionfairywish]

Snowfall (2024)n

 i have watched to manny vampire dramas where the vampire dies and its also a period drama so let just say better be prepared with tissues , icream and chocolate lol

[limecello]

OH DAMN Y'ALL! Team TBR Challenge Review: Miss Mystery

“Blurb”: 18 years ago a young and innocent Xue Tong witnessed her family being brutally murdered. Since then she has hidden herself quietly and patiently, waiting for the day she could put her revenge plan into action. Well that day has come, and Xue Tong has finally returned to her hometown as Miss Lin Bao Er, the daughter of a wealthy Nanyang businessman. Now an adult, Lin Bao Er is clever,…

[tianshiisdead]

Its a long shot but has anyone read Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China by James Flath and Norman Smith? I read the first few pages but idk if I wanna spend $30 on the rest since I can't find many reviews 😕😕😕

[ziseviolet]

Hi my friend wanted to ask about Chinese Opera and the red pom poms on their hats and their significance. I asked my mom and she said they were for decoration so I just wanted clarification

Hi! Thanks for the question, and sorry for taking ages to reply!

The pom poms you see on 盔头/kuitou (Chinese opera headdresses) are called 绒球/rongqiu (lit. "velvet ball"). They are often red, but can also be other colors, and vary in size. Rongqiu are decorative and serve to distinguish the many different types of kuitou from one another. Each type of kuitou is distinct in the number, size, and color of rongqiu that it's decorated with (of course, not all kuitou have rongqiu).

Below - a few different types of Beijing opera kuitou decorated with rongqiu (x):

Rongqiu isn't used just for Chinese opera performances - it's a very common decorative item for Chinese headwear, especially for traditional/folk performances.

Below - examples of rongqiu use in folk custom/performance costumes, left to right: 1) 游神/youshen (wandering gods) procession in Fujian (x), 2) 英歌舞/yingge wu (yingge dance) performer in Guangdong (x), 3) & 4) 高跷/gaoqiao (stilt walking) performers in a 社火/shehuo parade in Gansu (x):

As a festive decoration, rongqiu was also widely used on bridal guan (crowns) from the Qing dynasty into the modern day.

Below - examples of rongqiu use in historical bridal guan: Left - a bride during the late Qing dynasty, circa 1890 (x); Right - a bride during the Republican era/minguo, in 1939 (x):

For some reason it's been extremely difficult to find sources on the origin of rongqiu that would shed more light on its significance, but based on historical paintings the use of rongqiu as a head ornament may have originated in the Qing dynasty. During the late Qing dynasty, it was fashionable among women to wear rongqiu on the sides of their hair, as can be seen in the paintings below (x):

This particular style of rongqiu hair ornament was depicted in the 2012 historical cdrama 娘心计/Mother's Scheme:

For more references, please see my rongqiu and kuitou tags.

If anyone has more information on the significance of rongqiu, please do share!

Hope this helps ^^

[rhaenyraqueenred]

The Untamed AU: Jiang Cheng & Wen Qing as a couple in The Chinese Republican Era.

I was inspired by this fanart of the amazing @littlesmartart

[kungfuwushuworld]

Eagle Claw is a style of Chinese martial arts known for its gripping techniques, system of joint locks, takedowns, and pressure point strikes, which is representative of Chinese grappling known as Chin Na. The style is normally attributed to the famous patriotic Song dynasty General Yue Fei. Popular legends state that he learned martial arts from a Wudang Monk named Zhou Tong and later created Eagle Claw to help his armies combat the invading armies of the Jin dynasty. It was passed down until the Ming dynasty. Thus, the style took on long range strikes and aerial jumps. During the Qing dynasty, the military instructor Liu Shi Jun became known as the modern progenitor of Eagle Claw and taught many students. His student Liu Cheng You later taught Chen Zizheng who was invited to teach the style in the prestigious Chin Woo Athletic Association during the Republican era. The style spread as Chin Woo opened sister schools in other provinces. Today, it is practiced around the world.

[sarah-yyy]

what is war of faith about? is it worth a watch apart from just wang yibo(being gay?)? and where should i watch it?

you were all expecting me to do this so okay let's see how many others i can drag down this shenlai (i think this is the ship name we've settled on?? i have seen many 沈来之笔 tags on ao3 so i'm assuming that's what the chinese fandom has settled on) hole.

what: republican era communist spy drama (finance bros edition) // completed // 38 eps, roughly 40 mins each where: iqiyi (standard disclaimer that i don’t watch with subs so i don’t speak to the quality of eng subs) why: *chanting* yibo yibo yibo yibo yib- wang yang?? xiansheng???? i'll preface by saying i don't watch many republican era shows - it's really just not my thing, like even zhu yilong couldn't make me watch one and that's saying a lot, but i did finish and quite enjoy this one!! extremely strong cast on this show, and the story moved fast enough and had enough action in it that it kept my attention.

meet my boy wei ruolai:

ruolai is from a v humble family, worked hard to put himself through night school but is having trouble stepping foot into the finance world because he has no money, no connections, no diploma (the school is holding off on issuing him one because he's from a communist-stronghold province 😪). he's working several jobs to make ends meet in shanghai when he decides to interview for a job at the central bank.

he aces his entrance test! ofc he does! ruolai is a bit of a whiz with numbers, and is very very very determined to get the job - the place could be on goddamn fire for all he cares, he'll finish his goddamn test and get this goddamn job even if it kills him.

his performance gains him the attention of shen tunan:

xiansheng!! 😍💖💕

chief of the central bank, The Guy™ of the finance and banking industry in shanghai. extremely attractive in a suit. 100% dilf certified.

xiansheng takes a shine on ruolai, but ends up not being able to hire ruolai despite his excellence because, again, ruolai is from a communist-stronghold province, and they don't want to take any chances with him possibly having communist ties.

does that set ruolai back?? no. my boy sneaks into a party that shen tunan is holding at his mansion, and convinces shen tunan to hire him by essentially picking apart shen tunan's ~secret strategies~ that he's uncovered just by following the finance news and making smart deductions 🥺💚

shen tunan caves and personally hires ruolai as his PA, and begins mentoring him and teaching him the ways of the banking industry.

the show is mostly about ruolai's growth in the central bank and the shift of his political beliefs, centred around the kmt and communist party's conflict in that era. the premise of the show is fairly simple - most republican era dramas move in the same direction. this one was well-written, had a solid cast, and beautifully shot.

the development of stn and wrl's relationship in this show was good! it's v shippable, if that's something that is important to you. ngl, i did stay through till the end because these two were so interesting.

we have proud teacher shen tunan who is so so proud of his boy and takes ruolai suit-shopping and tells him how special he is :

starry-eyed disciple wei ruolai who would literally do anything for shen tunan:

he really does mean it when he says that. he gets tortured and thrown in goddamn jail for shen tunan, and he just bears it all and doesn't let himself react in any manner that could harm shen tunan.

i started this strictly for yibo, and had no expectations that i would enjoy it, but guys...........wang yang is 🥵🔥 in this as shen tunan, and this ship just.......sails itself. what else was i supposed to do except go three hundred different levels of ahhhhhhhhh over them.

ANYWAY. strong rec. like at least 8.5/10. even if you're just in it for yibo (who is EXCELLENT in this, the whump scenes are incredible), or if you just want to ship shenlai, the payoff is strong in this.

[silviakundera]

with the conclusion of Snowfall...

why do i enjoy Republican Era chinese dramas so much?

aesthetics! there is this blend of 1920-30s western fashion influences and traditional chinese garb & architecture that just pleases my eyes.

everyone looks very depressed & dangerous & sexy

chaotic period of transition - no matter if you're in the 1910's, 20's, 30's some absolutely wild historical shit was going down

cars and guns and gloves and swords. rotary phones!

dancing & drinking in night clubs, in glamorous pockets amid the violence & instability outside; a lil touch of mask of the red death vibes

end of empire themes, as a country tries to find its way after the end of the last imperial dynasty

there's those gangster, mob boss vibes from american and british dramas set in the 1920s, except everything is cranked up x100 because of general lawlessness; central government and law & order was a paper thin veneer over warlords

the start of WW2 from an entirely different perspective than the common narratives that I was exposed to growing up in the US (which is 99% stories about the european stage)

sino-japanese war / war of resistance material like Hidden Blade is fucking badass ok 🤷

in a time of resistance to occupation, colonizers encroaching, warlords fighting over cities, brewing civil war.... there are many different options of protagonists and unlikely "heroes" who are picking their battles and discovering what they are willing to fight for

Beautiful 👏 women 👏 in heels 👏and 👏 slinky 👏dresses 👏

Lots of revenge narratives. I love an over-the-top, bloodthirsty & destructive revenge narrative

Depending on the genre, there might be little or heavy politcal /patriotic discourse. But tbh none of the rah rah patriotism stuff distracts me much, because all the american and british produced stuff set around WW2 has rah rah patriotism & propaganda in it, so I just consider that part of the essential genre vibes. It's just another country's version. (Of course, others will have less patience when it becomes heavy-handed. YMMV.)

Dark & Gritty

Hidden Blade (film) - a masterpiece, if you enjoy dark WW2 spy films that play with narrative style and challenge the viewer to follow the story as it's woven. Had to review detailed historical context for the years in question, to be ready to consume. But worth it. I've watched it 3 times. 💀

Heroes (2024) - the very beginning era of this genre/the transition into repulican period. rocks fall, everyone dies. Primarily a tragic wuxia & pre-republican fusion. Excellent enough that I didn't mind the bleak storyline. 💀

Detective-ing

Miss S - adaption of 1920s Australian mystery procedural Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, staring Vengo! ML actor of Snowfall

Checkmate - Agatha Christie stories adapted to the setting & time period, plus bromance. I watched half the episodes w my brother, as we are both huge agatha christie fans. It was fun if you can be chill about adaption changes.

My Roommate is A Detective - for mystery & bromance lovers. Same actor duo as Checkmate.

Detective L - don't know much about this one tbh

Romance arc, with a somewhat happy ending for the 2 leads

Provoke - Gorgeous, glamorous, vibes vibes vibes all day long. Revenge and romance. ❤

Fall in Love - sons & daughters of warlords and their supporters get sexy and dangerous and decide even joining the civil war is better than the prior generation's bullshit. This is an objectively bad drama that I really enjoyed anyway (it helps that I skipped every scene for the 2nd and 3rd couples). This one turns v propaganda heavy at the end, if that bothers you. ❤

Arsenal Military Academy - military training hijinks w a side of cross dressing romance. Xu Kai and Bai Lu! It's soliders and japanese invasion et al, so be prepared for the standard patriotism. Comedy & drama. HE for the FL/ML but expect character death in this subject matter. ❤

Rookie Agent Rogue - Late 1930s spy drama with small romance side-plot. Expect the standard wartime patriotism, like with Arsenal Military Academy. The draw is the lead actress, the FL from Princess Agents, Minglan, Legend of Shen Li. HE for the FL/ML but expect character death in this subject matter. ❤

City of Streamer - Older woman seduces younger man who is the son of her revenge target. Melodrama with people serving looks. ❤

War of Faith* - Young man just wants to join the banking industry and have a subtextually gay relationship with his mentor in peace, but there's a civil war going on. Protagonist would like to be excluded from this political narrative, but ultimately is forced to pick a side. ❤🌈 *(Is it censored gay romance? No, not based on a gay novel. So not officially! But some viewers felt there was a subtextual romance storyline #shenlai ; YMMV. The happy ending is Untamed-esque; implied only)

many, many pulpy mini-dramas about revenge! warlords! ladies with pistols! (Miss Mystery, First Marriage, Maid's Revenge, etc)

Also... (happy ending not guaranteed)

Siege in Fog

Love in Flames of War

Couple of Mirrors - censored F/F 🌈

Stand by Me - censored m/m 🌈

Killer and Healer - censored m/m 🌈

Winter Begonia - censored m/m 🌈

[simply-whump]

Whump Lists & Gifs

I just reached 100 whump lists! What a journey!

Here are all the Whump Lists and Gifs I made. Don't hesitate to recommend me whumpy asian dramas ! I also take requests for lists and gifs (ask or DM).

GIFS LIBRARY >>> [ LINK ]

LISTS LIBRARY :

GENRES : Historical 👘 / Republican Era 🎩 / Modern 👔 / Military 🎖 / Investigation🚨 / Youth 🎓 / Sport ⚽️ / Action 💥 / Family 🏠 / Medical 🩺 / Rescue 🧯/ Supernatural ✨

My Favorites are in Bold - [ Total Lists made : 106 ]

Chinese Dramas >>> [ LINK ]

Korean Dramas :

Bad Thief, Good Thief 🚨/🏠

Cheer Up 🎓

Delivery Man 🚨/✨

Destined with You 👔/✨

Dr. Romantic Season 2 - S3 🩺

Exhuma [Movie] ✨

Gyeongseong Creature 💥/✨

King the Land 👔

Love 911 [Movie] 🧯/🩺

Lovely Runner 👔/✨

Love Next Door 👔

Love Tractor 👔

Missing : The Other Side Season 1 - S2 🚨/✨

Moving 💥/✨

Mr. Plankton 👔

My Country: The New Age 👘/💥

My Lovely Boxer ⚽️

My Lovely Liar 👔/✨

My Sweet Mobster 👔

Our Blooming Youth 👘

Perfect Marriage Revenge 👔/✨

Secret Reunion [Movie] 🚨/💥

See You in My 19th Life 👔/✨

Sh**ting Stars 👔

Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938 🎩 /✨

The First Responders 🚨/🧯

The Forbidden Marriage 👘

The Heavenly Idol 👔/✨

The Secret Romantic Guesthouse 👘/💥

The Story of Park's Marriage Contract 👔/✨

The Uncanny Counter 2 💥/✨

Twinkling Watermelon 🎓/✨

Weak Hero Class 1 🎓/💥

Japanese Dramas :

High & Low Series 💥

Kei×Yaku: Abunai Aibou 🚨

Miman Keisatsu: Midnight Runner 🚨/💥

Thai Dramas :

Century of Love ✨

Chains of Heart 💥

My Stand-In 👔/✨

Naughty Babe 👔

Pit Babe ✨

The Sign 💥/✨

Btw, I also have a youtube channel where I do some asian dramas montages. It is not whump related but if you want to check it out it's here >> LINK

[save-the-data]

Strange Tales of Jiang Cheng | S01E05

Chinese Drama - 2024, 52 episodes

Episodes | Gaga | Viki | YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Youku | Catalogue

Native Title:   #江城诡事

Genres: #Mystery #Horror #Investigation

Tags: #Detective Male Lead #Chinese Republican Era  #Partners in Crime

Cast: #Xia Zhi Guang #Caesar Wu

[dandelionfairywish]

dramas in july

[indigostudies]

a very incomplete list of cdramas (plus a few chinese films) i've watched and my rating for hsk proficiencies for them below the cut!

i've watched some shows that aren't included on this list, but i didn't watch enough of them to get a good sense for the level of challenge they pose, so they're omitted from the list. i've also included links to the mydramalist pages, if you want to get a sense of the plot.

i had to remove the list format, since tumblr decided i had too many characters per block of text, so i apologise for that. a number of these can be watched on youtube with english fansubs, but if you can't find something, you can always dm me and i'll get you a link!

沙海/tomb of the sea: this fits into the extended daomu biji/grave robbers' chronicles/lost tomb franchise, but you don't have to have seen the other shows or read the books to watch it, and the pov character is an outsider who also doesn't understand what's going on 90% of the time. this show is contemporary, and you could probably start watching it at a fairly low hsk level because it doesn't have a ton of complicated technical or genre-specific terms. the subbing in english decent, since it came out a while ago, but there are some errors that crop up with names and nicknames. if you wanted to watch it without subtitles, i'd say you could probably get the gist of what's being said at around an hsk 4 or hsk 5 level. it has 52 episodes, each around 45 minutes long. (mdl link)

双镜/couple of mirrors: set in the republican era, so some of the terms used are a bit outdated in terms of colloquialism, and it also has a mystery/detective element to it, so that could pose a bit of a struggle. that said, the show isn't actually too challenging in terms of vocab—i would say you could watch it without english subtitles at an hsk 3 level with some struggle, and with a fair amount of ease at hsk 4. 12 episodes, at 46 minutes each. (mdl link)

云泽传/legend of yunze: wuxia/xianxia, which makes the amount of unfamiliar terms higher if you aren't used to the genre, but the episodes are all very short, and the plot itself isn't overly complicated, which makes it easy to sit down and watch in one go. on a level of difficulty, as long as you're familiar with wuxia/xianxia terms, you could probably watch this at an hsk 2 level without too much issue, and the subbing in english is very thorough. has multiple seasons, but the first season is 12 episodes, between 3-7 minutes each. (mdl link)

神探/detective l: this is a procedural detective show, and it's set in the 1930s republican shanghai, so there's a combination of more formal/outdated language and specialised detective/case-related phrases. the english subs are decent, though, and the actors all enunciate clearly, which helps if you need to look up words. i would say this would probably be a bit of a struggle below the hsk 5 level, but you'll pick up a lot of new, crime-related phrases. 24 episodes, 40 minutes each. (mdl link)

不良执念清除师/oh no! here comes trouble!: i'll be honest, this one was a struggle for me because of the taiwanese accent. i can understand what they're saying, it just sounds like the auditory equivalent of someone coming into my house and moving everything a few centimetres to the left. this is also a procedural show, but contemporary, so not quite as challenging in terms of vocab to detective l, in my opinion..........but it's also got a heavy supernatural element, which does come with specific vocab. the subbing is good, but if you're going to watch it, this one probably requires a higher hsk level to keep up—hsk 5, at a minimum, in my opinion. 12 episodes, 52 minutes each. (mdl link)

s.c.i谜案集/sci mystery/sci: another contemporary procedural mystery show, but from the mainland, so there's no elements of supernatural. surprisingly simple vocabulary; you could watch this at an hsk 2 level and get the gist, and an hsk 3 or hsk 4 level would let you watch it just fine. has fairly good english subs, and i believe they set the show in hk, which accounts for the higher than usual amount of english usage, up to and including in dialogue. the only bit that might make it challenging is the heavy lean into the psychology, but it's all largely explained directly, since most of the characters aren't familiar with the terms either. 24 episodes, 45 minutes each. (mdl link)

成化十四年/sleuth of the ming dynasty: ming dynasty (mid 1400s, under the chenghua emperor) setting, but a fairly colloquial vocabulary. there are some specialised titles used, but those are fairly self-evident by the way the show is shot, and easy enough to look up. the english subs are good, and i would put this at an hsk 4 level—but even at an hsk 3 level you probably won't struggle too badly. my hangup here was, again, one of the leads being played by an actor with a taiwanese accent, though it's not too heavy. 48 episodes, 45 minutes each. (mdl link)

老九门/the mystic nine: dmbj prequel, set in the tail end of the republican era (1939, if i remember correctly?). has a lot of tomb- and tomb-robbing specific vocabulary, alongside the more dated modes of speech, so i would put this up at an hsk 5 or hsk 6 level, but there's decent subs, so you could watch it at lower levels, it would just be a bit of a challenge. 48 episodes, 42 minutes each. (mdl link)

猎罪图鉴/under the skin: contemporary procedural show; there's a lot of emotion- and motive-specific words used, and the fact that it's a procedural makes it a bit more challenging, in my opinion. i would recommend that don't start with this show, just because of the fact that it's pretty easy to get lost if you don't grasp some of the vocabulary. i'd put it at an hsk 6 level, but that said, the subs are good and you can watch it at an hsk 5 level with some effort, i think. 20 episodes, 45 minutes each. (mdl link)

春风沉醉的夜晚/spring fever: honestly not as challenging in terms of vocabulary as a lot of things on this list, and fairly contemporary (set in the 2000s). i would say if you're at an hsk 4 level, you will probably do alright with it. 116 minutes in total. (mdl link)

关于我和鬼变成家人的那件事/marry my dead body: another case of struggling to acclimate to the taiwanese accent; otherwise, not too complicated in terms of vocab, though there are some spirit/marriage-specific terms used. overall, though, i'd put this at an hsk 4 level as well. 130 minutes in total. (mdl link)

陈情令/the untamed: heavy on the wuxia/xianxia elements, so unless you're familiar with that, you might struggle a lot to get through it. this is a lot of peoples' entry into cdramas, though, so it's not utterly inaccessible, and has decent english subs. i would put this around an hsk 5, if you want to watch it without subs, though you'll probably still have to pause and look up some words here and there even then. 50 episodes, 45 minutes each, making it the longest on this list. (mdl link)

山河令/word of honour: arguably the hardest on this list, i would say, because it's so plot-heavy. i, as a native speaker, struggle to follow along with this for extended amounts of time because there's a combination of 1. a lot happening, 2. a lot of wuxia terms, and 3. a lot of references to literature/art/etc. i would put this up at an hsk 7 level, honestly. that said, the subs for this are very good. 36 official episodes with a 37th mini-episode, 45 minutes each for the regular ones. (mdl link)

天官赐福/heaven official's blessing: one of the easier shows on this list; i would put this at an hsk 3 or hsk 4 level; there's some words you probably won't know, but while it does fall under xianxia, it doesn't go into that as much in terms of vocabulary as cql/the untamed does. i believe both seasons have both official subbing and official dubbing into english available, but that's not how i watched it, and i've only seen the first season, which is 11 episodes and about 20 minutes per episode. (mal link)

致命游戏/the spirealm: not particularly challenging in terms of actual vocab, but as of yet, only the first few episodes are subbed, since it came out literally this month, and the other subs are all auto-generated and.............very lacking. that said, it's a contemporary setting, and i would put this at an hsk 5 level, give or take; there are some references to folklore, but the characters research and explain or deduce the explanations of what is happening as it occurs, and you aren't left to struggle to figure it out yourself. 78 episodes, but each one is a bit under 20 minutes long, so it actually isn't that much content in total. (mdl link)

[ruanbaijie]

During the Republican Era, Shen Zhiheng, a member of the Tianjin gentry who happened to be a vampire, offended the Japanese and became the target of an assassination attempt. He was saved by a blind young lady, Mi Lan, and his best friend Situ Weilian. When he went to repay Mi Lan for saving him, he discovered the terrible family situation that Mi Lan was in, and so began to pay more attention to her. Meanwhile, Shen Zhiheng’s plan to take revenge on Li Yingliang, the mastermind behind his assassination, fell short of success thanks to Li Yingliang’s Japanese superior, raising suspicions about his identity. Since then, Li Yingliang and the Japanese were in hot pursuit of Shen Zhiheng, determined to dig out the truth about his secret.

Please do not repost this anywhere else or retranslate it!

MAIN DIRECTORY ☾ READ ON AO3 ☾ PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Shen Zhiheng gave Situ Weilian a call, asking how much of the task he had completed. Situ Weilian’s voice was deep with sorrow.

“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely get it done,” he told him listlessly.

“What’s wrong with you?” Shen Zhiheng asked. “Are you sick?”

“No, I’ve fallen out of love,” he sniffed into the phone, as if he was so depressed he was about to cry. “Jingxue is ignoring me.”

The second Shen Zhiheng heard that, he hung up the phone, relieved. Jin Jingxue ignoring him was very normal. Although Shen Zhiheng cared for Situ Weilian, he had to admit that Situ Weilian was not worthy of the second young mistress of the Jin family.

While Situ Weilian was suffering a one-sided falling out of love and was in so much pain he wanted to die, Jin Jingxue knew absolutely nothing about his suffering.

These few days, she had only been busy with running to the hospital. About a week ago, she had found out that Li Yingliang had gotten injured and had been hospitalised, and she had immediately gone to visit him. The moment she entered the room, she had noticed how pale Li Yingliang was. The two corners of his lips were red and swollen, and his two lips had become a red circle.

“What happened to you?” she had walked to the front of the bed, asking directly, “What are your injuries? Are they bad?”

Li Yingliang had looked at her indifferently. “Thank you for your concern, Second Young Mistress. It’s nothing serious.” Then, he had paused, and had asked hesitantly, “Are you here for me? Or to see someone else?”

“Which friend of mine would come to this kind of crappy hospital when they’re sick? Of course I’m here for you.” She had carefully examined him, extending a sharp pointer towards him. “Why has your mouth become bigger?”

Li Yingliang had regained his indifferent expression. “It was held open.”

“Ah? Who held it open?”

“A bad person.”

Jin Jingxue had snickered. “I think you yourself are the bad person.” As soon as she said that, she had straightened her face, sitting down beside the bed.

“Liang-gege, tell me the truth,” she had said softly, “are you the target of an assassination attempt by some anti-Chinese traitor organisation? I told you already, don’t work for and with the Japanese. You’ll get labelled a Chinese traitor, and it’s not a given that you’ll gain any benefits out of it. And, it puts your life in danger.”

Li Yingliang had been particularly cold to her that day. Because his lips truly hurt, he could not put on a fake smile. “Can the Chinese promote me? Can they make me an official?”

“Why must you definitely become an official? Isn’t running a business the same? As long as you have money to spend.” She had held her very exquisite little head high, her freshly permed curls quivering. “Here, I can promise you that if you are willing to resign and return home, I’m willing to spend money and support you. It’s a good thing I’m younger than you, I’ll definitely live longer than you and I can support you until you’re old and see you off when you pass away, caring for you for an entire lifetime.”

Li Yingliang had looked at her, his voice even, “Second Young Mistress, you seem to have a misunderstanding about me.”

“What misunderstanding?”

“I’m a person, not a cat or a dog.”

Jin Jingxue had tilted her head, smiling. “Of course I know! You’re nowhere as cute as a little cat or dog.”

“Besides clothes and a roof, I also need to marry and settle down, and start a family of my own. Do you want to support my family as well?”

Jin Jingxue had sat in deep thought. Li Yingliang’s legs and left forearm had been in terrible pain, but even so, he had still wanted to kick Jin Jingxue out of the room. She always made him angry, and he had really been on the verge of getting annoyed to death by her.

At this moment, Jin Jingxue had spoken, “I can’t support your entire big family, so I’ve decided to forbid you from getting married. Just stay by my side obediently!”

Li Yingliang had smiled slightly, replying internally, “Fuck you!”

Jin Jingxue was convinced that Li Yingliang had been targeted by the anti-Chinese traitor organisations, so she did not dare make it public, only visiting him and bringing nourishing food with her when she did over the course of ten continuous days. On the eleventh day, Li Yingliang ignored the doctor’s attempts at stopping him, forcefully discharging himself from the hospital and sneakily hiding in Li Guisheng’s house to let his wounds recover. Jin Jingxue could not find him, and had no clue where he could be, and could not help but be worried. Naturally, she was not in the mood to entertain Situ Weilian. So, to put it in more detail, both she and Situ Weilian were now injured, they both held melancholy in their hearts.

As for Li Yingliang, although the saying goes “injured bones and tendons take a hundred days to heal”, after resting for a month, he removed the splint on his left forearm, and could already slowly stand up to walk. This time, he had lost a lot of blood and he had been severely injured. He was already an attractive young man [1] , and now he was even whiter. With his skin like ice and his bones like jade, together with the lack of any expression on his face, if anyone saw him at night, it would be quite frightening. This was especially given how he had slept too much the previous month, and now he frequently suffered from insomnia one month later. At night, he could not lie down and keep still, and would often drag his two hurting legs to pace around his room. With a white face, stiff legs, and a left forearm that was plastered close to his body, he would spend a good part of the day walking around the room stiffly. 

To take care of him, Li Guisheng slept in the small cubicle beside his room. When he wanted to cut through the bedroom to leave the house to pee, he bumped into him the second he left the small cubicle. This gave him so much of a fright that his pee started trickling, almost releasing it all over the floor. He even came down with a low fever the next day, very nearly falling ill.

Fortunately, one and a half months later, Li Yingliang could move around freely. He packed up his things and left the Li residence, returning to his own home.

Li Yingliang felt that he had not recovered well from this injury.

He could not exert force using his left forearm, and although the two holes from the chopsticks in his thighs had already closed and healed, the scars they left behind often hurt. It was a pain that he could feel all the way to his bones. However, he did not hate Shen Zhiheng bitterly because of this; before bearing hate, he had more important things to do.

He held a few meetings with Yokoyama Akira, particularly to discuss Shen Zhiheng. Until now, he still dared to pat his chest and affirm that Li Guisheng had indeed killed Shen Zhiheng that night.

Yokoyama Akira thought for a long while, and finally said, “Your man killed Shen Zhiheng, and that night, Shen Zhiheng’s body disappeared. One month later, Shen Zhiheng reappeared looking normal. He was not a body double, and he treated you amicably and agreed to your invitation.”

“Sir, at that time, he did not look extremely normal, more like he had just recovered from a serious illness. But the next day, when he attended the dinner, he looked much better.”

Yokoyama Akira nodded, “Your man said that the night when they killed Shen Zhiheng, it had been incredibly difficult to kill him. Even when he had been shot in the head, he did not die, and had even retaliated and killed two people. So, your man had used a machine gun to shower him with bullets, and had even driven over him.”

“Yes, he had been completely crushed.”

“And when Shen Zhiheng attacked you, his skill was also… beyond what you could imagine? Is that the phrase?”

“Yes, that’s the phrase. Beyond what I could imagine. He grabbed my gun so quickly I could not see it clearly.”

Yokoyama Akira frowned. “How strange! Could it be that he’s a great master?”

“But Sir, looking at his actions and behaviour, does he seem like a great master?”

“No.”

Li Yingliang agreed.

Yokoyama Akira pondered, “If he doesn’t seem like a great master, then what does he seem like?”

Li Yingliang licked his lips, finding it difficult to say it out loud, “I feel that he… there’s something evil about him, like… a demon or a monster.”

 Yokoyama Akira blinked, looking at Li Yingliang. Li Yingliang was well aware that what he had just said did not make any sense, and felt uneasy. However, after blinking, Yokoyama Akira said, “If he’s really a demon or a monster,  then he’s even more valuable.”

Li Yingliang decided to change his tactics against the demon or monster Shen Zhiheng.

He wanted to meet Shen Zhiheng, but Shen Zhiheng was usually active in the concession zone, and the Japanese influence did not allow Li Yingliang to throw his weight around in the English and French concession zones. So, if Shen Zhiheng did not want to see him, there was no way for him to bring his subordinates to go up to his door.

However, Li Yingliang had both courage and smarts. He decided with resolve that he had to find Shen Zhiheng. Even if Shen Zhiheng morphed into a ground beetle [2] and crawled into the cracks in a wall, he would break off a tree branch and poke him out.

Previously, Li Yingliang never particularly paid much attention to Shen Zhiheng, until when he had decided to kill him and had asked Li Guisheng to follow him. Now, he started to research this person in earnest, and discovered that there were indeed many mysterious things about him.

Firstly, he had no wife. Even if he had no wife, that was not a big deal. But he did not go to the brothels, and neither did he like any dancing showgirls. He did not even have a servant girl staying at his house. In a nutshell, he was completely not interested in women. The only person who went to his house frequently was a little doctor called Situ Weilian. For a time, Li Yingliang had a suspicion that Shen Zhiheng preferred men instead, but upon further snooping, he discovered that there was no intimate relationship between him and Situ Weilian. Besides, Situ Weilian was currently openly pursuing Jin Jingxue; his taste was quite bad.

Secondly, he did not have any servants or attendants who stayed close to him. He kept a distance from everyone around him, apart from that Situ Weilian.

Thirdly, which was something someone had told him as a joke, was that Shen Zhiheng had quite a frightening hobby: he loved watering his flowers with human blood. He obtained his blood legally through Situ Weilian, buying it from Keats Hospital.  

After hearing these three pieces of information, not only did Li Yingliang not smile, his heart even contracted in terror.

Besides these three pieces of information, everything about Shen Zhiheng was meritorious. For example, although he was wealthy, he was not proud at all. He always treated people affably, was both cultured and polite, and even enthusiastic about charity, often doing good deeds. He also treated his friends well; when General Mi’s daughter fell ill and had to stay in the hospital, there was no one available to take care of her, and he had gone to visit her daily, and Mrs. Mi was immensely grateful towards him.

Li Yingliang had forgotten about General Mi recently. It was only after hearing this that he remembered him. Thinking about General Mi, he then thought of Young Mistress Mi; he had seen Young Mistress Mi before! That night, he had happened to do a good deed, he had fetched Young Mistress Mi home from the street–

Li Yingliang suddenly felt that something was off: first, Shen Zhiheng’s corpse disappeared on the first night, and on the second night, not far from where Shen Zhiheng had been attacked, he had met Young Mistress Mi who was alone. And now, Shen Zhiheng, who distanced himself from women and who did not seem to be close friends with General Mi, visited Young Mistress Mi everyday. Why? Young Mistress Mi was still a child, Shen Zhiheng could not have fallen in love with her.

If it was not love, could it be that he owed her?

Li Yingliang was a man of action. After thinking so much that his brain was in a mess, he decided to personally visit Shen Zhiheng. Yes, he had killed Shen Zhiheng once, but Shen Zhiheng had also killed him once, so following this line of thought, he felt that they were now even. That afternoon, he headed to Victoria Hospital, intending to catch hold of Shen Zhiheng.

That noon, the bright and sunny day suddenly became dark, and by afternoon, it was snowing heavily. It was terrible weather that could cause a person to freeze to death. Li Yingliang alighted from the car and raised his head. The skies were steel grey and the snow blew in the wind, hitting people square in the face. Fortunately, he was dressed in the most premium woollen coat from England, and it was of thick material. Wrapped around his neck was also a smooth mink fur collar, which helped block the snow and wind. Adjusting the brim of his top hat, his ears were a little frozen, but he did not complain. After all, this hat was enough to feed a normal family for half a year.

Without any warning, he was hit with an emotional lament: dressed in his thick woollen coat, he thought back to the cold and hungry days of his past. Now, he had been reborn as a human being, and even if he had to risk his life for the rest of his days, he had to hold on to the woollen coat and expensive top hat that he now wore.

Collecting his thoughts, he raised his head and looked at the entrance of the hospital. Before the hospital doors was a flight of high stone steps. He was sure that Shen Zhiheng was now in the hospital. Should he then go straight into the hospital to find him, or should he stand here and wait?

In any case, the one surnamed Shen could not escape from him today.

Right at that moment, he suddenly noticed someone standing on the stairs.

It was a girl, dressed in deep grey Western clothes, with a silver grey cloak wrapped around her. She was dressed completely in grey, and seemed to nearly become one with the grey stone steps. A pale white face faced outwards, and her eyelids were slightly lowered, filled with lofty indifference. Her cloak was a little askew, revealing a good part of her right forearm. She wore a small sheepskin glove on her right hand, which was grasping a thin black cane.

Li Yingliang’s first thought was that this girl looked very familiar. Then, he remembered – Young Mistress Mi!

Today’s Young Mistress Me looked much more presentable than the Young Mistress Mi he had seen that night. She was standing there, dressed neatly, could it be that she had fully recovered and was about to leave the hospital?

Li Yingliang thought, “Young Mistress Mi.”

These three words seemed as if they held a cryptic, hiding meaning, but he had yet to decipher what exactly it was. Walking towards the steps, he said merrily from a distance, “Young Mistress Mi? Is that Young Mistress Mi?”

Mi Lan raised her eyelids, turning to face his direction. That turn was extremely nimble, completely unlike a blind person. Li Yingliang continued to greet merrily, “When I saw you from a distance, I thought that it looked like you, but I didn’t dare to recognise you yet. It turns out that my eyesight is quite good, it really is the young mistress. Young Mistress, you must have definitely forgotten me already? I am–”

Mi Lan suddenly said, “Li-shushu?”

Li Yingliang was startled. “How did you know?”

Mi Lan remembered how he had extended a helping hand to her that night, and smiled at him, “I remember your voice.”

Li Yingliang was very surprised, and felt a little touched at the same time. He did not expect that he had left such a deep impression on her. “Why are you standing here alone? Are you ill?”

Mi Lan nodded. “I’m already better. I’m leaving the hospital today.”

 Li Yingliang went “oh”, and was just about to inquire more, when the doors of the hospital opened and a person walked out. That person was dressed sharply in a suit. He carried a small leather suitcase in each of his hands, and two bills hung from between his lips. He had used his shoulder to knock the doors open, and then squeezed his body out sideways.

Li Yingliang raised his head to look and was about to say something when Mi Lan turned her head and spoke first, “Mr. Shen, are the formalities completed?”

Shen Zhiheng could not open his mouth to speak, so he eyed Li Yingliang and went “mm”, going down the stairs.

Mi Lan nodded at Li Yingliang. “Li-shushu, thank you for bringing me home previously. I’m going now, farewell.”

Then, she stuck out her walking cane, leaving without any hesitation, her actions even faster than a normal person’s. While Li Yingliang was afraid that she would roll down from the stairs, he was also busy with looking at Shen Zhiheng. Shen Zhiheng stopped at a high point, lowering his head to look down at him. After looking for a moment, he suddenly extended his arms to him and passed him the suitcases.

Without knowing why, he received the suitcases in confusion. With his hands freed up, Shen Zhiheng stuffed the bills hanging from between his lips into his coat pocket, and then snatched the suitcases back from him.

Watching him going without saying a single word, Li Yingliang hurriedly said, “Mr. Shen, what a coincidence. We meet again.”

Shen Zhiheng asked him quite amicably, “Aren’t you afraid to see me?”

“Haha, Mr. Shen is joking. Of course I’m not afraid.”

“Then why are you trembling?”

“I’m cold.”

“Please take care of yourself, Chairman Li. I have other businesses to attend to and will take my leave first.”

He and Mi Lan walked towards the car. Seeing that matters were developing unfavourably, Li Yingliang chased after them, “Wait! Last time, I almost died at your hands. This time, I still dare to come to see you alone. This shows that I don’t mean any harm to you at all!”

Shen Zhiheng stopped in his steps, turning his head and smiling at him. “But I do.”

He continued walking forward, helping Mi Lan and her two suitcases into the car. Then, he closed the car door, turned around, and walked to Li Yingliang.

“From the start, we were supposed to stay out of each other’s way. From now on, we can continue staying out of each other’s way. But you’d better stop making trouble for me, or else–” He moved to his ear, lowering his voice, “I will eat you.” 

Then, he could not help but inhale deeply, the scent of flesh filling his nostrils entirely. He realised that he was growing increasingly tempted by live people. This was not a good sign.

Li Yingliang stumbled a step back, “What do you mean? What do you want to do?”

Shen Zhiheng patted his shoulder. “Whatever you can think of, I’m capable of doing it.”

Turning around, he opened the car door and got into the car. Li Yingliang stared hard at the back of his car, until it disappeared in the wind and snow.

Sitting in the car, Mi Lan asked Shen Zhiheng, “Do you and Li-shushu have a grudge against each other?”

Shen Zhiheng held the steering wheel, trying to recognise the roads in the middle of the wind and snow. “Li-shushu? When did you get to know him?”

Mi Lan told him the truth, and Shen Zhiheng listened without making any comments. He only said, “We do have a grudge against each other. That night, the person who killed me was him.”

He thought that as a young lady, her reaction would be to advise him to have compassion and not keep seeking revenge against Li Yingliang. However, Mi Lan did not say anything. It appeared that to her, this topic had come to a conclusion.

Shen Zhiheng sent Mi Lan back to the Mi mansion.

When Mi Lan was about to die, Mrs. Mi kept screaming “Lan” and crying her eyes out, as if Lan was her precious darling. When Mi Lan gradually got better, that one remaining fleck of motherly love of Mrs. Mi’s became jealousy, because Shen Zhiheng went to visit Mi Lan everyday. This blind wretch that just could not die had actually gained the love and care of a man.

If the man who cared for her was a worthless poor young man, the most Mrs. Mi would have done was to ridicule her at home. However, that man was Shen Zhiheng. She had been beautiful during her youth, but now she was reduced to a grass widow. What right did the blind wretch have to get to meet a golden bachelor everyday? Where was the justice? The blind wretch was blind, but was Shen Zhiheng blind too?

Mrs. Mi was full of hate, but she did not know whom to hate. With a straight face, she grudgingly thanked Shen Zhiheng. Shen Zhiheng did not stay for long, leaving after he saw Mi Lan and her suitcases into the house. Seeing him go off like that, Mrs. Mi thought that he had seen her black face and had left in anger, and both anger and satisfaction filled her heart as she thought that she had ruined her daughter’s marriage fate. Turning around to look at Mi Lan, she realised that after falling sick and staying in the hospital for two months, she had actually become fatter, and she immediately sneered.

Mi Lan ignored her.

Mi Lan had originally always ignored her, and now that she had a powerful friend like Shen Zhiheng, she was even lazier to entertain her.

At noon the next day, a girl came to the Mi mansion.

The girl lived in a Western-style house at the corner of the street, and her father was the manager in a foreign company. She studied in a missionary school and always went to and from school everyday by herself. Everyone on the street knew her. She hesitantly knocked on the Mi family’s door, saying that they had formed a choir class, and that they wanted to organise a performance during Christmas and the New Year, but were lacking in people. As Mi Lan was close in age to them, she had come to ask Mi Lan if she was willing to join their group and practise singing with them every afternoon in the chapel.

As Mrs. Mi had yet to wake up, Mi Lan decided for herself, agreeing in a heartbeat. When Mrs. Mi woke up and heard that her daughter was going to sing songs with a group of female students, she laughed out loud, telling her daughter to “not make a fool of herself”.

Mi Lan lowered her head and said, “I have already promised her… I’ll go and try. If I can’t sing, I’ll come back.”

Mrs. Mi continued laughing raucously, as if she wanted to laugh out poison and spit it onto her daughter. Mi Lan ignored her, and when the afternoon came, she felt her way out of the door to wait for that girl, and really followed that girl and left.

That girl was Situ Zhenni’s classmate, and Situ Zhenni had been entrusted by Situ Weilian. Situ Weilian had fulfilled his task, making such a big round to create an opportunity for Mi Lan to leave the house everyday, allowing her to live peacefully in the church for a good part of the day.

The first day that Mi Lan went, she did not say anything after coming home. On the afternoon of the second day, she got ready much earlier than needed, and before she left, she heard her mother laugh, “This child is really so shameless. They’re taking pity on you because you’re blind and just casually invited you, but you’re still taking it so seriously, going day after day like it’s endless. The girls in that choir class are all neat and proper, but look at you, looking so terrible but still forcing your way in. They can’t kick you out openly, but they must be laughing at you in their hearts, and even laughing at me together with you as well.”

Hearing her mother say this, Mi Lan gritted her teeth. First, she stood ramrod straight without moving an inch, and waited until Mrs. Mi became bored out of her wits and shut her mouth. Then, she suddenly extended her hand and pushed the door open, striding out.

She trotted down the steps, and as she was not wearing a hat, her long hair and the corners of her coat floated out behind her in the wind. The old maid wanted to chase after her with her hat, but when she stepped out of the door, she saw that Mi Lan had already left the gates and was standing on the road. Her walking cane was clamped under her armpit and the snowflakes drifted directly into her widened, unblinking eyes.

The old maid did not want to get snowed on, and so she retreated back into the house. 

Mi Lan did not know why she was so furious this time. Tripping over a stone, she whipped out her walking cane and turned around, yelling as she struck it.

A sharp pain coursed through her hand [3] as the tip of the walking cane struck the stone. Grasping her walking cane, she stood still, her frail chest moving up and down as she breathed heavily in the cold wind. Suddenly, she turned her face, hearing the sound of a car in the distance.

The car approached rapidly and braked to a halt before her. The door opened, and a familiar voice rang out, “Young Mistress Mi?”

She replied in her heart, “Li-shushu.”

Li Yingliang had realised that his approach to Shen Zhiheng was akin to biting off more than he could chew, and so he had changed his strategy again, and started to pester the people around him. The previous afternoon, he had gotten to know that Mi Lan would regularly go to sing at a choir class. He had personally come over today, lying in ambush near the Mi mansion, as he wanted to have a chance encounter with her. Little did he know that Mi Lan was unlike herself today. He had always thought that she was a poor little thing, and had never expected that she could also throw a temper tantrum.

Seeing her lose her temper, Li Yingliang got confused instead. “Did your mother beat you again?”

Mi Lan shook her head.

Li Yingliang sneezed in the cold wind, and then making up his mind, he dragged Mi Lan into the car.

After living for twenty-eight years, this was Li Yingliang’s first time inviting a person of the opposite sex to sit with him in a café.

He ordered a glass of juice for himself, and a plate of biscuits, a plate of sweets, and a mug of hot chocolate for Mi Lan. Mi Lan’s style and the impression that she gave others were a little similar to those of Shen Zhiheng. Her body fit the standard of a clothes rack; it was designed to display a full body of trim Western attire. It was very easy for someone dressed in grey woollen Western clothes from head to toe to resemble a grey mouse, but she looked nothing like it, thanks to her upright posture, her sharp and narrow shoulders, and her thin and defined waist. Facing Li Yingliang, she first smoothened her messy hair, then took out a handkerchief to aggressively wipe the snow and water from her face.

She busied herself, and Li Yingliang waited until she was done, before opening his mouth probingly, “Still angry?”

Mi Lan shook her head. “Not anymore.”

Li Yingliang pushed the mug of hot chocolate to her hand. “Drink something hot first. Where are you going? I’ll fetch you there later.”

“I’m going to the chapel.”

People in the area all knew where the chapel was, and so did Li Yingliang. “Oh, that’s very close by. Just one step of the gas and we’ll be there.” 

Although Mi Lan knew that Li Yingliang was Shen Zhiheng’s enemy, she did not harbour any hate towards him personally. Li Yingliang’s murder of Shen Zhiheng had happened before she had saved him. The things that had happened before had nothing to do with her, because before, she had not gotten to know Shen Zhiheng yet. “Knowing” was a watershed, in that before it, Shen Zhiheng was a stranger, and his life or death had nothing to do with her. The Shen Zhiheng after the watershed was different; he had become a personal god who could make her smile when she simply thought of him.

“Did Li-shushu come to me for something?” she asked.

“I was passing by your house, and happened to run into you.”

Mi Lan remembered that the car had sped towards her from the middle of the road. It had not just passed by; it had been waiting there all along. Not long after she had walked out of the gates of her house, it had suddenly moved.

But she was too lazy to expose Li Yingliang’s lie, and so she continued to ask, “Does this have to do with Mr. Shen?”

Li Yingliang realised that this little girl was a little strange; it was as if there was nothing she did not know. It was no wonder that quite a few blind people were fortune tellers, he thought. Perhaps they really knew some secrets of heaven, and so had received divine punishment.

“You’re very clever,” he praised sincerely. “Then let me be honest. The day before yesterday, at the hospital entrance, Young Mistress Mi might have already heard it. There is a big misunderstanding between me and Mr. Shen. Now, I want to reconcile with him, but he’s not giving me any chance at all. So, I wonder if Young Mistress Mi can mediate and help me pass him a message. Of course, I won’t let you do it for nothing. Whether I succeed or not, I will repay you heavily in thanks.”

Mi Lan replied, “Sure.”

Li Yingliang paused, thinking he had heard wrongly. “You’re agreeing just like that?”

Mi Lan nodded. She wrapped her mug in her hands and started to drink the hot chocolate. Li Yingliang was still in disbelief. He smiled, speaking in a tone that sounded as if he were teasing a young child, “Then you must not lie to me!”

Mi Lan raised her head. “I’m not lying to you. But I must ask you a question now, and you cannot lie to me either.”

“Go ahead.”

“Am I ugly?”

The answer hung on Li Yingliang’s lips, but before he answered, he specifically took a long, careful look at her. As she was so serious, he wanted to answer her seriously as well.

“You’re not ugly, you’re very good-looking. Your eyebrows particularly look like my little sister’s. When I was young, I thought that my sister was a beauty, and that when she grew up, she would definitely be able to marry into a wealthy family to live a life of luxury, and no longer have to suffer and starve.”

“Then is she now married into a wealthy family?”

A sharp edge suddenly flashed through Li Yingliang’s eyes. “She died a long time ago.”

His cute and pitiful little sister, the one he was dependent on and her on him, had died a long time ago, while stupid and noisy Second Young Mistress Jin was still alive and full of vitality. So, he hated Jin Jingxue. If Mi Lan were also a pampered, healthy, and lively young mistress, he would also have hated her. He also knew that he was a vile person himself; he already had so much wealth and influence, he owned Western suits and sat in cars, and yet he was still so vile.

As for today’s meeting, since they both received sincere answers, both Li Yingliang and Mi Lan were quite satisfied.

Following that, Li Yingliang fetched Mi Lan to the chapel. Mi Lan sang for a whole afternoon, and then asked Situ Zhenni to pass a message to Situ Weilian, that she wanted to meet Shen Zhiheng.

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

The word used here is 小白脸子 (xiǎo bái liǎn zi), which literally means “little white/ pale face”. It figuratively refers to young, pretty men.

土鳖 (tǔ biē) is a kind of ground beetle, but the word is also used to scold people, similar to “hillbilly”.

More specifically, the area of the hand between the thumb and second finger. This is called 虎口 (hǔ kǒu), literally “tiger’s mouth”.

[ziseviolet]

Please can you explain the difference of meaning between hanfu and huafu ? Sorry if you already got the question

Hi, thanks for the question, and sorry for taking ages to reply! (hanfu photo via)

The term “hanfu” (traditional Chinese: 漢服, simplified Chinese: 汉服) literally means “Han clothing”, and refers to the traditional clothing of the Han Chinese people. “Han” (漢/汉) here refers to the Han Chinese ethnic group (not the Han dynasty), and “fu” (服) means “clothing”. As I explained in this post, the modern meaning of “hanfu” is defined by the hanfu revival movement and community. As such, there is a lot of gatekeeping by the community around what is or isn’t hanfu (based on historical circumstances, cultural influences, tailoring & construction, etc). This isn’t a bad thing - in fact, I think gatekeeping to a certain extent is helpful and necessary when it comes to reviving and defining historical/traditional clothing. However, this also led to the need for a similarly short, catchy term that would include all Chinese clothing that didn’t fit the modern definition of hanfu -- enter huafu.

The term “huafu” (traditional Chinese: 華服, simplified Chinese: 华服) as it is used today has a broader definition than hanfu. “Hua” (華/华) refers to the Chinese people (中华民族/zhonghua minzu), and again “fu” (服) means “clothing”. It is an umbrella term for all clothing that is related to Chinese history and/or culture. Thus all hanfu is huafu, but not all huafu is hanfu. Below are examples of Chinese clothing that are generally not considered hanfu by the hanfu community for various reasons, but are considered huafu:

1. Most fashions that originated during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), especially late Qing, including the Qing aoqun & aoku for women, and the Qing changshan and magua for men. I wrote about whether Qing dynasty clothing can be considered hanfu here. Tangzhuang, which is an updated form of the Qing magua popularized in 2001, can also fit into this category. Below - garments in the style of Han women’s clothing during the Qing dynasty (清汉女装) from 秦綿衣莊 (1, 2).

2. Fashions that originated during the Republican era/minguo (1912-1949), including the minguo aoqun & aoku and qipao/cheongsam for women, and the minguo changshan for men (the male equivalent of the women’s qipao). I wrote about why qipao isn’t considered hanfu here. Below - minguo aoqun (left) & qipao (right) from 嬉姷.

Below - Xiangsheng (crosstalk) performers Zhang Yunlei (left) & Guo Qilin (right) in minguo-style men’s changshan (x). Changshan is also known as changpao and dagua.

3. Qungua/裙褂 and xiuhefu/秀禾服, two types of Chinese wedding garments for brides that are commonly worn today. Qungua originated in the 18th century during the Qing dynasty, and xiuhefu is a modern recreation of Qing wedding dress popularized in 2001 (x). Below - left: qungua (x), right: xiuhefu (x).

4. Modified hanfu (改良汉服/gailiang hanfu) and hanyuansu/汉元素 (hanfu-inspired fashion), which do not fit in the orthodox view of hanfu. Hanfu mixed with sartorial elements of other cultures also fit into this category (e.g. hanfu lolita). From the very start of the hanfu movement, there’s been debate between hanfu “traditionalists” and “reformists”, with most members being somewhere in the middle, and this discussion continues today. Below - hanyuansu outfits from 川黛 (left) and 远山乔 (right).

5. Performance costumes, such as Chinese opera costumes (戏服/xifu) and Chinese dance costumes. These costumes may or may not be considered hanfu depending on the specific style. Dance costumes, in particular, may have non-traditional alterations to make the garment easier to dance in. Dunhuang-style feitian (apsara) costumes, which I wrote about here, can also fit into this category. Below - left: Chinese opera costume (x), right: Chinese dance costume (x).

6. Period drama costumes and fantasy costumes in popular media (live-action & animation, games, etc.), commonly referred to as guzhuang/古装 (lit. “ancient costumes”). Chinese period drama costumes are of course based on hanfu, and may be considered hanfu if they are historically accurate enough. However, as I wrote about here, a lot of the time there are stylistic inaccuracies (some accidental, some intentional) that have become popularized and standardized over time (though this does seem to be improving in recent years). This is especially prevalent in the wuxia and xianxia genres. Similarly, animated shows & games often have characters dressed in “fantasy hanfu” that are essentially hanfu with stylistic modifications. Below - left: Princess Taiping in historical cdrama 大明宫词/Palace of Desire (x), right: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in wuxia/xianxia cdrama 陈情令/The Untamed (x). 

7. Any clothing in general that purposefully utilizes Chinese style elements (embroidery, fabrics, patterns, motifs, etc). Chinese fashion brand Heaven Gaia is a well-known example of this. Below - Chinese-inspired designs by Heaven Gaia (x).

8. Technically, the clothing of China’s ethnic minorities also fit under the broad definition of huafu, but it’s rarely ever used in this way.

From personal observation, the term “huafu” is mainly used in the following situations:

1. Some large-scale events to promote Chinese clothing, such as the annual “华服日/Huafu Day”, will use “huafu” in their name for inclusivity.

2. For the same reason as above, Chinese clothing including hanfu will often be referred to as “huafu” on network television programs (ex: variety shows).

3. A few Chinese clothing shops on Taobao use “huafu” in their shop name. Two examples:

明镜华服/Mingjing Huafu - sells hanfu & hanyuansu. 

花神妙华服/Huashenmiao Huafu - sells Qing dynasty-style clothing.

With the exception of the above, “huafu” is still very rarely used, especially compared to “hanfu”. It has such a broad definition that it’s just not needed in situations for which a more precise term already exists. However, I do think it’s useful as a short catch-all term for Chinese clothing that isn’t limited to the currently accepted definition of hanfu.

If anyone wants to add on or correct something, please feel free to do so! ^^ 

Hope this helps!

[justbeingnamaste]

When a strong leader is elected, the whole world takes notice—and for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Chinese Communist Party’s Xi Jinping, the return of Donald Trump to the White House is a daunting reality that can’t be ignored. They know Trump doesn’t play games.

World leaders are already preparing for a new era of diplomacy and mutual respect, with the potential for peace felt across every corner of the globe, just as during Trump’s first term in office.

In his first public remarks on Trump’s second term win, Putin praised the Republican president-elect’s stance on foreign relations, especially his commitment to mending strained ties with Russia and addressing the Ukrainian crisis.

“I would like to take this opportunity to offer my congratulations on his election as President of the United States. As I said before, we are going to work with any head of state that is going to garner the trust of the American people, and this is what’s going to happen in practice,” Putin said during a speech at the Valdai forum in the southern Russian city of Sochi.