#diaspora feels

[animatedamerican]

Hi Toon! I hope you've been well <3 🌟 for forgive us the days forgotten to fear or Letters?

(from here!)

Hello! I'm good, thanks. <3

Oh man, tough choice. I think I gotta go with Letters because forgive us the days forgotten to fear is just so, so long.

Letters is the second of two short fics I wrote with a stealth Jewish headcanon for Caleb Widogast. I say 'stealth' because nothing is explicitly named as Jewish, and I did it that way for two reasons. Firstly to sidestep around the question of how any real-world ethnoreligion could exist in the secondary world of Exandria; secondly, and more importantly, to underscore the fact that the Dwendalian Empire is currently a place where unapproved religions must be practiced in secret, deniably.

Just about everything I put in that story involving Caleb's upbringing with regard to the Proper Treatment of Books is based on the Jewish traditions I was raised with involving specifically holy books, such as printed copies of the Tanakh or prayer books or anything bearing God's name. If you drop one by accident you kiss it when you pick it up; one must not stack other objects on top of them, or leave them lying open; copies too worn to read must be buried rather than discarded. Without a specific religious tradition to tie to those practices, it made sense to me to generalize them to all books, and that worked fairly well as a Blumenthal tradition of quasi-reverence to the written word itself. (I've also found in myself, and in others I've known who were raised with similar traditions, that we often do unconsciously extend some measure of that reverence to all books.)

All that is to highlight one line in the very last section, where shortly after Caleb has first disintegrated and then burned the ancient writings on time travel in Aeor, and immediately after drawing a direct connection between the burying of books and the burying of bodies, the story says:

"But he is a child of Blumenthal, and burning the dead will never feel any more right to him than burning the living."

I don't recall whether or not I was consciously thinking of a certain Ray Bradbury quote when I wrote that, but I may as well have been.

[mueritos]

happy pride to all queer children of immigrants

patreon

[average-hua-cheng-fan]

another reason i think that xie lian felt an instant connection on the ox cart is because he and hua cheng both grew up in xianle.

there are maybe 4 people still alive that grew up in that culture. based on my own experience, you can pick up on things like accent, cadence, references, and humor that suggest a person is from the same place as you without consciously noticing it. that sense of comfort and similarity probably played into their instant chemistry.

[lavampira]

d'alia + her turali outfits

[2nd-coming-of-kamote]

AU where shen yuan does not speak mandarin (fluently, at least) and read pidw off a fan translation on the internet, still commenting on the og pidw because he's just like that

Fast forward to his transmigration and when sqq wakes up from his qi deviation, he starts speaking a completely different language that make cang qiong think he is going insane

Sy: (in english) where am i? Who are you? I thought i died???

Yqy: (in mandarin) shidi??? What are you saying????

The system downloads fluent mandarin skills later and sy pretends he didnt just speak english after the qi deviation. The plot resumes as normal

[lem0nademouth]

i am so tired of being told the diaspora is a miracle. there is nothing miraculous about the mass expulsion of indigenous people from their homeland. there is nothing miraculous about colonialism and genocide. there is nothing miraculous about exile.

there is nothing miraculous about not knowing the meaning of the word “home”.

[koshercosplay]

Still trying to get It If you are anti Palestinian or not

but for what it's worth, I purposefully keep my opinions on i/p carefully off this blog

oooh scaryyyyyy a jew who won't tell you if they're A Good Jew or A Bad Jew

[mamawasatesttube]

11 or 27? I love when my blorbos can hold each other tenderly

11. "Just hold on to me." 27. "I'm going to carry you, okay?"

“I dunno exactly what kind of escape attempt you were going for, when I can hear exactly where you are, y’know.” Kon alights atop the fencepost next to Tim’s perch. “C’mon. I know you hate being sick, but Ma’s got a nice, hot pot of soup with your name on it waiting.”

Tim doesn’t say anything, just turns his face up into the wind and sniffles. It’s not cute; he sounds like he’s in danger of dry drowning from mucus alone. His nose is red and runny, his cheeks flushed bright with the cold. He’s got a shawl wrapped around himself, but it’s snowing. That’s nothing.

Tutting, Kon shrugs off his own jacket and wraps it around Tim’s shoulders. “Robbie…”

Tim sniffles again and coughs hoarsely, twice. His fever still hasn’t broken, and his eyes are too bright as he drops his head onto Kon’s shoulder. “I wasn’t trying to run off.”

Kon snorts. “I should hope not. Where’d you be running to? The cows?”

Tim doesn’t rise to the bait, doesn’t bicker back with him. He’s just silent for a moment. He sucks in a rattling breath and blows it out, coughing again; the cold air can’t be pleasant on his sore throat. “I just… wanted to watch the snow.”

Softening, Kon wraps himself around him, his TTK enveloping the air around Tim to try and warm him up a little. “You couldn’t do that from the window seat, Robbie?”

Tim shakes his head. “Not like this.”

Kon’s quiet. Tim opens up, sometimes, but never with prodding. Prying is a method of last resort with him, because it takes a metric buttload of effort. The rare moments when Tim chooses to open up, to share tiny things from that steel trap of a head he’s got… Kon cherishes them.

Sure enough, his patience pays off. Tim turns and tucks his cold face into Kon’s neck. He seems to have realized he’s cold; he’s shivering, and Kon pulls him closer.

“My mom,” Tim starts, voice hoarse. A dull ache tolls through Kon’s chest, coupled with breathless warmth, because Tim never talks about his mother. There must be something special about the snowfall. “She was half-Chinese. Did I ever mention that?”

Kon shakes his head, though it’s unnecessary. They both know Tim never has.

“Her mom was from this tiny village just below foothills of the Himalayas, or something. I don’t even…” He breaks off to cough, and Kon winces. “I don’t even know the name. I don’t know my grandmother’s name. My mom, she… she barely told me anything about that side of the family. I don’t think—I don’t think my grandma told her much to begin with. But the one thing I did know… there was this one photo. The single photo I ever saw of my grandmother as a little girl. She was playing in the snow, out on a big field. It looked…”

He trails off, and Kon’s heart tugs in his chest. He knows a thing or two about a heritage forever out of reach, about growing up on the outside and looking in.

“It looked a little like this?” he finishes, gentle as he can, and Tim nods.

“I dunno what even reminded me of it,” Tim mumbles. His energy seems spent after the explanation, and he sighs, sagging against Kon’s chest. Kon can feel his eyelashes brush his neck as he closes his eyes. “But then I wanted to… I dunno. Sit here.”

Kon presses a kiss to the top of his head. He gets it, but Tim’s sick, and it’s cold out. And Ma’s inside, fretting because Tim slipped away the second Kon ran out to the store for her. “I’m gonna pick you up now, ‘kay?”  

“Mmhmm.” Tim sniffles again, horrible noise that it is. “Ugh. I sound gross.”

“You do,” Kon agrees, kissing his hair again. “Just hold on to me, sunshine. Soup ‘n’ tea are waiting for you. We’ll get you feeling better in a jiffy.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Tim’s fingers curl into the front of Kon’s sweater, and Kon easily scoops him into his arms. He flies back towards the farmhouse, and the snow falls gently around them.

[wutheringheightsfilm]

How do we support Cubans and their resistance to western imperialism

I'm so glad you asked anon! A great way to start is to by actually listening to Cubans and their own stories and news. There are some really good organizations and accounts on Instagram (and many of them have their own publications outside of Instagram, so if you don't have the app, you can still follow what's going on)

Here are the ones I recommend:

@ bellyofthebeastcuba < news outlet that focuses on cuba

@ nationalnetworkoncuba < this is a coalition of many different orgs that are actively working to get the US gov to lift the blockade, etc; they post a lot of actionable things you can do to get involved physically, as well as opportunities for stuff like webinars! here is their website.

@ ratbcuba < this is a british org dedicated to solidarity with cuba

@ caribbeansolidaritynetwork < not strictly cuba oriented, but a network committed to the liberation of all of the caribbean! they also have events like study circles (and you can access their readings online if you can't go in person)

@ ghpartners < this is a nonprofit actively working to get donations in order to send medical supplies to cuba, right now they are working on delivering pacemakers to the island! here is their website.

Other than that, I really, really encourage you to start learning as much as you can on Cuban history and the history of their resistance, as well as their history of working alongside other resistance movements. Cuba worked in solidarity with the Black Panthers, with numerous African countries fighting for their own liberation, with Vietnam, and even more. National Network on Cuba has a really good political education page where you can start that includes a book list and articles list, as well as youtube videos of documentaries. This is a Google drive from NNOC that introduces the concept and history of Guantanamo Bay. There's going to be an Afro-Cuban reading list released on the NNOC site soon, so definitely check back for it.

This is a timeline of the Embargo to help you get introduced to that. This is an article about Afro-Cuban resistance fighters during the revolution. This is an article that discusses the atrocities committed by the Batista regime.

Before you read any of Fidel Castro's work (particularly his famous speech, History Will Absolve Me), read this page first on the history of the attack on the Moncada Fort on July 26, 1953, a year after Batista’s US backed coup d’état. It gives the historical context necessary to read Castro's History Will Absolve Me speech.

This is a PDF of some of Che Guevara's speeches in a collection called Che Guevara Talks to Young People. While the Introduction insists this is not "Che Guevara for beginners" I still think it's a good jumping off point. Here is an interview with Assata Shakur talking about her experiences in Cuba.

I hope this list helps, and of course, it's not exhaustive. I just hope I gave a good enough foundation for anyone who wants to start learning!

[creekfiend]

I just really need ppl to integrate the fact that Jews being explicitly racialized and violently targeted for elimination under white supremacy is in fact the reason this is all happening to begin with so perhaps rhetoric which conflates is with the group of people who have been ethnically cleansing and genociding us for centuries is like, not the hottest thing to do idk

[sanska]

Was thinking about my warring states Hatake farmer ocs and realised that Kakashi should never meet these guys because it’d give him such an identity crisis lol

Man’s appears to be the last of his clan (The Hatake, if you will), and depending on how much Sakumo managed to pass on to him and how much Kakashi has even bothered engaging with his heritage after all that, how much does Kakashi even know about his clan customs anyway?

When Konohans living post Sakumo’s death say Hatake they are referring to this one guy, but he’s been raised his whole life to be the model Konohan ninja instead of a Hatake. If he meets a bunch of Hatake with completely different customs (not even ninja! They’re civilian farmers), clan specific cues and behaviour that he had no one teach him to recognise, and they are so wary of outsiders from having grown up in an era of war and bloodline thieves, will they or even Kakashi himself accept him as Hatake?

Fandom likes to paint the Hatake as a super close knit clan so imagine Kakashi he sees these guys together laughing and helping each other and he’s all alone and so damn lonely but he doesn’t know how to get close to them or understand

Basically culturally alienated Hatake Kakashi and you better hope the Hatake clan members he meets are nice and wants to adopt/accept him but there’s inevitably going to be a lot of messy feelings and misunderstandings going on before they get there

[pjharvey]

seeing someone with a pride flag bracelet plug her ears and roll her eyes when the names of murdered palestinian children are read outside a DNC convention By A Palestinian is next level evil i’m not reblogging the video bc it doesn’t feel productive and i don’t like having things on my blog that make me angry but wow i hope an anvil falls on her head

[adamnagaitits]

so you're telling me not only does this parody of a game doubled it (the systematic racism elves experience throughout across the entirety of thedas which they didn't show one fucking jot of lest they had to remember that dragon age isn't an intermarriage of marvel writing steven universe morality tiktok therapy and gender PSAs for straight people and that tevinter imperium goes beyond alienages and mirroring antiroma sentiment in attitudes towards the dalish with how they treat the elves and put slay in slavery) and gave it to the next person (qunari who are almost solely represented by the dehumanised faceless renegade barbarian colonisers who speak in monstrous unnatural voices and wear fuck knows what and skull masks and all they do is oppress and wreak havoc because If You Didn't Know They're Bad And Scary And Not Human Actually), not only does the narrative of this ridiculement of lore that they went out of their fucking way to make revolve around that FUCKASS egg cunt makes the only character who's not antaam and still follows the qunari tradition if not the qun itself an abusive dismissive and dissatisfied incompetent mother trope for like 95% of the time you spend with that character and tries to frame her as a transphobic tradwife who bestows the gift of internal misogyny upon her child and who only remembers that the qun is strict about social roles but not specifically gender ones and that transgender people are accepted and accommodated as long as they transition in terms of their responsibilities under the sun as well AFTER her gender-nonconforming child whom she's been somefuckinghow displeased with for not presenting and behaving like what she thinks a woman should be and do for quite some time tells her they're non-binary (without the narrative ever addressing taash's confirmed!!! internalised misogyny and dealing with it first because if you do that you're transphobic actually and it magically goes away if you transition in case you were wondering and using that EXACT modern terminology no less, why the fuck does my non-binary rook talks about their gender and their experience like you would expect someone from a setting like this and taash just goes "so i'm non-binary"?), not only does this absolute shitshow only redeems shathann through sacrifice and death because this is the only way a mother can be forgiven apparently, but also makes you force the character with a mixed cultural background to choose one and forsake the other because trick fucking weekes cannot begin to fathom the concept of mixed people and diaspora is not once but fucking TWICE EVEN if you chose to tell them that being mixed (culturally in taash's case since they're rivaini through having been raised there but not in terms of origin but the sentiment clearly extends to mixed people) is good and whoever tells them what they should be can fuck right off?????????? i hate this fucking game so much it hurts

[unopenablebox]

i admit that i find it a little bit frustrating how Wildly Astonished other antizionist jews act when i tell them my israeli jewish family have lived in the region since [some unknown length of time before 1800 when there start being records about it]

[anonymousdandelion]

after too long in exile

I hear Yiddish and feel immediately at home.

I hear Yiddish and the rhythms sound like family.

I hear Yiddish and my heart yearns for more.

I hear Yiddish feel Yiddish want Yiddish am Yiddish

I hear Yiddish and I do not understand a word.

[xiakeponz]

for modern AU fics - what chinese media did diaspora consume?

making this post because some of us in the diaspora server were having a chat about what Chinese media "Diaspora Chinese" watched in the 90's - 2000's (and even sooner than that) while not having access to satellite chinese media or streaming services - this is in the context of writing modern AU fics based off Chinese media/novels (so your main character's grandpa or uncle is not, in fact, watching an episode of Friends or Shortland Street or something as flavour text because sorry what the hell-)

We generally watched a lot of stuff on VCDs, including bootlegged and non-bootlegged movies, shows, anime/donghua. My household had a whole VCD album of this, and a lot of VCDs (even if they were pirated editions) would have a fancy hardcover box with a magnetic clasp and some artwork representing the show on it.

All of this is Mandarin - so not TVB stuff, because I'm from Northern China and I don't know any cantonese - but Canto friends, please feel free to add to the list! This is mostly stuff my parents liked to watch, or I liked to watch with them, with the exception of a few which I mainly watched with friends/cousins when I was maybe (in most cases) eleven/twelve years old onwards. This is a pretty personal list, meant to give people general idea of a possible "ballpark" of sorts, and by no means exhaustive.

Now, for the list of shows which I can confirm I had or someone I know had on VCD or some kind of offline media format lol (I'll try add release year stamps and links to the EN wikipedia where possible):

Period dramas (mostly Qing Dynasty stuff):

Huan Zhu Gege 还珠格格 (1998, April-) This is a classic, so many memes come from this show; hugely popular series, basically cemented Zhang Tie Lin's face as the face of the Qing Emperor for about a decade. Tie Chi Tong Ya Ji Xiao Lan 铁齿铜牙纪晓岚 (2002-2010) - I loved this show as a kid and watched all four seasons on repeat with family... The "trio" in this show are well known and loved.

Amazing Detective Di Ren Jie / 神探狄仁杰 (2004) A very popular and addictive show. Ok now the Big Four:

Romance of 3 kingdoms 1994 / 三国演义 (1994) - a classic that has had many remakes, my older cousin would play this on repeat...

Hong Lou Meng/红楼梦 （1987） - another classic with many remakes, but I think the most recognised by the public one is the 1987 one.

Journey to the West / 西游记 live action (1986) - I think the 1986 version of the live action is the most recognised one. *Shui Hu Zhuan / 水浒传 (1998) - I am not too familliar with the live action of this one in my household tbh bc my mum doesn't like it lol (she keeps saying it's too depressing) but I'm sure it's up there with the rest of the big four, if anyone has an opinion on this one please let me know!

Modern setting shows:

My dad loved all the Sun Honglei (孙红雷 - actor name) stuff, iirc it was a lot of MinGuo period espionage stuff, your shanghai 1920's sxc aesthetic. This actor has been around since 1999? Qian Fu （潜伏）was very famous, and Ren Jian Zheng Dao Shi Cang Sang （人间正道是沧桑）。 These were around '08 and '09.

Chuang Guan Dong - 闯关东 (2008) (Baidu link, sorry - couldn't get an EN wikipedia one). This show was huge when it was airing, everyone was watching it. I was pretty young but even I watched it and got invested ... and I thought it was such an "old person" show at the time lmao. Xiao Bing Zhang Ga / 小兵张嘎 （2004） (sorry, again Baidu link) - yo, anti-japanese war movies set between 1937-1945 were crazy popular - this is one of them and was very popular):

Donghua/Anime (all the stuff kid me watched and some which I didn't but were popular):

喜羊羊与灰太狼 (2005-) Calabash Brothers / 葫芦兄弟 （1986-1987） Black Cat Detective / Hei Mao Jing Zhang 黑猫警长 （1984-2010） Lan Mao Tao Qi 3000 Wen 蓝蓝猫淘气3000问 AKA 蓝猫 (blue cat) (October 1999 - Present) Legend of Ne Zha 哪吒传奇 (2003) Journey to the West/Xi You Ji 西游记 This was truly the Donghua I grew up on from when I was a bb, the OP song and ED song are classic bangers all kids know. Slam Dunk/ 灌篮高手 - People truly watched a lot of anime that may or may not have been terribly dubbed into mando (possibly canto too). Late 80s and 90s kids were all over this, and Dragon Ball, Crayon Shinchan (labixiaoxin).

Taiwanese Dramas:

This is mid-late 2000's, I would be remiss to not talk about the Taiwanese dramas of this era. Mike He, Rainie Yang, Wu Zun (amongst many, many others) were huge. Stuff like Dou Niu Yao Bu Yao, it started with a kiss, Hua Yang Shao Nv (Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi) were all pretty popular. Not sure if these shows all hold up in 2023, but boy were they popular at the time.

Note about CNY:

For CNY, people would try to tune into 春���联欢晚会 (the CCTV official CNY show) at that One Friend Who Had China Satellite TV's house. Zhao Ben Shan / 赵本山 was a comedy staple, and the show would often feature people from the music industry to perform. Eventually these people became more and more relevant to my gen and Jay Chou etc started appearing.

Last but not least Xian Jiaaaan 仙剑:

In 2005 I was all over 仙剑奇侠传 (Chinese Paladin), based off the video game. This show was crazy popular and probably sent me and a whole lot of other kids into Xianxia / Wuxia hell (and Hu Ge hell, and later I came back to love Liu Yifei). Thank you. The OST is a true banger.