#golden age hong kong

[romantamsxiangshi]

Translation of Anita Mui's 1991 "似是故人来" (It Seems an Old Friend has Returned)

My first sapphic translation! Anita Mui, the Madonna of Hong Kong, has a very special place in my heart. She sang many Golden Age anthems, starred in just as many Golden Age dramas, and was named the "big sister of HK's music industry." Though she never disclosed her sexuality, she was named a queer icon for her androgyny, sexually explicit lyrics, and performance of genderqueer roles. (Think Lady Gaga.)

似是故人来 is the theme song of the 1991 双镯, or "The Two Bracelets," a lesbian love story set in the countryside of southern China. The movie was adapted from the novel of the same name by Lu Zhaohuan, and was directed by Huang Yushan. 似是故人来 was composed and produced by Luo Dayou, with lyrics by Lin Xi, both of whom operated under strict censorship and limited knowledge of the film's plot. According to Luo, Anita Mui was 2.5 hours late to the recording session (which I think is kinda gay), but finished the recording in 30 minutes.

Translation:

同是过路 同做过梦 We walked the same roads towards the same dreams.

本应是一对 We were supposed to be a couple.

人在少年 梦中不觉 I was too young, I didn’t know I was dreaming.

醒后要归去 Now I’ve awakened, and I wish to return.

三餐一宿 也共一双 Three meals, one house, the two of us together.

到底会是谁 Who will you be in my future? (1)

但凡未得到 但凡是过去 I don’t think you’ll ever understand. It’s in the past, after all. 

总是最登对 But I’ve always loved you. (2)

台下你望 台上我做 You’ll watch me from the audience, I’ll perform for you onstage.

你想做的戏 I’ll give you whichever story you wish. (3)

前事故人 忘忧的你 Old friend, you who forget your sorrows,

可曾记得起 Do you ever remember me? (4)

欢喜伤悲 老病生死 Joys and sorrows, life and death: 

说不上传奇 What are those stories next to ours? (5)

恨台上卿卿 或台下我 I hate those lovers onstage, and I hate myself offstage. (6)

我不是我跟你 I hate that I am not with you. (7)

俗尘渺渺 天意茫茫 This land is so barren. Heaven knows no shame (8)

将你共我分开 To separate you from me. 

断肠字点点 风雨声连连 My broken heart beats in my every word. This storm will never end.

似是故人来 Old friend, I thought you were coming back. (9)

何日再在 何地再聚 When will we be here again? Where shall we meet again?

说今夜真暖 This evening was so warm.

无份有缘 回忆不断 We don’t share a destiny, but I’ve never stopped thinking of you. (10)

生命却苦短 This life is so short.

一种相思 两段苦恋 One lovesickness, two bitter hearts.

半生说没完 I’ve spent half a life spent describing you to others. (11)

在年月深渊 望明月远远 Each year is an abyss, I wish upon the moon. 

想像你忧怨 And I remember all your sorrows.

俗尘渺渺 天意茫茫 This land is so barren. Heaven knows no shame

将你共我分开 To separate you from me. 

断肠字点点 风雨声连连 My broken heart beats in my every word. This storm will never end.

似是故人来 Old friend, I thought you were coming back.

留下你或 留下我在 Did I leave you behind? Or did you leave me behind,

世间上终老 To grow old in this world? (12)

离别以前 未知相对 Before we parted, did we know how much we loved each other? 

当日那么好 Those days were so lovely. 

执子之手 却又分手 I hold your hand, just to let it go again.

爱得有还无 I don’t know where to find our love. (13)

十年后双双 万年后对对 In ten years, we’ll be together. In ten-thousand years, we’ll be together.

只恨看不到 I only wish I could see it happen.

十年后双双 万年后对对 In ten years, we’ll be together. In ten-thousand years, we’ll be together.

只恨看不到 I only wish I could see it happen.

Translation notes:

(1) 到底会是谁 translates directly to "Who will it be, really?" When placed in conversation with the previous line, this line could mean, "Who will be my partner?" (referring to a love interest the speaker does not yet know/recognize) or "Who will you be?" (referring to the speaker's uncertainty towards their current love interest, and how their love interest seems foreign to them now). The lack of subjects, objects, and pronouns leaves a lot of room for interpretation, so I chose the angstier version.

(2) 总是最登对 translates directly to "Always the right one," or "Always correct." I take this to mean that the love interest has always been the right person for the speaker--hence, "I have always loved you."

(3) 你想做的戏 translates directly to "Whichever play you want to see," referring to the previous line concerning the actress/audience interaction. I chose "I'll give you whichever story you wish" because it sounded better (subjective?) and felt congruous to a number of lines besides just the previous, as well as to the song's meta context. This song was part of a broader love story/movie, after all.

(4) 曾 (ceng) implies something ancient: translated literally, the line is "Have you already remembered?" or "I/you/[subject] already remember." Considering how the protagonists of the movie view their queerness as a sorrow that must be forgotten/left behind, I decided to place this line in conversation with the previous, and go with "do you remember me?"

(5) 说不上传奇 translates directly to "They can't be considered legends," which I believe is a line meant to minimize life/death/old age/illness next to the speaker's love. I thought it was a bit awkward to refer to life/death as legends, so I used the term "stories" and added "next to ours" to match the full effect of the line and its relationship to the previous line. I converted this line into a question because a simple sentence in English doesn't quite have the same power as a short sentence/fragment in Cantonese. Questions do, though, because they feel more accusatory.

(6) The 卿 of 卿卿 (qing qing) can be translated any number of ways: "ministers (of the law)", "wives/ladies," or "lovers." There's a certain heterosexual rigidity implied in the word, which I think any English translation loses.

(7) 我不是我跟你 is the line that confused me the most, because it defies both Chinese and English grammar structures. I tried translating it literally at first: "I am not me with you," or "I am without you," or "Without you, I am not me," before deciding to go with the laziest route. Let me know if there's a better translation, please--I'm still confused.

(8) 天意茫茫 translates to "Heaven's will is wild and vast." The original line implies unknowability, but I used a pretty heavy hand in choosing the word "shame" instead. My academic justification is that shame, accusation, and frustration echo throughout this whole song, and my translation pays tribute to that. My honest justification is that I liked the angst.

(9) There is no object in this line--the speaker just says, "I thought an old friend was coming back"/"It's as if an old friend is coming back." But I liked the addition of an object.

(10) 份 (fen) could mean "to share" or "to separate" or "to share by separating" (e.g. splitting food between people). In this case, I thought it would sound strange to write "splitting a destiny."

(11) 半生说没完 translates to "half a life is not enough." The speaker doesn't clarify what they need the time for: whether to spend with their lover, to talk about them, etc. "Describing you to others" was a big creative liberty of mine, but it's also something that feels very sapphic, and emphasizes the speaker's loneliness.

(12) 终老 has the implications of taking care of one's parents when they are old: a duty, and an emotional labor. Growing old alone, without anyone to take care of you, is a very sad thing in Chinese culture.

(13) 爱得有还无 also translates to "I don't know whether this love exists" and "I don't know whether I have this love." But considering the importance of location, and the importance of journeying/coming/going, I chose "where to find."

[romanceyourdemons]

johnnie to’s first mainland film, drug war (2012), complements and rebuts the heroic bloodshed films to is a key director of. most heroic bloodshed films, from john woo’s a better tomorrow (1986) to to’s own election (2005), present the criminal underworld as a kind of modern jianghu (or, in the case of election (2005), as a literal descendant of the ming loyalist societies that star in so many wuxia stories), where the only laws that really matter are the laws of loyalty, brotherhood, vengeance, and blood, and where the police exist as an exterior force that has no bearing on the lives of the characters unless one of them has a personal relationship with a cop. in this film, the laws of loyalty, brotherhood, vengeance, and blood have no bearing on the lives of the characters: much like in bloody tie (2006), the main characters are an incurably scummy rat of a drug dealer and the stone-faced cop he is selling his would-be brothers out to, and whom he sells out as it suits him. the film’s fight choreography, such as it is, also reads as a direct denial of the elegant, dynamic “gun fu” fight sequences iconic to heroic bloodshed film. in the gunfights of this film, the sound of the gunshots is much louder and more oppressive, the choreography is kept to a minimum, incapacitation comes quickly but death comes slowly, and the overall effect is one of much more brutality and realism. the police in this film are not only an active but the central presence of this film, acting without disunity or individual characterization, surrounding the gangsters with spies and surveillance. despite lacking the obsession and violence of bloody tie (2006)—indeed, perhaps because it lacks that obsession and violence—the effect is brutal and claustrophobic: to become involved in the criminal underworld is not to live a carefree heroic life; it is to spend a life as a prey animal, and as a rat in a trap. there is never any question in the film about whether the criminals or the state will win. the question is only at what cost the criminals will choose to lose. the film is, of course, somewhat heavy handed in its presentation of a unified relationship between (cops from) all regions of china and in its anti-drug psa elements. these distracting, propagandistic elements felt out of place in a film that otherwise seemed committed to a grounded, realistic portrayal of its eponymous drug war. despite these shortcomings, i found drug war (2012) a very interesting film, and a notable part of johnnie to’s filmography

[thatgeekwiththeclipons]

Happy 90th Birthday to Academy Award Winning, 5x Golden Globe Winning, BAFTA Winning, Grammy Winning actress Sophia Loren! ^__^

[elodieunderglass]

I've become obsessed with your jockeyposting and Killie (beloved wet cat), and i wanted to ask a question about racehorses. you've mentioned that Killie competes both flat and jumps, and this is unusual but not unheard of for jockeys. is it similar for the horses themselves or do they always keep to one discipline? if so, which one does Thunder compete in??

(thank you so much for sharing these guys, they're so fun to ponder!! <3)

Thank you so much, it’s lovely to hear that and I love to ponder them too! Thank you for pondering with me!

Racehorses tend to keep to a discipline! There is SOME crossover (Tiger Roll is a horse who moved from flat racing to jump and did well) but they tend to be bred for one discipline or the other. They're all Thoroughbreds, so keeping VERY tightly within the same exact breed of horse, but they're on different career tracks and prioritise different things.

O Holy Thunder is a great big jump racer. He's a reasonable age, around 9 years old, I think, and has known and hated Killie for a long time. <3 their relationship is so beautiful

I really liked this throwaway quote from coverage of the Golden Button, which puts the difference in horse builds in terms of cars: “Flat racing horses are the Formula 1 speed machines, National Hunt [jump] horses are more like World Rally Championship, and the horse you need for the Golden Button [rough cross-country race open to mixed-breed horses and amateur riders] is something out of Mad Max.”

I go off on some explanations/tangents below:

Flat racing is what most of the world does. High purses, dirt tracks, super fast-paced, SUPER young horses, super lightweight jockeys, all over in 2 minutes. Horses start their training as toddlers and are thought of as investments - expensive pieces of property that might win large purses of cash and retire to breeding where they could command high stud fees. It’s also an international sport, with major players including Japan, the UAE and Hong Kong. In general, with flat racing, the animals are the jewels of capitalism, and breeding pressures reflect that - increasingly favouring animals that can be the fastest sprinter in two minutes at the age of two. Breeding for the international market increasingly means breeding fast little burnouts with expensive gametes for this purpose.

Jump racing, called steeplechasing in the States, is also called National Hunt in Europe. It is mostly really popular in the UK, Ireland and France. It’s slower, more dangerous and takes longer; the horses are bigger, older, stronger, better trained, and have more temperament and focus. Interestingly, for a long time, there hasn’t been the same emphasis on stud fees - and many male National Hunt horses are gelded! Their owners pass up the chance to make breeding bucks in favour of bringing out the horse’s focus and behaviour. (Thunder really ought to be gelded, but his owner doesn’t want him to be.) this is a distinct contrast to flat racing, where horses are raced young and hard, to build up their value, and then bred a lot and then minced. Steeplechasers are objectively less valuable as bloodstock and cost more to feed and train - they seem to start around age 5 and are shiniest around age 9 - but are more Serious Athletes With Careers.

National Hunt horses need to be moderately intelligent, expensively trained, have good judgment and stamina, and be very good at jumping. Their races are longer - the Grand National’s like 10 minutes long and over four miles with seven MILLION thirty jumps, most of which are like 5 feet high and some of which are also insane.

Brown thoroughbred horsies always look exactly the same, but steeplechase horsies are a bit heavier, favouring stamina and strength.

Forever Young, 4 yo Japanese flat racer / I Am Maximus, 9 yo French-bred British jumpy boy. Almost identical horses in an almost identical pose, same breed/colour/etc, but the flat racer looks like A Baby to me, you know?

Steeplechases are also the ones that get protested more by animal rights activists, because you might see a horsie die falling at a jump. Jockey deaths, and the fact that flat racers are generated and privately culled in far larger volumes, as a sort of convoluted way for rich people to support the dogmeat industry, are far less aesthetic, and therefore unimportant. And the fact that the rich owners are mincing the PLANET for their day jobs is not important or worthy of protest at all 😌

In a separate post at some point, I'd like to go off on a rant about the racing industry and how it's separating the flat racers into a strain of freakout-out little puppymill creatures, because Right Wing, but it accidentally turned into a land justice/political/animal rights post, and I am trying ✋not to get into it

Gosh, thank you so much though, I really love meeting and chatting with people about BONKERS SPORT WITH SOOOO MUCH INFORMATION and my rancid OCs 💖

[marmalised]

---------------------------------------------- THE SMILER YOZO ---------------------------------------------- ITEM INFORMATION: Year sold/Introduced: 2014 - possibly into the 2015 season as well. Original price: £15.00 Price i paid: As of right now i am unsure but if i manage to remember i will update. However i don't remember it being over £20. Unsure if purchased off Ebay as my purchase history has no record. (it is a mystery!) Area sold: Towers Trading and BUY THE SMILER. Comes attached to a smaller cardboard piece after taking out of box and is attached to the smaller cardboard with a plastic tag you will need to cut. Items box was damaged when it arrived, i have done my best to fix up parts of the box but i am still working to restore and have it more secure. Regardless of this, finding them in original packaging that isn't damaged is very rare but not impossible so keep an eye out. ------------------------------------------------- BACK OF BOX INFORMATION: THE SMILER YOZO Features: .Sound activated .Crazy bouncing .5 unique Yozo sounds .Sleep mode .Batteries included --- Remove insulator tab to activate

--- Contents:

1x The Smiler Yozo Instruction manuel inside (unfortunately i am pretty sure my Yozo ate them because i did have the instructions but they have mysteriously vanished and i have definitely not thrown them away.) Battery requirements: Requires 3 x 1.5V "AA" Batteries (included) -- © & THE MERLIN ENTERTAINMENTS GROUP 2014 Imported by 50 Fifty Gifts (UK) Ltd. (SW18 1PE) on behalf of Merlin Entertainments Group Made In China. -- Manufactured by: 50 Fifty (HK) Ltd. RM 907 chinachem Golden Plaza TST East. Hong Kong Sales@50Fifty-HK.com -- ITEM NO: 71409122 -- Barcode: 5060224475393 THE SMILER YOZO BLACK. --------------- FRONT OF BOX: THE SMILER YOZO 1. TRY ME Press my head to wake me up! (remove insulator tab) 2. Clap your hands to make me go crazy! For age 3+ Batteries Included Sound activated (When awake) -- BOTTOM OF BOX: Recycle product symbol CE symbol For age 3+ ----------------------------------------------- To activate the Yozo all you have to do is pull out the insulator tab and push the top of the ball, the yozo will then activate unless it did when you pulled the tab out and start going beserk and bouncing around. I have also yet to find out the other laugh sounds but i will do my best to figure out the smozo. To switch off the yozo as it has no official off switch is to just press down the very top of the yozo for a short period of time and it should turn off (keyword being should) ------------------------------------------------- I have included a video as to what the yozo ball sounds like when switched on and how to switch it off. (Small shout out to CablesTwisted as well as i'm pretty sure on his Tumblr page he has a video showcasing the inside of the mechanism so worth a look to see what the inside of this item looks like inside. )

[qilingxiong]

twilight of the warriors: and the award for best in nostalgia goes to...

i've spent a lot of time in the last couple months thinking about this movie. not just the characters, the story, and the film's production, but also about the place it's come to occupy in hong kong media and film history since its release. and there's one thing i keep circling back to.

when i saw twilight of the warriors for the first time, back in august, the very first thing i said when my parents and i got out of the theatre was, "that was a very 80s hong kong movie".

in hindsight, i would say this is in an understatement. totw doesn't just 'feel very 80s'. it's a tribute, a love letter to 80s hong kong, which reproduces both the city and the cinema of that time. this is in nearly every way it can, from the fight choreography, to the casting, to the overarching themes and genres it pulls from, all in a prominent setting specific to hong kong that nothing in the present can erode the image of (the walled city was demolished from 1992-1993. it belongs to hong kong's past). this was a movie made by people from the 80s and 90s, for people who remember, or want to remember, hong kong and its action from the 80s and 90s, through and through.

and it worked. it worked beautifully. totw was a massive hit at the box office, it got a standing ovation at the cannes film festival, and it's been nominated as hong kong's pick to send to the oscars in 2025. its success has been a rallying point for the hong kong film industry, after years of lamenting that it's been suffering a slow death, with the city's action movies in particular having been perceived as falling in both quality and quantity. (the movie 武替道 (stuntman), released this year and coincidentally starring totw actors terrance lau and philip ng, attempts to reckon with this phenomenon and the fading away of hong kong action cinema. it's an interesting watch when considered in dialogue with what totw came to represent.)

as a result of totw's quality and achievements, there's been one very common sentiment echoing throughout all the media buzz and internet noise surrounding the movie: hong kong cinema is back.

the following press interview snippet with terrance lau (shin/信一) in the film, describes his perspective on the worldwide reaction to totw with more detail:

"我[印象]深刻就有好多外國觀眾，佢哋講話其實等咗我哋[香港電影]返嚟好耐啦。(...) 即是waiting for the comeback噉樣。噉啊… 我諗呢句說話喺我內心重量好大嘅，即是呢，香港電影大家都知係沉寂咗一段時間啦。噉，我覺得呢套[戲]，我唔係好希望只係個別例子。我希望係一個開始，不淨係《九龍城寨之圍城》。我覺得成個行業好似幫大家打打氣，噉我哋一齊再繼續做好香港電影。"

"One thing which left a deep impression on me was how a lot of international fans said they'd been waiting for us [Hong Kong cinema] for a long time (...) As in, they'd been waiting for the comeback. I think this phrase weighed very heavily in my heart, because everyone knows that Hong Kong cinema has died down for a while now. With this movie, I hope it's not just one of a few rare examples. I hope it's just the beginning, and there's not just Twilight of the Warriors. It's as though the entire industry helps cheer everyone up, and so with that, we can continue making good Hong Kong movies together." (x)

totw is being viewed by both its creators and audiences as a revitalization of hong kong cinema, with more movies in its vein hopefully to come (some of those will be in the totw franchise, as both a prequel and sequel film adapting different parts of the novel series are slated for production). it's a rainstorm after a drought to push the industry forward, one reminiscent of what many consider to have been the 'golden age' of hong kong's media.

within this phenomenon, however, lies a paradox.

in looking through audience reactions and thoughts toward totw, it seems that it isn't necessarily praised for being a breath of fresh air, because it's a good 2024 hong kong movie.

rather, it's a good 1980s hong kong movie that was released in 2024.

and even if not quite being talked about as such, it's in no small part the ways in which totw visually, thematically, and historically connects back to 1980s hong kong that have caused it to have such a huge cultural impact.

now, i've seen online reviews before that complained totw didn't do anything new for its genre. there were similar story beats as other older modern jianghu/martial arts movies, similar character archetypes, etc. to which i say: why does everything have to reinvent the wheel? for what totw set out to do, it accomplishes it damn near close to its fullest. it's a solid story with a broad cast of interesting and well-acted characters, and the visual highlights of the movie— the walled city sets and fight choreography— were incredible. the movie was made with care and passion across the cast and crew, and it shows.

yet at the same time, when it comes to making waves across hong kong cinema, and breathing life back into the industry: is copying wheels the best we have to offer here?

i would argue that the response to totw is part of a much larger cultural reaction. the decades of the 80s and 90s are cemented so solidly in the collective memory of hongkongers (both local and diaspora) as the city's heyday that we cannot help but return to them in story. time and again, whether consciously or not. the 'golden age' of hong kong and its cultural exports are intimately recognizable symbols, comforting and nostalgic to many. given how hong kong has changed in many ways since then, up to the present day, it is admittedly no surprise that a movie of totw's qualities garnered so much attention and support. it only makes sense, that this is the classic vision of hong kong cinema people want to throw their passion behind.

but i still can't help wondering, every now and then: is there a modern hong kong cinema comeback on the scale of totw that could ever happen, away from the imaginary of the 'golden age'? or are we determined, destined even, to spend the future trying to return to the past?

i think i already know the answer.

and at the same time, adding to the bittersweet is that i know how and why we wound up where we are. the 80s and 90s were the era when the concept of a local hongkonger identity began to form, independent of other geographic regions or people's origins. if those years, their history, and memories of them are what people identify themselves as hongkongers by, who can truly begrudge them that?

as we draw further and further away from that time, maybe reminders of those decades in media like twilight of the warriors are just what they have left to hold onto.

[seat-safety-switch]

My name is Archibald Shitpope. I'm a detective who solves crimes other cops can't, because they drive shitty cars. Me? I'm all about 80s and 90s Japanese imports. The Bubble Era. The Golden Age.

"Chief wants you," spat the sarge, opening the door to my office. I didn't even look up from my copy of Option magazine, which itself was obscuring a Panasonic CRT television showing a constant repeat of a pirated Hong Kong VCD copy of Video Option magazine, its associated cross-media brand. You didn't need to be Tarzan Yamada to know that this case had already hit the skids.

As I stood over the body of the Chief's daughter, the gun cooling in my hands, I now knew two things. One: there's no way that the dockhands were this clumsy about recording engine block VINs, especially for something as obviously hot as an SR20VE blacktop. Two: I now knew the true meaning of Christmas, thanks to my friend Santa Claus and his Sil80 reindeer.

"You're gonna get some real heat for this, Shitpoop," moaned my new assistant. "You better go on leave, lay low for a bit."

Good idea, for a Mustang owner. I knew exactly where I wanted to go: Ebisu Circuit. It's strange how things with race cars often end where they begin.

Detective Toshigi met me at the sky bridge at Haneda. "Get the fuck out of my country," he barked, "unless you have what I asked for."

It pained me to deal in such illicit, sleazy goods, but I did so regardless - for the sake of the case. Reaching deep into my commemorative Honda Accord Aerodeck man satchel, I removed a poly-bagged copy of the Haynes manual for a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix. Toshigi's lips curled upward into a perverted sneer.

[blueiscoool]

‘Faces of Sanxingdui’: Bronze Age Relics Shed Light on Mysterious Ancient Kingdom

A golden face with patinaed turquoise eyes stares out of the darkness. Illuminated around it stand three other bronze heads — some have flat tops, others round — all looked over by a giant bronze statue almost 9 feet high. All have the same piercing, angular eyes.

There’s something about the “Faces of Sanxingdui” — as this collection of sculptures is being billed — that feels both familiar and alien. Currently on display at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, they may appear Mayan or Aztec to the untrained eye, but these over-3,000-year-old sculptures weren’t unearthed anywhere near Mesoamerica’s ancient civilizations. They were discovered on China’s Chengdu Plain, at an archeological dig site called Sanxingdui (which translates as “three star mound”).

Thought to be the largest and oldest site left by the Shu kingdom, a civilization in southwestern China once only hinted at in myths and legends, Sanxingdui was not discovered until the 1920s, when a farmer stumbled across objects while digging an irrigation ditch. The site has since been found to contain the ruins of an ancient city made up of residences, sacrificial pits and tombs enclosed by high dirt walls. Archaeologists from the Sanxingdui Museum say the city was established some 4,800 to 2,800 years ago, until it was abandoned around 800 BC for unknown reasons.

The Chinese government has long promoted Sanxingdui as evidence of the country’s long, uninterrupted history — with the discoveries included in history textbooks for more than a decade. And while thousands of visitors have already flocked to the groundbreaking exhibition in Hong Kong, some analysts suggest that the items are also being used to support the Chinese government’s vision of national identity.

The mysterious and talented Shu

The Shu kingdom, which emerged in the Sichuan basin during the Bronze Age, is believed to have developed independently of the Yellow River Valley societies traditionally considered the cradle of Chinese civilization. Its inhabitants created exquisitely crafted bronze, jade, gold and ceramic objects, depicting fantastical beasts, kings, gods and shamans with bulging eyes and enlarged ears.

Around 120 of the items are currently on display in Hong Kong, and it’s the first time many of these objects, most of which were excavated between 2019 and 2022, have been showcased outside Sichuan province.

Remarkably, the sculptures predate the Terracotta Army, a collection of earthenware statues depicting the armies of China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang, by at least 1,000 years. Wang Shengyu, an assistant curator at the Palace Museum said the objects are far more advanced, imaginative, and artistic than those being produced anywhere else in China at that time.

“You can tell that it’s very sculptural and very artsy,” Wang said at the exhibition opening, pointing to a roughly 1-foot-tall bronze figure whose fantastical, braided hair extends out to three times the height of its body and, had it not been broken, would stretch much further. “You can imagine how magnificent it was. From above his nose and all the way up, it would’ve been over 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) tall, according to the fragments (archeologists) found. The end of the pigtail is on his shoulder.”

Little is known about the Shu kingdom other than what’s been discovered on the 3.6-square-kilometer (1.4-square-mile) site outside Chengdu. There is no evidence of a written Shu language, and historical literature contains scant information about its culture other than a handful of myths and legends, including a reference to a Shu king called Can Cong whose eyes were said to have protruded — perhaps explaining why so many of the 13,000 relics recovered from the site feature bulging eyes.

After the Shu state was conquered by the Qin dynasty in 316 BC, Shu culture was “buried” under the “mainstream” culture that later emerged on China’s central plain, Chinese authorities wrote in a 2013 UNESCO submission seeking to have Sanxingdui and two nearby archeological sites recognized as World Heritage Sites. They are currently on UNESCO’s “tentative list.”

Since 1986, eight excavated pits at Sanxingdui have yielded giant masks of gods with bulbous, insect-like eyes and protruding ears, mythical creatures with gaping mouths and an almost 4-meter-tall (13-foot) bronze “tree of life” sculpture decorated with ornaments like a Christmas tree. All the items were found shattered, burned and buried, leading experts to believe the pits were used for ritual sacrifices. Some have now been painstakingly re-constructed by archaeologists. “It took 10 years to reconstruct the tree,” said Wang Shengyu, an assistant curator at the museum who helped curate the exhibition.

That tree is not on show in Hong Kong, as it is considered too precious to send abroad, but a section of one of six others discovered and ornaments are on display at the museum, as well as a 3D holographic projection of what experts think it would have looked like – its layers and branches adorned with birds, flowers, fruit, dragons, bells as well as jade and gold foil ornaments. The set are thought to have been part of a theater space.

‘Historical myth’ of a continuous civilization

The exhibition places these items in the context of other ancient civilizations and includes the Shu among the many societies to have existed in the country’s “5,000-year history.” According to a press release from organizers, museum and Hong Kong government officials at the opening stressed the “continuity, inventiveness, unity, inclusiveness and emphasis on peace and harmony” of Chinese history.

Henry Tang, chairman of the governing body behind the West Kowloon Cultural District (where the Palace Museum is located) and a former candidate for Hong Kong’s top leadership role, said in a statement that the district and museum are looking to “promote cultural and artistic exchanges between China and the world, ‘tell China’s story well’, and strengthen the public’s cultural self-confidence.”

But the narrative that the Shu kingdom was innately Chinese is contentious, according to Ian Johnson, a senior fellow for China Studies at US think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Over the past few decades, the (Chinese Communist Party) has been trying to push a historical myth that all the peoples who have ever lived inside the current borders of the People’s Republic are ‘Chinese,’” he said over email.

“The basic idea is that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) encompasses people who naturally belong together and therefore, from today’s standpoint, form a nation. Hence any effort to have autonomy or even independence is taboo — it runs against history.”

The People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, and its government has often used China’s continuous history as evidence that ethnic groups such as the Tibetans and the Uyghurs have always belonged to China.

Johnson said that there was little support for the idea that civilizations along the Yellow River had much in common with those in the Sichuan Basin.

“They have commonalities but are not the same — just as ancient Assyrians and Phoenicians and Greeks weren’t the same, even if they shared certain things in common,” he said, adding: “sponsoring these kinds of exhibitions are popular and win the government credit.”

When asked to comment, the Hong Kong Palace Museum said the exhibition was “curated based on academic and archaeological research” and that it reinforces its mission to deepen audiences’ “understanding of the lives and cultures of various regions and ethnic groups as well as exchanges among them in ancient China, which have contributed to the magnificence of China’s civilization and its ‘diversity in unity’ pattern of development.”

By Christy Choi.

[magicaltrash]

Featuring some of the more unique trash cans at Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney Explorers Lodge is divided into four wings, with each themed area inspired by Polynesian, Asian, South American rainforest, and African plains.

"Intrepid travelers will find themselves surrounded by the golden age of exploration in the early 1920s, with artifacts and memorabilia displayed across the hotel property." The resort opened in 2017 with steamer trunk-style trash cans featuring this unique plaque for the property. Note the detail combining a compass rose, globe, and airplane propeller. // Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Disney Explorer’s Lodge, 2025 [Source: Laughing Place. Used by Permission.]

[romanceyourdemons]

i’m going insane in the membrane watching the seven commandments of kung fu (1979). i cannot emphasize enough the extent to which this movie is zhou zishu and zhang chengling if they were made in the golden age of hong kong cinema

[yunsound]

My Personal Favourite Chinese Movies (non animated)

This list will include both films made in mainland China and films made in Hong Kong/Taiwan. No, this is not intended as a political message or anything- my beliefs do NOT matter. The reason for this is because Hong Kong/Taiwan had a golden age of cinema from the 1980s-late 1990s which produced a barrage of excellent films that gained a lot of notice in the mainland, and which are regarded as part of the Chinese cultural sentience. 

These are not ranked in any particular order, just the order that I remembered/thought of them in. This does not mean I think no.1 is the best movie or no.10 is the worst movie on this list- things like recency, scale and subconscious bias also factor in. Regardless- these are all personal favourites of mine that I think are worthy of excellent visuals/cinematography, excellent storytelling, excellent message (or morals), and excellent reception. 

These are also all movies that I think Westerners can watch. The movies that Westerners can’t watch (whether for reasons that political views may clash or because you simply can’t get the references even with the best possible English subtitles) will regrettably not be mentioned.

This is also in NO WAY AT ALL a comprehensive (or even CLOSE to comprehensive) list of the objectively best Chinese movies. Most made in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan in Chinese are meant for a Chinese audience, or a Sino-cultural audience at the very least. The following are some that can be translated into English and retain at least a smidge of their original cultural significance.

There are some movies here that require research or a smidge of understanding and open-mindedness, but are included because they reveal some very intrinsic parts of Chinese culture and the Chinese mindset.

我不是药神 Dying to Survive

2018, Director Wen Muye

Possibly the best movie made in China in the last decade. It tells the story of a sham medicine seller struggling to make money who begins to smuggle cheap Indian fakes of an expensive European cancer medicine into China. 

This movie is based on a true story, and is anti-capitalistic in a way that rings as authentic instead of propagandist. How does it achieve this? The stories are of real people. There’s nothing in this movie that tries to make you emotional or tries to invoke any sort of feeling in you- it’s just simply so authentic and so there that you can’t help but connect with it.

It hits very, very hard, with all the force of a missile, and leaves you in moderate despair at how unfair society and healthcare can be in the face of profit.

After the recent events concerning a certain Italian man with the initials LM, I’m sure this movie is even more impactful. Why this movie is so critically and publicly acclaimed in China is because everyone can relate.

Medicine is expensive, but it’s worth everything. Healthcare bills kill people. I won’t spoil the entire movie, but it’s heartbreaking, made even more so by the realisation that these are real events and real people.

This movie is understandable by a Western audience because the circumstances the characters face aren’t just Chinese. To quote one of the characters: everyone gets sick, and everyone has to pay for it.

2. 霸王别姬 Farewell, My Concubine

1993, Director Chen Kaige

This film, I would say, is not understandable by a Western audience without some damn good subtitles and some prior research. It’s set in a period of time in China where political tensions were high, and is based on Peking opera. 

There are probably blog posts out there detailing the basics of Peking opera, so please read one of those before watching this movie. Farewell, My Concubine (translated directly as The King Bids Farewell to His Concubine, which is a poetic line in Chinese) involves an almost Inception-like blur between reality and stage, and makes you question whether we are the actors or the audience. 

The King Bids Farewell to his Concubine is a famous play in Peking opera. A note on Peking opera- male performers often play female characters. This movie is about the lives of two young boys who grow up to be Peking opera performers, one who plays dan 丹(female characters) and the other who plays jing 净(male characters). As I said, men playing dan (female characters) is common- they are referred to as male dan or 男丹.

As the two boys go through multiple hardships as they grow up, their lives begin to mirror the events of the play unknowingly. As such, the movie is a performance within a performance, a play within a play- by the end, we no longer know if the two main characters are the king and the concubine, or if they are simply themselves. 

It’s a masterclass in storytelling. This movie is beautiful- though you’d have to know the basics of Peking opera. The Wikipedia page is probably enough.

3. 你好，李焕英 Hi, Mom

2021, Director Jia Ling

This film is more aptly translated as Hello, Li Huanying (where Li Huanying is the name of the main character, and the director's mother). The director, Jia Ling, is a very famous comedy actor in China- Hi, Mom is her directorial debut.

The film is semi-biographical (the MC is named Jia Xiao-ling, so we all know it’s just Jia Ling herself) and tells the story of how Jia Xiaoling inadvertently finds herself transported back in time to when her mother was a teenage girl.

In order to give her mother a better life/better husband/better child, she tries to set her up with the wealthy son of a local factory owner. The film speaks heavily on themes of filial piety and motherhood, and takes place in 1980s China, a period of rapid economic/social development.

As such, it’s very nostalgic for many Chinese people, but may not connect as strongly with a different audience. 

For me and many others, it was a bit of a tearjerker. We all love our moms, I guess. Maybe I’m being presumptuous, but I also assume that feeling that our mothers might have had a better life if she hadn’t married/had children is also a common idea. 

4. 唐探/唐人街探案系列 Detective Chinatown series

2015/2018/2021, Director Chen Sicheng

Chen Sicheng is a very famous comedy film director, and Detective Chinatown are his biggest movies. These are more slapstick comedies than Oscar-winning cinema, but the jokes are very funny in a very Chinese way. Often, characters will have funny accents or funny mannerisms which may not be fully understandable to an audience that doesn’t know Chinese, but they’re still entertaining anyway.

The stories follow Qin Feng, a young failed detective applicant. He has extremely high deductive ability but is a tiny bit twisted in the mind (he got kicked out of police school because he said the reason for wanting to be a detective is to commit the perfect crime). He is, however, naive yet clever and quite a funny person.

His distant uncle (表舅, which Google Translate says means maternal uncle but is really more like uncle-once-removed), Tang Ren, is a perverted and cocky idiot, but is very funny and is reliable when you need him the most.

Tang Ren and Qin Feng get swept up in multiple confusing murder cases organised by a mysterious someone named Q on an app called Crimaster (a little like Citizen Sleuths), uncovering secrets and making jokes along the way.

The recent prequel Detective Chinatown 1900 was really mid, but I like all three other movies, especially the Tokyo one. Detective Chinatown, the series, is strongly associated with Chinese New Year cheer and festivity. 

5. 大话西游系列 A Chinese Odyssey series

Jan 1995, Feb 1995, Director Jeffrey Lau (with Stephen Chow)

Probably the most famous and widely-seen Chinese movie series. Technically it was made as Hong Kong cinema, but HK cinema from that era was (and still is) very much seen as Chinese cinema by both the actors and the audience (maybe not a HK audience? IDK, I don’t want to say too much). The movies are based very loosely around Journey to the West, and involve the resurrection of the Monkey King Sun Wukong in a human male.

A Chinese Odyssey might be a really good translation, or a really bad translation. It gets the idea across. The more literal translation is like, Tales of the Westward Journey (doesn’t feel as grand, right?) 

Movie 1: 月光宝盒 or Pandora’s Box (really more like the Magical Moonlight Box, but I like the translation into a popular myth in Western audiences) is the beginning of the story.

Monkey King falls in love with a (won’t spoil, I’ll call her random lady even though she’s famous and very much not random) Random Lady we’ll call her RL, but through a whole bunch of plot is forced to use the Moonlight Box (or Pandora’s Box) to activate a spell that will somehow (no spoilers) help him try to fix a big problem.

Movie 2: 仙履奇缘 Cinderella 

The guy that Sun Wukong reincarnated into accepts his fate and becomes the Monkey King once again (I hope this doesn’t count as a spoiler?).

These movies are part of my childhood! Looking back they’re a little dramatic and a little cringe, but I remember them very, very fondly. Random Lady (OK I’ll spoil her name is Lady Zixia) becomes a very famous figure in Chinese culture, even though she’s a movie character. Think of her as being… Scarlett O’Hara? Not in personality or story, of course, but like an iconic figure. 

6. 大红灯笼高高挂 Raise the Red Lantern

1991, Director Zhang Yimou

This movie isn’t exactly a lighthearted comedy like Detective Chinatown or A Chinese Odyssey. Zhang Yimou is like the Alfred Hitchcock of China (I know this seems disrespectful to Hitchcock, who is obviously much more widely-renowned, but I’m just trying to say Zhang Yimou is famous okay). He is incredibly well-known and well-respected. Raise the Red Lantern is probably one of his most famous films. Film fans might have seen it already.

It incorporates much of what call uniquely Chinese horror 中式恐怖. The dim lighting, the muted colours, the framing- the entire film gives off a faintly eerie sense, like you’re not quite in our dimension, and is very, very claustrophobic. Chinese horror films often incorporate themes of marriage and family, because these are very suffocating cultural norms. 

Like, is this not absolutely horrifying.

The story centers around Songlian, an educated young woman whose family was once rich but is now bankrupt (as the 1920s were full of political and economic turmoil), forcing her to become the 4th wife (concubine) of an old wealthy lord. No matter how you feel about the current political climate in China, all I can say is I’m glad taking concubines is no longer allowed.

Songlian is originally haughty and favoured, but as she begins to experience the suffocating and dangerous life of a concubine in a lord’s house, she begins to slowly go insane. We as the audience feel like we are being choked by the oppressive atmosphere of the whole film, and by the end I felt like I was going crazy with her. 

See the oppressive atmosphere, even though red (in Chinese culture) is a sign of vitality and cheerfulness? Colour theory, I guess.

Raise the Red Lantern is the highest standard of Chinese horror. It’s much more terrifying than jumpscares or ghosts, and hits even harder for a female audience. 

7. 无名 Hidden Blade

2023, Director Cheng Er

Maybe I’m biased because the two stars of this movie (Wang Yibo and Tong Leung) are both some of my favourite actors, but this movie is a masterpiece in cinematography. Every single shot has meaning behind it.

The actual plot of the movie is fine (not amazing, but pretty good) but the acting, set design and the feeling of art behind every single frame is what makes me like this movie. This is a personal favourite, not an objective favourite. Sorry.

Each shot conveys so much meaning, even if it only appears onscreen for a split second. It's a very artistic film, and this is just Cheng Er's style.

Hidden Blade takes part during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria (don’t watch if this is a sensitive topic for you) at a time when the Wang Jingwei (a puppet leader) regime (which worked with Chiang Kai-Shek’s Guomindang or Kuomintang to eliminate Communists) worked entirely for the Japanese. 

The political message of the film is strong, obviously. Again, don’t watch it if you are sensitive to that. I found that the politics of the characters didn’t matter as much as the characters’ personal charm to me.

It takes place in Shanghai, a cutthroat political battlefield filled with espionage (on both sides). The Second Sino-Japanese war was a period of time of tension comparable to the Cold War. Espionage was at an all-time peak. The entire film is tense and makes you wonder what’s going to happen next. Still, I found myself wanting to screenshot literally every frame, take it home, and analyse it closely. I might still do that.

8. 流浪地球 Wandering Earth

2019, Director Guo Fan

Wandering Earth got a lot of hype at the time of its release. I watched it in theatres and loved it, but when I rewatched it I found it mid. Still, it’s definitely worth watching as a big-budget sci-fi film. The visuals alone will probably make you at least a little astounded. I wouldn’t say it’s as good as Dune Part 2, but it’s maybe almost as good as or equal to Dune Part 1.

Wandering Earth takes place in 2095, I think? Not nearly distant enough for my liking. The sun is about to expand and engulf the Earth, so the governments decide they’re going to install giant rocks on the surface of the Earth and move the whole planet away to a new solar system over tens of thousands of years. However, as Earth is just leaving our solar system and passing Jupiter, a huge gravitational spike caused by an unexpected storm means Earth is being pulled towards Jupiter and at risk of exploding into a fiery ball of… death.

The characters are torn between trying to spend their last moments with their loved ones or trying to find a solution to the problem. The science makes zero sense. Don’t think too much about it. The movie is good, though. It’s one of those films that’s much better in theatres. 

9. 美人鱼 The Mermaid

2016, Director Stephen Chow

This movie… all I can say is it’s… a fever dream. It’s hilarious in Chinese but it doesn’t hit the same in English. Regardless, it’s funny as all hell just because of how utterly ridiculous it is.

It centers around a young mermaid, Shan, who is sent by her tribe to seduce and kill the rich playboy who’s purchased the land near their tribe’s home and intends to wreck it with capitalistic ventures. Instead, a whole bunch of wacky shenanigans and misunderstandings occur. 

I don’t want to spoil more than that, but the playboy, Xuan, thinks Shan is a hired escort or prostitute (because she’s really bad at the whole seduction and killing thing) and tries to use her to make his rich ex-girlfriend jealous. In the end, there’s a happy ending, but you’re left in disbelief like “what the actual fuck” the whole time. 

That’s the genius of Stephen Chow, I guess. Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle were equally ridiculous and hilarious. I haven’t included Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle because I figure they’re famous enough, but if you haven’t, go watch Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. And all of Stephen Chow’s movies. 

10. 误杀系列 Manslaughter series: Sheep Without a Shepherd/Fireflies in the Sun

2019, 2021, Producer Chen Sicheng

IDK the directors of these two movies, but they’re known as Chen Sicheng films. Technically the names Sheep Without a Shepherd and Fireflies in the Sun are pulled out of someone’s ass. The movies are called 误杀 1/2 or Manslaughter 1 and 2. The first and second movies do not occur with the same characters, but are probably in the same universe, and they both star the same actor, Xiao Yang.

(Xiao Yang, by the way, is one half of one of China’s biggest comedy groups, the Chopstick Brothers. They wrote and sang Little Apple, China’s unofficial national anthem. Now Xiao Yang has transitioned to acting full-time, he’s actually very, very good!)

Remember, manslaughter refers to accidental or unintended killing.

The 1st movie (Sheep Without a Shepherd) is centered around a dude and his family who live in Thailand (they’re Chinese, though). A privileged son of a mayor and police chief sexually assaults and blackmails the MC’s daughter, and the daughter accidentally kills him instead. 

The family, including MC (who loves crime movies) come up with a seemingly airtight plan to cover the murder up, and establish perfect fake alibis for themselves. However, as the son was very high-ranking, they are soon suspected of murder and begin to try and exonerate themselves.

The 2nd movie (Fireflies in the Sun) is not quite as good as the first one, but isn’t bad. A father of a child with heart problems and who has been on the waitlist for a transplant for a long time takes people at the hospital hostage for seemingly no reason. The plot later reveals his motivations and failings in the healthcare system. 

Both movies lament capitalism and people in power who oppress the poor and take advantage of those with less resources. The plot is very tense and exciting.

The above list consists of only the first ten or so movies that came to mind. Even as I wrote this out I could think of like, thirty more really good movies.

C-drama recs coming soon. Stay tuned! (I like the dramas on that list, on average, much more than I like the movies on this list lmao)

[gardcnofeden]

( MICHELLE YEOH, 61, CIS WOMAN, SHE/HER. ) Have you heard of NADIA MUI yet? i believe they’ve been living in LA for 40 YEARS. they’re currently cast as an ACTRESS in the movie. somethings that remind me of them are: A MANTLEPIECE LINED WITH ACADEMY AWARDS AND GOLDEN GLOBES, DIAMOND RINGS ADORNING SLENDER FINGERS, EXPENSIVE RED WINE, A METICULOUSLY CRAFTED PUBLIC IMAGE. before joining this project, i’ve heard they were known for being CHARISMATIC, PHILANTHROPIC, AND MATERNAL. however, on the down side, they’re also known to be METICULOUS, STRONG-WILLED, AND SELF-CRITICAL. because of this, they’re often labeled as THE ICON. i just hope they come to set prepared. especially since I’ve heard those call times are going to be pretty early!

FULL NAME — nadia mui.

DATE OF BIRTH & AGE — december 4th, 1963; 61 years old.

BIRTHPLACE — hong kong.

CURRENT RESIDENCE — los angeles.

OCCUPATION — actress & producer.

ORIENTATION — bisexual biromantic.

MARTIAL STATUS — married to che gavaria.

CHILDREN — none.

ZODIAC — sagittarius sun, leo moon, scorpio rising.

MORAL ALIGNMENT — tba.

born in hong kong, the eldest of three children, nadia has always had a demeanour that demanded attention. she had a natural creativity about her, exploring many different artistic mediums before deciding that performing was her favourite. it gave her an indescribable rush, and from that moment, she knew that acting was her calling.

when nadia announced to her family that she wanted to be an actress, it wasn’t a surprise to them. they were supportive, unable to deny her talent and the fact it was what she was meant to do. sure, they imagined different career paths for their eldest, and it did take a while to warm up to the idea, her parents had always supported her. even now, many decades later, she still calls them her biggest fans.

her acting career began in hong kong; starring in several action films, always performing her own stunts and she became known for paving the way for women in action films.

her first big break in hollywood was being cast as a bond girl, the film opened her up to countless opportunities in the United States, where she worked her way up the hierarchy to become what she is now, one of the most famous actresses in the world and a hollywood icon. throughout her career, she earned a multitude of accolades including three oscars, six golden globes and many more.

in her late twenties, she married a famous actor who she fell in love with on set of one of her earliest films. the marriage fizzled out after five years, its demise being caused by her husband’s infidelity; which became a tabloid scandal.

years later, she met and fell in love with che gavaria, a director who she was introduced to at an awards show. they married after a year of dating, and as of 2024, they’ve been married for 15 years.

[don-dake]

河國榮 Gregory Charles Rivers

(30 April 1965 — 2 February 2024)

Posted this on my Insta Stories a couple days back but decided I'd do a post here too because I realised I'm still feeling saddened by Mr Rivers's passing.

For people of certain older generations, especially those who grew up in the 1990s watching Hong Kong TVB series, Mr Rivers, aka 河國榮 (Ho Kwok-Wing) to HK TV viewers, was an easily recognisable and familiar face, having been (at that time) the only foreign/Caucasian face to appear consistently in HK television armed with an impressive fluency in Cantonese.

I guess his passing has affected me more than I thought it would because firstly, I'd admired him for his proficiency in Cantonese and subconsciously looked to him as an inspiration.

As someone who grew up being terrible at Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin) and got teased for being “the banana” (i.e. yellow on the outside but white on the inside), the constant presence of this Caucasian guy on TV who could speak better Cantonese than I, partly spurred me on to learn Cantonese better myself.

Secondly, he represented an age when HK and by proxy, Cantonese, was flourishing; Mr Rivers's story of coming to Hong Kong purely motivated by his love for Cantopop and the Cantonese language is (sadly) not the kind of story one will hear very often again…

With his passing, it's like yet another bit of the shine of “Golden Age” HK being taken away…and this “Golden Age” was part of my childhood, so it means another part of my childhood is gone…

Anyway, I'll end this post with this video of an interview Mr Rivers did (c. 2007), sharing briefly his thoughts on his experiences as a foreign actor in HK.

河生，對於學緊廣東話嘅我嚟講，

您畀咗我唔少不知嘅鼓舞。

呢一點，我會喺心裏永遠默默感激。

希望您而家搵到了安寧，同妻子一路走好！

[romantamsxiangshi]

Translation of Anthony Wong's 1994 我们不是天使 (We Are Not Angels)

Anthony Wong-Ming was one half of Tat Ming Pair, the experimental duo that made some of Hong Kong's most well-known queer anthems during the Golden Age. He sang in both Cantonese and Mandarin, but began releasing more Mandarin music in the late 1990's, after Tat Ming Pair's (amicable) split.

我们不是天使 is my first Mandarin-English translation. When I first heard the song, I was struck by the bitterness in Wong's voice. Mandarin is the language of mainland China, as well as the language of the CCP rhetoric that Wong mentions (and mocks). In 我们不是天使, Mandarin is made--quite literally--into the embodiment of Wong's many political and personal turmoils.

It's also worth noting that Wong grew up Christian, but walked away from his church upon realizing its attitude towards homosexuality. His music is rife with religious motifs: Angels, Heaven, and eternity positioned next to political oppression, which is then positioned next to the viscerality of queer love and longing. I love this song to pieces, and it's actually been the soundtrack to some of my own writing.

Translation:

生命该尊敬自强 They tell us to live a life of respect and self-improvement (1) 爱情该地老天荒 They tell us that proper love should outlast the heavens and earth (2) 他们都不可能说谎 And they wouldn't lie, right? 要是我爱得疯狂 If my love is half-crazed and reckless 要是我不懂隐藏 If I don't know to hide it 是否我还没有成长 Does this mean I am still a child? Have not yet grown into myself? 如果真爱不一定光明 Well, if my love cannot bring light (3) 就让黑暗将天地埋葬 Then I would let darkness bring ruin to the heavens and earth

不希望天天向上 i've never harbored hopes of rising above this (4) 只知道生命无常 After all, I know my life isn't long, 这是我孤独的信仰 And that's religion enough for this lonely man. 是人间没有天堂 Is there truly no heaven between our bodies? 还是我没有翅膀 Or was I born without the wings 飞不出欲望的围墙 To flee from my desire? 总是堕落在谁的胸膛 I've only/always known the depravity of crashing into another's arms 总是让这个世界失望 The world has only/always been ashamed of me

我们不是天使 We are no angels 我们只是孩子 We are just children 寻找可以安躺的海港 Looking for safe harbors 不管天地苍茫 I don't care how vast the heavens and earth are 不怕迷失方向 I'm not scared of losing my way 总有互相拥抱的臂膀 We only/always have each other's arms to fall into 我们不是天使 We are no angels 我们终将飞逝 And in the end, we'll lose ourselves 沦落在五光十色里流浪 But maybe we can lose ourselves in a million colors (5) 难道他们想像的天堂 Tell me, is their heaven 是一个没有欲望的地方 A land without desire?

不希望天天向上 i've never harbored hopes of rising above this 只知道生命无常 After all, I know my life isn't long, 这是我孤独的信仰 And that's religion enough for this lonely man. 是人间没有天堂 Is there truly no heaven between our bodies? 还是我没有翅膀 Or was I born without the wings 飞不出欲望的围墙 To flee from my desire? 总是堕落在谁的胸膛 I've only/always known the depravity of crashing into another's arms 总是让这个世界失望 The world has only/always been ashamed of me

我们不是天使 We are no angels 我们只是孩子 We are just children 寻找可以安躺的海港 Looking for safe harbors 不管天地苍茫 I don't care how vast the heavens and earth are 不怕迷失方向 I'm not scared of losing my way 总有互相拥抱的臂膀 We only/always have each other's arms to fall into 我们不是天使 We are no angels 我们终将飞逝 And in the end, we'll lose ourselves 沦落在五光十色里流浪 But maybe we can lose ourselves in a million colors 难道他们想像的天堂 Tell me, is their heaven 是一个没有欲望的地方 A land without desire? 难道我们垮掉的翅膀 No wonder our broken wings 早已被这个世界遗忘 Have been forgotten by this world

Translation Notes:

(1) 尊敬自强 (cultivating the the spirit of self-improvement and shaping moral character) is a phrase lifted from the CCP's patriotic education campaign, and refers to a moral uprightness that is nationalistic by nature.

(2) A more accurate translation would be, "outlast the end of the earth and the ruin of the heavens." I thought this was a bit clunky, though, and "heavens and earth" fit more nicely with all the other lines that refer to something vast.

(3) A more accurate translation would be, "if my love is not bright," but I thought the action implied in "bringing light" stood in clearer contrast to the line about "ruining the heavens and earth" with darkness.

(4) 天天向上 (ascend every day) is another phrase lifted from the CCP, and also refers to cultivating your moral uprightness/spirit. Ironic, because it refers to ascension (to Heaven) in a very literal way.

(5) A more accurate translation would be, "five brilliances and ten colors," but I thought that was too clunky. I could be missing out on some nuance, though--let me know if I am. :)

Fun fact: Anthony Wong co-founded the Big Love Alliance and Renaissance Foundation, two LGBTQ+ rights organizations. Go check them out if you want to support his non-profit work!

[thecharmingchimaera]

I stumbled across somebody being disparaging about Hetalia (whoa blast from the past), which made me sad, because it undervalues what I remember of the fandom back in the day.

I haven't seen another fandom use the source material as a springboard quite so much since. Granted, I wasn't across all facets of it at the tender age of 14, so I'm probably just watching the metaphorical iceberg float by, but from what I remember, a lot of the fandom at the time looked at the source material, smiled and nodded and went "Hmm, yeah, but also, no, there's a better way of portraying this", and invested so much care, time, attention, and devoted interest in going off on their own and using their own fanfics/fanart/OCs/etc to explore so many fascinating aspects of history. Pre-Bronze Age China! Golden Horde Mongolia! Filipina rights in the 50s! 7th-11th century Russia! Celtic/Roman Gaul! World War Japan! Taiwan and Hong Kong! Civil War USA! The Metis in Canada! The Treaty of Waitangi!

Honestly, the most I remember of Hetalia from like 2011-2014 was the sheer unadulterated CREATION. It seemed like everybody was merrily making their own OCs, developing a deep passion and enthusiasm for history and obscure bits of trivia, and spreading knowledge around. I remember coming across the most gorgeously drawn Hetalia AMV about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, for pete's sake, and thinking "whoa, this series looks so cool, I've got to check it out" - only to check out the actual series and go "??? Huh? Where's the drama? Where's the panache? Where's my amazing portraits of nations in a quasi-Neoclassical art style? Where's the epicness?" (and that's how you can tell it was 2012)

And now ... I've completely lost my train of thought. Something something fan creatives going above and beyond? Something about how certain stories/media are creatively inspiring? I think? Anyway.

[qilingxiong]

a few brief follow-up points to this post:

it would be impossible to make a biopic about leslie cheung, and no one should attempt it.

the only way to relieve a biopic of the exacting, contradicting expectations placed on it, due to the thousands of individual interpretations of an existing (or once-existing) person, is to purposefully cast away goals of objective accuracy or representation of real life at all. if expectations of serious recreation or portrayal cease to be a condition on the creator's part, then the audience is less likely to force it upon the narrative as well

it would be impossible to make a biopic about leslie cheung, and no one should attempt it, UNLESS some brave unapologetic soul makes a movie about 80s-90s hong kong golden age and goes full blown velvet goldmine on it