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potteresque-ire · 4 years ago

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Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing 張國榮 (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003) Celebrated Actor, Singer, Idol Queer Icon Those who’re from the Sinosphere, or who’ve followed Chinese-speaking entertainment, probably all know Leslie. Through his 25-year career, he had swept numerous singing and acting awards. A born dancer, his stage presence was phenomenal, and his charisma undeniable — warm and disarming, while also carrying a unique sense of humour from his eight teenage years spent in the UK. His face could, of course, launch a thousand ships.

He was so beloved that his native city of Hong Kong had an endearing, homely nickname for him: Gor Gor. Based on one of his popular movie roles, it means elder brother in Cantonese—same as Ge Ge in Mandarin.

So yes, Leslie was/is my original Gg. When I say Gg in the context of entertainment, I still think of him first. In fact, when I speak out loud about Turtledom’s Gg and Dd, I still call them “The Big One” and “The Little One” — because calling “The Big One” Gor Gor doesn’t feel right.

Gor Gor (哥哥), to me, is always Leslie.

(TW: Homophobia; Suicide)

Leslie is also remembered, of course, for two things: one, he was queer, and two, his suicide in 2003. These are usually about the last things I'd like to talk about in a dedication post to anyone I know through their career, but Leslie is now considered Asia’s queer icon, The Example offered when people talk about queers who’d achieved the pinnacle of fame and recognition in Chinese-speaking entertainment — as if his queerness had all along been accepted, or even celebrated before his death.

To put it simply, it wasn’t. And I think this is a piece of Chinese-speaking entertainment history that those who've wondered about queer c-ent artists should know, and that, I believe, Leslie would wish for people to know.

First, it’s important to point out that Hong Kong’s view of homosexuality is different from China’s — the reason being that Hong Kong was built pretty much from the ground up as a British colony. With few established institutions prior to its colonization in 1841, it had not only followed the British-style Common Law in which homosexuality had been considered a crime of sodomy with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, Christianity had also exerted a far heavier cultural influence there. This means the brand of homophobia in Hong Kong is, like the city itself, a mix of the East and the West: homosexuality is not just a crime against filial piety by being a deterrent to the continuation of the family name—which is “bad”, but only for the family—it’s also a sin in the religious sense—bad for the entire universe.

And so, homophobia in Hong Kong was real. Very real.

(I’m leaving a detailed discussion of this in its own post, but the “bad, but only for the family” view of homosexuality has given rise to a unique class of queer acceptance in Chinese societies: “not-in-my-backyard” acceptance. Queers are fine until they enter one’s social sphere, until they’re close enough to exert influence on, especially, the boys in the family.)

Back to Leslie. Leslie’s career could roughly be divided into four phases. The first phase was his “nobody” period (1977-1985). The second, his idol period (1985-1989). The third, his actor period (1991-1997). The fourth, his “out” period (1997-2003).

During his “nobody” period, in which he was struggling with his career and wasn’t well known, he fell in love with his co-host of a radio-show, Teresa Mo (毛舜筠). She was his first love, Leslie said, the first person he sent roses to, and he proposed to her after a very quick courtship. She was terrified—she was only 17 (16 is the minimum age of marriage)—and she said no. If she’d said yes, Leslie would say years later in an interview hosted by Teresa, his life would’ve been completely different. They would stay friends and act together.

Leslie + Teresa, circa 1978.

And so, despite most news articles describing Leslie as gay, he was actually bisexual—as he confirmed that in a TIME Asia interview in 2001.

Leslie met, or rather re-met the man who would be the love of his life, Daffy Tong Hok-tak (唐鶴德), in 1982, when Leslie was 26 and Daffy, 24. Daffy was also Leslie’s childhood friend—both came from prominent families in Hong Kong (Leslie’s father was a famous bespoke tailor).

Multiple versions of rumours have existed as to when, exactly, Leslie and Daffy hit it off—whether it was love at first sight, whether they broke up several times at first, whether Leslie had a girlfriend for some time, etc etc. But what was known was they finally got together, for good, in 1985.

1985 was also the year Leslie’s career truly took off. Leslie began his idol phrase, and that was when he achieved his superstar status—not only in Hong Kong but over the next few years, in the whole Sinosphere, and also in Korea. Hong Kong entertainment industry, which was nicknamed Eastern Hollywood then, was also at its height of influence; his songs and dances were imitated by everyone. Below is probably the most iconic of his performances during his idol phase (song: 無心睡眠 Sleepless Night 1988):

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When asked about the rumours between him and Daffy during this period, he called it a slander. In other words, Leslie remained closeted throughout his idol phase. He had no choice — homosexuality wouldn’t be decriminalised in Hong Kong until 1991. (Here’s a quick timeline of LGBT+ rights milestones in Hong Kong; same-sex marriage remains illegal.) (When people listed Leslie as an example of an out and prominent Chinese-speaking idol, therefore, it wasn’t correct. Leslie achieved his superstar status, his prominence long before he officially came out in 1997 — and this significant time delay (12 years) was, IMO, essential to the fondness in how people remember him; if he had come out during his idol phase, he wouldn’t have been remembered so favourably, if at all — his idol career wouldn’t have survived especially in the 80s, at the height of AIDS phobia.)

In 1989, Leslie made a shocking announcement that he would retire from HK entertainment, and held a farewell concert series. Hong Kong concerts, BTW, were 3-hour long spectacles held over multiple nights—with the number of concerts held seen as the indicator of the singer’s popularity; that concert series went on for 33 nights. The reason of the retirement, as it turned out, was like many Hong Kongers’ at the time—Leslie decided to emigrate to Canada as the 1997 handover of the city back to China approached. Daffy, a well-established banker by then, moved to Vancouver with him.

The retirement didn’t last long. Leslie missed performing, and returned to HK in 1991—this was also a common story among Hong Kongers who left, who returned to the city because they missed everything about it too much. He began his acting phrase then, in which he shifted his focus from singing to acting. By leaving behind his idol status associated with his singing — the retirement break allowed a smooth transition — he was able to expand the roles he could play, including those that, seriously or not, challenged heteronormativity and gender stereotypes. In the popular comedy He's a Woman, She's a Man (金枝玉葉; 1994 dir: Peter Chan), he played a music producer who fell in love with a fan who cross-dressed as a man. A famous line from this film: 男也好，女也好，我只知道我中意你 (”Man or Woman, I only know I love you”) is tame by today’s standards, but films that touched on homosexuality, even as a comedy, was very rare at the time. In an interview surrounding the film’s promotion, Leslie said:

香港人對gay的處理太過喜劇化、太過醜化，我覺得並不需要如此…… The treatment of gays by Hong Kongers is too comical, too vilifying. I don’t think that’s necessary ...

The most famous queer-themed film projects Leslie took, however, were undoubtedly Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬 1993: dir: Chen Kaige) and Happy Together (春光乍洩 1997, dir: Wong Kar-Wai). In Farewell My Concubine, Leslie played a Chinese opera singer, Chen Dieyi, who sang the part of the titular concubine and fell in love with “her” king, both on and off stage; the story’s backdrop was the from Republican period all the way to the Cultural Revolution, and it depicted how lovers on stage—the Emperor and his Concubine—were finally forced to turn against each other due to Cultural Revolution’s Reporting Culture.

(Not sure how long this link would last, but you can watch the film here.) (I recommend it!).

Happy Together, meanwhile, was about a gay couple who attempted to repair their relationship with a trip to Argentina. It was probably my favourite Leslie film: he, along with Tony Leung Chiu Wai (梁朝偉), gave a mesmerising performance, and their relationship was turbulent, passionate and complex, and I love everything about it. (Sorry, can’t find a link to the film!) Meanwhile, because of Leslie’s professional success and superstar status, his love life had earned the treatment enjoyed by many other superstars from the city during the same period — as in, reporters and gossip rags loved him enough to say little about it. Because traditional Chinese culture does not favour an outward display of love — especially romantic love — there’s also a longstanding custom of getting the hints of who’s coupled with who and accepting them as facts without demanding verification. Stars who are beloved and respected by both the public and the media, therefore, often receive a pass on having to have evidences of their love life laid out for public consumption—the paps look away unless they smell something truly scandalous, and the public just nods with a knowing smile and doesn’t clamour for more information, as they do with their more traditional, keep-their-love-life-quiet friends. This is how many superstars of the time could have their relationships hidden for a long, long time — with Andy Lau (劉德華) ’s 23 years with his girlfriend and eventual wife, Carol Chu, being a famous example.

In other words, Leslie could’ve kept his relationship with Daffy in its murky, the-public-kinda-knows-but-doesn’t status, as long as he didn’t lose favour by the paps and his audience — and chances are, he wouldn’t, not for another decade or two, at least.

But Leslie chose to come out.

The date was January 4th, 1997 — 14 years + 2 weeks after Leslie and Daffy re-met at their godmother’s birthday party — and on the last night of his 24-concert series. He sang an old, Mandarin-language ballad from the 1970s, 月亮代表我的心 The Moon Represents My Heart, and and before that, he dedicated the love song to two people — his mom, who was in attendance, and Daffy.

About Daffy, his word choice was subtle (video here in Cantonese, starting ~ 1:40):

同埋呢，另外一位我覺得係我生命裡面好重要嘅一位好朋友。即係你嘅契仔。係我最失意嘅時候，經濟最差嘅時候，佢可以將佢所有嘅人工，幾個月嘅人工，借俾我渡過難關。你知我講緊邊個啦。當然就嘅我的好朋友唐先生啦! 係嘛？係依度，我要將依首歌送俾我依兩位摯愛嘅朋友同埋我嘅親人。

And, the other person is a very important, very good friend in my life. That’s your godson (Pie note: you=Leslie’s mom; Leslie was still speaking to her after dedicating the song to her.). When I was at my lowest point, when I was doing the worst in my finances (Pie note: remember, Leslie and Daffy met while Leslie was still in his “nobody” period), he could lend me all his earnings—his earnings from several months—to help me through my hardship. You know who I’m talking about, of course it’s my good friend Mr Tong! Right? Here, I’ll gift this song to these two, to my most beloved friend and family.

Note that Leslie didn’t refer to Daffy as anything more than his friend. He also assumed the audience knew who he was referring to by “Mr Tong”, and they did. They went wild. The concert series had already garnered media attention (more than usual) for one of Leslie’s song performances, a song performance that had hinted at the announcement to come—

The song was called 紅 Red, which Leslie composed the melody for. In this arguably most memorable performance of his career, Leslie famously wore a pair of sparkly, fire red Manolo Blahnik heels, and had an intimate dance with a male dancer. The performance ended with the dancers stripping the heels off from Leslie and changing him back into men’s black boots (I apologise for the awful camerawork for the video; this was the official recording. The song starts at ~ 2:30):

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Those heels were so iconic that they were part of a 2017 exhibit called Ambiguously Yours: Gender in Hong Kong Popular Culture. Here’s the shoes and its description:

Description of the shoes for the exhibit: “After Live in Concert 97’ I was at Leslie’s home one day when an idea struck him: “Sister, I have something for you! Something you can use so it doesn’t go to waste.” He then brought me a beautiful pair of high heels. He said he had bought two pairs of white satin high heels from Manolo Blahnik in New York just for the concert. After returning to Hong Kong, he had them dyed red and covered in red sequins. Since there was no need for the shoes afterwards, he gave them to me.

I wore them once. After he passed away, I was reluctant to put them on again, keeping them as is ever since.” ─ Nansun Shi Leslie’s superstar status didn’t save him from ridicule after his coming out, even though the audience was in awe (and confused) by his only becoming even more irresistible after crossing the traditional gender line, his half-joking self-praise of being 姣、型、靚、寸 in local slang — very roughly, flirty, handsome, beautiful, cocky (風騷、有型、美麗、囂張), two traditionally masculine paired with two traditionally feminine adjectives. He was called 屎忽鬼 (”Ass ghost”), a rude local insult for homosexuals, among other terrible names. He hosted one more concert series in 2000-2001, The Passion Tour, in which he collaborated with Jean Paul Gaultier, who custom-made his costumes to highlight his bisexual, androgynous image—and while that concert series was well received when it toured Japan and Korea, it wasn’t well received in Hong Kong. The local media called his image "transvestite", "perverted" or "haunted by a female ghost", causing an angry Gaultier to email Leslie and criticize Hong Kongers for being ridiculous, claimed that no international designers would want to work on a Hong Kong show again. Meanwhile, the Japanese media asked Leslie: why does the HK media hurt its own artist?

The truth was, Leslie was too ahead of his time. “The pinnacle of what artist can do is to be able to place man and woman on the same person. Art is itself genderless” (藝人做到最高境界，是可以男、女兩個性別同在一人身上：藝術本身是沒有性別的), he said, in a society that was used to calling gender fluidity 不男不女 (”neither a man nor a woman”). Paps followed him, cumulating to this photo published in a gossip magazine on 2001/09/29 and would, to many, be the visual symbol of his relationship with Daffy, especially after his death:

Leslie was in black; Daffy was in grey and looking back. The photo was memorable because they were holding hands—what some called “the most determined hand-holding of the century”. Even though Leslie and Daffy had regularly appeared together in public since 1997, and Daffy had played the equivalent role of Leslie’s spouse in Leslie’s family functions, they hadn’t been seen before doing anything regular friends wouldn’t do in public.

(If I remember correctly, the context of this photo was Daffy trying to shake his hand free when he spotted the paps, and Leslie held on.)

Because of the local’s poor reception and overreaction, perhaps, Leslie never made his bisexuality explicit for the Hong Kong media up till his passing. The only time he stated his bisexuality in words was for TIME Asia, an English-language magazine that few locals read. Still, he talked about Daffy when asked, both before and after the 1997 coming out, sometimes by name but far more often by implication; he shared candies, in turtle-speak. He tried to paint a picture of his romantic life while bypassing the controversial, feared queer labels.

Here are some examples of what Leslie had said about his relationship with Daffy:

“其實同一個人生活這麼多年後，結不結婚已不重要，我覺得我們已經結了婚.無論多忙，無論相隔多遠，我們每天給對方打電話，我是一個愛家的人。雖然我的家的組成有些與眾不同。” (1997)

Actually, to have lived so long with one person, marriage is no longer important. I feel we’ve already got married. No matter how busy I am, no matter how far we are, we call each other everyday. I love my home; even though the composition of my home is somewhat different.

“我覺得用中文講我愛你太肉麻，我只會用英文講 I love you。如果我唱情歌畀一個人聽，可以瞓覺前唱畀佢聽，醒之後都可以唱畀佢聽。” (2000; Passion Tour)

“My feeling is: to say “I love you” in Chinese is too much. I’d only say “I love you” in English. If I am to sing a love song for someone, I’d sing it for them before they go to sleep. Or after they wake up.”

“你們讓我覺得好專業! 每晚都是唱給全場幾千人聽。但是如果我要唱《 I HONESTLY LOVE YOU 》給一個人聽，Anytime都得。 ……我可以睡覺前唱，又可以睡醒唱。我可以日日夜夜都唱給他聽。因為我相信我們來日方長。” (2000; Passion Tour)

“(Pie note: Leslie is speaking to his concert audience) You make me feel so professional! Every night I’m singing for the thousands of people in the stadium. But if I were to sing “I HONESTLY LOVE YOU” for one person, I can do it anytime ... I can do it before I sleep, after I wake. I can sing day after day, night after night. Because I believe we’ll have a long road ahead.”

(Including this latter quote because my inner turtle is wibbling: Leslie said 來日方長.) (Here’s a video of Leslie singing I Honest Love You in English, for which the last two quotes were said.)

[毛舜筠問：即是認定了，這個是你的終生的伴侶了？] 一定的，很開心的，是一種blessing（恩賜），是主賜給我的。(2001)

[To the question from his first girlfriend, Teresa: “so you’ve determined that this is your life long companion?] Definitely. Very happily. It’s a blessing. It’s a gift from God.

Another “candy” Leslie threw: in the pre-Kadian age, license plates were a form of expression. Hong Kong’s license plate has a format of [a-z][a-z][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9], and Leslie’s preferred license plate number was 339 — with 339 implying a long life (生生久). Leslie and Daffy had a shared vehicle with their initials for the two alphabets before the 339 on the license plate.

As time passed, Leslie and Daffy challenged the public’s previously negative attitude about queer relationships. As time passed, even those in the public who were unsure about their stance on queer issues wanted Leslie and Daffy to last. By 2001, Leslie and Daffy had been together for 16 years, during which Leslie had been a successful artist and could’ve chosen any companion he wanted. The same was true for Daffy, who had become a senior executive at an international bank — a highly desirable position in the business-oriented Hong Kong.

How many het couples could make it through what they’d gone through?

And everyone thought Leslie and Daffy would last. Both men were young and clearly in love. Leslie once said too, in an 1999 interview, that he didn’t want to die. He was afraid of dying, he said, and his favourite flowers were orchids because orchids last. He said he was the happiest he’d ever been, enjoying his work, his visits to the market and the local food stalls—places he'd used to think artists shouldn’t visit—and having his fans greet him as Gor Gor. He loved that nickname, he said; it felt close, like family—

And so, when the news came on April 1st, 2003 that Leslie had jumped to his death from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, everyone thought it was a sick April fool’s joke. A very sick one, as Hong Kong was in the middle of the SARS epidemic. To understand the mood of the city, imagine this — COVID (“2nd generation SARS” caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2), but with a fatality >10 times higher (SARS overall fatality was over 10%) and above all, its route of transmission was yet unknown. People who lived in the same high-rise but had no contact, no face-time otherwise were getting sick and dying, and Hong Kong was a city filled to the brim with high-rises ...

It was a time of great sadness, and immense fear.

And so, when Hong Kongers first heard about their beloved star jumping to his death, their first reaction was to start to hunt for the sick joker, intending to hurl their giant store of colourful insults at them. But soon, the police and the news confirmed it wasn’t a joke. Leslie wrote a suicide note before his leap, which started with a single word that explained the cause of his jump: Depression. The note ended with what many patients of severe clinical depression have probably asked: I haven’t done anything evil in my life. Why is it like this?

Daffy weathered the storm afterwards, the onslaught of hurtful rumours while maintaining his low-key, dignified self. Mental illness was still poorly understood by many, who proceeded to make up reasons for Leslie’s depression and suicide — from a character bleed from his last film role to STDs to death being the Destiny of The Gays.

Time ticked on—fortunately, perhaps, in this case—and as years come and go and the general population gains more understanding about LGBT+ and mental health, the media has also learned to respect Daffy’s privacy (for the most part)—Daffy, who, more than 17 years after Leslie’s death, still posts about Leslie on Instagram on significant dates—Leslie’s birthdays, Christmases (which Leslie loved), anniversaries of his death, etc. Paps do prod him occasionally to check if he has moved on from Leslie, found someone else to settle down with. The answer appears to be no.

This year, they will be longer apart than they’re together.

And every year since 2003, Leslie fans have gathered at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on April Fool’s Day to remember their favourite star, the pride of the city even though the city had not been always kind to him. The open-air display of flowers isn’t something they can do this year; in spite of a very low COVID case count, the government has kept in place the social distancing laws, more intended to prevent people from gathering to protest, and an online concert has been planned instead.

To end this post, therefore, I’m including this photo from 2018, of Leslie’s red Manolo Blahnik heels in roses, placed on the sidewalk by the hotel by his fans:

Leslie remains beloved, even if he’s understood, perhaps, about fifteen years too late.

Rest in peace, 哥哥.

#pie metas

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edenkept · 4 years ago

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❛ NOW I KNOW IT’S NOT YOU , but me that i'll love a little more .

wish i could use emojis to express how i feel , but jus know that for the entire day that ONE PART in roman holiday has been playing in my head on repeat & i ? couldn’t turn it off . anyway , my intros r usually super long SO i tried to keep it - how u say - condensed this time . but i’m so excited & i am so hyped to write w all of u ! @opalsmedia

LINKS : google doc / pinterest / spotify / tik tok compilation

𝑭𝑼𝑵𝑫𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑨𝑳𝑺

full name : baek ye - seul

nickname(s) / alias(es) : eden park ( english name )

age / dob : twenty one / march 3 ‘99

hometown : seoul , south korea

current location : guildford , england

ethnicity : korean

nationality : english - south korean

gender : cis female

pronouns : she / her

orientation : pansexual , grayromantic

religion : agnostic , raised catholic

face claim : jung chaeyeon

language(s) spoken : korean , mandarin , cantonese , english , some french

speech : english is her first language - seven years spent in london before being whisked away to another world , she’s still got a hold on a formal accent - though , doesn’t sound completely english or american , some ambiguous mixture of someone who’s practiced the language with someone who isn’t a complete expert . all being said , she’s enchanting enough to fool even the wisest into listening - schemes flinging from parted lips that garner attention , though often what follows is informal & laced�� with sour intentions .

hair : naturally dark , so dark its comparable to a moonless sky , though , in the summer & constant sunlight it’s known to lighten ( just - barely ) . kept just past her shoulder blades , her hair is naturally straight ( barely wavy ) & not often styled . healthy & thick , requires little uptake at current length , so it’s common to see it all down - at most , will be swept up into a messy up - do to be kept out of her face when doing something important . entirely effortless , her hair is often the least of her worries .

eyes : quite the defining feature , her eyes are sharp & cat like . the same color of the earth after an unforgiving rain storm , it’s easy to see past a confident exo - skeleton to see the unresolved pain in her eyes . holders of wisdom & excitement , there’s a lot of sadness that reside in her hues - a lone survivor in an unheard war , she doesn’t let enough people close enough to ever let them see it . instead , it’s more often found to catch her sending a glimpse from over the edge of a book - sly & clever .

height : five feet , five inches

build : athletic , with toned limbs & a toned torso .

tattoos : none .

piercings : only earlobes .

scars : easily hidden , a small two centimetre scar on the inside of her right wrist , just below the fleshy part of her palm . when asked , the consistent story is an accident when moving in with her adopted parents - a child throwing a tantrum & getting themselves hurt . nobody knows the real story , she doesn’t seem keen on sharing .

clothing style : academia aesthetic , she surrounds herself with like minded women who’ve the same ideals & personalities . distinguishable by their clothing , carefully smoothed high waisted a - line skirts , high turtlenecks & long coats over black tights . looks sophisticated enough to have a butler ( which , she does ) but intellectual enough to debate her professor ( which , she often does ) .

usual expression : like she knows too much , as if she’s seen too much & she’ll use it to her advantage . with the constant curve of her lips & the glint that’s always present in her eyes , she always looks as if she’s about to cause as much trouble . devil’s advocate , it wouldn’t be too far off for her to be minutes away from stirring the pot .

distinguishing characteristics : her fleeting laugh - it catches your ear as she passes you in the corridor , always red nails ; deep in color , it matches the shade of blood , a walk that demands attention - it exudes an aura of importance , cat like eyes that always look like they’ve caught you doing something you aren’t supposed to be doing .

𝑹𝑼𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺

exterior : ethereal , she holds herself to an impossibly high standard that everyone can see . is it intentional ? the looks sent over her shoulders , how she parts the halls to reach a friend - no . a normal girl from a normal world , she’s sat in the front of the lecture hall making eye contact with the instructors ; the kind of classmate who learns everyone’s ( everyone’s ) name & collects numbers in a well worn notebook to send out guides & make friends . even if you don’t know eden , you know of eden - the life of the party who always arrives with glowing skin & a passionate argument to have in the kitchen . elite , the rumors of a heaven fallen girl wrap around her with the moonlight ( her journal left in the library , she’s god chosen ) - passionate , with the fires of both heaven & hell wrapped in her . almost normal ( not quite ) , the kind of girl to greet everyone by name while running through almost empty corridors - she tugs a lifetime of sorrow behind her , hides it behind ambition & blind loyalty .

interior : war torn , a victim of poison dipped claws & a dip into the river styx . her mind doesn’t match her body , stuck in between the pages of a grand journey where she views the world as a story . a punishment for early childhood , penance has been found in intricate metaphors that don’t match the sharp callousness that falls from her lips . lost in a universe where she’s half god , half devil & her enemies are heaven - bound , she pushes it all down to pass as normal . a normal girl , with normal goals & normal roles . poetry in her dreams , written down on hidden yellow pages that aren’t meant to be seen by the ordinary . found hidden away in locked boxes are journeys & important figures that only her mind understands ; a gaping scar in her life that she’ll never rid herself of .

𝑪𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑵𝑰𝑪𝑳𝑬

this is NOT gna be pretty i spent too many brain cells on my app .

TRIGGER WARNINGS : abuse

there’s an email from doctor seong ; it reads of baek ye seul & important things to note before a first session with her . irreversibly traumatized from early childhood captivity & abuse , she’s learned to cope by transforming her life into an intricately weaved story . each significant figure in her life has a title , an assigned metaphor & character - though , outwardly , she’ll show no signs of trauma . in fact , the opposite - she shows tremendous progress in her personal life , easygoing with peers , approachable & passionate - keep an eye on her movements , if anything internal ever goes external , it’s a dangerous sign .

a file left open on an agent prothero’s office - MI6 stamped & redacted but he knows the story by heart . poor eden , left in the hands of a capable agent that chose a target over her own country . the product of a traitor & a criminal , whereabouts were unknown for the first six years of her life ; but through extensive therapy & decoding childish messages , he’s learned enough to swear to always keep an eye on her . held captive on a london penthouse , had her life threatened & well being always held just out of reach while her mother & father stayed hidden . not much else is known , no specifics , just one instance - she drowned , almost , she says . held under , he can still remember her asking what the most peaceful way to die is . he sends her to partners in south korea , people who want a daughter & promise to raise her the best they can .

pour over comments left on old social media pages , she’s a hit in her new life . sheds her english name as quickly as she received it & thrives overseas while growing into a formidable woman . she’s intelligent ( reminds someone of a mother who had it all once ) , sharp & witty . filled with enough passion to light a palace ablaze , she strives for greatness & settles for absolutely nothing . always equipped with a plan & a way , she gets everything she wants ( & she always earns it , there isn’t a single unearned trophy on her shelf ) . either loved or despised , she shines as bright as stars that are millions of light years away from earth .

in her planner , an acceptance letter carefully pressed & laminated . someone told her she’d never get in , but she sits on campus & smiles - she’s capable of doing anything she wants . next to the letter is an unblemished business card . agent prothero , who found her , gave her the means to burn everything down - he hands her a promise & information that always swims around her head . her parents aren’t dead , kept hidden by everyone in her life , they’re still kicking & on the run . a goal formulated as he reminds her to finish her schooling - there’s the same glint in his eye that she often sees in the mirror - a promise made to finish & return . some people deserve a downfall , her mother’s will be her .

𝑪𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑻𝑬𝑫

throuple / trio : hee hee , as explained in my app , jus three prodigies who get along so well that they’re jus the best of friends . kindred spirits , always found together , wearing complimenting colors while they try not to laugh to hard in the library over something rly stupid . they hold hands while walking through hidden corridors & keep their heads down to the wind , but it’s always the three of them .

unrequited rivalry : i.e. an opal who sees her as a “rival” ( or jus pushes her ) & eden’s like haha peepeepoopoo in response cos she doesn’t think anyone’s worthy enough to be her rival . if anything , she thinks it’s more endearing than annoying & it gives her something / someone to look forward to when the time comes down to it .

the angle to her deivl : anyone who’s a lil kinder , a lil softer & not as annoying around the edges . eden consistently plays devil’s advocate & will stir the pot it if brings drama & a little bit of chaos into her life , this muse is someone who’s always the ‘ eden no ’ to her ‘ eden yes ’

in relation to her circlet : fully explained in my app , but eden unabashedly views her coven as family - even if she does lean into the role of annoying cousin . she’s no leader , more of an antagonistic side kick who always plays devil’s advocate & causes trouble . that being said , when things get dirty & things need solving , that’s her main job ( she ? thinks )

in relation to the opals : opals , shmopals . a characteristic flaw is her disregard to authority figures ( always seen arguing with professors , will fight the p*lice when called to a party , has tackled various figures around campus ) , including the opals . respect should be earned & besides being her seniors , she’s seen no other reason to respect them . so , she’s outwardly disrespectful & idk what to say .

#opalsintro #THIS IS OOSOOO FLGNFJEAFH HAHHEH #WEAK SAUCE !

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b-o-r-k-d-o-g-e · 6 years ago

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Pokemon Sword + Shield Starter Typing

Alright, I figured it was time for me to throw my hat into the ring and share my personal theories on the upcoming Pokemon game

Scorbunny: Fire / Fighting, Fire / Electric, or Fire / Flying.

I know a lotta people hate how many fire starters ended up fire/fighting, but the bandages on Scorbunny’s nose and feet make me think the trend may continue.

As for fire/electric, the Pokemon website describes Scorbunny as “A Rabbit Pokémon that is always running about, bursting with energy”, which seems like a pretty good description of an electric type to me.

I have to credit @dahniwitchoflight for putting this idea in my head, In her post about Scorbunny’s evolutions she makes some really good points, like the fact that England actually has folklore about rabbits that tie into fire / wind. As Dahni also mentioned, there’s a tradition/superstition of saying certain rabbit-related phrases to stop campfire smoke from blowing in your direction.

Sobble: Water / Ghost, Water / Dark

A few people have suggested water/ghost for Sobble, and I have to agree. Sobble’s ability to disappear seems pretty supernatural. While researching, I found that certain cultures (specifically in Africa) associate chameleons with death. There’s a story that after death entered the world, a chameleon was sent to deliver a message, in some sources the chameleon told people “let not men die”, in another it told people how to avoid death, either way the chameleon dawdled and a lizard (either having misunderstood the message or been sent to deliver its own message) told people that death was permanent. When the chameleon finally arrived, no-one believed it, as a result, people have died ever since.

I chose water/dark for a similar reason, and because some cultures (again, some of them African) associate chameleons with thieving, hiding and trickery by changing there appearance.

These associations aren’t really from Britain, but at least some of the cultures who believe them have a close relationship with Britain, such as Malawi, which was one a colony.

Grookey: Grass / Rock, Grass / Sound

Now, the most common theory for Grookey’s evolution is grass/rock, and I can see why. The splashes of brown in his color scheme and the fact that he was introduced by banging a stick on a rock seems to hint towards this typing. I should also note that the only wild monkey population in Europe are the Barbary monkeys (also known as Rock Apes) in Gibraltar, a British territory.

I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone talking about Grookey’s connection to sound and music. Some people have assumed that his name is supposed to be Grew + Monkey, but while doing some cleaning a thought popped into my mind, ‘what if it’s actually GROOVE + Monkey’. I actually checked Bulbapedia and they also believe that.

Further proof is in Grookey’s non-English names, most of which reference sound or music in some way. In Japanese it’s called Sasunori (Sasu = Monkey, Nori = Rhythm), in French Ouistempo (Ouisiti = Marmoset), in Cantonese Hāauyāmhàuh (Hāau = Hit, Yām = Sound, Hàuh = Monkey), the Chinese name (Qiāoyīnhóu) has the same meaning as the Cantonese name. The only names that don’t fit this theme are the German and Korean ones, as the German name is a combination of Chimpanzee + Pep, while the Korean name is a combination of Get Excited + Monkey.

Even Grookey hitting that rock in his introduction could be evidence, it seems that the sound it makes by hitting the rock with a stick is what makes the grass grow back.

I know it’s a not super likely for a new type to be added so soon after Fairy type was introduced, after all, in 20 years only three types have been added since Gen 1, but it can’t be a coincidence that Grookey has such a strong sound/music motif.

My personal favorite type match-ups are Fire / Electric for Scorbunny, Water / Ghost for Sobble, and Grass / Sound for Grookey.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Sword #Pokemon Shield #pokemon sword and shield #it feels kinda weird to write my own posts #instead of just reblogging

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writingwithcolor · 7 years ago

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Female Vietnamese-Chinese-Australian

My dad is Vietnamese, but his parents come from China. My mum is from China, but she moved with her family to Hong Kong from an early age. They speak Cantonese (or as you otherwise might know it, traditional Chinese) as a main language, although they can speak (simplified) Chinese too. I was born and raised in Australia so I identify as Australian as well as Chinese and Vietnamese.

My area has some Asians, but you can get other PoC showing up too and as a writer, I like to embrace that (that’s why this profile exists). However, most people here are non-PoC, Australia being a former British colony and whatnot.

Clothing

Hand me downs. When your dad has 10 sibings and 2 of them are about an hour’s drive from your house, you can’t deny that’ll happen. However, I do get new clothes every now and again.

Food

My family does have a habit of eating rice and/or different Chinese styles of noodles a lot for dinner, but we eat pasta and other cultural foods every now and then. A typical lunch is normally a sandwich or fast food, while breakfast can be anything from dim sims to toast to apple pie (I think the apple pie is just a scrounge-for-money excuse on my mum’s part though).

We do eat Vietnamese food for dinner (a cold vermicelli dish with mint/lettuce, fish sauce and soft shell crab/spring rolls/cha lua/surimi scallops - or a combo of those - known verbally as something along the lines of “moong” to me, although I don’t know its proper name or spelling) or lunch (banh mi or pho), although the likelihood of having Vietnamese food for any given meal is significantly rarer than Western-style food/rice and normally it’s my dad who’ll eat pho.

We used to go out for yum cha for lunch (despite it being breakfast in most cases in Hong Kong) every now and again. When we’re in Hong Kong though, my maternal grandma makes us go to yum cha for breakfast and then to the same restaurant for dinner. There’s one dish I love from yum cha specifically (prawns in cheong fun with soya sauce) which is often on the menu and why I don’t mind yum cha in most cases.

My mum loves Japanese food, but my dad doesn’t like most raw things (I had a childhood friend whose mother used to work at a sushi shop, so we got lots of discounted food - it didn’t help my dad one bit) so me and my sisters have grown up eating sushi/okonomiyaki/sashimi and we’ll eat this stuff on birthdays or special occasions. That’s how we get into anime and learning Japanese at school.

Holidays

My family is atheist, with a mild exception on my smallest sister’s part (she believed in the optional religious education classes a little too much, and so is a bit more insistent on Christianity). We normally go out to Chinese New Year celebrations in our vicinity (we normally buy the spiral potatoes on skewers and/or batter-coated octopus tentacles and eat them if not collecting freebies). We’ll eat mooncake, tang yuan or the like as a celebratory food around the relevant holidays, although we do sometimes eat them out of season if the food is around and cheap. We don’t take days off around Chinese New Year like Chinese are supposed to, but we do take breaks around Easter, Christmas etc. because schools, supermarkets etc. close on those days.

Red pockets (actually red envelopes, they have money in them) are a custom for birthdays, Christmas, New Year, weddings and Chinese New Year. If your birthday is close to one of the other listed holidays, you get one instead of two (see this profile for explanation). There is no set amount for the others, but normally for a 20-something-year old the cap is about AU $50 (we send the equivalent in American money to American relatives, but that’s less often than the ones we see in person and remember the birthdays for), and for weddings you should give more than that.

We take basically any excuse to get together with extended family and Asian family parties are never dull. The adults, especially, gossip long into the night and if they bust out the alcohol, they go home at midnight or 2 am because…obvious reasons.

Identity issues

I thought, when I was younger, my surname was Chinese, but it turned out to be Vietnamese put through American pronunciation. I told my friends…and they didn’t give any reaction. Either they took it in their stride or just continued to think I was Chinese/Chinese-Australian like them.

I’ve been to Vietnam and Hong Kong on family trips before and for some reason, even though Australia is “home” to me, when all the people look closer to what you do and experience life similar to what you do, you feel like you’re “at home” in a weird sense. Can’t speak a speck of Vietnamese and my Cantonese and Chinese have fallen out of good use though, so I’m just berated by older relatives (in Cantonese and most times to my parents’ faces) when I visit them and speak in English.

I’m a bit more tan than my sisters due to neglecting sunscreen on sunny days, but my dad used to joke to me and my sisters that I was Filipino/Indian and looking back on it, that was pretty toxic. (It was also kinda hypocritical because he’s tanner than me, but he never pointed that out.) Some other people may get offended at being called “banana” or “ABC” (Australian-born Chinese), but me and my sisters can take it as a joke.

Talking about the Vietnam War is kinda awkward for me, as my dad escaped from it in his youth. I learnt about the war while doing an international studies course and being to Vietnam - there was this aura of coldness around it all the while and I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it.

Language

I was taught Cantonese from birth, but Australia being as it is means English is my default. I had to learn Chinese and Japanese from language schools and school courses.

Hong Kong was British up until 1997, so there’s lots of English (the language, the people aren’t that common there) around and it’s easier to get by there (for me) than Vietnam. Vietnam was French in the 1800s so my dad knows limited French, but I’ve never learnt French.

Study

I used to try and keep up with my parents’ standards of “play piano!”, “get good grades!” etc. etc. but as time wore on, I found I didn’t want to. In the end, I found they’re not too worried, so long as I do well in what I want to do and pass in what I need to do.

…I’m also a proud procrastinator, as bad as that is.

Micro-aggressions

Notice how I’ve used “Cantonese” as a term for traditional Chinese, and “Chinese” for simplified? Cantonese and Chinese are completely different beasts. (I can get kinda picky about it, even though “Canton” is a somewhat whitewashed term and doesn’t refer to Hong Kong per se…I use the terms because I have no better way of distinguishing between the two.)

Tropes I’m tired of seeing

Kung fu Asians. Not all Asians are willing to whip your butt into shape with martial arts - most Asians wouldn’t know martial arts. For that matter, tai chi/taekwondo/karate/gong fu do not equal each other (yeah, Karate Kid with Jaden Smith is a misnomer).

Things I’d like to see more of

There’s one show I thought was fairly accurate in depicting a life like mine, and that’s The Family Law. Showing more family dynamics like that would be great.

I’d also like to see close siblings, regardless of genre, gender or race. (Not twins or OreImo, either - that’s a little too close.) I’m very close to my older sister, to the point where if we weren’t blood related, we’d be best friends.

It’s a weird demand, but regardless of where your story’s set or who it’s aimed at, I get kinda disappointed when people have an eating scene and they could check up some weird and wonderful food for it - for a workplace or school scene, a sandwich can make sense and it’s fine, but for one example, in fantasy feasts people eat “boar meat” and sometimes I wish they’d eat char siu instead of being so generic. Just do your research properly, spell the words properly and it’ll fit right in if it’s appropriate and/or relevant.

Read more POC Profiles here or submit your own.

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ribbonstrawberrysurprise · 7 years ago

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Ribbon vs. Reborn

This is one of those big TMM translation arguments.

I guess I’ve already taken a side due to my url...

Putting that aside for now, why is there a debate over the first word of the Mew Mew’s attack names? And does one option have more evidence?

The Mew Mew’s attacks all* begin with リボーン (ribōn/riboon/riboun).

*except sometimes Pudding in the manga

Japanese syllables (except for “n”) cannot end in a consonant, so foreign words written in katakana try to sound sort of like the original pronunciation without violating that rule. Sounds like “or” and “ar” in English usually become an “o” or “a” sound held for twice the normal length (sort of like the British pronunciation). For example, “star” would be broken down into su-ta-a, and written as ス��ー, with “ー” meaning to hold the vowel longer.

This means that the typical translation for リボーン is reborn.

“Ribbon" would more typically be written as リボン (ribon).

However, the “ ー ” in katakana just means that the vowel at the end of a syllable is held longer, not why it is held longer. So, リボーン could be reborn, said normally, or ribbon, with the “bon” part held for a dramatically long time (i.e., Ribboooooooon, Strawberry Check!).

Like it is in the anime.

So, which was intended?

Unfortunately, as far as I know the attack names have never been written in English on any official Japanese merchandise or publication, and there’s no word from Mia Ikumi or Reiko Yoshida.

So what about the official English?

Both official English translations (Tokyopop and Kodansha) used Ribbon for the attack names. However, the Tokyopop translation is known to have seriously mistranslated lots of katakana and been incredibly inconsistent with attack and weapon names.

Kodansha is definitely better, but they still couldn’t get Quiche until a la Mode.

So, both versions of the English manga think it’s ribbon, but neither is infallible when it comes to translating names in katakana.

What about the anime?

Well, Mew Mew Power used entirely different attack names, so it and any dubs based on it won’t be helpful. Of the dubs listed on the TMM wiki, 5 were based on the original Japanese: Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, and Italian. Of these, the Cantonese cuts out Ribbon/Reborn entirely, and the Korean and Thai transliterate ri-bo-o-n into Hangul and Thai script, respectively.

The Mandarin dub definitely uses ribbon because that part of the attack is written in English.

...but there are obviously some other issues. I can honestly see how サプライズ (sapuraizu) was misunderstood as スプライセス (supuraisesu) and ラッシュ (rasshu) as ズラッシュ (zurasshu), but you’d think someone would check the meaning of the English words...

The Italian dub actually uses Italian for the attacks rather than transliterating the original Japanized English. The wiki lists Ichigo’s Italian attack as “Ribbon of Light,” but this is misleading. Mew Berry’s attack in Mew Mew Amiche Vincenti is “Fiocco di Luce,” which would more accurately translate to Bow of Light. Her weapon is “Fiocco del Cuore,” (Bow of the Heart/The Heart’s Bow). Mew Mina uses “Cuore di Mina” (Mina’s Heart), and her attack is “Fiocco d'Azione” (Bow of Action). The other Mews’ are along the same lines as Mina. This isn’t really a use of ribbon, but it definitely suggests that the translators interpreted the original attacks as using “Ribbon” when coming up with the Italian ones.

So, the dubs and English manga seem to generally like “Ribbon”. Why then, is there a debate?

Aside from the fact that リボーン is translated as “reborn” in every other context, “Ribbon” is a totally random word that doesn’t seem related to any of the attacks or even the Mews in general. Admittedly, “Check” also seems totally random, but the other words at least seem vaguely suggestive of the attack or the Mew’s attitude. “Ribbon” is a random cute word, whereas “Reborn” is thematic.

There’s a lot of rebirth/resurrection in TMM, usually due to Mew Aqua.

Deep Blue is reborn as Masaya, a bird is reborn to show off the power of the Mew Aqua, everyone in Tokyo (the world?) except Ichigo is reborn due to the final Mew Aqua, then Masaya and Ichigo revive each other due to love (and possibly residual Mew Aqua).

The anime underplays this by specifying that the bird in ep. 21 was only injured, but it’s more explicit about the main characters’ deaths in the last few episodes.

Either way, “Reborn” makes sense thematically because the Mews’ power seems somehow tied to Mew Aqua (e.g., it reacts when they’re close).

So, “Reborn” is thematic, but “Ribbon” is a cuter word (always a concern for girls shows) that’s probably more familiar to the target audience. After all, the loanword ribon is a term used day-to-day to refer to stuff like hair ribbons, whereas riboun is not very common*. Official translations favor “Ribbon,” but none of them are flawless translations, and all of them are influenced by previous translation choices (e.g., the Tokyopop translation influenced fansubbers, who influenced the fandom, who influenced the Kodansha re-translation).

* It’s become more well-known due to the Reborn! manga/anime, but those came out after 2002, when the TMM anime takes place.

Choosing between them seems like more of a matter of personal preference, but I think choosing just one is unnecessary.

(EVERYTHING PAST THIS IS HEADCANON)

How did the Mew weapons, etc. get named? (In universe, so Ikumi/Yoshida is the wrong answer.)

Presumably either Keiichiro or Ryou designed and named everything themselves. We know that they at least created the Mewberry Rod because Ryou gives it to Ichigo in episode 15, and it can’t be that different from the other weapons because Ichigo summons it by default from then on.

Ryou is intelligent but has no people skills.

His idea of a fun nickname is “biological weapon”.

Ryou cannot have named the weapons or attacks because they aren’t something like “Chimera Disintegration Beam”. Keiichiro, who is used to smoothing things over when Ryou offends someone and is at the very least capable of designing cakes, is a much better candidate for the designer/namer of the weapons, outfits, cafe, etc.

It’s also possible they outsourced it since we know they don’t work entirely alone. I don’t want to go through the whole series right now, but I’m pretty sure the anime mentions them getting results from a lab a few times, and Mary McGuire at least seems to know Ichigo’s secret identity. (Also, why else were they hosting a party if not to gather/recruit members of the project?)

Regardless, I think Ryou pushed for something too scientific or unappealing and person B compromised with something that the average Japanese elementary or middle school student wouldn’t hate. Thus “Reborn” to get him to agree, but secretly “Ribbon”.

To explain/justify that, let’s consider the name of the Mew Project.

ミュウ (myū/myuu) is a slightly irregular spelling of ミュー , which can refer to the cat sound “mew” but also to the Greek letter “Μ” or “μ” (mu) which is pronounced the same way. The symbol μ is used to represent the mutation rate of a gene in genetics research, and the Mew Project is sometimes written as the μ-Project in the anime.

Greek letters also show up in a manga illustration.

(In case you’re wondering, horizontally is an attempt at “Ichigo Momomiya” and vertically is an attempt at “Tokyo Mew Mew”)

There’s no way that no one noticed that μ is both scientifically appropriate and a cat pun. Similarly, there’s no way no one noticed that “Reborn” sounds like “Ribbon”. Considering all of the weapon names are already puns, it should come as no surprise that the names of other things are puns as well.

I think that whoever named them (probably Keiichiro) always intended them to be both at once. So, both μ-Ichigo and Mew Ichigo, both Reborn and Ribbon. Ryou would approve of the first and either not notice the second until too late or grudgingly agree that it makes an okay cover for a cafe name

Out of the Mews, only Zakuro might know the Greek alphabet and possibly be aware of its use in genetics. Theoretically all of them might have the English knowledge from school to get both “ribbon” and “reborn,” but Ichigo “I am a Ichigo” Momomiya is not great at English. She definitely knows the word for hair ribbons though, because she uses it in episode 1 (about 3 min. in, “Arrhh! The ribbon snapped!”). Ichigo is also one who officially names the team “Tokyo Mew Mew” to the press, and even Ryou ends up using that name eventually, despite reacting negatively when he first hears it. Since that name gets accepted as official both in and out of universe, I feel like Ichigo’s interpretations of all the names should be the “official” ones unless specifically talking about Ryou and Keiichiro’s research.

So, both options are correct depending on the circumstance (e.g. Ichigo talking vs. Ryou talking, official Project report vs. news broadcast), but Mew and Ribbon should be the default.

tl;dr,

Ryou tells μ-Ichigo about her attack, Reborn Strawberry Check.

Mew Ichigo tells the media about her attack, Ribbon Strawberry Check.

Keiichiro has once again saved the day using people skills and puns.

#Tokyo Mew Mew #TMM #Long post #Meta #Attacks

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katklicken · 5 years ago

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Umbrella Academy - name breakdown

So we know Grace is a robot and she named the children. Apparently she made sure that the name fit the origin of the child. But I wanna do a deep dive into the names. (because I cant wait for a second season and am desperate for content)

Number 1, Luther: Name origin? German, but usually used in English. Direct meaning? Warrior of the people. But Luther is also a french term used to describe a violin maker. (And you know who created the white Violin? Luther with his bs actions.) Also the name kinda sounds like Loser, but that may be far fetched.

Number 2, Diego: Name origin? Greek but usually used in spanish. The name has multiply meanings which are 1.The teacher, 2. The betrayer, 3. Gods protector, or 4. The persistent. In my eyes the last three seem the most fitting. Diego is also the actual name from Zorro. U know the dark night with the mask who protects the innocent. Which honestly is pretty cool, because diego does the same. Even with fancy mask.

Number 3, Allison: Name origin? german but usually used in english and french. Can be translated as “From noble descend” which fits with her portray as a famous Actor. Its also a version from Alice, the girl who followed the write rabbit and got lost. Which would fit with her using her powers to bent reality till she doesnt know anymore whats real and what isnt.

Number 4, Klaus: Name origin? Greek but common in German. The shorter version of Nikolaus who was an asket and mystique from Switzerland. Can be translated as “The victor of the people”. Also in German “Klaus” is the imperative of “stealing” which fits considered Klaus spent half of the series stealing stuff and hearts. (Also the number four is an unlucky number in Chinese, because she sounds like the Chinese word for death, so...)

Number 5, Five: ...straight up refused a name so he may be a difficult one. According to Greek philosophers there are five elements in the world. The fifth one being the Quintessence of the world who completes the other elements. In Cantonese the word five sounds like not, so when he appears in front of a lucky number the number turns into an unlucky one. (kinda how the apocalypse wouldn't have happened, if Five wouldn't have appeared and turned the time back. Adding Five ‘in front of the lucky coincidences who would have stopped the apocalypse, turned them into unlucky ones who destroyed the world) There is more but that would be too much math and im tired.

Number 6, Ben: Origin? the bible. Common English name. Can be translated to ‘the right hand’, ‘The happy one, the blessed one’ and ‘The talker’. Which all are pretty fitting for our favorite ghost boi, who helps Klaus, talks and is a blessing. Not much more to say here.

Number 7, Vanya: Origin? Russian. Its the female version of Iwan and means ‘God has mercy’. Which can be understood as ‘this birth was a present which... huh, I guess in this case more a surprise party. A lot of Russian heroes are called Iwan/Vanya, so there is that. But honestly I couldnt find much, so I guess her name just should have been the most common russian name, to show how ordinary she is.

Either I got tired with name researching or Grace got tired. Whatever, thats my take on it. If this blows up I may do I number research too //SHOT If you wanna add something please do!

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pekorosu · 6 years ago

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On the topic of Chinese names in Banana Fish

Warning for manga spoilers and also a lengthy discussion.

This is something I’ve been wanting to explore due to its differences in the original Japanese and the English localisation. I will mostly be discussing the major recurring characters, starting with the Lees.

The Lee family

Interestingly, the Lees have actual Chinese characters for their names in the original Japanese. They are:

李紅龍 (Localisation: Lee Hong-Lung)

李大龍 / 王龍 (Localisation: Lee Tai-Lung / Wang-Lung)

李華龍 (Localisation: Lee Hua-Lung)

李月龍 (Localisation: Lee Yut-Lung)

Thanks to this, they are also the only ones with confirmed Mandarin-pronounced names. For example, 月龍 (Pinyin: yuè lóng) is given the furigana ユエルン (yuerun) in Japanese. I'm guessing this is because the characters were actually looked up from a proper Chinese source.

This initially made me inclined to think of the Lee family as hailing from further north of China, especially with the brief mention in volume 4 of them being descendants of the Qing Dynasty’s ruling family (Wouldn’t that make them Manchu people though? And that would open up a whole other can of worms...).

However, it is also mentioned in volume 17 that Yut-Lung actually came from Hong Kong. So that makes the localisation’s decision to romanise 月龍 as “Yut-Lung” perfectly appropriate.

Localisation

What is it about “Yut-Lung” that makes it so suitable? It is very obviously Cantonese. The transliteration of 李 as “Lee” instead of “Li” could also be indicative of that. Setting Yut-Lung’s birthplace aside, it still wouldn't be farfetched to infer from how established the Lees are in the States plus the fact that Hong-Lung had once been based in HK, that they would be Cantonese speakers.

The eldest Lee son has also been addressed in 3 different ways. He is first introduced as 李大人 (Localisation: Lee Daai Yan), the latter half of which is probably a title of respect (I think "Daai Gor/Lou" would be a better fit though?). We later come to know him as 李大龍 (Lee Tai-Lung), and then 王龍 (Wang-Lung) which is said to be inherited from his predecessor.

Also, Yut-Lung’s attendant was renamed Suk-Leui, which sounds Cantonese (originally スウルー (sūrū)). From this, it’s clear that the localisation is making a deliberate move to depict them as Cantonese speakers.

There is a catch though. If we were to be more accurate, Wang-Lung should be Wong-Lung, Hua-Lung should be Wah-Lung, and Tai-Lung should be Daai-Lung. I have two theories here:

The localisation is deliberately using Mandarin for the other Lees except Yut-Lung, hence affirming their earlier-mentioned family history. But this would bring up the question of: why is it not Da-Lung instead of Tai-Lung (as far as I know, the “tai/dai” pronunciation for Mandarin should be obsolete)? Are they perhaps just following the original Japanese furigana...?

You could argue that they sound similar enough for the romanisation differences to be considered minor. Especially in the case of Hong-Lung/Hung-Lung, the difference is negligible.

Another funny thing is that in both versions, the characters are 100% speaking Mandarin whenever they speak “Chinese.” This can be inferred from both the furigana attached and the structure of the sentences itself.

Note: I don’t know if it sounds natural or not because I don’t speak much Mandarin, just that the grammar and vocab definitely indicates Mandarin.

Example:

I mean, to be fair it’s unrealistic to expect the localisation to change it into written Cantonese, but because of this we now have another inconsistency in the loc.

(For those who are interested, brief info on Mando/Canto differences: link 1, link 2. Note: “It would usually sound unnatural to speak Cantonese using Mandarin grammar." Also I would argue since this is a manga and therefore an informal medium (plus the charas are conversing not writing), thinking of the dialogue as being in standard written Chinese kinda makes no sense.)

Summary:

The original Japanese is consistent in ensuring that any furigana attached to Chinese characters in names and Chinese dialogue correspond to Mandarin. However, this contradicts facts involving characters who come from or currently live in Cantonese-dominant areas (HK, Chinatowns of that era).

The English localisation made an effort to change some things into Cantonese to better suit the context, but did not extend it to the Chinese dialogue and is overall inconsistent.

Side note: ユーシス (Yousiss) is supposed to be Yut-Lung’s English/”American” name. The English localisation came up with “Yau-Si” which yup, doesn’t sound very English. My guess is that they overlooked it at first, because this tiny mention only shows up once in volume 11. It is omitted in the localisation.

Edit (7/2/2021): I’m now convinced that ユーシス (Yousiss) could actually be “Eustace.” Please see this post for details.

Shorter Wong (ショーター・ウォン), Nadia Wong (マーディア・ウォン), Lao Yen Tai (ラオ・イェン・タイ)

I don’t have much to say about “Shorter” beyond that it's a quirky English name, haha. But interestingly, in one of the Chinese dialogues, Yut-Lung calls him “肖達” (Pinyin: xiào dá) which... I’m just going to assume is a Mandarin transliteration of “Shorter.”

“Nadia” was originally マーディア (mādia) or as the official guidebook has romanised it, Mardeer. Either way doesn’t affect much. More importantly, I think it’s safe to assume that Wong is a Cantonese romanisation. I think it would be apt if it also happened to be 黃 because yellow is the theme colour of the series... and is reminiscent of “banana (fish)” which is the reason for what befalls Shorter... :x

Lao (or Lau?) can be a Mandarin surname but it seems very uncommon. On the other hand, it could be a non-Mandarin romanisation of Liu (劉/刘). Not sure about “Yen/Yuen Tai.” Fun fact: if we took 劉 and stuck it into a kanji dictionary, we’d get the meaning “to kill” (that meaning is probably obsolete though).

Surprisingly, these names are fitting in very well with the idea that they are not supposed to be read as Mandarin. It would make perfect sense though, as Chinatowns were at that time dominated by Canto speakers, as opposed to the Mandarin of today.

From this, I feel inclined to posit that “Sing” is either Canto or non-Mandarin as well, though there is no evidence of this intention in the original source material.

Sing Soo Ling (シン・スウ・リン)

This guy is a special case because we actually have the meaning(s) to his name, but no Chinese characters to go with it. So we would have to do a bit of sleuthing.

Since "Sing" is a localisation, it's not going to be the best place to start from. "シン (Shin)" alone is vague too. It could turn out to be Cheng, Shing, Xin, Sim… coupled with not knowing which dialect or system of romanisation to use, that creates way too many options!

However, I’m betting if the mangaka went to the lengths of researching definitions, she would have gone straight to Mandarin, or possibly Canto. So that’s where I’ve restricted my search to.

Which is it?

According to Sing in Garden of Light, his name carries the Japanese meanings of 魔神, 獅子 and 罪. The localisation translated them as “demon,” “lion” and “guilt” respectively.

You'd think that each of those would match up with all the characters in his name since it's unlikely for only 1 character to carry all 3 meanings. Unfortunately I've looked into various dictionaries with very little success. They just don’t match up at all!

Here's my speculation:

獅子

I thought 獅子 would be the easiest to start with since there can't possibly be that many characters for "lion". Which proved to be true! But that just meant I hit a dead end pretty quick.

“Lion” in Chinese is also 獅子 but pronounced "shī zi" and "si zi" in Mando and Canto respectively. Not close at all to "shin/sing" plus they’re missing the final n/ng sound.

I was pretty stumped, but then it hit me that… hey! "Singa" is “lion” in Malay. And that led me to "Singapore" which then led me to 新加坡 / 星加坡 (Pinyin: xīn jiā pō / xīng jiā pō. The former is the official transliteration. Not sure about the latter but I think it is a Canto reading because: san gaa bo / sing gaa bo). Also: [Sin]gapore = [シン]ガポール!

"Xin/Xing" doesn't mean "lion" per se, but since it's a Mandarin transliteration of its native name, it could sort of, partly... indirectly... mean that...? I feel like I'm reaching a little here but damn, the mangaka is not making this easy.

Edit (18/8/2020): I've omitted a lot of my research in order to keep this post short and concise, but as time goes on I am more convinced that Yoshida took her meanings not from Chinese, but elsewhere. So I'm making a minor edit to include this as well:

- The word siṃhá from Sanskrit carries the meaning of “lion.” (x)

- It seems to have descended into "sinh/sing" in languages such as Hindi (सिंह), Lao (ສິງ) and others.

- In Thai, lion is “singto/sing” and there’s even a common given name called Sing(h). (x)

- The Sikh surname “Singh” is also said to have been derived from Sanskrit.

Combined with the fact that "singa" itself from "Singapore" has its roots in this Sanskrit word, this seems to be the strongest contender at the moment.

罪

It's possible that 罪 could be referring to not just "guilt" but "sin". After all, "sin" is close to how the average Japanese person would romanise シン (using Kunrei-Shiki romanisation). And guess what, it IS romanised as “Sin” in New York Sense and in the first edition of the official guidebook. I wouldn’t rule out the mangaka going through an English dictionary looking for the definition of “sin” because to her, it’s the same as シン. Honestly, I’m 99% sure that’s what she did.

魔神

I haven’t had any success with 魔神 which can also mean “devil/evil spirit.” The only thing that came to mind is that some kanji can be read as both “shin” or “jin” depending on the context, which then made me think of djinns? Which are evil spirits in a sense… This feels way too vague though.

Edit (18/8/2020): Still no luck here, but tumblr user sayaka19fan has suggested that "魔神" could refer to "死神/shinigami", the god of death.

But if that’s the case, why didn’t Yoshida just use “死神” from the get-go? sayaka19fan explained that it could have something to do with the taboo surrounding the word “shi (死)” or “death” in Japanese culture. Personally, I am not quite convinced because:

1) Yoshida had no problem depicting Ash talking at length about “death” in the leopard scene. I don’t see any reason why Sing would shy away from the topic/word either, unless maybe he’s extra aware of Akira’s presence, since she’s a child?

2) Also, "shinigami" is shi-ni-ga-mi (シニガミ), not shin-i-ga-mi (シンイガミ). By dropping the n (ン) sound, the entire word changes and shi (シ) alone is not Sing's name anymore.

If all 3 meanings had the same pattern of only drawing from shi (シ) then I might be more convinced, but as shown above, 2 out of 3 derive from words that can definitively be read as "sin/sing/シン". I'm inclined to think that 魔神 should follow as well, since there’s no reason for Yoshida to suddenly diverge from this rule.

- - - - - - - -

"スウリン/Soo Ling" doesn't seem to factor into any of these at all, so I’m convinced that the mangaka meant for those meanings to originate only from “Sing.”

I feel hesitant going with 新 / 星 as his family name, since they look like extremely uncommon ones. For what it’s worth, the Taiwanese(?) Mandarin localisation has gone with 辛舒霖 (Pinyin: xīn shū lín) with 辛 being the most common form of the “Xin” surname. He also shows up in another one of Yoshida’s works, Yasha, but they went with 沈叔林 (Pinyin: shěn shū lín) there.

At this point I suppose there’s still no One True Answer. But for the sake of consistency, it’s probably best to stick with 辛舒霖 if people want to use his Chinese name.

Edit (13/10/2021): I have expanded more on Sing’s name HERE.

Final thoughts:

It’s perfectly possible that the mangaka did not think too deeply about most of these names. She once named a Chinese character キム・ヨン・タイ (kim yong tai) which thanks to the surname, ended up sounding Korean instead. Of course, you could argue that it’s another non-Mandarin variation (Hokkien?). The English localisation however, changed it to “Hong Zhe-Ming.” There’s also the fact that she has twice referred to Lao as “Lao Yen” in Japanese, which is a heinous but hilarious mash up of his surname and half of his first name.

Yeah, this series is far from being 100% accurate in other areas as well but hey, sometimes it’s just fun to point this stuff out :p

Thanks if you’ve read this far, and feel free to let me know if I’ve made a mistake or missed anything!

Extra footnote just in case: Regarding the whole "do they speak Mando/Canto" thing, I am examining it purely from the manga's perspective. I think that circumstances in the anime are different and perhaps more complex due to the change in setting.

#lee yut lung #sing soo ling #shorter wong #banana fish #banana fish liveblogging #banana fish spoilers #fun with languages #i've shortened it to my best ability.............#one day i will learn how to stop being so long winded

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rhapsody-in-heaven · 4 years ago

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An Open Letter about Racism and the Term Banana

Context

First Incident sometime last month i referred to myself as a banana and was told it was subtly racist. i *thought* i had adequately explained why it was not and why i identified as such. i had also explained that i would never actively call someone else a banana unless they also referred to themselves as such.

Second Incident it happened last night. to her defence, before i start, she was a bit drunk and i also know shes super passionate about this topic. however, i do have to say i think shes too “politically correct” sometimes to the point where she would be offended by how i view myself - but well get to that later. anyways, she was a bit drunk and we somehow came to the topic of xenophobia vs racism and that somehow spiraled into “reverse racism” and how it, in her opinion, doesnt exist, but i didnt agree. i mostly was content with letting the topic go but she really wanted to convince me otherwise. she got frustrated w me enough tho that she said something along the lines of “this is like how u call urself a banana and think its not racist and that its okay, but it is racist and its not okay” to which i yelled back “i talked to my asian american friends about this and they all tell me that you dont understand my experiences”

Open Letter

Part One - Our Conversation About Xenophobia, Racism and “Reverse Racism”

First, I want to say about the whole issue of xenophobia and “reverse racism”, maybe youre right. And certainly you believe so. Maybe white people cant experience racism. And i certainly understood your point about how its only the oppressed class or classes who could experience it.

But I also believe that they can be oppressed in non-white dominated countries. Maybe you see it as discrimination and not racism. And that’s fine. But I do not claim to know everything that happens in the world, and so I cannot say for 100% certainty that they do not.

Even if in a societal scale they “cannot” experience racism. Can you then say it doesnt happen on a personal level? If my moms telling me she rather me marry Chinese>Asian>White>Black, to me, that is racism not just “discrimination” or “xenophobia” (which was by ur definition a rejection of anyone whos different) why isnt it just “i rather u marry a chinese guy”? why are there tiers?

Maybe you have a sound explaination for this. Maybe i still dont fully understand the subtle differences between the term racist, or xenophobic. Again, im more than willing to play with the idea im wrong. But its not something youre going to convince me of in a 15 minute half drunken conversation.

Side Note: Did you know white europeans used to be enslaved by muslims? these are the stories we never hear about because being a victim at any point in time doesnt fit the narrative of white people always being on top or the narrative of whites being the “evil colonialists”.

Part Two - The Term Banana

I thought you understood me the last time we talked but I guess not because you called me racist last night. I want to preface this by saying at the time I read what articles I could find, written by asian americans about how they either accepted or rejected this term. I also went to ask my asian american friends what they thought as well.

All my friends and I identify with the term banana. There are some, in the articles I read who do reject this term. And i will reiterate that I would never call someone a banana unless they themselves do and it comes up in conversation like “im such a banana.” “lmfao its fine we can be bananas together”.

I remember you thought it wasnt a term I should use because “i will always be asian” and i cant “make myself white”. I have never wanted to be white. I was a pretty weird kid, and I always knew i was different from others, I was always very aware of the fact that I was Asian and I was always proud of it. My Experiences from Canada

I know for some of my friends it was a shock learning that they were different from their peers. One example i can give is the comedian Joe Wang tells this story about how his son thinks hes white and was shocked to learn he was actually “yellow”. But for me, anytime someone asked me where i was from, I would say “China” (at this point i didnt know the difference status Hong Kong held). Now, part of this I attribute to actually being born in Hong Kong and therefore saying i was from “China” was true to me. The other part is that I never really experienced racism. Then again, maybe i did and i was just too dense to realize. But i never had the thing where kids would go “ewww whats that stuff ur eating”. Certainly i would get weird looks sometimes, but, to me it was just like i like eating broccoli but hate carrots, u think broccoli is gross but u love carrots. I never took it as a racial thing. I even remember i brought mooncakes once for my class to try and almost no one took me up on it but the teacher. The ones who did expressed they really didnt like like w their face. But i didnt feel bad. I remember carrying the box of mooncakes back to the car and telling my mom they didnt wanna try and immediately both of us said “oh well, more for us”. I will say when I was young, I really wanted to have blond hair and blue eyes, curly hair even. I saw a friend and thought it was so pretty. But even as i imagined myself with blond hair and blue eyes, i still saw myself w asian features not white features. A little later I started watching anime and wanted purple eyes so i can say with certainty it wasnt a me wanting to me white thing. My Experiences in Hong Kong and with My Family in General

Growing up my parents and my family back in Hong Kong, would always call me a “gwei mui”. From wikipedia, “Gwei [xxx] is a common Cantonese slang term for Westerners. In the absence of modifiers, it refers to white people and has a history of racially deprecatory and pejorative use, although it has been argued that it has since acquired a more neutral connotation. Cantonese speakers frequently use gwailou to refer to Westerners in general use, in a non-derogatory context, although whether this type of usage is offensive (i.e., an ethnic slur) is disputed by both Cantonese and Westerners alike”. Yes, in the past this word was racially charged, but in the present, its just another way to refer to westerners. I don’t really wanna get into it right now because theres a lot more to break down, but just know that its just a common way to refer to foreigners and the term “gwei mui” specifically refers to white girls.

I grew up like this. And I grew up knowing that it was a very neutral term for people to call westerners and I also grew up being called such. Just as it was a fact that I was a girl, or that my moms name was Elsa, I was a gwei mui.

Hong Kong is an international city. And there are foreigners everywhere. I remember walking into a store and before I even said anything, the shop assistants would ask “oh, youre from overseas right?” “yeah, how did you know?” “oh i can just tell by the way u carry yourself”. I had a friend tell me that she could tell i grew up overseas from the way i stood waiting in line, have ppl tell me they could tell by my make up or by how i dressed. My “Thesis” on the Matter

In Hong Kong, and in my family and my extended family I was always the “white girl”. You once said that I couldnt be white no matter what, that i would always be asian. Can you tell my family that? Can you erase the fact that I was heavily influenced by western culture? I will say again, i never wanted to be white. And to be quite honest, when you said that I couldnt be white, and that i would always be asian, I felt angry. Angry that you could even imply I would want to be white, that i would want to be anything other than asian, that you assumed to know how i was feeling.

But you need to understand, its not about “wanting to be white”, its about “not being asian enough”. You need to understand, that it never came from white communities, it came from my parents and my family back home.

It was never racially motivated. It was just a fact. I’m currently 25 years old, I’m 5ft5(ish), I weigh about 117lbs, I was born a girl and identiy as such, I’m from Hong Kong, I grew up in Canada and i’m a banana.

If we were to go back to what u were trying to explain about racism and xenophobia then you could make the argument that “gwei mui” and “banana” had xenophobic roots - but to tell me its racist? because im itching to be white? i thoroughly reject that and i find it offensive. If we were to take this stance tho, that it had xenophobic roots, and is therefore xenophobic, I would say “yes, maybe. but if im reclaiming it and seeing it as acknowledgement that I am a mesh of two different cultures, who are you to tell me its wrong?” Furthermore, i would make the argument that the n-word most definitely had racial undertones. but black ppl proudly call themselves the n-word. Why cant I call myself a banana without people telling me im being racist. The final reason on why that statement about how i will always be asian and never white disturbs me to the core is the way that statement lumps all asians together. And maybe you didnt mean it like this or didnt even notice. But my experiences are vastly different from my cousins who grew up in Hong Kong. And yes, by the colour of my skin i will always be asian. But the experiences that make up who I am and my personality are very Canadian, very western based. And to basically overlook that, is to overlook my existence and the existence of Asian Americans. I know you would never do this, but to basically put all Asians in one category is the same mind that would white supremacists' would tell us to “go back to our country” not acknowledging that most of us were born or at least grew up here.

Thoughts from My Asian American Friends. Like I said, I talked to this with a lot of my asian american friends. Most of which identified w the term banana and actively call themselves one. Others who don’t, but are not offended when others identify themselves as such. They reiterated that the term banana was never about “wanting to be white” that it was never an issue of “want”. That it never came from white communities. It came from their families back in asia. That they were “too white” or “not asian enough”. As one friend put it, “i mean in honesty we say it cause we feel like we don't totally belong to our culture, it's not saying it in means to erase our race.” another friend added “ This is true. I’ve seen posts about struggles of other Asian Americans who feel like they’re too Asian to be accepted as an American but too American to be accepted as an Asian lol”. They also said that to deny us of calling ourselves bananas is to invalidate our experiences and our existence as asian americans. That we are not the same as our counterparts who grew up in asia. That we were heavily influenced by western culture. “ Lmao did they just forget that as much as Asian blood runs in you, your whole life has been in CA? For that person to say that to you feels like she’s already making you feel invalidated for being Asian AND Canadian”. Who are others, who are not asian americans, to tell us, asian americans, how we can or cannot identify ourselves. Who are non asian americans to tell us this is racist, to say that we “want” to be white when they dont understand how we feel at all. my one friend said and i quote, “yeah I don’t think calling myself a banana is racist, like dude I’m talking about myself and how I see myself, who tf are you to say anything”.

one friend said it played into the white savior narrative. that we dont know better and that not specifically you, but that in general white ppl are getting angry for us, trying to educate us and inform us because we dont know better. Another friend agreed that it probably started off as a negative but then ppl accepted it cuz it made sense - similar to how gweilo started off as having negative connotations but is now just neutral. She said, “banana imo is one of those words that started off as something bad but gradually (some) people accepted it and started referring themselves as banana because it makes sense lol”. Closing Statements

I’m not trying to make you feel bad and i honestly hope i dont. But I remember you telling me it was important to have these conversations so I hope this isnt too uncomfortable. honestly tho, i dont even know if im ever going to send this to you or if youll read it.

But I really need you to understand where this comes from and where I’m coming from. If you dont agree, I can’t really change that. But to essentially call me racist for how identify myself with the things i struggle with, is 100% not okay. To tell me I’ll always be asian and to imply i shouldnt want to be white is 110% offensive. and to lump asian americans with asians is 100% denying our experiences. to tell me how i can and cannot see myself, is also 100% not your call, its mine. And it really hurt to know after our conversation last time you still thought i was ‘wrong’ that you thought I was being racist instead of truly respecting where it comes from. At some point you might be able to gradually convince me ‘reverse racism’ doesnt exist. but there is no way in hell, you will convince me that how I or other asian americans see ourselves is the “wrong” way to see ourselves.

#raceissues #race #asianamerican #asian canadian #how we identify

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rqs902 · 4 years ago

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i think its nice to see how much the kids really respect and admire and ask questions from yixing. its cool to hear that he thinks ycw is dancing well for having just started in feb 2019.

AH he specifically said jin fan sang well :’) and he said jin fan should be a good older brother!!!! my heart !!!!! ugh and “感覺靳凡還蠻想跳的" he actually like knows jin fan so well !!!

man i also wish jin fan could dance more !!! can we pleeeassee make it happen next stage?? can we also talk about how quiet jin fan is though? i literally feel like everyone is talking around him and about him but he only says like 2 words. :( its sad to me because theyre saying nice things and all, but he doesnt get a say at all, and i know he can be way more lively and outgoing than this but he tends to get all quiet in front of the teachers and the camera :( i feel like this is a common problem for the tygers and it frustrates me bc it feels like theyre too passive and not confident enough, and it hinders people from noticing them and recognizing their skills.

oof hearing huang enyu’s practice room version of his opening lines just HITS ME IN THE FEELS. his voice is so nice, doesnt need any add-ons, like yixing said

wait im watching the 30 min mv and i didnt think id need to rant about until now, but im halfway through and it was going aightttttt, my main qualm so far has been that the songs they picked dont showcase the vocals well??? like the kids don’t sound very good, which is bugging me bc i know they can sing well.... and like, okay i expected the acting is played by gjm’s favorite kids, okay im not surprised, so im not even that salty that lin mo (DESPITE BEING POPULAR) got ignored for a main role again. im slightly annoyed that xikan (of all people) isnt in a more important role, bc he deserves it and his fans are probably angry af. (at least, they should be) his popularity is a significant contributor to any minor relevance this show manages to have, but it feels like they just tagged his name onto the very end of the trainees who were introduced at the beginning as an afterthought to appease his fans. i was also a little miffed that they pretend like they’re including some of the others by putting he yijun in the background while focusing on zuo ye’s face, or calling out kou cong’s name like theyre pretending to recognize oh yea he’s here and he’s good at dancing, thanks for the reminder. but whatever, im honestly not too mad bc i dont have high expectations for tygers to get big roles, and the acting kids are not that bad and im just glad ive been able to see some closeups of lin mo and zhan yu’s faces already, and im okay with the storylines so far EXCEPT

once i got to the part where zlj’s mom comes to visit and those random fangirls are calling out / holding signs for yang zixin and tell her that zlj is not popular. THAT triggered me. it’s like an insult to kids like zixin, and all the kids who are even less popular than zixin. zixin literally got 0.5 seconds of screentime during his singing line prior to this, like noticeably less than even the other vocalist kids??? and i guess its nice they’re putting his name in, but honestly it feels like theyre making a mockery of him and the unpopular kids by saying ZLJ OF ALL PEOPLE is not popular. i literally rolled my eyes when i heard that. i cant believe youku. if theyre really trying to make a point about the unfairness of popularity among contestants, why didn’t they actually cast someone who’s not as popular for the role?

im sad to see the acting kids also dancing during the dancing parts bc im like ??? dont you have enough screen time, shouldnt this go to someone else?? but also like where are all the other kids??? this dance doesnt even look that hard, why is there only so few kids on screen? on the other hand, how did they even pick the kids who are in the vocal part? my first thought was where’s junrong??? how can you do a vocal section without junrong?? but then i realized why arent all the vocals from 後來的我們 here?? where are xu zhaohao and li chenxu? what??? im so confused, they literally are RECOGNIZED as the vocals on this show (even tho there are other good vocals too!! im not even gonna go into that, dont get me started) but at least people KNOW those kids are good singers and yet theyre not here??

what is that ridiculous thing hwx is wearing wtf

omg we got 0.2 seconds of xue en screentime and he KILLED IT.

what is this random period drama fighting scene.

i was about to say the storyline got pretty touching and i was pretty into it but then wtf is this random zuo ye and zlj fight scene. the random dance break (with THE SAME dance crew) is also quite random and im starting to think this dance crew’s scenes are literally in there to appease the fans of popular kids who didnt get big roles (LIKE XIKAN AND LIN MO) and also randomly promote other kids who are liked by youku and gjm

uh also when i heard li hao and huang enyu singing in cantonese UH WHAT EXCUSE ME?! this is just AN INSULT to xu zhaohao YET AGAIN bc come on......... everyone knows that li hao and him are THE cantonese duo on this show. and i love huang enyu and im happy he got to sing but CMON does he even speak cantonese?? (i just looked him up and hes from hangzhou so i dont think so?????? correct me if im wrong) but even if not zhaohao, there are OTHER CANTONESE VOCALS /cough/ jin fan /cough/ but okay.....................

ugh i love huang enyu but him being magically turned into one of gjm’s favored children overnight just doesnt sit well with me. i dont want him to gain favoritism bc he begged gjm for it and gjm pitied him. i want him to gain attention because he deserves it. bc he’s a talented singer with a beautiful voice and bc hes passionate for the stage. i wish other people saw him for that too.

wow this “MV” if you can even call it that, just left me with a strong sense of there being tiers to the favoritism. hwx is apparently on top lol but followed by all the kids with acting roles aka zy, zlj, ycw, xzx. then the next tier is the kids who are in the dancing group and then the singing group and then its the kids who got less than a second of screen time (i even saw liu cong in there lol) but then there are the rest of the kids wHO WERENT EVEN THERE.

smh..................................... and its not even based on popularity so it literally feels so random and im ???????? how did they pick the kids???

i knew not to have high expectations, but at least they TRIED to put everyone in the last mv, this time, they literally DIDNT INVITE some of them to be there AT ALL. wtf?????

ugh i was gonna go watch todays ep after this but i dont know if i can... im just mad.

#rants #maybe i should start labeling my rants #but this one is about the vip cut from last week's snzm ep and the 30 min mv

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sarahlwlee · 4 years ago

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31 Stories in 31 Days: Gossip

What is this? As part of celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May), I am writing a story a day about my experiences as a Chinese Malaysian immigrant in America. My friends and family have provided numerous one-word prompts to help me create these stories. Today’s word prompt was contributed by J K. and the word is “Gossip”. Thank you J for your contribution and thank you everyone who stopped by to read my story today.

In Standard 6 (or 6th Grade equivalent in America) primary school, my mom enrolled me in math tuition — additional tutoring outside of school — with one of the primary school teachers who was running a side hustle to earn extra money by proving tuition. In my tuition class, there were two other boys — Ken and Joe. They were the same age as I wasn’t and we went to the same school but we were in different classes. Within a few months, I started to do better in math and learned ahead of what was being taught in class.

Our math tuition teacher was the designated teacher for one of the Standard 6 classes and she was also pregnant. When her baby was due, the students in her class had to be reassigned to other classes to maintain consistency in following the syllabus. The couldn’t afford to hire a temporary teacher to cover the rest of her time out of school. Ken ended up in my class with several of his friends and sat on the opposite side of the classroom. I started to hear a lot of gossip amongst the Malay girls in our class about some boy who just joined our class has a crush on a girl in our class and how he hasn’t had the guts to tell her that he liked her. Being nosy, I asked them who it is and are they planning on helping this boy. They laughed and one of the Malay girls moved their chair closer to me, whispering into my ear that the girl is me and the boy is Ken. I blushed and was embarrassed that a boy liked me, especially a boy that I saw only at math tuition classes.

The next few days, the Malay girls decided to write a note on my behalf to Ken inquiring if we should exchange phone numbers so that we could talk more. I don’t remember if I consented to this, but it was nice being part of a group girls giggling and being teased. It was a different kind of attention from classmates that I haven’t experience before. So I went along with the note passing from one side of the classroom to the other, where Ken and a bunch of guys were teasing him about getting a note from a girl. We exchanged phone numbers and he started calling me. I was very proficient in English and he was proficient in Cantonese, so we compromised and spoke in Malay on the phone. Whenever he called, I would always say “Apa hal?” (What’s up?) and soon my mother caught on that I was talking to a boy and this became my mother’s nickname for him.

After several calls in the evenings after dinner for what seemed like a month, we decided to start writing letters to one another because he was trying to improve his English composition and thought it might be helpful for him to learn from me. We exchanged mailing addresses and I remember using special stationary for our correspondences. On his 12th birthday, he invited me to his birthday party and I was too shy to show up. I bought him a birthday present because I felt bad for not going to his party and I asked my mother to drive me to his house so that I can drop off the present. It was a fancy ballpoint pen with a case of its own. I remember when I walked up to the gates of his house, his mom came out to greet me and I said I was looking for Ken. She called for him and he came out of the house with a cast on his arm. I didn’t know he had a pretty bad fall while playing badminton and broke his arm because he was didn’t come to school for several days and he didn’t say anything on the phone about it. He was smiling from ear to ear when he saw me and I handed the box to him saying, “Happy Birthday!” He opened the present in front of me and said he will use it every day. I said I had to go, my mother is waiting for me in the car and off I left.

Towards the end of the year, I decided that this was inappropriate for me to continue. I think I knew I didn’t like him romantically and the boy I was crushing on at the time was Joe, the other math tuition classmate. So I wrote my last letter to him saying that I can’t continue this “relationship” because I needed to focus on my studies when we move to secondary school. I think I might have mentioned that I liked Joe and it wouldn’t be fair for me to continue being his “girlfriend”. After that I forgot about the whole thing and secondary school was a new chapter for me. Little did I know, Ken’s two best friends Chong and Yang were assigned to my class in secondary school.

Chong and Yang had found out from Ken that I broke his heart and they were out for revenge on his behalf. In class, they were extremely mean to me by berating me, putting me down at every opportunity and making fun of me when the teacher made a mistake on total points of who had first place in class. Initially the teacher said I had scored first place in class and I went home to tell my mom, she was so proud of me. The next day the teacher apologized and said I was third place and Yang was first. Yang relished that moment and refused to let it go by reminding me everyday in school that I will never be first or smarter than him. This was the beginning of when I started to deteriorate in my academic performance because I didn’t want to be first in class. It didn’t motivate to do better, I just decided to disengage and hopefully someday he will stop pestering me. Eventually when we reached Form 3 (or 9th Grade equivalent), students were reshuffled into new classes based on the points they earned on their final exam in Form 2. Chong and Yang were no longer in my class and that ended the bullying.

During our final year in secondary school, I noticed Ken had a girlfriend from one of the Science stream classes. He was friends with one of my good friends from primary school and I remember asking her if he would consider being friends again. I wasn’t interested in becoming boyfriend-girlfriend or anything like that, I just thought we had something in common at one point and perhaps we could be friends. She shared with me his ICQ account name and I decided to message him directly instead of passing notes like we were 12. I crossed my fingers while I waited for his response. It was a short reply of no. Followed by how he just recently burned all our “love letters” and the pen I gave him for his 12th birthday. He described it as a way of getting over me and he wasn’t interested in revisiting and of those feelings or even considering friendship. I said I understand and said I was sorry for how things ended and left the ICQ conversation.

I remember thinking to myself at the time, why did Ken have such strong feelings for me at 12 and all the way through senior year of secondary school? I didn’t think much of it at the time and it felt like puppy love, just like how my mother described it. I assumed we were young and didn’t understand what love is anyway and I didn’t think I left such a strong impression on him. What I know of love today is so different from when I was 12 or even 17 and I know what I felt then wasn’t physical attraction nor romantic love. It was my own fantasies of trying what being “in love” was like and in the process I hurt someone.

At the end of day, I knew it was the right thing to do at age 12 however I could have done better in my delivery of the message instead of writing a letter. It’s almost as bad as text messaging someone to break up. In reflection of the few relationships I have had over the years, I have been on both sides - the one breaking up with someone or the one being dumped. Either position is terrible and awkward to be in. In the long run, I know the relationships that have ended for me were meant to end. I may not have received it quite that way at the time, but today I know those individuals are in much better places and happily married or single partnered. The best thing anyone could do when relationships end is to continue living your life to the fullest. No one should ever prevent you from pursuing happiness, not even the shadow of them lingering in the dark corners of your mind.

#aapi #aapihm #aapiheritagemonth #shortstory #gossip

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its-lifestyle · 5 years ago

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Young Master Brewery founder Rohit Dugar used to be an investment banker with a dream. A passionate lover of craft beer, he used to hang out six years ago at what used to be the only craft beer bar in town – Taps Beer Bar Kuala Lumpur – every time he was in town.

“He used to tell me, ‘Alvin, one day I will open my own brewery’,” recalls Alvin Lim, co-founder of Taps and craft beer distributors MyBeer Malaysia. “Talking to him, you could tell he knew a lot about beer, so when he told me he would open a brewery one day, somehow, I believed him.”

Six years ago, Rohit finally took that leap of faith and founded Young Master Brewery, Hong Kong’s first ever craft beer brewery.

“When Rohit moved to Hong Kong in 2011, he realised that there was no local craft beers in Hong Kong. So he quit his job and opened Hong Kong’s first craft brewery in 2013,” recalled Young Master’s director of business development and operations, Kingson Kok.

Last week, Rohit’s Malaysian connection finally came full circle, as Taps became the first bar in Malaysia to import and tap Young Master’s beers. The beers are also available on tap at Pahit gin bar.

The brewery’s name, ‘Young Master’ (siu yeh in Cantonese), was inspired by an old 1963 Hong Kong film called Gong Chong Siu Yeh, or Young Master Of the Factory.

“That movie was about a Young Master who used to wear the sort of pants that you see on our logo. He was a very playful guy, but had to take over his father’s factory, and so he had a serious side as well.

“That sort of resonated with us, because we are very playful, fun guys, who were serious about making good beers!” Kok explained.

“Back in those days, Hong Kong also used to manufacture a lot of things, especially textiles. So this was also us, making something in Hong Kong once again.”

Young Master is credited with kickstarting the growing craft beer movement in Hong Kong.

Today, Young Master Brewery is credited with kickstarting the current craft beer movement in Hong Kong. While Kok says that there were other craft brewers in Hong Kong before them, they never quite managed to gain a foothold amongst the Hong Kong beer drinkers, who were more used to cheap commercial lagers. So how did Young Master finally do it?

“In our first or second year, we took a bold move of opening a small bar in a very, very local neighbourhood (Mong Kok) where we were surrounded by local bars selling cheap beers,” Kok explained, adding that it was mostly foreign expatriates and youngsters who came by at first.

Then, they had a breakthrough via one of their most unconventional beers. The brewery decided that they wanted to bring in beer styles that no one had done or even tried before, and that included sour beers.

“In Hong Kong, there’s a popular drink called the ‘Ham Ling Chat’, which is basically 7-Up with preserved salted limes. We took that idea and made a sour beer out of it, and called it a ‘Ham Ling Beer’,” Kok recalls. “It was a big hit, because it was a good stepping stone for people to try a new style of beer that is still approachable to them.”

Today, that beer, which is officially called the Cha Chaan Teng Gose (named after the common Hong Kong coffee shops), is one of the brewery’s best selling beers in its core range.

The brewery also releases seasonal and limited edition beers such as a foeder aged mixed culture forest berry sour ale, barrel-aged beers and collaborations with other breweries both in Hong Kong and overseas.

Young Master has a core range of six beers, all of which are available at Taps Beer bar and other craft beer outlets in KL.

Here’s a rundown of the beers that are currently available in Malaysia:

Classic Pale Ale (5% ABV)

The name itself says it all – this is simply a classic beer, and not just because it was one of Young Master’s first ever beers. A versatile, refreshing pale ale with the perfect balance of hops and malts, this beer was recently awarded the Best Of Asia Gold Medal for the third year running at the recent Asia Beer Awards in Singapore.

Cha Chaan Teng Gose (4% ABV)

A classic sour and salty Gose brewed with salted lime commonly found in local coffee shops (called cha chaan teng) in Hong Kong. If you’ve never had a sour beer before, this would be a good introduction the to beer style. Refreshing and crisp on the palate, the sour and salty flavours of the beer will tickle your tastebuds and make you just want to gulp it down and get another one. Speaking of which….

Another One (3.3% ABV)

Who says low ABV beers can’t be good? This juicy and refreshing session ale may be low in alcohol, but it is high in flavour, enough that you will want to have Another One.

Contemporary Pilsner (4.5% ABV)

A pilsner made in a classic Czech style, this is a clean, crisp pilsner that doesn’t pretend to be anything else (though it still has a lot more flavour and body compared to many commercial lagers). “This beer was made because some of our clients requested it, because sometimes their guests just wanted to drink a lager,” said Kok.

Island 1842 Imperial IPA (8% ABV)

Trust Young Master to go big for their first IPA. Named after the year Hong Kong was colonised by the British, Island 1842 a powerful IPA with big hoppy, fruity, citrusy notes and a robust malty body that linger long on your palate. Later, the brewers realised that the high alcohol level could be a little intimidating for casual drinkers who just wanted a hop hit, so, they came up with…

Jeng IPA (6.0% ABV)

In Cantonese, ‘Jeng’ means ‘great’. It may be a ‘toned down’ version of the Island 1842, as Kok explains, but it is still a pretty good IPA – easier to drink than its ‘big brother’, but still full of hoppy, juicy, citrusy goodness. Like the official website describes it, this beer is “Jeng, very Jeng, super Jeng.”

Rye On Wood (6% ABV)

Inspired by rye whiskey (which explains why this was my favourite of the lot), this oak-infused rye ale uses a blend of caramel and pale malts with some rye malts to give it a spicy sweetness.

The result is a beer that is malty sweet and chocolate at first, but with a tinge of spice from the rye, and a hint of wood on the finish.

Young Master beers are available at Taps Beer Bar, Pahit gin bar, and other craft beer bars such as Ales & Lagers, Farmer’s Bar, and The Great Beer Bar

Michael Cheang initially thought the pants on the Young Master logo belonged to Old Master Q. Contact him at the Tipsy-Turvy Facebook page or follow him on Instagram (@MyTipsyTurvy) or Twitter (@MichaelCheang).

from Food – Star2.com https://ift.tt/2Z78v33

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itsiotrecords-blog · 7 years ago

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Malaysia could be on your list of adventurous traveling destinations for so many reasons. They are known for their beaches and rainforests with a rich heritage culture, loads of activities, and sites to see. As for activities, they have big caves and old temples to visit, some of which are pretty whacky and scary. Malaysia also has lots of exotic foods to try. Malaysians believe that if you visit their country, you will instantly fall in love with it. According to the website Malaysia.travel, “To know Malaysia is to love Malaysia.” Their slogan “Malaysia, truly Asia” proves that in the country one can discover a convergence of different races—Indians, Malays, Chinese, and many other—that altogether live peacefully and harmoniously. With the diversity of cultures that thrive in Malaysia, it should come as no surprise that it is home to hundreds of colorful festivals. Because of this, Malaysians naturally love to socialize and celebrate. If you’ve never been to Malaysia before or even if you have already visited it, you might want to consider reading this list of 15 disturbing facts Malaysians don’t want you know about their country. The list includes some pretty weird things, including strange superstitions, icky eating habits (just a warning, worms are involved), and growing and building the largest things on Earth.

#1 They Have The Grossest Infestation Of Cockroaches Thriving in one of the caves of Malaysia, Gomantong Cave in Sabah, are cockroaches in abundance. In fact, the worst infestation in the world. They are all there fighting for food from bat droppings and thriving from the wet environment. Remind me never to visit this large cave in my life. What sounds worse than bat droppings from the ceiling and cockroaches swarming at your feet? It gets worse. Not only do they have the worst infestation of cockroaches in the world! They have a problem with large snakes too. Drum roll, please! King Cobras. Yes, you guessed it right. The largest venomous snake in the world is found in Malaysia. The longest King Cobra was found at Port Dickson in 1937. It was so huge that they captured it and took it to a zoo in London where it grew to 5. 71 meters.

#2 Practice Of Needles Under The Skin! Here is a practice that you do not want to try! Shamans practice cosmetic sorcery by poking gold, silver, or precious metals underneath their skin. This practice developed from the pre-Islamization era of Malaysia and Indonesia. This is meant to make the Shaman who partakes in this practice of poking himself with needles never die. This practice is also meant to prevent his spouse from cheating on him. It’s also believed to heal his ailments and infections in the body and bring everlasting youth and beauty. Very strong claims for a simple weird practice of poking yourself.

#3 Crazy Flying Records You might not have heard much about Malaysia and its accomplishments, but this one was quite the real deal. Dr. Shikh Muszaphar Shukor is an astronaut from Malaysia. He was practicing Ramadan when he was meant to fly to space. He didn’t let this deter him. In fact, he actually became the first Muslim astronaut to practice Ramadan while in space. Think that’s crazy? They also had the youngest pilot fly around the world by himself. Captain James Anthony Tan was only twenty-one years old when he chose to fly around the world all by himself in 2013. He flew a thirty-year-old Cessna 210 Eagle aircraft for twenty-two miles around twenty-one countries in fifty days! Talk about guts, I would be too scared to fly a plane full stop.

#4 Weird Superstitions Old beliefs do not die easily. For instance, Malaysians are still afraid of the number four. If you go to Malaysia, you will find that in lifts and on unit floors the number four doesn’t exist. They usually replace this with 3A. This apparently comes from the old superstition that the number four sounds similar in phonetics to the word death. On the other hand, they see the number eight with a lot of favor, mostly because the Cantonese pronunciation sounds like ‘batt’ sounds similar to ‘faat’ which refers to wealth and prosperity. So impressed are they with this number that you’ll often see men driving around with the number eight prominently on their number plates. They have many superstitions. Apparently, according to ancient belief, if a cat jumps over a coffin with a dead person inside before the coffin is buried, the man will come back to life! This doesn’t sound like a very hard feat to bring someone’s life back. I wonder why they don’t try to have more cats jump over coffins, like a regular ritual at burial services.

#5 They Grow Some Of The Biggest Things In The World Though not a very large country, Malaysia grows some of the most gigantic things in the world. Found naturally in Malaysia is the biggest flower in the whole world known as the Rafflesia. They also have the biggest undivided leaf, the Alocasia Macrorrhiza from Tawau, in Sabah. They have the largest cave chamber in existence, known as the Sarawak Chamber at Gunung Mulu National Park. The cave chamber covers an area of 1.66 million square feet! This was discovered in January 1981 by three British cavers during their Mulu eighty expedition. You certainly wouldn’t want to get lost in there. Apart from that, they also have the largest insect in the world—a stick bug. Named as Chan’s Megastick, the stick bug measures up to 56.6 centimeters. The bug was discovered in 1989 by a naturalist, Datuk Chan Chew Lun, in Sabah. After having read about all of these massive things, I’m sure you couldn’t decide whether to consider this cool or freaky. It makes one wonder why almost everything grows gigantic in Malaysia?

#6 They Have An Old Custom Involving Babies And Worms Malaysia is known as a place of rich heritage and culture. Some of their cultural traditions are a bit stranger than you would imagine. For instance, traditionally in Iban communities in Malaysia, babies and young children are referred to as ‘ulat’ until they are given a name of their own. The word ‘ulat’ actually means worm! Somehow, this is meant to be given in an affectionate way. The idea of having a generic nickname until an official name is decided on was actually common for many traditional cultures. The use of the nickname worm is rather odd, though. If it was a bit of a cooler nickname like ‘precious’ or ‘cool kid’, then I wouldn’t mind adopting a tradition like this. I think it’s much better than everybody referring to the baby as an ‘it’ for the first few days or weeks (some people take an awfully long time to decide on their baby’s name).

#7 They Make The Biggest Things Ever worried about getting lost on a long endless road? Well that fear might actually come true if you stay in Malaysia. They have made the longest highways in the world. In fact, the total length of their highways is 40,934 miles. That’s more than the circumference of the earth at 24,901 miles! The plan was to make it easier to get around, but making roads longer than the entire earth is just plain freaky. As if the 40,934-mile highway wasn’t enough, they also designed the biggest roundabout in existence, the Persiaran Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in Putrajaya. It’s not just me that gets lost reading these really long names, is it? Its diameter is 2.7 miles (3.5 km). In 2015, they won a Guinness World Record for the largest hotel in the world known as Genting’s First World Hotel. It has three stars and has 7,351 rooms. This sounds like a place worth staying, doesn’t it?

#8 First To Try This Crazy New Medical Procedure You probably wouldn’t guess it but the first arm and hand transplant was actually performed in Malaysia on a little girl. Up until this moment, only hand transplants are done. This procedure took place with Dr. V. Pathmanathan in charge of the team. They operated on 18 May 2000 at Selayang Hospital on a baby girl only one month after she was born. Her name was Chong Lih Ying. Her new arm and hand was actually from her identical twin sister who died at birth from severe brain damage. Only five months later, she was already waving both of her hands and cuddling her teddies. The surgeon responsible believed that the surgery would be successful only because they had used the identical twin’s limb so this means they have similar cells and come from the same blood group. I guess there’s always a silver lining in the dark cloud.

#9 Boats Capsizing They have boats capsizing. According to a post from news.com.au in January 2017, “A boat ferrying 40 people from Indonesia has capsized off Malaysia’s coast, killing at least nine people and leaving nearly 30 were missing. . .The agency said a combination of overloading and bad weather and heavy seas were believed to have caused the accident.” Apparently, this incident was not the only occurrence of boats capsizing. A number of similar accidents have occurred along the waterways of Indonesia and Malaysia. More often than not, these accidents are caused by overloading of ferryboats carrying laborers who seek for work in Malaysian plantations and factories. According to a news article, in November 2016, “more than half of the 101 passengers aboard a boat died after it hit a reef and sank off the Indonesian island of Batam, south of Singapore. Four months earlier, a boat sank while en-route to Batam. Malaysian authorities recovered eight bodies and rescued 34 people.”

#10 They Don’t Take Jokes Lightly If you’re planning to go on a vacation in Malaysia and see all the terrific and great sites of the land, always bear in mind that their law system is rather very strict. And if you’re caught being very silly, you might just end up in jail. In October 2016, according to 9news, nine Australian men were put in prison for stripping down to colorful Speedo trunks in the design of the Malaysian flag. As if that wasn’t enough, they drank beer out of their shoes and sang in a public place during celebrations at the Grand Prix. While the crowd found them the pinnacle of amusement and joy, many cheering on and taking selfies with them, the authorities put them directly in prison. Authorities said that they would receive their sentence with a possibility of getting out easily by simply paying a fine. However, there’s still a greater possibility of being sentenced up to two years of prison “with intentional insult to breach the peace.”

#11 Malaysian Delicacy Will Make You Want To Vomit Okay so when I read this strange fact, I actually had to stop myself from gagging. In East Malaysia, they have a delicacy that you never want to try. Although they are said to have a creamy consistency and not taste half as bad as they sound, would you still want to go all the way to the country and eat these rather stout and “juicy” worms? Probably not! Mostly eaten as a treat in Sabah and Sarawak’s native tribes are the larvae of sago worms. Thankfully, this has mostly been phased out in modern menus around the country, though you can still find them stir-fried, roasted, or simply raw at weekly markets and at tourist attractions! Why tourist attractions? Leave it for the old tribes please. But yes, you can find them at tourist attractions like Monsopiad Cultural Village where they’re served to the tourists as part of their program. Maybe this is why they name their babies after worms. This is the absolute most appealing picture I could find. Just try Googling larvae sago worms and imagine eating them raw. Bon Appetit!

#12 They Have Fruit That Stinks The Durian fruit, a real charm in Malaysia. These were banned from traveling on the Singapore Mass Transit because of their intense odor even when still unopened. You either love the fruit or you hate it. And for most, it’s a hate relationship. Though in Malaysia, most people love this fruit and some even love the smell. When they are in season, they have durian fruit buffets that people flock to to eat as many durians as they want. A Malaysian source still suggested bringing mouthwash along. According to food writer Richard Sterling, “Its odor is best described as pig-sh*t, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.” Anthony Bourdain calls it “indescribable, something you will either love or despise. … Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.” Judging from what I’m hearing, I’d rather give this fruit a miss.

#13 Cat Museum In A City Named After Cats Open from 9am to 5pm every day, this is a cat lover’s dream coming true. Some visitors have complained online that it’s rather overpriced for a dingy rundown place with not so much to see. Though according to their website, they only charge for photos and filming (perhaps these charges are outrageous?). According to Sarawaktourism.com, “The World’s first Cat Museum, devoted to all things feline, is in Petra Jaya in the Kuching City North City Hall. Cat lovers will find a range of exhibits, photos, feline art and cat souvenirs; over 4,000 of them. The museum is housed on the ground on the City Hall Building, spread over four galleries covering a total area of 1,035 sq meter.” The cat is said to be a good luck charm, so I guess they decided to make a museum of 4000 things of good luck! Personally I would much rather visit a couple of cute little kittens at a pet shop or a cat café than go through 1,035 square meters of souvenirs and paintings of old cats.

#14 Venomous Snake Temple If you weren’t freaked out enough to hear that Malaysia had the largest snakes on record, then maybe the fact that they actually have a venomous snake temple for tourists to visit will make you a little…okay maybe not so little…uneasy. The Penanag Snake Temple is said to house venomous pit vipers and green tree snakes. Upon entering the temple, one can see a big incense burner filling the main prayer hall with smoke. The smoke emitted by these incense burners tranquilizes the serpents and makes them appear motionless or even asleep. Additionally, at the start of the temple, there are tanks that hold pythons and cobras. This is meant to be the best spot to get a photo. This temple is one of the most popular tourist attractions and there’s only a small fee to visit. Someone would have to pay me more than a large fee to get me to even consider visiting that temple.

#15 Mosquito Virus “Zika” According to an article from new.com.au in September 2016, Malaysia is on high alert for the Zika virus. Catching a virus from a mosquito is alarming as they are so small and unassuming. Sure they usually annoy you with their itchy bites, but how do you even avoid them when they’re flying around. If you’re traveling to Malaysia, make sure to bring a load of mosquito repellents. Actually, Malaysia put up a poster at Kuala Lumpur International Airport warning people and advising tourists to be extremely careful by being fully covered in clothing with long sleeves and pants. They’ve also advised tourists to avoid having unprotected sex when they return home for eight weeks. Zika virus is caused by mosquitoes and can leave you with an awful fever.

Source: TheRichest

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