#i don't understand cantonese

[boxyheadbry]

Final Chef - extended (but not yet final) cut. Real-time ambiance added - straight from the shop on a busy doomsday brunch hour. The Witness continues to serve his famous DimSum along with a side of warlock wasabi sushi and titan milk tea. (Sorry no hunter yet)

[stillthesunkenstars]

rapidly becoming Eason Chan pilled

[frogeyedape]

That didn't even register with me! It takes me a hot second but Scots is perfectly understandable to my English speaking self. Excellent point, and it's a whole argument in the world of linguistics (and politics and law etc). From the linked wiki:

Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots, particularly its relationship to English.[13] Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects exist, they often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum, with Scottish Standard English at the other.[14] Scots is sometimes regarded as a variety of English, though it has its own distinct dialects;[13]: 894  other scholars treat Scots as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian is closely linked to but distinct from Danish.[13]

Hey you know language things right? Sorry to be USA centric/ignorant, but do other languages do the thing English does where certain words are spelled differently based on where you're from? Like how USAmericans spell it "color" and brits/canadians spell it "colour"? It's such a silly thing (affectionate), and leads to fun idiosyncrasies when certain people decide they like the 'foreign' spelling better (colour does look better to me).

So like the operative thing with English is that there are multiple competing national standards and no consensus as to which one should be the international standard, and English is definitely not the only one like this. I can't name any examples from Spanish, French, or Portuguese (but I am pretty sure that French has differences in numerals between its national varieties).

And the funny thing about those examples is that they have zero effect on pronunciation. Like, okay, "color" is pronounced differently depending on whether you're from the UK or the US, but it has nothing to do with that extra U or lack thereof.

Anyway not quite the same thing because these also come through in pronunciation, but Swedish has differences in vocabulary between the varieties spoken in Sweden and the varieties spoken in Finland. "Oil refinery" is "oljeraffinaderi" in Swedish Swedish, "oljeraffineri" in Finnish Swedish. "Roadie" is "råddare" in Swedish proper, "rådare" in Moomin Swedish. And so on.

[octuscle]

Help! I'm really struggling to pass my Chinese languages class.

Oh well… We all know the problem… I had to struggle with Russian. But when I chose the Russian Cosmonaut preset, a lot of things went a lot easier.

So: It would be cool if your mother tongue was Chinese. And if you were an ambitious, hard-working and clever student overall. But not the nerdy type. The best in every subject. Even in sports. Let's go!

Your Chinese teacher is already forgiving your stupidity again. When you suddenly put the dictated sentence on the blackboard in the finest Mandarin and read it out without an accent. Then you translate it into Cantonese just to be on the safe side. Your teacher's jaw drops. The class cheers. You make a deep bow for fun. And your pants crack. You almost hit yourself in the crotch with a red head. Everything seems to be fine. Pants are fine. No one in the class seems to have noticed either. But something is strange. Have you always had that perfect, muscular, tight ass?

Next lesson: math! Not your favorite subject. Nevertheless, you surprisingly have an answer to all your teacher's questions. You answer with great stamina until your teacher says "Don't take offense, Wang, but I know you know the answer. Why don't you give the others a chance too?" Wang? Why Wang? You put your arm down. You tense your biceps. A bit angry that you're not allowed to show the success of your learning. You burst the sleeve of your shirt. Damn it! You try to hide the tear. But there is no more tear. You're wearing a very form-fitting short-sleeved T-shirt. You admire your own muscular forearms and well-tanned, flawless skin. "Wang, if no one else knows, would you like to show us the solution?" You look at the task for a moment. And go to the blackboard to solve it. Child's play!

On the way to swimming lessons, you meet your tutor. You haven't seen her for two weeks. She looks at you and asks "Are you okay? Are you getting on? Is everyone nice to you? Do you understand me?" Lord in heaven, you've been in the USA for almost four months now. You speak better English than most of the long-noses here. You reply that you are doing great, that the material in your grade level could be a little more challenging, but that you are very proud to have made it to the swim team. And you offer her your support if she ever needs help. She looks at you like a cow in a thunderstorm.

Yes, you actually work out too much on the weights for a good swimmer. But you love the water and you love the gym. It's a good time here. It's downright relaxing. Maybe you'll stay here and not go back to Beijing.

I have found your way out of bad grades @taurus-men1

[aishangotome]

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my translations blog :) I translate on here for my own personal archive, and to share with others who are interested in the same stories and do not have access to them yet. With that being said, I don't mind if someone wants to do their own translation of the same stories on their own blogs too.

CN translations here are done to the best of my ability with the knowledge I have as a native Cantonese/Mandarin speaker, so please understand that it is possible for different interpretations or nuances at times. Some phrases are cultural and may not have a direct English translation. If you are also a native speaker and feel that there is a better translation for something, feel free to message me and I will update it accordingly!

[Update: 9/10/24 IKE T/LS ON PAUSE]

[Update: 9/26/24 Focusing on LN and YGL. IKE will continue to be on pause.]

Light and Night Masterlist

*To read Chapters 1-14 of Light and Night from Jin, please visit their blog by clicking here.

Yao Guang Lu Masterlist

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Ikemen Genjiden Masterlist

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*Due to a tumblr bug, page links might not open in the app. However, you should be able to access them if you use the browser instead of the app.

Links to masterlists and other social links are also on the left navigation bar. Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy! xx

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[littlelillycatsworld]

🐈‍⬛🎃introduction🎃🐈‍⬛

updated 28/9/24

English is my 4th language I rely on Google translate alot sorry if I get things wrong (Korean, mandarin, Cantonese then English)

I also speak Japanese and Thai not quite fluent yet but close

only follow me if your part of the ed or sh community I don't want to expose this to anyone else

I post alot of really dark shit about my childhood and whatnot. it's not happy it's depressing but this is my place to exist in a relatively safe way

do not report I'm not pro just pro recovery for everyone I'm just not ready yet but when I am I'll get professional help

DNI if you are homophobic/transphobic fatphobic racist or ana coach

my name is Lilly (not my actual name)

I'm 19

I use she/her/they pronouns

lesbian with a loving gf of 3 years🥰

I have depression, anxiety, BPD, ADHD, and autism (all diagnosed) and ed

pro recovery for everyone

I'm last time I checked 36.2kg BMI 15.5 and im 153cm

ballet is my passion (I go to school for that)

I was adopted at birth by a Korean mother and Chinese father (rip I miss you)

I'm from Scotland

I'm pretty ok at art

pro LGBT and pro choice

sex positive

I love kpop and nu metal

my favourite kpop group is twice and my bias is Sana

my favourite metal band is Korn

I'm an ex-taekwondow national team member

and current national ballet member

personal tag is #네네

meal logs tag is 네네 meals

ed tags #네네's ed #네네's 3d

feel free to interact with me but don't be creepy I'll just block you.

anyway I hope I can make some friends who understand what it's like with an ed ☺️

my dms are open if anyone needs someone to talk to. if you have any questions feel free to ask

my backup account is @little-lilly-cat

[knuckle]

This is on the wiki but like I feel the need to say it here too. In Chainsaw man there is an inaccurate romanization/ transliteration of the lesbian devil hunter. People translating from Japanese romaji to English approximation then to Chinese assumed that Quan has a different vowel + consant sound than it does likely from not understanding pinyin (closest English for quan is that it starts with ch the second part sounds like when). Her name in the Mandarin translations is 光熙 or Guangxi (guang rhymes with song - the g is said basically the same as English - think gwong). There's some fake translation of 泉溪 going around idk where it came from but it doesn't show up in Baidu or Google searches in Chinese. Her name is Guangxi not Quanxi. Sad I don't think this will ever be fixed but they really are said completely differently

I'm not an expert on Chinese naming but from what I gather the incorrect translation of Quanxi 泉溪 means something like "springwater creek"- the correct translation: Guangxi 光熙 means something like "radiant light"

the two names have nothing to do with each other and invoke very different imagery

It's actually sad to me that my sister told me this months ago when I first started getting into the fandom and I had no idea that it's really 99% of the fandom that calls her the wrong name. It's not pinyin vs Wade Giles or Mandarin vs Cantonese. It's literally the incorrect name improperly translated by some people who didn't care to look up how Chinese works

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I have a question concerning sign languages and dialects/accents(?). My two MCs (one is HOH and the other is semi-speaking) sometimes use sign between them. But both were brought up in very different environments (both geographically, morally, and financially), so I was wondering how their sign would reflect that. Are there legit dialects/accents of sign language depending on wealth/formality/geographic location/etc? How different sign can differ while still being the same language-- example, how much does ASL vary compared the southern US states to the north? If there are differences, is it more of a British English vs American English difference (where there's some confusion but both parties can generally understand each other), or a straight up Mandarin Chinese vs Cantonese Chinese difference (where both parties have maybe a 10% understanding of what the other is saying on a good day)? And if so, what are some examples of the differences?

apologies for the weirdly specific ask LMAO. thanks for your time!

- ψ(._. )>

Hi!

Sign language definitely has dialects, but the degree of regionalization really depends on where your character is and how sign language developed there.

ASL is fairly mutually understandable; I've signed with people from all over the US, and aside from a few differences in signs I already knew tended to have regional varieties. the signs themselves were pretty similar.

(One exception to this is Black American Sign Language, a dialect of ASL that arose from segregation policies within Deaf schools. It's fairly different from "standard" ASL. Even so, BASL and ASL are not entirely mutually unintelligible, there are just significantly more differences than between ASL regional varieties. BASL signers often have to "code switch" based on their signing environment because of this. But unless one of your characters comes from a multigenerational Deaf Black family, it's unlikely they will know or have learned BASL--unfortunately, BASL use has been declining.)

There are totally accents in sign though! Signing styles depend a lot on both personality and region. I don't know how to explain specifically, but people from different areas just tend to have a similar signing style to other people from their region.

All this is to say, geographic differences will definitely make a difference in how your characters sign, but within the US I'd say it's fairly likely the two will be able to mutually understand each other.

Mod Rock

[zhuzhudushu]

Lingopie — Chinese Review ★★

So I did 3 months of Lingopie (stylized as Li��göpie) so you don't have to (unless you want to lol).

I mention a Chrome extension, the Zhongwen dictionary, quite a bit in this review. It is here, I highly recommend it (click)! It's also available for Firefox (click).

What is Lingopie?

Lingopie is an app and desktop extension/website that allows you to watch tv shows and cartoons with interactive subtitles for language learning. It currently has Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, French, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. It claims to improve your language learning by 80% (compared to Duolingo which is around 20%).

Here is their website. (click)

Pricing: (March 2024)

3 months $36

1 year $71 "on sale" (normally $144)

Lifetime $199 "on sale" (normally $663)

Please note: I have never seen these full prices. It appears that the "sale" is permanent.

My Review / TL;DR Version

Extremely disappointed both in functionality and content for Chinese. Maybe this is a good program for other languages, but for Chinese there is extremely limited content with pinyin subtitles only available for the non-Netflix shows. All the best learning features are available for non-Netflix shows, yet those tended to have significantly worse translations than Netflix. I would not recommend this product for Chinese. While it had a few good features and I enjoyed it for 6-7 episodes of one show, it then had a glitch where an entire episode was subtitled wrong, so I gave up.

See below the cut for full breakdown.

Strengths:

Has access to Netflix shows and films including some popular ones (e.g. Meteor Garden, Dear Ex, Nezha Reborn)

This is nice and I enjoyed rewatching the ones I was familiar with and getting a better grasp of listening and vocab. I appreciate that they try to incorporate kid-friendly along with more serious/adult content with animated and live action tv shows and films. I also liked that it specified if the show was from Taiwan or China, and also included shows that had some Cantonese influence (e.g. Scissor Seven)

Allows you to have English and Chinese subtitles simultaneously or alone, and you can easily click them on an off while watching.

This is pretty standard for all video/subtitle based educational apps, but it was nice to easily click them on and off in case I wanted to double check my understanding, and to compare the direct translation of the words to the full translation of the sentence.

Allows you to pause automatically after each subtitle. Can also loop subtitles over and over. There are also AI-produced explanations of grammar.

This hands down was the best part about the entire experience for me, and why I ended up using Lingopie for 3 months. While it was sometimes clunky (see below), this made singling out specific lines/words for listening practice so easy. Once I got in the groove, I was able to get through episodes fairly quickly and was starting to be able to listen and hear new words in sentences later.

Click on the words in the subtitle to make flashcard sets

This was a nice feature, but I do wish the flashcards were a bit more functional, see below. It was easy enough to use and a quick way to remind yourself of the new words you learned before you jump into the next episode.

Weaknesses:

Pinyin subtitles available on desktop only, with no pinyin subtitles for Netflix shows (as of May 2024)

This is a HUGE flaw, and I was 100% dependent on using another chrome extension for hover-over dictionary while using Lingopie. I know they are working on pinyin subtitles for Netflix and mobile, but I used this for 3 months and it still was not implemented when I ended. To me, if I have to use another app in conjunction with this one in order to fully learn, then what's the point? Especially since I watched Taiwanese and Cantonese-influenced shows with very non-standard pronunciations, comparing standard pinyin to accented productions is necessary for me. Even with the pinyin subtitles for the non-Netflix shows, it left a lot to be desire because they're tiny above the Chinese characters, and sometimes difficult to read. More than once I thought a ǒ was �� because of how tiny it was.

Not enough content, especially cartoons/beginner level

The one above and this bullet are the main reasons why I don't recommend this app for Chinese specifically. Maybe other languages are fine, but there is simply not enough content for the price. I was hoping for more beginner/lower intermediate content like children's cartoons, however there are none for Chinese. All the animated options are more teenager/adult oriented. There also weren't many light-hearted or comedy options, meaning you would have to watch a lot of serious dramas, thrillers, and violent shows if you wanted to get your money's worth. For my personal taste, I don't want to have to pause every dialogue line for an adult thriller. That would ruin my experience of the show and the suspense. For the non-Netflix options, most shows were incomplete with only 1-5 episodes available out of 10+. They also tended to be lower quality productions, with significantly worse English translations. The majority of what is available outside of Netflix are short films (~5 mins) and cooking shows (10-20 mins) which aren't bad for beginners. I personally have no interest in cooking, though lol. Essentially, there is no TRUE beginner fictional content in Chinese available.

The dictionary is... rough

Again, I was fully dependent on the Zhongwen extension. While the English subtitles themselves are good, the individual definitions of words that you hover over are definitely rough. They weren't actually that helpful for breaking down meanings of things like slang and characters' names. For example, in Scissor Seven there were quite a few animal puns, e.g. 汪星人 which is internet slang for "dog" Lingopie translated as "Woofer" which was... awkward and strange. Without the Zhongwen extension I would have had no idea what this was actually referring to. It would been nice if it functioned more like the Zhongwen extension, where it would highlight individual characters or phrases/combos depending on your mouse placement. Particularly on the non-Netflix shows, the translations even in the English subtitles were incredibly rough and at times I couldn't understand the context in either language. There was also one instance of an entire episode (Netflix) that had incorrect subtitles, I suspect subtitles from a different episode? That was the final straw for me.

It chooses whether or not to highlight single words or phrases so you have no control over your flashcards

This made the flashcards not as functional to me. Sometimes, I wanted just the specific noun/verb in the sentence, but it would make me highlight the entire sentence. Other times, I wanted a really functional phase, but it would only let me highlight the individual words. I barely used the flashcard feature because of this.

Clunky interface (Chrome & Firefox)

I can't speak for mobile or Safari because I didn't use them. Since I was relying on the Zhongwen hover-dictionary, I only used Chrome. You can only use Chrome or Safari if you want Netflix shows. Sometimes the auto-pause after each subtitle would be too early or too late, meaning I would have to actually click things pretty persistently throughout each episode. Using the spacebar to pause/unpause hardly ever worked, and using the arrow keys to flip between subtitles also never worked for me. Sometimes the hover-definitions of words would linger even after I clicked away, and would not disappear until the next subtitle appeared. This was super annoying and would block a good portion of the screen. Sometimes I would have to click things 2-3 times before it registered in both Chrome and Firefox.

Overall, I think it's a great idea, but needs some pretty major improvements in order to be worth the price.

In my opinion, if they were to add significantly more shows, including kid's cartoons, and improved their subtitles, dictionary, & interface function, it would be worth the price.

Maybe in a few years as Lingopie grows, it will be worth it. But for now, it's not. For now, it's clunky and limited. If you were to watch it for an hour a day, you would probably get through all the shows that interested in you in about 3-6 months. It wouldn't take longer than a year to go through all of the Chinese content, as of right now. So why would you pay for a year or lifetime price for that?

(divider credit here)

[kerakeriza]

damian may obviously be a cantonese speaker but he's probably a mandarin speaker too, given how linguistically intelligent he is. so, regardless... i think he'd take great, great joy in calling kon and jon both "s.b." because damian is a cute little asshole and deserves to tease the superboys in ways they don't understand. hehe.

[project-niji-official]

DISCLAIMER: This post has been used by multiple accounts on multiple sites. You may have seen this before.  TRIGGER WARNING: While there aren't any dark topics mentioned in this post, they are abundant in the story. If you are uncomfortable with self-harm, swearing, depression, suicide attempts/suicidal thoughts, mentions of rape, eating disorders, substance abuse, child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual references, personality disorders, intrusive thoughts, or obsessive behavior, then this isn't for you. (I know that's a long list, but it's a long project, and they're spread throughout the story.)

Do you like relatable characters? Do you like Project SEKAI? Do you like fandom? If you like any of those things (emphasis on the first one), then you might like SPECTRA LIGHT: Project NIJI! (If you're not interested, keep scrolling. If you are... carry on.)

This isn’t an ad to get your money. It’s an ad to get your support. Project NIJI is a nonprofit fanproject run by a bunch of… well, fans. It’s technically an Alternate Universe (AU) for Project SEKAI, but someone without knowledge of the game could still understand the story perfectly well, as the main cast is composed of 20 Original Characters (OCs).

Since this is a fanproject and doesn’t have to abide by copyright laws, ambitious collaborations or ideas can be accomplished more easily. This means that we don’t have to dance around more mature topics to hold onto that sweet, sweet 9+ rating. 

There’s five musical groups: 

Welcome TO Purgatory, a band dedicated to showing the world the truth, no matter how uncomfortable.

Sparkling☆Smile☆Stage, a group who wants the world around them to be a little less sad (even if they’re doing much worse).

LITERALLY HELL, who wants to show you that not every story has a happily ever after.

StarSuit Go!, an idol group who doesn’t believe in letting others change who you are.

Night blossomS, an online music group with questionable PR decisions who wants to reach someone.

That’s simplifying the groups a LOT, but it gets the general point across.

Now, I’ve spent most of this rambling about the project itself, but here’s why I’m making this post: We need people. Lots of them. In fact, we need:

Writers

Artists

Storyboarders

Beta readers

Music arrangers

Vocal tuners

Video editors/animators

Singers/voice actors (keep in mind that you might have to speak in another language a lot)

Translators

Color artists

Moderators (for our Discord server, and our subreddit if we get one)

Publicists (social media managers)

Chart makers (iykyk)

List of languages that we need translators for (we need people to translate these languages into English, or vice versa):

Japanese (we need the most translators for this language, as it's the primary language. Project NIJI is set in Japan, after all.)

Dutch

Swedish

Portuguese

Vietnamese

Chinese

Cantonese

Tagalog/Filipino

Russian

French

Arabic

Korean

Danish

Italian

German

Hindi

Spanish

There are other languages featured in the story, but they don't show up enough to warrant a translator.

If you can do any of those things (or maybe something else that could be helpful), then you can apply in this form. Please DO NOT DM THE ACCOUNTS IF YOU WISH TO BE A PART OF PROJECT NIJI.

[innocent-diamond-2090110]

♪ "Under pressure, body sweating — Can you focus? // I DELIVER, I CAN PROMISE — I'M THE COLDEST" ♪

ONE LOOK, GIVE 'EM WHIPLASH! I'm so glad that the actual song & MV sound much better than the teaser snippet. It's not apparent how "Whiplash" relates to aespa's universe lore, but since there are new ae-avatars for the girls, this might be a new world & storyline. This MV is another insane mix of multiple things happening at once:

Filming set/equipment (there are several items that I don't know the names of)

Various dance sets (typical "box MV" stuff, but each is so cool & different)

Random martial arts poses (I have no explanation for this, but the girls are ready to FIGHT BACK when necessary)

Color inversion scenes (i.e. what traditional film negatives look like)

Intermittent text boxes (black & white ones were OK, but the red ones kind of hurt my eyes)

Outdoor building scenes (I have no idea what those pieces of metal are supposed to be when assembled together)

Last but not least... RUNWAY CATWALK STRUTS!

Does anyone else think that this song & MV are like a mix of 4minute's "Mirror Mirror" & "Crazy"?

My favorite B-side is "Flowers"! It has a very creepy/spooky feel (perfect for October/Halloween), similar to "Mine". I heard the word "dahlia" in the lyrics & immediately thought of (G)I-DLE's "DAHLIA". (If you understand Cantonese, then it might also sound like Candy Lo's "Flowers on the Ground" to you.)

Full tracklist is here on YouTube!

[niccichi]

LukeJamie Headcanons 🌟🍶

It's 3:34 AM and I can't sleep, here's some headcanons I have for these losers <3 Putting under the cut so I don't clog up dashes

Jamie knows how to cook, it came with living with his grandmother in the middle of nowhere and idolizing Yun and Yang, who own a restaurant. Luke can make basic things, but ask him to make anything more and it's a disaster guaranteed. Jamie never admits it but he loves cooking food for Luke because it's a subtle, wordless way for him to show his love.

Jamie's love language is giving acts of service and receiving words of affection. Luke's love language is giving quality time and receiving gifts.

Luke's apartment is a mess, usually placing things wherever it's convenient and forgets to do his chores sometimes. Jamie's surprisingly the opposite, keeping things organized and tidy. Cleanliness was practically ingrained in his brain because his grandmother was a huge on keeping things clean. When they start living together, Luke does try to make an effort to keep things organized because he knows it bothers Jamie.

Jamie's a cat person while Luke's a dog person. They always have petty arguments about this.

Luke's usually the big spoon while Jamie's the little spoon but that's because their height difference makes it easy (and Jamie doesn't like to admit it but he does like being held in Luke's arms). However, if Luke's having a bad day, Jamie would be the big spoon to comfort him.

Jamie always steals Luke's clothes. Luke has no say in what clothes get stolen, they just disappear from his closet. He would lightheartedly complain about it but he does love seeing Jamie wear his clothes - it makes him feel all warm inside. Jamie does think Luke's clothes are ugly, but he has to admit that they're pretty comfy to wear. Luke would steal Jamie's clothes if 1) they weren't too small for him and 2) if Jamie owned anything else other than primarily crop tops.

Luke LOVES using pet names. He mostly uses 'babe,' but he'll use just about any pet name ever, including nicknames (like 'Jay'). Jamie isn't big on using pet names, but there was this one time where he called Luke a term of endearment in Cantonese and refused to translate it for him. They mostly use insults as terms of endearment though - for Luke it's 'pretty boy' and Jamie uses 'meathead,' 'dummy,' and 'dork.'

Jamie cannot drive for his life, so if they ever have to drive anywhere, Luke is always designated driver.

Luke loves PDA - he'll take any opportunity to hold Jamie's hand, wrap his arm around Jamie's shoulder or waist, or kiss his cheek. Jamie, surprisingly, is reserved when it comes to public affection. He prefers keeping intimacy private and always gets flustered when Luke starts getting really affectionate in public. Luke gets a kick out of it and always teases him about it.

Neither of them are really overprotective over the other, as they trust each other to be able to protect themselves and navigate Metro City on their own. However, Luke does get worried about Jamie sometimes, as he's much more reckless and he has a little fear of something happening to him that can't be controlled, fueled by the loss of his father and the Nayshall incident. It doesn't help that Jamie doesn't really value his own life very much either - it's residual from his neglectful parents and growing up delinquent.

One time Jamie came home extremely bruised and beaten up during a rough patrol and Luke became upset seeing his boyfriend so badly hurt. Jamie was initially confused, since he was still alive and well, and it takes him a long time to understand that Luke genuinely does care about his wellbeing and if something did happen to him it would tear Luke apart. He starts being more careful after that incident - if not for himself, then for Luke.

[octuscle]

Help, I've been accidentally abandoned by my tour group out in the middle of nowhere, China! I have no idea how to communicate with any of the locals and nobody on the tour has been responding to my messages. i hope this app works, I have no idea how it functions...

Let me check out your immediate area…. There is a gym around the corner. Well… Something like that. The building is more like a stable or a barrack. The weights and equipment are homemade. But there's a TV that plays music videos…. Maybe someone here understands English…

The men who work out here are quite well defined. But they don't have much mass. Overall, you've never really noticed big bodybuilders from China at competitions. Hold on. You have never been to competitions. Or have you? Sure, you are an enthusiastic weightlifter yourself. Not a serious one. But you like to watch the big lads on stage. The men here in the gym look at you a bit questioningly. You show your gym bag. And look equally questioning. One man points to some hooks on the wall where clothes are hanging. There doesn't seem to be a locker room. Even though you have no idea where this bag with the training clothes and the prepared protein shake came from, you change and start training. None of the other men seems to find this strange… Every now and then someone looks over at you. Yes, you lift more than anyone else here. After you finish your set of bench presses, someone asks you if you can give them some tips. You do a set of lat pulls together and you correct his wrong moves. Only afterwards do you realize that you were talking in Cantonese. Yes, it's still difficult for you. But you've been living here for a few years now and it's getting better and better.

After you are done with the training, most people here want to have a selfie with you. You are truly an exceptional athlete, a role model for many of the men here. The music videos are interrupted by commercials. Fuck, that's you advertising for the biggest gym chain in the country. Sure, it's owned by your manager and you're involved.

It's good to work out in your old home in the deepest province. You are now at home in Chongqing. But your heart beats stronger here. You quickly fall back into the local dialect when you're here. And this is exactly where you will open the next gym of your fitness center group.

[thistransient]

I'm only in Macau for one night, and to be honest it's not popular for visa runs because there's no budget accommodation. I came here for the day when I was living in China in 2017, and went back in the early evening for this very reason. As such, I had never seen Macau properly in the dark (the quest for McDonald's with the Taiwanese kid at 3 am in October doesn't count), and was very curious. Man, it is shiny.

I took the public bus from the airport because the fare was 6 MOP and I had exactly 6 HKD in coinage lurking in my closet from previous voyages (they're interchangeable in Macau). My fellow bus-riders did not appear to be tourists. I took the risk of trusting google maps regarding the bus route, and only felt betrayed for a moment before I realised it was making a detour because of construction, and still headed in the general correct direction, even if it took a bridge that didn't seem to exist on the map yet. Spellbound by the glittering lights and the thrill of being somewhere new, I was finally enjoying myself (having been anxious for days previous already).

Between my hotel and the bus stop was more neon signage than you could shake a stick at, I was enthralled. Check in went smoothly, and I hastened back out to walk around and take pictures. The old city side of Macau was quite hopping considering it was nearly 10 pm on a Tuesday night and cold out, Taipei feels a bit sleepy in comparison (or maybe I'm not going to the right places). I had very sensibly looked up a bunch of restaurants in advance in an attempt to divert for once my usual fate of walking around forever and not eating (although I had brought a lot of bananas with me to the airport after realising they weren't going to survive a week at home, so at least I wasn't running totally on empty). As usual, even the best laid plans can go awry when there are too many things to look at (by things I mean giant crabs in the window of the seafood restaurant). Somewhere around 22:30 I realised I needed to consume something before bed.

The go-to late-night food in Macau appears to be...beef offal. Now, I'm not opposed to offal, I like some grilled intestines at the izakaya, but this was a boiled affair and there were an intimidating amount of bits on display at the kiosks. Afraid I was running out of options before reaching my hotel again, I stopped at a takeaway stand that had a picture of a 煎餅 (fried pancake wrap thing) and inquired with the guy as to whether it could be obtained. (All the signage and menu was in Chinese, so I had started with Mandarin from the get-go.) There was no 煎餅 to be had. I could, however, have a box of rice accompanied by...[here we had many of those silver trays in a bain-marie, filled with various soupy things]. I asked him what one was. He told me "Lú lòu". I was baffled and told him I didn't understand. He said it again as if I'd misheard him. No, I really don't know what that is, I insisted. He said it again more loudly as if I were daft. Finally I remembered that [n] often becomes [l] for Cantonese speakers and he was saying niú roù 牛肉...beef 😑 Well then. I asked if he had any vegetables, which appeared to be an offensive request, so I resigned myself to 50 HKD of rice and meat chunks. Shortly after I discovered if I'd just kept walking, there were plenty of other options, but either way, I had dinner. When life gives you meat chunks...you start chewing.

Tomorrow my return flight is not til 4, which means I should mosey to the airport a bit prior to 2, so if I go to bed within the next 15 minutes I might make it for breakfast and some more trotting around looking at things (an activity that was cut short in 2017 on account of it being mid-summer and the heat rendering me somewhat delirious). These days going places often feels like a heinous exertion while in the planning stages, but once I'm out there I start getting into the spirit of it. Enrichment. Outside of my enclosure, even!

[quitealotofsodapop]

Estuve imaginando en el Wukongverse ¿y si aparece la versión de Wukong de la obra literaria? Me imaginado su versión basada en teorías de que Wukong era una hembra en realidad en las obras y debido a los siglos se adapto la obra a macho, debido a su titulo de rey en cantones es unisex. (posiblemente sea el primer personaje femenino obligatorio en la historia(?) Además seria chistoso que una mujer le declarara la guerra al reino celestial , Pero para el au me la imagino siendo Aroace/Asexual (pero usando términos de la época seria célibe... no me pegues plz) su forma seria de un macaco normal, así que es pequeñita.

Feliz navidad atrasada y que tengas un prospero año nuevo uwu

translated via google;

"I've been imagining in the Wukongverse, what if Wukong's version of the literary work appears? I imagined the version of him based on theories that Wukong was actually a female in the works and due to the centuries the work was adapted to a male, due to his title of king in Cantonese being unisex. (possibly the first obligatory female character in history(?) It would also be funny for a woman to declare war on the celestial kingdom, but for the au I imagine her being Aroace/Asexual (but using terms of the time she would be celibate.. .don't hit me plz) its shape would be that of a normal macaque, so it's tiny.

Merry belated Christmas and have a happy new year uwu"

That actually sounds adorable! A book-accurate Wukong that's both the size of a regular monkey and femme!

I imagine the fact that she's female is often forgotten in history, not just because of sexism, but also because if you weren't looking hard enough you'd think she was a male monkey.

Its not the first time a Journey to the West character has had their gender changed; Tripitaka (+characters based on them) is often rewritten as a woman, particularly in "The New Legends of Monkey", "Saiyuki/Monkey Magic" (1978), "Dragon Ball Z" with Bulma, "Starzinger" (1978), and "Shinzo" (2000). This is because of a mix of Tripitaka having many traits people see as stereotypically feminine, and irl there being female buddhist monks called bhikkhunī.

It would be very funny in the Wukongverse, with all the different Tang Monks/Tripitakas discussing their different worlds when a certain topic of dicussion comes up;

2000s!Tripitaka: "It must be very unnverving, being the lone woman in a group of men." NewLegends!Tripitaka: "Absolutely, though from what I hear, many of you came upon similar feelings in the Kingdom of Women." The masc Tripitakas: *all nodding in agreement* HeroisBack!Luier (too young to understand): "Are there any other girls on your Journeys? My mama [LEM] and Sandy are both girls." BookAccurate!Tripitaka: *mumbles under breath* Tang: "What was that?" BookAccurate!Tripitaka: "What about The Monkey King? Aren't all yours women as well? Monkeys are matriarchal." The other Tripitakas: "What???"

And that spills over into the SWK room where they're all already treating the BookAccurate!Wukong as their sister. The Wukongs who are transmasc are very understanding of the plights she faced in the Celestial Realm. Though they do tease her for trying to shave a monk's tonsure into her head fur. And they tease her for her height compared to the others (especially Dasheng who's almost 6ft tall).