#related to my thing about writing women in toyetic media

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

Series of somewhat related thoughts that are on my mind but I can’t seem to synchronise into one thing, so here they all are in bullet point form.

I’d recently watched this documentary about how Lego developed their Journey to the West themed IP as a way of breaking into the China market. And it’s like, interesting. But I guess I don’t feel super jazzed about the whole thing even if I enjoyed the cartoon that was made, because both Legos and Journey to the West have always just been around since I was a kid, and I do know that this is all effectively a way for a company to make more money, at the end of the day.

Some stuff from the documentary stood out for me though. Like, mostly because this was all very framed as Westerners trying to ‘understand’ Chinese people and Chinese culture. It’s pretty clear who the assumed audience of the documentary series is. And I kind of want to see how a Chinese team would make such a documentary.

There was also the fact that the Chinese executives were very much framed as like upholding ‘the standard’ for Chinese cultural products. Which does raise some questions in my mind. Namely, how do we define who is Chinese, and who gets to be the ‘gatekeepers’ of Chinese culture? It’s a group which encompasses over a billion people. Which standards and ideological wells are these executives drawing from?

In particular there was talk about how they wanted to portray Mei. She was included to balance out the (still very male-dominated) gender ratios, and to ‘modernise’ the story in that regard. And she did get some notes about irreverence/impoliteness and how that may be jarring to Chinese audiences. Which is like. Hm. So this is something I think about a lot. Something something Singaporean Chinese autistic woman with an interest in feminist thought and action, as well as writing female characters.

Kind of want to take a look at how other Lego properties write their female leads, the ones aimed at a ‘western’ audience. See what the differences are. (Mei seems a bit more respectful of her ancestry than average, is my current impression.)

There was also a comment about how initially Sandy (the Sha Seng stand-in) came off as a little ‘feminine’ at first. That was a note that the executives wished to change as an attempt to appeal to Chinese children (boys really; their test audiences were all boys). Which is like, interesting. Coming from someone who is familiar with what the local queer community does, I know for a fact that Journey to the West themed drag is very much a thing. (Granted, they tend to riff more on like, Tripataka/Tang Seng, and Sha Seng is deemed as more ‘masculine’ these days, but still...!)

The thought of picking up drag or crossdressing is coming up to me again. Should I do Sha Seng themed drag if I ever do?

It was interesting watching mostly white writers trying to ‘portray’ Chinese culture. Doing all this research. Going to China and getting their scripts reviewed over and over again by Chinese executives. In the sense that when I watched the cartoon with my retired Primary School Mandarin teacher godmother, she did say that the cartoon ultimately still felt very USAmerican. (And I was with her on that lol, it still very much felt like it was drawing on the trends and traditions of that genre of work more often than not.)

I also recently read this article about cultural authenticity by Vietnamese-American Som-Mai Ngyuen. And some points that were made in the article being fresh on my mind + the documentary talking about trying to authentically represent China is well... making me feel a certain way I can’t really put to words.

Incidentally I’m reading a book about Chinese factory workers published in the 2000s. China’s moving away from that now, and the race to the bottom means that a lot of Western companies are looking for work in different countries. Like Bangladesh and yes, Vietnam.

Lego has at least one Vietnamese factory coming up. It’s apparently carbon neutral and costs a billion dollars. They’re using biodegradable sugar cane plastic now. Who’s farming the sugar cane?

It’s a good cartoon and I had fun with it. I watched the Mandarin dub. Should I watch the English dub? I kind of want to. Maybe some day my Mandarin will be proficient enough such that I could compare and contrast and see how the experience differs.

It’s very emblematic of a lot of things still. A lot of things.

I should read like Beowulf or something and try to see if I could write something weird with it.

I dunno man. These are all just brain noises, and I guess I am only one perspective on these things. I hope someone gleaned something interesting from my thoughts though.

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

I'm still working on my current WIP, which isn't really Shonen with Women. This is to practice finishing projects from beginning to end, from conceptualisation to posting. And I'm making good progress on that, writing 400 words a day.

And I do have a list of works I want to finish before engaging with a lot of Shonen umbrella works (presently it's all the books I bought but haven't read yet -> Bayonetta 1 and 2 -> finish Sailor Moon). This is to clear my watch/read/play list because I get to anything new. (And if I'm not done with my WIP yet, it may be more toyetic media so as to continuously motivate me to write; I tend to do best researching as I write).

I think I do want to share some ideas I have right now though. Also some thing which I want to do first.

My next WIP is probably a bit closer to SWW, even if it wasn't really conceptualised as such. It's post-apocalyptic fiction, it explores gender relations, I play around with tropes and cliches, I'm hoping to make it relevant to SEAsia as a story. And the current protagonist I'm conceptualising is probably going to be something special. When I write original fiction I tend to just make up ocs as I go along, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what she is even before putting down a word. She's blorbo from my brain to me.

I know I want to do yuri. One appeal from Shonen already is the homoeroticism. I think we should have Shonen yuri, as a result. Like just. Shonen lesbians. And avoid the heteronormativity prevalent in the genre too (it's both a heteronormative and homoerotic genre, funnily enough). Make them canon lesbians.

Though it would also probably be interesting to explore F/M in such a setting. I had discussed this with a friend before, but basically she pointed out that a part of the reason for Shonen's heteronormativity is because of the misogyny, because men typically aren't expected to really be invested in women's inner lives. So playing around with gender there could also be interesting. (My F/M couples will also likely be queer in some way, bi4bi, T4T, A4A, or any combination of them.)

I also do want to see if I can write a work that's also rooted in an aspec sensibility. This is mostly to do my part in creating an aspec culture in some way, beyond the flags and the emojis and the basic 101 stuff. I know it's possible within this genre. I mean, just look at the popularity of One Piece! I can do that but with more girls, I'm sure.

As for characters and themes, I think it'll be interesting to have a work about exploring the politics of disgust. Especially as it pertains to women/intersectional feminism. I'm even envisioning a protagonist already. I want her to have some sort of 'gross' power. And I know I want her to be curious about it. Like, if she can control people's large intestines, I want her to want to know what that means. If she learns she controls large intestines via talking to the bacteria in them, I want her to do things like buy some Yakult or fish meat out of a dumpster and try and see if she can communicate with that too. I want a curious protagonist, because I think they're fun to write.

I think I should be open towards the various subgenres found under the Shonen umbrella. Competition to be the very best, battle series, superhero, mecha, what have you.

I do kind of have a concept for a story that plays on 'elemental masters'. And especially when elements go beyond the Wuxing elements/the four classical elements (think stuff like the element of ice, sand, tech, what have you). Mostly, this is because a surprisingly large amount of Western Shonen is like this. I want to see if I can play around with it and do my own version. (Also more focus on female leads lololol.)

I want to read some classics like the Iliad and other epics, because they are very much proto-Shonen in a lot of ways.

I also think it would be really funny if I watched Ninjago and read Naruto simultaneously. BUT every time I finish a season of Ninjago I watch a woman-centred Asian film and every time I finish an arc of Naruto I read a Japanese novel written by a woman. And at the end I read the Wikipedia page on ninjas. I don't know what this will do to my brain exactly, but it will probably do something to my brain.

In all seriousness though, I think I would like to do silly exercises like that to ensure I keep getting ideas. Just need to think of more thematically appropriate silly exercises to do after that.

But yeah. Assuming I finish my watchlist, I guess the media I'll prioritise engaging with first is peripheral SWW, Shonen with female leads, and Shonen written by women. We'll see where all of that takes me afterwards. My watchlists tend to be fickle, but yeah. I guess I have a rough plan. Just gotta fuck around and find out where I go after that.