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youtiaoshutiao · 5 years ago

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go go squid! eps 1-30 - thoughts

i’ve actually read the novel for this a few years ago as a teen and it was just alright in my estimation, it was cute overall and a fun read but i largely forgot about it in the past few years. checked out the drama out of curiosity as to how they’d adapt it. have watched up to ep 30 at this point and i’d say i’m rather ambivalent (though i’m still pretty engaged) so here’s some rambling about my thoughts about my watch so far.

Ngl, the first 7 eps were unbearable to watch imo. I have a super low tolerance for secondhand embarrassment when watching movies and dramas (which is why i can’t get behind some high school movies/dramas) and it was uttermost torture watching tongnian stalk her way (very incompetently too, i must add) to k&k’s resting quarters, even getting his identity wrong (despite being fully capable of baidu searching him given that she knew his full name + found out he was part of a famous team), intending to go to watch him the next day but not even thinking about buying tickets till she was actually at the event venue and then being all righteous about not buying tickets from scalpers... Worrying about causing a misunderstanding among gun’s trainees yet continually getting near him and hence causing a misunderstanding anyway... Though i knew that it was part of her character setup (high iq genius but nil experience in love?) but i couldn’t bear to watch all this unfold haha. Coupled with the very draggy endless flashback scenes and all the testosterone-pumped angst about solo (and now 30 eps in i’m very into Li Xian’s turn as han shangyan but my eyebrows were hurting watching him furrow his brow 24/7) i was almost prepared to quit but was told that everything would get better around ep 8.

And lo and behold... it did. As predicted, around ep 8/9 a switch flipped and i began to be more engaged and enjoy the drama more. I was trying to pinpoint what exactly changed my opinion and i think above all, it was the character of han shangyan that really captivated/held my interest. I started seeing gun not just as the typical 霸道总裁 trope that’s just meant to be confident and commanding and therefore hot but more as a very complex and well fleshed out human (more so than the novel i think, but i can’t really remember at this point as it’s been years, and anyway the novel is a pretty short book while this drama is considered quite long for a modern fluffy cdrama thus allowing more room for exploration).

I really appreciated seeing all the dualities to his character, e.g. his god-like status in his industry and being the idol of thousands and thousands of youth yet seeing how this celebrity status does not translate to being estimated highly by the people around him, and how it does feed into his ideas and perception of himself to a certain extent, though he is also adamant on doing what he deems right, not caring what people think. How he as a leader of k&k appears unflappable, in control, and is determined, eyes fixed on the prize; yet his softness and care for his boys and the elderly he employs and his past teammates shine through in quiet moments and little actions. He has lofty dreams and big goals and aspirations for the future of his team, yet he is also a man bogged down by tons of emotional baggage, stuck in ruts of nostalgia and guilt and unprocessed anger about the past and unable to let go of past enmities or relations. Even his small little quirks amuse/intrigue me, like his sucking on sweets whenever he’s bothered, like his weird obsession with that one Beyond song and playing it whenever he’s Brooding about his past (though it’s probably just the drama’s way of shilling Netease Music lol)

Reading Han Shangyan’s personality/character arc as such, I found myself very invested in what was happening to him/what he was doing/his interactions with the other characters in the story. Even the flashback scenes and SP team scenes that I found very droll initially and still do to a certain extent now held more of my interest as a gateway to understand HSY more. He’s definitely not a perfect character and is deeply flawed, but I appreciated that they portrayed him in such a manner as he definitely felt more real. (though when it came to how this comes into play with regards to his r/ship with Tong Nian, I had rather mixed feelings about it, which I’ll elaborate on further below)

Similarly, I also enjoyed the fleshing out of side characters like Mi Shaofei, Solo, Su Cheng, Xiao Ai etc. Mi Shaofei’s arc especially was very moving and wistful to me, seeing him have his dream of being a champion rekindled at the start of the drama and going back to be a competitive CTF athlete, yet having his age and his lack of practice cause him to not be in top form and doing badly, and eventually making the decision to retire. Seeing him express regret having quit together with Han Shangyan back in the day in a pique of anger and not having this arc resolve in a neat, fulfilling way - I really appreciated it and thought it illuminated quite a sobering reality that timing and circumstances may not always yield the best outcome, that actions from the past that you thought were the right thing to do may come back to haunt you, that you may regret your past actions, that you may have to close the door on certain things even if you really want it. And I really like Mi Shaofei’s personality as well, seeing how he has a good read on his friends’ temperaments and personalities and knows how to diffuse tense situations (especially when Han Shangyan is being prickly and abrasive), how he values the collective above himself, like being happy that SP team scores improved greatly even when the improvement came about due to his retirement. I’m glad that he now has a new path which he can work towards his original dream of being a champion, albeit in a different way that he had initially envisioned.

The main thing niggling at me/making me feel conflicted as I watch the drama is actually Tong Nian’s character/Tong Nian and HSY’s relationship. I don’t really know how to explain what exactly bothers me so much about this, but here’s a shoddy attempt:

In comparison to how well fleshed out Han Shang Yan’s character arc is, Tong Nian’s arc sadly feels very underwhelming in comparison, and I wish similar character development was afforded to her character. 30 episodes in, I literally know nothing about her inner thoughts, motivations, character etc that is not Gun-related gushing. And this is all the more a pity given that her character’s setup was so cool - being so smart and intelligent, being so advanced in a STEM field, also having such a successful online career out of her singing hobby - all these hint at such an interesting female lead, but ultimately feels like an empty shell of a person. There really is no scene where she exists independently, separate from Gun or Gun-related thoughts pervading her mind - e.g. even when she is pitching some cool project idea showcasing her computing skills to the police department, she’s hung up on Gun after breaking up with him; when she’s invigilating a class she’s still thinking about him; she’s coding some new game for him; she’s doing some debugging... but that’s because she’s devastated after he behaved in a shit way towards her; she’s at some tryouts to be the singer for the ctf theme song! she’s showcasing her singing! but somehow... the show still managed to make it all about how she’s heartbroken over him; she uploaded a new song! ... but it’s about how she’s in love with him...

The show tells me she has a life outside of her crush on Gun, but it doesn’t show it as such. Though I also understand that this is due to the drama being centered on esports and hence involving HSY more, and Tong Nian is an outsider to the esports scene and thus her own activities would not be featured as much. It is possible that should they have chosen to feature more about Tong Nian, it might have affected the cohesiveness and pacing and how tight the plot is. But but but... she is the female lead, after all?? I literally know more about Mi Shaofei than about Tong Nian, and he is a supporting character! And precisely because the show did such a good job of fleshing out HSY, whose job and aspiration and passion and friendship-related angst etc lend a lot of fodder to shape his character and that is totally unrelated to his romance with Tong Nian, Tong Nian’s character development seems really lacking in gravitas in comparison.

This sense of imbalance spills over to my perception of them as a couple. I definitely am not opposed to or feel squicked out by huge age gaps in principle, as long as there isn’t some power imbalance and no teenagers are involved. But something about the combination of Tong Nian being all about Han Shangyan (at least that’s how the drama portrayed it, even if it was unintentional) while Tong Nian is only one part of Han Shangyan’s life + Tong Nian’s almost worshipful sentiments towards Han Shangyan + the show’s tendency to highlight how much sleep or time she sacrifices to do stuff for him, on top of the huge age gap made me slightly uncomfortable...?

I think I felt it especially during the plot arc of the second break up. The events of this arc were standard asian drama angst fare - interference from well meaning but biased parent leading to melodramatic wallowing in angst and mean behaviour attempting to drive the other party away... If purely viewing this arc from the lens of character exploration, I think the (rather ridiculous) events in that arc like HSY promising Tong Nian’s mother to not bother Tong Nian anymore and all his subsequent shitty behaviour towards Tong Nian shed some light on HSY’s inner self abasement and 自卑感 and was fascinating in that regard. But then seeing how Tong Nian who definitely puts him on a pedestal just internalised all of that horrible behaviour and accepted it and even kept on excusing his actions or asking him if she had done something wrong or if he was mad at her about the cat (though i also was mad that she just got a pet as a gift without asking beforehand lolol) or if he wanted her to do anything... that was SO painful to watch. (Until he implied that he cheated on her, thankfully she drew a line at that!!) I felt like it was bordering on cold violence to some extent? Not that any part of the second break up was Tong Nian’s fault, but just the way the show portrayed Gun’s way of pushing Tong Nian away and Tong Nian’s subsequent response made it harder to just dismiss the entire saga as just pure asian drama typical noble idiocy angst and left a really bad taste in my mouth. And above all what made me quite exasperated was how in the end, HSY didn’t even apologise to Tong Nian about it, and even attempted (and was successful) to get back into her good graces by listing all the reasons why he should be pitied and hence activating Tong Nian’s ‘Han Shangyan is so pitiful and I love him and want to give him everything’ mode, and being so smug about it??

(I feel like I come off as being rather inconsistent here lolol, earlier gushing about how much I love HSY’s character and now ranting about him. I think I just feel very confused about what to feel when watching the drama, and partially I think it’s because the entire romantic plot and all the events of the drama... require some suspension of belief and are not really very cohesive or well plotted, in the sense that it doesn’t seem to flow organically together with the characters’ emotions and responses? i.e. the character’s emotions/motivations/thoughts don’t correspond to their subsequent actions and the other characters’ subsequent responses to said action doesn’t seem proportional at times. So at certain plot points like how HSY got back together with Tong Nian so easily I’m not sure if I’m supposed to feel outraged or just take it in my stride?? I’m not sure if I’m making sense)

Oh, another thing that bothered me was this weird machoism (?? not sure how to explain it) that I sensed at some parts. An example off the top of my mind would be the entire sequence of HSY and Mi Shaofei going out together after Mi Shaofei announced his retirement, with Tong Nian and Yaya trailing at their heels. Once again, from a character development angle, I enjoyed the dialogues between MSF and HSY, between MSF and Yaya. But seeing MSF and HSY pass their coats to Yaya and Tong Nian then embarking on some bromantic tension-filled run together, while Yaya and Tong Nian are left hovering around waiting for them to return and holding their coats; or seeing MSF and HSY give each other Meaningful Looks and then downing a whole bowl of alcohol in some testosterone-fuelled display of Manly Sorrow and Solidarity as Tong Nian and Yaya watch from the sides, worried... Then having Tong Nian and Yaya each attempting to comfort their respective men... idk, i think coupled with the fact that the show is centred around esports, and most of the esports characters are male, and a larger proportion the main female characters we see are not directly involved and are more on the sidelines, it just gives off the sense of like, the men in this drama having their struggles, their aspirations, their sorrows be forefront and central in the plot, while the women are just there to fawn over them and support from the sidelines and tend to the guys’ emotional needs and baby them when they are being grown children. I’m definitely not explaining this well enough and I’m not sure if my impression is valid or I’m just being a hater or being subconsciously misogynistic and projecting or something lol. I’d love to hear what anyone thinks heh.

Thankfully, that part of the plot is over and now the romance part of the drama seems to be settled and the drama I’m assuming is gearing up towards winning the championships. This is promising haha because personally feel like the esports plotline is more captivating than the romance. I sense that now that Tong Nian/Gun are a properly established relationship and both are fully on board the dynamic might change a bit so I shall see how I feel about their relationship in the last quarter of the drama!

With regards to the cast, there was all round quite solid acting imo. I thought Li Xian seemed to be overdoing it with the frowning and grouchiness initially but I think it was alright after a few eps. His microexpressions and meaning-loaded gazes and quirked-lip-smiles are pretty affecting. I watched some interviews of him and he seems really different from Gun in real life so that’s quite impressive. Plus I love his slight slouchiness when portraying Gun in the more personal scenes where the facade of gruff boss!han shangyan disappears lolol. For all my problems with the way Tong Nian’s character was portrayed, Yang Zi does a great job in her role too. I think her crying scenes have always been on point and it was no different here. Special shoutout to the actors for Mi Shaofei, Solo and Xiao Ai, who portrayed their roles really well I think!

Lastly on a random note, I’m quite amused by how the soundtrack copiously borrows from the Suddenly This Summer soundtrack, but I’m not complaining because the OST is pretty evocative and whimsical and makes me hugely nostalgic for STS :)

#go go squid!#亲爱的热爱的 #cdramanet #li xian #yang zi #李现 #杨紫 #drama watching #this is so badly written i cannot english #but i hope it makes some sense and isn't gibberish

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afishtrap · 8 years ago

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Yang Tingyun, one of the “three pillars of the early Catholic Church” in the late Ming period, has often been studied by scholars seeking to understand why he converted to Christianity and what Christian philosophy he embraced. This article shifts the focus to Yang’s secular concerns after his conversion. The article delves into the issues of Yang’s reassessment of Chinese history and political systems under the influences of Christianity and Western learning. It concludes that Yang’s Christian-centered interpretation of Chinese history and his aspirations for European-style institutions led him to question the importance of monarchy in China, with the result that he shifted his interest to the state, declaring an urgent need for pragmatic learning to strengthen state power. Citing the Jesuit fathers’ swift mastery of the Chinese classics and Western languages’ unlimited applications, Yang further became critical of the Sinocentric worldview of Chinese tradition.

Cheng, Y. "Changing Cosmology, Changing Perspectives on History and Politics: Christianity and Yang Tingyun’s 楊庭筠 (1562–1627) Reflections on China." Journal of World History, vol. 24 no. 3, 2013, pp. 499-537.

Before 1592, there is unfortunately a paucity of sources regarding Yang’s life in Hangzhou. The only extant source is the diary of Feng Mengzhen 馮夢禎 (1546–1605), a retired official from Hangzhou who enjoyed organizing scholarly parties to discuss poetry and philosophy. Through Yu Deyuan 虞德園, Yang’s tongnian classmate (i.e., people who took the same examination) for the juren degree and also a good friend of Feng’s,8 Yang became acquainted with Feng and joined Feng’s literati circle. Feng’s diary vividly records the late Ming gentry’s life at Hangzhou. The literati of Hangzhou favored tea-drinking parties over wine-drinking parties. Their gatherings were usually held by the West Lake, or at some Buddhist monasteries, and their time was spent reciting poems with service provided by singsong girls; discussing Buddhism, Daoism, or Neo-Confucian philosophy, particularly the Zhezhong 浙中 branch of the Wang Yangming 王陽明 school; and exchanging views on nourishing life, as well as on ghosts and immortals.9 Through these activities, Yang, like many scholars in Hangzhou, distinguished himself as belonging to the power holders of the local elite.10

Yang Tingyun’s name disappears from Feng’s diaries in 1591, no doubt because Yang went to Beijing to prepare for the metropolitan examination. In 1592, Yang obtained the jinshi degree, having taken the examination under the Chunqiu 春秋 (Spring and Autumn Annals) category—a specialization indicating his interest in history.11 From 1592 to 1599, Yang served as the county magistrate of Anfu, Ji’an prefecture, Jiangxi, where he had close contact with scholars of the Jiangyou 江右 branch of the Wang Yangming school—a more orthodox tendency of Wang Yangming learning.12 In 1600, Yang received his new appointment as censor; he was to serve in this capacity in various places, including both the northern and southern capitals and border regions of Sichuan, Huguan, and Jiangxi Provinces. In 1607, Yang was appointed educational superintendent in Nanjing until he retired in 1609. Yang’s career as a censor and educational superintendent shows his keen concern with matters of statecraft.13 For example, Yang courageously exposed at court the abuse of power by eunuch tax collectors and mining attendants;14 he submitted a “Memorial on Tax Reduction” (Jianque shu 減榷疏) regarding the high taxes imposed in the Jiangnan area;15 Yang sent a memorandum criticizing the mismanagement of the border issues by the involved Han Chinese officials and recommended that the government grant the native Miao chieftains rights to govern themselves in exchange for their donation of grain to the Ming government. Unfortunately, the Ming court did not consider any of these recommendations.16

Yang’s major accomplishments during his early official career were in the area of education. Earlier, as a county magistrate in Anfu, he supported the Jiangyou branch of Wang Yangming learning (see n. 12). In South Zhili, Yang supervised local schools and encouraged lecture and discussion (jiangxue 講學) activities in private academies of various schools of thought, including the Zhezhong branch of the Wang Yangming school and the Taizhou 泰州 school, a late Ming Neo-Confucian school that promoted the idea that everyone is already a sage, needing only to become aware of his or her inborn goodness of heart. He donated funds to build a private academy that honored Fang Xiaoru 方孝儒 (1357–1402), the early Ming scholar who continued to be loyal to Emperor Jianwen 建文 and was executed in 1402 together with his relatives of all ten degrees by order of Emperor Yongle 永樂 (1340– 1424);17 he also inscribed the words “Early Awakening Hall” (Xiangjue tang 先覺堂) on the tablet of the private academy that honored Wang Gen 王艮 (1483–1541), founder of the Taizhou school.18 Most important, he paid special attention to publication of books, including his father’s Yangshi shuxun 楊氏塾訓 (Instructions for the Yang Family School) in 1603; Xinggua bian 省括編 (Book of Examining the Arrow), compiled in 1606 by Yao Wenwei 姚文蔚, who was Yang’s tongnian classmate in the jingshi examination; and Qiu Jun’s 邱濬 Jiali yijie 家禮儀節 (Ceremonial Use of Family Rituals) in 1608.19 Yang sponsored the publication of these books and wrote a preface for each. Among these publications, a particular interest of this study is Xinggua bian, which may have served as the primary source for Yang to complete his Dushi ping.20 But as we shall see below, these two books are quite different in nature and say a great deal about the different kinds of historians Yang Tingyun, a Confucian Christian, and Yao Wenwei, a Confucian, represent.

[...]

In 1611, Li Zhizao’s father died. Li invited Nicholas Trigault 金尼閣 (1577–1628), Lazzaro Cattaneo 郭居靜 (1560–1640), and Sebastino Fernandes 鍾鳴仁 (1562–1621) to his hometown, Renhe, to officiate at his father’s funeral ceremonies. While offering his condolences to Li Zhizao, Yang had some discussions with the Jesuit fathers; he became fascinated with the ideas that the Jesuit fathers expounded and even invited them to his house for more thorough discussions. When he requested baptism, the fathers rejected him because his having a concubine violated one of the Ten Commandments. After resolving this issue, Yang Tingyun converted to Catholicism and was baptized with the Christian name Michael (Migezi 彌格子).26 Why Yang converted to Christianity remains unresolved; conclusions of this study propose such reasons as Yang’s high regard for Christianity’s emphasis on the “moral solidity and practicality of moral values based on human relations,” his comparison of Buddhist monks’ morality with that of the Jesuits through the issue of taking concubines, and Yang’s shifting the sources of moral authority from Buddhist stress on inner authority to Christian emphasis on external authority.27 At any rate, upon his conversion to Catholicism, Yang destroyed his Buddhist statues, stopped communication with Buddhist monks, and constructed a Christian church for the Jesuit fathers and their friends. He then tried to convince his family members to become Christians. His family—father, mother, wife, and children, but not his brother—were baptized.28

[...]

These facts, in light of the passage translated above, seem to indicate that while, on the one hand, Yang was devoted to the Jesuit fathers and the Christian community, on the other, he continued to have indirect communications with Buddhism as he still enjoyed contact with scholars of the Taizhou school and of the Wang Yangming persuasion. It is no surprise that Yang, Chinese Christians, and the Jesuit fathers (in their Chinese writings) often referred to their coreligionists as tongzhi (like-minded comrades); they often called their gatherings jiangxi (a variation of jiangxue), meaning lecture and discussion meetings, like most of the Taizhou scholars used.

[...]

Although the anti-Christian movement in 1616–1617 was disastrous for the Jesuit fathers in China, it led to an unusual opportunity for Yang Tingyun to intensify his religious pursuit. When the first anti- Christian movement occurred, six Jesuit fathers—Nicolò Longobardo 龍華民 (1559–1654), Lazzaro Cattaneo, Nicolas Trigault, Giulio Aleni, Pierre Van Spiere 史惟真 (1584–1628), and Francesco Sambiasi 畢方濟 (1582–1649)—came to Hangzhou to seek protection from Yang Tingyun and Li Zhizao. Yang constructed a wing in his house for their place of lodging and worship. As these missionaries lived in his house, Yang enjoyed daily contact with the fathers and learned the fine points of Christian theology and sacraments.36

Among these Jesuit fathers, Aleni perhaps had the most influence on Yang. The months of forced inactivity in the wake of the anti- Christian outbreak gave Aleni the chance to improve his knowledge of China from Yang Tingyun and Chinese Christians in Hangzhou. Aleni stayed in Yang’s house for a year. When the prohibition on Christianity was relaxed in 1618, Aleni frequently traveled to instruct Catholic converts in Shanghai and Hangzhou. In 1620 Aleni came to Hangzhou again to give advice on the religious ceremonies regarding the death of Li Zhizao’s mother. There, Aleni, Yang Tingyun, Li Zhizao, and some Jesuit fathers, including Trigault and Francois Furtado 傅泛際 (1587– 1653), enjoyed very friendly and thorough discussions about Christian doctrine. Sometime in 1620, Aleni left Hangzhou but returned the next year, in 1621, and stayed until 1624, when Ye Xianggao 葉向高 (1562–1627), the grand secretary who had just retired, invited him to Fuzhou to disseminate Christian teachings.37

#china #ming dynasty #early modern #christianity #research

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