#without some larger impetus than access to jiang family rights and privileges | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

whetstonefires · 6 months ago

Text

I think it's reached the status of pet peeve for me at this point, how common it is in the fandom for people to assume that adoption into the Jiang family was a unilateral good, that Wei Wuxian definitely wanted and which was withheld from him, thereby proving he was not valued enough by his sect and teacher.

Partly just because that's boring, and leads to boring interpretations of the characters, personal opinion.

Partly because it often tends to reflect an uncritical absorption of the in-universe classist belief that being the son of Wei Changze was inherently valueless, and not worth keeping for its own sake.

And maybe especially because I'm starting to feel like it arises from an overall really flat perception of adoption as an institution, that American fans of a Chinese piece of fiction should maybe subject to more scrutiny.

#hoc est meum #mdzs #meta #griping #the overseas adoption industry #taking a kid in and showering him in material resources and opportunities is Good #adopting him offers security #but it also takes away his freedom and prior identity #giving up your family name isn't a small matter!#so in some ways adoption is actually a really fucked up thing to do in this scenario! given the impossibility of free consent #from a situation of total dependency #one of the costs jgy paid for his name #was calling a woman who hated him Mother and owing her every filial duty #i honestly think wwx would not have chosen to pay that cost #without some larger impetus than access to jiang family rights and privileges #disclaimer interesting things can definitely be done *with* the idea of wwx wanting adoption etc #but most of them are harder to achieve in the context of assuming this was both unmitigatedly true and obvious to everybody

38 notes · View notes