#xiaogan

[irfmss]

[xubob]

[todayworldnews2k21]

Xi inspects central China's Hubei Province

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspected the cities of Xiaogan and Xianning, central China’s Hubei Province, from Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning. Xi visited a museum, a vegetable farm and a village to learn about efforts to enhance the protection, research and use of cultural relics, and efforts to promote rural revitalization.

[birpaylass]

Çin'de 21 kişi hayatını kaybetti

BirPaylaş Paylaşım Platformu https://birpaylas.com/cinde-21-kisi-hayatini-kaybetti.html

Çin'de 21 kişi hayatını kaybetti

Çin’de 21 kişi hayatını kaybetti

Çin’in Hubei kentinde 8 ağustostan beri devam eden yağışlar ve sel nedeniyle 21 kişinin hayatını kaybettiği 4 kişiden haber alınamadığı açıklandı.

Çin Acil Durum Yönetimi Bakanlığı’ndan yapılan açıklamada, sel ve yağışlardan en çok etkilenen bölgelere yüzlerce itfaiyeci, polis ve  askerin sevk edildiği belirtildi. Çin’de 21 kişi hayatını kaybetti Hubei Eyaletindeki Sui İlçe Otoritesinden yapılan bir basın açıklamasında, Sui, Liulin’de toplam yağışın yerel saatle 21:00 itibariyle 503 mm’ye ulaştığı ve Çarşamba ve Perşembe günleri arasında ortalama 3,5 metre derinlikte sellere neden olduğu belirtildi. Açıklandığı gibi, felaket 8.000 kişiyi etkiledi. Afetten etkilenen insanları ve kurtarma çalışmaları tüm hızıyla devam ettiğini açıkladı.

Reklam ( Çin Haberleri )

Dünya Haberleri 

Çin’de 21 kişi hayatını kaybetti 

Hubei Eyaleti Kriz Yönetimi Departmanından dün yapılan açıklamada, Hubei’nin 68 ilçesinin her birinin 100 mm’den fazla yağış aldığı söylendi. Departman, Xiangyang, Suizhou ve Xiaogan şehirlerindeki 286.100 kişinin Perşembe günü yerel saate göre çarşambadan öğlene kadar şiddetli yağmur fırtınalarına maruz kaldığını ve yaklaşık 6.000 kişinin tahliye edildiğini belirtti. Ayrıca, Hubei Afet Riski Azaltma Komisyonu ve Acil Durum Yönetim Departmanı tarafından dün Suizhou Şehrine çadır ve katlanır yatak vb. ihtiyaçlar gönderildi.

[kneedeepincynade]

We have seen the land and the air,now let's see what China has on the sea to fight taiwan

The post is machine translated

The translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

⚠️ QUALI FORZE VERREBBERO UTILIZZATE DALL'ESERCITO POPOLARE DI LIBERAZIONE NELL'AMBITO DI UN'OPERAZIONE MILITARE NELLO STRETTO DI TAIWAN? - PARTE 3, MARINA MILITARE ⚠️

🌸 Per chi si fosse perso l'Analisi sulle Forze di Terra e sull'Aeronautica Militare, le può recuperare qui:

1️⃣ Forze di Terra 🪖

2️⃣ Aeronautica Militare ✈️

🪖 Secondo China Army, le Forze della Marina Militare utilizzate nell'ambito di un'Operazione Militare nello Stretto sarebbero:

⛴ FLOTTA DEL NORD:

➖ Portaerei "Liaoning" - [POST] 🚢

➖ Cacciatorpediniere con Armi Missilistiche Guidate (AMG) Nanchang", Type 055 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Sinin", Type 052D 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Ürümqi", Type 052D 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Chengdu", Type 052D 💥

➖ Nave di Supporto di Classe Hulunhu, Type 901 🪖

⛴ FLOTTA ORIENTALE:

➖ Nave da Assalto Anfibio "Kunlun Shan", Type 071 🔥

➖ Nave da Sbarco "Laoteshan", Type 072A 🪖

➖ Nave da Trasporto e Sbarco "Songshan", Type 073A 🪖

➖ Nave da Sbarco per Elicotteri "Guangxi", Type 075 🚁

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Xi'an" Type 052C 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Zhengzhou" Type 052C 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Changchun" Type 052C 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Taiyuan" Type 052D 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Nanchino" Tipo 052D 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Zibo" Tipo 052D 💥

➖ Cacciatorpediniere AMG "Xiamen" Type 052D 💥

➖ Fregata AMG "Anyang" Type 054A 🔥

➖ Fregata AMG "Huanggang" Type 054A 🔥

➖ Fregata URO "Zhoushan" Type 054A 🔥

➖ Fregata AMG "Xiangtan" Type 054A 🔥

➖ Fregata AMG "Anyang" Type 054A 🔥

➖ Corvetta "Xiaogan" Type 056A 🌊

➖ Corvetta "Huayhua" Type 053H3 🌊

➖ Nave da Ricognizione e Sorveglianza Elettronica "Tianquanxing", Type 815A ⚡️

⛴ FLOTTA MERIDIONALE:

➖ Portaerei "Shandong" - [POST] 🚢

➖ Nave da Sbarco per Elicotteri "Hainan" Type 075 🚁

➖ Attualmente, non ci sono altre informazioni sulla Flotta Meridionale 📄

🇨🇳 Per quanto riguarda la Marina Militare, la Cina, per quantità, è al Primo Posto al Mondo in questi settori:

➖ Numero di Navi da Guerra 🥇

➖ Numero di Fregate 🥇

➖ Numero di Sottomarini 🥇

➖ Copertura Totale delle Vie Navigabili 🥇

🇨🇳 Per quanto riguarda la Marina Militare, la Cina, per quantità, è al Secondo Posto al Mondo in questi settori:

➖ Numero di Portaerei 🥈

➖ Numero di Cacciatorpedinieri 🥈

➖ Numero di Corvette 🥈

➖ Flotta di Navi per la Mine / Counter-Mine Warfare 🥈

La portaerei Liaoning e il suo gruppo di battaglia stanno svolgendo un esercitazione vicino Taiwan

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ WHICH FORCE WOULD BE USED BY THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY IN THE CONTEXT OF A MILITARY OPERATION IN THE TAIWAN STRAIT? - PART 3, NAVY ⚠️

🌸 For those who missed the Analysis of the Ground Forces and the Air Force, you can find them here:

1️⃣ Ground Forces 🪖

2 ️ ⃣ Air Force ✈️

🪖 According to China Army, the Forces of the Navy used in the context of a Military Operation in the Straits would be:

⛴ NORTHERN FLEET:

➖ Aircraft carrier "Liaoning" - [POST] 🚢

➖ Guided Missile Weapon (AMG) Destroyer Nanchang", Type 055 💥

➖ AMG destroyer "Sinin", Type 052D 💥

➖ AMG Destroyer "Ürümqi", Type 052D 💥

➖ AMG Destroyer "Chengdu", Type 052D 💥

➖ Hulunhu-class Support Vessel, Type 901 🪖

⛴ EASTERN FLEET:

➖ Amphibious Assault Ship "Kunlun Shan", Type 071 🔥

➖ Landing Ship "Laoteshan", Type 072A 🪖

➖ Transport and Landing Ship "Songshan", Type 073A 🪖

➖ Helicopter Landing Ship "Guangxi", Type 075 🚁

➖ AMG destroyer "Xi'an" Type 052C 💥

➖ AMG destroyer "Zhengzhou" Type 052C 💥

➖ AMG destroyer "Changchun" Type 052C 💥

➖ AMG destroyer "Taiyuan" Type 052D 💥

➖ AMG destroyer "Nanjing" Type 052D 💥

➖ AMG Destroyer "Zibo" Type 052D 💥

➖ AMG destroyer "Xiamen" Type 052D 💥

➖ AMG frigate "Anyang" Type 054A 🔥

➖ AMG Frigate "Huanggang" Type 054A 🔥

➖ URO frigate "Zhoushan" Type 054A 🔥

➖ AMG frigate "Xiangtan" Type 054A 🔥

➖ AMG frigate "Anyang" Type 054A 🔥

➖ Corvette "Xiaogan" Type 056A 🌊

➖ Corvette "Huayhua" Type 053H3 🌊

➖ Electronic Survey and Surveillance Vessel "Tianquanxing", Type 815A ⚡️

⛴ SOUTHERN FLEET:

➖ Aircraft carrier "Shandong" - [POST] 🚢

➖ Helicopter Landing Ship "Hainan" Type 075 🚁

➖ Currently, there is no other information about the Southern Fleet 📄

🇨🇳 As for the Navy, China, by quantity, is in first place in the world in these sectors:

➖ Number of Warships 🥇

➖ Number of Frigates 🥇

➖ Number of Submarines 🥇

➖ Full Coverage of Waterways 🥇

🇨🇳 As for the Navy, China, by quantity, is in Second Place in the World in these sectors:

➖ Number of Aircraft Carriers 🥈

➖ Number of Destroyers 🥈

➖ Number of Corvettes 🥈

➖ Fleet of Ships for Mine / Counter-Mine Warfare 🥈

The Liaoning aircraft carrier battle group is doing drills near Taiwan

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

[magica-pseudoacademica]

In Laozi's opinion, the best ruler does not force the people to do anything and makes no display of his own kindness or virtue - the people only know of his existence, and have no need to understand him. This is the "empty throne" ruler of the Daoist ideal. The next best ruler acts in ways that excite the admiration and affection of the people; this is the sagely ruler of the Confucian ideal. The next best ruler instills fear in his subjects; this is what is commonly referred to as a benighted ruler. Even worse is the ruler who inflicts hardships upon his subjects and earns himself nothing but insults and abuse. This is what is referred to as a violent ruler. An intelligent ruler is unhurried and at ease, and is a person of few words. All tasks are accomplished to his satisfaction and yet the people do not realize that he has done a thing, thinking rather that it all came about naturally. "Naturalness" here is a kind of ideal state.

Liu Xiaogan, “An Inquiry into the Core Value of Laozi’s Philosophy” in Religious and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi (1999)

[eideard]

Global Pic of the Month Doctors look at a lung CT image in a hospital in Xiaogan City in China PHOTOGRAPH BY STR/AFP Doesn't matter where this photo was taken. What counts is in the image.

[irfmss]

[draechaeli]

Hubei Teas Possibly Drunk in YunmengJiang

This is a companion for my MDZS Reverse Big Bang WangXian fic A Date at Lotus Pier. So, readers can see pictures and tea enthusiasts that find this post first can read fic.

To start off today’s Yunmeng is a district in Xiaogan (孝感) City, Hubei Province.

In my own head-canon YunmengJiang’s territory encompasses the entire of Hubei province

This includes no teas from Yunmeng district, but two from Xiaogan and one from Xianning (咸宁), Hubei that in my experience is a rarer type of tea, and then a Lipton tea that sounds Lotus Pier like.

I have a glass tea pot and no way to keep it heated. My general habit is to steep tea extra-long, pour about half a mug, and then fill the rest with boiling water from the kettle. It generally maintains flavour and heat well.

Unless stated otherwise, I let the tea steep for about three minutes then snaped the picture and took the initial taste, before letting it steep longer.

 Tea names link to Taobao and some of the pictures of brewing instructions are from the taobao pages as well.

Xiaogan Teas

I found the teas on this site and picked the ones that I could get the names in Chinese for: Zhouxiang Phoenix Tea (周巷凤凰茶) and Dawu Green Tea (大悟绿茶). And then I put the names in Taobao and bought the ones that came up, looked like the pictures from the original site, and shipped from Xiaogan.

Zhouxiang Tea

I put the Chinese into Taobao but I did not get a Phoenix tea instead I ended up getting a Zhouxiang Longjing Roasted Qing Tea (周巷龙井明前炒青茶). A green tea of the qing cha (青茶) variety picked before Qingming Festival and roasted.

Qing is a colour that is officially translated to English as cyan. But gets contemporarily translated as blue, green, or black. Because qing is a colour that really talks more about the shade/tone then the actual colour.

It had the same flat leaf style as the Phoenix tea according to the original website. The original website said: the leaves are bright and green as well as long and flat, and it has a long-lasting fragrance.

Brewing Instruction According to the Seller on Taobao:

Warm the cup by pouring in hot water and swirling it around then discard it

Add about 3-5 g tea to cup

Pour in 90°C water until it just covers the tea leaves and let soak for about two minutes

Fill up the cup with 85-90°C water at a ratio of 1:50

I made a tea pot. I always do step one when making tea. There was a sample packet of tea, so I used that instead of opening the tin of tea. My teapot has a strainer cup so I couldn’t really do step 3 like in the picture, but I did my best, I also didn’t check water temperature I just let the kettle sit for a few moments after it had boiled.

The flavour didn’t change noticeable after the initial tasting.

Tea Features

The tea I bought was not nearly as green as I was led to believe, it was noticeably greener than the other teas.

The flavour profile started out bitter and then mellowed out.

It also cleansed the palette

The palette cleansing was very noticeable

I had drunk a yoghurt-based breakfast shake before the tea and the sour yoghurt after taste disappeared.

I still had tea at lunch and had a supreme pizza with garlic butter dipping sauce for the crust and the tea cleansed that as well.

Later, I knew I was going to have dumplings for lunch including a dipping of black vinegar (香醋), minced garlic, and chili oil/sauce (香辣酱). I purposely made this tea and it worked better than any breath mint. 

Dawu Green Tea 

Dawu green tea was collected before the rain from an alpine climate (大悟雨前一级高山绿茶). There is a subset of Dawu tea call Wudao (悟道) which I believe is what I got in a big bag even thought that whole long name was in the Taobao sellers title for the tea. It also came with samples so I brewed the Dawu specific sample. But I could still be telling you about the wrong tea.

Brewing Instruction According to the Seller on Taobao:

Pour in hot water, warm cup, and discard; add 3g of tea

Fill the 1/3 of the cup; gently shake and fully wet leaves

Fill the cup with water and the tea leaves will unfurl slowly; you can drink it in a moment

This was made in the same pot with the same adaptations as the last tea, minus attempting to let the kettle cool.

Tea Features

Yellow-ish colour lighter than that of the white tea with lotus leaves (see below).

The taste was completely mellow from start to finish and very light.

 Chuanzi Zhaoliqiao

It is a black brick tea from Xianning. It is alternately called black tea/hei cha (黑茶) and qing cha (青茶). Since I had mentioned to my co-workers that I wanted to drink hei cha and this is the taobao link I was given from the co-worker who grew up in Xianning I’m counting it as a hei cha.

Why This Tea Was Included

Hei cha literally translates to black tea. When I first arrived in China in 2012, I would tell people that I liked all kinds of tea but ‘black tea’ was my favourite. This was up in Shandong province, but I remember my friends from Guangdong province being some of the biggest protesters.

Black tea like British Breakfast, or anything else someone in any English-speaking country would call black is called red tea/ hong cha (红茶) in China. I was told by many Chinese people that ‘black tea’ didn’t exist.

When I went to the Longjing Tea Museum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang in 2015 I learned that all tea that has tea in it (not herbal and some flower teas) comes from the tea plant. What makes it white, green, qing, red, black, etc. is how the leaves are prepared sun-dried, baked, rolled, chopped, etc. And ‘black tea’ was shown called ‘dark tea’ in English. I took a picture of the Chinese description and showed it to all my nay-sayers, at the time. But apparently only took pictures of Green Tea (Lü Cha/绿茶), Black Tea (red tea/ hong cha/红茶), and Dark Tea black tea/hei cha/黑茶), so I don’t have the blurb for Qing Tea, White Tea, etc.

Seven years later, minus that one co-worker from Xianning every time I’ve mentioned dark tea I’ve been told that it doesn’t exist. So, this is included because I like the idea of YunmengJiang have this ‘rare tea’ that they can pull out when needed.

~*~

This tea comes in a very solid brick that isn’t crumbly at all. The Seller said to use a tea knife and I assumed that either a tea knife would come be included or some other knife in my kitchen would work. I was wrong.

I tried, butter, paring, and fruit knives, and ended up sawing off a corner of the brick with a bread knife. I ended up with mostly tea dust and it took forever to get 8-10g.

Buy a tea knife it is very similar to a leather working awl.

Brewing Instruction According to the Seller on Taobao:

      1.  Using tea knife remove 8-10 g

      2.  Boil water in pot on stove top

      3.  Put tea into pot

      4.  Simmer tea until the tea is thick

      5.  Strain leaves

I made mine in a sauce pan since I didn’t have a fancy stove teapot. Since the Zhouxiang Tea was 3-5 g for a cup, I used 750ml of water the size of my teapot for this and all teas.

Tea Features (some of which I used the sellers words for):

Deep reddish-brown liquid

It has a faint woody smell

A “distinct” aroma of almonds according to the seller, I would say faint and more pronounced in the milk tea version

It is thick but there were no hints of bitterness

It is mellow but not mellow like the Dawu tea.

It was favoured by the Mongols for hundreds of years according to the seller. They prize this tea as one of the best for making tea in their own style. Done in the Mongolian style. It is mixed with milk and a bit of salt.

Mongolian Style Brewing Instruction According to the Seller on Taobao:

(continue from previous directions)

      6.    Continue cooking the tea for a while

      7.    Stir, the Chinese says “raise the tea with a spoon”

      8.    Add appropriate amounts of fresh milk and salt

      9.    Stir until blended

      10.  Boil the tea again until fragrant

I did not measure the amount of milk, I just added milk until I thought it looked like milk tea. I used goat’s milk since that is what I have. I only added a pinch of salt, I figured I could add more if need but I could taste the salt, so I didn’t add more.

Tea Features

Creamy brown

Smells somehow sweeter but doesn’t taste sweeter.

Smelled more of almonds

The milk and salt brought out the woodsy taste that makes the tip of one’s tongue dry and left a faint salt taste under and on the sides of the tongue.

I bought a tea knife because I bought 2kgs of tea by accident.

And made a second pot with it which is the pot that I took the milk tea picture with. I didn’t dig in as deep as the seller’s picture shows for how to remove tea from the brick. I would suggest breaking off the tea on a large cloth/clean table. As even with the tea knife it was still hard to do and bits of tea got everywhere and had to sweep the leaves off the table and into a bowl.

Lipton White Lotus Leaf Tea

It was included because it sounded YunmengJiang what with Wei WuXian’s Lotus Wine is CQL. It is a tea that I found in my local grocery store and had been buying since I first saw it a couple years ago. Is part of a series of teas in triangular tea bags. I tried other in the series, but I like the flavour of this one the most.

Taobao has a lot of lotus leaf teas (荷叶茶) and other white lotus leaf teas (荷叶白茶) that aren’t Lipton, but on this one I was just lazy instead of ordering a new one. The couple I looked at on Taobao were not from Hubei but there was a lotus leaf tea from Henan.

Brewing Instruction According to the Seller on Taobao:

Put tea bag in cup

Add about 250ml of water at 90°C

Wait three minutes

Remove the bag “Shake the bag 5 times” and drink

I use two teabags in my pot, and it still has a good strong taste after three minutes.

Tea Features

Yellow-ish colour

Mellow taste that moves to bitter taste

[sashabarkov]

for the prompts: xuanli, 42 (matching clothes)

Modern AU. Jin Zixuan is a trans woman in this because I said so; it’s my turn to trans some genders.

When Jiang Yanli gets back from her errands, Jin Zixuan is settled on the couch by the door with her feet tucked up under her, scrolling through something on her tablet. She scrambles up when Jiang Yanli walks in, rushing over to help her out of the three scarves and two jackets that Jiang Yanli needs to survive winters here, and despite the way she can barely feel her face, she can’t help but lean up and kiss her wife as soon as the scarves are out of the way.

It’s only their third winter in Toronto, and she still isn’t used to the biting cold and just how much snow the wind can tuck into the folds of her jacket. Her childhood in Xiaogan had rarely featured snow, and while her wife’s had seen it slightly more frequently, it’s nothing compared to the ice and slush that coat the streets and sidewalks here—or more rarely, when the winds change, the lake effect snow that can plunge the entire city into a whiteout. The move was necessary, to get them out of the long reach of Jin Zixuan’s father, but during these long winter months, she can’t deny that she misses the easier winters almost as much as she misses her brothers.

Jin Zixuan slips into the kitchen while Jiang Yanli is coaxing her boots off, and returns with hand sanitizer and a freshly brewed cup of tea just as the boots finally acquiesce. She accepts gratefully, letting the warmth seep into her stiff fingers as her wife hangs up her second coat and tugs her over to the couch, settling them together and wrapping a blanket around them before picking up the tablet again. The cold doesn’t hit Jin Zixuan anywhere near as hard, but she loves to use it as an excuse to cuddle, and Jiang Yanli definitely doesn’t mind.

In no time at all, her hands are warm again, and she sets the empty cup aside and reaches for her wife’s hair, smiling as Jin Zixuan scoots around to face away from her and give her greater access. It’s a nightly tradition for them, an expression of love and closeness and affirmation all in one. Sometimes, on the nights when she needs a distraction, the hairstyles are intricate, but tonight she keeps it simple, plaiting a single thick braid running down her wife’s back.

Jin Zixuan hums contentedly, reaching behind her to squeeze Jiang Yanli’s hand lovingly, before turning back to the tablet.

“What are you looking at?” Jiang Yanli asks as she nears the end of the braid.

Jin Zixuan blushes, the bashful, endearing one that she gets when she wants something but doesn’t know how to ask for it. “I’m—eh, it’s just silly, really, but. I, um...

She holds up the tablet, and Jiang Yanli rises up on her knees to get a better look at the screen. It shows a pair of t-shirts, heather gray, with pastel rainbow lettering on the front that says “I’M HERS”, and arrows below the words pointing towards each other.

A burst of affection swells up within Jiang Yanli’s chest. She knows her wife loves her—Jin Zixuan has gotten so much more open about showing it, now that she’s more comfortable with herself—but every such moment still feels precious. Besides, this isn’t just a tender exchange between the two of them; this is, no matter how silly, a larger proclamation.

She smiles, tying off the end of the braid with a well-worn ribbon. “I like it.”

Jin Zixuan ducks her head. “It’s dumb,” she mumbles. “Tacky.”

“It makes you happy.” Jiang Yanli leans forward and settles herself against her wife’s back, sweeping Jin Zixuan’s fresh braid aside and pressing a kiss on the side of her neck. “And when you’re happy, that makes me happy too.”

“There’s better things to spend our money on,” Jin Zixuan objects half-heartedly. She’s not the best with money, still struggling to beat the habits she was raised with, but getting cut out of the Jin family fortune has left its mark.

Jiang Yanli hums and reaches over her wife’s shoulder to hit the ‘Add to Cart’ button. “It’s two shirts, we can afford it. If it makes you happy, then it’s worth it.” She tugs on Jin Zixuan’s arm until her wife twists around to look at her. “And if you kiss me, I’ll let you in on a secret.”

Jin Zixuan sighs, gently exasperated. “I’d do that anyway, A-Li,” she says, and sets the tablet aside to lean in properly. It’s a good kiss, warm and slow and tender, and when they finish she doesn’t pull away, just resettles them so that Jiang Yanli is tucked against her chest, ear pressed to her collarbone, listening to her heartbeat echo steadily underneath.

“So? What’s the secret?”

Jiang Yanli smiles into her wife’s shirt. “It would make me happy too.”

[argumate]

Just a bit more on the new measures in the city of Xiaogan, that confine residents to their homes ... on Friday, the state media outlet, Xinhua, reported that all residents in the city would not be allowed to exit and re-enter their communities or residential areas. Today’s announcement appears to be a further escalation of this.

Xinhua reported that “community committees” would deliver daily necessities to residents and that buying services would be provided for urgently-needed goods. This is something we have also seen in Wuhan, with community workers delivering items to residents.

there’s almost a palpable sense of relief that the virus gives such a good reason for an over the top exercise in top-down authoritarian control, on humanitarian grounds no less!

[summerlouisecooke]

Inside the deceitful mind of a fake book review fraudster

“Chaos and Grime” author accused of making dozens of sockpuppet accounts on Amazon and Goodreads to write glowing reviews of his own book.

On January 1, 2020, a foreign exchange student based in Xiaogan, a suburb of Wuhan China, using the alias Jacob Acerbi published a new book on Amazon titled Chaos and Grime: A Year in the Life of a Chinese City.

It claims to be a memoir about his year in China, but the synopsis paints it more as a fictionalized romance/thriller:

“Jim and a local peasant girl meet and fall in love. Yet their relationship must remain secret, for reasons that put both of their lives in jeopardy. Their story leads to devastating revelations about what really happens to China’s “leftover women” and how the authorities stop at nothing to try to prevent such knowledge from getting out.”

The synopsis is also laced with every cliched China-book buzzword lifted right out of a Peter Hessler press release:

“a window into the lives of Chinese peasants...takes you where no memoir has dared to go...a complex portrait of contemporary China....in the midst of this rapid and chaotic transformation...a society in flux...”

Most audaciously, the book claims to be “OFFICIALLY BANNED IN CHINA BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (on March 9, 2020)”:

However, since there was no statement made by the General Administration of Press and Publication (新��出版总署) about this book, and since publishing and censorship do not fall under the purview of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国外交部), we can reasonably deduce that this claim is exaggerated if not outright fabricated.

The Amazon reviews are (so far) all positive, albeit SO glowing that one can’t help but wonder if they were purchased on one of those Buy Amazon Review sites based out of Bangladesh or Russia (you write the review yourself and pay them a fee to post it).

This 5-star review by Warrior Lodge (who also reviews office chairs and windshield wipers) seems particularly suspect:

“The author's attention to detail is total, resulting in world-building quite unlike anything I have ever read. I admit that I read it in one sitting; such is the level of immersion. This book should be required reading in Asian studies classes in colleges all over the United States.”

###

SO…let’s hop on over to GoodReads, where users are more discerning and critical, but where fraud and manipulation by self-published authors desperate for attention are also rampant.

Uh oh! Several 1-star reviews, from real, regular GoodReads users who recently participated in the author’s free giveaway:

“This author is vindictive. Like his reviews, and you're all good! Dislike them, and he's rude!” and “The subtitle should have been: A Bunch of College Kids Get Drunk A Lot and Have Indiscriminate Sex. It just happens to take place in Wuhan.”

Along with more exalting reviews:

“I cried at the very end (and a couple of times before that).” and “The attention to detail is stunning. I, as others have said before me, have never seen anything like it. Jacob Acerbi is some kind of mad genius.”

Some GoodReads users also participated in a discussion on the book’s page about if Chaos and Grime would be a good choice for a woman’s book club.

The asking user, named Jasmine, a black women in Missouri, has only reviewed 1 other book. The rest of her GoodReads profile is activity exclusively about Chaos and Grime.

A quick reverse-image search on TinEye reveals that “Jasmine” is actually the photo of the late Jazmond Dixon of St. Louis, who died on March 24, 2020, from Coronavirus. But perhaps Jasmine is Jazmond’s twin sister who really, really loves obscure China expat memoirs, so we will give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

Jasmine is new to GoodReads, but just three days after opening her account she started a group called Missouri Ladies' Reading Group which instantaneously attracted 4 other women (all also brand-new GoodReads members; only one of them, an elderly woman named Helen Lim, has her account set to public, so we can view her activity. Just like Jasmine, her activity is also exclusively dedicated to Chaos and Grime. According to TinEye, her avatar is a stock photo.

Reading “their” discussion about Chaos and Grime is a thing of cringey beauty. Presuming that these are all sockpuppet accounts, the conversation that ensues on the Missouri Ladies' Reading Group is essentially Jacob Acerbi talking to himself over the course of 114 (and counting) posts! I’m talking VERY in-depth and lengthy analysis. That’s an autistic-level of focus and obsession (unmatched only by my own autistic-ish determination to document all this):

Glenda (also an elderly black woman): “I was talking to my pastor about this book today. He's gonna read it.”

Vanessa: “The underlying point that he was attempting to illustrate through these evasions and equivocations was the significance of the common law precept of...”

Jasmine: “With the amount of content condensed in this book it could easily be 1000 pages long if each item was expanded into a more thorough discussion like the beginning of the chapter and the other romances. It is very unusual. I like this book a lot!”

Helen: “Jacob Acerbi has a story to tell and important related cultural phenomena to communicate, and so I think that the narrative voice is there to convey things as objectively as possible. Having this story coming from the voice of "Jim" would make it too subjective. Having it the way it is means that the author is making authoritative statements as a historian, which I believe he is.”

I’ve archived “their” entire discussion here:

1) https://archive.is/H8jhN

2) https://archive.vn/LxfU8

3) https://archive.vn/ADFs7

I encourage you to read it for an embarrassed, sad-cringe laugh, but also for a chilling glimpse into the mind of someone who might be suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder - or both. It’s as if Kevin Crumb (played by James McAvoy in the horror movies Split and Glass) had access to Chaos and Grime and GoodReads while locked up in his mental asylum):

But let’s go back to all those glowing reviewers (including Jasmine and Vanessa and Helen) on Chaos and Grime’s main GoodReads page. Click on any two reviewers’ accounts concurrently (for example Nelson and Olivia); provided they are set to public, what do you notice? Yes – THEY ARE ALL FRIENDS WITH EACH OTHER! They each have the exact same 10 or 11 friends (no other real GoodReads users), all whom are rabid fans exclusively of Chaos and Grime – no other books!

Someone also went through the trouble of creating dozens of new GoodReads Listopia reading lists with bombastic titles like “Most Anticipated Releases of 2020” and then voting up Chaos and Grime to the very top of each. And who were those 10 voters? You guessed it! Jasmine, Olivia, Helen, BH and the rest of the Chaos and Grime sockpuppet gang.

###

We’ve established that Jacob Acerbi is obviously very desperate for reviews of his new book, but can we really fault him? I mean, there was absolutely nothing in the newspapers about Chaos and Grime (very unusual for a book “officially banned by China”; the Global Times and the South China Morning Post definitely should have covered the big news), which leads us to believe that his publisher doesn’t have a very effective marketing department. So who is this publisher?

According to Amazon, Chaos and Grime was published by LSI Holdings. Strange name for a publishing house. Let’s have a look at their website.

According to ICANN the site was created on 12/28/19 – just three days before Chaos and Grime was published.

And yet, in their About Us section, they claim to “publish a large number of books each year.”

Okay, but in their Books section, they only show 4 titles : Waited. Long Enough, Looking for Nini, You’re Not A Hoarder, and Chaos and Grime. And among those titles, ONLY Chaos and Grime is listed on Amazon/GoodReads. None of the other books are found anywhere.

But that’s forgivable, because Wow! Check this out! All 4 books won multiple “literary awards”. No need to even name the awards, they were that good! And you wouldn’t believe which title won “Best Book”. Wait for it...Chaos and Grime!

LSI Holdings LLC must be some kind of indie publishing powerhouse! Who is this amazing team? Taylor Quill!!! And, oh cool, Melanie Boykins! And, yes!!!, the lovely Margaret Jiang in HR! She’s really great. In fact, they are all so legendary that none of them have need for LinkedIn or social media. Their sole online presence is on LSI Holdings:

###

But now I’m really inspired to read LSI Holdings’ award-winning literature, so I google Anish Rajmani, author of Waited Long Enough, which sounds like an epic read. Hmmm, seems she has TWO publishers – the other named Beadle Books.

What the…??? The EXACT same books as LSI Holdings (except for Chaos and Grime) and the exact same authors (minus Jacob Acerbi). And now I’m even more confused, because author Ash Marcus is suddenly black, and Charlie McMann is white...and a w-w-woman!

Something funny is going on around here.

Could it be that, on top of making fake Amazon and GoodReads shill accounts, Jacob Acerbi also set up a website for a fake publisher, to hide the humiliating fact that he’s, GASP!, a self-published author? After all, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly CreateSpace) allows paying authors the option to mask that they published via KDP simply by providing a “publisher” website.

Rounding out the elaborate ruse are:

1) Jacob Acerbi’s (very crappy) Twitter feed (with just 16 followers at present, though he is adding dozens of bot-followers by the day) with spammy posts composed only of hashtags:

2) Inserting Chaos and Grime on the Wikipedia page for Xiaogan:

3) A faux-foreword in his book written by one Afsana Sheeftahova, a “distinguished professor of humanities at the Tajik University of Geosciences” who is also an online ghost that doesn’t exist in this world:

###

So what’s Jacob Acerbi’s endgame? If it’s to make money selling his book, his long-con tactics are deceitful if not downright dishonest. Fake reviews and claiming fake literary awards are the equivalent of putting misleading labels on food; some suckers are going to pay their hard-earned money on something that’s just not as tasty as the slippery salesman said it was. That’s kinda lame, bro.

On the other hand, what if Jacob Acerbi is just trolling us? Having a good laugh while taking notes on how gullible the sheeple on GoodReads (which is largely a popularity contest) are, and how easily he can manipulate the site (which is owned by Amazon) before admin get wise and shut down his account.

He also seems to be purposely making a mockery of the tired and passe China expat memoir genre (Peter Hessler, Michael Meyer, etc.). Perhaps once upon a time Acerbi did really want to write a legitimate book about his experiences in China, failed to find an agent or publisher, then said ‘f*ck this and f*ck you’ and turned it all into a satirical social experiment. After all, the author’s bio is clearly taking the piss on all those self-important China Watchers and self-proclaimed Sino Specialists with their self-aggrandizing bios:

“Jacob Acerbi (Russian: Иаков Иаковевич терпкеницын; Chinese: 晉智明) is an American memoirist, historian, and philosopher known for his acute psychological, historical, and philosophical analyses, as well as his prescience as a "China watcher." His best-known work is the 2020 memoir about his life in the city of Wuhan, Chaos and Grime: A Year in the Life of a Chinese City. Widely regarded for its unique style and thriller-like dramatization of complex, controversial, and true subject matter, Chaos and Grime was banned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China almost immediately upon its release.”

And how can anyone take this slightly racist, slightly homophobic announcement on his publisher’s website seriously?

“LSI HOLDINGS PROMOTES CHILDHOOD LITERACY WITH SCHOOL BOOK PROGRAM - Shawneekwa Williams, only in the fourth grade, won an LSI Holdings Diversity Scholarship to attend the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in lieu of fifth grade. There she will study police brutality and trans activism for college credit. Great work!”

In conclusion, I admittedly have not read Chaos and Grime and don’t have any desire to (at this point I have read enough China expat memoirs to last me a lifetime). But I was very interested in uncovering just how low Jacob Acerbi is willing to go to promote his book (or troll us).

Now that I have tracked down his sloppy digital footprints and connected all the dots, I am left wondering: if he had put this much effort into his storytelling and writing craft, he might have actually found a real publisher, in which case, Jacob Acerbi would not have had to stoop to such shameless depths. It’s a little slimy, a little pathetic; but also a little funny.

[yesterdayandkarma]

A worker sprays disinfectant on a road in Xiaogan, in China’s central Hubei province, on March 2, 2020. #

AFP / Getty

[tuhanmahakuasatermulia]

Satu-satunya Cara untuk Menghindari Bencana

Artikel Kristen : Satu-satunya Cara untuk Menghindari Bencana

                           Chaotuo, Kota Xiaogan, Provinsi Hubei

Semenjak Gempa Bumi Sichuan pada 12 Mei, aku selalu merasa takut dan was-was bahwa suatu hari aku akan ditimpa bencana. Secara khusus, seiring semakin banyaknya bencana yang kusaksikan, dan gempa bumi juga menjadi lebih sering, ketakutanku pada bencana yang akan datang menjadi semakin nyata.

 Akibatnya, aku menghabiskan seluruh hari-hari memikirkan tindakan jaga-jaga apa yang perlu kuambil untuk melindungi diriku sendiri seandainya gempa bumi terjadi.

Suatu hari, saat makan siang, saudari dari keluarga tuan rumah kebaktian menyalakan TV seperti biasanya, dan pembaca berita kebetulan sekali sedang berbicara tentang langkah-langkah penyelamatan dalam gempa. Bila terjadi gempa, engkau harus secepatnya lari ke luar ruangan ke tempat terbuka agar tidak terluka oleh bangunan yang runtuh. Jika tidak bisa lari keluar pada waktunya, engkau harus bersembunyi di bawah tempat tidur, meja, atau di sudut. … Setelah mendengar ini, aku merasa seakan-akan telah menemukan solusi yang bisa menyelamatkan hidup, dan dengan cepat mematrikan langkah-langkah penyelamatan ini di ingatanku, agar aku dapat menyelamatkan hidupku sendiri sekiranya gempa bumi melanda. Aku kembali ke kamarku setelah makan siang, dan dengan cermat melihat ke sekeliling ke dalam dan luar rumah dan sangat kecewa dengan yang kulihat: ada banyak sampah di bawah tempat tidur, dan tidak ada ruang ekstra untuk bersembunyi. Ketika melihat keluar rumah, dalam jarak ratusan meter dari tempat aku berdiri, semua bangunannya setinggi 5 atau 6 lantai, dan saling berdempetan satu sama lain. Bahkan bila aku bisa berlari keluar dari rumah, kemungkinan besar aku tetap akan mati remuk tertimpa bangunan. Rasanya, mememuhi tugasku di sini terlalu berbahaya. Aku harus menunggu pemimpin daerah untuk datang dan memindahkanku ke keluarga tuan rumah kebaktian di pedesaan. Dengan begitu, jika terjadi gempa bumi, akan lebih mudah untuk lari ke ruang terbuka. Namun, segera tersadarlah aku: tugasku merevisi artikel membuatku lebih banyak tinggal di dalam ruang—bahkan dengan tinggal di pedesaan, hidupku tetap berada dalam bahaya. Aku bisa saja mengatakan kepada pemimpin daerah untuk memindahkanku ke tim penginjilan. Dengan begitu, aku setidaknya akan berada di luar sepanjang hari, dan hal tersebut lebih aman daripada tinggal di dalam rumah. Masalahnya adalah, aku tidak tahu kapan pemimpin daerah akan datang. Aku masih perlu menyiapkan tempat berlindung untuk saat ini. Demikianlah, aku hidup dalam rasa takut setiap hari, dan tidak mampu berfokus untuk merevisi artikel-artikelku.

Lalu suatu hari, aku membaca bagian berikut dalam firman Tuhan, "Persiapkanlah Perbuatan Baik yang Cukup untuk Tiba di Tempat Tujuanmu": "Ketika malapetaka datang, kelaparan dan penyakit sampar akan menimpa semua orang yang melawan Aku dan mereka akan menangis. ereka yang telah melakukan segala macam kejahatan, sekalipun telah mengikuti Aku selama bertahun-tahun, tidak akan lolos dari membayar dosa-dosa mereka; mereka juga akan jatuh ke dalam malapetaka, yang jarang terjadi di sepanjang jutaan tahun, akan selalu hidup dalam kepanikan dan ketakutan. Para pengikut-Ku yang telah menunjukkan kesetiaan hanya kepada-Ku akan bersukacita dan mengelu-elukan kedahsyatan-Ku. Mereka akan mengalami kesukaan yang tak terkatakan dan hidup dalam sukacita yang belum pernah Kucurahkan kepada manusia sebelumnya." "Bagaimana pun, Aku harap engkau semua mempersiapkan perbuatan baik yang cukup agar tiba di tempat tujuanmu sendiri. Dengan demikian barulah Aku puas; bila tidak, tidak seorang pun di antaramu akan luput dari bencana yang akan menimpamu. Bencana itu berasal dari-Ku dan diatur oleh-Ku, tentu saja. Jika engkau semua tidak tampak baik di mata-Ku, jangan harap lolos dari bencana itu" (Firman Menampakkan Diri dalam Rupa Manusia). Firman Tuhan menyadarkanku. Ternyata, Tuhanlah yang menyebabkan bencana—bencana-bencana itu berasal dari-Nya. Tuhan ingin memakai bencana untuk memusnahkan umat manusia yang jahat dan rusak ini. Inilah yang Tuhan ingin lakukan di akhir zaman. Orang yang tidak percaya tidak mengetahui ini, dan berpikir bahwa ini adalah bencana alam. Demikianlah, mereka memakai cara-cara manusiawi, upaya-upaya manusiawi untuk menyelamatkan diri mereka sendiri ketika bencana menimpa. Mereka berpikir mereka dapat menghindari kehancuran karena berbagai bencana dengan melakukan ini. Dan aku, yang bodoh, percaya kepada Tuhan tetapi sama sekali tidak mengetahui pekerjaan Tuhan. Aku berpikir satu-satunya hal yang perlu kulakukan adalah mengikuti langkah-langkah pencegahan dari orang-orang yang tidak percaya dan aku akan terlepas dari penderitaan yang diakibatkan oleh bencana dan selamat. Sungguh tidak masuk akal bahwa aku memiliki sudut pandang yang sama dengan orang tidak percaya! Bukankah sudah kuketahui bahwa jika orang yang tidak menjalankan tugas-tugas mereka dengan setia dan gagal melakukan perbuatan baik, mereka tidak akan terlihat baik di mata Tuhan? Tidak peduli betapa kuatnya manusia, betapa canggihnya langkah-langkah pencegahan mereka, atau betapa sempurnanya rencana penyelamatan diri mereka, pada akhirnya tidak ada yang sanggup untuk lolos dari bencana yang ditimpakan Tuhan atas manusia. Dari beragam tanggapanku terhadap ancaman bencana, jelas bahwa aku tidak memiliki iman sejati kepada Tuhan. Aku tidak memiliki pengertian yang sejati akan pekerjaan Tuhan di akhir zaman dan kemahakuasaan serta kedaulatan-Nya. Aku tidak tahu siapa yang Tuhan ingin musnahkan dalam bencana, atau yang Tuhan mau selamatkan, dan aku pun tidak menyadari bahwa di dalam bencana, hanya mereka yang setia kepada Tuhan dan telah melakukan cukup banyak perbuatan baik yang akan diselamatkan dari malapetaka. Karenanya, ketika ancaman bencana membayang, alih-alih merenungkan apakah aku sudah cukup melakukan perbuatan baik, setia kepada Tuhan, mencari kebenaran, dan telah menerima keselamatan dari Tuhan, aku menghabiskan seluruh waktuku memikirkan cara untuk menyelamatkan diriku sendiri. Tanpa kebenaran, betapa menyedihkannya diri kita jadinya!

Pada zaman Nuh, ketika Tuhan memusnahkan bumi dengan banjir, karena Nuh takut akan Tuhan dan menjauhkan diri dari kejahatan, membuat bahtera sesuai dengan kehendak Tuhan, menyerahkan segala sesuatu menurut perintah Tuhan, dan menunjukkan kesetiaannya yang penuh, ia dipandang oleh Tuhan sebagai orang baik. Karenanya, ketika bencana melanda, kedelapan anggota keluarganya diselamatkan. Di sini, aku teringat apa yang didiskusikan dalam "Persekutuan dan Khotbah Mengenai Jalan Masuk Kehidupan," "Jika engkau tidak menyiapkan perbuatan-perbuatan baik, ketika bencana menimpa, hatimu akan merasa gentar sepanjang hari. Tanpa perbuatan baik, hati manusia tidak menemukan penghiburan, dan ia tidak memiliki keyakinan atau kedamaian di hatinya. Karena ia belum mempersiapkan perbuatan baik, tidak ada damai dan sukacita sejati di hatinya. Orang yang berbuat jahat memiliki rasa bersalah dan kejahatan di hatinya. Semakin banyak perbuatan jahat yang mereka lakukan, semakin besar rasa bersalah mereka dan semakin takut mereka jadinya. Ketika bencana besar datang, engkau perlu melakukan lebih banyak kebaikan dan menyiapkan lebih banyak perbuatan baik agar hatimu terhibur dan damai. Hanya saat itulah engkau akan merasakan kedamaian dan penghiburan di hatimu kala bencana menimpa" ("Makna Penting di Balik Mempersiapkan Perbuatan Baik" dalam Persekutuan dan Khotbah mengenai Jalan Masuk Kehidupan II). Ketika memikirkan betapa aku merasa gelisah dan cemas sepanjang hari, merasa takut akan kematianku sendiri dalam bencana, aku menyadari itu dikarenakan aku belum menjalankan tugasku dengan setia dan belum mempersiapkan perbuatan-perbuatan baik. Ketika mengerjakan tugasku, aku tidak sungguh-sungguh memikul beban untuk tugas yang dipercayakan kepadaku oleh gereja. Aku tidak pernah memenuhi tugasku dengan hati yang setia kepada Tuhan. Sebaliknya, aku telah menipu dan berurusan dengan Tuhan karena keinginan untuk memanjakan daging. Aku tidak mencurahkan banyak perhatian pada artikel-artikel yang dikirimkan kepadaku, melainkan merevisinya dengan serampangan dan sekadar berusaha menyelesaikan tugasku. Ketika aku melihat betapa kacau artikel-artikel yang ditulis oleh saudara-saudariku, aku tidak menuntun dan membantu mereka dengan tekun, tetapi sekadar menulis beberapa komentar, tidak peduli apakah mereka memahami komentar tersebut atau apakah komentar tersebut membantu. Sebaliknya, aku mengembalikan artikel-artikel itu kepada mereka secara terburu-buru, dan selanjutnya aku menerima semakin sedikit artikel untuk diedit. Akibatnya, pekerjaan mengedit menjadi menipis dan bahkan terhenti. Meskipun demikian, aku tidak merenungkan tindakanku, atau berusaha untuk mengidentifikasi atau memperbaiki sumber masalahnya, tetapi menyalahkan pemimpin, menyatakan bahwa masalah-masalah muncul karena ia kurang memberi perhatian pada pekerjaan editorial. Bagaimana aku memuaskan Tuhan dengan tindakan-tindakan semacam itu dan dengannya menenangkan hatiku? Dengan demikian, bagaimana aku bisa terlihat sebagai orang baik di mata Tuhan? Jika aku terus-terusan seperti ini dan tidak mengejar kebenaran dengan semestinya, gagal setia pada apa yang telah dipercayakan oleh gereja kepadaku, dan tidak mempersiapkan perbuatan baik yang memadai, aku pasti tidak akan mampu terbebas dari murka penghakiman Tuhan atas orang fasik sekalipun aku mengikuti tindakan pencegahan yang disiapkan orang-orang duniawi ketika bencana menghantam.

Syukur kepada Tuhan atas bimbingan-Nya dalam membuka pikiranku, yang memungkinkanku untuk memahami bahwa hanya dengan melakukan tugasku secara semestinya dan menjalankan perbuatan-perbuatan baik yang memadai aku bisa memperoleh pembebasan dari penderitaan yang disebabkan oleh bencana dan tetap hidup. Inilah jalan satu-satunya. Di masa yang akan datang, aku ingin mengejar kebenaran dengan sepatutnya, bersikap sesetia mungkin dalam memenuhi tugas-tugasku, serta mempersiapkan cukup perbuatan baik untuk menyenangkan Tuhan.

Bagaimana berdoa agar bisa didengar Tuhan? Ada jawaban di halaman doa Kristen, selamat datang untuk mengklik dan melihat!

https://id.kingdomsalvation.org/testimonies/how-to-pray-effectively.html

[martainchina]

Przesyłam trochę zdjęć z weekendu, który spędziłam w prowincji Hubei.Najpierw czekała nas całonocna podróż pociągiem. Jeżdżą tam szybkie pociągi i można dojechać w kilka godzin, ale są kilka razy droższe. Więc na studencką kieszeń - twarda kuszetka. Dla mnie te pociągi są trochę jak wehikuły czasu, naprawdę ma się wrażenie, że cofnęło się do jakiś lat 70.czy 80. Odjeżdżają z innych stacji niż szybkie pociągi, na tych stacjach zwykle nocują bezdomni, nie ma automatycznego sprawdzania biletów itp. Kuszetki są trzypiętrowe, miejsca przydzielane są automatycznie przy kupnie biletu, wspinać trzeba się po malutkich podpórkach, tylko na najniższym poziomie można usiąść, wyżej już tylko leżeć. Nie ma za bardzo gdzie umieścić większych bagaży, jest ciasno, ale można za to umyć zęby i twarz, sprzedają przekąski. No i najważniejsze - firanki. Tak, staromodne, trochę sparciałe, tkane w chiński motyw (np. herbaty) białe firanki wiszące w oknach. Poezja. Piątek upłynął mi na wizycie w Xiaogan, gdzie mieszka moja dawna nauczycielka. Przywiozłam jej w końcu prezent ślubny i pogratulowałam ślicznej córeczki, która właśnie skończyła dwa tygodnie. Wprawdzie nie mogły wyjść z domu (chiński zwyczaj - może kiedyś o tym napiszę), ale znajomy mnie obwiózł po mieście.  Sobotę i niedzielę spędziłam z koleżanką na zwiedzaniu, spotkałyśmy się też z jej znajomą, której córeczka nas niemalże pokochała. Zwiedziłyśmy dawny dom Mao Zedonga, muzeum rewolucji i inne “czerwone” miejsca. Przeszłyśmy się sowieckim dwupiętrowym mostem (na dole pociąg, na górze samochody), niechcący zapłaciłyśmy za wjazd windą na most 3 juany. Niechcący, bo myślałyśmy, że to muzeum, nie było nic konkretnego napisane, a pan się niecierpliwił. Najdroższa winda w życiu. Odwiedziłyśmy Pagodę Żółtego Żurawia, a wieczorem oglądałyśmy pokaz świateł nad Jangcy. W niedzielę obejrzałyśmy muzeum, zaliczyłyśmy spacer nad Jeziorem Wschodnim i po kampusie uniwersytetu. Nasz wizyta zbiegła się z Militarną Olimpiadą, wszędzie można było spotkać uczestników (widziałam nawet Polaków), było sporo policji i wolontariuszy, było też czysto. Wiadomo, że na taką imprezę miasto się przygotowuje i było trochę sztucznie, ale i tak przyjemnie było zobaczyć tę lepszą stronę słynącego z ogromnego smogu Wuhanu.

[mihanada]

A list of the hanzi, pinyin, and their meanings for each character and their personal weapons, if applicable. I crosschecked with a character list on baidu, so they should all be there; let me know if I missed anyone, or if there is an error (especially the pinyin...I relied on a dictionary for these). I’ve left out a few things that would be spoilers or characters that haven’t been mentioned yet (mainly from the Wen clan, there are a few that aren’t listed here).

I don’t know much Chinese, so the meanings are drawn directly from the character list provided by the fan translators (ExR) or from an online dictionary (marked with an asterisk *).

Also: I apologize for the long post! It doesn’t matter on mobile, but the third tone represented by the little caron, or wedge, above the vowel doesn’t look good on my theme. I’ve kept it without a read more so you can view it in the dash instead.

Edits: Thanks goes to extrapenguin who pointed out these things for me to add in!

Main Characters

Wèi Yīng [魏婴], Wèi WúXiàn [魏无羡], YíLíng LǎoZǔ (Patriarch) [夷陵老祖]

魏 – wèi, a surname containing the character 鬼 meaning ‘ghost’

婴 – yīng, ‘infant’

无羡 – wúxiàn ‘to have no envy’ (無 ‘not, nothing, none’ is the traditional ver. of 无)

夷陵 – yílíng, a place; according to a dictionary, it means ‘barbarian mound’, a real place that was destroyed by the Qin; currently the city of Yichang in Hubei

Sword: Suíbiàn [随便]

随便 – suíbiàn ‘whatever’

Flute: Chénqíng [陈情]

陈情 – chénqíng, the * dictionaries say it means ‘to explain in full detail a situation or opinion’

Lán Zhàn [蓝湛], Lán WàngJī [蓝忘机], HánGuāng-Jūn [含光君]

蓝 – lán ‘blue’

湛 – zhàn from the word 湛蓝 zhànlán meaning ‘azure (blue)’

忘机 – wàngjī means ‘to be free of worldly concerns’, a Daoist phrase

含光 – hánguāng ‘to hold light’, 光 meaning ‘light’

君 – an affix of respect meaning ‘gentleman’ or ‘man of noble character’ (from the ExR translation Ch. 5)

Sword: Bìchén [避尘]

避尘 – bìchén lit. ‘to avoid dust’, means ‘to avoid worldly matters’

Guqin: Wàngjī [忘机]

GūsūLán Sect [姑苏蓝氏]

姑苏 – Gūsū is the in-story place where the Lán clan resides

蓝 – lán means ‘blue’, the name of the clan that founded the sect

氏 – shì, translated here as ‘sect’

Lán Huàn [蓝涣], Lán XīChén [蓝曦臣], ZéWú-Jūn [泽芜君]

涣 – huàn ‘to dissipate’

曦臣 – xīchén ‘a chancellor of the morning sun’

泽 – zé, *according to the dictionary either a pond/pool or luster/gloss

芜 – wú, *according to the dictionary, ‘overgrown with weeds’

Sword: Shuòyuè [朔月]

朔月 – shuòyuè is a new moon

Xiao: Lièbīng [裂冰]

裂冰 – lièbīng ‘fractured ice’

Lán QǐRén [蓝启仁]

启 – qǐ means ‘to start, open’

仁 – rén is the Confucian virtue of benevolence

Lán Yuàn [蓝愿], Lán SīZhuī [蓝思追]

愿 – yuàn, * means either ‘honest’ or a ‘hope/desire’ according to the dictionary

思追 – sīzhuī ‘to recollect and long for’

Lán JǐngYí [蓝景仪]

景 jǐng is ‘scenery’

仪 yí is ‘appearance’, ‘etiquette’, or ‘gift’

YúnmèngJiāng Sect [云梦江氏]

云梦 – yúnmèng, * according to the dictionary, Yunmeng is a county in Xiaogan, Hubei

江 – jiāng is ‘river’

Jiāng Chéng [江澄], Jiāng WǎnYín [江晚吟], SānDú-ShèngShǒu [三毒圣手]

澄 – chéng, ‘clear’

晚吟 – 晚 wǎn means ‘night’, 吟 yín means ‘to chant’

三毒 – the same as his sword, below

圣手 – shèngshǒu, *according to the dictionaries, a ‘highly skilled practitioner’ or ‘divine physician’...I’m guessing the former

Sword: Sāndú [三毒]

三毒 – sāndú, lit. ‘three poisons’, refers to a Buddhist phrase of the ‘root of all turmoil—greed, anger, and ignorance’

Ring: Zǐdiàn [紫电]

紫电 – zǐdiàn, lit. ‘purple lightning’

Jiāng YànLí [江厌离]

厌离 – yànlí, ‘to dislike separation’

Jiāng FēngMián [江枫眠]

枫眠 – fēng is ‘maple’, mián means ‘to sleep’

Yú ZǐYuān [虞紫鸢]

虞 – yú is ‘to worry’

紫鸢 – zǐyuān is ‘purple kite-bird’

LánlíngJīn Sect [兰陵金氏]

兰陵 – * not sure what 兰 is referring to, but the dictionary says it’s either a surname or a part of the name of certain flowers like the orchid or lily magnolia; 陵 líng apparently means a ‘mound, hill or mountain’; (edit: Lanling is also a county in Shandong, Linyi)

金 – jīn is ‘gold’

Mèng Yáo [孟瑶], Jīn GuāngYáo [金光瑶], LiǎnFāng-Zūn [敛芳尊]

孟 – mèng is a surname that can also mean ‘first month of a season’, according to the dictionary; *take this with a grain of salt, I don’t know if it was chosen for the meaning or just as a name

瑶 – yáo, see below

光瑶 – guāng means ‘light’, yáo according to the translators would be ‘a radiant piece of jade’

敛芳 – liǎnfāng, ‘to hide fragrance’ or ‘hidden fragrance’

尊 – zūn is an honorific of some sort

Sword: Hènshēng [恨生]

恨生 – 恨 hèn is * ‘hate/regret’ and 生 ‘life, to be born, etc’

Jīn Líng [金凌], Rúlán [如兰]

凌 – líng is ‘to rise above’

如兰 – (edit: rúlán, ‘orchid-like’)

Sword: Suìhuá [岁华]

岁华 – 岁 suì has something to do with years according to the dictionary*; 华 huá * can mean ‘magnificent, splendid’

Dog: Fairy [仙子]

仙子 – pronounced xiānzǐ

Jīn GuāngShàn [金光善]

光善 – guāng is ‘light’; shàn is ‘kindness’

Jīn ZiXuān [金子轩]

子轩 – 轩 xuān is ‘a tall pavilion’ and 子 just a component of people’s names; I think, in this case, 子 is pronounced zi without a tone, but correct me if I’m wrong

Jīn ZiXūn [金子勋]

子勋 – 勋 is *according to the dictionary ‘medal, merit’

Mò XuánYǔ [莫玄羽]

莫 – mò, a surname, *according to the dictionary it can mean ‘do not’ but I don’t think they were going for that lol

玄羽 – xuán is ‘mysterious’; yǔ is ‘feathers’

Qín Sù [秦愫]

秦 – qín, a surname

愫 – sù, ‘sincerity’

QíshānWēn Sect [岐山温氏]

岐山 – Qíshān, * a county in Baoji, Shaanxi

温 – wēn, ‘lukewarm’

Wēn Nìng [温宁], Wēn QióngLín [温琼林]

宁 – nìng is ‘peace’

琼林 – qióng is * ‘fine jade/beautiful’; lín is ‘woods, forest’

Wēn Qíng [温情]

情 – qíng means * ‘sentiment, emotion, feeling’

温情 – wēnqíng (edit: a phrase meaning ‘tenderness’)

Wēn RuòHán [温若寒]

若寒 – ruò is ‘as though’; hán is ‘coldness’

Wēn Cháo [温晁]

晁 – cháo, ?? dictionary just lists it as a surname

QīnghéNiè Sect [清河聂氏]

清河 – Qīnghé, a place irl; there might be two different places with this name? idk I didn’t look into it too much

聂 – niè, * a surname that also means ‘to whisper’

Niè HuáiSāng [聂怀桑]

怀桑 – huái means ‘to hold’; sāng are mulberry leaves 

Niè MíngJué [聂明玦], ChìFēng-Zūn [赤锋尊]

明玦 – míngjué, a ‘bright, penannular jade’ (penannular is an incomplete circle apparently); 明 means ‘bright’

赤锋 – chìfēng, a ‘crimson blade’

Saber: Bàxià [霸下]

霸下 – bàxià is ‘to be under forceful power’; 下 is ‘under, below’ (the opposite, ‘above, up’ is 上)

From the ‘Grasses’ Chapters

Xuē Yáng [薛洋] – ChéngMěi [成美]

薛 – xuē, * a surname which can mean... ‘wormwood like grass‘ according to the dictionary

洋 – yáng * can be ‘ocean’ or ‘vast’

成美 – chéng * meaning ‘to accomplish, complete’; měi * meaning ‘beautiful, satisfactory’ according to the dictionary (I’m not sure where this name is mentioned, but he does seem to have been given it at some point when he was part of the Jin clan?)

Sword: Jiàngzāi [降灾]

降灾 – jiàngzāi is ‘to bring down disasters’

Xiǎo XīngChén [晓星尘]

晓 – xiǎo is ‘dawn’

星尘 – xīngchén is ‘star’ + ‘dust’

Sword: Shuānghuá [霜华]

霜华 – shuānghuá is ‘floral frost’; ��� is ‘frost’; 华 is ‘floral/flowery’

Sòng Lán [宋岚], ZiChēn [子琛]

宋 – Sòng is a surname

岚 – lán is ‘mist’

子琛 – zichēn, again I think 子 doesn’t have a tone here but correct me if I’m wrong; 琛 is ‘precious stone’

Sword: Fúxuě [拂雪]

拂雪 – fúxuě is ‘to brush away snow’; 雪 is ‘snow’

Ā-Qìng [阿箐]

阿 is the prefix ‘ā’

箐 qìng is ‘bamboo’