Category: Personal

China Can’t Really Queerbait—Here’s Why:

On June 13, 2022

In Cnovels, Danmei/Baihe, Donghua, Manhua, Personal

It’s still June and still Pride and I remembered to post this, as promised in the last blog entry, so here we are! This is an older post from my Tumblr that has since been edited and copied and pasted onto my blog, but hey, it remains more than relevant haha.

Basically, the thing is…sometimes I forget people aren’t used to consuming Chinese media like I am so they expect any bl to be explicit.

A while ago, someone referred to Childe and Zhongli as potential “queerbaiting” to me and I had to pause for a moment and consider this. I always take things in stride when it comes to what is called “queerbaiting” in Chinese media because we don’t know how strict censors are (sometimes boys’ love seems mostly okay, sometimes it seems a little less okay, sometimes it seems okay as long as it’s not “anti-government”… Oh, and the topic of censorship is a whole ’nother complex discussion due to it happening because China rebuilt itself with all-new policies and was also westernized after suffering under colonization…).

Zhongli and Childe from *Genshin Impact*.

This also isn’t the first time I’ve seen people call Chinese media featuring characters that can be viewed as gay queerbaiting, which is why the comment about Zhongli and Childe made me hesitate. Like I can’t objectively tell you if some of these series with boys’ love are queerbaiting, because in many ways…Chinese creators can’t even afford to queerbait, due to censorship. That’s why when these works contain potential gay subtext, is it really queerbaiting, when it arguably actually challenges censors by dropping hints that try to make potential queerness more visible and not less, the way actual queerbaiting does? And in many ways, a lot of Chinese media that drop these hints are inviting their audiences to take it as canon even if they can’t explicitly say it out loud—so again, is it really queerbaiting then?

Basically, with all this in mind, China does queer-coding, not queerbaiting.

Take Spirit Pact, for example, one of the other works I’ve seen get labelled as “queerbaiting.” The male leads kiss to give each other power or exchange vows, but the manhua’s creator said it’s “not necessarily because they’re in love.” There was debate this is queerbaiting, but could the creator just be avoiding trouble with censors? The very fact that the male leads kiss so much and care so much about one another suggests intent, despite the author’s comment.

Duanmu Xi and Yang Jinghua from *Spirit Pact*.

Now what about Childe and Zhongli? Why were people suddenly discussing them and queerbaiting? Well, Genshin went ahead and did a thing and had Zhongli gift Childe fenghuang chopsticks. A Chinese game using a traditional Chinese theme for an object exchanged between two men that represents unity, harmony, and marriage? Some Chinese people have pointed out that that seems intentional, as symbolism is extremely important to Chinese culture. 😆

And I mean, we all remember The Untamed and how Wangxian exchanged loving glances, touched each other constantly, basically got married (through symbolism of the forehead ribbon and the exchanging of chickens), calling each other a term that could mean either “life-long confidant” or “soulmate” and so on.

We never got a canonical scene where they kissed or said “I love you,” but we can see the intent there. We know what they’re saying. The same applies for the Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua. The manhua is more obvious about it, but they do cut kiss and sex scenes… But since it appears it was nonetheless drawn, we can take that as it having still happened. And Mo Dao Zu Shi Q takes this further than the regular donghua too because the censors are more lax on them.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in specifically their *Mo Dao Zu Shi Q* adaptation.

And yes. They are based on a danmei novel (Mo Dao Zu Shi, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), so it’s a little different from Genshin Impact, but even then, it’s not fair to label Chinese media as queerbaiting because whether it will ever be explicitly canon or not, Chinese creators including suggestions of queer relationships is more risky for them than if they didn’t. That’s why there’s quite a few Chinese works out there that feature “vibes” of gay ships, even if they will never be canon. And if you consume as much Chinese media as me, you can usually tell when a team/author is intentionally using symbolism to suggest a canon couple, often with a traditional Chinese theme. 👀

The animated movie Jiang Ziya used language that suggested Shen Gongbao and Jiang Ziya could be a couple, but it was never explicit. But hell, they basically adopt a daughter! I interpreted them as a couple but didn’t see it as fully intentional or canon until talking to a good friend of mine whose Chinese is better than mine. There were more hints and reasons to believe they cared about each other in that way, so we concluded it was way more obvious than we would’ve thought at first glance. And that’s kind of how China does it when the main focus of a story isn’t bl but there’s a potentially bl couple.

Shen Gongbao and Jiang Ziya from *Jiang Ziya*. Jiang Ziya is protecting Shen Gongbao in an event that happens long before the movie’s main plot, when the two have yet to truly know each other.

And even when there are censors, there have been a variety of ways Chinese media has skirted censors in the past. Like in Beryl and Sapphire, we get the “survivor’s cut” where things are censored and the “director’s cut” where things aren’t censored (so characters can hug, kiss, confess, cuddle, and so on). And Beryl and Sapphire, while originally designed by the author as two males, are designed so they can be in any story (bl or not) and were originally drawn in the comic as stick figures so you could imagine their gender as whatever you want (so they could even be girls’ love if you so desire!).

Robo-Beryl, Beryl, and Sapphire (all characters from one specific arc) of *Beryl and Sapphire*.

Now contrast that to Hualian from the Tian Guan Ci Fu donghua, where things are so obvious and it’s even gayer than the novel in some areas. People keep questioning how they got it past censors, and that makes me rethink how I view Chinese censors. However strict they truly are, Chinese media is very purposeful in how they depict boys’ love couples.

Promotional art from Bilibili of Xie Lian and Hua Cheng from *Tian Guan Ci Fu*.

So I don’t really think about whether something is queerbaiting or explicitly canon in Chinese media. I basically see something that can be read as bl through symbolism/language/metaphor and I see that as intentional. The creators are letting you choose how you want to read it, and you may never get the kiss you want, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t “canon.” There’s often intent behind it, and because of varying levels of censorship, I take the idea of “queerbaiting” in Chinese media with a grain of salt.

For example, Kaeya and Diluc use a term in Chinese very similar to sworn brothers, which can be romantic in Chinese. With modern day China, creators often use “sworn brotherhood” as a way to depict romance and skirt censors. And yes, I know the English translation labels them as two adopted brothers, and if that’s the interpretation you want to go with, that is also okay (just please don’t label Asian fans as problematic when they do ship them—and please please please don’t label all of Chinese culture as problematic for having this sworn brotherhood concept, the way some people have done)! But as I’ve confirmed with multiple native Chinese speakers, the original Chinese language used is not exactly family-oriented, and that can be viewed as intentional (that’s why you see some Chinese fans ship Diluc and Kaeya while the western fandom views it as incest). Language is complex! There’s no clean, clear-cut answer.

Boys’ love is popular in China, but it’s not always the main focus of every series (you know, sometimes the queer-coding is done just for side ships). We could say You Shou Yan features intentional queer-coding with Sibuxiang x Tony/Tuye or Fei Ren Zai and All Saints Street feature the intent of potential bl with Yangjian x Guanyin and Nick x Lynn respectively; or Are You OK is boys’ love even if the story doesn’t focus entirely on that but it does feature more than one boys’ love couple; or No Doubt in Us contains boys’ love because despite the main couple being straight, there is an obviously suggested side ship that is gay; or Wo Jia Dashixiong Naozi You Keng is boys’ love because it features guys crushing on other guys and sharing moments, even though the manhua isn’t about that boys’ love romance explicitly; or see Nezha as having boys’ love potential because of how it interprets the Nezha and Ao Bing relationship (to the point of even changing the depiction of the relationship between Ao Bing and Nezha from the 1979 animated movie to be more domestic rather than as enemies); or even say Hoyoverse’s other game, Honkai Impact, arguably intentionally features some girls’ love too.

Top: an episode from *Cooking With Valkyries* that is suggestive of girls’ love.
Left: Feng Ling’er and Bai Yuxiu from *Feng Ling Yu Xiu*, which is suggestive of girls’ love.
Right: Gongchang Sheng and Dongfang Xianyun from *Wo Jia Dashixiong Naozi You Keng*, which is suggestive of boys’ love.

Maybe it’s just because I identify as ace and I don’t mind if there’s no signs of sex scenes and I’ve even grown accustomed to not seeing kisses. I love seeing other signs of love—like protecting your partner, being their sugar daddy, hanging out with them a lot, and all that jazz. If there’s a kiss, great! If not, that’s fine too because there are other things to suggest they’re canon.

Mo Ran and Chu Wanning from *Erha he ta de bao mao shizun*.

So when Chinese media give you hints such as with Zhongli and Childe, are they queerbaiting? I don’t personally think so. No Chinese creator is purposefully preying on queer audiences using the carrot and string method simply because they can’t afford to. When a Chinese creator gives you a hint of a queer ship, it’s them doing that in spite of censorship, which makes the content suggestive of intent, even if they can’t follow through with making it canon. In comparison, when western media gives a hint of a queer ship but doesn’t follow through with making it canon, that has far more possibility of being queerbaiting because they usually can afford to make something visibily queer and are actively choosing not to, to prey on queer audiences’ desires for queer content. Of course, this isn’t always the case because western media still censors queer content as well, but depending on the context, western creators can afford to queerbait far more than Chinese creators. For example, studios such as Disney are far more likely to do queerbaiting, as seen with their random claims that random characters are gay (like that policewoman from Onward), despite such a detail barely being prominent enough to warrant celebration.

So back to Childe and Zhongli. What’s their deal?

Well, whatever it is, I can definitely tell you it isn’t queerbaiting. If it is meant to suggest marriage, then those fenghuang chopsticks are as good a sign of canon as any. If they aren’t, then they at least suggest harmony in unity. Either way, Genshin doesn’t have to confirm it, because they can’t. The most they can do is drop symbols and hints like this and let their users interpret it however they want.

But hey, “being together” is arguably as good as any reason for someone to ship something, and this applies to all Chinese media that has the boys’ love on the sidelines. Them dropping such a hint is a good thing, because while it isn’t the main focus, these creators never had to include them, and including such hints is more difficult for them than just pretending gay people don’t exist. Will these types of media ever say that they have actual gay characters who may be in love out loud? I guess not, but we have to acknowledge the context that they are still from China and there are censors for them to deal with.

And with media like this, if you don’t want Childe and Zhongli to be canon, that’s totally okay too! I mean…it is also a game, and games—even more than other mediums—can be interpreted in various ways simply due to the fact that every user’s experience differs.

For the other Chinese media that suggest boys’ love, you can also interpret it as non-gay if you want to (some, such as No Doubt in Us, are far more obvious about it than others, such as All Saints Street).

In the end, love is love—and that includes whether there’s a kiss or not, when the author/team intends it and lets you interpret it any which way, you can interpret their symbols as signs of how canon your two favourite characters are!

Oh, and as a finishing thought, here’s a list of donghua recommendations for anyone who wants to check some of these out! I include a lot of good donghua with pictures, descriptions, and links to where to watch. 🥰

From left to right, top to bottom:
Top: Jiang Yuduo and Cheng Ke from *Jie Yao*.
Bottom Left: Prince Yu and Li Ke from *Are You OK*.
Bottom Right: Luya and Duan Jiaze from *Those Years I Opened a Zoo*.

Being Too Queer Even for the Queer: What’s the Deal With People’s Views of Asian Boys’ Love? (ft Heartstopper)

By Kookie

On June 6, 2022

In Cnovels, Danmei/Baihe, Personal

Guess who remembered their blog? 😅

It really can be difficult running so many accounts at once, and while I often have ideas for blog entries (eg on Mother’s Day I would’ve been happy evaluating some mother characters in donghua), it’s easy to get overwhelmed or distracted or simply not want to do something because you feel like you have to.

But here’s something I’ve been meaning to post for a while; this was originally a thread I made in response to some news in the world of boys’ love: a certain comment by Alice Oseman, the creator of Heartstopper, which is now a hit show on Netflix, went kind of viral for being—in some ways—an unfair criticism on popular aspects of the Asian boys’ love genre.

Alice Oseman’s comment on Heartstopper that mentions “not describing it as ‘yaoi’ or ‘bl'” which calls them fetishistic and has sparked outrage.

The Comment Reads as Follows:

Yup, no explicit sex in this comic - the characters are teenagers so it's just not appropriate, and even if they weren't, I'd have no interest in drawing that. I wouldn't describe this comic as 'yaoi' or even 'BL' - they're genres of comic that tend to fetishise and eroticise queer men in a really bad way. This comic is just a romance between two boys and a coming-of-age story!

This comment elicited an extremely divided response, but numerous Asians expressed frustration or even outrage at the implications that Asian creations prominently featuring gay relationships are once again being written off as just fetishistic and problematic and nothing more. This kind of criticism isn’t anything new and can more than certainly hold truth to it, but as an (East) Asian myself, I get the frustration as well. And hey, while the controversy has mostly blown over, it is Pride month (happy Pride, by the way! I have another post on introducing queer content in Chinese media that I’ll try to post next week~ 🌈), so it seems as good a time as any to post this!

I remain nearly as tired as when I first wrote these tweets, but the thread ended up conveying things I continue to feel, so I thought I’d compile them here—with new additional thoughts—as a blog entry. Having seen people call Oseman out for the rather dismissive tone she adopted towards yaoi and boys’ love, I have to agree her words lack nuance.

There’s the obvious point we can get out of the way first: despite her seemingly attempting to distance her work from similar stories made by women that focus on a gay relationship, it still makes sense by definition for her work to fall under the label of “bl”—because this label just means “boys’ love.” Ignoring all the connotations about genre tropes and target audiences, Heartstopper is still boys’ love.

Now I know people will say “but she’s just clarifying it doesn’t contain the problematic fetishization of gay men that works associated with yaoi/boys’ love have!” But then you have to consider cultural context. Why is it that “yaoi” and “boys’ love,” types of work that bring to mind Asian media, are the way they are—that they contain things we, in the west, view as “problematic fetishization”?

It’s not a surprise these terms come from Asian media, where nations are perhaps somewhat more conservative towards the LGBTQ+ community. In some ways, the west is known for being “more progressive,” in the sense that less people have to feel like their life is in danger if they come out. We can thus see more visible and out queer authors tell authentic queer works without worry of persecution (of course this within itself isn’t entirely true, as many creators continue to have to fight for their works to even contain queer content, as seen by Disney asking shows such as Gravity Falls to remove visible queer couples, as well as calling The Owl House content they don’t view as fitting in under the Disney label. Additionally, to this day, you can see people get up-in-arms at the smallest things that can be read as queer. But for the most part, being blatantly queer has become more socially acceptable in the west).

So yes, occasionally it will seem like western queer stories target queer audiences while Asian queer stories target straight girls. But that doesn’t mean Asian stories only fetishize gay men.

As many people have happily pointed out, there are plenty of nuanced depictions of gay life in manga and more, and it can be just as authentic as the western stories. Additionally, even regarding the “more problematic” gay content, they can nevertheless serve as meaningful visibility. After all, there are Asian nations where a queer presence in media hasn’t yet been normalized. So for Asians who identify as queer, these stories can mean a lot to them, even if they aren’t as “pure” as western queer content.

Asian queer works also aren’t exclusive to being created by straight women. For example, you wouldn’t expect modern China to have any out queer authors, yet there exists Fei Tian Ye Xiang, a gay man writing danmei (Chinese boys’ love/yaoi). Is his content going to be as “wholesome” or as “pure” as western queer stories (which many people nowadays assume mean “this work will not have sex and will only depict a healthy, happy gay couple”)? Maybe not. But does it really have to be???

Fei Tian Ye Xiang, author of *Tianbao Fuyao Lu* and *Dinghai Fusheng Lu*, both danmei works (Chinese boys’ love).

The first thing to ask is why his type of work automatically gets labelled “less good” than a queer story written by somebody in the west? Because, as we can see with all these debates about fetishization and what makes for good representation and wholesome home media, people have preconceived notions about what a good queer story is.

I was recently explaining how Chinese people depict LGBTQ+ when it’s less normalized there, as people often misunderstand China’s situation as “nothing queer can survive against the nation’s hostility,” with many people fearing that any creator who depicts anything remotely queer shall have to fear for their lives. I explained that that’s not the case; creators will often slip queer content in and many people are out on social media. I did mention how it’s a shame China is less progressive than the west on queer visibility and acceptance, and I got this comment in response:

The Comment Reads as Follows:

I just want to say thanks for the nuanced explanation since you better explained things about the current state of LGBTQ media in China than I would have the patience for. Just want to make one comment about something you said: "It 100% sucks that China isn’t as progressive as the west"

Personally I disagree with you on this statement that China isn't as progressive as the west. As a gay American who understand both Chinese and American culture, I want to say that the west isn't really progressive but they like to pretend to be progressive as a way to shame non-white countries (aka the global south). Countries like the US, Canada, Australia and even Western Europe were very anti-gay up until recently. It was only 10 to 20 years ago that gay marriage became legal in the US. Also in California we even voted to take the rights of same sex couples to marry. LGBTQ people are still heavily discriminated. Right now our politicians are discriminating against transgender people and this country fights over which bathrooms a transgender person can use. Also in the 1980s, our president didn't do anything about AIDS and HIV because Americans thought it was the gay cancer and would only kill off gay people.

Sure China is not perfect and yes China (like most of Asia) likes to pretend that LGBTQ people don't exist, but the Chinese government isn't actively persecuting LGBTQ people like what is going on in the US. China doesn't get into stupid fights over which gender can use which bathroom. Even the Chinese supreme court recently passed a ruling saying that transgender people should be ensured of equal rights as everyone else. Honestly as a gay person, I rather be in China and than live in the US right now (and I live in a supposedly progressive state that likes gay people).

Whether you agree with what they said or not, they have a point. It’s all a matter of perspective. The west has its own way of normalizing the LGBTQ+ right now via representation in media and, in that same vein, Asia also has its own way of normalizing the LGBTQ+ via representation in media.

And as mentioned previously, it’s not like Asian queer media is only fetishistic, even if it can contain sex, and that sex may be depicted in a way that is meant to be erotic. For example, you guys have seen me cry about Erha he ta de bai mao shizun (Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun) twice now on my blog and even more on my Twitter and my Tumblr, and I don’t just love it because it contains sexual content. I mean, don’t get me wrong—in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying sex, and I’m saying that as a sex-repulsed asexual! I just mean that there’s also depth and nuance to the text that I enjoy along with it having erotic material. This is why you see many people mentioning that they enjoy danmei and baihe for its complex characters and detailed plots.

These stories are nonetheless incredibly engaging, and technically they’re doing good by having believable characters with a lot of depth who also happen to fall for someone of the same gender (so that it’s not just content that says, “Here is guy A and guy B. They are hot and they are fucking”).

Before being colonized, China was a lot more lax toward the concept of gay couples than China is now, which is—unfortunately—a result of colonization, westernization, and China’s own historical trajectory during the 20th century. So given the fact I know middle-aged Chinese people who now find it weird that Chinese boys wear make-up, grow long hair, and care about fashion or find it weird that gay relationships are a thing despite these things all once being normal in Chinese culture, I find it hopeful that China continues having a way to engage with queer identity through these boys’ love stories even with the government’s censorship. This can also apply for numerous Asian countries and how they engage with their own boys’ love!

That’s why, as someone who is Asian and identifies as queer, I for one am glad such stories exist, even if they’re not always as pure as people in the west may want. They serve their own purposes and have their own audiences, and it doesn’t make them lesser than western queer stories. Like…there’s nothing wrong with the type of simple, innocent, coming-of-age queer story that Heartstopper tries to be. I don’t even care about seeing sex in a queer story (I often actually get uncomfortable with sex scenes). But if a work does contain gay sex, it doesn’t necessarily make it bad.

There’s been a recent obsession in the west with having good, wholesome content that rubs me the wrong way. In some ways, I understand it, considering that throughout history, queer people have struggled to be labelled as anything but problematic and wrong, and people now don’t want to indulge in anything that can be morally or ethically wrong (especially now with cancel culture, a modern trend that can contain both good and bad consequences). But even with that being said, you can’t expect fiction to always be wholesome. That’s not what fiction is.

Fiction is meant to explore and to make people think, and it is a way to express oneself in a way that is removed from reality. You could be into arguably “depraved” content in fiction, but it won’t necessarily make you a bad person, and it’s technically actually a good thing that people can explore darker themes in fiction without hurting anyone in reality. Of course, there will be people who take things too far even with fiction, and we can’t deny that. But we also cannot police things to always be morally pure.

Not only is that unsustainable, it just isn’t fair. In many ways, we see young queers now holding queer creators and queer content up to impossible standards of moral purity, where if the work “slips up” in the audiences’ eyes, the creators will be aggressively torn down and harassed, which is not behaviour we should be condoning, especially when it comes to vulnerable individuals and not corporations or truly horrible, powerful people (yes, it’s a slippery slope, and yes, I can’t fit all the nuances of this into a single blog entry, but you should be able to get what I’m trying to say).

Anyway, this whole recent obsession with moral purity in the west is indicative of an age-old obsession in the west with having content that can be deemed wholesome and good, which has been used against queer people throughout history. I mean, I studied film studies in university, and it’s important to remember things such as the Production Code and other forms of people trying to police what other people create. And that’s the thing—this policing is reminiscent of censorship, and with the way people in the west always cry about Chinese censorship, I was under the impression that censorship was a bad thing (*sarcasm*).

So yeah. I get why Oseman thought she should write her comment the way she did; she wanted to separate her work from a certain stigmatized genre that doesn’t always feel “authentically queer.” But as I’ve discussed, there are valid reasons why Asians haven’t taken kindly to her comment, as it doesn’t change the fact her comment was very dismissive of Asian queer culture and queer media.

To end this on a sweeter note though—to kind of combat this stigma, but mostly just to celebrate Pride—I’ll share some thoughts on why applying western perspectives to Chinese (and Asian, for that matter) queer content isn’t very fair next week—and then maybe the week after that, I’ll talk more about danmei, since the post for next week focuses more on queer subtext in Chinese donghua and manhua (which are more censored and do not always set out to focus on queer main characters but may still include suggestions of queer characters and relationships). So yeah, see all of you then—as long as I can actually get myself to maintain a regular blogging schedule! 🙈

Promotional art for *Tianbao Fuyao Lu*, a danmei by gay author Fei Tian Ye Xiang, for Duanwu Jie a few years ago.

Chose the image above to close out since Duanwu Jie was just a couple days ago (on June 3). Happy belated Duanwu Jie, happy Pride, and happy June, everyone! 🥰

Some Thoughts on Why I Love the “Moron” (Affectionate!) That is Mo Ran

By Kookie

On April 10, 2022

In Cnovels, Danmei/Baihe, Personal

New art from volume 3 of *Erha*‘s physical books

So, looks like I’ve returned from my accidental hiatus! I’m sorry for the lack of updates; I just got swept up in so many other things, including some stuff about my real life that needed tending to, and my anxiety over that admittedly stagnated my creativity and energy. But certainly a lot of things have happened since then, so I wish to get back into the swing of things!

There are some articles for this blog I wanted to write before my accidental hiatus that I never got around to, and may not be as relevant anymore, but I’d still like to get them out of the way. But first, I wanted to share some of the stuff I’ve written on why I love Mo Ran (and by extension, Ranwan (the ship that is Mo Ran and Chu Wanning)) from The [Dumb] Husky and His White Cat Shizun (Erha he ta de baimao shizun)—because this novel has completely taken over my brain lately. Plus, Erha fans are more well-fed than ever (despite the continued lack of a release for the live-action adaptation—but that’s a topic to blog about for another day) since we now have a confirmed English translation of the novel, the manhua, and the original Chinese will soon be releasing volume 3 of the printed books.

Plus it was Mo Ran’s birthday on April 9, so you know what! I was so happily overwhelmed by all the new official merchandise coming from the Chinese book release of volume 3 and all the fan art for Mo Ran’s birthday that I want to yell about why I love this dumb (affectionate) husky!

First thing I should clarify for those unfamiliar with Erha. It’s a xianxia danmei novel, which means it’s about a gay romance and is from China and is an ancient Chinese-inspired fantasy. In it, the ruthless and cruel emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian-jun, kills himself after years of terrorizing the people, and he gets another chance at life when he wakes up as himself before he embarked on the dark path of becoming Taxian-jun. Now Mo Ran again, he decides to redo things and protect his crush, who he hadn’t been able to save in his previous life…but this is complicated by the fact that not only is his crush alive again, but so is his shizun (master), Chu Wanning, a man he shares a complex past with… This is a man he claims to hate, but who he was obsessively possessive and even intimate with in his past life. As Mo Ran sets out to rewrite his history, he finds that things were not as they seemed in the past life, and secrets are revealed as he is forced to reevaluate his feelings for people such as Chu Wanning.

And while I made the fun English pun of “Mo Ran” and “moron” for the title of this entry, his Chinese name is actually quite poetic! Mo (墨) means “ink,” while Ran (燃) means “to burn. To ignite, to light.” Not only do I love this character, I love his name too.

This is copied and pasted from my Tumblr. There will be some vague spoilers, so proceed at your own risk! I hope you enjoy perceiving my brain rot though ahaha. At the time, I wanted to write another essay on why Mo Ran is an amazing protagonist but when I attempted to on my Twitter, I felt like all I did was bark like a feral dog… It’s just really hard to do the words justice, you know?

But basically I’m just once again absolutely emotionally eviscerated over how Mo Ran is a protagonist with clear darkness in his heart from all the suffering he’s endured, and yet even in the face of that, he still tries so hard to do good.

I love that he’s our protagonist. That he’s not perfect; that he’s as capable of bad as he is good.

We see how he offers himself to Shi Mei for the flower, telling him that he wants to trade places with Chu Wanning because he has evil in his heart. And why would he do that? Because he just wants to preserve the light that is Chu Wanning in a world where such light can be so rare…even to the point of sacrificing himself. So it’s just. That dichotomy, you know? That acknowledgement by Mo Ran that he is not a good person and is thus worthy of the flower, yet the clear sign that he is still trying to do the right thing despite everything. Because saving Chu Wanning would be good for the world. And he was so young when he made that decision.

He was…He was so ready to die. He asked to be killed the moment he started doing evil—because he didn’t want to do those misdeeds, but also because he didn’t want to disappoint Chu Wanning. And he had such faith that Chu Wanning would do the right thing and strike him down immediately. 😭

How can I put into words the absolute deliciousness that is Mo Ran’s character, his arc, and his redemption?

Like he is crushed by such guilt…and he knows he is capable of some of the absolute worst, most cruel things, but he’s also not as bad as he thinks he is. Because with all the good things he’s ended up doing in the second life—a life where none of the things he did as Taxian-jun even came to pass—how could he not be a good man?

It’s just fascinating, isn’t it? That Mo Ran is like the sun, and yet inside him is this intense darkness, and it’s like…you could never guess, if you just looked at him. He always seems so radiant and warm and charming and open and kind.

But it’s a testament to his desire to be better and to do better for Chu Wanning. And you guys know I’ve screamed before about Mo-zongshi and how much he grows due to his love for Chu Wanning. How absolutely amazing it is seeing the soul-crushing guilt he feels finally settle in and the realization that the one he has been hurting is someone who has done so much good for him.

And isn’t it even more amazing, that Chu Wanning comes back and thinks, How can someone like this be so good? And at first glance, it feels like Mo Ran is “better” than Chu Wanning, because he’s friendly and shines so brilliantly. But in reality Mo Ran does all this because he wants to be even a quarter of the purity that is Chu Wanning—he wants to emulate those strict, heroic morals so that when he stands by Chu Wanning’s side, he won’t feel nearly as undeserving or dirty.He wants Chu Wanning to pay attention to him, but also wants to be worthy of Chu Wanning’s attention. And I just think that’s so beautiful. 😭

When Autumn (秋) Becomes Ice (冰): An Analysis of English Scum Villain’s Volume 2 Cover

By Kookie

On February 6, 2022

In Cnovels, Danmei/Baihe, Personal

Hello again, everyone! So interestingly enough, there’s a number of different topics I can suddenly blog about, mostly because of the Chinese New Year, new releases, and the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics (hey yeah, that’s a whole thing that’s happening right now too!). While I do have a few things I plan to write about in the next few weeks, for right now, I want to focus on the new cover for the English translation of Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) volume 2 that just released a couple days ago!

(Shoot, I should probably explain the title of this blog entry haha: okay, so Shen Qingqiu’s name is 沈清秋 and Luo Binghe’s is 洛冰河—the former has the character for autumn in his name, and the latter has the character for ice—I thus thought it’d be a cute title for this entry, especially since my analysis looks at how darkness approaches this couple in this part of the story. That makes it kind of like autumn becoming winter, you know?)

I’ve already mentioned in a couple of my previous entries that it seemed a perfect time to start this blog because of the English translations of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (popularly referred to as MXTX)’s books releasing right around 2022, and while I mentioned that her series Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mo Dao Zu Shi) is what got me into donghua and most Chinese media in general, my current favourite is actually Scum Villain!

I’ve…ranted previously a lot about what I adore about Scum Villain and its main couple so much, and I should perhaps address that in more detail in an actual blog entry—like perhaps next week, but for now, let’s freak out a little over this gorgeous cover!! I mean, just look at all the details!!!

Okay so for those of you who don’t know, I did an honours specialization in film studies in university, and it’s definitely affected how I consume media, and I thought it would be fun to apply that to analyzing this cover. So this entry is actually an edited version of a Twitter thread I made, which you can check out here! It…did surprisingly well? After writing it I planned on making it this weekend’s blog entry, but when I logged back onto Twitter later, I was shaken to see that it had 800+ likes ahaha.

But here we go!:

I went absolutely feral over the cover earlier on Twitter, mostly because of the colours and the fact we got to see Moshang (in colour!!) and Gongyi Xiao (looking like a little sunflower!) on the back, with the pretty sunset colours on the front, and Bingqiu’s really romantic pose—but I do find it very interesting that any sense of Shen Qingqiu’s legs just pretty much vanish here under the almost wisp-like robes. It almost makes me think of a ghost, and…well…considering what he’s going to end up doing (spoiler alert: ~~self-destructing~~)…yeah.

*cries gently for Shizun*

I have mentioned before that it’s really cool to see a new design for Xin Mo (love that little bloodthirsty blade!), but also the other features of Luo Binghe’s demonic heritage (the claws!! The blackish-purple wisps of demonic energy ahhhhh)—and of course the demon mark on the spine is extremely intriguing.

It’s already pretty cool that this book has a sunset colour scheme (which is just aesthetically pretty), but it also calls forth the idea of an encroaching dark night and all the dangers that come with the darkness…which is just further enhanced by the way the actually black demonic energy literally frames Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe. Not only does it draw your eye toward the main pair aesthetically and artistically, it works well to further suggest encroaching pain and suffering.

That pairs well with the way the demonic energy snakes around Xin Mo, which is so sharp and long it jabs straight across the bottom corner of the cover, interrupting Shen Qingqiu’s serene green robes and symbolizing further danger.

And I find the posing within itself really interesting!

Again, spoiler alert, but Luo Binghe is the one who is going to choke Shen Qingqiu and feed him his demonic blood, yet here it’s Shen Qingqiu who has his hand on one of the frailest parts of any person’s body—the throat.

While the pose does suggest danger, Luo Binghe’s hand is also right by Shen Qingqiu’s neck too (kind of creating a parallel between the two of them). It also works as a good way to symbolize the effect Shen Qingqiu (unknowingly) has over Luo Binghe: how that fragile glass heart of Luo Binghe’s already belongs to him, and how, in his ignorance, he’s already hurt him.

So as tender as that hand position seems, it is rather foreboding, considering the later events of the actual story.

As for facial expressions, Luo Binghe’s is easy to deign because he does indeed look extremely angry, which makes sense for this part of the story, where he’s frustrated by how often his shizun misunderstands him again and again.

Shen Qingqiu’s expression, in contrast, is a lot more interesting because it’s far harder to read, and I have a few observations I would like to make. The first thing I noticed about Shen Qingqiu’s expression is that it’s so…softly melancholy? And so contemplative? It’s almost far more elegant than I’d expect from this portion of the novel, where he’s mostly screaming, but Velinxi (the artist who drew the cover)’s Shen Qingqiu always looks so beautifully regal.

And of course Shen Qingqiu himself does look regal and composed on the surface so it is fitting, but this version of him on the cover just looks so contemplative and sad gazing at the disciple he’s hurt unwittingly. It’s striking me as an interesting choice to portray him this way.

It’s an almost nurturing, mournful look on his face, soft and demure—when for this part of the novel I’m used to his voice really becoming panicked screams and equally panicked schemes, so it feels like we’re seeing him the way Luo Binghe sees him: refined, gentle, but aloof.

Like there’s this mild distance to his eyes that perhaps makes Luo Binghe feel like he is being seen through and yet not seen at all, if that makes sense.

His shizun is regarding him, but not entirely in the way he wants, because he wants to show him he is good—and yet he fears Shen Qingqiu can only see his demonic heritage and bad intentions instead.

This is enhanced by the way their faces are both in shadow and Shen Qingqiu is literally looking down at Luo Binghe.

Because as powerful as Luo Binghe is, he doesn’t feel domineering here—not when he’s placed at the bottom; not when Shen Qingqiu has his hand over Luo Binghe’s neck. And while Shen Qingqiu himself would of course never actually hurt Luo Binghe, this calls back to why I think we’re seeing Shen Qingqiu through Luo Binghe’s eyes: because while he would not purposefully go out of his way to hurt Luo Binghe, he is capable of it, and his hand is right there on that pressure point—that weakness—and Luo Binghe can feel it.

A lot of people also believe this cover depicts a specific scene in the novel, where Shen Qingqiu (spoiler alert:) self-destructs, but as I mentioned previously, there is actually a wraith-like quality to his appearance here, as the bottom of his robes make me think of this as a less literal depiction. I’ve seen some people interpret this as one of Luo Binghe’s dream constructs (yes, he can make those) who didn’t show the same affection for Luo Binghe that the real one does, and that’s another entirely plausible explanation. Although…I don’t really see Luo Binghe attacking such a construct.

That being said, it’s true the image overall has a dream-like feature because of Shen Qingqiu’s melancholy expression and floating robes, so I don’t see it so much as a literal interpretation as a scene and more so an artistic one of their current relationship throughout this part of the plot.

So yeah. This is a perfectly designed cover infused with lots of elements for potential tragedy in a story that turns surprisingly tragic.

Fun fact, having written most of all that last night, I actually felt kind of embarrassed because it felt like I’m stretching it—but I’m touched that so many people actually enjoyed the analysis! Plus, I suppose that’s part of what analysis in general is, and if there’s anything film studies has taught me, it’s that any theme can be gleaned from something if you try hard enough.

So I hope someone out there enjoyed the way too much emotional thought I put into this, and here’s to the release of Scum Villain volume 2!

A New Beginning

By Kookie

On January 28, 2022

In Personal

So it’s officially 2022! Happy New Year, everyone!

I thought I’d start this blog this year as a way to further discuss my passions while having fun with the whole thing, since I already scream about them so much online where I can. Part of the reason I am so passionate about it is because this specific interest of mine is so incredibly niche, which has made finding content for it rather hard. That being said, the fandom(s) and industry (or rather, industries) have grown exponentially since it started picking up in 2018!

By the time this goes up, however, it’ll probably be past January 1 due to delays, but it was meant to be uploaded in the New Year ahaha. In fact, it may very well be the end of January by the time I finally get this blog up (I will try to update an entry every Saturday and/or Sunday though)!

As for this specific niche interest I’m talking about, it is Chinese media.

It started with donghua when I first discovered Mo Dao Zu Shi in 2018, the animated adaptation of the novel of the same name, as I’ve always been an animation fan. I still remember witnessing a trailer of Wei Wuxian, perched on a tree branch, his lips pressed to a flute as his eyes flashed red, while a murder of crows swarmed above him. It left such a lasting impression on me, lighting this spark of blazing excitement—because in many ways, I couldn’t believe it—that China had managed to produce something like this!

Like many Asians, I grew up with a number of Japanese anime, but I did also have some beloved Chinese childhood cartoons that I would watch over and over again, such as Journey to the West—Legends of the Monkey King (Xi You Ji), Black Cat Detective (Hei Mao Jing Zhang), The Legend of Nezha (Nezha Chuanqi), and Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf (Xi Yang Yang yu Hui Tai Lang). They continue to hold up even now—with some even improving over time—and they’ll always hold a special place in my heart, but the Chinese animation industry did feel admittedly stagnant throughout the 2000s to early 2010s.

Now though, as the donghua industry has expanded so much and the donghua The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/The Founder of Diabolism (Mo Dao Zu Shi) has officially come to an end in 2021 with its third and final season, while its novel form even received an official English translation in printed form, it seems as good a time as any to start sharing my thoughts on these series in a more organized fashion. I’ve always participated in the fandom, even forming lists of recommendations for anyone who would like to get into donghua, cdramas, and/or cpop, but I thought it would be fun to try a more direct, consistent approach—while also keeping it all light and fun!

This first blog entry will thus mostly consist of my musings on Chinese animation (and media as a whole) as a Canadian-born-Chinese. So yes, while I am technically Chinese, I do not always feel Chinese. I hardly have enough experience or knowledge of Chinese traditions, culture, and tropes to make myself an expert, but I would argue my background does provide me a unique point of view, and I’ve worked hard to serve as a beginner’s reference for entry-level fans with absolutely no familiarity with Chinese culture.

I always grew up seeing myself as Canadian first and foremost, having been taught mainly western festivities and holidays at school, with a good amount of Canadian nationalism instilled within me. I have my own thoughts regarding nationalism and how often patriotism can be taken to too far of an extreme in how people engage with other cultures, but that doesn’t mean I condemn being proud of your country and heritage. These are complex concepts, and I actually explored them in my undergraduate thesis on the history of Chinese animation, which has always been closely tied with artists trying to show nationalism in art, even as the industry has always been very transnational. Writing that thesis challenged my own views of cultural pride, especially in media, and now it informs what I consume, just as my undergraduate experience in Film Studies now also informs my media consumption experience.

But cultural pride and exploration are actually reasons why I’ve gotten so into Chinese media and culture in the last few years! I never really felt connected to my family’s country of origin, considering I grew up in the west, and many immigrant children will tell you that they often feel in between worlds—never enough for either culture. But that being said, it was also hard just because I am, at the end of the day, Chinese. As Canadian as I felt growing up, I am nevertheless Chinese. Like my mom always says, “At the end of the day, you still have a Chinese face.”

And I think it’s hard to deny by now in 2022 that sinophobia is on the rise. I have seen many try to deny it throughout the years, but numerous factors—including but not limited to the pandemic—has made it obvious just how deeply normalized sinophobia has become.

I grew up being told that my family’s country was dirty, that our people were brainwashed, that our language is cacophonous, that the things we created were not worth checking out. I grew up ashamed of my own heritage. There was no chance for nationalism—even defending Chinese culture as not “gross” would get me labelled as a wumao online. People are finally starting to see how unfair some of this is, and I’ve personally enjoyed getting to reconnect more with my own roots and discover a rich world of things previously unknown to me.

For example, I never even celebrated Chinese New Year quite properly, as most of my family was in China. This meant that I didn’t enjoy that many red pockets or even too many decorations, and we had larger than usual—but still modest—dinners for our smaller family (a family that continued to shrink as time wore on). I also did not grow up with other Chinese holidays, like the Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Festival, etc, which meant I didn’t participate much in their associated traditions either, at least while growing up.

It was only when I learned more about my paternal grandfather’s story that I grew more interested in Chinese history, considering the topsy-turvy life he led, fighting against the Japanese in the Second World War, fighting for the communists during the Civil War, and then being locked up by the communists during the Cultural Revolution. And slowly, with more historical context, I was able to form a more nuanced understanding of China and my own Chinese identity—which is, no matter what, nonetheless part of my identity at the end of the day.

And I hope all of you will join me on this journey! ♥