I know other writers have already beat this poor horse to death*, but it still really jars me when I see just “Zhao” or “Shen” used to refer to the main characters in Guardian. I’ve been thinking about why that is, and I had a thought:
A shout-out to the kind-hearted readers and writers laying this kind of stuff out for those of us unfamiliar with Chinese naming conventions; you may have saved a WIP today.
Thank you for this. I feel that even when writing in English, we should use the full name as the Chinese do, just as basic respect for their culture. It’s not that hard to get used to once you realize that’s the way the Chinese people do it.
I hope I don’t get a lot of hate for this, but I’ve always liked it when the names were translated. I might be wrong, but I always understood that the names had meanings, and when a Chinese-speaking person heard the name – when Zhao Yun Lan hears the name Shen Wei – it has a meaning for them, even a symbolism, a meaning Zhao Yun Lan can riff on. English speakers lose that aspect of the names when they’re not translated. The names become mere sounds.
Fair enough. Heck, all names once had meanings. We’ve lost that in Western culture, it seems, choosing names more for the way they sound than for what they mean. I love knowing what a name means.
I always appreciate the stories that work in the details about name meanings one way or another. But I don’t mind the untranslated names. It’s such an interplay…I’m thinking of the way ZYL changes Shen Wei’s name; I feel like you need sound and meaning both present for that to work.
Do explain names! Here’s another bit of information: chinese introductions also introduce meanings, to make clear which characters are used, because there are so many other characters that sound the same. We come up with lines for them, usually based on a 成語, and/or famous ancient people, and usually complimentary。 For example, if ZYL wasn’t raised in a barn *coughs*, he would have introduced himself as： 趙雲瀾， 趙雲， 像那個名將， 力挽狂瀾的瀾。 Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Yun, like the general, and “lan” from the words for “turning the tide.” Bonus: if Zhu Hong is here, she would have added, 不是瀾倒波隨的瀾嗎？(Don’t you mean “lan” from the words for “going with the flow”?) /bc he’s often described as “choosing the path of least resistance.
Oooooh, I like ZYL’s introduction and Zhu Hong’s side commentary. Headcanon accepted!
This is the exchange between Kunlun and Shen Wei, the first time they meet. (chapter 77, so mildly spoilerish. The more spoilery part, I hid under a cut.)
“You can’t speak? Impossible.” Kunlun Jun drapes shapelessly onto the large boulder, lifting a brow. “Got a name? What are you called?”
“… Wei.”
“Which Wei?”
“…Mountain ghost.”
“Mountain ghost?” Kunlun Jun stretches out over the boulder, lifting a brow, “Appropriate, but a bit weak. Look at this world: mountains and oceans joining one to the next, towering peaks linking in an unending chain. Why not add a few more strokes, make a Wei.”
[TN. 嵬, what the ghost king introduced himself as, means “rocky terrain.” 嵬 is written with the radical ‘mountain’ on top of ‘ghost’. 巍 means ‘towering’ and keeps both of the radicals of 嵬]
MAN: Women are more emotional than men. WOMAN: *begins speaking* MAN: No really, they are. WOMAN: *begins—* MAN: It’s so obvious. WOMAN: *be—* MAN: They’re completely at the mercy of their emotions. WOMAN: *nuclear explosion of teeth-baring hatred* MAN: See, I told you.
This little expositionary tale (paraphrased from an actual Twitter exchange) is to make a point and that point is this: to get attention, some people will metaphorically poke and poke and poke a bear with a stick, so they can prove bears are dangerous.
Next time someone wanders into your comments with their stick, telling you that your favourite character “would never” be a top, a bottom, bi, ace, or whatever, I’d love it if you think of that someone as an idiot with a stick, an idiot who doesn’t want conversation or to enrich fandom, they want you to get your bear on and growl.
Do not give them the pleasure.
I don’t usually have nasty comments but once, oooo, once I had a reader tell me Sherlock “would never” and I replied “for me he does.” This riled her and she got rude. So I deleted her comment. She made a new account and repeated herself. I deleted. This went on for seven new AO3 accounts before she stopped.
See, the thing is, anyone who’s something other than a jerk comments in a way less jerklike. So people and their “would nevers”? They’re not there to talk, they’re there to tick you off. For fun.
Because riddle me this: If they’re so sure whomever would never…why did they click to read your fic?
If something’s not their preference, kink, one true turn on, why did they come to and continue reading your story?
I’ll tell you: they have a stick and they’re bored, lonely, or just fecking mean, and they want attention.
Don’t give it to them.
As so many genius writers for Spark have said in their own essays—the characters we love? They’re not real. They don’t care what we do with them or have them do. They have no opinions, needs, or feelings.
But we do.
And the bear pokers? They don’t care about those. So don’t care right on back.
Me, I delete rude comments. Life is rough enough without fools messing up my fandom playpen. So I delete, delete, delete.
Then I take my angry bearness and I go have coffee with a friend, growling awhile about the idiots of the world. Afterward I write porn. Maybe the people in that porn are top, bottom, bi, or ace. They aren’t real so they can be anything, everything, or nothing. And that’s fine.
It’s all fine.
By the way, men commit 96% of homicides worldwide and most all the violent crime. Who’s more emotional now? *Atlin will not growl or eat people she will not growl or—*
I stopped having celebrity role models ever since ringo starr told me to fuck off when I was 11 that experience was very formative I can never trust another beatle
did he really
God it really did and Im so pissed because I cant even tell the story because it sounds so everyone got up and clapped
you GOTTA tell me this story maude i must know
Well I’m not really used to telling this in text form so I’ll do my best but basically when I was 11 I idolized the beatles and like collected their records and cds, read all their autobiographies, had pics of them hanging ovr my bed and shit… yeah yeah it was a more naive time. But basically since my mom knew I loved them she pulled some of her vegas strings for my birthday and got me into the premiere of the beatles cirque de soleil show. see it, think its kinda lame but too starstruck to care, we get to go to the afterparty and there he is, the man himself, Richard Starky or whateverthefuck…. so naturally I FLIP and go omg ringo youve shaped my young life please can I have a picture w you
And the dude, like. Turns around. And does the most fucking cartoon villain laugh I’ve ever heard in my life. Like, puts his hands over his stomach, takes a deep breath and makes this noise thatd Id describe as Santa Claus mixed with Bowser. And looks me right in my horrified eyes and goes, “No.”
Like, I dont know what to say at this pt. I’m 11, my self esteem was pretty damn low, its not really registering to me that one of my childhood heroes is a fucking DBZ antagonist, instead my first instinct is that I did something wrong or I’m just so damn ugly the very sight of me deeply offended Mr. Starr, so even tho Im starting to cry a bit I awkwardly laugh and apologize for the intrusion. And the dude. He just gives me the smuggest “Yeah, thought so” look ever. And gestures to the other side of the room and goes “fuck off, kid”. Then turns around and resumes his conversation about the finer points of Microsoft paint as a modern art medium or whatever topic I imagine dominates the conversations of such an influential celebrity
But like, and this is the most fake sounding part of it, Julian Lennon (johns son from his first marriage, I think hes a photographer or something) saw all this happen. And like, stands there and comforts me for like 15 minutes. I’m ugly sobbing so loudly at this point, he just like gives me a kiss on my head and says things are gonna be ok. I ask him if I did something wrong. He tells me this happens all the time, the dude just really hates kids and kinda people in general. That raised so many questions for me. Is this a regular occurence? Has he comforted other kids who have had their hearts cruelly ripped out by the menace known as ringo starr, or possibly the other slightly less assholish beatles? Like, he seemed like he was so used to it.
Yeah, I threw out all my beatles shit after that. But thanks julian lennon for stopping me from becoming a supervillain hellbent on destroying the entire nation of britain for good. What a dude. I should check out his photos.
put ur foot in there and you’ll never be seen again
(If people were wondering, this is probably a vernal pond- a temporary body of water that typically forms after heavy rains. They can form in the same place year after year but rarely last more than a month or two)
…says the fairy apologist ¬_¬
I mean, A body of water with a part-time existence that in some places is the only source of fresh water for miles so it attracts every animal in the area, perfectly preserves whatever it swallows until it vanishes and leaves a pile of goo and is named after an equinox is still pretty fucking Fae.
“why can’t female heroes kick arse in heels” because it’s not practical and will literally snap your damn ankle you can scream weaponised femininity all you want but first off, you need to admit that they’re not an almighty symbol of empowerment, and secondly that if you do a job with a lot of physical activity in heels you’re risking your own safety. all these women fighting in heels on tv are going to end up seriously injuring themselves.
weaponised femininity is a concept made up in an attempt to get us to embrace the industries created to hold us back/profit from our insecurities so that we can continue to fit into the male expectation of what a woman should be and not question why we are forced to spend thousands on our appearance every year
just a small anecdote. I had a friend who worked in theater; she was the stage manager and an actress came to her in tears one day because the director absolutely refused to let her do a choreographed fight scene in less than 3 inch heels because “they’re platforms so you’ll be okay.” My friend, who is a woman’s size 10, brought her own heels in the next day and DEMANDED the director put them on and try the choreography before the actress did it. He finally agreed to change it, without putting the heels on.
so like I know you might think of “all those women on tv fighting in heels” as fictional woman who WOULD hurt themselves in real life, but its fiction so its okay…except those women are portrayed by real actresses who are actually fighting in actual heels, being directed by dudes who have never worn a pair of heels in their lives, alongside men who aren’t expected to constantly wear things that make their stunts 2x more dangerous than they have to be. Just a thought.
Men take “let’s see feminine women being badass” to mean “let’s see women impractically focused on their appearance in combat situations.“
That’s why I loved Black Panther even more Nakia took off her heels and used them as weapons and was running and driving around barefoot in that one scene
A number of stuntwomen have spoken out about getting injured on sets because the character is wearing heels and skimpy clothing that provide no protection or padding. It literally harms rl women.
The only way I wanna see a women fight with heels is if she takes them off and fights with them a la Mulan/Nakia style.
sorry i can’t hear the noise of male entitlement over the sound of Evangeline Lilly and every other woman sighing in frustration
They photoshopped the heels onto wonder woman. Not even Gal Gadot could fight in them, but it was so important to The Look™ that they frame by frame added them. Gal wore flats to the red carpet in protest.
Apparently, there’s a virus making its rounds on FFN that has to do with user profiles. If you’re a logged-in user and click on an infected profile, the virus can spread to your own. The virus usually comes with a spam of reviews claiming to be from Critics United, and some profiles are being changed, from little changes up to deactivating the user.
I’m not nearly computer literate enough to understand how all this stuff works, but it’s enough of an issue that I’ve been both backing up all my fics *and* saving my reviews so they don’t get deleted. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up.
PLEASE reblog and get the word out!
I have been noticing posts about this and researched it myself.
It’s pretty bad.
I will also not upload anything on FFnet until this issue gets resolved. I would suggest the same to everyone else, just to keep your profiles out of reach by others for now.
Lady Karasu 