Another New Favorite Quote:

二哈和他的白猫师尊 The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun

Book Annotations

I feel like this translation is great. It's smooth and easy to read, and I feel like it conveys the story really well.

As I prepare to hand this book over to my non-Chinese friends, I do have a few notes, though.

How to pronounce people's names.

Usage of the word "Master" vs "Teacher"

Book 1

Pages 1-182

Pages 185-end

Book 2

Pages 1-132

Pages 137-198

Pages 208-327

Pages 366-end

Book 3

Pages 1-end

Book 4

Pages 1-end

I’m looking forward to this (badly suppressed excitement I’m about to text this trailer to Everyone i know. Michelle Yeoh is and always has been a superhero!!!!!)

Everything Everywhere All At Once | A24

Starring Michelle Yeoh

Behold, my Dictionary Collection.

(Not Including the dictionary that I actually normally use, or the online dictionaries that I live by.) (I gotta get myself a multi-volume Cantonese dictionary like my mom’s someday. And she has the coolest 成语词典 Idiom Dictionary, too!)

Do you all know 杨可爱Yang Ke’ai yet?

She does lots of popular covers and mash-ups and “how to memorize 5-50 Chinese poems via music” songs in a Classical Chinese style (chinoiserie?) with a UKULELE. If you’re not watching her beautiful videos of her singing and playing music in full hanfu, you’d think she was playing a Pipa or a Guzheng or even a Guqin, but, no — that’s a Ukulele.

Anyway, have you all heard her Mo Dao Zu Shi mashup yet? 14 songs from Audio Drama, Donghua, and Fan Music (a lot of the creators of which were also part of the Audio Drama and Donghua).

It’s awesome and deserves many many views. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/plf5KFqvUhg

I recently started keeping a list of all the ways I hear/read Chinese people say "death / dying". This has got to be the most artistic rendition of that question that I have seen to date :)

Sha Po Lang 杀破狼 (Stars of Chaos) ch 12,

in which poor Shen Yi expresses how he really feels about working with Gu Yun:

他心道：“打从我上了姓顾的贼船那天开始，就没摊上过好事。”

He said in his heart / he thought: “Ever since the day I got on board that Gu’s pirate ship, nothing good has happened to me.”

(No, Gu Yun is not a pirate. He’s commander in chief of all the military forces in the nation. But Shen Yi consistently considers him to be a stinky pirate.)

I love how in Chinese there’s this construction, 姓顾的 “surnamed Gu,” which is wonderfully specific and concise and terribly derogatory. “That person is so terrible that it’s not even worth it to say his full name, much less any honorifics.”

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Vol 2, Notes 7, pages 339 - 366.

Another eight notes...

The idiom for "too late" in Chinese is 黄花菜都凉了 "The Yellow Lilly (chrysanthemum? Yellow lily?) dish is already cold", which I had to look up.

Apparently, there was a time and place in ancient China where, when the fancy nobles would throw a banquet, they would serve 黄花菜 as the final dish. If you delayed attending so long that the 黄花菜 was already cold, then you had completely missed the banquet. You were too late.

牲口 is, technically, "draught animal" or "beast of burden," but I'm pretty sure what Priest means here is "those cold-blooded war beasts."

top: I think of it as two separate, unrelated, consecutive actions.

bottom: 铁膝飞足, iron knees flying feet, is so easy to read in Chinese. (This is the first time I've ever seen the word "poleyns.")

top: "young and inexperienced" in Chinese here is 初出茅庐, "first time out of the thatched cottage."

初出茅庐 is the coolest little idiom. So, in the Three Kingdoms period, there was a scholar called Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei, leader of the Shu Han, begged Zhuge Liang to become his advisor and, after three visits, Zhuge Liang agreed. This was the first time that Zhuge Liang accepted such an advisory position, and the "first time" that he left his thatched cottage (it was wartime. There was a lot of travel involved with advising a king/warlord).

Anyway, Zhuge Liang was a genius and immediately won a lot of battles through superior strategy.

next: for "dig in his heels before the capital," I feel like that could be more clearly written as "hold the capital."

next: regarding "unsalvageable situation," he's talking about his relationship with the emperor.

last: "No eggs remain when the nest overturns" is a common idiom, 覆巢之下无完卵。 We're all in it together.

"running to the market" 赶集 is a way to describe how things are noisy and busy and people are running back and forth (not bright and merry with people buying gifts for each other).

I think... the indescribable smell is the mix of gunpowder and blood...

If you don't know already, the Origin Myth for Where Humans Come From is that the half-snake goddess Nuwa made humans out of clay :)

I'm not sure why, but in English I thought that one of the Western soldiers was laughing; but in Chinese it's really clear that none of the soldiers are laughing.

Four more...

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

YOUR NAME ENGRAVED HEREIN (2020)

Do you think the world has changed?

“If I can play a monkey and shoot illogical dramas, how difficult can these problems be?”

Words to live by 🥰

I love you, 朱一龙！

Zhu Yilong: No time to swell

EN translation of Zhu Yilong's Esquire Sept 2018 Cover Issue Feature Interview by wenella

朱一龙：我来不及膨胀

Zhu Yilong: No time to swell

ESQ: When did you realise that you became popular?

Zhu Yilong: I was filming (note: My True Friend) so I didn't feel anything... But when I went to record Happy Camp in Changsha, I was shocked to see so many people at the airport. Even the police was mobilised.

ESQ: Your fans praise you for maintaining the integrity of your acting despite a bad script. How did you do it? What do you think of imperfect dramas?

Zhu Yilong: I managed to develop pretty good tolerance over the years. If the script isn't great or is illogical, I will sort out the character's development and his lines to make it better. If not, it will be impossible to act.

ESQ: How do you feel about your previous acting experiences?

Zhu Yilong: How many good dramas are produced in a year now? Good dramas that excite audiences, that are praised by the industry, that feature excellent actors & directors? Probably one drama a year? With such limited good productions, it is hard for actors to land themselves in good roles. In fact, even though many actors are constantly acting in new shows, they rarely get the chance to play a role that they they really want. Well, one can choose to say, "I will not act if it isn’t a role that I like." But if you don’t act, who will approach you with roles in the future? If I didn’t accumulate a decade of acting experiences after graduating, how can I be sure that I will do well when I receive a a good script? Hypothetically, I could have taken up my role in Guardian even as a fresh graduate, but the result would definitely be different.

ESQ: Probably a tricky question; what motivated you to create your role as Savage in Hunting Savage (2011)?

Zhu Yilong: I was quite resistant initially. I thought, a savage? How do I play a savage? When I first started, I felt that I had to sort out the character's story. I was on very good terms with the director and we came to a consensus: let's just have fun. And we did.

ESQ: What did you learn from this experience?

Zhu Yilong: That all actors need experiences like this. It will help to build your resilience. After filming Hunting Savage, I found it easier to face other problems. I mean, what problems? If I can play a monkey and shoot illogical dramas, how difficult can these problems be? Therefore, whenever I encounter any problems with my scripts now, it isn't as devastating as before. I am able to resolve the issues. I have a better mindset and I do not shy away from any difficulties or challenges.

ESQ: Can you share if there were any dramas or roles played by you that were integral in shaping your acting style and approach?

Zhu Yilong: There are three shows. "Family Banquet," "Love for Three Lifetimes," and "The Story of Minglan."

Let’s start with Family Banquet. Feng Douzi’s personality is really different from mine. He is a bad student and all he wants to do is to make money. He sells houses, gets into illegal pyramid schemes; well, he is basically a rascal. I was only a year out of college when I played this character.

Looking back, I was glad that I did it. I can’t possibly do aloof and cool roles all the time. When I acted as Chi Rui in Love for Three Lifetimes, I wasn’t confident as I had very few lines. At that time, audiences often criticized actors for being expressionless. I mean, everyone loves animated and vivid performances, but Chi Rui was written as an aloof, icy, and expressionless character; what could I do about it?

ESQ: So it became a test of your emotional scenes......

Zhu Yilong: Yes, but audiences probably weren't able to understand this. I was very worried during the filming and kept discussing my scenes with the director. In the end, I didn't express Chi Rui's emotions through his facial expressions, but internalized them instead. I took his love & hatred to extremes and differentiated them.

ESQ: How did "The Story of Minglan" impact you?

Zhu Yilong: I tried to do something different in The Story of Minglan; that is, I did not design anything for my character. In the past, I had to be sure of the character’s logic and development before the filming and hence, I'd prepare extensively for my role. This was to ensure that my acting was consistent & logical. But Qi Heng had very limited scenes and the director had full control over the drama's pace. It was hard for me to tell what the eventual result would be like, so I couldn't follow my instinct.

ESQ: So what did you do this time?

Zhu Yilong: I didn't prepare much. When I first joined the set, I kept discussing my role with the director. I asked Director Zhang Kaizhou, "So what do you think of Qiheng?" I trusted him a lot. Director Zhang was very insightful and had a totally different personality from Qi Heng. Thus, he was able to look at this character more objectively. I adjusted my acting according to his demands. And as the filming progressed, I kept reminding myself to be more open-minded.

ESQ: What do you think of the relationship between an actor and good looks?

Zhu Yilong: Firstly, I don't think they contradict one another. There is no correlation between good looks and acting skills. Some genres require actors to look good. If not, it would be hard for the audience to accept them as the character. In film and tv, being good-looking can help an actor enhance the character's charisma, but this is also dependent on how the actor uses his good looks. He can’t behave in a way that impresses on audiences that all he does is to try and look good.

ESQ: You acted in a theatrical adaptation of “Devils on the Doorstep” (Dir. Jiang Wen, 2000) in college?

Zhu Yilong: Yes! I played Er Bozi (Second Neck) and all my lines were in Tangshan dialect. “I have a mouth just like my mum’s; it can’t keep secrets.” The previous version was played by Huang Bo. Several students from my cohort are particularly fond of director Jiang Wen, so we produced a new version.

ESQ: You're different from Jiang Wen. He's more flamboyant than you.

Zhu Yilong: Actually, we are pretty similar. I think flamboyance stems from one’s confidence. If you are like Jiang Wen and made a successful film such as In the Heat of the Sun (1995), you should express yourself confidently; your ideas are probably right as whatever that you say is based on the success of the work. However, if you insist on flaunting despite not having what it takes or if you think that being ignorant is cool, it is impossible for you to gain the recognition of others.

ESQ: Have you ever taken risks in your acting?

Zhu Yilong: I've always taken risks, but not without fear. I think I was a bit more daring when I first started filming. I thought that no one would watch those late-night movies on TV anyway, so I experimented with different acting styles.

ESQ: You’ve picked up some acting techniques by now, such as swallowing fake blood before puking or playing lame by stuffing a rock in your shoe. Why don't you try a smarter method instead? For example., you can get a sense of how it feels to be lame for a few days and you remove the stone from your shoe during the actual filming.

Zhu Yilong: I don't think there are any short cuts to acting. I can definitely try the smarter method. However, after reading the interviews and biographies of foreign actors, I realised that I haven't been able to immerse myself in my role as much as they did. This is something that I hope to achieve. (The former method) may be more harmful for my body, but I feel that it is more meaningful as I get to immerse myself in the character during the filming. If not, what is the point of acting? Using short cuts and techniques? What’s the point?

ESQ: You've played a lot of roles that are very different from yourself. Looking back, do you feel surprised by your performance? Do you feel a sense of accomplishment?

Zhu Yilong: To be honest, those roles aren’t great. I think the characters are rather superficial. Actors can express a range of emotions and play a variety of roles, but it takes a lot more to make a character deep. No actor can play one role today and another role the next day. Every role is contingent on one's experiences; you need to invest time to experience a character’s life.

ESQ: Have you been this sober since you were a kid?

Zhu Yilong: I don't know. In retrospect, it might have something to do with my dad. My dad loves to talk to me about life & values. When I was 13 years old, my dad dragged me into the snow on New Year's Eve and told me that "people need to decide how to lead their entire life." My dad is a loving father; he has never scolded or hit me. Whenever my dad was in a good mood, he’d come to pick me up from school and took me to play games. My mum would chase after us and drag me back home. She’s pretty strict.

ESQ: Your parents treat you very differently.

Zhu Yilong: Yes, I looked better when I was a child. I had curly hair and big eyes. My mum loved to tie my hair into a ponytail, apply red nail polish on my nails, and dress me in skirts or dresses. My dad, who used to practice Sanda, was very upset with my mum over this. He threw me into a Sanda training team as a way of developing my masculinity. Looking back, parental education has a direct impact on a child's development.

ESQ: You said you want life to be simpler, but characters you play to be more complicated. Why?

Zhu Yilong: Because I’m lazy (laughs). Life is so complicated every day. There are so many things to think about, it is tiring. I like a simple life; to keep interactions with people simple. To keep things simple. As for my roles, I like them to be more complicated & layered. I don’t want to play a role that will allow people to predict what will happen to him in the last episode just based on the first.

ESQ: Some people say that your generation of actors debuted at the wrong time.

Zhu Yilong: When we just graduated, the main characters on TV were played by actors such as Sun Honglei and Zhang Jiayi. We could only play their son or younger brother. We didn't have opportunities to play more sophisticated characters as we weren’t senior enough.

And when we finally made it into our 30s to play the roles that we want, audiences seem to prefer very young actors. It is as though we have missed out on something.

ESQ: Do you feel upset?

Zhu Yilong: Not really, I don't think too much about this. I'm neither a young fresh meat nor a veteran actor. If I can't play the role I want, I'll just try something else. I mean, I've played a monkey before, there is nothing that I can’t act, right?

Post translation note: It warms my heart to read a 2018 article and realise how Zhu Yilong has grown closer to his acting goals since then. This interview was probably done in Aug 2018 after Guardian concluded. I like it because it focused a lot on getting Zhu Yilong to express his views on the craft of acting, rather than to answer the usual (and meaningless) questions regarding “high traffic stars” or “idol vs. actor.” Happy reading. If you want to re-translate this thread into another language, pls DM me for permission and credit + share the link to the original post. Thanks!

Ever see a depiction of St. George and the Dragon? It's pretty fair to say if you've seen one, you've seen them all: Georgie on a horse stabbing a flailing dragon creature, princess piously kneeling in the background, vague landscape alluding to the homeland of the artist's patron.

The most varied part is the dragons. No one had a real definition for the thing, it seemed. For your pleasure and entertainment, I have ranked some medieval depictions based on how impressive George's feat seems once you see the dragon.

Paolo Uccello, 1456

This is a terrifying beast. The hell is that. Uccello was one of the first experimenters with perspective, so the thing also looks surreal, like it's taking place on Mars, or a Windows 95 screensaver. I would not want to fight that, I would not want to be tied to that. (Sometimes the princess is tied to the dragon for some reason.) 10/10

Horse thoughts: Maybe if I look at the ground it will be gone when I look up

Unknown artist, c. 1505

This is a rare change of form for the dragon; it's the only one I've seen actually flying (or at least falling with style). It doesn't look particularly deterred by the spear through its throat, either. Also, George looks appropriately nervous. On the other hand, it hasn't got teeth, it seems to be fuzzy rather than having scaly armor, and George is bolstered by his army of Henry VII and his children, most of whom definitely didn't actually die in infancy. Still, wouldn't want to fight it, wouldn't want my pet sheep near it. (Sometimes the princess has a pet sheep for some reason.) 9/10

Horse thoughts: I am so glad I wore my mightiest feather helmet for this

Raphael, 1505

We are coming to Dragons With Problems. This guy looks about comparable in size to George, and does have wings, but doesn't seem to be using these things to his advantage (and has he only got one wing?) And how does he deal with the neck? He does have a comically small head, but holding it up with such a twisty neck seems complicated at best. But most egregiously, he is doing the shitty superheroine pose where he is somehow simultaneously showcasing his chest and his butt, with its unnecessarily defined butthole (more on this later) (regrettably). 8/10 bc it's Raphael

Horse thoughts: AM I THE BESTEST BOI? AM I DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB? WE R DRAGON SLAYING BUDDIEZ

The Beauchamp Hours, c. 1401

We had a spirited debate about this one at work. Again, the dragon has gotten smaller, and this one hasn't got even one wing. He's basically a crocodile. So the debate became: would you want to fight a crocodile if you had a horse and a pointy stick? Would the horse trample the animal, who can't get on its hind legs, or freak out and throw its rider? Would the pointy stick be enough to pierce the croc's thick hide? In this case, George seems to be controlling his horse and putting his pointy stick in the dragon's weak spot, so we can be impressed by his skill and strategy. However, his hat is dumb. 7/10

Horse thoughts: Dehhhh

Book of Hours, c. 1480

Here we have the same kind of croco-dragon, but George's focus on his strategy has gone out the window. He's flailing around, not even looking at his target, he's about to lose his pointy stick, he hasn't got a hand on the reins, and his sword seems to only be poking the invisible dragon over his shoulder. All he's got going for him is that his hat is slightly less dumb. 6/10

Horse thoughts: Yay, new friend! Come play with me, new fr- what is happening

Final dragons put behind this Read More for your safety:

Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1432

I'm thinking this guy is at least semi-aquatic. Webbed feet, wings that seem more like fins, bipedal but top-heavy, jaws that seem more for scooping than biting. Maybe she's crawled up here from the nearby body of water to lay her eggs, and this is all a big misunderstanding. Moreover, George's dagged sleeves seem entirely impractical for the situation. 5/10

Horse thoughts: i got my hed stuk in a jar and now it is this way forever

Unknown artist, c. 15th century

I hate this. I hate everything about it. Why has it got human eyes and teeth. Why is its nose melting. Why has it got a dick on its face and balls under its chin. The fin/wings are back but they look even more useless. Also, George is shifty as hell, schlumped over in his saddle with his bowler hat thing over his eyes. The baby dragon at the bottom eating some hapless would-be rescuer is kind of metal. 4/10 at least the thing is gonna die

Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Crack

Book of Hours, c. 1450

Remember what I said about the buttholes? First, sorry. Second, yeah, we're back to that. I'll admit this one is less about the danger from the dragon itself than the very specific choices the artist has made. They didn't need to do that. It's a lizard. They don't even have. And it's like they had an orifice budget and they skipped an exit wound for the spear to focus. Elsewhere. It's so detailed. And George had an even dumber hat. 2/10 take it away

Horse thoughts: I Have Smoked So Much Weed

Book of Hours, c. 1415

This is just bullying. There isn't even a princess. That is clearly an infant. Look at that smug look on George's face as he swings his sword that's bigger than the whole little guy. This is the equivalent of when DJT Jr. hunted those sleeping endangered sheep. 1/10

Horse thoughts: ....yikes

And this is the previous one, but now the baby dragon is cute. He's chubby. He's got toe beans. He's Puff the Magic Dragon. His eyes have already gone white, implying that George is just kicking its corpse around for funsies. What's the difference between the dragon and the lamb in the background? That the dragon is dead, like our innocence. This George is truly deserving of the dumbest hat of all. 0/10 plus one more butthole for the road

Horse thoughts: Perhaps it is we who are the buttholes.