Weishenmewwx - 我姓蓝,爱巍澜,最喜欢蓝色

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Last song - #357 of a 413- song Zhou Shen playlist. I’m working my way through ALL of Zhou Shen’s songs!

One of my favorite recent discoveries (I am truly grateful to all those Youtubers who put these long playlists together) is when some show had some people in costume trying to sing 芒种Mang Zhong and doing a terrible job of it -- like, it sounded like me trying to sing, and my kids won’t even let me sing them lullabies --, and then Zhou Shen struts in with an entourage, singing with confidence, power, perfect pitch, and crazy charisma.  It’s worth it to hear the bad singing in the beginning just to more fully experience and understand just how different and special Zhou Shen’s singing is.   

And then he sang a little bit of 左手指月(Left Hand Pointing at the Moon).  Wow. 

Last movie - The last movie I watched that was new to me was 刻在你心底的名字 Your Name Engraved Herein, on Netflix.  It was crazy good. It was so good that I spent the next week obsessing over it and not feeling the slightest bit tired (my new measure for how strongly something affects me: if it can replace sleep, it’s Good).  Some reviews mention that the movie is sad, but I watched through to the last second and actually found it quite positive.  It ends with happiness and hope.  That’s enough for me to look forward to a(n emotionally wrenching but ultimately sweet) re-watch.  

The last movie that I actually watched was 闪光少女Our Shining Days (no longer on Netflix, but still free on Youtube!).  It’s the perfect antidote to all emotionally wrenching media, while still being beautiful and subtle and, actually, kinda deep and meaningful, especially for those of us who really care about traditional Chinese arts. And it’s hilarious and the music is Awesome.

Currently reading - 镇魂 Guardian by Priest.  I’m only on Chapter 4, but I’m totally enamored.  I am still getting used to the new vocabulary and sentence structures of Priest (new to me) vs 墨香铜臭Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (魔道祖师 x2!), though, so it’s slow going right now.  

Currently watching - ...still on Street Dance of China Season 3.  Someday I’ll finish Episode 9.  I really like it, honestly!  I just really like to give it my full attention, read all the cute little pop-up comments, and, well, I haven’t figured out yet just when I’m (stealing my kids’ ipad and) doing that.

Currently craving - Anything Asian.  Please!

Tagging: @herr-zhou, @coffintownkids, @bimingjue 

18 notes

杀破狼 Stars of Chaos Extras! Are not (complete) on every website!

I finally finished my very very slow read and immediately re-read of Priest’s Sha Po Lang 杀破狼 Stars of Chaos. The second time I read it, zhenhunxiaoshuo .com had a bad day so I switched over to enjing .com (please forgive me. I am not so fluent as to be able to navigate jjwxc . net)

And then I realized when I “finished” reading on enjing that I was still missing two scenes!

So, Chinese-language readers of 杀破狼 on non-jjwxc websites: be sure to read the “Gu Yun is falls deathly ill on his way to escort 加莱荧惑 back to the 18 Tribes” chapter and the “Chang Geng takes Gu Yun home by train” chapters!! They are all on

https://www.zhenhunxiaoshuo.com/47429.html

So true, so true.

Be sure to read all the comments, too.

whenever people in fandom refer to lan wangji as “lan zhan” there is an instinctive part of me that reacts like “how dare you be so informal, that is ‘lan wangji’ or ‘hanguang-jun’ to you” which is, frankly, absurd

(but also. how dare you be so informal)

Stars of Chaos Ch 32

Gu Yun upon learning that the rebels have a staff musician:

顾昀心想：“我们西北正派军连个会唱歌的蛐蛐都没有，这帮养私兵的军中居然还有乐师，天理何在呢？”

Gu Yun thought in his heart: "Us official Troops in the Northeast, we don't even have a cricket that can sing; but these private mercenaries have a personal musician? Where is Heaven's Law / Logic in this?!?"

And Cao Niangzi, most of the time around Gu Yun:

自从他见了顾昀这个披头散发的打扮，在顾昀面前就有点说不出话来，阴差阳错地便宜了那个聋子。

Ever since he discovered what Gu Yun looked like with his hair down, Cao Niangzi wasn't able to really talk around Gu Yun anymore, which was unexpectedly advantageous for the deaf man.

有人能给我解释这个到底为什么这么洗脑么？

grading the dramatic entrances of The Untamed, in no particular order

Wen Chao at the Cloud Recesses - Yes, he’s garbage, and he interrupted Jiang Cheng’s carefully prepared gift-giving, which is unforgiveable, but you cannot deny that this is a moderately dramatic entrance. From a piece of shit. 5/10, hate him, consolation prize for most punchable face.

Lan Wangji on the search for Wei Wuxian - The slow climb up the stairs. The epic scenery. The unsubtle threat. 8/10, points deducted because the follow-up is anticlimactic. We should have gotten to see some ass-kicking.

Lan Wangji at the hostage summer camp - Improvement! Isn’t letting the scenery do all the work, but letting it work for him instead. More slow swishy robes. More murder in his expression. No sign of having a broken leg because he keeps the pain inside. 9/10, excellent way to not be dead, no wonder Wei Wuxian rapidly develops a technique for flirting in hostage situations.

Keep reading

The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun v1

(English 7Seas version) Notes 1 of 2

I finished book 1 of the Seven Seas' 2Ha! (Pronounced "er-ha" or "R-Ha", for those of you who don't actually speak Chinese ;p)

It was great. The translation is 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.

(Audio recordings and book-note images under the cut)

1 ) Go ahead and skim through the Name Guide, Pronunciation Guide, and Glossary. In addition, here are how the names are supposed to sound:

2) Next! Book images for Pages 1-182.

So, I think the translators did a great job on this.

Even so, there are a few places where I think my background may differ from that of the translators, so the tone of a word or phrase felt wrong to me even though it was technically correct.

And I like how they kept the Chinese for a lot of words that don't translate well, but they didn't always put footnotes for those words or names, so I penciled a few in.

I hope this makes your reading experience even more enjoyable!

Another new favorite quote:

那么一个人要如何能不吃苦又有出息呢？

So, how can a person not endure suffering but still make great progress in life?

(A young adult tries to figure out how to best raise a young adolescent whom he cares about very much.)

From ch 18 of “Stars of Chaos: Sha Po Lang” by Priest (which is going to be released in English this summer 2023!!)

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Volume 3, Notes 5/5, Pages 358 - end

The "Imperial Censorate" here is 御史台, which is the department, not the person. Chang Geng would never slap another person in full view of the court; but he would not hesitate to admistratively slap another department if he felt it was justified.

So. The classic punishment for adultery was to be put in a pig cage and thrown into the river to drown. I don't know how I know this little bit of trivia, seeing as I was raised in the west and my only contact to Chinese culture was my very conservative Chinese mother; but I know this. Adulterers get drowned.

谋事在人，成事在天。 Plotting depends the person, success depends on the heavens. I just wanted you to know that it's symmetrical in Chinese, even though it doesn't translate that way.

The "tactlessly" here is a translation of 不长眼色， which I think could be explained better as "not reading the room" or "not taking hints."

It's not that Ge Chen is tactless so much as he is clueless to the tension between Gu Yun and Chang Geng.

In the online Chinese version that I read, the line is "Zixi! Don't go!" which explains why Chang Geng is reaching out to grab him in a panic -- he thinks Gu Yun is leaving him.

Page 382

Top: The Chinese here is "看看我说话!" which can be translated as either

-- "Look at me while I am talking to you," (though that feels weird) or -- "Look at me and speak - respond to me,"

...both of which are a little different from what is actually written in English. The "look at me when you speak" translation threw me for a second because Chang Geng isn't speaking and hasn't said anything for a while.

Bottom: Liangjiang is 两江 which is Two Rivers. (The north side and the south side of the river?)

This section is actually so pretty:

“天时地利、花前月下、水到渠成”

The perfect time (天时) and place (地利); in front of the flowers (花前) and under the moon (月下); when success is assured (where water flows (水到) a canal will inevitably form (渠成)).

Carriage Door. The carriage door opened, and out came Shen Yi. He had hitched a ride with Miss Chen so that he could leave his home unnoticed.

(When I read the English, I thought that the door was the courtyard door and got really confused.)

----

And that's it for Volume 3!

I love 杀破狼 <3

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links