Stars Of Chaos Ch 32

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼 Vol 1, Notes 5

By Priest. Translated by 7 Seas.

Pages 249 - 281

Cultural and translation notes.

Yah. Gu Yun is being his usual, trying to be cute and naughty and a good dad all at the same time.

As for that word “catch” vs “trap/cheat”: there is no good connotation to the word 骗. 😝

More under the cut.

The first time I read 光棍 I thought it was some obscene joke. Then I saw that it’s just the casual, colloquial way to refer to single men. Hmmmm.

I love 妖 ♥️。

难看 sometimes means ugly, and other times it just means that the person doesn’t look as happy and healthy as usual. Gu Yun is never “unpleasant” to look at!

大师 Dashi is a title. Just a title. Liao Ran is nobody’s “master.”

Nothing about Chang Geng is nauseating! He’s just… a little clingy of late.

I got confused for a moment if “old” meant “in the old days” vs “old people.”

It means “old people” here.

Shen Yi is respectful to Gu Yun the way a best friend and work-partner is respectful — intimate and deep (and full of nagging advice)(and wary of getting punched in the nuts at any moment); not distanced and absolute in the way that Military Chain of Command usually requires.

Nearly everyone calls Gu Yun by his title, 大帅 dàshuài = commanding general, commander-in-chief, “Big General,” Highest Military Leader in the Land. But where everyone else means it sincerely, the Shen Yi in my head always says it half-sarcastically (unless they are in battle. Then it’s sincere). They’ve been best friends since they could read and write. There is no distance between Gu Yun and Shen Yi.

Stars of Chaos - All The Notes List

All The Seven Seas Books Masterlist

For all the people out there who are dealing with insane amounts of pain on a regular and frequent basis.

One of my friends fixed her endometriosis by changing her diet according to a Tibetan Healer’s recommendation.

Another fixed her debilitating monthly pain by cutting one ingredient out of her diet on an acupuncturist’s offhand advice.

And another finally went to her normal usual western doc and got some hormonal medication that makes it so she doesn’t pass out from pain anymore.

There is a solution! Find your cure!

whenever i have those brutal searing being-dissolved-from-inside period cramps during school or work i pretend i am a viking warlord who has been stabbed in the abdomen but i killed the assailant so i’m the only one who knows im injured and i have to carry on normally til the end of the battle to keep up my mens morale

And here are the deleted scenes from Your Name Engraved Herein, with English subs!

https://youtu.be/djLcuhiZHd0

“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!

Rec: The Phenomenon called “Qin Shen Shen”

What is “Qin Shen Shen”?

Qin Shen Shen is a singing duo formed in 2019, in the 1st season of a Chinese music competition show called “Wo Men De Ge” aka “Our Song”. It’s made of Zhou Shen and Li Keqin, two experienced solo singers who met for the 1st time on the show. “Qin Shen Shen” is their team name.

But who are they?

1) Zhou Shen: 

A singer from mainland China, mostly known for singing OSTs of C-dramas and movies, including CQL (Xue Yang’s theme) and DMBJ ChongQi.

28 years old. (5 yrs old, when together with Li Keqin)

Famous for his naturally high-pitched voice, similar to a soprano or mezzo-soprano.

Wants to lower people’s expectations, but keeps blowing people’s minds, so he’s stuck in a vicious circle of growing expectations and one-upping his past self. 

Most famous song is called “Big Fish”. 

Self-professed insecure.

Talks a lot.

2) Li Keqin:

A veteran singer from Hong Kong, who debuted 30+ years ago.

53 years old but is secretly 8 (3 yrs old, when with Zhou Shen) 

Is known for having such great vocal stability when singing live that he earned himself the nickname: “CD-Qin”. 

Will make mistakes in Mandarin but look really cute doing it 

Famous songs include “Half-Moon Serenade” and “Great Auditorium Concert Hall”.

Is a good sport. Is good at sports.

*is stressed* *pretends to stay calm* *slays* *rinse and repeat* 

So why should I check them out? 

“Match made in heaven” is the moniker given to them the 1st time they sang together. That stuck for a reason. Li Keqin and Zhou Shen are a “1+1= greater than 2″. In theory, they’re worlds apart, but combining them sets off sparks. Whether it’s their understanding of how a song should be sung, their skills, or their style in singing duets: all match. On top of that, their voices’ timbre are weirdly complementary. Li Keqin’s baritone fits under Zhou Shen’s floating pitch like an anchor grounding them. Zhou Shen’s sound brings both voices to greater heights. The exponential added value they bring each other as a duo is just a rare find in any circle. In short: You’re in for a musical FEAST.

Chemistry. Chemistry. Chemistry. Complementary in some ways, similar in others, how they magically fit like a glove right off the bat is itself a wonder. Zhou Shen’s “prepare-for-the-worst” attitude goes hand-in-hand with Li Keqin’s apparent optimism. When one throws, the other’s there to receive. Sometimes they complete each other’s sentences, other times they’re like night and day…In all cases, what a team.

Laughs!! So many laughs! When they’re not singing, Qin Shen Shen is a full-time comedy duo. Throwing each other under the bus is a skill they acquired in 0 time and make use of daily. And if they’re not the ones throwing the jokes, they sure are receiving well. Dorks.

Cuteness overload. Both are just incredibly likeable and cute individuals onscreen. (yes both) Unbelievable. You have to see it to believe it.

A heartwarming dynamic. At the end of the day, QSS is a duo formed for a competition on TV. But even with the most cynical eyes, what you see is a dynamic between 2 very different singers of different generations, who have to get to know each other enough to collaborate in a short time, within a dynamic that fits. And it works! Boy do they make it work!! 

Where to check them out?

If you’re short on time, some of their songs to pick from: “Under Mount Fuji”, “All the Lovers in the World”, or “Wild Wolf Disco”. 

If nothing else, give their audio clip a chance: Clean vers of “Under Mount Fuji” without audience reactions, and a compilation of clean audios to cherry-pick from. 

If you decided you want to see more of them, they’re a regular on “Wo Men De Ge/Our Song” S1: Ep. 1 with Eng subs. (More info on the show here) 

Give the “match made in heaven” duo a try!! They don’t disappoint!

MDZS Volume 4 Annotations

Part 8, pages 267 - 288

More little clarifications :)

The Appendix has a “Time” section, but I always forget what each time period is called, so I wrote the times in here.

下不为例 is an awesome phrase. Nearly-literally, it means “this is not setting an example for the future.” Formally speaking, I’d translate it as “Don’t take this as precedent.” Here, I felt that “Just this once” conveys the feeling of the message best.

(“There will be no next time” is what I threaten my children with when they severely mess up, which is not the case here.)

More under the cut.

Please don’t refer to bone-bits as crumbs. I eat cookie crumbs with a spoon. I smoosh bread crumbs together and pop them in my mouth like little biscuits. I live off brownie crumbs for breakfast.

No bone crumbs, please.

MDZS Vol 3 Annotations, part 3

Here is Part 3 of my annotations of MDZS Volume 3, pages 219-312. I hope it helps improve your reading experience!

(It's mostly cultural annotations and reminders of appropriately-untranslated words, with a few "remember when..." notes and a few re-translations of really thorny sentences that I admit have no good translation.)

(I had a field day writing "Good boy" over Jin Zixuan and "lame cousin" over JinZixun, but I didn't include all those notes here. Just be sure to pay attention to if Zixuan/Zixun has an "a" in it or not in Ch 15.)

(By the way, "Wintry Room" sounds really pretty in Chinese and not weird at all. Maybe "Winter Room" would be better?)

how to flirt with your crush 101: a guide by wei wuxian for anon 

So, I think I’m done annotating my copy of First Edition MDZS, Volume 1.

Thanks to Suibian Subs and Scans and @baobeibuns’ Twitter thread (https://twitter.com/baobeibuns/status/1495228005026648067), I penciled in missing lines and corrected a bunch of little mis-translations.

I also re-translated a bunch of words that I felt weren’t conveying the correct feeling, and added a few explanatory notes in places that I remember being super confused.

Here is Part 1, through page 65:

I just replaced my computer because it was at 100% disk usage 90% of the time 😫

windows 10 is garbage so every time i boot up the computer i have to run command prompt and enter

net.exe stop “Windows Search”

so that the shitty goddamned search/cortana feature that i never fucking use stops running in the background taking up all my fucking disk space