Latest Posts by weishenmewwx - Page 4
the thing you need to realize about localization is that japanese and english are such vastly different languages that a straight translation is always going to be worse than the original script. nuance is going to be lost and, if you give a shit about your job, you should fill the gaps left with equivalent nuance in english. take ff6, my personal favorite localization of all time: in the original japanese cefca was memorable primarily for his manic, childish speaking style - but since english speaking styles arent nearly as expressive, woolsey adapted that by making the localized english kefka much more prone to making outright jokes. cefca/kefka is beloved in both regions as a result - hell, hes even more popular here
I was just alerted to another review by my new favorite reviewer, Kali Wallace!
Apparently, she reviewed SVSSS as well as MDZS. It’s such a great review that it makes me want to maybe reread SVSS someday. Hmmmm.
Give them a read. It’s worth your while 💕
I don’t want to be Hua ChenYu, but I wish I could (sing, convey emotion and) wear clothes the way he does! The beauty! The confidence! The extravagance!
The love ❤️
Mars Concert Changsha - evening session 230622
🖤🌹🖤🌹🖤
https://weibo.com/7322272243/N6wkdj0Xc
https://weibo.com/7322272243/N6w8a3o8J
https://weibo.com/7788842107/N6vwLEBu1
https://weibo.com/7322272243/N6vPtpKV4
I watched that movie of Journey to the West! It was good. It didn’t register at the time that I was watching mpreg. But now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
Ah? What do you mean mpreg is built into the setting of MDZS?
I mean exactly what I said. It's part of the setting. Mpreg is part of MDZS setting.
Or rather, mpreg is part of any and all xianxia or Chinese fantasy settings. Mpreg is not impossible... or even truly rare... in xianxia setting. There are at least three different regular ways for men to get pregnant in this kind of setting, even for low xianxia like MDZS.
Xianxia is Chinese fantasy. Cultivators cultivate until immortality. The upper level of cultivation, an immortal becomes a facet of reality and bends the world to their will. Some can even create an entirely new world wholesale. What's getting pregnant compared to that?
Sure, the setting of MDZS is low xianxia. But we know at the very least a lot of MDZS cultivators are at the Jindan stage. Do you know which stage comes right after the Jindan stage?
元婴 Yuanying. The common English translation for this stage is Nascent Soul. But its real meaning is nascent / origin child/baby/infant.
How does yuanying come about? Well, a cultivator at the end of Jindan stage will go through tribulation. If they pass through tribulation successfully, the jindan (golden core) in their belly will collapse and out comes a baby. This baby then takes over the task of the jindan, circulating the cultivator's chi and feeding off of it. The baby will grow alongside the cultivator's progress, eventually maturing and potentially becoming a separate person should the parent allows it.
(Game interface from a Chinese cultivation game)
This stage is very well documented in actual real-world ancient texts by Wu Liupai, dating back to the 16th century. It's not a modern concept made up for entertainment. It's part of actual real-world Daoist practices and beliefs.
...And xianxia is the brought up to eleventh fantasy version of real-world Daoism. Think about it.
So in truth, every single high-level Jindan stage cultivator in MDZS is just one stage and one successful tribulation away from getting preggo whether they want to or not. (Yes. Every single one of them. Not just Wei Ying or Lan Wangji, but also Jiang Cheng, Lan Qiren, Lan Xichen, Xiu Xingchen, Song Lan, Nie Mingjue... if he didn't die, etc... Not Jin Guangyao, though. He's too weak to get pregnant. Jin Zixuan, maybe)
You don't even have to be a cultivator or in a xianxia setting to get pregnant (whether you are male or female or whatever). Artificially induced pregnancy has been a thing in Chinese folklore since the Summer and Autumn period (BCE). Several different classics mention a fruit called 孕果 yunguo (Lit. Pregnant Fruit). This fruit bestows the ability to get pregnant to anyone who eats it, regardless of gender. Sexual activity with a man is still required, though. Can't make something out of nothing.
And the most famous and widely known in Chinese folklore: water from the River of Mother and Child 子母河. Anyone who drinks this water becomes pregnant, regardless of gender (or even species, actually). You know the most famous person who drank it? The monk Tan Sanzang... and his disciple Zhu Bajie (a male pig), and Sha Wujing (a male fish). It's been made into several TV series and movies. In one of those movie adaptations, Tang Sanzang even carried the pregnancy to term as he wasn't willing to terminate a life and saw this as an opportunity to experience the female side of life.
In the same story, Journey to the West, a rock was pregnant with Son Wukong and gave birth to him.
You have to remember this. Ancient Chinese didn't really think of pregnancy as a biological process requiring sperm and eggs like we do today. They thought of it as a concentration and condensation of qi (breath of the world) until the 'mother body' was saturated with fetal qi and gave birth.
Real-world folklore texts are chockful of such instances where things got pregnant with the breath of the world and gave birth. And that's just regular folklore, not the brought-up-to-eleven version that is xianxia.
The Seven Seas MDZS translation is based off the uncensored Taiwanese novel version, which is great (uncensored), BUT there are just a few extra lines that MXTX put in later in the censored online version, after cutting out the smut, that are Really Really Good. Pure sugar.
(The ♥️Audio Drama♥️ is based off the newer online version, so if you’ve listened to the AD enough to have it vaguely memorized, these lines are Really Important to you.)
I’ll see if I can fit extra lines in the margins of my Vol 4, or if I need to just type it out and make big asterisks in the printed novel. They really are really really good additions. Some of my favorite lines in the entire book.
So, in Chinese, idioms are often allusions to historical events or short metaphors to vividly describe a situation. They pack a ton of meaning and imagery into 4 little words. They’re awesome. They add color and depth to the language, and show that the speaker/writer is highly educated.
So, in Chinese, using idioms makes you sound very smart.
In English, using idioms does not make you sound very smart. It may make you sound cute and funny and colloquial, and in the right context it can work very well, but when you hear, say, “let the cat out of the bag,” you don’t think “Wow. That person is such an intellectual.”
Admittedly, some idioms are relatively culture-neutral, like “call it a day” or “read the room” or “see the light.” I’d say that those are fine to use in translations. They don’t evoke cowboys or baseball players or midwestern farmers or anything else unique to English-speaking culture like that.
However, I feel that culture-heavy English/American idioms should be avoided in translations, especially of Chinese wuxia/xianxia novels. No one in XianXia-land knows American boxing — why the heck would someone be “down for the count?” Sword Cultivators don’t hang out a lot with fowl farmers — where would they have picked up the usage of “gander” as slang for “to look?”
Idioms are hard. Be careful.
Arg. Sorry that the Vol 4 and Vol 5 MDZS are taking so long to post notes on.
Since flying through two volumes of 2Ha in absolute awe of the gorgeous translation, I’m having the hardest time getting through even Vol 4 of MDZS. I spent days wondering how to better translate 乌合之众. I fumed for too long over the choice to use “why don’t you” as the translation for 不如 —- it’s not wrong, it’s just…
I wish that 7 Seas had chosen a more experienced team to translate. I’m glad that they got someone familiar with fandom, but a lot of these word choices are killing me.
So, I guess that answers my question about when the live-action 2Ha will be released.
I gotta love that production team for trying!!!
Reminder for us fans who haven’t been following this adaptation: the live-action version is called Immortality (皓衣行, Hào Yī Xíng).
i know everyone anguishes over the fact that hyx will probably never see the light of day but the fact that it got filmed at all is a miracle in itself like how did the director read “student becomes a genocidal dictator and forces former teacher to become his sex slave” and go “yeah i can make that pass censorship”
This comic series is so much fun!
This really gives me hope that even though some people (🙁) can’t draw, they (we) can still make great content and brighten people’s days.
Go WangXian comics!
Wake up! Your legacy is in shambles!
[First] ->Next
Thank you, Butterfly!
all right so here's the schedule of when dracula daily will be updated, as gleaned from the archives
please share this, it was a pain in the ass
My new reading list! So far, I’ve got 杀破狼 done.
hunxi’s danmei awards 2.0! (aka 2022 edition)
Featuring the return of some categories such as:
Best Worldbuilding
Best Interrogation of Themes (aka the “Rent-Free Award”)
Best Moment That Wrecked Me (aka the Knifiest Award)
Best Beleaguered Side Character Award
Best Unreliable Narrator
As well as never-before-seen categories like:
Best Himbo
Most Brilliant Moment of Backstabbery
Most Ambitious Scope
Most Heartwrenching Line Delivery in an Audiodrama
…and more!
This year’s candidates in the running:
《小蘑菇》 Xiao Mo Gu by 一十四洲 Yi Shi Si Zhou
《不小心救了江湖公敌》 Bu Xiao Xin Jiule Jianghu Gong Di by 六木乔 Liu Muqiao (有声漫画 audiomanhua season 1)
《无双》 Wu Shuang by 梦溪石 Meng Xishi
《问鹿三千》 Wen Lu San Qian by 光合积木 Voicegem, 吼浪文化 Houlang Studio, and 斗木獬编剧工作室 Doumuxie Screenwriting Studio
《师弟还不杀我灭口》 Shidi Hai Bu Sha Wo Mie Kou by 子鹿 Zi Lu
《默读》 Mo Du by priest
《督主有病》 Du Zhu You Bing by 杨溯 Yang Su
《海中爵》 Hai Zhong Jue by 七药 Qi Yao
《哏儿》 Gen’er by 南北逐风 Nan Bei Zhu Feng
《杀破狼》 Sha Po Lang by priest
《金牌助理之弯弯没想到》 Jin Pai Zhu Li zhi Wan Wan Mei Xiang Dao by (nominally) 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang and (mostly) 传奇火箭队 The Legendary Rocket Team
(unmarked spoilers, including but not limited to these titles, under the cut. for introductions of these titles, click here. for last year’s danmei awards, click here)
Keep reading
Nothing to add. Perfectly put. ♥️ Our poor murder twinks ♥️
Common misconception, but the murder twink obsessed with revenge is actually Nie Huaisang. Jin Guangyao is a murder twink obsessed with self preservation first, Lan Xichen second, and the betterment of society through public works of infrastructure third.
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
魔道祖师 Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
Book Annotations
I am reading MDZS trying to pretend that I do not speak Chinese and have little to no knowledge of Chinese culture, while at the same time matching what I feel when reading MDZS in English to what I felt when reading MDZS in Chinese. Any time I see something that doesn’t flow well or that doesn’t match my original feelings, I make a note. Any time I encounter something that I think will trip up my non-Chinese friends (师叔 shishu?), I make a note.
I love this story, and I don't expect my non-Chinese friends to remember the 5+ different things that Lan Xichen is called, so I have made a lot of notes. Here they are:
Book 1
Notes 1, pgs 1-65
Notes 2, pgs 87-147
Notes 3, pgs 148-209
Notes 4, pgs 210-263
Notes "7," pg 239
Notes 5, pgs 264-341
Notes 6: on the Appendix
Book 2
Notes 1, pages 1 - 86
Notes 2, pages 87 - 160
Notes 3, pages 163 - 198
Notes 4, pages 199 - 279
Notes 5, pages 280 - 318
Notes 6, pages 321 - 351
Book 3
Notes 1, pages 1 - 90
Notes 2, pages 92 - 217
Notes 3, pages 219 - 312
Book 4
Notes 1, pages 1 - 49
Notes 2, pages 51 - 88
Notes 3, pages 89 - 151
Notes 4, pages 152 - 174
Notes 5, pages 175 - 208
Notes 6, pages 210 - 234
Notes 7, pages 236 - 266
Notes 8, pages 267 - 288
Notes 9, pages 293 - 309
Notes 10, pages 310 - end
Book 5
Notes 1, pages 1 - 45
Notes 2, pages 53 - 131
Notes 3, pages 133 - 190
Notes 4, pages 193 - 267
Notes 5, pages 343 - 375
Notes 6, pages 383 - end
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.”
From Sha Po Lang (Stars of Chaos) Ch 11,
More descriptions of How Gu Yun is an Absolute Rascal:
长庚用尽全力瞪着他，可任凭他目光如剑，顾昀偏偏刀枪不入……像从来都听不见沈先生叫他刷碗一样刀枪不入。
Chang Geng used all of energy to glare at him, but even if his glare was made of swords, Gu Yun was conveniently impervious to the stab of swords and spears……just like he had always been conveniently deaf to the yells of Shen Xiansheng to wash the dishes.
(My own terrible translation.) (The Chinese really conveys very well just how bad a rascal GunYun is. Like, evil smirking all the time.)
(Xiansheng = Mr., or Teacher, both of which work here)
I’m rereading 杀破狼 by Priest (Sha Po Lang) (“Stars of Chaos”). It took me forever to read it the first time, but I don’t really want to leave this universe, so….
I love how in the first 5 chapters, Priest perfectly conveys how Chang Geng is terribly in love with Shen Shiliu, completely against his own better judgement. Chang Geng is just entering adolescence and is having his usual nightmares, but now some of them are wet dreams, and he just doesn’t know what to do about all these feelings and Shiliu is not making it easy on him.
Shiliu is blind and deaf (or pretending to be) and lazy (not pretending there) and constantly trying to distract Chang Geng from his studies. He’s always calling Chang Geng over to play and waste time. He’s always throwing his arms around Chang Geng and giving him childish presents. He’s infuriating! And so, so handsome.
But Chang Geng is already building his life around Shen Shiliu. He has to become smart so that he can earn enough money to support Shiliu. He has to become strong so that he can protect poor blind, deaf Shiliu. He will be a good godson and take care of godfather, Yes.
Chang Geng is frustrated and confused out of his mind, and Shiliu keeps grabbing him as if one of them were a child!, but, even at this tender age, he knows who he wants to be with. Even if that person makes him mad in every sense of the word.
Gorgeous drawings, and an awesome AU story. ❤️❤️❤️
~ House of Gentians || Wangxian AU comic ~
~Synopsis~
An Alternate Universe set in canon MDZS world where Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian admitted defeat and surrendered to the other sects of the cultivation world. However, hearing Lan Wangji’s confession, which he doesn’t care much for, he proposed to make a deal with Lan Wangji – he will return with him to Gusu just like the other always wanted to, and even marry him, all in order to have Lan Wangji’s word that the Wen remnants will stay out of harm.
Wei Wuxian, being legally married to Lan Wangji, is now a member of Gusu Lan sect, and thus Lan Wangji can keep him out of harm. However Lan Wangji is bound to another contract as well: he promised to Lan Qiren and to the other sect leaders that the Yiling Laozu will stay confined in one place and never leave for the rest of his days. Thus, Wei Wuxian stays in the house that belonged to Lan Wangji’s mother, who shared almost the same fate as Wei Wuxian in the past.
Shattered, weak, defeated, golden-core-less and hopeless, Wei Wuxian takes what he believes to be his punishment, not believing that Lan Wangji actually wants to shelter him from harm, and not believing that he really loves him, thinking this all is some cruel joke. Lan Wangji will have to deal with all that, earn Wei Wuxian’s trust and prove him his feelings are true.
~Background of this project~
This comic started out completely randomly with just a quick sketch of Yiling Laozu (first drawing in the first arc). I imagined him confined in Lan Wangji’s mother’s house, married to him out of contract, and agreeing to do “wify-papapa” stuff with him with ambivalence, thinking it’s his part of the deal. The next few sketches are depiction of various scenes from that idea, but then slowly I started developing it into an organized continuous plot, and now I have ideas for the rest of it!
People on twitter and beyond seemed to like it and it really motivates me to continue! ~START READING HOUSE OF GENTIANS~ ARC 1 ARC 2
CLADISTICS ruined my life
Regarding May 12 Dracula Daily / Re: Dracula,
SO! Cloaks do not “spread out like great wings” when you’re crawling face-down the side of a building UNLESS you have arranged some hooks or clips or some such to keep the cloak in place.
I wanna see Dracula getting annoyed at his cloak, which keeps falling over his head when he’s climbing downward head-first, Until he finally devises some method to attach the cloak to his wrist and waist / thighs / ankles, which cleverly keeps the cloak spread out on his back despite the best efforts of gravity.
Can anyone here draw? Or has anyone already done this? Please point me to the right place!
The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun, volume TWO 2 二
(The one with the very pale cover)
(English 7Seas version) Notes 4 of 4
Pages 366-end
(Dude! Xianxia world! You can’t turn lights on and off - you have to light them or put them out! 😝)
More under the cut.
Back to the Masterlist.
The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun, volume TWO 2 二
(The one with the very pale cover)
(English 7Seas version) Notes 3 of 4
Pages 208-327
More under the cut.
Back to my Masterlist.
The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun, volume TWO 2 二
(The one with the very pale cover)
(English 7Seas version) Notes 2 of 4
Pages 137-198
(That was just me sitting there for a second, wondering who “he” was referring to, then wondering if anyone else was momentarily confused by the ambiguity of pronouns.)
More under the cut :)
Back to my Masterlist
The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun, volume TWO 2 二
(The one with the very pale cover)
(English 7Seas version) Notes 1 of 4
Pages 1-132
I am constantly impressed with how well 2Ha has been translated. It has been an absolute joy to re-read, but this time in English.
I don’t expect everyone to know that “zizi” is another word for “older sister,” though, so here are some notes to help you get through the novel if you aren’t already a fluent Chinese-xianxia reader:
(Also, I’m on mobile today, so Vol2 notes will be separated into four 🙄 posts instead of two.)
More under the cut…
Link back to my Masterlist
I also just read Sha Po Lang! Those weapons and flying ships and wings have been in my head for months now - it’s lovely to see what they look like (according to idledee, which is gospel enough for me).
ive been reading sha po lang!
Do your followers know about Libby? It's an app where, at least in the United States, you can listen to as many professionally recorded audio books as you'd like for FREE, so long as you have a library card. You don't even need to visit the library, you can just borrow the audiobooks from your phone.
I don't know. I hope they do. But perhaps a few more of them will after reading this.
Super-Vocal 声入人心
I have been obsessed with listening, and occasionally watching, song clips from Super Vocal recently.
Yes, yes - everyone who likes 周深 Zhou Shen had recommended to watch the whole thing multiple times, but I never had any desire to expand beyond Zhou Shen until recently.
Maybe it was seeing 刘宪华 Henry Lau's expressions as he watched other people sing.
Such a cutie. A polyglot polymath cutie with really nice abs (you all saw the movie Double World, yah?)
Or maybe it was Zheng Yunlong (I still don't think he's fair. Nothing about Zheng Yunlong is fair. Not his height, not his face, not his singing. It's just not fair. Especially when they put him in costume. Any costume. Or do his hair. Any hairstyle. ）
And it's all been incredibly wonderfully ... gay? Since they only have men on the show, all the duets have been between guys. They didn't even bother changing the lyrics to pretend they were singing about girls -- it's just "Oh, 哥 big brother, I miss you" etc. So awesome.
And the men are so wonderfully put together. And talented.
Anyway, I highly recommend it. Everyone was right - Super-Vocal is totally worth listening to / watching. (Maybe someday I'll get to watch the entire thing instead of just listening at work.)
The Husky and His White Cat ShiZun v1
(English 7Seas version) Notes 2 of 2
Here are more notes from vol.1 of 2Ha!
Let's start it all off with a quick silly note.
In Chapter 1, the translators found a bunch of different words for "dog" - cur, mongrel, etc - whereas in Chinese it all was just phrases with the one word 狗。I thought it was a great translation.
Whereas here in Ch (page 184ish), the translators chose the one word "screw" while in Chinese we had all sorts of different euphemisms conveying various degrees of affection and marital harmony.
It's cute.
Here's another note on Language Use. 师尊/师父 as "Master" vs as "Teacher." Yes, the English term "master" fits as "the person who is very much higher in rank and teaches you stuff," but I feel like the Chinese ShiZun/ShiFu conveys a lot more obligation than "master." It's much closer to "teacher" or "father" than it is to "slave-holder."
(More notes and photos under the cut...)
It's the teacher's duty to make sure that their students are learning well. A teacher's reputation rests entirely upon their students' character and accomplishments. Students are supposed to trust their teacher as they would their own parent, and teachers are supposed to honor and live up to that trust.
Anyway, that's why on page 307 I crossed out "master" and wrote in "teacher," instead. Chu Wanning saw it as his duty to raise Mo Ran right, and if Mo Ran turned out wrong, it must have been Chu Wanning's fault. Yeah.
Anyway, here we are. Volume 1, page 184 - end.
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!
