Introductions

[geraineon]

Welcome! You can use this post to share a little bit of yourself! Feel free to also just post an introduction to the community instead of replying to this post! You don't have to follow any format, but here are some prompts:

1. What are you currently reading?
2. What is your favourite cnovel?
3. Do you have a favourite author?
4. What are your other hobbies and interests?
5. What do you hope to see from this community?

Comments

[geraineon]

I am gonna start the ball rolling:

Hi, I'm Neon, currently reading Sendoff. It's been a fun read so far (one dying, one trying to end their undying life, both after the same thing while lying about themselves).

I have a number of fav novels: Thousand Autumns (千秋), Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know (魔尊也想知道), Married Thrice to Salted Fish (三嫁咸鱼), Evil as Humans (凶人恶煞), and my new fav author, I think, is Nian Zhong (年终).

when I am not doing revenge sleep procrastination by reading novels late into the night, I play Honkai Star Rail, and I do also read other books (I am trying! but webnovels are so long!)

I hope we will all have a good time chatting about cnovels~

[nemainofthewater]

I love Sendoff! It's so good, all the characters are so crunchy and the worldbuidling is beautiful

[geraineon]

Yay, a fellow Sendoff lover! It is so good! So far that's two out of two of Nian Zhong's that I really love, and from what I have seen from a friend reading another Nian Zhong (Happy Doomsday), that's gonna be awesome too.

I'm about halfway through now.

[nemainofthewater]

Hi! I'm Nemain, currently reading Mo Du/Silent Reading (and about 7 others scattered around the internet that I refresh each week to see if they've updated...).

I read a lot of webnovels, and I can't remember if I have a favourite, but five of the completely translated ones that I've read recently and really like are Mr Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life, Sendoff, Strong Winds Return Home, Suddenly Trending, and After Being Forced to Marry the Evil Star General .

There are... so many more that I've read and enjoyed, but I'll leave it at five in the hopes of not writing an entire essay...

I also enjoy watching cdrama (mainly with friends) and I write fanfic on Ao3 (also a lot of Chinese media recently haha).

Thanks for setting this community Geraineon!

[geraineon]

Welcome to the community~ Glad to have you!

Ohh, Strong Winds Returns Home is on my TBR list. I enjoyed Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life too. Cyan Wings has an interesting take on genres/tropes. I just took a look at After Being Force to Marry the Evil Star General and I think I started that some time ago before it was finished and never finished it. I guess I know what else I'll be reading soon.

... the pain of reading not completely translated novels, ahaha (I am still waiting for more Panguan, but I am happy waiting because the TL quality is very good)

[nemainofthewater]

There are so many excellent novels and so many talented translators! If you ever want recs i am always here, i am always happy to talk about webnovels (much to the detriment of my sleep schedule, day job, and fic...)

[geraineon]

Hahaha that's me too. Instead of working, here I am, launching a cnovel comm, replying to comments!

And sure, will def ask once I clear some of the titles on my list! My plan after sendoff is either Happy Doomsday or Cultivation in C. Then, I guess we shall see what I am in the mood for at that time~

[ehyde]

I liked Mr Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life a lot -- actually I've liked everything I've read by Cyan Wings so far. I like the way she plays with tropes. Sendoff took me a little longer to get into than the other Nian Zhong novels I've read but I thought the worldbuilding was really cool, once I figured out what was going on

[lunarriviera]

Mo Du is my faaaaaaavorite I hope you love it as much as I did! I haven't moved on, emotionally—

[nemainofthewater]

I'm currently on the second case and I really am enjoying it! I think Tao Ran is my favourite, and I am lowkey terrified of something bad happening to him....

[lunarriviera]

we ALL love Tao Ran so much! i'm literally the Rosa Diaz meme about him:

[duckprintspress]

oh hai!! this is unforth from Tumblr. I've been having so much fun with your last name polls, I'm happy to see you here!

[nemainofthewater]

hai!!!!! Thank you for voting in them, they've been so fun. In the spirit of this community, I have been doing my part to add cnovel characters! I hope you stick around for the other polls that i'll be running <3

[geraineon]

*sneaks into this conversation thread*

Not sure what polls these are, but feel free to do them here too!

[nemainofthewater]

Over the past three months I’ve been running a series of Best Character with [X] surname polls on tumblr. The last results for them are tomorrow, but going forward I’ll be doing weekly themed polls that I’m happy to link to here!

[gekidasa]

I'm Mura!

Currently reading: A Lady's Tranquility (the novel Story of Kunning Palace is based on.

Favourite cnovel: Fourteenth Year of Chenghua, but MDZS is the one I'm most in fandom for.

Favourite author: I don't know that I've read enough to know. Danmei, probably MXS... but although the only thing I've read from Hai Yan is Langya Bang, I've also watched both NiF and NiF2, which she also wrote, and I just LOVE both of those stories, so... maybe I love her more.

Hobbies and interests: Photography, travel, reading in general, studying chinese, just went back to university to study ceramics Hope to see from this community: People to talk about cnovels with! Cnovels beyong JUST MXTX! Discussion of genre conventions and tropes!

[geraineon]

Yay, nice to have you here Mura~!

People to talk about cnovels with! Cnovels beyong JUST MXTX! Discussion of genre conventions and tropes!

Absolutely! Hm, maybe we can have regular trope chats specifically related to Chinese webnovels too.

[nemainofthewater]

I've got A Lady's Tranquility on my to read list! I'm halfway through Kunning Palace and I'm currently debating on whether to read before or while watching.

LYB is so good! I actually have a hard copy in simplified chinese, and it's a goal to be able to read it one day haha. I didn't realise when i bought it just how comparitively complicated the language is to read in the original, but I will persevere!

[gekidasa]

...Well! I find Kunning Palace really interesting because at the end in particular there is a certain scene that ONLY makes sense if you know of something that happens in the book but not the drama. I knew because I'm in a group chat with someone that had read as well as watched, and she'd told me about the differences.

It's not all the way translated though T_T

[anne]

Is that the scene with the bonfire?

[gekidasa]

I don't remember any bonfire 😂

It's You Fangyin's last scene, and what she says

[anne]

Xie Wei burned stuff.

I don't remember what You Fangyin said because I was so mad about how she said it, if you follow me

[gekidasa]

No, I don't 😂
I've watched the drama and while I know some stuff, I'm only at the beginning, Jiang Xuening is just about to become a study body

[anne]

Highlight for spoilers! *I was really upset that she was dying, so I don't remember at all what she said.*

[gekidasa]

Part of why I'm confused about this conversation (sorry haha) is I'm not sure if you're talking about the novel or the drama...

[anne]

I haven't read the novel

[gekidasa]

Ah ok, now I'm on sure footing!

I don't remember Xie Wei lighting a bonfire, so much happens in this story XD

And yes, it is what You Fangyin says in the moment you're talking about. It references an aspect of her character that is only in the novel.

[gekidasa]

I started learning chinese in order to someday mdzs and other cnovels. I'm 2 years in at the local Confucius Institute and... um, not even close yet haha.

[duckprintspress]

amen on the "cnovels beyond just mxtx" part it drives me insane how many people get interested in MXTX stuff and just. stop there. There are so many amazing books and like yes I love TGCF especially but please I want people to talk to about OTHER books, too!!!

[halfcactus]

1. What are you currently reading?
She Belongs to Me by Da Ying.

2. What is your favourite cnovel?
I don't really have one yet... I guess I Ship My Rival X Me by PEPA? I did also like Silent Reading and imprinted on the main character (Luo Wenzhou).

3. Do you have a favourite author?
Not yet. ;__; I'm a very slow reader and I don't read much, honestly.

4. What are your other hobbies and interests?
Journaling. Fandom-wise, vidding and subtitling, though I'm kind of tired of it now haha.

5. What do you hope to see from this community?
I know it's a long shot, but gen (non-romance or little romance focus) novel or manhua recs!

[halfcactus]

*Gen novel recs that are not The King's Avatar because that one is way too long for me aksjd;ajsf; I was thinking more of like... standard novel length.

[geraineon]

Welcome! Someday, someday I will get to I Ship My Adversary x Me (I heard so much good things about it).

Haha, webnovels are extra hard becomes as you said, some of the are so long... Hm, for gen novel recs, I really like (but haven't finished reading) Tai Sui by priest: https://edanglarstranslations.com/ts

Steampunk xianxia, no pairing. Have you read it? (that's the only one gen webnovel I know that I have read some of). If SF novels are okay, Folding Beijing was a short and interesting read, and available here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/folding-beijing-2/

edited to add: stepped away then thought of it, I think it'll be nice to have a gen novel rec post up later too (hm, maybe we can do themed weekly recs, that's a thought)! I too want to read more gen novels~

[halfcactus]

ISMM really is more of a pick-me-up read haha which I do recommend if you have experiences with RPF. I get so much joy from the audiodrama and manhua adaptations because there are some extra scenes, and they're just a lot of fun.

I actually didn't know that Tai Sui was gen! That, or I keep forgetting when people tell me it is. XD Edanglars translating it will make it more readable for me hehe.

Thanks for the recs and links! I do read SF on occasion, so I'll put Folding Beijing on my list! Am very happy to be in a comm where people seem to read pretty widely. ♥

Some themed posts would be nice!

[geraineon]

I have friends into RPF so I have seen the RPF world haha. Chinese actors RPF too. So I will probably enjoy it!

Hope you enjoy both Tai Sui and Folding Beijing! (I was initially gonna open a danmei webnovel comm but I also wanted to talk about non-danmei books so here we are! Haha. Similarly, I'm happy to see people here read widely!)

[halfcactus]

I’m so glad you decided to go with a general cnovel comm 😭😭😭

[ehyde]

I'll second the rec for Tai Sui and also throw in a rec for The Langya List (the novel Nirvana in Fire was based on) if you haven't read it. The novel is gen -- I gather the drama added more of a romantic element with Nihuang but that's not there in the book.

I think these are the only two gen cnovels I've read -- no, wait. We Live in Nanjing (a sf novel that came up in discussions of last year's hugo nominations debacle) is gen, and it was a fun story, communicating with someone in the future via ham radio to prevent an apocalypse. But there's only an mtl translation for now.

[halfcactus]

I actually have read LYB but found the plot reveals too infodump-y for my brain—which I know is conventional, I’m just bad at processing information haha. I did really enjoy novel!Xia Dong, the outcome of Lin Shu and Nihang’s romance + appreciated the cdrama even more after reading it.

Thank you for the Tai Sui nudge! I have danmei/romance fatigue (which is why I haven’t gotten into Sha Po Lang) but enjoy priest’s writing and Edanglar’s translation enough hehe

[nemainofthewater]

For gen novels, I rec Apocalypse Lord. It's a world where a post apocalyptic resource building game has taken over the real world, and though there is technically a relationship it's very much background to everyone trying to survive. It is also pretty short at only 80 chapters.

[halfcactus]

Thank you!

Yeah I’m not opposed to romance, I’m just not in the mood to read books for the ships/romance right now. Getting recs for anything less than 100 chapters is so exciting omg haha

[douqi]

Priest's second-to-last novel (i.e. the one she released before this current one) 桥头楼上 (I don't think fandom has settled on a title translation on it, so I'm just going to go ahead and call it quite literally End of the Bridge, Top of the Tower) is gen, no romance, and wholly dominated by female characters. It's short, contemporary, very tightly written and does some interesting things with form. Also fully free-to-read on JJWXC! I'm not sure if there's any sort of fan translation out there though.

[halfcactus]

Wait I didn't know she had another gen novel, this sounds perfect, thanks! I'm still waiting to finish She Belongs to Me before starting a new book (it's gonna take a while lol) but short + gen (or at least mostly gen) + all-woman cast in a contemporary setting is so relevant to my interests. Looks like it's mystery too! I think I can do 32 chapters of ~3-5k characters each......... I'm not confident in my reading ability but this seems worth a shot, thank you so much!!!!!!

[geraineon]

+1 I totally didn't know about this either!

"gen, no romance, and wholly dominated by female characters" <- this sounds amazing!

I tried looking, and I couldn't find any... Hopefully it gets picked up for translation by someone someday.

[mekare]

1. I have only just finished Modao Zushi and plan on Heaven's Official Blessing next as it's being translated into German atm (2 volumes available). I'm also rereading Volume 5 of Daomu Biji (Xu Lei).
2. MDZS
3. I haven't yet read enough to have a favourite and my relationship to Xu lei (of whom I've read the most) is complicated (great characters and setting, lots of unfinished volumes in the DMBJ series).
4. Reading, Art, Music.
5. Just a place to share recs and reviews and discover some new authors.

[geraineon]

Welcome! I saw your post linking your MDZS read posts, definitely heading over there soon!

... Haha my friends who read DMBJ have talked a lot about Xu Lei in similar ways. I need to get started on that too. Really enjoyed Ultimate Note, that HeiHua movie and whatever I've seen of Sha Hai

[mekare]

:-) I'm looking forward to seeing you over there! I came into that fandom so late and am always happy to find people willing to talk.
Re DMBJ/Xu lei, feel free to check out dmbj_tombraiders (I'm not a mod, but I do occasionally post and compile stuff there). There are some posts to guide you through the novels.

[geraineon]

Never too late! Haha. The good thing about MDZS is that it's probably the biggest or one of the biggest danmei (maybe webnovel?) fandom in EN spaces so there's plenty of meta, fan works, etc. to go through

I joined that DMBJ comm! But haven't had time to poke around yet. Thank you!

[duckprintspress]

having read a fair amount of DMBJ, whenever I'm at it again I'm always just screaming at NPSS "PUT THE SHOVEL DOWN. STOP DIGGING. WE DO NOT NEED MORE PLOT HOLES." Lmao....

[lunarriviera]

I just remember the one volume of DMBJ (maybe it's Sha Hai? I can't remember anymore) at the end of which Xu Lei's author note just says something like "I didn't finish this one because I'm drunk." Like, sir pls. Be less unserious! (I also love him but…complicated, yes.)

[autodach]

Hello, happy to be here :D

1. What are you currently reading?
The Ultimate Blue Seal by Priest

2. What is your favourite cnovel?
Mo Du/Silent Reading by Priest

3. Do you have a favourite author?
I’m on a quest to read everything BL by Priest. Does that count as a favourite?

4. What are your other hobbies and interests?
I love cooking and video games :D

5. What do you hope to see from this community?
I hope to find lesser-known novels to read

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome!

I love Mo Du! Hm, the Ultimate Blue Seal is not one of priest titles I've heard talked about much. Are you enjoying it so far? And sure, "favourite" can be interpreted however you want xD

[autodach]

Yay for Mo Du❤
Ultimate Blue Seal had some excessive info-dump in the beginning, but I do like it overall now. I went in blind because it was impossible to find a proper summary anywhere, so I’ll be writing my own summary for my review post. Whenever that will be, haha.

[geraineon]

Looking forward to that post, whenever that will be XD

[shipperslist]

Ohh, a new community!

I've read Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by MXTX several times, the atrocious, older Guardian fantranslation and Farawy Wanderers, both by priest. I have a bunch of danmei on my TBR-list, and my goal is to tackle a second round of Book Bingo as a danmei edition. The webnovels I already have might be enough for a blackout but hopefully this community will be of help if I need more ideas.

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome!

And that's really cool. Definitely ask if you need suggestions! Now I'm curious about your TBR list, haha

[shipperslist]

Ohh, my TBR list, you ask?`

MXTX:
- MDZS
- Heaven Official's Blessing
- Scum Villain's Self Saving System

priest:
- Silent Reading
- Stars of Chaos

- The Husky and his White Cat Shizun
- Mr. Melancholy Wants To Live A Peaceful Life

I've been recced Thousand Autumns, Evil as Human, and Kaleidoscope of Death, among some others.

MDZS will be only one bingo square because I've already read the fantranslation twice. Other books will tick off the squares as I read, one volume at a time.

[snowynight]

You have great taste!

[shipperslist]

Thank you!

[geraineon]

I think I vaguely remember your fedi post asking for recs once, now that I read the titles on your TBR!

[shipperslist]

Yeah, I posted about it some while ago. I'll hopefully get my first bingo round done by the end of June and then I can concentrate on this.

[geraineon]

All the best with it~

[ehyde]

Hello, thanks so much for making this community! I'm Hyde.

I'm currently reading C Language Cultivation (by the author of Little Mushroom). I'm less than halfway through but I'm really into it!

My favorite cnovel is, I think, Tai Sui by Priest, but I've been the most active in MDZS fandom. Currently I'd say my favorite author is Nian Zhong (but I haven't read everything of theirs yet)

The hobby I'm most into these days is bookbinding (mostly I bind fanfic).

From this community, I hope to find and share recs for novels that aren't so widely known, and connect with fans of less popular novels.

[geraineon]

Glad to have you here~

I really need to finish Tai Sui. I enjoyed it a lot and then lost my momentum... Looking forward for your final thoughts about C Language Cultivation!

[snowynight]

I love C Language Cultivation! I'm glad that you have enjoyed it.

[ehyde]

I have a feeling I know very little of what's actually going on but I'm really enjoying the ride. I'm honestly amazed I've hardly seen anyone talk about this novel, but maybe I haven't been looking in the right places.

[snowynight]

It's really an amazing ride, but I won't spoil you. 😉.

There's sadly not much discussion. Despite Little Mushroom's popularity, English fans have yet gone into the writer's other works.

[ehyde]

I finished it! (except for the extras, which it looks like aren't translated)

Wow, that was amazing. To be honest I was feeling kind of meh about the romance for a long time (possessive MLs can be a bit of a turnoff for me) but then, after things were put in context? I legit cried, I love them so much.

[snowynight]

Yeah. The reveal is spectacular.

[halfcactus]

Would love to hear your thoughts about C Language Cultivation! I ended up not loving Little Mushroom, so I’ve been wary of the author’s other work in spite of the recs.

[snowynight]

C Language Cultivation is quite different from Little Mushroom, so you may enjoy this but not Little Mushroom (or vice versa.)

It's really best reading unspoiled, but I would say the way MC cultivates with programming language is ingenious. (Hence the title)

[anne]

Hello! Followed the link from Mastodon, where I'm aegtx at wandering.shop

1. What are you currently reading? Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

2. What is your favourite cnovel? Not yet! I like many equally

3. Do you have a favourite author? Maybe Cyan Wings, but Meng Xi Shi is also up there (edit: my favorite translator is EDanglars, which is why I bought Golden Terrace and Imperial Uncle sight unseen. No regrets!)

4. What are your other hobbies and interests? fiber arts, reading things that aren't cnovels, watching cdramas, finding out what other people are nerds about

5. What do you hope to see from this community? I'm excited about having in-depth fannish conversations again! The kind you can't really have on Masto or Bsky or Discord.

[geraineon]

Ooh! How are you finding Devil Venerable? It's one of my favs but so far it's been a few hits and a miss when I recommended it to others.

I, too, greatly appreciate EDanglars. I also really like the translation from tiny salt translation (I am reading Panguan, and unless the story jumps the shark really badly in the last twenty chapters, probably going to shoot up my favourites list. It's already a favourite without me having finished it!)

Definitely excited to have more discussions here. Are there any specific topics of discussion you'd like to see here?

[anne]

I LOVE IT. It's got the GalaxyQuest vibe, you know?

I don't think I've read anything translated by tiny salt. I'll keep an eye out. But as soon as I finish DVAWTK, I have to read Stars of Chaos so I can return it to the library.

[geraineon]

I have Stars of Chaos in my ebook reader... at some point I'll get to it but I definitely enjoyed the fan translations before it was licensed. Hopefully the official translation does it justice

And I'm very glad you are enjoying Devil Venerable!

[anne]

excuse me I just got to the character named HELIAN YI and I would love to know which characters those are, because wow that was a surprise

[geraineon]

I actually don't remember a Helian Yi in Stars of Chaos, but this and Tian Ya Ke/Qiye are completely unrelated, if you're wondering!

[anne]

No, I was thinking that Cyan Wings might have been doing an homage! Hence my curiosity about the hanzi

[geraineon]

Ahh. I could not remember a Helian Yi, but turns out the name is changed later so I doubt it's a homage.

[anne]

Oh too bad, it would have been hilarious

[neuxue]

Thanks for setting up this community; glad to have more novels-focused spaces!

1. What are you currently reading? Currently reading 《默读》/Silent Reading, also listening to the audiodrama as I go

2. What is your favourite cnovel? The one that's made itself most at home in my brain is still probably 《烈火浇愁》/ Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire, but ask me again in a few months when I've made it through more of my to-read list...

3. Do you have a favourite author? I don't know if I've read enough cnovels to have a solid favourite. I do really love Priest's writing, but mostly I'm just after intricate plots and elegant prose.

4. What are your other hobbies and interests? Outside of fandom I'm usually participating in weird niche sports and/or travelling; within fandom I used to write fic and would like to get back to it, and more recently have been occasionally dabbling in translation for an audience of me, alone.

5. What do you hope to see from this community? Books! Recommendations, discussions, seeing what people are reading, and hopefully more novels that are perhaps less well-known in the other fandom spaces I hang out in

[geraineon]

The audio drama for Mo Du is so good!!

I haven't made my way through all of priest novels so maybe at some point I'll get to Lie Huo Jiao Chou

Wanting to know/talk about lesser known titles is definitely a theme here~

[halfcactus]

Ah I love the Modu audiodrama, I imprinted so hard on LWZ and the romance because of it 😭 The songs also have me by the throat.

[neuxue]

Yeah I'm not usually into audio media but this one came very highly recommended so I thought I'd give it a try as a way to catch back up to where I left off reading a while ago and remember what happened... and it's so good!

I'm only on S2 so the only song so far has been 以沫 but yeah it floored me the first time I heard it, and the way they incorporate it into some of the scenes is always an emotional gut-punch. Can't wait to see what else is coming!

[sophia_sol]

Hi, I'm Soph!

1. Currently I'm rereading MDZS with a friend as a sort of mini book club and having a lot of fun with it

2. TGCF is endlessly rewarding for me to think about and engage with! it's an imperfect book but it's so ambitious, complex, and interesting, with so many wonderful characters and intertwining themes. I adore Hualian, my fave secondary character is Ling Wen, and the Black Water arc and Beefleaf are endlessly compelling as well.

3. I haven't read enough different authors to feel like I can make an authoritative statement about this yet!

4. hahaha I kind of collect hobbies but I love birding as well as a variety of different types of crafting. I like making useful items, whether that's mending clothing, making baskets, or binding books.

5. I want to enjoy chatting about cnovels, and reading other people's thoughts and analyses of various ones! thanks Neon for starting the community :)

[geraineon]

Glad to have you here~ <3

I haven't read enough different authors to feel like I can make an authoritative statement about this yet!

This will change! and maybe we can have a yearly round up about thoughts of books we read (also this comm includes non-webnovel CN works as well, and there's def more SFF CN works in translation now)

[aurumcalendula]

Hi!

I just finished reading volume 2 of Stars of Chaos/Sha Po Lang and I'm following the translations of Purely By Accident and The Witch Nichang.

My favorites novels so far are The Beauty's Blade, Matrilocal Marriage, Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, and They All Say I've Met a Ghost.

I think my favorite author at the moment is Cyan Wings. I'm also very fond of E. Danglars' translations.

[geraineon]

I am keeping an eye on The Witch Nichang. At some point when more is translated, I'll get started!

And ooh the Beauty's Blade is fully tl-ed. I might check that out!

(Part of my reason for opening a comm: putting more titles on my TBR!)

Cyan Wings definitely seems popular here~ I like Cyan Wings works too!

[lunarriviera]

(Just got my vol 3 of SPL today! I'm so excited about spending the weekend with it.)

[elwinfortuna]

Hi!

I've just started reading Stars of Chaos by priest and I'm absolutely loving it. I've also read all the MXTX, Faraway Wanderers and Seventh Lord by priest, and a few others that I'm forgetting the names of just now. My favourite is Heaven Official's Blessing.

I'm also into lots of other fandoms and have my fingers in many pies. At the moment, it's Tolkien, Word of Honor, and Heaven Official's Blessing that I'm mostly reading and writing in.

I'm just excited for more fandom content in the Chinese media space on Dreamwidth! Looks like you've got a good plan for getting activity going.

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome!

Haha I'm mostly just faking my way through it by getting suggestions from members ;)

I love Stars of Chaos too! Glad you're enjoying it~

[snowynight]

Hi! Nice to meet you all!

1. What are you currently reading?

Safety Manual Labor Tips with a Twist of 2D by Xi Zixu (the author of Kaleidoscope of Death). I love the mix of horror and comedy.

2. What is your favourite cnovel?

Too many. 😉.

For example, Don’t Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin, Cyan Wings' works in general (Mr. Melancholy Wants to Live a Peaceful Life, Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know, etc), Married Thrice to Salted Fish, Happy Doomsday, C Language Cultivation, etc

3. Do you have a favourite author?

Cyan Wings. She is a great writer with great imagination. I like the character dynsmics in her work.

4. What are your other hobbies and interests?

Writing and playing casual mobile games

5. What do you hope to see from this community?

More chats about cnovels.

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome!

I love Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin! (though I have not finished reading because translation is not finished yet). I love many from your fav novels list (the only one I haven't read in that list is C Language Cultivation, but I have that on my TBR)~

Going to add Safety Manual Labor Tips of 2D too

I see that Cyan Wings is definitely popular here XD

Edited to add: and happy doomsday but that's also on tbr. Somehow my eyes just skimmed past that

[snowynight]

You have great taste!

Don't Pick Up Boyfriends is so good! I hope the translation will update soon.

I admire Cyan Wings for consistently good and creative work. Something's Not Right and They All Say I’ve Met a Ghost are good too.

[geraineon]

Yes! I love how she picks a genre and then does something different/meta

And she can clearly write amazing women characters who are also central to the plot (I read a lot of stories with very little expectations for this)

[snowynight]

Agreed! She's great with female characters.

[ehyde]

Looks like we have similar taste! Of the faves you listed, the only one I haven't read is Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin (although it's been on my radar as something I'd like to read). I just finished Happy Doomsday recently.

[snowynight]

Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin is great! I hope the translation will update soon.

[salamandras]

Hi! I've only read two cnovels so far, both because I loved the live action (tv shows Guardian and Word of Honor), and I'm here to get recommendations on what to read next. I'm probably going to be a quiet presence, soaking up information, although I'll try to participate. Thanks for making this community!

Non-cnovel genres I read are many, but I usually gravitate to scifi, fantasy, and speculative fiction. I'm not sure how that matches up with cnovel genres, though.

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome!

And that's alright, participate whenever you feel comfy to do it~

There are few novels recommended here that you can check and I will set up recurring posts for recommendations later.

I enjoy SFF novels as well. Hm, about genres, here's one about webnovel classifications: https://immortalmountain.wordpress.com/articles/chinese-webnovel-categories/

But I don't know if that translates to books in general

[salamandras]

Oh, great resource, thank you! I'll go read it over now.

[duckprintspress]

if you liked those two, may I offer you more priest?

*nudges this link to E. Danglars' wonderful translation of Mo Du in your direction... https://edanglarstranslations.com/modu *

[salamandras]

Thank you, I'll check it out!

[lunarriviera]

[waves madly at everyone] hello fellow cnovel readers, very happy to be here—and thank you mod for starting this comm!

1. currently reading:

Just got Stars of Chaos/Sha Po Lang vol. 3 in the mail today LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO

2. favorite cnovel:

I finished Mo Du in like five days in late November and honestly I still haven't gotten over it. I may never get over it. I think about it constantly. I never dreamed a plot could DO all that.

3. favorite author:

Priest so far, even though I've read hardly anything. But I love her huge brilliant wild mind.

4. other hobbies/interests:

I write every day (compulsively), walk every day (reluctantly, even though I live on a beautiful island), and drink way too much matcha. Also I have a cat, Zoë. I teach literature and film to undergrads part-time and am full-time disabled (the crazy kind). And I love making friends so feel free to follow. <3

5. what I hope to see:

Just looking forward to y'all's recs, and lots of conversation about books. Out of curiosity—does anyone use Goodreads instead of/as well as NU? I'm having fun making shelves on both, and filling them with vast numbers of danmei to read—

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome! Sha Po Lang and Mo Du are great (highly rec the audio dramas too)

I do use novelupdates to add books to tbr: https://www.novelupdates.com/user/393433/geraineon/

But I'm generally quite bad at keeping lists haha.

[lunarriviera]

i'm so hipped about both ADs—already bought mo du on maoer FM and just haven't gotten around to it yet (also i heard it's the censored version, which makes me sad, and i can't find the uncensored one). at least SPL is on youtube, and it's translated too!

[geraineon]

I wonder if anyone has the uncensored version saved somewhere... surely it still exists. I'll try asking some ppl I know

[lunarriviera]

thank you so much for offering! there was someone on reddit who was sharing with people who had proof of purchase, but this person realized that they have me blocked on twitter and therefore declined to share with me. (not sure why the twitter block, i am only on twitter to yell about cdramas in general and dmbj/under the skin/justice in the dark in particular?)

[alterkrmn]

Hi, all.

I'm Carm and I'm basically a newbie. But let's answe the questions.


1. What are you currently reading?
Nothing yet. I finished Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know a couple of weeks ago but then I have a lot of things on my plate and I'm waiting until I have more free time before deciding what to read next. The options are: Thousand Autumns, Evil As Humans, Married Thrice to Salted Fish, Global Examination, Peach Blossom Debt or Imperial Uncle. I ran a poll on fedi and the winner was Thousand Autumns but we'll see :P

2. What is your favourite cnovel?
I only have read three so it feels a bit premature to say I have A favorite but I suppose I can rank them: 1st place Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know, 2nd Qi Ye and 3rd Mo Dao Zu Shi. But I was tempted to put DVAWTK and Qi Ye on the first place.

3. Do you have a favourite author?
Not yet. I need to read more to be able to answer this question. But that's precisely the point of being here.

4. What are your other hobbies and interests?
I have a lot of interests and hobbies. I love reading, I also enjoy watching shows of different kinds. Now I am mostly trying to make up for the time I hadn't watched any asian dramas and I'm trying to watch from different countries.

Learning languages is also a passion of mine, I'm learning japanese formally, but I also want to learn Mandarin, Thai and Korean, among others... I just wish I had more time and energy to do it.

Another thing I love is making things with my hands: sometimes I do embroidery and I've also learned pottery.Music is my eternal companion, the days I don't listen to music are very rare. I also practice karate but health and schedule sometimes interfere with it :(

I also write fic occasionally so I never call myself a writer, but I like doing it when it happens.


5. What do you hope to see from this community?
Oh, I like the idea of a place where I can read more about different authors and novels. I'm definitely here for the recommendations, but also having a place to talk about the things I read and being able to see other's opinions and perspectives about them is also something I'm looking forward to, specially as someone with very few experience.


I'm also very new to dw.

And that's it.

[geraineon]

Glad to have you here!

Excited to see you experience all the novels you listed~ and you can always have multiple most favorite novels. I can't decide what is my absolute favorite either...

I hope you enjoy your time here!

[larryhammer]

Current reading: A Will Eternal (一念永恒) by Er Gen (耳根) -- which, yes, took me a long time to get to. I tend to jump back and forth between xianxia and historical romance. My favorite cnovel is, um, I dunno, I'll name two: Way of Choices (择天记) by Mao Ni (猫腻) and Eight Treasures Trousseau (八宝妆) by Yue Xia Die Ying (月下蝶影).

In addition to reading cnovels (usually in translation), I translate classic Chinese poetry -- usually Tang Dynasty, but sometimes ranging back to Han and up to Song. Drafts of most of what I've done are here.

Mostly I'm looking for recommendations of what to read next.

[snowynight]

Your poem translation project is impressive!

[larryhammer]

Thankee.

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome!

Love that you're translating poems, will definitely check them out~

I love the diversity of the novels named so far. The only one I know from your list is Eight Treasures Trousseau (八宝妆), haha

Hope you enjoy your time here!

[larryhammer]

The other two are quite definitely xianxia, adventure stories with escalating martial-arts-doaist power-ups that come with the genre. Way of Choices has more than just that, but A Will Immortal is definitely bog-standard for the genre if better written than most.

I have a habit, when I take on a new language, of using poetry for practice texts. My previous language was Japanese, and I got a couple books out of that. I'm getting a manuscript of Chinese poems ready for submission, hopefully over the summer.

[geraineon]

I have a habit, when I take on a new language, of using poetry for practice texts. My previous language was Japanese, and I got a couple books out of that. I'm getting a manuscript of Chinese poems ready for submission, hopefully over the summer.

Jiayou for the Chinese poems~!

[larryhammer]

谢谢!

[katzenfabrik]

I really enjoy your Chinese poetry translations! Good luck with the manuscript!

[larryhammer]

Thankee!

[umadoshi]

Hi! I'm Ysa. ^_^

I don't currently have a cnovel on the go. The last ones I read were Guardian and Evil as Humans, and Evil as Humans is so long that it took me...um...quite a while to read, so lately I've been catching up more on my English-language TBR.

I kinda have two favorite cnovels, both by priest. Guardian hits me hard because I'm fannish about the drama and really love both iterations of the characters. (The drama was my gateway into c-media of any kind.) I also enjoyed the hell out of Mo Du/Silent Reading.

As an extension of the above, I guess priest is my current favorite Chinese-language writer! I think she's the only author I've read more than one book by so far. (In addition to the two above, I've read Faraway Wanderers.)

Other interests...well, I like reading and watching various things, although I have no hope of ever doing more than denting my terrifying media-to-consume lists. I don't game very much at all, but when I do get hooked on one, I pretty much fall into it. I have a special soft spot for manga, although I work (freelance) in the industry, so it hasn't been a hobby for a long time. I slowly write fanfic when my brain is cooperative about it. (Four years and counting since it basically cut out. >.<)

And for my hopes for this shiny new comm, mostly I'd just be very happy to see it thrive. I'm a chronic lurker, but I'll be around. ^_^

[lunarriviera]

[waves hi at you!] [and also tends to lurk, but bursts out like the koolaid man when anyone mentions mo du]

[umadoshi]

[and also tends to lurk, but bursts out like the koolaid man when anyone mentions mo du]

An entirely legitimate approach!

[geraineon]

Mo Du is definitely a popular one on this comm it seems! I really need to get back to Guardian.

Welcome and glad to have you~!

[umadoshi]

Mo Du is definitely a popular one on this comm it seems! I really need to get back to Guardian.

Mo Du is SO GOOD. (Guardian, yes! *quivers*)

[katzenfabrik]

Hi! I'm Rae, ve/ver/vis/verself or they/them pronouns. I'm very rarely on DW, but I'm excited for this community so I will try to be a bit more active. Mostly I hang out on mastodon.

I'm currently struggling my way through Zhang Gong'an in machine translation, because there isn't a full human translation yet but after watching A League of Nobleman, I needed more time with the characters. E. Danglars recently translated one of the extras and I have great hopes they're working on the full novel (please please please). I'm also about to start book two of Thousand Autumns.

I spend a lot of my time in MXTX fandom (all three novels). Outside of that, my favourite cnovel fluctuates, but Jing Wei Qing Shang and Evil As Humans are both strong contenders. Favourite author is also hard to say, because most webnovels are so long I can't actually get through too many in my spare time, but right now I'm very keen on Nian Zhong and Meng Xi Shi.

Apart from reading cnovels, I love reading other SFF and historical fiction, hobby coding (despite also coding for work), writing fanfic, and learning Mandarin Chinese.

I'd really like to have conversations here about a wider range of cnovels than in other spaces, and maybe meet new people with similar interests. :)

[geraineon]

Good to have you here~! I wanted to ask on fedi but didn't wanna pressure XD

(psst you can post/link your recent review too)

crossing my fingers and hoping for Zhang Gong'an by E. Danglars too.

[dancing_serpent]

Hi, I'm Phaeton! I haven't read much yet, I'm currently only collecting volumes of the danmei translations.

1. What are you currently reading?
Not really reading anything at the moment. I'm theoretically in the middle of the second volume of Liu Cixin's Trisolaris trilogy, but I'm not really in the mood for it. Which has nothing to do with the book itself, but more with the circumstances in which I was reading it last time.

2. What is your favourite cnovel?
So far I only finished one/two novels, but I really loved both of them - The King's Avatar and its prequel.

3. Do you have a favourite author?
Not yet!

4. What are your other hobbies and interests?
I'm currently mostly gaming Immortal Life and watching c-dramas. Other interests are Scotland and Scotch Single Malt.

5. What do you hope to see from this community?
I'm going to let myself be surprised. *g* Honestly, I'm at full capacity with my own comm, have barely the energy to read my dwircle, so I'll be a lurker at best. But I hope this community will be successful and fun!

[geraineon]

Welcome! I'll be interested to know what you think of The Dark Forest if you ever finish it.

I just looked up Immortal Life and it looks interesting! Maybe I'll check it out too. What's your fav scotch? (I have very little knowledge but I did like what my friend let me try from his collection)

<3 I hope this comm will get to a point where it's self-sustaining in content but we shall see!

[dancing_serpent]

I mean, I definitely plan to continue reading at some point, but right now I always remember unpleasant stuff when I think about taking that book into my hands. I also plan on reading all those danmei novels I'm collecting, but I'm undecided what to start first. The one I'm most interested in is Thousand Autumns, and luckily the final volume should be out soon.

It's a fun game! Last time I gamed was 24 years ago, so it's a miracle that this one managed to lure me in. The mix of farming and xianxia did it for me. I'm on my second character now and closing in on 400 hours game time.

I don't actually have a favourite, although I have a slight preference for portwood finishes. But I've tried so many different ones (next year will be my 30 year anniversary since I fell in love with Scotch Single Malt), and by now I mostly pick depending on my mood and on the season. I usually have always three different bottles open at a time (sweet, smokey, and something special), but I'm also a collector. Btw, I run the very quiet community scotch_single_malt, and sometimes I post stuff, especially when I visited another distillery.

[geraineon]

I love Thousand Autumns, so I'm excited and looking forward to you picking it up to read!

I keep telling myself I need to diversify my games but I've been stuck playing Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail for years, it's terrible.

Will check out the comm! Maybe expand my knowledge and start collecting myself~

[dancing_serpent]

I keep hearing good things about Thousand Autumns, which is such a relief to me. I loved the donghua, and I'm looking forward to reading the novels, but I want to have the complete set of volumes in my hands before I start.

My nephew plays Genshin Impact and I watched him and his uncle play, and he would be delighted if I started playing, too. *g* I get being stuck on one or two games, though, same is currently happening with me and Immortal Life, after all. It's such a low stress game, despite the beginning, and farming really does play a huge role, so you can take your time with the plot. I spent 303 hours on my first character alone, and it was lovely!

*g* It's really very quiet over there. But I'm having fun with posting distillery tours, sometimes even with pics.

[geraineon]

The translation quality for Thousand Autumns is decent, which is also a good thing (translation quality varies so much, and I dearly wish publishes will actually care more about doing right instead of doing what's quick).

Oh nooo, I'm here to say, don't start. It will consume your soul, and then three or four years later, you'll still be playing while saying, "gdi, I need to play a different game."

[dancing_serpent]

*snicker* Maybe that what I'll be saying about Immortal Life in a year or two, because I'm already thinking about doing the whole thing from the start again with a third character. *g*

[duckprintspress]

Oh, I forgot to do this! Apologies in advance, I don't have the brain to read everyone else's right now, but I'd like to and I'll try to catch up.

I'm unforth (agender, aroace, 41, mother of two, white Jewish/atheist USAdian, any pronouns), I post on Dreamwidth from the account for the business I own, Duck Prints Press, which is an indie press that works with fancreators to publish their original work. I'm a fandom old, and I've been into danmei and cnovels since late 2019.

1. What are you currently reading? I just finished (re)reading MDZS, finishing the official translation, and I started (re)reading the official translation of 2ha vol. 5 yesterday. (I read both as fantranslations/mtl, now reading the full official). My next new-to-me read will be In the Dark by Jin Shi Si Chai.

2. What is your favourite cnovel? Mo Du by priest, hands down. (second is Tian Guan Ci Fu, third is 2ha, after that it gets fuzzier)

3. Do you have a favourite author? Gotta be priest.

4. What are your other hobbies and interests? uh. heck. this shouldn't be so hard to answer. reading in general, fibercrafts, whatever my kids are into at the moment (so mostly Minecraft rn), and various other things.

5. What do you hope to see from this community? Just more like-minded people to hang out with!!!

[geraineon]

Glad to have you here!

Mo Du is def popular here it seems, haha

[duckprintspress]

lol I noticed that too, I was a bit surprised by how many fellow "my favorite is Mo Du" people there were here!

[douqi]

Hello! I'm douqi and I started the baihe_media comm. I also translate the baihe historical romance Purely by Accident (which I am close to finishing!) and some other odds and ends.

I'm currently between c-webnovels, but I just finished reading The Favourite by Da Ying, a baihe xuanhuan novel, and will shortly be starting on either Above the Fates by Si Bai Ba Shi Si, a corporate thriller, or Divination by You Jiao Yao Shui, a supernatural thriller (both of these are baihe novels).

At the moment, my two favourite c-webnovels are Ravenous (reviewed here), an urban fantasy novel, and The Creator's Grace, a near-future sci-fi thriller which has been licensed for publication in English by Rosmei (a fact about which I have Views).

My favourite webnovelist is Ning Yuan, author of the two abovementioned novels, who has been writing baihe for over 15 years across a wide range of genres.

As for hobbies and interests, other than translating and fansubbing, I also, er, read other books. I try to read two professionally-published books in English for every Chinese webnovel I read — it does wonders for maintaining a solid sense of what a sentence looks like in natural English!

Re: what I hope to see from this community: a space for more thoughtful discussions of c-webnovels, and also to see what other people are reading (I'm nosy). I read a niche genre and I read in Chinese, so sometimes that can get a bit isolating.

I am also, somewhat against my better judgment, a Jin Yong wuxia nerd (level of nerdery: read all the novels at least once, the major ones multiple times). I have a couple of introductory posts on Jin Yong and Gu Long, and would like to update and post them here if that's within scope for the comm.

Thanks for setting this comm up!

[geraineon]

Welcome! I'm glad to have you here <3

The Creator's Grace, a near-future sci-fi thriller which has been licensed for publication in English by Rosmei (a fact about which I have Views).

Oh, sf thriller!! That's right up my alley. Hm, did something happen with Rosmei? (since being off twitter, I haven't been keeping up with the going ons in localization issues)

I try to read two professionally-published books in English for every Chinese webnovel I read — it does wonders for maintaining a solid sense of what a sentence looks like in natural English!

Haha, I'm trying to do this too... I can feel my English slipping. The plan is to read another English book after I finish my current read.

I have a couple of introductory posts on Jin Yong and Gu Long, and would like to update and post them here if that's within scope for the comm.

Very welcome! Scope of the comm is basically, any novels originally in Chinese, haha. I'd love to read your introductory posts. My exposure has all been purely through TVB dramas.

[halfcactus]

Re: Rosmei - there have been some discussions over at baihe_media here:

https://baihe-media.dreamwidth.org/14675.html
https://baihe-media.dreamwidth.org/16669.html
https://baihe-media.dreamwidth.org/20039.html

I think the tl;dr would be:
1) low rates (which is typical for most licensed publishers, I think, though it still makes me sad)
2) very bad marketing - whenever they announce their baihe novels, they have absolutely no info about the author or the book, or even a summary of it. They have now hired a new translator to do the summaries after the backlash from this post lol

[geraineon]

Thank you!

Sigh, that really puts a sour taste on this. I hope the actual product will be good... but it seems clear they don't really care about baihe novels (then why do it??!)

[douqi]

Amazing! I'll make some time to tidy up the posts and put them on here.

And the comment from halfcactus below has all the links to the Rosmei/baihe debacle.

[geraineon]

<3 looking forward to it!

and sigh... I hope the final product will be at least decent, but it's clear Rosmei doesn't seem to care about baihe novel.

[halfcactus]

I try to read two professionally-published books in English for every Chinese webnovel I read — it does wonders for maintaining a solid sense of what a sentence looks like in natural English!
This is so true lol (I had to rehabilitate my English by reading profic, after getting too used to fantranslation syntax) so I'm so happy to see translators doing this too. XD

I really like seeing your posts! I don't think I was really aware of how rich the cnovel landscape was until then.

[douqi]

I'd really recommend 'read English profic, a lot' to any translator. I also find it helpful to read across different genres of profic, it's good to have a lot of styles and literary strategies to choose from.

[duckprintspress]

ooo just saying hi, I'm excited that someone this knowledgeable on baihe is joining the group, I haven't read any baihe yet and I really really want to change that. <3

[douqi]

*waves* Hello! I was going to say feel free to ask me for recommendations, but the sad state of baihe fan translation means that a lot of cool stuff sadly isn't readily accessible, alas. I'm wrapping up one project and gearing up to start another, but I'm aware that's a tiny drop in a vast ocean.

[duckprintspress]

My Chinese isn't good enough yet to read things in the original, but it's definitely #goals, so maybe in a couple years, I can get some recs anyway! (I've been studying for a little over 2.5 years, and I'm guessing it'll take around 5 years at the rate I'm going before I'll really feel confident reading a book...)

And thank you for your efforts as a fantranslator. It's so so so so appreciated. <3

[katzenfabrik]

Hi! Just wanted to say that I really appreciate your translations and subtitling projects, and I'm excited to learn that there's a baihe community here!

[douqi]

Thank you! I see you've joined the baihe comm — welcome!

[snowynight]

Hi! Thanks for your effort and I love the com! I really appreciate the recs for baihe media.

I love Jin Yong wuxia, and am looking forward to the posts.

[douqi]

Thank you!

[grayswandir]

Hello! I'll probably be mostly quiet here, but thought I'd post an intro anyway. :) So far I've only read three Chinese webnovels, one in English translation (the first book of the Grave-Robber's Chronicles), one in Cantonese (Sai Ying Pun [西營盤]), and one in a mix of Cantonese and standard Chinese/Mandarin (So My Kitchen Boss Is a Part-Time Exorcist). I've also read Jin Yong's The Deer and the Cauldron in English translation, plus a few chapters of it in Chinese, and I'm about halfway through a Cantonese audiobook recording of it, going very slowly.

Most of my Chinese media consumption is at least partly for language immersion (for learning Cantonese), so whenever I get back to reading more webnovels it will probably not be popular cnovels but just random Hong Kong webnovels nobody else has heard of. ;D I'm also planning to read more Jin Yong -- I keep hoping eventually I'll be able to read his novels in Chinese, but I'm definitely nowhere near there yet. And I'm trying to get around to reading translations of some classics like Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Anyway, I'm mostly here to lurk, but looking forward to hearing about what everyone else is reading!

[geraineon]

Hi and welcome!

Feel free to share reviews and thoughts about any books you read/listen to anyway~ maybe you'll get some people interested in them!

I speak Cantonese, so I'll be interested in audiobook recommendations haha (I can't read but I grew up speaking it)

[grayswandir]

I speak Cantonese, so I'll be interested in audiobook recommendations haha

Oh, cool! I'm still learning and definitely can't understand it fluently yet, but I'm excited to check out more audiobooks. :) Will share if I find anything interesting!

[ghislaine]

Hi! I come by way of Chinese drama, but I also studied Asian and Asian American literatures in grad school, so I'm interested in Chinese novels from both angles.

I'm currently reading the short story collection Flowers of Mold by Ha Seong-nan. The stories have been giving me the sense of what it would be like to grow up in South Korea or to work there and the similarities and differences with how and where I'm presently situated on the outskirts of a Texas metroplex.

My favorite cnovel is Daughter of the River by Hong Ying. I'm currently reading the sequel, Good Children of the Flower, which continues the story and weaves past memories and the present together in a similar way.

My other great love is British gothic literature, and my favorite author is Mary Shelley. My second favorite is Lisa See.

My other hobbies and interests are growing roses, doll-collecting, and cross stitch. I also like playing otome games when I have time.

I mentioned it in a comment on a recent post, but I would love to have a monthly read-along!

[geraineon]

Welcome~ oh those are pretty serious books! I like that we have a variety of types of books here.

I used to play loads of otome games! What are you playing now?

[ghislaine]

Thank you for your welcome! I haven't gotten too far into them yet, but right now I'm playing Ikemen Villains and Love and Deepspace. :)