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

[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)

[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.

[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.

[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

[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

[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

[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!

[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?

[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~

[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!

[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

[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

[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.

[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!

[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]

[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!

[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

[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.

[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)

[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?