Read-in-Progress Wednesday

[geraineon]

This is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!

For spoilers:

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Comments

[duckprintspress]

I finished AWM: PUBG, and rather liked it! I usually don't enjoy a gong as pushy as Qi Zui but he was so respectful of Yu Yang's boundaries that it was hard not to root for him.

I'm now reading Rose and Renaissance by Zhi Chu (Chinese title is 我只喜欢你的人没, it was preciously fantranslated under the title I Only Like Your Persona). I'm enjoying it a l.o.t. Xi Xiqing is such a broken little dumbass pretending to be such a little shit pretending to be such a perfect angel, and Zhou Ziheng has seen through the "perfect angel" but still is completely clueless that the "little shit" is also a persona, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it's going. The official English is 4 volumes and I started it Sunday and I'm already a chunk into vol. 2, that's how into it I am (that's fast for me...)

[geraineon]

Yeah, he's so careful not to cross boundaries I love it (pushy but you know he would stop if Yu Yang is not okay).

The other novel sounds like a fun novel!

[duckprintspress]

genuinely, given what I've gathered of your taste, I think there's a good chance you'd enjoy 我只喜欢你的人没. :)

and yes, and for all that Yu Yang blushes and kind of hides, he also clearly knows that he can say no. I love that for them.

[geraineon]

It does sound funny! I'll add to my tbr~

[geraineon]

So I'm at ch 8 of Chu Liuxiang book 1 and I want to shake him a little (no all three women on the houseboat should throw him off the houseboat a lil). But, it's still an enjoyable read~ so many dead! So many Who's Who in Jianghu!

I've also continued Tai Sui so now I'm around chapter 138.

[douqi]

Ahah, Chu Liuxiang's fuckboi nature is supposed to be part of his charm, isn't it? I always wanted Li Hongxiu and Song Tian'er to get off the boat and set up home together (Li Hongxiu doesn't get a lot of page time but she's my favourite of the girls on the boat, and possibly of all the Chu Liuxiang girls). I'm pretty sure Su Rongrong is too far gone though.

[geraineon]

Such a fuccboi! I think he was more bearable on TV somehow?

I support Li Hongxiu and Song Tian'er to ditch him and get together! ... Rongrong too if they can convince her.

Then he can just hang off the men he seems to have homoerotic tension with -_-

[douqi]

I think he was more bearable on TV somehow?
If it was the Adam Cheng series you were watching, I think a lot of it was down to the actor's natural charisma.

OMG so much homoerotic tension!!

[geraineon]

Yes, it's Adam Cheng's version. H really does make the whole character. I can't think of anyone else but him as CLX now.

Seriously EVERY GUY he meets?! Chill, CLX!

[forestofglory]

Still working on To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth -- I got side tracked by other background reading on the thing I am planing to post a translation of, including more stuff about the TPGJ generally. I think I want to just skip ahead the story I'm interested in and come back to the rest of it after that. Campany even said that he doesn't think the order matters so it should be ok.

[geraineon]

Ah. What background reading are you doing on?

[forestofglory]

History of the TPGJ mostly -- which is useful but not necessarily need for the translation work I want to do next.

[aurumcalendula]

I finished Record of the Missing Sect Master! I really enjoyed it overall (I especially liked the main pairing and the Demonic Sect) but I don't have specific thoughts on it.

I'm planning to reread The Beauty's Blade next.

[geraineon]

Yay, you're done! Yeah the main pairing and the demonic sect are fun~ and I did enjoy the revenge story.

[douqi]

I read, in quick succession, two queer novels published in the last couple of years (both meh) and one published in the 1980s (significantly better). About to start Serenade of Tranquility by Ruo Hua Ci Shu, which is a historical with a tragic ending. Daily screaming over new chapters of To Embers We Return continues.

[geraineon]

What's the title of the 1980s novel you found to be the better one among the three?

Tragic ending ❤️

[douqi]

It's David Rees' The Milkman's On His Way, about a working-class boy coming to terms with being gay in a dead-end seaside town. I think it went out of print when it was suppressed under the infamous Section 38, and has recently been brought back into print by a small indie press!

[hazevi]

I originally was going to find some sci-fi earlier in the week but then I happened to have glanced upon a summary for a historical novel...

So I'm now some 18 very happy chapters down 悼金陵 (To Mourn Jinling), a historical court politics baihe novel set in an alternate timeline of Chinese history, around just after Southern Liang as a country has been wiped off the map and when Northern Qi is on the rise during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. I think part of the reason why this novel caught my eye is because I've been kinda getting more interested in Wei/Jin/Northern Southern Dynasty history recently and what better way to feed the curiosity than to read a baihe novel about it? I kind of suck at the history of the periods of chaos in ancient China and have been meaning to at least learn a bit for sometime. Out of the Warring States, Wei/Jin/Northern and Southern, and Five Dynasties Ten Kingdoms, I do like Wei/Jin/Northern and Southern Dynasties the most so I guess I might as well start here.

Also like the line that particularly caught my eye in the summary was the author writing, "Gao Ying (the female lead) is very objectively crazy, not subjectively crazy" which had me very piqued because even not knowing much about Northern/Southern Dynasties, but just knowing some Chinese history in general, the Gaos (imperial family of Northern Qi) produced some rather notoriously crazy emperors.

Finally, I found this kind of interesting but if I had a nickel for every single time one of my favorite pieces of media was set in alternate timeline with 'Liang' involved, I'd have three nickels, and maybe this will make it four... (although I suppose Sha Po Lang is like a completely different setting and the imperial family's surname is Li?) So my question is, what's up with Liang? Did it really leave a deep enough mark on Chinese history for authors to pick it, or is it just that it just kind of existed that makes it useful for alternate timelines? Or maybe authors like the surname Xiao for the imperial family? Someone enlighten me please hhhh.

[geraineon]

Objectively crazy 👀 that's intriguing. What do they mean by "crazy" in this novel?

Maybe they do like surname Xiao. Hm. Do the few stories set during that time period have similarities in terms of themes?

[llonkrebboj]

+1 Curious re: what type of crazy?

I've wondered about the same question for some time - why so many dramas and novels like to take inspiration on their alternate history background from Wei-Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, or even borrow the Xiao Surname and Liang Dynasty name. Maybe there are manifold reasons! xD

- A popular novel/drama made it fashionable because after watching it, people create demand by seeking similar types of stories and writers or drama producers want to ride that wave. Even if it's just in name!
- Genuine tributes easter egg style to media the writers enjoyed (you can sort of see it when they're doing this though).
- The irl history of the period making it ideal for action packed and dynamic storylines. Northern and Southern Dynasties are lumped together as one name because unlike the dynasties and periods before and after, it had maybe 9 mini-dynasties packed into 170 years. That's A LOT of intense war and politics.
- But honestly the coolest things I know to come out of Xiao-Liang are these:
(1) A super important and popular poetry anthology for later dynasties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_Xuan
(2) Rise of Buddhism, Daoism and Xuanxue
(3) Continued development and rise of the ministerial nine rankings system
(4) Focused efforts on building schools
(5) The beginnings of something like the Civil Service Examinations that became a thing in Sui-Tang, gently shaking the practice? foundation? culture??? of Prominent Clans holding all the power and influence

[llonkrebboj]

Not much this past week! Work's been busy busy as I clear it ahead of time for the family trip coming up.

Partly to procrastinate, I've started a reread of 琅琊榜 Langya List using both the unrevised and published versions. Been slowly making notes per chapter on things like poetry and cultural references xD (An idea for a project I started and hiatused in maybe 2022? The bag of cats for a brain I have sure does what it wants, when it wants to!)

My friend started an awesome wiki for this story and its canons, and I plan to add on where I can! Come check it out: https://nirvanainfire.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page

[geraineon]

That's cool! ... At some point, I should make a novel specific resource list on here. Note to self to start it when I'm done with my major travels.

[ehyde]

Oh, I'm interested in this reread! I've only read whatever version is in merelhyn's compiled epub, which I *think* is the web serialized version, but I'm honestly not sure. Any notable differences so far?