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:

<details><summary>insert summary</summary>Your spoilers goes here</details>

<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

(Feel free to chat about anything else! I missed the last free-for-all friday, so you can use this as that too.)

Comments

[duckprintspress]

My only c-novel reads rn are in Chinese! I'm almost done with 破云/Breaking Through the Clouds manhua vol. 1 by 淮上 (which I've previously read both the manhua and the book in English). All the detective-y readings I've done in DuChinese are really paying off right now, lmao. Learning lots of new vocabulary related to manufacturing drugs, too.

I also have officially started my long-intended read of 我和我对家/I Ship My Rival x Me by PEPA. This will be my first time reading a novel in Chinese, AND I've never actually read the novel in English (only the manhua). So far, it's mostly hard because Wei Yanzi uses so much slang and talks kinda casually, I get lost in his sentences depressingly often. I definitely would say so far rather than really understanding it, I'm mostly (fairly consistently, at least) getting the gist while missing details. I hope it gets easier, cause I'm also incredibly slow. I'll be reading this for a year if I don't manage to get faster. I already know I love the manhua, and considering I've read 1.5 pages, I can't say I've got much else to add on this topic lmao.

[halfcactus]

Gu Yiliang's diary entries should be easier!

But yeah WYZ's dialogue is not just slang but a lot of pop culture references, some of them not very recent... I vaguely remember my reading group making a spreadsheet of song references we could identify haha. +1 on extremely casual/colloquial writing styles being much harder to read, I've given up on those lol.

In terms of first-time reads, you could also check out They All Say We Met a Ghost by Cyan Wings is which I'd rec for being short, straightforward, and fun.

[duckprintspress]

Ah, thank you, this is all super helpful. I'm going it solo so I just assume I'll miss lots of references. Part of my wonders if I shouldn't start with something ostensibly "harder" but that I've read before in English, like idk Thousand Autumns (which I've read twice in English) or Global Examination (which I've read the book in English and I've read the manhua in both languages). It's so hard to know what the best approach is, sigh.

That's really really good to know re: They All Say We Met a Ghost. It's been on my TBR for ages. I don't own a print copy, but I'm betting I can get it from JJWXC pretty easily.

(I own print copies of Sha Po Lang (in traditional), Thousand Autumns, Golden Stage, Little Mushroom, Modu, Global Examination, TGCF (original in traditional, revised in simplified), SVSSS (in traditional), and part of MDZS (in traditional). Oh and some random volumes of Daomu Biji, which will also have some casualness challenges with Wu Xie's first person pov narration, but which I've heard is also fairly easy. I feel like I'm forgetting things but oh well lol. And I've got a bunch of manhua obviously, most of which I've read at this point.)

(eta: forgot Guardian. It is NOT easy, lmao.)

(eta2: also forgot 2ha.)

[halfcactus]

It's so hard to know what the best approach is, sigh.
I think going with what you enjoy is a very good approach! Especially something you've read in English before so it eases the way and the process is a lot more organic. It takes a few tries to figure out what kind of book to look for next, but being able to finish a book at all is a terrific confident boost.

Guardian was actually the first cnovel I started raw, and it took me the lockdown to go through 1-2 chapters a day to finish it. But I'm also a digital-only reader, so with a pop-up dictionary it's so much easier to read (compared to reading a print copy). I will say that reading novels is A LOT different from reading/watching manhua, audio dramas, and TV shows. It's just a different skillset altogether. ISMM is good in the sense that it's first-person and colloquial enough that you don't really need to parse long sentences or descriptions, but on the other hand, it is SO much slang and internet culture. I'm pretty sure that everything I know of c-ent fandom I learned from ISMM. There's also a very fun audio drama, if you want to supplement with audio! There should be Chinese subtitles on Missevan if you want to read along.

[dayadhvam_triad]

eyyy Guardian was also the first cnovel I read in the og CN o/

[halfcactus]

\o

I remember seeing your translations around! What a time that was.

I wish I could say I have read dozens of cnovels since then, but alas. XD

[dayadhvam_triad]

Guardian in 2018 was a blast! And that was a fun way to practice tl, confusion & mistakes & all \o/

Haha tbh I basically just read The King's Avatar cfic afterward... didn't come back to cnovels till the past few years. XD

[duckprintspress]

I realized this morning I also forgot The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua and Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine. I had a friend who lives in Beijing come to visit and so I bought a ton of stuff stupid cheap from Taobao, had it mailed to her, and she was my danmei mule, lmao.

And that's good to know! I was up stupid early this morning and so I managed to read three whole pages. Only took me 25 minutes. Afterward I grabbed my manhua vol. 1 to help me through some of the parts I'd had trouble parsing, lol. It took me about 20 minutes tho, I am stupidly slow. I don't really like reading on my phone, unfortunately, but I keep it open in my lap with pleco ready for me to look shit up, so it's not TOO hard? The only big issue I run into is that when I have to look up more than one word in a sentence, I'll forget how the sentence started by the time I get to the end.

I never have time for audiodramas, unfortunately. I don't really have time for anything with subtitles. I only squeeze in studying and reading most days by doing it in the morning before we need to get our kids ready for the day.

also, dang, STARTING with Guardian. o7 I salute you. That is badass.

[geraineon]

Reading in CN is a huge step. Ganba!

[larryhammer]

Current reading is c-novel adjacent -- the Japanese light novel series The Apothecary Diaries aka Kururiya no Hitorigoto, which is set in the same sort of non-canonical historical imperial China setting of most Chinese historical novels. (Since since there's been one, but only one, woman cited as having bound feet, I'm assuming it's based more on Song than Tang era.)

It is facinating, the differences in how a Japanese outsider writes life in the Inner Palace compared to Chinese writers. My eyebrows raised to learn the emperor, after five years in office, still doesn't have an empress consort, and stayed raised. Why isn't the dowager empress, then, in charge of the various consorts? Why aren't they visiting her quarters daily? Why isn't anyone running the Inner Palace? Why does one of the four top-ranked consorts, the only one with a living imperial child, have only five total attendants (plus a wet-nurse), who do also all the maidwork in her palatial quarters? How is relations between the bickering consorts so ... low-key? There's poison (the MC works as a food tester for a while) but no paranoia.

Am late in volume 2. The narration so far has been rather episodic, in a way that I can see adapting to an anime quite easily. We'll see how long it keeps my attention.

[halfcactus]

I enjoyed the first season of the anime (whose OPs I adore) but I think I prefer it in light novel form! I just need to remember where I left off.

I did also find the series interesting for having a setting that's based on ancient China but not be bound by reality hahaha

[duckprintspress]

I feel like I'm an unusual minority in that I've read a bunch of the manga but it never really grew on me. I tried the anime but couldn't focus on it, and I'll own I can muster zero enthusiasm for the light novels, even thought I feel like I "should" because they're so popular and I've got a friend who can loan them to me. I keep thinking that if I just keep at it long enough I'll figure out what I'm missing that's making everyone else seem to enjoy it so much more than I do.

[halfcactus]

It took me two tries and around 10 eps to get into the anime, I think because the cases were too short at the beginning and it initially felt like Maomao was only clever in relation to the people around her, who were not very smart. But once the plot of the first season got going and the cases got longer, I binged the rest.

I vaguely remember enjoying the manga and light novel more, maybe because of the PoV, or maybe because I picked them up where s1 of the anime left off and the writing was more stable. I imagine that if you couldn't get into the manga the anime has little more to offer. It's largely a palace + brothel drama with episodic mysteries, so if you're not into palace and courtesan storylines and het romance tropes and you get bothered with the questions that plagued larryhammer upthread, it might just not be for you.

[duckprintspress]

I read, idk... 10 volumes of the manga? 11? So idk.

And honestly, it's not an issue with palace/brothel drama, and it's not an issue with differences between Japan-written China and China-written China. I love political stuff of all stripes, and I started out in Japanese fandoms first so I'd already seen that point of view, THEN I moved to Chinese fandoms, and now I'm in a lot of both. I don't know WHAT it is, I haven't been able to figure out why, I'm just really "meh" over it. Thinking about it now... I think it might be that I'm just really not attached to any of the characters. I don't care what happens to them, I'm not invested in their relationships with each other, they all always felt a bit flat to me. Like we find out the kinds of people they are early on (Maomao is very smart, likes to help people even tho she's not super interested in them, and loves poisons! Jinshi is a flirt a little too wrapped up in his own cleverness! etc.!) and in 11-or-however-many volumes they never seemed to grow to be more than that. We find out their backstories but we don't really see them tested as people, we don't get greater insight into what makes them tick. There wasn't much under those surfaces, so it was hard to stay interested.

I contrast that with something like Witch Hat Atelier or Dungeon Meshi, where we get these character archetypes that are a little quirky, a little silly, a little over-the-top, and there is SO MUCH underneath them, it just feels a bit hollow.

And with that in mind, I wonder if the light novels would be a better fit for me. If they're able to give that depth that I felt I didn't get from the manga... idk.

(and to be clear, I don't mean this as a condemnation of the story. Different strokes, different folks. And whether they get more depth is a matter of interpretation anyway, other people may feel they get lots of depth! It just wasn't a good match for me.)

[halfcactus]

I feel like WHA and Dungeon Meshi are just very different types of stories and have the advantage of the creators being super smart and talented writers/artists who have crafted their stories specifically for the medium. Not to mention they are both gen stories that are focused on lore, character progression, worldbuilding, and design. Apothecary Diaries is more mystery / palace intrigue / pseudo-historical drama. It's not really inventive or meant to be, and I agree that there's not as much character depth/complexity, but it's entertaining. And yeah, probably just not a good match for you!

[geraineon]

Haha, this is kinda my reaction watching the anime. I was told the light novel is much better, but have not started reading it.

[halfcactus]

I wasn't very online this week but here's a list of recent webtoons (KR + CN) that I checked out:

Semantic Error: m/m, modern-day campus enemies-to-lovers romance between a computer science major and his visual design major sunbae. Enjoyed the first two (out of three) seasons a lot but I struggle to continue things when I've paused them (however brief).

When Fate Finds Us: m/f romantasy. FL has been marked as the bride of the god; ML helps her break out of the temple in exchange for her help in locating a family heirloom. She has the ability to see fragments of the future when she touches people, and he wants to use her powers of prophecy. The vibes so far are part Tangled, part fantasy anime, mostly enjoyable, but again, I paused it momentarily so idk when to get back.

The Wind Spell: f/f (as in fish/fucker) romantasy. I have only read like 2 pages but omg I am obsesseeeeeeeeed with this artist's art (their other comic appears to be a baihe about a lady and her maid) and I'm trying to figure out if I can pay for access to later chapters??? Anyway I can't write about the comics, I just wanted to yell about the art lol

Link: https://afdian.com/album/ee542e38da1c11ef864552540025c377

[douqi]

I've seen The Wind Spell popping up when I scroll Weibo or Xiaohongshu, the art is really pretty!

[halfcactus]

It's also the kind of comic I can see international (non-danmei) readers checking out! It wouldn't look out of place in the sea of vaguely-western romantasies on international webtoon platforms, but the art and storytelling style are already standing out for me aaaHHHHhHHH

[geraineon]

I finished Semantic Error drama on the plane but have not read the webtoons... Not sure if I can recommend the drama, but I am curious about the webtoon.

Thanks for the link. The art is very pretty!

[halfcactus]

I had no idea there was a drama! I'd be interested in hearing if the webtoon is better or comparable to the drama if you ever get around reading it!

[aurumcalendula]

I caught up on the most recently translated chapters of Begging the Heavens in Vain and The Moon Above These Lands!

In the former,  chapter 70 finally reveals what Song Juguang's deal is! Highlight for spoilers! *It sounds like she an immortal who decended to the motal world to assist a sovereign and endure a tribulation, although things went awry in the process and her soul didn't end up where she intended and she was initially missing some memories.* I'm continuing to love her and Jiang Changbai's UST.

I think the latter is at the moment mostly setting the stage for later stuff. I liked seeing a bit of Wen Mingchang's relationship with her mother and I'm looking forward to seeing how her ambition plays out.

[geraineon]

Mm, it does sound like a middle of the story development. As always, happy that you are enjoying your reads!

[forestofglory]

still just poking around with graded readers -- I think they are getting easier, but its hard to tell. Hopefully I'm learning some normal vocabulary from all this

[duckprintspress]

Which graded readers are you using?

I do graded readings in DuChinese; it took a long time before the vocab started to feel useful but it eventually did by sheer accumulation. Any given word might not come up all that often, but the most dang random ones do. I also will frequently be doing reading in not-a-reader and it'll be like wait, I just learned that in a graded reading...

[forestofglory]

I'm reading the Rainbow Bridge readers which I bought through Pleco and am reading in their ereader. It's nice for me because they've converted them to traditional characters. They are all folktales and such and reasonably interesting. (I tried the free version of DuChinese and all the stories where so boring to me)

my vocab problem is that I know lots of obscure words and not many common ones so just reinforcing the basics is good for me

[duckprintspress]

yeah I could see that re: DuChinese. A lot of the lower level ones were a slog, but they were also usually short so I kinda just forced my way through. It wasn't until I started getting to Upper Intermediate/HSK4 that there started being ones that actually interested me, and that's mostly cause they do a lot of mysteries (and I like mysteries) and history (and they've done a ton of history, esp Romance of the Three Kingdoms era stuff). I also like their ones about food, holidays, folktales, and silly language stuff/puns. They've been a big part of how I've learned about more general Chinese culture stuff. I have the paid version, tho, in part cause yeah the free version was so limited.

Amusingly, I'm actually hitting the other end of it now, though - like, I've now done enough of their readings that I'm running out of things that interest me, and what's left ISN'T easy OR short, so it's like. this is hard and long and dull, why would I read this. I'm probably gonna start phasing out actually reading with it soonish (like within six months maybe?) but keep using it cause I like their flashcard system.

I'm looking at the Pleco stuff now; I didn't know they had graded readers! A lot of this looks a bit on the easy side for my current level but woulda been great earlier on. Their "Four Great Books" bundle looks pretty tempting. I've got a regular copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms but I've been worried it'll be too hard for me...this could make a really good bridge between the R3K stuff I've read in Pleco and being actually ready for the book itself. I'm always looking for more to read, so... yeah. Thank you!

[forestofglory]

I didn't know about Pleco graded readers until recently either. It came up because I was researching something else and friend mentioned Pleco had related reader.

I do think Romance of the Three Kingdoms is likely to be difficult if you haven't read any classical or literary Chinese.


I hope if you do try the pleco readers you enjoy them. I'm trying to work my way up to those classics you mentioned.

[duckprintspress]

cheering you on!

[geraineon]

Jiayou!

[douqi]

I climbed out of a pit of overwork and fell straight into a (different) pit of overwork, so reading progress has been basically zero. Hoping to start The Rose in the Abyss soonish.

[halfcactus]

I hope you can catch a break soon!!! I looked up the NU synopsis of Rose in the Abyss—the concept of one of the leads being a mutant plant (rose?) is so cute haha. Are underground bases a trend in webnovels? The last KR science fiction webtoon I read was also set in an underground base.

[douqi]

I'm not really sure re: underground bases! I haven't come across many in my reading, though granted post-apocalypse baihe novels seem to be relatively rare (the author of Rose in the Abyss says as much in her notes to the first chapter).

[geraineon]

/pats/

+1 I hope you can catch a break. Does it look like work will be kind to you soon?

[douqi]

Alas! Work is going to be ramping up even more for the foreseeable future :( Capitalism is really getting in the way of my reading...

[gekidasa]

I started Panguan with the Fedi readalong!

[geraineon]

Yes!! It's been fun seeing people comment/react to it so far.

[dayadhvam_triad]

Just stumbled across a cnovel 嘉靖感而有孕之后 that is Jiajing Emperor mpreg and I am legit howling with laughter, this is like S-rank crackfic

What got him pregnant? A transmigrator aided by an advanced AI that timetraveled back from the destruction of Earth by an interstellar alien invasion, on a mission to promote science & technology in advance so humans can defeat the aliens and protect the galaxy~

[halfcactus]

I love how just even the summary is unpredictable lol. Every succeeding word brings me to a whole new world and I'm still not entirely sure if it's the transmigrator, the science, or the aliens that got the MC pregnant. 😂

[dayadhvam_triad]

It's never really explained, but I think the author thought anyone who's reading Jiajing mpreg can accept a Lot for why that happened, so they went full speed ahead!!! with (TAKES DEEP BREATH) "advanced AI timetravels from the alien-caused destruction of Earth and calculates from All the Data what partner will ensure the highest probability of mission success, then snatches and saves this dead girl's soul b/c the data crunching says she is most suitable, then it explains that they need to go back further in time than she expects to ensure technology advances enough by 2500 to defeat the aliens, for (story lulz) Reasons they come to Jiajing's era, the girl proposes to invade as Jiajing's own kid (via him not his concubines) and trick Jiajing into promoting science/tech by making him believe he's the reincarnation of a Daoist immortal and Super Special and thus able to give birth HANDWAVE somehow somehow it happens" author: you clicked into this, you have the ability to suspend disbelief right? (✿◠ᴗ◠)

I'm pretty sure this author is just the secret alt/pseud handle of an author who wrote a less cracky totally-not-Ming-Dynasty-1566-fanfic satire ft. Jiajing which I've read before, because the vibes are so similar. have literally laughed out loud at lines like

Jiajing: "It's written in the Records of Diverse Matters that 'female rabbits become pregnant by gazing at the moon, and vomit their offspring.' Why can't We vomit the immortal fetus?"

The physician Tan Yunxian, thinking: Who gives birth through the mouth??

Tan Yunxian: "I'm afraid Your Majesty's mouth isn't that big."

[geraineon]

That is incredibly wild!

... and unfortunately, I am the type who will be interested in something like that XD