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Themed Week: School Era Romances
Oct. 7th, 2024 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazeviForeword:
It's October and for most places around the world, school is back in full swing, so of course that means it's a good time to talk about school era romances in cnovels! I'll gush about why I love this setting and then discuss three novels in depth with representation from Danmei, Baihe, and Yanqing (BL, GL, and BG respectively) but the rest is up to everyone else if you want to discuss specific works, tropes, authors, etc.
——
( Read more... )
Danmei: Through the Straight Gates (过门; Guomen) by Priest
"The gay man gives toast to continued health and freedom."
( Read more... )
PS: if someone could double check the tags I've got that'd be great~
It's October and for most places around the world, school is back in full swing, so of course that means it's a good time to talk about school era romances in cnovels! I'll gush about why I love this setting and then discuss three novels in depth with representation from Danmei, Baihe, and Yanqing (BL, GL, and BG respectively) but the rest is up to everyone else if you want to discuss specific works, tropes, authors, etc.
So why school romances?
Because I love the descriptions of youth that undoubtedly will wiggle into these works. Going to school, especially high school and college, is such an important time during a person's life and growth. There's always complaints about how much homework we have, questions about the future, wishes to grow up quicker, just a little bit quicker. While in school, time goes by slowly and quickly; autumn leaves rustle as students bemoan exams; snow lands on the windowsill next to desks as finals are turned in. Spring comes with renewed vigor, and then students escape from school to listen to the crickets chirruping in the summer evening. Perhaps it's because I had a rather plain schooling experience (and marred by COVID as well) that I look to these works as a type of comfort. I also just genuinely enjoy reading about these characters growing up, sharing and relating to their emotions, laughing along when they joke with their friends, and experiencing their young love or first crush, no matter their gender/pairing type.
Especially in cnovel-land, individual stories of growing up, coming of age and finishing high school can have a very dramatic climax in that everyone has to take the gaokao (College Entrance Exam, one of the hardest in the world), and thus many fates and relationships are changed from that one test. There are also various other decisions like deciding which college to go to, whether or not to continue to get a masters in China with another brutal test (考研 kao yan), going abroad, or just having futures that don't overlap that serve as common 'conflict inducers'. I think that these generally embody why a lot of young relationships don't make it, so watching characters having the ideal ending is just satisfying (yes I'm shallow).
School romances also handily lend themselves to one of my other favorite tropes: reconciliation after a long time (the tag is 破镜重圆 po jing chong yuan). For example, a pair had feelings for each other in high school or college, but because of their respective futures/happenings of life/young attitudes, they break it off, only to meet each other by chance years later. When they realize that their affinity is not yet done and they can work on their relationship together, I feel happiness myself because yes, it's idealistic that people who had broken up would meet each other by chance, but the catharsis that I earn with their happy ending after the initial heartbreak is on another level.
Side note- this is slightly off topic but the official JJWXC tag for school/young love is 花季雨季 (hua ji yu ji), or the season of rain and flowers, which is very POETIC and fitting and I love it.
Anyways, now I'm going yap about three specific books. Do note that I had to agonize a bit over picking these three books and there are so manyyy other great books with school era romance elements that others can discuss. The following introductions/summaries of the books are mostly broad and avoid specific spoilers; however, everyone's spoiler threshold is different so please read/avoid accordingly.
Case Studies
Baihe: Her Mountain, Her Sea (她的山她的海; ta de shan, ta de hai) by Fu Hua
Case Studies
Baihe: Her Mountain, Her Sea (她的山她的海; ta de shan, ta de hai) by Fu Hua
——
"Being liked by a girl... would you find it strange?"
...
"Would you find liking a girl strange?"
"No."
"Then I don't think it's strange."
——
light trigger warning: mentions of misogyny
( Read more... )
Check out the 110% human translation that my friend auspice is updating here
And here is one the ending theme songs for the audio drama (it doesn't have an Eng sub version, someone remind me to make one someday)
Read the original novel here
Read the original novel here
Danmei: Through the Straight Gates (过门; Guomen) by Priest
——
"The gay man gives toast to continued health and freedom."
——
light tw: mentions of internalized homophobia
( Read more... )
The audio drama adaptation of this work is also great; here is the first season ED with English subs. Note that the lyrics are written very well and it's a tearjerker.
Read the original novel here
Yanqing: At Our Best (最好的我们; zui hao de wo men) by Ba Yue Chang An
Read the original novel here
Yanqing: At Our Best (最好的我们; zui hao de wo men) by Ba Yue Chang An
The web drama: With You; same name in Chinese.
——
"He was at his best back then, but I only became my best later; our entire youth divided our best times. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't catch up with that youth anymore, so I could only wave it goodbye."
...
"I suppose it was worth it for me to hold that 'grudge' for so many years."
——
I'll talk about the novel first, and then mention the web drama further along.
This particular novel is the most unique out of the three in that it is written from the first person perspective of Geng Geng, the female main character of the story, in online diary format.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Here is my favored theme song for Geng Geng Yu Huai with Eng subs
It has a locked, half finished online original on JJWXC, but it seems like it was officially published in print in its entirety.
It has a locked, half finished online original on JJWXC, but it seems like it was officially published in print in its entirety.
——
Anyways geez I've blabbed on for more than 2k words so I will stop here. Discussion of all school romance related novels are welcome, including series and the authors, and feel free to throw me recommendations as well! Hope everyone has a great day, and for those who are in school (including myself), hope you ace all tests, midterms and finals and enjoy your time in school~
Anyways geez I've blabbed on for more than 2k words so I will stop here. Discussion of all school romance related novels are welcome, including series and the authors, and feel free to throw me recommendations as well! Hope everyone has a great day, and for those who are in school (including myself), hope you ace all tests, midterms and finals and enjoy your time in school~
PS: if someone could double check the tags I've got that'd be great~
