#Every Poem Is My Most Asian Poem | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sweet-caress-of-twilight · 6 months

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Going off of one of my previous reblogs, i attempted to make a list of where in the world every Disney Animated Canon movie takes place

Antarctica:

Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros) (Pablo starts out living in the South Pole and then he goes to Chile, Peru, and Ecuador)

Africa

The Lion King

Tarzan

Asia

Aladdin is set in a mishmash of Middle Eastern countries. It was supposed to be in Iraq, but because of the Persian Gulf War, Disney said no, so it takes place in the fictional country of Agrabah, which is inspired by Baghdad in Iraq.

Raya and the Last Dragon is set in a mishmash of Southeast Asian countries, but takes the most inspiration from Vietnam

China: Mulan

India: The Jungle Book

Europe

England: The Wind in the Willows (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad), Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Winnie the Pooh, The Great Mouse Detective

France: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Aristocats, Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Germany: Snow White, Tangled

Greece: The Pastoral Symphony (Fantasia), Hercules

Italy: Pinocchio

Norway: Frozen (Arendelle is heavily inspired by Norway)

Russia: Peter and the Wolf (Make Mine Music)

Spain: Wish (Rosas is inspired by Spain and located off the Iberian Peninsula)

Turkey: Pomp and Circumstance (Fantasia 2000) is about Noah's Ark, and many people believe that the ark landed at Mount Ararat in present-day Turkey

Ukraine: Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria (Fantasia) (the real Bald Mountain is Mount Triglaf, near Kyiv in Ukraine)

Wales: The Black Cauldron

North America

Mexico:

Las Posadas

Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz and Acapulco

You Belong to My Heart/Donald's Surreal Reverie (all from The Three Caballeros)

United States:

Different towns in Massachusetts and California have claimed to be the Mudville that Casey at the Bat (Make Mine Music) takes place in, but the author of the original poem said it has no basis in fact.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed (Melody Time) - the real Johnny Appleseed (real name John Chapman) planted apple trees in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Ontario, and West Virginia

Lady and the Tramp could take place somewhere in New England

The Fox and the Hound looks like it takes place in Appalachia, so maybe Pennsylvania or Virginia

Home on the Range is somewhere in the Old West

Bolt takes place across America: starts out in California, the title character ends up in New York, visits Ohio, and is back to California by the end

Alaska: Brother Bear

California: Wreck it Ralph (Ralph Breaks the Internet reveals that Litwak's Arcade is in California), Big Hero 6

Florida: Dumbo

Hawaii: Lilo and Stitch

Louisiana: Blue Bayou (Make Mine Music), most of The Rescuers, The Princess and the Frog

Maine: Bambi (the forest was based on Maine and the animators traveled to Maine for reference)

New York: Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet, The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met (Make Mine Music) (the Metropolitan Opera is in NYC), Little Toot (Melody Time), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) (the real Sleepy Hollow is in New York), The Rescuers (the Rescue Aid Society headquarters is in NYC), Oliver and Company, Rhapsody in Blue (Fantasia 2000)

Texas: Pecos Bill (Melody Time)

Virginia: Pocahontas

Washington, DC: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Milo works at the Smithsonian

Oceania

The Rescuers Down Under: Australia

Moana: Polynesia

Pangaea

The Rite of Spring (Fantasia)

Dinosaur

South America

Argentina: Pedro, El Gaucho Goofy (Saludos Amigos)

Bolivia: Lake Titicaca (Saludos Amigos)

Brazil: Aquarela do Brasil (Saludos Amigos), Baia (The Three Caballeros), Blame It on the Samba (Melody Time),

Chile: Pedro (Saludos Amigos) (The title character delivers the mail in the Andes, between Santiago, Chile, and Mendoza, Argentina), Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros)

Colombia: Encanto

Ecuador: Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros) (Pablo goes to the Galapagos Islands, which is an archipelago in Ecuador)

Peru: Lake Titicaca (Saludos Amigos) (the lake is at the border between Peru and Bolivia), Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros), The Emperor's New Groove

Uruguay: The Flying Gauchito (The Three Caballeros)

Unknown/does not take place in our world

Any of the package film segments not mentioned here

The Little Mermaid seems like it takes place in the Mediterranean Sea, but it could also take place in the Caribbean, which would explain Sebastian's accent

Fantasia 2000: "Pines of Rome" is set in the Arctic, so it could be anywhere from Canada to Alaska to Finland to Russia

Most of Atlantis: the Lost Empire, since the city of Atlantis is completely made up

Treasure Planet

Chicken Little

Meet the Robinsons

Zootopia

Strange World

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sarioh · 5 months

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Hello Tumblr user Rio Sarioh! If you're bored; do you have a favourite book you like to talk about? What is it about, why do you like it? Or perhaps a movie or show of which you enjoy the writing? A fairytale? A poem?

Wow, creative writing. Any thoughts on that? Pretty swell, in my opinion.

Hope you have a nice vague nine hour time window and that your thing arrives in good condition!

HEY tumblr user tt04sty hope u r doing well and thank you for the ask. also my Thing has indeed arrived in good condition so thank god i didnt have to wait all day for it. to be frank questions about my favorite media make me feel like a deer in headlights bc for whatever reason whenever i get asked this i somehow forget every piece of media i've ever consumed or that has had an impact on me in any way and i don't know why. safe answer though is probably everything everywhere all at once which i know might come as an absolute shock to everyone (<- wrote a 16k word fic inspired by it) but generally just any media that is very Wacky and Surreal visual-wise but with a central theme of love and connection gets me really bad because i am very predictable and also a little pathetic. also as a gay asian living in the west with a very stereotypical asian mother you can probably understand why the movie had such an impact on me LOL.

also creative writing... i've only done one work of creative writing in the past few years and that was wind back the clock which i think about genuinely all the time. writing Character Study is the most cathartic and fun experience in the world to me and i prolonged publishing that for SO long because i just wanted to keep working on it forever. my writer's problem is that it takes me about 60 years to come up with an idea that i am captivated enough by to be able to put it into writing and actually stick to it for more than a day and that has only happened one single time in my 2 years in mcytblr. but by god i would kill a whole man to be able to do that all over again because i am regrettably a stem major and have not written an essay or anything else creative in years and while im enjoying it i do feel like im missing out on a crucial part of being a Person. i miss writing so much you have no idea. and i feel like the further i go into this Degree the more my Meta Analysis brain starts to rot and get replaced by Numbers and Formulas and Snippets of code. i'm losing my touch forreal

as far as other media goes... to be perfectly honest i have not been consuming much lately just because i have been very busy irl but i did just finish reading the red rising trilogy for the first time which was cool... also have probably watched about 200 hours of animal documentaries over the past few months LOL. actually on the topic of books i am going on a flight soon and will have a 9 hour stopover so if anyone has any book recommendations of ANY genre i would love to hear them. please tell me all of your favorite books i want to read them all

#this is kinda long sorry i sorta rambled.#really have Not watched as much stuff as i wouldve liked recently #other media that has changed me as a person that ive consumed semi recently... maybe disco elysium?? succession??#also tft. i cannot lie i have been playing an ungodly amt of tft. its really shameful #thank you for the ask though!!!!!! i feel like i didnt really answer ur question but yeah . sorry about that LOL

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shytastemakerthing · 11 months

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I saw that your match ups were open and wanted to give it a shot. May I request a romantic twst matchup? I’m a Implagender omniromantic person that usually struggles a lot with my identity and personality, I’m south East Asian with tanned skin, dark maroon colored jellyfish cut, (but I usually put my bangs in a similar way like Haruka from pjsk cause I like putting on cute hair clips and head accessories). I’m usually pretty quiet around everyone but those I’m close to, I’m pretty loud and outgoing when I’m with people I get along with. I like to draw, play violin, cook, bake, and sew a lot. I’m really good with kids and bunch of other household tasks and I’ve done a lot of babysitting + doing a bunch of commissions for drawing and sewing things to earn extra money for myself since my family isn’t well off it also adds work experience I can put on resumes for the future. I’m pretty decent in school, although recently I’ve been doing a bit terrible since my motivation for school is going down and only finish stuff I feel like is easy/quick to complete. My love language is words of affirmation plus acts of service. I’m also really into fashion (specifically agejo hime and rokku gyaru + Ouji Fashion as well) and I love styling outfits. I want to become a kindergarten teacher in the future, and I’ve also composed a few songs on violin.

Hello! I'm so sorry that it has taken me this long to finally get back to answering these! Thank you so much for your patience!

Now, onto our match up!!

I match you with.......

Lilia Vanrouge

🦇 Okay, look, someone has to be able to ame care of the Diasomnia family and make sure none of then get killed because of Lilia's cooking and here you come in like an angel sent from above!

🦇 No, seriously, they all love you, they live your cooking, Malleus especially loves hearing you okay your violin (as someone who also plays violin), he finds it rather comforting, and he is extremely happy that Lilia has found someone after so long.

🦇 The fact that you love children has Lilia falling even harder for you. He has Silver, and while it took him some time to get used to raising a child, liking children, let alone one that was human, after fighting in a war essentially most of his life and seeing how you are so easily able to care for others, how you are with children, how it just comes so naturally to you? He feels his heart swell and warm up at the sight. It also makes him wonder how different things could have been without the war and all. But, what's done is done.

🦇 Okay, back to the happy. He LOVES seeing you interact with children. How they always are so quick to warm up to you, the smile you have on your face and thr laughter? He smiles every time.

🦇 As for motivation? Who better than Lilia? Between raising Silver, training he and Sebek as knights, taking care of Malleus, Lilia knows his way around how to best keep someone motivated. Are some of his methods out there?........ most likely. But he really does mean well and everyone can see that.

🦇 If words of affirmation are what you need, then words of affirmation you will be getting. From the moment that you get up to the moment you go to bed, he will be sparing nothing. You have woken up many times with a simple rose near you with a heart felt letter or even a hand written poem about all the things he loves about you. And acts of service is something he does in his day to day life as it is and it only intensifies when he is with you.

🦇 Now, Lilia is rather old, meaning he has seen a lot of fashion come and go throughout the centuries, and he has worn and tried out many of them. If you ever want him to model, feel free and ask him, but also expect him to send out a flirtatious remark or two. But he absolutely loves this either way. Meaning he will also help supply any materials you may need. You'll never run out again.

🦇 Money is not an issue with him, and even if so, he basically raised Malleus. Malleus sees you as a parental figure. As soon as he catches and kind of money and financial issues, literally the issues will evaporate.

🦇 Overall, bat dad can and will provide. He will help you through it all, and give you as many affirming words that you will need, he will help you with modeling your clothes at time just to see that smile on your face. Just save Diasomnia from his cooking and all will be well

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst #matchups #twst imagines #disney twisted wonderland #romantic #twst lilia x reader #twst lilia vanrouge #lilia vanrouge x reader

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thesturniolos · 5 months

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hii are you still doing which triplet would match me? if yes pretty please tell me who do you think i would match with

i'm asian 5'2 or 5'3 on a good day (🤭) i have brown skin long black hairs i love love loveeeeeee reading (i will gobble up anything and everything; even if the plot is horrible and vocab is horrifing i would still complete reading bc mama didn't raise a quiter😓🙏) i used to write poems and i think i was pretty good at it (my eng teacher praises my writing skills that's like my biggest flex ever🤞) i love sketching painting and embroidering hehe i also love psychology english literature and philosophy I LOVE STRAWBERRY I HAVE AN UNHEALTHY STRAWBERRY OBSESSION (😟😓)i love pink and blue the most ig i love doing my nails hehe i would my style is a mix of everything bc i buy anything that's cheap hehe (here comes my shopping problem) my fav artists are taylor swift lana del rey olivia rodrigo gracie abrahams sabrina carpenter the neighbourhood arctic monkeys frank ocean dominic fike conan gray cigarettes after sex mitski beabadobee (it's all over the place 😓) besides that i'm a bollywood enthusiast 🙏❗i use too many emojis while texting i loathe phone calls i will never pick up a call unless it's from my parents i am introvert till i'm w my friends once im comfortable i will speak 24/7 my love language is gift giving (especially handmade gifts so cute i love recieving and giving it🥹🩷) physical touch and acts of service ig that's all me

hope you have an awesome day!!! 💕💓💖💞💗 (emoji overuse problem is showing hehe) feel free to ignore this if you don't feel like answering mwah<3

ps can i be 🎀 anon? if it's taken, 🍓 anon? if that's taken too you give me a cutie emoji❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

hi baby! of course you can be 🎀 anon, i don’t have any 😭 you can eve my first! hope you have an awesome day too cutie

i match you with…

matt sturniolo!

- this man makes sure you have an art room in your house and will always come in and check on your pieces hours before they’re finished.

- 100 dollars in the bank for new gels every week, he wants to see those painted and you happy, preferably pink!

- he will buy you so so much stuff- plushies, new clothes, room decor, snacks, movie rentals, stationery, books, art supplies, strawberry scented makeup- literally everything.

- you’re in charge of the aux in his car even though he’s not the biggest fan of your style of music, he loves to see you singing along and tapping your feet to it.

- this man is big on physical touch. he doesn’t care about pda (forget the podcast) he will hug you and he will kiss you no matter who’s watching. he needs to be attached to the hip at you all the time.

- cute reading sessions in the evenings are your thing! yeah, nick and chris kinda make fun of it but deep down they’re both jealous of how cute you two are and how you make time for that.

girly give me your tag!!!! i wanna be friends 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩🙏

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lychniis · 1 year

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MEMORY — REFERENCE NOTES + CONCEPTS

index

( some gods were but forgotten memories ; even for him. ) there was once a god in sumeru, cursed to be forgotten. foras, who danced beneath the moonlight. foras, who walked amongst mortals and granted her wishes, who stood upon destitution and death in the face of madness. foras, who dared to love morax with her heart and soul.

AO3 SUMMARY

REFERENCES ;

🦋 — INTRODUCTION

first off, thank you to @silentmoths and @ofoceansandtombsanew for actually sitting through my mad ramblings for this fic and the story. a lot of my current notes and plot threads were actually developed while i was speaking to them and to bear that level of patience witnessing my keyboard smashing? you have my respect ( also please check out the latter's god reader fic for genshin ; her reader, amur literally has my heart ).

one of the main reasons why i’m excited about this fic is mostly due to sumeru’s lore as a whole. the reader is from sumeru, and with me being south asian, i can nerd out and add as many references as i want, both in and out of lore and straight out of historical and mythical text. this post is actually a compilation of the references i added to my story so far. i'll keep updating it with every chapter, so if you're interested in any way, feel free to drop by!

in regards to the reader; yes you could say she is an oc of sorts, but simultaneously, she is not. i think the only set thing about them other than their backstory and personality is the godly title 'foras'. the interpretation of her appearance is wholly up to you, though i may end up drawing artwork of my own of my interpretation of her.

memory as a whole, is supposed to be a tragedy, as well as a bit of a study on zhongli's character and other stuff related to the reader that i will delve into later. but loneliness and helplessness as a whole is certainly going to be a recurring factor here. also i'm a total sucker for the 'god who loves humanity but is too weak to help them' trope. think of the song zange mairii...it's sort of like that.

speaking of which, yes foras is a god similar to the ones in noragami, one of my favorite animes, who are either reincarnated humans or were born from a wish or a story. due to this, human belief and memory is what essentially keeps them alive. i think you know where i might be going from here >:).

🦋 — PROLOGUE

i. the poetry used is an excerpt of the first and a part of the second paragraph of walter del la mare’s poem, two epitaphs. there is no clear explanation on what the poem itself is about but i take it to be a reminder of human mortality in a way. the poet is basically telling you that all in all, in the end, you're going to be pretty lonely after death and that kind of struck me as morbid and funny. it does tie into the reader's story in a way, since she literally dies before being pulled out as a fresh new god centuries later.

you know, like a potato.

ii. bhasmasura is actually a demon from hindu texts, a demon who asked lord shiva for a boon after he meditated for a really, really long time. unfortunately, hindu gods weren't all that great at noticing red flags and shiva certainly did not when bhasmasura flat out asked him for the ability to spontaneously combust anyone who he touches.

shiva did realize his oopsie when said demon turned on him and flat out started chasing him through the heavens trying to boop his nose. in the end, vishnu, the guy who manages the divine balance and all ended up taking the form of one of his incarnations, mohini, who is dubbed to be the most beautiful woman in the world and effectively seduces bhasmasura.

now, being a simp, bhasmasura skips the dating stage and asks her to marry him. mohini refused and states that the only way she will accept his hand in marriage is if he replicates her dance moves to the 't'. now at the stage of near obessive simping because mohini hot, bhasmasura agrees and mohini starts showing him the dance steps he was meant to copy. he does do surprisingly well.

until mohini touches her head.

and this dumbass does too.

so he ends up reverse midas touching himself and spontaneously combusts due to his own powers. mohini then returns to the heavens as vishnu again, ignoring all the horrified stares he received. the moral of the story : don't skip to marriage without a few dates.

iii. one of the main reasons why i chose bhasmasura is mainly because of the relation between the boddhisattva and vishnu. due to years of adaptation and appropriation, hindu and buddhist gods are pretty easy to mix up or corelate to each other. in some parts of india, people might just tell you that the boddhisattva ( who is buddha's og form ) and vishnu as basically the same. it's really confusing and explaining it in depth would take a while. all in all, it's kind of similar to the roman-greek thing where they have similar gods going by different names.

the boddhisatva's incarnations are actually detailed as different stories in the jatakas. so yeah, in the archon war, rukkhadevata basically mc-killed teyvats bhasmasura XD.

iv. mahosadha is a prominent characters in the jatakas and is actually the one incarnation i'm the most familar with ( a la the amar chitra katha comics ). in the original stories, he was a really smart baby who was later adopted by a king and made his advisor at the age of seven. so yeah, smart baby. most of his stories revolve around him completely decimating evil plots and schemes.

here he is is more or less one of rukkha's avatars ( like nahida...hmmmm foreshadowing??? ), a leaf taken from the irminsul. you could say he's sort of her son, but since he is a completely separate being from her, he has more of a diciple who traverses around teyvat to collect knowledge while she manages her nation. the reader is actually his junior in this craft.

he can also talk to birds and has a pet parrot, which i think is cute.

v. 'anahita' is my stand in name for the goddess of flowers. she's the persian goddess of nature and fun fact, nahida's name is actually derived from 'anahita' which is pretty fascinating! anahita's symbol is the lotus flower ( similar to nilou's own lotus motifs ). while the recent quest did give lots of insight on the goddess as a person, we still got no name. i mean, come on hoyo, don't be shy-

vi. 'vanrani' means 'forest queen' or 'queen of the forest'. sort of a nod to the aranara's 'arayani'. he usually calls her that as a term of endearment or informality rather than using it as a formal title. it's on the same vein as say, the names 'venti', 'zhongli' and 'ei'.

vii. ah yes the monsoons. it's basically the only drastic change in weather we get in the coasts. i remember many a day kicking buckets under leaky parts of my roof and sitting in the dark in the middle of power cuts. good ol days.

viii. the reader's goetia name is 'foras'. according to the ars goetia and our overlord, wikipedia :

'foras is a powerful president of hell, being obeyed by twenty-nine legions of demons. he teaches logic and ethics in all their branches, the virtues of all herbs and precious stones, can make a man witty, eloquent, invisible (invincible according to some authors), and live long, and can discover treasures and recover lost things.' [ source wikipedia ].

my other alternative name was 'bifrons' for the reader, but foras' 'wish granting' schtick seemed to sit better.

🦋 — CHAPTER ONE

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🦋 — CHAPTER TWO

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🦋 — CHAPTER THREE

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🦋 — CHAPTER FOUR

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🦋 — INTERLUDE

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🦋 — EPILOGUE

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CHARACTER CONCEPTS + SKETCHES ;

🦋 — FORAS

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#( 🔸 ) // MAYSA #zhongli x reader #genshin impact x reader #author notes

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literateure · 1 year

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going back to my roots

so i think i’ve tried substack, reading.supply, blogspot, wordpress, endless iterations of the same thing, revisited. here’s an attempt at going back to the origins of it all, tumblr.

today, i will be sharing a link to joan didion’s “on keeping a notebook,” but the marginalian version, for reading this essay yesterday was one of the most pleasurable parts of my saturday. as someone with a goldfish brain (a concept revisited in today’s inaugural radio show with anh-ton), i find deep beauty — and relief — in the idea that accuracy is not all that’s important to memory. accuracy is better for pragmatism, sure, but for story? for depth, for texture, for wonder, or for simple fun? (or for covering for my goldfish sensibilitites) i can’t recommend distorting the truth slightly enough. our histories are subjective, and we can remake, reify, anything we’d like.

i also had the thought today that i’d like to study the classics, the ancients, learn all the lore. rich, sweeping stories of empires, kingdoms, their rises and falls.... but not just european western colonialist histories, of course. i actually deprioritize those. what i’d really like to study is the lore of asian borderlands (manchuria? okinawa?) for example, or nomenclature, or linguistic origins, or anything that begs me for critical thinking and concrete thoughts. i’m quite afraid i’m losing it all... STEM at this liberal arts institution is... a world of perplexities and contradictions and constant dissonances. i suppose i am never enough. but at least with humanities, i’d feel alive...

there are so many realms i’d love to dive into the field of — studio art (tactility, working with hands, creative flow, back to the basics, real Concrete Creation), linguistics (not as interested in the science as i am in the anthropologies and cultural contexts, all the crazy fun facts and interesting stories inherent to language quirks, how naming has such immense power), understanding MACHINES (the only reason i attempt engineering now, as well as to prepare for the apocalypse when the only ones who can man the machines ARE the mechanics and engineers, also to be a good one not let the military industrial complex ones win, except it’s causing much suffering and not much overall benefit but i suppose we’ll see, also speculative technofuturism and such is very cool), and so much more... i get ideas every minute i think.

adhd brain means i feel a mile wide and inch deep on about everything, saying nothing of substance or knowing anything truly. i’ve still got a design podcast to listen to and a million poems to read and swoon and wilt and melt over (frank o’hara, back to the basics) and so many flowers to sniff and sneeze at and so much river to swim... i love life and its many wonders <3

#blog

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sisteroutsiders · 7 months

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Audre Lorde's 1989 Commencement Address to graduates of Oberlin College

Audre Lorde

Oberlin College

May 29, 1989

I congratulate you all on this moment of your lives. Most people don't remember their commencement addresses. Next year, when someone asks you who spoke at graduation, I wonder what you will say. I remember she was a middle-aged Black woman. I remember she had a nice voice. I remember she was a poet. But what did she say? After all, there are no new ideas. Only new ways of making those ideas real and active through our lives. What you most of all of do not need right now is more rhetoric. What you need are facts you don't ordinarily get to help you fashion weapons that matter for the war in which we are all engaged. A war for survival in the twenty-first century, the survival of this planet and all this planet's people.

Thanks to Jesse Jackson (Poem)

The US and the USSR are the most powerful countries in the world but only 1/8 of the world's population African people are also 1/8 of the world's population. 1/2 of the world's population is Asian. 1/2 of that number is Chinese. There are 22 nations in the Middle East. Not three.

Most people in the world are Yellow, Black, Brown, Poor, Female Non-Christian and do not speak english.

By the year 2000 the 20 largest cities in the world will have two things in common none of them will be in Europe and none in the United States.

You are all so very beautiful. But I have seen special and beautiful before, and I ask myself where are they now? What makes you different? Well, to begin with, you are different because you have asked me to come and speak with you from my heart, on what is a very special day for each of you. So when they ask you, who spoke at your commencement, remember this: I am a Black feminist lesbian warrior poet doing my work, and a piece of my work is asking you, how are you doing yours? And when they ask you, what did she say, tell them I asked you the most fundamental question of your life—who are you, and how are you using the powers of that self in the service of what you believe?

You are inheriting a country that has grown hysterical with denial and contradiction. Last month in space five men released a satellite that is on its way to the planet Venus, and the infant mortality rate in the capital of this nation is higher than in Kuwait. We are citizens of the most powerful country on earth—we are also citizens of a country that stands upon the wrong side of every liberation struggle on earth. Feel what that means. It is a reality that haunts each of our lives and that can help inform our dreams. It's not about altruism, it's about self-preservation. Survival.

A twenty-eight-year-old white woman is beaten and raped in Central Park. Eight Black boys are arrested and accused of taking part in a rampage against joggers. That is a nightmare that affects each of our lives. I pray for the body and soul of every one of these young people trapped in this compound tragedy of violence and social reprisal. None of us escapes the brutalization of the other. Using who we are, testifying with our lives to what we believe is not altruism, it is a question of self-preservation. Black children did not declare war upon this system, it is the system which declared war upon Black children, both female and male.

Ricky Boden, eleven, Staten Island, killed by police, 1972. Clifford Glover, ten, Queens, New York, killed by police, 1975. Randy Evans, fourteen, Bronx, New York, killed by police, 1976. Andre Roland, seventh grader, found hanged in Columbia, Missouri, after being threatened for dating a white girl. The list goes on. You are strong and intelligent. Your beauty and your promise lie like a haze over your faces. I beg you, do not waste it. Translate that power and beauty into action wherever you find yourself to be, or you will participate in your own destruction.

I have no platitudes for you. Before most of you are thirty, 10 percent of you will be involved with space traffic and 10 percent of you will have contracted AIDS. This disease which may yet rival the plague of the Dark Ages is said to have originated in Africa, spontaneously and inexplicably jumping from the green monkey to man. Yet in 1969, twenty years ago, a book entitled A Survey of Chemical and Biological Warfare, written by John Cookson and Judith Nottingham, published by Monthly Review Press, discussed green monkey disease as a fatal blood, tissue, and venereally transmitted virus which is an example of a whole new class of disease-causing organisms, and of biological warfare interest. It also discussed the possibilities of this virus being genetically manipulated to produce "new" organisms.

But I do have hope. To face the realities of our lives is not a reason for despair—despair is a tool of your enemies. Facing the realities of our lives gives us motivation for action. For you are not powerless. This diploma is a piece of your power. You know why the hard questions must be asked. It is not altruism, it is self-preservation—survival.

Each one of us in this room is privileged. You have a bed, and you do not go to it hungry. We are not part of those millions of homeless people roaming america today. Your privilege is not a reason for guilt, it is part of your power, to be used in support of those things you say you believe. Because to absorb without use is the gravest error of privilege. The poorest one-fifth of this nation became 7 percent poorer in the last ten years, and the richest one-fifth of the nation became 11 percent richer. How much of your lives are you willing to spend merely protecting your privileged status? ls that more than you are prepared to spend putting your dreams and beliefs for a better world into action? That is what creativity and empowerment [are] all about. The rest is destruction. And it will have to be one or the other.

It is not enough to believe in justice. The median income for Black and Hispanic families has fallen in the last three years, while the median income of white families rose 1.5 percent. We are eleven years away from a new century, and a leader of the Ku Klux Klan can still be elected to Congress from the Republican party in Louisiana. Little fourteen-year-old Black boys in the seventh grade are still being lynched for dating a white girl. It is not enough to say we are against racism.

It is not enough to believe in everyone's right to her or his own sexual preference. Homophobic jokes are not just fraternity high jinks. Gay bashing is not just fooling around. Less than a year ago a white man shot two white women in their campsite in Pennsylvania, killing one of them. He pleaded innocent, saying he had been maddened by their making love inside their own tent. If you were sitting on that jury, what would you decide?

It is not enough to believe anti-Semitism is wrong, when the vandalism of synagogues is increasing, amid the homegrown fascism of hate groups like the Christian Identity and Tom Metzger's American Front. The current rise in jokes against Jewish women masks anti-Semitism as well as women hatred. What are you going to say the next time you hear a JAP story?

We do not need to become each other in order to work together. But we do need to recognize each other, our differences as well as the sameness of our goals. Not for altruism. For self-preservation—survival.

Every day of your lives is practice in becoming the person you want to be. No instantaneous miracle is suddenly going to occur and make you brave and courageous and true. And every day that you sit back silent, refusing to use your power, terrible things are being done in our name.

Our federal taxes contribute $3 billion yearly in military and economic aid to Israel. Over $200 million of that money is spent fighting the uprising of Palestinian people who are trying to end the military occupation of their homeland. Israeli solders fire tear gas canisters made in america into Palestinian homes and hospitals, killing babies, the sick, and the elderly. Thousands of Palestinians, some as young as twelve, are being detained without trial in barbed-wired detention camps, and even many Jews of conscience opposing these acts have also been arrested and detained.

Encouraging your congresspeople to press for a peaceful solution in the Middle East, and for recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people, is not altruism, it is survival.

In particular, my sisters and brothers, I urge you to remember, while we battle the many faces of racism in our daily lives as African Americans, that we are part of an international community of people of Color, and people of the African diaspora around the world are looking to us and asking, how are we using the power we have? Or are we allowing our power to be used against them, our brothers and sisters in struggle for their liberation?

Apartheid is a disease spreading out from South Africa across the whole southern tip of Africa. This genocidal system in South Africa is kept propped into place by the military and economic support of the U.S., Israel, and Japan. Let me say here that I support the existence of the state of Israel as I support the existence of the U.S.A., but this does not blind me to the grave injustices emanating from either. Israel and South Africa are intimately entwined, politically and economically. There are no diamonds in Israel, yet diamonds are Israel's major source of income. Meanwhile, Black people slave in the diamond mines of South Africa for less than thirty cents a day.

It is not enough to say we are against apartheid. Forty million of our tax dollars go as aid to the South Africa-backed UNITA forces to suppress an independent Angola. Our dollars pay for the land mines responsible for over 50,000 Angolan amputees. It appears that Washington is joining hands with South Africa to prevent [the] independence of Namibia. Now make no mistake. South Africa, Angola, Namibia will be free. But what will we say when our children ask us, what were you doing, mommy and daddy, while american-made bullets were murdering Black children in Soweto?

In this country, children of all colors are dying of neglect. Since 1980, poverty has increased 30 percent among white children in america. Fifty percent of African American children and 30 percent of Latino children grow up in poverty, and that percentage is even higher for the indigenous people of this land, American Indians. While the Magellan capsule speeds through space toward the planet Venus, thirty children on this planet earth die every minute from hunger and inadequate health care. And in each one of those minutes, $1,700,000 are spent on war.

The white fathers have told us: "l think, therefore I am." But the Black mother within each one of us—the poet inside—whispers in our dreams: "I feel, therefore I can be free." Learn to use what you feel to move you toward action. Change, personal and political, does not come about in a day, nor a year. But it is our day-to-day decisions, the way in which we testify with our lives to those things in which we say we believe, that empower us. Your power is relative, but it is real. And if you do not learn to use it, it will be used, against you, and me, and our children. Change did not begin with you, and it will not end with you, but what you do with your life is an absolutely vital piece of that chain. The testimony of your daily living is the missing remnant in the fabric of our future.

There are so many different parts to each of us. And there are so many of us. If we can envision the future we desire, we can work to bring it into being. We need all the different pieces of ourselves to be strong, as we need each other and each other's battles for empowerment.

That surge of power you feel inside you now does not belong to me, nor to your parents, nor to your professors. That power lives inside of you. It is yours, you own it, and you will carry it out of this room. And whether you use it or whether you waste it, you are responsible for it. Good luck to you all. Together, in the conscious recognition of our differences, we can win, and we will.

A LUTA CONTINUA [The struggle continues].

#Audre Lorde #quotations #prose #commencement address #I've been seeing people share excerpts from this without the larger context and think it's important to include.#not because I cosign everything she said but because context is important.

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duncebento · 9 months

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wanna hear me rant bae

i’m very frustrated with my romantic prospects at the moment. it’s bad enough to be a woman in the world in general because it means you’re always playing a game you didn’t necessarily sign up for in which you almost always lose. but beyond that being a black “woman” means that people project all of this weird random shit onto me, which affected my feeling about romantic interaction from an early age since i didn’t interact with any other black kids until high school. regardless, minus anything on my end what i want from someone else seems so fucking rare— or, i see people who exhibit it, but they’re all around 40, and the prospect of waiting 20 years….it doesn’t seem like something i should have to do, anyway. i just feel romantically wrong. when a man has his arm around my shoulders i feel like i’m pretending to be something i’m not. if i’m not pretending then i can’t escape the feeling that he’s going to collect whatever he needs from my honesty and then go back to someone more feminine, more normal, less monstrous (and not black, lol!) and i sound like a dick saying this but while i think dating black people could be helpful in some ways, i don’t actually have a lot of cultural connection to blackness, given that i grew up only around asian kids (had to fight the urge to write “other” there help) in a fucking country club, and my family are caribbean immigrants. i do love being black but cultural blackness is something i actively participate in, and have only been participating in, again, since high school. there are too many boundaries i operate at the cusp of to not just be a sort of freak to most people. even my queerness is hard to place. i think i’m so cool, but an acquired taste, not something any majority of people could contend with. but it gets difficult as time progresses to truly perceive that i’ve never been treated nicely by men. i know that in refusing to objectify myself i have always alienated myself from romance. and then the virginity, the abandonment issues, the daddy issues all intensify everything. experimentation and trial become impossible because everything is so suffused with meaning. i think that remaining “a virgin” until this point was a mistake, the sort of trick society would play on a woman to keep her knowledge-less. i am in a power imbalance with every man i’m sexually interested in. i think about hiding my inexperience— but how shitty is it to have to do that? to have to shield yourself from your lover? but now it’s too late, anyway, i’m far too easily bruised to attempt to do away with my virginity randomly, which just means my inexperience is stoked for another year, another year. i’m always thinking these days of plath’s poem about virgins like rotting nymphs.

but that’s all big stuff, and i’m after something small, which still seems impossible to find. a man who can contend with me for a month or so, so not an idiot or a conquistador. 20 is a very fucking lonely age to be.

#i really liked the last guy i was with i really fuckin liked the little i knew of him #but he ghosted me so let me not kill myself okay 👍🏽#and like fuck i don’t feel like a girl #and i have spent a good portion of my developing years crushing on men i didnt know were gay

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tcmartinwrites · 11 months

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beginnings

I want to start at the root of things, which for me often means a poem.

I first read "the killing of the trees" in the fall of 2020. I had just started my MFA program (not in poetry but in nonfiction, my primary genre) when a classmate introduced me to the work of a poet I did not then know.

Lucille Clifton was her name. And imagine my surprise at discovering that she had lived and worked and taught in my home state of Maryland for years – had in fact been our state's poet laureate for a spell (1979-1985). Maryland is not what I would call a literary state. California has Joan Didion, Florida has Karen Russell, Ohio has Toni Morrison, New York has Baldwin and Wharton and Fitzgerald and too many others to count.

And Maryland has – well, just a few names. Edgar Allan Poe, Rachel Carson, Ta-Nehisi Coates. I had read their work (Poe's and Coates's, that is; I still need to acquaint myself with Carson) and enjoyed it, but I never felt "Maryland"-ness in it, if that makes sense. Poe's work was too antique and fantastical, and Coates's was rooted in Baltimore, which Maryland treats more like a tumor than the vital organ it actually is.

After learning of Clifton's poetry, I devoured every volume I could find, including quilting, the collection in which "the killing of the trees" appears. This was when I realized Clifton's unique connection to Southern Maryland, the part of the state where I'm from, a place I had never seen depicted in literature of any sort. Finding her poem felt like catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Who is that? Oh, I realized. It's me. Us.

Anyway, the poem is a knife-sharp dissection of one of our region's main industries: subdivision-building. Not exactly a Romantic subject, but one in which Clifton nevertheless finds meaning. The poem reminds me of my own childhood growing up in Hughesville on a road named after my father's family, a road that used to belong to the farm that my great-great-grandfather had purchased sometime in the early 20th century. Its original shape contained hundreds of acres on either side of the road. But over time it had been chopped up into housing plots for family members, which later sold to people of no relation to us. Still, several of us live on the road: 5 or 6 holdout households on the southern side, all sharing power tools and sugar and muscle as needed.

One winter break home from college, I noticed the tree line in our backyard had suddenly thinned. Through the bare branches I could make out the frames of future homes. Big homes, two or three times the size of ours, in a freshly paved cul-de-sac. The sense was that the subdivisions had circled us. We had always known they were out there: metastasizing, unseen. Now, though, we felt surrounded. Trapped.

It was a feeling shared by many old guard Southern Marylanders, people whose families had lived here for multiple generations. The place was becoming too crowded, too busy, too dense. Logic dictated that this was a good thing: more people arriving meant our home was an attractive place to live, with good jobs and good schools to draw in talented workers. But for long-time locals who were dealing with more traffic, bigger class sizes, and constant construction, the compliment fell flat amidst disruption.

I share this grumpiness, but I also remain skeptical of its origins. Many of the newcomers to our area were Black, Latino, and Asian; many (most) of the curmudgeons like myself were white. I find Clifton’s poem useful for examining where my grievances with our region’s growth begin. Like the speaker in Clifton’s poem, I cringe to watch more woodland forest be cleared for another cookie-cutter development. And yet, the speaker and I can both see our own role in that destructive pattern. Just because we came here earlier doesn’t make us any less complicit. Long-time Southern Marylanders can feel the urge to proclaim: We were here first. But were we?

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the killing of the trees by lucille clifton the third went down with a sound almost like flaking, a soft swish as the left leaves fluttered themselves and died. three of them, four, then five stiffening in the snow as if this hill were Wounded Knee as if the slim feathered branches were bonnets of war as if the pale man seated high in the bulldozer nest his blonde mustache ice-matted was Pahuska come again but stronger now, his long hair wild and unrelenting. remember the photograph, the old warrior, his stiffened arm raised as if in blessing, his frozen eyes open, his bark skin brown and not so much wrinkled as circled with age, and the snow everywhere still falling, covering his one good leg. remember his name was Spotted Tail or Hump or Red Cloud or Geronimo or none of these or all of these. he was a chief. he was a tree falling the way a chief falls, straight, eyes open, arms reaching for his mother ground. so i have come to live among the men who kill the trees, a subdivision, new, in southern Maryland. I have brought my witness eye with me and my two wild hands, the left one sister to the fists, pushing the bulldozer against the old oak, the angry right, brown and hard and spotted as bark. we come in peace, but this morning ponies circle what is left of life and whales and continents and children and ozone and trees huddle in a camp weeping outside my window and i can see it all with that one good eye.

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further reading:

A great essay by Emily Jorgenson about Lucille Clifton's feminist ecopoetics: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/engl205-07h-fall-2017/panel-2-person-2

A video of Lucille Clifton reading "the killing of the trees" at the College of Southern Maryland in 1990: https://youtu.be/Vba8o-7xhU0

#poetry #lucille clifton #clifton #poem #literature #writing #maryland #southern maryland #somd #poets #modern poetry

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vlyteng · 1 year

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Beauty standards and its relation to racism and colourism

I am a film junkie and I adore Japanese films. My love for Japanese films started when I watched a specific movie, which just so happens to be one of the most breathtaking films I’ve ever watched in my life - Helter Skelter. Helter Skelter is a movie that tells the story of a famous actress, Lilico, who has had several cosmetic procedures over her body. Lilico makes life terrible for people around her as she struggles to manage both her professional and personal issues as a result of the adverse effects of her surgery (Letterboxd 2012). It is based on a manga that Kyoko Okazaki wrote and released between 1995 and 1996 (Cherif 2022). The message of the movie is made clear to be depicting the extent we can go to achieve what we deem as "perfect beauty", but how it can lead to an unhealthy obsession with our physical appearance. Throughout the film, the audience will witness Lilico’s fall into an endless, abyssal spiral of depression as she tries to fix the side effects of surgery with, well, even more surgery.

Beauty standards in every culture look different. In the West, the hourglass figure (otherwise known as “slim thicc”) is the goal! Some features that are commonly celebrated and strived for in Western countries are light-coloured eyes, blonde hair, pale skin and small noses. The beauty standard in Asia also has a similar standard but skinny is what most people go for. Obviously, Asians do not have the same genetics as Westerners. If someone frequently consumes beauty content from Western culture, they may be influenced to change their features in some way in order to fit what they think is the “standard of beauty”. Some may think beauty standards are merely just guidelines for people to follow to be seen as more attractive, but I think it goes much deeper than that.

I believe beauty standards are built on the foundation of racism and colourism, discrimination or prejudice towards those with dark complexion. You might think it’s a stretch but hear me out. A good example of this is when we discuss skin tones. Have you ever thought to yourself “Man, my skin is so dark” or “Man, I wish I had a more pale complexion”? Why are we so scared of getting a little tan from the sun? Why do we immediately deem darker skin = undesirable? As a Chinese, why are bigger eyes and double eyelids more adored than mono or hooded lids despite it being the most common outcome for our ethnicity? All these questions point to an underlying distorted perception that we were taught since young and continue to experience in our daily lives. They take the form of seemingly harmless little statements, like when the aunt that nobody likes asks you if you’re going to keep eating those pineapple tarts during Chinese New Year, or when your beautician mentions how perfect you’d look if you just got a little nose lift during your monthly visit to the beauty salon.

All in all, there is no such thing as “perfect beauty” as the definition of it is so different for every single person, everyone has their own version of beauty. Aiming to achieve it is unrealistic and will not only cost you millions of dollars, but also endless amounts of mental strain. I understand that it is easy to fall into the rabbit hole that is insecurity and anxiety over appearances and our bodies. But something I truly believe is that without our body, no matter what it looks like, we will not exist. Your body is constantly trying to take care of itself and we should be grateful for having two arms and two legs, functioning ears and nose, eyes to see the world and a mouth to taste Kyochon fried chicken (yes, I am craving it as I am writing this). To end this, I’d like to dedicate a poem I wrote for an e-book about self-acceptance and to love our body because it is trying its best to keep us alive every day.

Don't be angry with your body Your arms lift the weight of responsibilities Your legs walk you through life Your eyes see the beauty behind the ugly Your stomach houses butterflies that make you feel alive Your nose lets you smell that wonderful apple pie that you love Your body has been through everything with you it does not deserve your hatred and your anger. - S. Z Tao

References

Cherif, M. C 2022, The Dark Side of Beauty Standards in Helter Skelter: A semiotic analysis, The Artifice, viewed 8 June 2023, <https://the-artifice.com/helter-skelter/>.

Letterboxd 2012, Helter Skelter, Letterboxd, viewed 7 June 2023, <https://letterboxd.com/film/helter-skelter-2012/>.

#mda20009 #week9 #week 9 #body modifactions #body modification #body dysmorphia #plastic surgery #surgery #cosmetic #helter skelter #japanese #japan #film #movie

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jammingkambing · 1 year

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Country of Nothings and the Privilege of Grief

This is the one where my tito dies.

I remember many details about his death: like the color of his urn and how my tita placed his glasses beside a picture of him smiling. I remember some points less clearly. I know he died in the summer months of 2021, but I don’t know if he died in April or in May. And I forgot the exact words that my mom used when she told me that he had died— if she mentioned his COVID, or if I just made that connection myself. What I remember best, though, is the grief.

Grief was quiet— which is not to say it was mild or gentle. It wasn’t. Grief was quiet, like how I’d lie down to sleep in a silent room only to remember that I couldn’t remember the last time that I talked to my tito. I’d be looking at my phone while I was waiting for class to start and my browser would be open to the very last philosopher that my tito recommended. I’d be sitting at my desk during an empty moment, and I’d realize that I had forgotten the sound of my tito’s laugh.

This feeling, more than anything, is what Alfonso Manalastas wants to memorialize in Country of Nothings.

The poem itself is the record of a very specific period in Philippine history. The dramatic situation is set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and its mounting deaths— thus the running count of fifteen hundred and one, hundred and two— joined with the shutdown of the ABS-CBN corporation. Here, then, is a Filipino who is trying to find meaning in the mismanagement of a country. Here is a persona who is trying to make sense of senseless deaths, rationalizing an irrationality and realizing what a privilege it is to still be here, to breathe and enjoy this grief. In telling this, the poem juxtaposes the story of an individual sadness with the tragedy of an entire country: Headlines looking more and more like obituaries / Staggering from their appointed places on the paper.

This piece revolves around historicity. Every death and every pitch-black TV is caused by a national event or an international pandemic, respectively, and so the poem repeats, You recount the dead until you fumble over the math… You recount the dead until you fumble over the myth because these are not new events. This is not the first time that our country has experienced the crippling of free speech or the spread of a deadly virus, and it will not be the last, if only because history bears repetition.

However, for all that the poem is grounded in its context, its language explores the timelessness of mourning. On the streets, / more nothing. And from nothingness, you muster / nothing. The sensation of emptiness is not exclusive to the year 2020. Ever since injustice and ever since war and ever since illness, people have suffered loss and recounted the dead, but Manalastas' greatest achievement here is writing grief in the vernacular of this time and in the voice of this people while still retaining the universal numbness of death. And when they try to devour us with a hunger / so infinite, we will wholly surrender to them nothing.

So the poem ends with a surrender— which is itself a kind of silence. I find this fitting, if only because silence is another response to grief. Sitting in the dark until the numbers blur and your TV becomes static. Lying on a bed and trying to reconstruct a voice using fragments of memories.

I'll tell you now that, in my better moments, I believe in an afterlife. I'm a Christian, which means that most of the time I like the idea of heaven and I look forward to the day when I ascend and I can finally ask my tito, Why did you leave me? And he'd give me the answer that I'm waiting for.

In my worse moments, though, I imagine asking that same question and receiving no reply. Nothing but the hum of a broken TV, and my grief left unanswered— as if to say that there are far worse things than the quiet.

A/N: The full text of Alfonso Manalastas' Country of Nothings was published in 2021 in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal over here in this link. Also, this is just my English homework. Hi, Sir Andy!

#nonfiction #nonfic #essay #mine #country of nothings #alfonso manalastas

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lady-ashfade · 2 years

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hello ! i'd like a ship please

choices : stranger things and bridgerton. male and female. any appropriate age group.

general : i'm an asian 18-year-old bisexual female. i have pale ivory skin, dark brown eyes, and thick medium-length wavy dark brown, almost black, hair. when i feel like dressing up i'd go for a minimalistic korean-style look, otherwise i'd just throw on an oversized hoodie and a pair of jeans paired with sneakers.

personality : i'm quiet and awkward around strangers. since i don't know them, i wouldn't know how judgemental they are, so i would stay in my shell in fear of them judging me for who i am. once someone has earned my trust and i feel more comfortable around them, i can be energetic and playful, sometimes to the point of being borderline childish. i love my friends and family above all else, i'd do anything for them even at the expense of my time, energy, and plans. i'm caring and compassionate ( i.e. i can't bear to see people struggle or in need ), goal-driven ( i.e. i'd put in extra effort to study if i'm really aiming for good grades, otherwise i'd put in minimal effort ), and a huge hopeless romantic ( i.e. special confessions ? surprise dates ? grand romantic gestures ? i want them all ). people say i'm smart but i think i'm just above average at most. i'm pretty open about my feelings with people i trust enough. i wouldn't mind sharing my problems with them and crying in front of them, or telling them how much they mean to me and how much i love them ( aka i'm quite a sentimental person ). i tend to keep things that remind me of certain moments or events ( e.g. pictures, receipts, wrappers, etc. ) because i cherish memories very much.

hobbies and interests : reading or watching romance, fantasy, and thrillers, writing stories and poems, listening to music, drawing, early morning or evening strolls, stargazing, cloud watching, watching the sunrise or sunset, astronomy, animals, psychology, brain teasers ( e.g. puzzles, riddles, escape rooms ), flowers, milk coffee

favorites :

- song — ( currently ) splinter by myrne with salem ilese

- color — purple

- food — honey butter fried chicken

- season — autumn

ideal dates : picnic, art gallery or museum date, zoo trip, movie marathon at home, bookstore browsing, library date

extras : libra, neutral good, gryffindor

Hello hun! Thank you so much for participating in my shipping event. Now who do I ship you with?

Stranger things:

Dustin Henderson. You both can joke around but also study together. From the first day he saw you he immediately feel for you and he didn’t mind you being quiet at first because he knew every time you cracked a smile at his jokes, you were both the same.

You guys go always stay out late watching the stars or watch the clouds during the day. Even though he says he hates it, he’s always cuddling up to you and watching some romantic movie you “made” him watch. You and him both know that he loves them even if they are cheesy.

Bridgerton:

Daphne Bridgerton. She takes interest in you right way because you never seem to speak much, so she grows close too you and breaks your walls down. She’s sweet and caring so you know she’s doing it for the right reasons.

You both take walks every morning and every night, the sunrise and falling. You love it when she plays music so you just sit down next to her and start to read.

#Bridgerton shipping event #stranger things shipping event #Bridgerton #stranger things

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thisaintascenereviews · 2 years

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Riz Ahmed - The Long Goodbye It’s an understatement to say that the last few years have been a nightmare for a lot of people. A lot of awful things have been plaguing, not just the US but the world, as of late -- COVID, rampant racism, and mass shootings have been the big three, it seems. Well, the last one is more so the US, but the idea of racism is a very universal problem that a lot of places deal with, too, including the UK. It’s gotten so bad that actor and rapper RIz Ahmed released his first album under his own name, 2020′s The Long Goodbye. I didn’t know Ahmed was a rapper until I read an article on The AV Club about the first episode of Ms Marvel that featured one of his songs, so I decided to look it up. I found that Ahmed has been a rapper for many years as well, on top of being an award-nominated and winning actor, but he hasn’t released a lot of music, but his last project was this record in 2020. Conceptualized as a breakup record, The Long Goodbye is a breakup record about Great Britain; the United States is the only country dealing with a fascist and racist dictator in office. The UK has their own far-right extremist, that being Boris Johnson, and they’ve been dealing with their own fair share of racism, especially with the South Asian community that lives in Britain. Ahmed in particular is Pakistani, and he wanted to write a record about breaking up with Britain, as well as the racism that has permeating in his home country over the last few years, and the result is one of the most powerful, poignant, and emotionally intense albums that I’ve heard in recent memory. This album has its fair share of humor injected throughout it, including featuring comedians Mindy Kaling and Hasan Minhaj, just to name a couple of the celebrities that appear on the record in very short and quick interludes that double as voicemails that show sympathy for his “breakup,” but the record doesn’t shy away from being blunt about its point -- Britain is racist, and it’s gotten worse over the last few years or so. The album opens with a poem with no music behind it, just Ahmed rapping about the so-called “breakup,” and using a breakup as a way to contextualize his mixed feelings for how his home country is treating him, just because he’s not white. That’s the thesis statement for the whole record, and on one song, he even comes out and says, “I spit my truth and it’s brown.” Ahmed owns who he is, and he’s not afraid to say it, especially in the face of his oppressors, or people that don’t like him simply for the color of his skin or the culture that he’s apart of. The concept is really the main focus of the album, as well as its lyrics, but Ahmed sounds great on this thing. He has this fire that cannot be put out on this record, You can tell that he’s angry, and for good reason, he has every right to be. This album does have some lighter moments on it, especially with the closing track “Karma,” which has a lighter tone on it, and it’s one of the “catchier” songs on the album; the rest of it is still very accessible, it’s not a weird or experimental kind of album, but it’s not lighthearted lyrically speaking. Just a few years before this, Ahmed dropped Cashmere (as well as another EP, but I haven’t heard it yet) with Heems from Das Racist as Swet Shop Boys in 2016, and I don’t want to review the album, only because it’s very similar to this, just not as specific. Cashmere deals with a lot of racism that Muslims and Hindus experience, but both in the US and UK. Heems talks a lot about his experiences in New York as Hindu man, but unlike this record, where it’s more on the nose and not as fun, Swet Shop Boys inject a lot humor and cleverness into their lyricism that make it more fun, whereas this isn’t necessarily bleak and depressing, it’s just very much on the nose and direct with what it’s trying to say. That’s something I can very much appreciate, though, and I love the record for that. At 27 minutes, The Long Goodbye is a very short album, but that’s mainly because a lot of the tracks are the interludes that I talked about, so they’re only not even 20 seconds a piece. It goes by very quickly, and instead of dwelling a lot on what it’s saying, it just says what it needs to and it gets out. I very much appreciate the album for that, but if you want more, there is a short film that accompanies this record (which won the Oscar for best short film in 2020), and it’s an intense 12-minute film that shows what the far-right want to do with people of color in England, especially South Asian people. It’s not for the faint of heart, as the end is very hard to watch, but it drives the point home very well, and Ahmed recites another poem from the album at the end, and it’s very moving and poignant, just like the whole album.

#riz ahmed #the long goodbye #rap #hip-hop #heems #swet shop boys #cashmere #hasan minhaj

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silenceforetold · 10 months

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Mixed and Matched

All of the issues going on in America has me especially thinking about my personal identity and my role within the world. I also want to express that this post has a lot to do with an episode of a show on Netflix, Ginny & Georgia.

I am biologically Black ADOS (American Descendant of Slavery), Asian, Native American, and White. I have the privilege of being light-skinned as well as somewhat racially ambiguous, and so I want to begin this post by acknowledging these privileges and stating that I do not, will not, and cannot speak for other people of color. I can only speak on my own experiences and my own perspective based upon those experiences.

For those who have yet to see Ginny & Georgia, the general plot revolves around a White mother from the South named Georgia, her biracial Black and White daughter Virginia nicknamed Ginny, and her White son Austin when they move into the New England community of Wellsbury.

Before I go any further, I want to make it very clear that there will be big spoilers for the Netflix Original Series: Ginny & Georgia: S01 E08 “Check One, Check Other.”

As is expected with a titular biracial heroine, Ginny’s biraciality is a key aspect of her character and a focal plot point as she navigates living in a primarily White high school. Much to Ginny’s chagrin, she quickly understands that racism and racial bias is not restricted to the southern United States and makes an enemy of her problematic literature professor. Ginny is not the only biracial narrative we encounter, however, as we soon meet the character Hunter and are given the perspective of a half Taiwanese male when the two characters begin a romantic relationship.

Without giving too much away, I will disclose that their relationship is not exactly an ideal one due to a third party, but I am choosing to ignore the romantic love triangle arc as a whole to instead just focus on the relationship of Hunter and Ginny without acknowledging the problematic love triangle within the show.

Very early in the show’s narrative, we are introduced to racial stereotypes such as “smart Asians” in the way that the literature professor, Gitten, constantly praises Hunter’s academic prowess while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge Ginny, the only Black individual in his class, as being at least equally as intelligent as Hunter. Not only this, but Gitten also takes every possible opportunity to single out Ginny when it comes to talking about problematic racist rhetoric within classic (i.e. White-centered) literature. While Gitten does not seem to give Ginny unfair grades, he absolutely refuses to express her capabilities to the rest of the class while freely holding Hunter on a pedestal as his star student.

This comes to a head when the class is given an essay assignment explaining the place that they feel they most belong, in which was part of a national competition. Ginny, worried about her lack of extracurriculars for college applications, takes it upon herself to aim to win. After some time soul-searching with her father and being exposed by him to slam poetry, Ginny decides to submit a poem in lieu of an essay.

Ginny’s poem transcript:

Growing up, I thought people were born with their heads cocked because that’s how they always looked at me. Boxes. Check one, check other. People don’t know, they don’t furrow between the layers like I do. They don’t switch and twitch and actively make the decisions of which. Which part of me belongs today, which aspect of my personality will offend the least and blend the most and work and succeed and bury the lead like a switchboard of traits that decide my fate and I’m always an imposter. Always lost, always asking for directions and people point my way like the scarecrow. Like tornadoes blowing me whichever way the wind blows. Well, Dorothy doesn’t want to play today, she’s prepping for the SAT. Just the scantron. The box is empty and glaring and daring me to choose one. Well, I’m an expert at boxes. My whole life can fit inside it and I’ve got it down to a science. I can pack my entire identity in an hour because where there’s roots, there’s power. But I’m all top soil. My blood runs like water and oil refusing to stick. My dad’s old books, read in secret nooks. That camera that locks all my memories in a flash, saved for when my recollection doesn’t last. That lighter that sparked that fire. All fit in a box ready to be carried from door to door, but that’s not the kind of box people ever ask for. So many lines in the sand, so many “can’t”s and “can”s. I see both worlds so clearly, and I skip and jump and dance and fall between, never seen. I belong in the spaces between. Check all that may apply.

While Ginny’s poem was incredibly well received by her classmates, it came as no surprise after the set-up tension between Ginny and her professor Gitten that Ginny would not be announced the winner within her class. The conversation between Ginny and Hunter later at her house stems greatly from Ginny’s belief that she had been cheated out of winning the contest due to racism.

It is then that the complex histories and interracial relations between Asians and Blacks as a whole unveils itself through both characters, both biracial people of color who suffer from not feeling “enough” as well as attempting to navigate the complexities of racial stereotypes and the problematic idea of racial hierarchies. Furthermore, it was not surprising when Hunter was chosen as the winner. The purpose of this post is not to argue if Gitten was justified in his decision or even if Gitten was racist, however, so I will opt not to venture into that controversy. Instead, we will focus on what Ginny and Hunter say to one another that leads to their separation.

Argument scene transcript:

Ginny: I should have won. Gitten's so clearly being racist. Hunter: Uh… Ginny: You don't think I deserved to win? Hunter: Your piece was impactful. I loved it. Trust me, I get it, but the assignment was to write an essay, and you didn't do that. It was unconventional. Ginny: You're siding with Gitten right now? Are you serious? Hunter: I'm just saying if you're so concerned about him and what he thinks about you, why are you always causing drama in his class? Ginny: I have to speak up because I'm a person. I have a voice. Hunter: Okay. Ginny: You're an artist. You should get this. Hunter: Yeah, exactly. I didn't do a song. It's all about survival. I keep my head down. I do the thing that's asked. Ginny: And you're proud of that? Hunter: Why can't I just be who I am? Ginny: Because you're half Taiwanese. Hunter: Exactly. I'm not full White, so Gitten can't be full racist. Ginny: Not in the same way I'm not full white. Asians get to be stereotyped as talented geniuses and prodigies, okay? Black women are… are stupid, lazy, angry. Brodie doesn't fist-bump you. Hunter: Do you know what it means to be Taiwanese? I have to serve in the military when I turn 19 because I'm a guy. Or I can relinquish my citizenship because I'm lucky I'm also American. But then I'm a draft dodger and just another soft American p*ssy. When I went to Taiwan, I thought, "Wow. Finally, my people." But it was just this hard reality check that, "No, you don't belong here either." You have no idea what it's like for me. I'm sorry. Does that not fit with me being the cool guitar guy? I worked really hard on my essay, and I followed the rules. Ginny: You really think that if I'd followed the rules, I could've possibly won? You don't get it. You are closer to white than I'll ever be! Hunter: Together we make a whole White person! Ginny: Your favorite food is cheeseburgers and I know more Mandarin than you do, you’re barely even Asian! Hunter: Sorry I’m not Chinese enough for you. But I’ve never seen you pound back jerk chicken. Last time I checked, Brody twerks better than you. And I liked your poem, but your bars could use a little more work, homie. So, really, how Black are you then? Ginny: Excuse me? Hunter: What? Literally, What? Because if we’re gonna play that game, let’s do it. Oppression Olympics. Let’s go.

Firstly, I want to address exactly what Twitter addressed when this scene from Ginny & Georgia first began trending: the scene is rather cringe-inducing. It felt inorganic simply because the show writers did not do enough characterization and build up for this scene to feel like anything more than the means to an end of the characters’ relationship. Essentially, the scene just felt like a plot point afterthought for Ginny to be free to explore the third in their love triangle rather than an actual intent to have the hard exploration and discussion of race politics and historically strained interracial relations in America.

Not only that, but Ginny & Georgia tends to dance back and forth between deciding how to depict Ginny dealing with her race and how Black people are treated in the United States. For example, at beginning of the series, Ginny expresses distrust in the police, but, later in the series, there is no consequence for her White mother calling the police on her biracial Black daughter and allowing her to be arrested. For context, Georgia called the police to make a noise complaint when she discovered that Ginny had snuck out to have a party with her friends across the street. Upon arriving, the police arrested the teenagers and Georgia simply listened as her boyfriend detailed watching the police place a drunken Ginny into the back of a police car. Not only that, but Georgia refuses to go save Ginny, leaving Georgia’s boyfriend to make the decision to (without Georgia’s permission) bail Ginny out and bring her home. The trauma of that situation for Ginny as a Black girl is never addressed and Georgia is never held accountable for purposely putting her daughter in such a situation.

Netflix and the show writers basically just pick and choose when it’s convenient to remind viewers of non-White raciality and then retreat into color blindness when raciality no longer serves a purpose of justification to tension. For people of color in the real world, this tension from raciality can never just be turned off and on, it is consistently always on. But, I digress…

All of that said, it should be acknowledged that arguments like this are not non-existent and happen a bit more frequently than people might notice or like to admit.

In light of the shooting in Atlanta, Georgia that resulted in the death of 6 Asian American women (as is confirmed thus far), fear and outrage sparked as anti-Asian racism reared it’s ugly head into the forefront. While the issue is one familiar to all Asian Americans, the concept has unfortunately taken some by surprise enough to make even other people of color question: has anti-Asian racism risen recently or has it always existed?

As a mixed Asian American woman, I find the very question and it’s implication offensive. My offense aside, however, I would like to state that my stance and answer to the question is both.

Anti-Asian racism reaches back to the Gold Rush when an influx of Asian, most notably Chinese, gold miners immigrated to America an an attempt to achieve wealth just like their European counterparts. Of course, one could also go back into history much further to when Europeans first “discovered” Asia, but to keep things more simple, I will opt to only speak about anti-Asian racism within the United States.

Anti-Asian racism has persisted throughout history, some examples including but not limited to:

1854 People v. Hall which established that Asians had no rights to testify against White citizens. To note, during the 1800s, anti-Asian racism was primarily directed towards Chinese individuals and anyone that was perceived as Chinese.

Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 in which Asian immigrants were forced to pay a monthly tax to run businesses in California.

Naturalization Act of 1870 which allowed naturalization for Blacks and Africans, but denied citizenship to Asians as well as denied the immigration of Asian women.

Chinese Massacre of 1871

Page Act of 1875 was an immigration law in which Chinese women were denied entry into America as a means of “population control”.

1878 In Re Ah Yup Case in which Asians were ruled unfit for participation in government and thus ineligible for naturalization.

1879 Constitution of California in which Chinese employment became strictly prohibited.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 passed by President Chester A. Arthur and Congress that implemented a 10-year ban on Chinese labor immigration. This also included anyone perceived as Chinese.

Geary Act of 1892, an extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1885 Rock Springs, Wyoming Murders in which 28 Chinese coal miners were murdered, 15 were wounded, and Rock Spring’s Chinatown was burned to the ground.

Chinese Americans had a huge part in connecting the country through the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and were frequently given the most dangerous, fatal jobs while earning less than their White counterparts.

1900-1904 San Francisco's Chinatown Bubonic Plague in which Chinese citizens were segregated and quarantined while White citizens were allowed freedom.

1904 World's Fair Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition in which Filipino immigrants were placed within a human zoo.

Pacific Coast Race Riots of 1907

The Asiatic Exclusion League, also known as the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League.

1913 Alien Land Law in which Asian land ownership was restricted and then banned entirely.

Immigration Act of 1917 in which immigration from the Asia-Pacific was banned with the exception of select professionals.

1922 Cable Act in which Asians were excluded from citizenship.

1923 US v Bhagat in which it was ruled that all Hindu people were ineligible for naturalization.

1924 Immigration Act in which ass immigration from Asia was banned.

1924 National Origins Quota in which Japanese were excluded from immigration and citizenship.

1927 Lum v. Rice in which it was ruled that the exclusion of Chinese American children from school did not violate the 14th Amendment.

1933 Roldan v. LA County in which Filipinos were denied citizenship and the Anti-Miscegenation Laws were amended to forbid the interracial marriages of Filipinos and Whites.

1934 Tyding-McDuffle Act in which Filipino immigration way limited to only 50 people per year.

1937 Anti-Alien Land Law in which Filipino Americans were banned from becoming landowners.

1942-1946 Executive order of President Franklin Roosevelt that forced all Japanese people, regardless of citizenship, into Japanese Internment Camps.

1943 Magnuson Act that repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act and banned more that 105 Chinese immigrants per year.

1946 Luce-Celler Act in which Indian immigrants were banned beyond a quota of 100 immigrants per year.

1982 Murder of Vincent Chin in which the Chinese American man was beat to death with a baseball bat in Detroit after being mistaken as Japanese by two anti-Japan White men. His assailants were convicted of murder but never served any jail time.

1985–1993 Jersey City based anti-Indian and anti-Hindu hate group known as the Dotbusters

Post-9/11 Islamophobia

2001 Murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi in which the Sikh American man was profiled as an Arab Muslim by a White man on an anti-Muslim shooting spree in Mesa, Arizona.

2007 Murder of Cha Vang in which the Hmong man’s body was found in the woods near Peshtigo, Wisconsin after being shot and stabbed.

2011 Military investigation of the death of Danny Chen in which the Chinese American was found dead from a presumed death by suicide in his living quarters at the base in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. It was reported that he was subjected to extreme physical abuse and ethnic slurs and insults at the hands of his superiors and fellow soldiers.

Many Asian Americans are assumed foreign even if they speak perfect, fluent English and even if they have lived in America for generations, igniting the fear of deportation that can discourage Asian Americans from reporting anti-Asian hate crimes. Asian Americans are also frequently blown off by non-Asians if they harbor even a slightly perceived accent, often deeming them “incoherent” while the Model Minority Myth is consistently used to justify non-Asians minimizing the Asian struggle into just “complaining” rather than being actual legitimate problems.

Tension between the Black and Asian communities has occurred for what almost feels like the dawn of history and remains perpetuated by the Model Minority Myth that hyper-fetishizes Asians as the “good” and “ideal” people of color that are “honorary White” while treating Blacks, Latine, and BIPOC as the “bad” and “problematic” people of color. Essentially, the Model Minority Myth has persisted as a tool to advance White Supremacy by inciting horizontal aggression to remove White Supremacy as the focus and root to systemic racism.

I do not write about this nor focus so heavily on anti-Asian racism to discredit or minimize anti-Blackness nor will I ever deny that too many Asian Americans have internalized the Model Minority Myth and anti-Blackness. However, that does not excuse anti-Asianness any more than anti-Asianness excuses anti-Blackness.

Prior to the murders in Atlanta, the reception of Ginny & Georgia’s “Oppression Olympics” scene was not well received by critics and, more devastatingly, less well received by people of color. A quick Google search regarding the scene could bring up dozens of articles that focused on the cringe-worthy scene, but more overwhelming were the personal responses of people of color on Twitter. More specifically, from my observation, the responses of Black and mixed Black Twitter patrons who claimed that such a scenario was unrealistic and dramatized because they had never personally found themselves in such a situation.

I do not wish to invalidate those people, but I vehemently beg to differ because scenarios such as the “Oppression Olympics” scene are ones I, and likely many other Asian identifying people of color, have found myself in repeatedly during my life. Dishearteningly, majority of the critique against the scene focused on Hunter utilizing Black stereotypes and anti-Black rhetoric while Ginny’s responses laced in Asian stereotypes and anti-Asian rhetoric were ignored and unacknowledged.

In fact, the entire scene was meant to be offensive with both characters trading racist rhetoric to prove the point that being “Black enough” or “Asian enough” is a battle that neither could ever win when the very definitions utilized to describe their respective ethnicities are rooted in racial bias and racial stereotyping founded by White Supremacy. Yet, this point seems to have gone over the heads of many viewers precisely because of the unyielding societal belief that anti-Asian racism does not exist and and the subsequent gaslighting and denial of Asian struggle to reduce Asian racial struggles into simply “complaining”.

White Supremacy has tricked every person of color into the belief that oppression has only one face, one method, and one mode by insisting on the Model Minority Myth and the Black-White Binary in which our entire American socio-political society was built and continues to act on.

I feel like I have nothing more to add at the moment that would not just be a repeat of things I have already addressed, so I will instead end this post with three TikToks I have happened upon that I believe are significant to the topic.

chinforshort

theluncheonlawyer

peterperrylam

Below are some resources related to anti-Asian racism to supplement this post.

“Anti-Asian violence has surged in the US since COVID-19. But it didn't start there” by Maura Hohman

“The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence” by Hua Hsu

“The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.” by Gillian Brockell

“The history of attacks against Asian Americans is complicated. Addressing it will be, too” by Harmeet Kaur

“The long Western legacy of violence against Asian Americans” by Jane C. Hu

#author's note #substack saw it first #social justice #interracial relationships #interracial relations #black history #asian history #ginny and georgia #netflix #netflix series #netflix ginny and georgia #pop culture analysis #long post #critical race studies #critical race theory #op ed #opinion post #writeblr

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luminouslumity · 2 years

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A GUIDE TO CHINESE TERMINOLOGY

So, I have these little guides that are included in every Mo Xiang Tong Xiu novel and I've decided to compile some of the general things into a single post for those who aren't familiar with Chinese culture. This'll mostly be taken directly from the guides themselves, but I'll still add things where necessary.

BASIC TERMS

Not included in the guides, but I thought it'd be nice to start with some basic Mandarin terms first.

Hello: 你好 – nǐ hǎo

I am: 我是 – wǒ shì

How are you?: 你好吗 – nǐ hǎo ma

Nice to meet you: 很高兴认识你 – hěn gāo xìng rèn shi nǐ

What is your name?: 你叫什么名字 – nǐ jiào shén me míng zì?

My name is: 我叫 – wǒ jiào

Goodbye: 再见 – zài jiàn

Please: 请 – qǐng

Thank you: 谢谢 – xiè xiè

You’re welcome: 不客气 – bú kè qì

I’m sorry: 对不起 – duì bu qǐ

Excuse me: 打扰一下 – dǎ rǎo yí xià

Yes: 是 – shì

No: 不是 – bù shì

NAMES

So as we all know, in many Asian countries, it's last name, first name (as opposed to most Western countries, where it's first name, last name). But for anyone who wants to write a fic set in Ancient China or is only just getting into wuxia and xianxia, I think it'd be useful to at least know of courtesy names.

A courtesy name is given to an individual when they come of age. Traditionally, this was at the age of twenty during one's crowning ceremony*, but can also be presented when an elder or teacher deems the recipient worthy. Generally a male-only tradition, there is historical precedent for women adopting a courtesy name after marriage. Courtesy names were a tradition reserved for the upper class.

It was considered disrespectful for one's peers of the same generation to address someone by their birth name, especially in formal or written communication. Use of one's birth name was reserved for only elders, close friends, and spouses.

This practice is no longer used in modern China, but it was a tradition throughout some parts of Chinese history for all children of a family within a certain generation to have given names with the same first and last character. This "generation name" may be taken from a certain poem, with successive generations using successive characters from the poem.

*Crowning ceremony, or Guan Li (冠禮), is a coming-of-age ceremony.

Next, nicknames! Here are just a few.

Xiao (小), meaning little. Always a prefix.

A (阿), a friendly diminutive and also always a prefix. Usually for monosyllabic names, or one syllable out of a two-syllable name.

Er (兒), meanwhile, is always a suffix, used to mean son or child. Added to a name, it expresses affection.

Doubling a syllable of a person’s name can also be a nickname, and has childish or cutesy connotations.

FAMILY

In contrast to, say, English-speaking countries, China has many names to refer to different family members. For example, an aunt usually refers to the sister of your parent, but in China, there are different words to distinguish between maternal and paternal aunt.

And it's alot!

Combining them, here's what's included in the guides for all three books:

DI: Younger brother or younger male friend. Can be used alone or as an honorific.

DIDI: Younger brother or a younger male friend. Casual.

GE: Familiar way to refer to an older brother or older male friend, used by someone substantially younger or of lower status. Can be used alone or with the person’s name.

GEGE: Familiar way to refer to an older brother or an older male friend, used by someone substantially younger or of lower status. Has a cutesier feel than “ge.”

JIE: Older sister or older female friend. Can be used alone or as an honorific.

JIEJIE: Familiar way to refer to an older sister or an older female friend, used by someone substantially younger or of lower status. Has a cutesier feel than “jie,” and rarely used by older males.

JIUJIU: Uncle (maternal, biological).

MEI: Younger sister or younger female friend. Can be used alone or as an honorific.

MEIMEI: Younger sister or an unrelated younger female friend. Casual.

SHUFU: Uncle (paternal, biological). Formal address for one’s father’s younger brother.

SHUSHU: An affectionate version of “Shufu.”

XIAOSHU: Little uncle.

XIONG: Older brother. Generally used as an honorific. Formal, but also used informally between male friends of equal status.

XIONGZHANG: Eldest brother or oldest male friend. Very formal.

XIANSHENG: “Husband” or “Mister” in modern usage; historical usage was broadly “teacher.”

YIFU: Maternal uncle, respectful address.

YIMU: Maternal aunt, respectful address.

If multiple relatives in the same category are present (multiple older brothers, for example) everyone is assigned a number in order of birthdate, starting with the eldest as number one, the second oldest as number two, etc. These numbers are then used to differentiate one person from another. This goes for all of the categories above, whether it’s siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and so on.

EXAMPLES: If you have three older brothers, the oldest would be referred to as da-ge, the second oldest er-ge, and the third oldest san-ge. If you have two younger brothers, you (as the oldest) would be number one. Your second-youngest brother would be er-di, and the youngest of your two younger brothers would be san-di.

Cousins can also be referred to as brothers or sisters in familial address.

And, thanks to this one site I found, here's the rest of it!

Not pictured, but Die (爹) and Niang (娘) are also alternative ways to say Dad and Mom respectively, though they're not as common and are mostly used in historical dramas now.

To quote Nie Huaisang:

"Differentiating between all the direct bloodlines, the collateral bloodlines, head family or branch family—juniors from prominent clans like us can’t even get our own relatives straight! Any relatives twice removed, we just call them aunts and uncles or whatever.[...]"

And since this whole post was inspired by MXTX, I thought I might as well include the terminology used for the sects as well (especially for those who are just getting into wuxia or xianxia anyway), but these terms can also be used within any group in general.

SECT: A sect is an organization of individuals united by their dedication to the practice of a particular method of cultivation or martial arts. A sect may have a signature style. Sects are led by a single leader, who is supported by senior sect members. They are not necessarily related by blood.

ZHANGMEN: Leader of a cultivation/martial arts sect.

SHIZUN: Teacher/master. For one’s master in one’s own sect. Gender neutral. Literal meaning is “honored/venerable master” and is a more respectful address.

SHIFU: Teacher/master. For one’s master in one’s own sect. Gender neutral. Mostly interchangeable with Shizun.

SHINIANG: The wife of a shifu/shizun.

SHIXIONG: Older martial brother. For senior male members of one’s own sect.

SHIJIE: Older martial sister. For senior female members of one’s own sect.

SHIDI: Younger martial brother. For junior male members of one’s own sect.

SHIMEI: Younger martial sister. For junior female members of one’s own sect.

SHISHU: The younger martial sibling of one’s master. Can be male or female.

SHIBO: The older martial sibling of one’s master. Can be male or female.

SHIZHI: The disciple of one’s martial sibling.

SWORN FAMILIES: In China, sworn families describes a binding social pact made by two or more unrelated individuals of the same gender. It can be entered into for social, political, and/or personal reasons and is not only limited to two participants; it can extend to an entire group. It was most common among men, but was not unheard of among women or between people of different genders.

The participants treat members of each other’s families as their own and assist them in the ways an extended family would: providing mutual support and aid, support in political alliances, etc. Sworn siblinghood, where individuals will refer to themselves as brother or sister, is not to be confused with familial relations like blood siblings or adoption. It is sometimes used in Chinese media, particularly danmei, to imply romantic relationships that could otherwise be prone to censorship.

This Twitter thread describes it more in depth:

GENERAL CONSONANTS AND VOWELS

X: similar to English sh (sheep)

Q: similar to English ch (charm)

C: similar to English ts (pants)

IU: yoh

UO: wuh

ZHI: jrr

CHI: chrr

SHI: shrr

RI: rrr

ZI: zzz

CI: tsz

SI: ssz

U: When u follows a y, j, q, or x, the sound is actually ü, pronounced like eee with your lips rounded like ooo. This applies for yu, yuan, jun, etc.

COLORS

WHITE: Death, mourning, purity. Used in funerals for both the deceased and mourners.

BLACK: Classy, scholarly. Considered masculine, representing the Heavens and the dao.

RED: Happiness, good luck. Used for weddings.

YELLOW/GOLD: Wealth and prosperity, and often reserved for the emperor.

BLUE/GREEN: Health, prosperity, and harmony.

PURPLE: Divinity and immortality.

NUMBERS

TWO: Two ( 二 / “er”) is considered a good number and is referenced in the common idiom “good things come in pairs.” It is common practice to repeat characters in pairs for added effect.

THREE: Three ( 三 / “san”) sounds like sheng ( 生 / “living”) and also like san ( 散 / “separation”).

FOUR: Four ( 四 / “si”) sounds like si ( 死 / “death”). A very unlucky number.

SEVEN: Seven ( 七 / “qi”) sounds like qi ( 齊 / “together”), making it a good number for love-related things. However, it also sounds like qi ( 欺 / “deception”).

EIGHT: Eight ( 八 / “ba”) sounds like fa ( 發 / “prosperity”), causing it to be considered a very lucky number.

NINE: Nine ( 九 / “jiu”) is associated with matters surrounding the Emperor and Heaven, and is as such considered an auspicious number.

TIME

Days were split into twelve intervals of two hours apiece called shichen ( 时辰 / “time”). Each of these shichen has an associated term. Pre-Han dynasty used semi-descriptive terms, but in Post-Han dynasty, the shichen were renamed to correspond to the twelve zodiac animals.

ZI, MIDNIGHT: 11pm - 1am

CHOU: 1am - 3am

YIN: 3am - 5am

MAO, SUNRISE: 5am - 7am

CHEN: 7am - 9am

SI: 9am - 11am

WU, NOON: 11am - 1pm

WEI: 1pm - 3pm

SHEN: 3pm - 5pm

YOU, SUNSET: 5pm - 7pm

XU, DUSK: 7pm - 9pm

HAI: 9pm - 11pm

A common way to tell time in Ancient China was incense time, referring to how long it takes for a single incense stick to burn. Standardized incense sticks were manufactured and calibrated for specific time measurements: a half hour, an hour, a day, etc. These were available to people of all social classes. A single incense time is usually about thirty minutes.

THE FIVE ELEMENTS

Also known as the wuxing ( 五行 / “Five Phases”). Rather than Western concepts of elemental magic, Chinese phases are more commonly used to describe the interactions and relationships between things. The phases can both beget and overcome each other.

Wood ( 木 / mu)

Fire ( 火 / huo)

Earth ( 土 / tu)

Metal ( 金 / jin)

Water ( 水 / shui)

YIN AND YANG

Yin and yang is a concept in Chinese philosophy that describes the complementary interdependence of opposite/contrary forces. It can be applied to all forms of change and differences. Yang represents the sun, masculinity, and the living, while yin represents the shadows, femininity, and the dead, including spirits and ghosts. In fiction, imbalances between yin and yang energy can do serious harm to the body or act as the driving force for malevolent spirits seeking to replenish themselves of whichever they lack.

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

BUDDHISM: The central belief of Buddhism is that life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth, only to be escaped by reaching enlightenment (nirvana). Buddhists believe in karma, that a person’s actions will influence their fortune in this life and future lives. The teachings of the Buddha are known as The Middle Way and emphasize a practice that is neither extreme asceticism nor extreme indulgence.

CONFUCIANISM: Confucianism is a philosophy based on the teachings of Confucius. Its influence on all aspects of Chinese culture is incalculable. Confucius placed heavy importance on respect for one’s elders and family, a concept broadly known as xiao ( 孝 / “filial piety”). The family structure is used in other contexts to urge similar behaviors, such as respect of a student towards a teacher, or people of a country towards their ruler.

DAOISM: Daoism is the philosophy of the dao ( 道 / “the way”) Following the dao involves coming into harmony with the natural order of the universe, which makes someone a “true human,” safe from external harm and who can affect the world without intentional action.

Feng shui ( 風水 / “wind-water”) is a Daoist practice centered around the philosophy of achieving spiritual accord between people, objects, and universe at large. Practitioners usually focus on positioning and orientation, believing this can optimize the flow of qi (the energy in all living things) in their environment. Having good feng shui means being in harmony with the natural order.

REALMS

It's traditionally believed that the universe is divided into Three Realms: the Heavenly Realm, the Mortal Realm, and the Ghost Realm. The Heavenly Realm refers to the Heavens and Celestial Court, where gods reside and rule, the Mortal Realm refers to the human world, and the Ghost Realm refers to the realm of the dead.

Based on a combination of Buddhist, Daoist, and traditional Chinese beliefs, Diyu ( 地狱 , “earth prison”) refers to an afterlife in Chinese theology where evil humans are punished after death, similar to the Western concept of hell. Sinners deserving punishment are sent to one of the eighteen levels of Diyu, where they receive the appropriate torture for their crimes.

CREATURES

DEMONS: A race of immensely powerful and innately supernatural beings. They are almost always aligned with evil.

DRAGONS: Great chimeric beasts who wield power over the weather. Chinese dragons differ from their Western counterparts as they are often benevolent, bestowing blessings and granting luck. They are associated with the Heavens, the Emperor, and yang energy.

GHOSTS: Ghosts ( 鬼 ) are the restless spirits of deceased sentient creatures. Ghosts produce yin energy and crave yang energy.

FESTIVALS

China has several festivals that are celebrated throughout the year in accordance to the Chinese calendar. Some of these include:

LUNAR NEW YEAR: Also called Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival, it lasts for seven days, customs include making offerings to the ancestors, putting up red decorations and giving red envelopes filled with money, setting off fireworks and firecrackers, and watching the lion and dragon dances.

SHANGYUAN FESTIVAL: Celebrated two weeks after the Lunar Festival, the Shangyuan Festival, or Lantern Festival, marks the first full moon of the New Year. Customs include lighting and watching lanterns, answering lantern riddles, eating tangyuan, and watching dragon and lion dances.

QINGMING FESTIVAL: Also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, Qingming is exactly as it sounds like, a day for honoring the ancestors by tomb sweeping. Other customs include placing willow branches at in front of doors and gates, outings, and kite flying. Food depends on the location, but some traditional ones include sweet green rice balls, peach blossom porridge, crispy cakes, Qingming snails, and eggs.

DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL: This festival has a few different origins, with one of the most popular ones being related to the death of the poet Qu Yuan, who (tw: mention of suicide) tried to drown himself in a river. Many people rushed to the boats to find him or at least retrieve his body, and when they couldn't find him, they threw balls of sticky rice (zongzi) into the water in hopes the fish would eat them and not what remained of the poet. Since then, customs have included dragon boat racing and making zongzi, as well as driving disease away.

QIXI FESTIVAL: The Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day, Qixi is celebrated in honor of the cowherd Niulang (Altair) and the weaver Zhinü (Vega), two lovers who were separated by a river of stars and are only allowed to meet on this day, after a bridge of magpies has formed. Traditional customs worshiping the celestials, girls praying for a good spouse and dexterity, and eating qiaoguao.

These days, Valentine's Day is celebrated due to the West's influence, but there are still some differences. Rather than giving each other gifts, only one person will be doing the gift-giving and then they'll receive their gift a month later on White Day. This holiday originated in Japan, but has spread to some Asian countries, including China.

ZHONGYUAN FESTIVAL: Also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, it's believed that the ancestors roam the living world for an entire month. To avoid the wrath of ghosts, ceremonies include setting ancestral tablets, paintings, and photographs on a table, burning incense, and preparing food three times that day.

MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL: Celebrated in honor of the moon goddess Chang'e, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for togetherness. Customs include eating mooncakes, paying tribute to the Moon, and making lanterns.

CHONGYANG FESTIVAL: Also called the Double Ninth Festival, legend has it that a devil was terrorizing a village by spreading disease, until he was challenged by a man called Huan Jing, who led his fellow villagers up a mountain while each held pieces of dogwood leaves and cups of chrysanthemum wine and later won. As such, customs include climbing mountains and drinking chrysanthemum wine, as well as eating Chongyang cakes.

OTHER CUSTOMS

FUNERALS: Daoist or Buddhist funerals generally last for forty-nine days. During the funeral ceremony, mourners can present the deceased with offerings of food, incense, and joss paper. If deceased ancestors have no patrilineal descendants to give them offerings, they may starve in the afterlife and become hungry ghosts. Wiping out a whole family is punishment for more than just the living.

After the funeral, the coffin is nailed shut and sealed with paper talismans to protect the body from evil spirits. The deceased is transported in a procession to their final resting place, often accompanied by loud music to scare off evil spirits. Cemeteries are often on hillsides; the higher a grave is located, the better the feng shui. The traditional mourning color is white.

WEDDINGS: A marriage in China is not only regarded as a union between spouses, but a union between the families as well, and have sometimes been pre-arranged. In ancient tradition, pre-wedding customs consist of three letters and six etiquettes, or six procedures.

The Betrothal Letter (pìn shū) is a contract between the families; the Gift Letter (lǐ shū) is a list of gifts that come with the bride’s dowry (jià zhuāng), and finally, the Wedding Letter (yíng qīn shū) welcomes the bride into her new husband’s home, where the ceremony would usually take place.

The six etiquettes include making a proposal of marriage via a matchmaker (nacai), requesting the bride's name and date of birth (wenming), sending news of divination results and betrothal gifts (naji), sending wedding presents to the bride's house (nazheng), requesting the date of the wedding (qingqi), and fetching in the bride in person (qinying).

Traditionally, the bride cries to show reluctance before leaving her old home in a sedan, while the groom travels to get her, but must prove he's worthy of her hand along the way; usually these consist of the bride's family asking him questions to see how well he knows her.

Once at the groom's house, the bowing ceremony will commence, with the couple bowing to the heavens, their parents, and then to each other. From there, they enter the bridal chamber to consummate the marriage.

Afterwards, two banquets are held: the primary banquet is hosted once at the bride's side, and a second, smaller banquet at the groom's. They usually include nine to ten courses. Gifts are also usually given out to the guests, such as money packets.

The traditional wedding color is red.

OTHER RESOURCES

To learn more about the Chinese language, I highly recommend checking out these sites as references. I also recommend this book on Chinese names, with this article more or less being a preview of it. This site and this site also go into more detail on families in China and this one provides some great resources on Chinese history and texts. This one also sells books. And just for fun, here's a Reedsy generator.

I'll be updating this on occasion, but for now, here ya go! Hope this helps anyone who needs it! Please let me know in my inbox if I made a mistake or want me to add anything specific.

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