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zeus-japonicus · 2 years

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Nemo you are the coolest please tell me more about trice forgotten linguistics

i've never felt more like 3 penguins stacked on top of one another and wearing a trenchcoat until right now - you're very sweet for indulging me, anon, here is a linguistics essay just for you.

For context, I approach linguistics from the perspective of someone who is, and has always been, tragically in love with languages and yet incapable of understanding grammar. As an example, I consider myself bilingual English with Japanese, and yet I still struggle with particles (I had to google the term for them to write this post). I know innately and strongly how to use most of them, but sometimes I'm left floundering. If I'm speaking Japanese, I think in Japanese, until I don't know the word for 'racism' and then I'm reduced to explaining what I mean like a 5 year old. Hell, I barely understand English grammar, and that's the language I have (nearly) 3 degrees in.

I was born and raised in London. I lived with my very white, very middle-class-aspiring grandma for many years. Her friends used to say to me, "your English is so good!" As an attention-seeking child, I very much took that to mean they understood I was a gifted and intelligent human - looking back, I know it's because they saw an Asian, and they were surprised I didn't speak like the Asians they'd seen parodied by white actors in film or on the radio.

Alestes desperately hunts for people who will understand her broken, child's Hokkien while, at the same time, existing as someone both Black and Asian. Fluent English is not expected of her by the society she lives in. Neither is fluent Hokkien.

I don't speak Hokkien at all, and I realise that maybe a few of you probably don't know what it is - so let's start there. I'll say here that all translation was done by my dear friend Yen Ooi, whose English-language Sci-Fi are poetic and beautiful and radical.

"Hokkien originated in the southern area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration, and has since become one of the most common Chinese varieties overseas. [...] Hokkien historically served as the lingua franca amongst overseas Chinese communities of all dialects and subgroups, and it remains today as the most spoken variety of Chinese [in Southeast Asia]."

I will admit, when I first started writing Trice, I defaulted to assuming Alestes and her family would speak Mandarin or Cantonese, the two more well-known Chinese languages - Cantonese especially because it's a trade-language used in many interactions with the British.

Tangentially, I was reading about the indentured Chinese people brought from Batavia (Indonesia) to Cape Colony in South Africa because I was doing research on Cape Coloured people. I'd just interviewed someone for my PhD who talked to me about their family history, which made me really think about ancestries I'd never considered before - and about trade routes beyond the Atlantic.

Then I thought about who had been ejected from China. I remembered an article written about Sek Yeong / Ching Shih - about how she lived through a combined population boom & lack of food & space and so she and people like her took to piracy on the sea. I essentially did a combo of google maps & wikipedia to look around the coast of China for places and languages that might fit who Zhu Anran was in my head.

I settled on Fujian and Hokkien because they're big - and yet absolutely obliterated in the western brain. I don't personally know of any Western media where a character speaks Hokkien - any dialect of it - it's the official language of Taiwan (side note: i did just have to google "was Taiwan ever a British colony" and was genuinely surprised it wasn't - Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese) - and as mentioned, is still a lingua franca in SEAsia - my friends who speak it are mostly Malaysian and Singaporean British people.

I think many people might assume (given our abhorrent history lessons) that a character being Fujian and Xhosa is... a rare or strange mix - but people like Alestes did exist - must have - even if there are no real records - because of how linked Cape Town and Southeast Asia were - even before British/Dutch colonisation.

I first attemped to use online Hokkien dictionaries to translate the work but kept coming across the issue of not knowing what meaning words really had - especially swears - so when I asked Yen for translation help I had a caveat: I didn't want the swears to have ableist or racist meaning. Yen told me she and her dad had an excellent conversation when they were discussing swears - [content note for the list below, there is ableist and graphic language] - from Yen:

'bo jeng sin' or 'tao hong' - these are ableists... they refer to people who are crazy or have mental conditions, so probably not.

'iau siu' - this refers to a baby that'll be born dead - so very extremely aggressive cuss word.

'han ji' - potato. My preference because I grew with this phrase around me - means a useless person.

'jiak liau bi' - a waste of rice. I love the phrase... haha. It means someone who's not worth the rice they're given - useless person.

han ji and jiak liau bi are the ones that made it into the show. As I mentioned in my previous post, Alestes swears in Hokkien because Baker didn't know what they meant when she was a kid and so couldn't tell her off for it...

And to close us out, here's a nice translation note from Yen about Alestes' attempt to speak Hokkien to the pottery seller: "carp is one of those words that isn't commonly known. It's 'le hu' in Hokkien, but if Alestes's Hokkien isn't fluent, she probably won't know the word. She could say... 'ha mi hu', which translates to 'what fish'. When we can't remember the word for something... like a type of fish/animal, we tend to just add 'ha mi' to the front... like what cat is this? what bag is this?"

The carp story is the one thing that connects Alestes to her past - her last memory of her father - and she can't even remember the word for it in Hokkien.

(Please do go an check out Yen's novels, she also writes games, and is on twitter @ yenooi)

#ask nemo #trice forgotten

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d1nosorcerer · 1 year

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a rant about medieval periodization which no one asked for

alright, we're about to get REAL nerdy. Ahem.

so, for a bit of background, a while back I was reading an article by historian Alex West about his view of the Middle Ages; it's interesting, but I'll link to one of his later ones that summarizes things more for the sake of your time: The Hemispheric Middle Ages — Part I. I agree with many of the points made and reading those ideas is part of what inspired what I'm about to go over here.

The extra-quick TL;DR is that, in his and my opinion, the "Middle Ages" are best defined as having ended with the Columbian Exchange (for lack of a better term*) that started in the 1490s, and that the term should be applied to (most of) Afro-Eurasia, not limited to just Europe, but also shouldn't be used for the Americas or Oceania. For more on why that is I'd suggest reading the articles, he explains better than I could.

*the Hemispheric Exchange, perhaps? The term doesn't necessarily endorse Columbus' awfulness, but it feels misleading to center such a broad and large-scale event on a single person who wasn't even alive for all of it

What I have to add here is my own idea of when the Middle Ages, for lack of a better term** began. Of course, to some degree this is inevitably going to be arbitrary. Creating a unified periodization for a region so large, even one more interconnected at that time than most are led to believe, is kind of nonsensical. I'm just having fun, to be honest, but it's not like historical academia is suddenly going to change course just because of what I said in this post. I'm not even a historian!

**Post-Classical" is a different term, but not a better one: it's just as Eurocentric and still named in relation to the surrounding eras. In any case, if I were attempting to challenge the concept of the Middle Ages entirely, I wouldn't bother talking about all this

With those probably-unnecessary tangents out of the way, here's what I think: the best starting time for the Afro-Eurasian Middle Ages (as opposed to one centered on western Europe/the western Mediterranean, where the fall of Western Rome works well enough) is the first few decades of the 7th century, roughly coinciding with the Byzantine-Sassanian Wars of 602-628. This can be seen as a transition period of sorts between Late Antiquity and the Medieval era.

I pick this time because numerous events could each work as the start of an era in certain parts of Afro-Eurasia within that timeframe, and multiple of those had ripple effects that led to them being important to other regions in that area as well. These are:

The aforementioned Byzantine-Sassanian wars, which impacted areas including southern/eastern Europe, west Asia, and north Africa, weakening both of those powers enough to pave the way for the rise and rapid expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate (and also Heraclius' rise to power & formalization of Greek as the Roman Empire's official language during that era)

The formation and consolidation of the Tang Dynasty of China

The formation of the Tibetan Empire (which covered a larger area than modern Tibet) in 618

The collapse of the Gokturk Khaganate in 603

The decline of the Empire of Aksum in the Horn of Africa

The formation of Islam, a religion followed by a quarter of the world's population today, which would (together with the first point) lead to imperial conquests that greatly reshaped the Mediterranean, West Asia, and adjacent regions

Again, it's just as arbitrary as any other, but I think it works better than 476 or ~500 which is mostly only relevant to the Western Roman Empire, and maybe arguably the Gupta Empire. My list is missing things from west Africa, northern Europe, and most of south and southeast Asia, but multiple of the above events would become relevant to their history by the end of this period. It works less well for Africa south of the Congo and west of the Great Lakes (no, not those Great Lakes, these Great Lakes), but there's not a lot of detailed information about the events going on there in the 7th Century CE anyway, at least not with precise dates, so it'd be harder to properly include that.

I suppose if we're going with the theme of connections between regions, an argument could be made for the 8th century when you could cross the middle-ish latitudes of Afro-Eurasia and mostly be within the territory of two empires (Tang & Umayyad) and the trans-Saharan & Indian Ocean trade were beginning to increase in scale (not to mention the Radhanites). Or perhaps the late 13th century when those trade networks reached their height and Eurasia was also linked by land due to the Mongol Empire's facilitation of commerce along the Silk Road(s). But both of those stray far enough from the commonly accepted definitions of "Middle Ages" that they could be confusing.

It's probably better to just employ more specific and malleable periodizations that are tailored to the contexts they're used in. But A) i'm a goofy little nerd who likes to categorize things, and B) the concept of the Middle Ages isn't going anywhere, so it might as well at least make a bit more sense. In my view of the world, the Middle Ages of Afro-Eurasia began from ~600-630 CE and ended in 1492.

And that's on period.

#history #middle ages #medieval #world history #time period #periodization

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itsmoonpeaches · 3 years

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Raya and the Last Dragon: The Importance of Water in Southeast Asia

Disclaimer: The following is from the perspective of a Filipino SEA. Please feel free to add or edit from other perspectives. There are *spoilers* below.

Though Raya and the Last Dragon has its flaws, what it did well, it did really well. Out of every cultural reference that I spotted in this film, the one that stood out the most was the portrayal of water.

In the end credits song, Lead the Way, originally sung in English by Jhené Aiko, there is one lyric that stands out as a nod to this culture of water:

There's an energy in the water There is magic deep in our heart There's a legacy that we honor When we bring the light to the dark Whatever brings us together Can nevеr tear us apart We becomе stronger than ever

There are beautiful views of bodies of water in the movie, and scenes that deliberately look over them. But, it’s much more than that.

The geography of SEA is already so rooted with water. The lands that make up the region are either located on a peninsula and cut through with rivers, or made up of hundreds of islands in the middle of the ocean.

So, let’s talk about water in SEA and in this movie. Below is an in-depth analysis of the cultural significance of water whether it is rain, rivers, oceans, or mythological aspects alluded to in the film.

Nagas and other myths

Let’s start with mythology because this is the basis of much of Raya and the Last Dragon. I want to first point out that this is not an opinion post, so I will not be touching much on my opinions on how the dragons looked like. (TLDR: Disney could’ve done better.)

So many myths in SEA are connected to water besides the dragons, but let’s focus on those.

I did mention briefly about naga and water dragons in my long analysis post on the final international trailer. However, I will go in a little deeper here.

Naga The dragons in this movie are based on the SEA version of a dragon. More specifically a sea serpent or a water serpent. They don’t breathe fire. In fact, they have nothing to do with fire. Their powers all influence water (and sometimes create earthquakes). Their powers include typical influence over water, creating rain, causing winds, and shape-shifting. They are incredibly powerful and revered. Sometimes they are even seen as deities like the Bakunawa in the Philippines. In RATLD, these nagas have a long horn at the front most prominent in Thai and Laotian versions of nagas. They are scaly and might have a kind of crown on their head, or gold jewelry around them. In most portions of SEA, nagas don’t have legs. It looks like the dragons here were partially inspired by an East Asian dragon or maybe the Vietnamese dragon. Other depictions can have them with multiple heads. Nagas also appear in South Asian culture. Here’s a quote from my initial long analysis post to add to this:

Naga are so important within SEA cultures that we have multiple places (and a river) named after them all over SEA and particularly a few times in the Philippines.

What I can tell you is mostly the Philippine version, but a naga is a serpentine creature that lives deep in the ocean, and are often associated with water. Sometimes they are depicted as having the upper half of a woman.

...

In the southern islands of the Philippines, depictions of naga are seen carved throughout buildings, particularly on roofs. A typical dance movement where you keep your hands curved and your fingers bent toward yourself is called “naga hands” and is supposed to be reminiscent of a naga’s graceful claws.

Bakunawa Just to highlight why nagas are so revered, I’m going further into the myth of Bakunawa. Specifically, the Bakunawa story comes from around the Visayas and Bicol regions of the Philippines which is south of the main island of Luzon. Bakunawa is said to be a giant sea dragon with a mouth as large as a lake. It lives deep in the ocean and has influence over the sea and earthquakes, in the depths of the underworld. There are a few versions of the story including that the Bakunawa is a naga that was enthralled by the beauty of the 7 moons and ate them until there was only 1 left. In some versions the god Bathala stopped Bakunawa from devouring the last moon. In other versions, the people down below made loud noises with pots and pans to scare Bakunawa from eating it. There are also another version in which the Bakunawa was once a beautiful goddess. It is also known as a man-eater in other tales. There are similar versions of a giant serpent or dragon-like bird causing eclipses (whether lunar or solar) in other parts of the Philippines.

Rain

I can’t tell you how important rain is in SEA. It’s not that it never rains, but that it rains a lot. Much of SEA is rainforests, which is an attribute that contributes so the rich biodiversity.

In RATLD, rain is depicted as a positive event...because it is. Raya and her friends are shown happy and laughing when Sisu makes rain. Sure, rain can be bad. Too much of it comes with typhoons and floods, but rain means a lot more than the bad things.

But enough rain means that the rivers aren’t dried out. Take the desert region of Kumandra for example. Raya goes there to the end of a dried up river. At the end when the dragons all come back, rain falls and the river is alive again. The people in that region can prosper again.

Rain symbolizes new life Now, this story I’m about to tell you is completely from oral tradition and was passed down to me by a culture bearer from from the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. This person said that when they were young, they did not have to worry about buying food because it was always available around them. If it rained, that was a good thing because it meant that the next day when the grass was damp, there would be mushrooms sprouting that they could pick. (There is an umbrella dance coming from this region that depicts mushrooms popping up after a storm.) If it was windy from the rain, it meant that there were fruit that would shake out of the trees. Rain also means food will grow. Staples like rice need a lot of water. Rice paddies need to be to be constantly flooded so that they can grow, and water means food whether it is in the form of rain, rivers, or the ocean. It means fresh drinking water and abundance.

Nagas and rain Remember how above I said that nagas can influence rainfall? Well, Sisu does just that in this movie. She says that one of her siblings originally had this power, and Sisu gained it because she came into contact with a piece of the dragon gem. This adds to the positivity of rain because nagas are already so revered because of the magic they can do in the movie (and in mythology), that the people that witness it are in absolute awe.

Rivers

Besides the ocean, rivers are the heart of SEA. From the Mekong River that runs through 5 SEA countries including Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, to the UNESCO site of the underground river in Palawan, Philippines...rivers are just part of the lay of the land.

They are shown to be all of those things in RATLD. There are streams and tributaries that flow into mountains and underground where the dragon gem was originally hidden in Heart. Additionally, there is the incredibly long river that separates the land in the shape of a dragon that flows through all the regions of Kumandra, reminiscent of the Mekong. Rivers are so important that there is even a region in the Philippines called Pampanga that is named after the Tagalog translation of the word “river” seen in the first part of the region’s name, “pampang.” They are the people of the river.

There are whole fishing villages throughout SEA that are built on a river. In fact, there’s one in RATLD.

Rivers are a source of many things, including food and drinking water. When there is a flood during wet season, the land will be full of silt, making the land prime for planting.

I don’t have to tell you how important a water dragon is at this point, but the fact that the movie chose to have that be the shape of the river is significant because nagas live in rivers too.

Transportation This should be a no-brainer, but in case you forgot, rivers mean boats. Boats mean people will want to get around and trade. And, boat culture is so important in SEA. There are all kinds of boats in the region from the huge deep-water kind, to the fishing boats, to thin canoe-like ones, to coracles. You can see them especially showcased in the river town in Tail in Kumandra.

Oceans

Honestly, there wasn’t much about the sea in RATLD, but it’s important to note because nagas in and of themselves have origins in the ocean as well.

The sea is another very important core of SEA culture. Its waters are more unforgiving than rivers, and more unpredictable. Magical, mythological sea creatures tend to be more violent here, and will only be kind to those who are kind first.

In island nations like the Philippines and Indonesia, the people rely on the ocean for so many things. Especially if they live right on the water, some can be fantastic swimmers and can dive and fish for their own food. The ocean is respected, and it is feared.

Though there is no explicit ocean in RATLD, there are elements from port cities and towns that exist including the deep-water boats. In the movie and in SEA, seafood is important.

There’s a scene where Raya and Sisu meet Boun and he offers them shrimp congee. Shrimp is a popular food in SEA, and can be seen in many dishes besides congee or any rice-based dishes.

In the river town, we also see elements of passing fish baskets through the water after a day of fishing, and eating and buying fresh foods to cook later in a water-side market.

Irrigation

It’s pretty obvious that water is needed for irrigation, but just think about how earlier I pointed out how deeply water is utilized. Much of the food in SEA needs water to survive, a lot more than in landlocked countries.

Rice terraces Remember rice? It needs a heck ton of irrigation in order to survive. This means a lot of rain and a lot of soil cultivating. If you take a look at the rice terraces that surround Fang, and even the picture of more overgrown terraces next to the river in the transportation section of this analysis, you can see that rice paddies are supposed to be flooded. Rice terraces are all over Asia, but there are so many of them in SEA that are ancient and still work including the Tagalalang rice terraces in Bali, Indonesia and the Banaue rice terraces in Banaue, Philippines. Honestly I could talk about the importance of rice and water for ages. Sure, rice is a staple in all of Asia, not just in SEA, but in East Asia as well. However, I would argue that it is even more of a staple in SEA. Sure, there are noodle dishes, and bread, but rice is so ridiculously important that in the Philippines, it’s not considered a real meal if there is no rice. There is even a word for food eaten with rice, “ulam.” In fact, in the entire movie, I don’t think I can recall one eating scene in which the characters are not also eating rice with their food. Unless of course, it’s just a snack like fruit. (Maybe there was a stew only scene?) There is a scene towards the beginning of the movie when Raya asks Namaari, “Stew or rice?” when asking which she would prefer. Namaari never answers the question, but she says that it is her first time eating rice in a while. Though it’s never explicitly said, it could be implied that it is because they did not have as much rainwater for irrigation at the time.

Protection

I’ve talked about rivers and the ocean, but I haven’t talked about water as a barrier. Though water as a barrier isn’t an infallible one, it is still important to note.

Protecting from intruders SEA is separated by water. It is also a region that had wars within their own countries in pre-colonial times, and of course, when they were colonized. (Though shout out to Thailand for being lucky in that regard. It remains the only country in SEA not colonized by Europeans.) There were wars between chiefs in the Philippines, and often they had to traverse the ocean or cross bodies of waters to get to the lands they needed to fight on. It ended up becoming a process with a lot of planning. Though SEAs are people of the water, they obviously can’t breathe under it. Nagas here are also important because in RATLD they are seen as powerful, respected protectors. And of course, they are borne of the water.

If you take a look at the picture above, it shows that part of the movie when the water starts disappearing because Sisu disappears. As the last water dragon, her connection to the water was keeping the land alive. With Sisu gone, so was the water, and therefore the protection for the people. The Druun spirit came in with no more hindrances because there was no water to stop them.

The power of the water and the magical energy of the water dragon really showcased itself here.

Interconnectedness

SEA used to be an interconnected region that traded with each other. Of course, not that SEA countries don’t trade now, but it isn’t at the same level as before. The borders now were created after centuries of colonialization.

Water is what connected all the countries of SEA.

Just take a look at the map of SEA above (in red). There is no other region of the world that’s quite like this, except maybe Oceania and around the Mediterranean. It’s relatively easy for these countries and people to trade and share cultures and traditions with one another. Manila, Philippines and the Tondo region was once one of the most frequented ports in SEA. Trade was done with China, India, Africa, and the Middle East. The same kind of trade occurred in other SEA countries as well.

Because of the history of trade over water that is rich in its pre-colonial past, SEA shares many similar cultural aspects and even similar words in languages. Though of course, though there are similarities, there are a lot of differences as well. SEA is not a monolith.

If you want to think of it this way...that Korea, China, and Japan share so many things with each other including having a history of being able to share Chinese characters (the different names including hanzi, kanji, hanja), but that each country and culture is very different...that is what SEA is too.

This aspect of interconnectedness, yet with differences is emulated in RATLD. In the lore for Kumandra, the movie notes that all the regions were once one, but were separated after something broke them (that something being the malice of the Druun spirit). Yet, if they worked together they could become Kumandra once again.

It is shown in RATLD that the best way to make the spicy stew that is pops up multiple times, is to add all the spices and ingredients from all the regions of the land that was once Kumandra. This showcases that just like SEA, Kumandra was once a land of incredible interconnected communication and trade.

Kumandra wasn’t colonized, but it was separated by 500 years of land. The people didn’t use the water the same way. SEA was colonized (and actually, 500 years to the date on March 15, 1521 to March 15, 2021—the Philippines was “discovered” by the Spaniards so I wonder if that was a conscious choice on Disney’s part), and broken apart. I’m sure that without European colonialization, SEA could’ve been one huge interconnected country. Or bigger countries with different dialects.

Spirituality

Lastly, let’s talk about the spirituality of water. In RATLD, there are no other spirits besides the Druun which is made of discord and malice created from human malcontent. Yet, the Druun cannot go near water. I don’t know the exact reason for why it can’t or if it was inspired by a piece of mythology from an SEA country, but that is significant. (If you do know the reasoning behind this, please feel free to add onto this.)

SEA is full to the brim with myths and legends of nature spirits. From spirits that live in trees, to spirits that live in the water. And yes, they are spirits. They can be spirits of ancestors too. The way Chief Benja pours a bowl of water on Raya’s head as beads of it float into the air...it is a great touch to highlight the energy that water just inherently has in any SEA tradition.

Though it’s probably a little reaching to point this out, the fact that Sisu was said to be washed to the end of a river is so interesting when Raya is looking for her. This is because in some SEA myths the river takes your spirit to the underworld. Raya finds Sisu at the end of a river and she is made of stone, her spirit stolen until her power is unleashed again with the dragon gem.

Floating flowers Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of the movie and as it relates to water is the fact that the animators made a conscious choice to show so much imagery of characters making flowers float upon water. And of course, to use floating flowers as decoration. Characters like Raya, Boun, and Sisu float flowers that look like orchids or jasmine flowers to remember their lost loved ones. The choice of flowers is significant too. These are flowers that are native to SEA. There are flowers everywhere and that is so pretty and so accurate. To have them used as decoration floating in pools is also so nice too, because it is something that is done in households and not just in a palace. You can float a gardenia flower in a bowl of water to make the scent spread in a room, and it makes the flower last longer.

End

I’m sure there is a lot more I missed or things I got wrong. If you see anything you want to add or fix, please feel free to write it in any future reblogs!

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is-nino-actually-luka · 3 years

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Top 10 Ninos in Miraculous Ladybug

Hey Everyone!

Ever since Stormy Weather, Miraculous Ladybug fans around the world have always wondered who the best Nino is. However everyone knows Top 10 list are 10x better than that so we’re doing this instead.

In this list, we used a complex equation to calculate which Nino has the greatest combination of friendliness, superheroics, musical ability, directorial inability, loyalty, and that special something that makes them Nino.

This list had a lot of competition, so don’t feel too bad if your favorite Nino didn’t make this particular list! Plus if you guys reblog this with an essay telling me how wrong I am, the tumblr algorithm will actually promote the post!

10. Shell Shock

In 10th place, we have the superhero turned supervillain Shell Shock! Now although you wouldn’t think he has the qualities of being a Nino, considering how betraying your allies isn’t very friendly, but in his defense akumatizations are no ones fault but Hawkmoth’s.

Plus this betrayal was the impetus for the Nino Retrieval Arc, which is fondly remembered as having some of the best fights in the show, including the very famous scene where the random citizens in a window drop their training weights and unleash their true power so they can restrain him and 2 other akumatized superheroes with little to no effort.

But the real reason he’s so low is because he’s just Carapace but Red, and turtles aren’t red. That’s silly. Shell Shock is just so silly

9. XY (Ripping off Luka)

On the surface, XY appears to be a talentless hack who clearly doesn’t care about music and is only in it for the money, and he is. But in his defense it’s also pretty clear the dude is obviously a product of his environment since his Dad is clearly the mastermind and even he doesn’t seem to think very much of XY.

Honestly the dude ought to become a better person and one of the best ways to change is to stop emulating his father and find better role models. So if he’s ripping off Kitty Section, specifically Luka, then maybe this could be the first step in the journey to becoming a better person like Luka.

Anyways, XY makes number 9 because of his potential

8. The Right Half of Oblivio

Alright let’s address the elephant in the room about Super Penguino. It’s pretty obviously a stand in for something else, but the show couldn’t exactly say it explicitly since it is a kid’s show after all.

Super Penguino represents how Alya and Nino are mobile gamers.

Honestly considering that their best friends are console gamers, it makes sense that they may try to hide their hobbies, and as a console gamer myself, I agree. They should be ashamed.

But then again I thought it was a cool episode so it’s number 8 even though we barely see Nino until like the last minute

7. Boy in Spanish

Niño takes the number 7 spot on this list for obvious reasons

6. Silencer

Silencer may be a supervillain, but he’s more of an anti villain if we are being honest. Like honestly he was only trying to steal voices from bad people like XY (Who stole his music and insulted Marinette/his friends), Bob Roth (Who encouraged XY to do that and he is literally everything wrong with the music industry), The Mayor (Who is notoriously corrupt), and Ladybug (Remember when she killed Chat Noir during Hero’s Day on live TV?).

Plus he was only really doing this to help his friends, which is pretty Pog.

Actually the only reason he isn’t higher is because he tries to silence people and that was literally the same thing the bad guys did in Footloose so not very Nino-like if you ask me

5. Bubbler

The Bubbler was literally only akumatized so he could throw his bro a party, and isn’t that the most Nino-like reason ever? Plus it was because of Gabriel Agreste, so can you really blame him?

Although we have to dock points off because he did send all the adults to the sky which is pretty messed up considering I am technically an adult now. Honestly the Bubbler sounded a lot more reasonable when I watched the episode in high school

4. Carapace

Taking number 4 on the list is everyone’s favorite Captain America Ripoff.

And his debut was really something! He actually 1v1ed an akuma without superpowers! He clearly took Ladybug’s advice to heart when she told him that “When you're facing a supervillain, strength doesn't make a difference. Courage and determination do.”

Plus his power is to protect his friends, and can you tell me a more Nino-like power than that? And his transformation sequence and music is a headbanger so it’s pretty obvious to tell that Nino’s under that hood.

Also he’s green. That’s the color turtles are supposed to be.

3. Viperion

Viperion barely edges out Carapace on the list since Viperion doesn’t need to protect his friends from danger. Instead, Viperion can stop the danger before it happens! It’s like Minority Report, and we all know how good of an idea it was in that movie!

It kinda sucks we didn’t get to see more of him in his debut episode, since Ladybug had to sideline Luka at first since she said “When you're dealing with a supervillain, it's better to have a partner with superpowers.” Although he was a hard carry once he did get superpowers! Literally Hawkmoth and Ladybug consider him the biggest threat when facing a group of heroes!

And like any good Nino transformation, the music is a bop, and having an instrument as a weapon really helps on the Nino ranking

2. Luka

The caring older brother who moonlights as a temporary Reptile Hero, Luka isn’t the only musically inclined friend of Adrien who had a crush on Marinette!

Honestly if you didn’t know any better you might think that Luka is actually Nino!

Luka is in almost everyway the best Nino, and he was a very close second to first. Honestly I had some trouble deciding between the two of them, but I think the number 1 pick is pretty unanimous in everyone’s minds

Before we get to the number one pick, let’s take a look at some honorable mentions

Nino Rota: An famous Italian composer whose work includes the Godfather Trilogy’s Score. However the fact he does not appear in Miraculous Ladybug disqualifies him from the top 10.

Saint Nino: Honestly idk anything about her but she was a Saint so I guess she was important. However the fact she does not appear in Miraculous Ladybug disqualifies her from the top 10.

Nino from Fire Emblem 7: She’s doing her best. However the fact she cannot read disqualifies her from the top 10.

1. El Niño

El Niño is a weather phenomena that occurs about every four years and is associated with a warm band of water in the Pacific Ocean which is accompanied by high air pressures in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the Easter Pacific.

It is also the first thing that comes up in Google when you look up Nino.

Honestly I debated putting it this high up on the list, but Nat Geo told me the El Niño in 2016 was associated with coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, severe droughts in Africa, South America and parts of the Pacific and southeast Asia, and wildfires in Indonesia and Canada. I don’t live in any of those areas but El Niño scares me and for my own safety I decided to appease it by giving it the number 1 spot in this list.

So did any of our choices surprise you? Make sure to leave a like and comment below your favorite Nino!

#The Truth #ml #miraculous ladybug #shell shock #xy #oblivio #Boy in Spanish #silencer #the bubbler #carapace #viperion #luka couffaine

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jellyfishyishy · 3 years

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I am tired of Asians being treated as interchangeable.

Chinese people are not Korean people. Japanese people aren't Korean people. Vietnamese people aren't Korean people. Fillipino people are not Vietnamese people. And vice versa. This list could go on for miles.

There are some things I understand. In the case of regions, it makes the most sense to have Chinese or Japanese actors play Korean characters and the opposite if you don't have accessibility to the correct ethnicity. Ultimately, I still really hate this. Kim's Convenience is a wonderful testament to this. There is great representation. Many of the Korean roles are filled by Korean actors. However, in the cases of Kimchi and Jung, the actors aren't Korean, and it really is a detriment to their (WONDERFUL) performances when you can tell they butcher pronunciations or are overcompensating for the fact that they're trying to explain cultural elements that they don't understand or just aren't familiar with. In that particular case, what makes me really upset is the fact that Kimchi's character doesn't even need to be Korean. So far, nothing about that has been important to the show. I wish they would realize that there's more to Asia than just The East. Though I don't know his ethnicity, they could've created really great representation through Kimchi's actor. It would've been really refreshing. I'll also mention Randall Park as the dad in Fresh Off the Boat. I am not Chinese, so I can't speak to any inaccuracies, but like just because an actor looks Chinese "enough" doesn't make them Chiness???

Do you know what boils my blood? What makes me so so SO angry? Practically all of Lana Condor's roles.

Now, I can't possibly be angry with her. God knows in this market it is next to impossible to find roles for Asians much less for South East Asians, a department in which the representation is particularly lacking. Plus, she is talented. It just makes me so angry that she gets to play roles like Jubilee and Lara Jean- characters from a COMPLETELY different region of Asia. Lana Condor is Vietnamese. Jubilee is Chinese. Vietnam is in Southeast Asia. These are completely different areas on the map. Don't even get me STARTED about Lara Jean. Lara Jean isn't even supposed to be fully asian. She's BIRACIAL. Her sisters are CLEARLY half, and then she waltzes in here trying to look like something she isn't. I think casting like this is a HUGE contributor in the reason why white people mix up Asians so much. Like I said, Lana Condor is not the one to be angry with here. The author had to fight Netflix to even get Asian actors for the Covey family. Representation should not be this difficult. I'm sure Lana Condor is just as tired of this as the rest of us are. She deserves to play a role that she can identify with not just personally, but also culturally. (Obviously this excludes characters written without an ethnicity or race in mind.) I know Lara Jean's racial identity isn't SUPER important in the story, but as long as they're going to bother to write it in and show the effects it has on her character, I think they have to own up to that task.

This extends to the musical theatre industry as well. While some of my favorite actresses: Lianah Santa Ana, Eva Noblezada, Emily Bautista and Lea Salonga, may have never been big if not for Miss Saigon, I think it's high time we saw a wave of Vietnamese actresses play Kim. If this show is going to be as racist as it is, the least it could do is have ethnically correct casting. I'm not even going to talk about The King and I. This is even more on the fault of casting directors.

Now, it's time to address the elephant in the room. This would seriously limit jobs for actors of underrepresented cultures. That is honestly just a fact that only has one solution. Diversity. Write more characters for Southwest Asians, Southeast Asians, South Asians, Blacks, South Americans, Latinx, African Americans, Jewish Americans, and all of the things I've just listed even as NOT Americans! Because obviously the world doesn't revolve around America lol. It just seemed the most relevant to me. Write more characters that don't need a specific race, and then blind cast them. Be thoughtful even in situations with blind casting. Us POC will go wild if we see our culture being represented even in the smallest ways. Keep making lighthearted characters that involve POC that aren't necessarily SJWs and stuff (LIKE LARA JEAN! CASUAL ASIAN REP IS SO GREAT), but sneak in little references through what their homes look like (do they wear shoes at home? decor? food?), how they speak to their parents, what their childhood was like, etc. These are things that can be easily written in after casting! The best thing you can do with blind casting is let someone's cultural identity become a part of their character. It allows for an authentic product that will honestly enhance the world, the actor's performance, and the character itself.

I mainly wrote this because of the long time talks of a Silk show. I want to see a Korean American woman play Cindy Moon. I am tired of seeing non-Korean Asian girls being fancasted as her. I'm even tired of seeing KOREAN Korean girls being fancasted as her, but that's a whole other thing I'm not really willing to get into right now. I am tired of seeing people feeling like they don't have hope in seeing their own culture represented and feel like they need to make people pretend to be a culture they aren't. I'm not here to fight with anyone. I'm here to vent out my frustrations with hopes that someone in the industry will see this one day and understand. This is no one's fault but the industry that created the problem.

And if you're wondering, my personal fancasts for Cindy Moon are Arden Cho and Jamie Chung.

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writerthreads · 3 years

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WRITING ASIAN CHARACTERS— ADRESSING STEREOTYPES

@writerthreads on Instagram

In light of the current events, I’ve decided to make this post to help some people out. I understand that some writers want to include POC in their stories, which is a great thing! However, the problem is, they’re not sure how to properly represent them. As an Asian, hopefully I’ll be able to help writers with Asian characters in their stories.

Do note, however, that I don’t represent the entire Asian community, especially because there are so many Asians in the world. This will be an insight to my thoughts and tips I can give you if you’re writing about an Asian character/settings. I’m also not saying that you as a person are uneducated. I’m very aware that there are lots of educated people in the world.

First, Asia is a big ass continent. I’ll put a list of some countries:

South-Eastern countries: Indonesia, Phillippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, etc..

Southern Asia: mainly India and a section of southern China

East Asia: China (Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou), Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, North and South Korea, Russian Far East

North Asia: a section of Russia, a section of China, (Beijing, Harbin, etc), Mongolia

Western Asia: a section of the Middle East (Armenia, Oman, Saudi Arabia)

From what I’ve personally been seeing, Southeast and Eastern Asian countries are a bit underrepresented! I’d encourage you to develop an Asian character who isn’t Chinese.

Each Asian country has their own culture and practises! We might have the same practises as other countries in terms of food and manners, thanks to historical events, but if you want to write a scene that include festivals or something as simple as table manners, it’s best to do specific research on them. For example, we don’t all bow. But we do take off our shoes when we go into the house in China. Since Asia’s so big, I can’t cover every tradition in each post, so make sure you research your particular country/city to some extent. You don’t need to write a thesis on it, just enough to educate yourself, and make sure you’re giving us an accurate portrayal.

*something about Chinese food: I’ve never eaten from American Chinese takeaways. Y’know, the ones in square cardboard boxes? Those don’t exist in (at least, from what I know) Asian countries, nor do fortune cookies. Totally fine if the setting’s in the US.

Next, let’s talk appearances, because that’s been frequently stereotyped. I’m sure most of it comes from the media. I mean, it’s getting a bit better now, but in WWII, American posters included Japanese soldiers whom were drawn so that they looked like rats, and had the stereotypical Asian eye shape. Basically, they were degrading the Japanese, which, (I’m saying this very strictly) in a time of war, is understandable. But things like this happened before and after the war. In the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Holly’s neighbour is a Japanese man.

The film’s portrayal of him is similar to the posters— he was made to seem very conservative, and had those stereotypical Asian features. I won’t go into too much detail, but you’ll definitely notice it if you watch the movie. In older movies, Asian characters are also portrayed as gangsters, kung-fu masters, or, uh, submissive prostitutes.

You can call me a snowflake if you want, for, I don’t know, finding everything offensive, but when it’s been happening for years and years, it’s definitely a problem we have to address.

All I’m saying is, don’t base us off of stereotypes, like dark skin, small eyes, or buck teeth. Sure, they might’ve come from an ounce of truth, but the portrayals are highly exaggerated, and mostly incorrect. People from the Middle East generally have pretty big eyes, and some even have blonde hair or light-coloured eyes!

I do believe that because there’s the stereotype that all Asians look the same, and the fact that China is the “only country in Asia”, non-Chinese Asians have been attacked, which isn’t just. Attacking people isn’t right, either, especially when the person probably hasn’t seen you in their entire life.

This is the big tip I’m giving you: treat Asian characters as you would any other character. We’re still humans. However, don’t entirely take away our cultural identity. You can definitely talk about our culture and our practises. In fact, I would personally love it, even if it’s just the little things!

Regarding our personality, hello, not every Asian is a genius at STEM subjects, nor is every Asian obedient to their “aggressive” parents 24/7. For example, my parents are pretty chill. However, I do understand where that thought comes from: in China, exams are really important for students, and if I’m not wrong, it’s the same for Korea and Japan. We’re not all quite kids with bangs. My friend’s pretty loud, and she’s always shouting in public buses, which earns her a glare from other people. Again, treat Asian characters like any other character...give them their own personalities, their own quirks, weaknesses, etc.!

Most Asians have English and native names if they live in an English-speaking country. You could definitely create a native name and English name for them. Your character might prefer being called their native name, or their English name. If you’re worried about giving them the wrong name, you could search up “common *insert country name* names”, or ask a friend who’s from the same country to make it up for you. Just don’t give them a name like “Ching Chong”, that’s offensive.

I totally understand if you’re worried about offending people, especially if you really want a character with stereotypical features. I personally think that you’ll have to be mindful with your tone, because that can really change how the reader perceives your description. But if the features become a common occurrence, then it just becomes a stereotype again.

Some Asians might find some things offensive, while others don’t. If I were you, I’d use general descriptive words if I was describing eyes, like these:

Hooded

Deep set

Prominent

Bulging

Thin

Wide

Small

Puffy

Also, please know that if you find yourself guilty of thinking about these stereotypes, I’m not saying that you’re a bad person! It’s great that you’re willing to read this post and learn more. :)

If you have any more questions, ask an Asian! Or to be more specific, ask someone from the country, someone familiar with the practises! Sometimes, that beats researching on Google.

#poc #Asian #stopasianhate #writing #writers on tumblr #writing tips #story writing #teen writer #writers #writers block #writing inspiration

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rapeculturerealities · 3 years

Link

Before giving birth, check that your family has sufficient toilet paper. Prepare ready-made meals for your husband, who surely “is not good at cooking.” Tie up your hair, “so that you don’t look disheveled” even as you go without a bath. And after the baby arrives, keep a “small-size” dress in sight — you’ll need motivation not to take that extra bite.

These words of advice, offered to pregnant women by the authorities in Seoul, have created a backlash in South Korea, where the government can ill afford to fumble as it desperately tries to compel women to have more babies and reverse the world’s lowest birthrate.

The pregnancy guidelines were first published on a government website in 2019. But they caught the attention of the public only in recent days, causing an outcry on social media, where people said they reflected outmoded views that persist in segments of the deeply patriarchal society and petitioned for their removal.

Yong Hye-in, an activist and politician, said that under the guidelines, a woman’s child-rearing responsibilities were doubled by having to care for her husband too. A better tactic for those married to men incapable of doing things like throwing away rotting food, Ms. Yong wrote on Twitter, would be divorce.

Experts called the government’s advice a missed opportunity. “I think it is written by someone who never gave birth,” said Dr. Kim Jae-yean, chairman of the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He added that the government should have provided practical advice on issues like breastfeeding.

A petition started online last week, which has been signed by more than 21,000 people, called for a public apology from officials, as well as disciplinary action against those who released the guidelines.

In an email to The New York Times, the public health division of the Seoul city government said it felt “responsible for not reviewing and monitoring the contents, approved at the time, thoroughly and closely.” It said it would review its online content, and improve gender sensitivity training for all municipal employees.

While the most offensive parts of the guidelines have been removed, some of the advice remains online, and screenshots of the original text continue to circulate on social media.

“Why are we looking for the cause of the low birthrate from far away? It’s right here,” wrote one person on Twitter. Another said women were infuriated by the rules: “Who made this guideline? There are lots of things to be corrected.”

Some lawmakers criticized the messaging as damaging for South Korea’s reputation.

“It is awkward that the anachronistic admonition on how pregnant women should serve their families is still being distributed,” Woo Sang-ho, a lawmaker of the governing Democratic Party, wrote on Facebook last week, before the guidelines were removed.

Others, however, said the online criticism went too far.

“I don’t think it’s that ridiculous to suggest women prepare food and the house,” said Kyung Jin Kim, 42, a former lawyer based in Seoul, who recently left her career to start a family. But she said the guidelines could have been more useful “if the tone were not so like a middle-aged Korean guy or an old Korean mother-in-law.”

Under the recommendations, women were advised to check their household essentials so that their family members would “not be uncomfortable.” They were also urged to clean out the fridge, prepare meals and find someone to care for their other children.

The advice made no mention of any responsibilities for husbands. But it did have some suggestions for how to remain attractive to them.

“Hang the clothes you wore before your marriage or small-size clothes you would like to wear after childbirth by putting one in a place you can easily see,” the original text from the site read. It added that “when you feel like you would like to eat more than you need to, or skip exercising, you get motivated by looking at the clothes.”

Though South Korea has become an economic and cultural powerhouse, many women still experience misogyny in very practical terms.

According to a 2017 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the gender pay gap in South Korea is the highest among its 37 member countries. Working women earn nearly 40 percent less than men, and many stop working when they have children, often pressured by their families and workplaces.

Other countries in the region, including Japan — which also has an aging population and a low birthrate — have broad gender disparities, especially in relation to pregnancy. In Japan, the term “matahara” (short for maternity harassment) caught on when a woman’s claims of workplace bullying after she gave birth were heard in the country’s Supreme Court in 2014.

These declining populations pose a threat to the countries’ economies, making it all the more important that governments tread carefully in incentivizing women to have children.

Last year, South Korea’s population declined for the first time on record, dropping by nearly 21,000. Births fell by more than 10.5 percent, and deaths rose by 3 percent. The Ministry of Interior and Safety acknowledged the alarming implications, saying that “amid the rapidly declining birthrate, the government needs to undertake fundamental changes to its relevant policies.”

Though the Seoul government may have fumbled in its advice, the backlash, some said, proved that attitudes were changing.

“This is just outdated advice,” said Adele Vitale, a birth doula and Italian expatriate who has lived in Busan, a port city on the country’s southeast coast, for a decade.

Ms. Vitale, who works primarily with foreign women married to Korean men, said that though Korean society had traditionally perceived pregnant women as “incapacitated,” she had increasingly seen their husbands adopting more egalitarian views toward childbirth and child rearing.

“Family dynamics have been evolving,” she said. “Women are no longer willing to be treated this way.”

#sexism #South Korea #patriarchy #workplace #maternity leave #pregnancy

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sawadeekannyeong · 3 years

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Thailand: Southeast Asia’s unexpected epicentre of K-pop

How Thailand contributes to South Korea, and how South Korea gives back in return

i. Intro

youtube

Video: Clip from Thai entertainment show hosted by Moddam Kachapa. (Source: YouTube)

On September 11, 2021, Thai MC Moddam Kachapa talked about the solo debut success of Blackpink’s Lisa.

“This is what we call world class, truly world class, it’s finally happened to our country.”

Lisa (real name Lalisa Manoban), a K-pop idol who was born and raised in Thailand, got her start under YG Entertainment in 2016, as a member of girl group Blackpink. The group itself has achieved worldwide success, even being credited by South Korean president Moon Jae-In for spreading K-pop content across the globe. Lisa is the only member of the group who is not Korean, and the third to break out into solo endeavours.

Her debut single album Lalisa was considered a huge success. With 736,000 copies sold in South Korea within the first week, it broke the all-time record for most sales in a single week for any release by a female musician — leaving her more than worthy of a celebration.

But in acknowledging Lisa’s success, Kachapa discredited the success of other Thai K-pop idols in the industry: namely, 2PM’s Nichkhun and GOT7’s BamBam.

“We’ve never seen a (Thai) superstar go this far - back then we had Nichkhun, but he wasn’t successful to this degree. We also have BamBam, but he too didn’t manage to get this far.”

Photo: Screenshots of netizens’ tweets regarding Kachapa’s statements. (Source: Twitter)

His statements struck a chord with long-time fans of both artists, who felt there was no need to bring them down in order to praise Lisa. Many even acknowledged that the three are friends, and did not see one another as competition.

Photo: BamBam, Nichkhun and Lisa with one another. (Source: various)

This incident proves one thing – Thai fans of K-pop are proud of all the success their own citizens have achieved, and actively acknowledge that debuting in the K-pop industry is an achievement to laud over. It reflects the level of respect Thai netizens have for K-pop, revealing just how popular K-pop is in Thailand.

ii. The import of Thai idols

A survey conducted with 500 Thai citizens in 2019 revealed that 45.6 percent of respondents considered K-pop to be very popular in the nation, with an additional 27.2 percent considering it to be quite popular. The Korean Wave, specifically the rise of K-pop, has been present in Thailand for more than decade now.

The import of talents like Nichkhun, BamBam and Lisa are both a result of this rise, and also help to maintain this popularity. The respect they are treated with in their home country is nearly unparalleled.

Nichkhun (2PM)

In 2005, when he was just 17, Nichkhun was scouted by JYPE Entertainment representatives while at the Los Angeles Korean Music Festival with some friends. He admitted to having no knowledge of Korean culture, and did not understand why he was scouted.

“I didn’t know any singers, I didn’t know what JYP was and when I was scouted, I was really skeptical about it because I don’t really speak Korean, I didn’t know anybody there.”

The Los Angeles Korean Music Festival (now known as the Korea Times Music Festival) was launched in 2003 to give Korean-Americans living in Southern California a taste of “home”. The festival grew increasingly popular among non-Koreans, due to the widespread recognition of Korean culture in the United States, and in 2013, 95 per cent of tickets were purchased by non-Koreans.

youtube

Video: 2PM performing at the 2014 Los Angeles Korean Music Festival. (Source: YouTube)

The booming presence of the Korean community in Southern California and the rise of Hallyu in the United States were both factors that contributed to Nichkhun’s recruitment into JYPE. His debut as a member of 2PM in 2008 cemented his status as the world’s first K-pop idol from Thailand.

He is incredibly popular in his home country, earning the nickname “Thai Prince” for his good looks, wealth and talent. He also acknowledges that as a foreign K-pop idol, he helps to globalise K-pop, and spread awareness of it beyond just South Korea.

I think I’m the international bridge that connects the group to places outside Korea. If the group were only Korean members, the reach would be very Korean. But because I’m there, I make the group a little more international.

BamBam (GOT7)

BamBam (born Kunpimook Bhuwakul), is a member of GOT7, formerly under JYP Entertainment. Growing up in Thailand, his interest in Korean culture was primarily because his mother was a huge fan of singer Rain. The two of them even attended some Rain concerts together in Thailand, a testament to the singer’s popularity in the region.

BamBam actively took part in K-pop competitions growing up in Thailand, like a Rain cover dance competition, and the Thailand LG Entertainer Competition (which 2PM’s Nichkhun and Blackpink’s Lisa were coincidentally both present at).

Photo: BamBam, Nichkhun and Lisa at the Thailand LG Entertainer Competition. (Source: YouTube)

At 13, BamBam passed the JYP World Tour Audition in Thailand and subsequently moved to South Korea to become a JYPE trainee. Debuting with GOT7 in 2014, his popularity in Thailand soared and BamBam went on to receive the nickname “Thai Prince”, just like his predecessor Nichkhun.

He endorses many brands in Thailand, including mobile network operator AIS, Yamaha, and Vivo.

“Someone had called me “nation’s treasure” before. I felt really good when I heard it. I want Thai people to be proud of me. I am proud of being Thai. I always say it wherever I go. We’re K-pop idols or whatever, we’re still Thai.”

Lisa (Blackpink)

Lisa’s story of how she debuted is similar to that of BamBam’s. In 2010, she attended an open audition held by YG Entertainment in Thailand, and was the only winner out of approximately 3000 contestants. Moving to South Korea at the mere age of 13, she proceeded to become YG’s first non-Korean trainee.

Since Blackpink’s debut in 2016, the group has achieved constant success. Lisa’s fame is nearly unparalleled – she is the most followed K-pop idol on Instagram, boasting 61.9 million followers (as of October 2021).

The star, who like Nichkhun and BamBam is highly respected in Thailand, made sure to boast her Thai roots in her debut single.

"I wanted my album to give a Thai feel as its gem, and YG's producer, Teddy, arranged the lead track in the way I expected. I also sported Thai outfits in its music video and made traditional Thai dance movements.”

The ever growing globalisation of K-pop, like Korean music festivals and idol auditions held in other countries, contribute to the growing pool of non-Korean K-pop idols. K-pop is becoming increasingly accessible, not just for fans, but for those aspiring to join the industry.

Other Thai idols have sprouted in the K-pop industry since, like NCT’s Ten, CLC’s Sorn and G-Idle’s Minnie. All of them contribute to growing cultural relations between Thailand and South Korea, as South Korean President Moon Jae-In said himself.

“ In particular, the peoples of our two countries are curious about each other and share a mutual affection. A number of talented young Thais are making a name for themselves on the world stage as members of K-pop acts, including Nichkhun of 2PM and Lisa of Blackpink.”

iii. Getting what you give

Where K-pop has benefitted from Thailand, Thailand has benefitted from K-pop.

All of the “Big 3” labels – JYP, YG and SM – have expanded their businesses to Thailand: JYP launched JYPE Thailand in 2010, its official Southeast Asian branch. The following year, SM launched a joint venture called SM True with Thailand’s The Visions Group. And just this year, YGMM was launched as a joint venture between YG and Thailand’s GMM Grammy.

Korean music festivals and conventions are also commonplace in Thailand. In 2011, to celebrate its 50th anniversary, South Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) held the MBC Korean Music Wave in Bangkok. It featured the biggest groups of the time, like TVXQ, Miss A, Girls’ Generation and SG Wannabe, and was hosted by 2PM’s Nichkhun, alongside Yuri and Tiffany from Girls’ Generation. MBC Korean Music Wave returned to Thailand two more times, and its last iteration received a turnout of 20,000 fans.

Photo: Tiffany, Nichkhun, and Yuri at MBC Korean Music Wave in Bangkok 2011. (Source: Soompi)

More recently, in 2018 and 2019, Thailand became the only Southeast Asian country to host KCON. The convention, held to celebrate all forms of Korean culture, originally began in 2012, in the United States, and has since expanded to eight countries. Thailand’s KCON was hosted both times by 2PM’s Nichkhun, and saw performances from artists like Stray Kids, Iz*One and GOT7.

Photo: GOT7 at KCON 2018, including BamBam (3rd from right). (Source: Tofupop Radio)

Now, the COVID-19 pandemic might have halted K-pop concerts and conventions in Thailand for the time being, but the craze shows no signs of stopping. The K-pop phenomenon has trickled its way down to Thailand’s grassroots, benefitting blue collar workers like tuktuk drivers and roadside hawkers.

Photo: Thailand’s popular tuktuks are now adorned with K-pop idol advertisements. (Source: Reuters)

The drivers of Thailand’s distinctive tuktuks have been hit financially by the pandemic, with most of their income normally coming from excited tourists. According to Reuters, avid K-pop fans have been turning to these tuktuks as a way to advertise their favourite idols. As part of a larger anti-government protest, teenagers stopped paying for their K-pop idols to be advertised on public transport, and instead mobilised tuktuks to celebrate birthdays and album launches.

Samran and many others now drive their empty tuk tuks around Bangkok with a banner of a different K-pop sensation each month, stopping for young Thai fans to take pictures and use their service, often with tips.

Similarly, meatball vendors in Lisa’s hometown of Buriram in Thailand have seen a rise in sales of up to 1000 per cent since an unexpected shoutout from her. In an interview on popular Thai talkshow The Woody Show, Lisa mentioned missing the meatballs sold near the train station in her hometown.

Photo: Meatballs being sold in Lisa’s hometown in Thailand. (Source: Bangkok Post)

“People buy and eat them right there at Buriram train station. They’re really popular. The highlight is the sauce found only in Buriram.”

Business had struggled for these vendors as a result of the pandemic, with many people afraid of eating out. Some vendors even had to shut down stalls.

"Now some shops have about 2,000 orders a day. This is unprecedented and business is even better than pre-Covid 19," said Bordin Ruengsuksriwong, the provincial Tourism Industry Council president.

It is no doubt that when pandemic restrictions ease up, more Thais will find themselves flocking to South Korea to follow in the footsteps of Nichkhun, BamBam and Lisa, while K-pop groups will be marking Thailand down in their tour dates.

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theculturedmarxist · 3 years

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Should We Have War Crimes Trials?

By Neil Sheehan

(https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/sheehanwarcrimesnyt71.pdf)

The New York Times Book Review March 28, 1971, pp. BR1 ff.

“The tragic story of Vietnam is not, in truth, a tale of malevolent men bent upon conquest for personal gain or imperial glory. It is the story of an entire generation of leaders (and an entire generation of followers) so conditioned by the tensions of the cold war years that they were unable to perceive in 1965 (and later) that the Communist adversary was no longer a monolith . . . Lyndon Johnson, though disturbingly volatile, was not in his worst moments an evil man in the Hitlerian sense . . . Set against these facts, the easy designation of individuals as deliberate or imputed ‘war criminals’ is shockingly glib, even if one allows for the inexperience of the young.” -- Townsend Hoopes, the former Under Secretary of the Air Force, January, 1970.

Is the accusation glib? Or is it too unpleasant to think about? Do you have to be Hitlerian to be a war criminal? Or can you qualify as a well-intentioned President of the United States? Even when I saw those signs during the March on the Pentagon in 1967, “Hey, Hey L.B.J. How many kids did you kill today?” they didn’t make me think that Lyndon Johnson, the President of the United States, might be a war criminal. A misguided man perhaps, an egomaniac at worst, but not a war criminal. That would have been just too much. Kids do get killed in war. Besides, I’d never read the laws governing the conduct of war, although I had watched the war for three years in Vietnam and had written about it for five. Apparently, a lot of the men in Saigon and Washington who were directing the war didn’t read those laws either, or if they did, they interpreted them rather loosely. Now a lot of other people are examining our behavior in Vietnam in the light of these laws. Mark Sacharoff, an assistant professor of English at Temple University, has gathered their work together into this bibliography. By this simple act he has significantly widened our consciousness. If you credit as factual only a fraction of the information assembled here about what happened in Vietnam, and if you apply the laws of war to American conduct there, then the leaders of the United States for the past six years at least, including the incumbent President, Richard Milhous Nixon, may well be guilty of war crimes.

There is the stuff of five Dreyfus affairs in that thought. This is what makes the growing literature on alleged war crimes in Vietnam so important. This bibliography represents the beginning of what promises to be a long and painful inquest into what we are doing in Southeast Asia. The more perspective we gain on our behavior, the uglier our conduct appears. At first it had seemed unfortunate and sad we were caught in the quicksand of Indochina. Then our conduct had appeared stupid and brutal, the quagmire was of our own making, the Vietnamese were the victims and we were the executioners. Now we’re finding out that we may have taken life, not merely as cruel and stubborn warriors, but as criminals. We are conditioned as a nation to believe that only our enemies commit war crimes. Certainly the enemy in Indochina has perpetrated crimes. The enemy’s war crimes, however, will not wash us clean if we too are war criminals.

What are the laws of war? One learns that there is a whole body of such laws, ranging from specific military regulations like the Army’s Field Manual 27-10, “The Law of Land Warfare,” to the provisions of the Hague and Geneva Conventions, which are United Slates law by virtue of Senate ratification, to the broad principles laid down by the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes tribunals. These laws say that all is not fair in war, that there are limits to what belligerent man may do to mankind. As the Hague Convention of 1907 put it, “The right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited.” In other words, some acts in war are illegal and they aren’t all as obviously illegal as the massacre of several hundred Vietnamese villagers at Mylai. Let’s take a look at our conduct in Vietnam through the viewing glass of these laws. The Army Field Manual says that it is illegal to attack hospitals. We routinely bombed and shelled them. The destruction of Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army Hospitals in the South Vietnamese countryside was announced at the daily press briefings, the Five o’Clock Follies, by American military spokesmen in Saigon.

So somebody may have committed a war crime in attacking those hospitals. The Manual also says that a military commander acquires responsibility for war crimes if he knows they are being committed, “or should have knowledge, through reports received by him or through other means,” and he fails to take action to stop them. President Johnson kept two wire-service teletypes in his office and he read the newspapers like a bear. There are thus grounds for believing that he may have known his Air Force and artillery were blowing up enemy hospitals. He was the Commander in Chief. Did his knowledge make him a war criminal? The Army Manual says that “every violation of the law of war is a war crime.”

Let’s proceed to one of the basic tactics the United States used to prosecute the war in South Vietnam -unrestricted air and artillery bombardments of peasant hamlets. Since 1965, a minimum of 150,000 Vietnamese civilians, an average of 68 men, women and children every day for the past six years, have been killed in the south by American military action or by weapons supplied to the Saigon forces by the United States. Another 350,000 Vietnamese civilians have been wounded or permanently maimed. This is a very conservative estimate. It is based on official figures assembled by Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate Subcommittee on Refugees and on a study for the Subcommittee by those eminent government auditors, the General Accounting Office. The real toll may be much higher. This conservative attitude makes the documentation put together by the Senator and his staff aides, Jerry Tinker and Dale S. de Haan. among the most impressive in the bibliography. Many, perhaps the majority, of those half million civilian casualties were caused by the air and artillery bombardments of peasant hamlets authorized by the American military and civilian leaders in Saigon and Washington.

The United States Government tried and hanged in 1946 a Japanese general, Tomoyuki Yamashita, because he was held responsible for the deaths of more than 25,000 noncombatants killed by his troops in the Philippines.

Can a moral and legal distinction be drawn between those killings in World War II, for which General Yamashita paid with his life, and the civilian deaths ordered or condoned by American leaders during the Vietnam War? Again, if you accept only a portion of the evidence presented in this bibliography, and compare that evidence to the laws of war, the probable answer is, No. And President Nixon has spread this unrestricted bombing through Laos and Cambodia, killing and wounding unknown tens of thousands of civilians in those countries.

...

continued

#neil sheehan #new york times book review #war crimes #vietnam war #viet nam #cambodia #laos #richard nixon #lyndon b. johnson #united states military #us army #us air force #us war crimes #cold war #communism #capitalism #us history #vietnamese history

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alethia000 · 3 years

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Korean boy band member Nichkhun on life as a K-pop idol

By: Natasha Gillespie-Wong

December 29, 2020

Singer, songwriter, rapper, model and now Hollywood actor, Nichkhun is a man of many talents. The Thai-American, who’s currently based in South Korea, gives Natasha Gillespie-Wong an insight into life as a K-pop idol. Moving effortlessly in front of the camera, Nichkhun Buck Horvejkul, better known as Nichkhun, obviously knows his best angles. A quiet confidence shines through as he expertly works each garment into the frame. A few more outfit changes, a quick snack and he’s ready for the interview. Without the cameras on him, Nichkhun’s demeanour changes and a soft-spoken, almost shy man sits before me.

Brought up between Thailand and California, Nichkhun was scouted by JYP Entertainment as a teenager in Los Angeles, and so began his whirlwind adventure to K-pop superstardom. Speaking fluent Thai, English and Korean, Nichkhun quickly became the darling of Southeast Asia. Now, he’s treading the boards in Hong Kong ahead of his Hollywood debut in Hong Kong Love Story.

You’re multilingual and have lived all over the world. What aspects of your international upbringing influence your work and work ethic?

I think being and living in different countries, experiencing so many cultures, opens doors. It gives you perspective. When I talk to someone who’s been around the world or has lived somewhere else before, they tend to be more understanding. Experiencing different cultures gives you an understanding of why people behave the way they do. So I think in that sense it plays a big role in my career and my work ethic.

When you’re working, you deal with a lot of different people, from different upbringings. A lot of the time people don’t even know they’re doing something you’re not used to so when you’re understanding of different cultures and norms, you don’t get frustrated. I really encourage my friends or people around me to travel more, not just for a couple of days, but to get out and meet local people and talk to them, learn a bit about their language and about their culture. I think that that really helps a lot and not just for work, but for your life.

You were scouted at 18 and had to learn to sing, dance and speak new languages. What new things did you learn about yourself through your work? Was there anything that surprised you about the training?

I was never very good at singing and dancing. [JYP Entertainment] recruited me to go to Korea. When I was there, I started training and they would ask me, “Why are you not good? Why can’t you sing? Why can’t you dance?” I was a bit taken aback because I thought to myself, “You saw my audition tape, you know what I can do”, which, to be honest, at the time was nothing. But then I started to understand that they just wanted to motivate me. I’m part of the company and I have to measure up to their standards.

The guys who were already in the company had some skills before coming in. So I had to work extra hard; I think that was the hardest part for me. Living and moving to Korea and adapting to Korea wasn’t that hard, just the training was not easy. I think what surprised me most about working in this industry is myself. I started off with no skills and zero confidence and I was so shy that I couldn’t even speak in front of a class to give a presentation or anything. I surprised myself. I think the first couple of times I went on stage, I thought I was going to freeze, but I didn’t. And that taught me that if you try hard enough, if you want something, you can do it.

I read that your mum never expected you to pursue performing as a career. What fuels your passion for the arts? Did you perform as a child at all?

When I was growing up, I would do school concerts and festivals but never anything serious. I never thought I would perform in front of a real audience, outside of my school. Once you’re on stage professionally, it’s a different story. When I found out that I could perform, maybe not that well or maybe not as perfect as I wanted it to be, that just drove me to be more thirsty and I just wanted it more. I just wanted to be better.

As a member of 2PM, what do you think your personality specifically brings to the group? And what are some of the challenges of working as a group?

In Korean culture, younger people usually can’t speak up to the older ones. But we’re all friends, colleagues, partners. So whatever problems we have we talk it out. It doesn’t matter if you’re the youngest or the oldest, we just call a meeting and we talk about it. I think that’s how we’ve remained so close for so long.

Because music is art, sometimes less is more but sometimes more is more so we have to find a balance. We haven’t perfected it, but we’re still on the way, still learning a lot. What I’ve learned is you can never satisfy the public completely.

What was it like to go out on your own as a solo artist?

I never thought I’d do my own music, because in 2PM I have five other members to cover for me if I make a mistake. But when they went off to the military, I promised the fans that I wouldn’t leave them. That’s when I came out with an album and started touring. I called my first solo album ME, because I wanted the fans to hear what I listened to or what I wanted to make, not what’s trendy. I never thought I could sing and dance all by myself for two and a half hours on stage, but I’ve done it. I just keep learning new things about myself through work. I’m very fortunate that this is my job, it’s a blessing. The music industry is so dynamic. Do you find it hard to keep up at all or do you not pay too much attention to that?

I don’t think about that much. To me, music is timeless. I listen to the same old songs that I like, and I think that’s just who I am. It’s not just with music but with fashion too. My fans are always saying, “Please go shopping! Please update your wardrobe!” But growing up, my dad would wear the same shoes until they broke. Then he would fix them and wear them more, until he couldn’t fix them anymore. So my mentality is very much, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? I find buying things for myself hard as well. I would rather spend money on things to share, like food and good experiences. I pay for things like taking my family on a trip. We all have fun, make good memories.

For me, the most important thing is staying true to myself, because the industry will always want something new. The latest sound or instrument, you might use it in your music, but then because it takes maybe four or five months to produce, the sound has changed. So that’s why with ME, because I didn’t know what the audience would want to hear at the time of release, I just stuck to what I wanted the public to hear. I’m not aiming for a number one hit song every time, I’m just trying to show off my colours.

How did you make the leap from music to TV and movies? Are the industries very different?

Acting was kind of a natural next step for me. In this industry, there are so many avenues you can explore. You start in music, you can move from performing to production or recording music to recording film. For me, I think I was always interested and intrigued by acting. I’ve had so many great opportunities, I got lucky and now I’m in an American film and it all came from a series of opportunities and me being fortunate.

The main difference I’ve noticed is the feedback. With music you get an immediate reaction from the crowd, you perform and you get recognition. With acting, it’s delayed. It can take months or even years for a movie to come out so the feedback is very, very delayed. I think that’s the only big difference between music and movies.

You’ve portrayed characters from a marathon runner to a student involved in a murder case. How has acting helped you discover new aspects of yourself?

The roles I’ve played so far have just been characters that people can relate to, that I relate to, it’s just a bit of myself. I’m not a method actor. I just kind of forget it when I go home and then when I’m back on set I get back into it. I don’t take it home with me; I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

Because I haven’t had a very intense, sophisticated role, I don’t know if I could pull to that extreme. I would need to spend a lot of time with a character like that.

I’m still in the learning stage and am always happy to have a new challenge. I’m just trying to go deeper with each character, even if he’s not a serious person or, you know, like a psycho killer. But still, I’m trying to dig in a little more, trying to give this character more dimension, and also bring a bit more fun. I think I’m just starting to learn to worry less about getting the script right and just becoming a character.

Before I was just feeling I can’t get the lines wrong. And that’s not the most important thing. You know, you can play around with characters, unless you meet a really strict director, which I haven’t yet. I think that’s the greatest thing about being an artist for me. You might get given a subject, but within that radius, within that circle, you can bounce around so much that you don’t have to be just one thing. I think that’s the beauty of the industry.

You’ve made a big impact helping UNICEF raise awareness and funds for children’s rights. How important is it to you to give back to society?

There are so many issues that we are blind to. Little things like clean water to drink, safe places. It’s very important that these kids have the opportunity to grow up to be healthy, educated and strong. I’m so thankful that UNICEF chose me to be one of their ambassadors. Being a spokesperson is more important than just donations. If I’m spreading the message, then that will hopefully have an impact on others too. In my position, I live off of people’s love so it’s very important for me to give some of that love back and not just take all the time.

Who is your #legend?

My parents. I’ve met so many great people throughout my life, but no matter where I go or what I do, I find myself thinking back to things my parents said. I’ve realised that you can have hundreds of idols in your life, whom you really respect, but the people you should respect the most are your parents. Even though I didn’t really listen to them as a child, they made me who I am today. I’ve been living on my own for 21 years now and I could have gone the wrong way, but thanks to my parents’ teaching I’ve managed to stay on a somewhat straight path. Whenever I went off the road a little bit, I always came back, thanks to my parents.

CREDITS Creative Direction and Styling / Alvin Goh Photography / Erfan Shekarriz Art Direction / Djiun Wang Videographer / Feicien Feng Video Editor / Feicien Feng & Simarpreet Kaur Panjeta Make-Up / Alvin Goh Hairstyling / Peter Cheng Assistants / Feicien Feng, Elizabeth Kezia, Lyly Chan, John Marcus, Kenna Chiu

Source: https://hashtaglegend.com/magazine/digital-exclusive/nichkhun-brooks-brothers-kpop-interview/

#2pm #nichkhun #photoshoot #interview #Legend #magazine #Hashtag Legend Magazine #Hashtag Legend

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zmwrites · 4 years

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What are the countries and kingdoms and cities of your world? How did you come up with them and how did you name them? I suck at naming places

hello!! i have been afraid to answer this bc i don’t want to ruin whatever is suggesting i know what i’m doing, but here we go!

most of my wips are set in the same world but on different continents and in different time periods. for example, a group that brought the Ukrainian language influence to Draiobia in Indigo Wars is from the area that Remnants takes place in, hence why Remnants also has a strong Ukrainian language influence. except Indigo Wars is set in 719 and Remnants is set in 1674.

i don’t have a map for Remnants yet, but here is the map for IW:

so you can (hopefully) see the different language influences in all countries here. the very top country, without any named cities visible, is Achar. below that is Edristan, then Draiobia, then Echium is the little island off the south of the continent.

then in Remnants, the countries are Kethyia, Yetrar, Vrarok, and Esmudor. the cities (all in Kethyia) are Brenik, Pyarovsk, Lesopa, Marlytsia, and Nemný.

i make extensive use of Fantasy Name Generators when i’m naming places.

for countries/kingdoms: i use either the Continent, Country/Nation, or Kingdom name generators on the site. sometimes i’ll dip into others if i want a place to sound particularly outlandish, but i’ll open a few in different tabs and click through until i find something i like. i’ll also save ones i like but that aren’t right for the project in a different document to refer to later.

for cities: i decide what kind of linguistic influence i want the setting to have, then find the appropriate generator on the site. i don’t keep strictly to one language influence, bc i prefer to believe that people can share culture and language and space without killing each other. on the IW map above, there are cities whose names are derived from French (West Europe), English (aka the basic “City Name” and “Fantasy Town Name” generators), East Europe, West Asia, and Southeast Asia. i think i even pulled some names from the South Europe generator.

once i’ve picked a generator, i’ll put together a list of names then decide where to place them and how important i want them to be to the story. for example: Nemný is a great name for a city, but placing the accent is a pain (this is from someone who has an accented letter in their first name) so it has been relegated to a less important role in the story.

i wish i had a better answer, but the truth is that i also suck at naming places and allow Emily from Fantasy Name Generators do most of the work for me. i just click “generate” until i get enough names to populate the part of the world i’m working on.

#world building #zoe replies

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the-diagnosis-archive · 4 years

Text

Typhus

Typhus is a disease caused by infection with one or more rickettsial bacteria. Fleas, mites (chiggers), lice, or ticks transmit it when they bite you. Fleas, mites, lice, and ticks are types of invertebrate animals known as arthropods. When arthropods carrying around rickettsial bacteria bite someone, they transmit the bacteria that causes typhus. Scratching the bite further opens the skin and allows the bacteria greater access to the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, the bacteria continue to reproduce and grow.

There are three different types of typhus:

epidemic (louse-borne) typhus is a rare variety spread by infected body lice. It’s unlikely to happen outside of extremely crowded living conditions. One type of epidemic typhus can be spread by infected flying squirrels, again, very rare.

endemic (murine) typhus is passed by fleas to people if the fleas bite infected animals, mainly rats. Most U.S. cases have been reported in California, Hawaii, and Texas

scrub typhus is spread by infected chiggers, or mites, mainly found in rural parts of Southeast Asia, China, Japan, India, and northern Australia.

All three kinds of typhus can cause serious illness, so get immediate treatment if you think you might have been exposed to it.

Causes:

Typhus is not transmitted from person to person like a cold or the flu. There are three different types of typhus, and each type is caused by a different type of bacterium and transmitted by a different type of arthropod. The type of typhus you are infected with depends on what bit you. Arthropods are typically carriers of a typhus strain unique to their species. Insects and other parasites spread murine and epidemic typhus when they bite you and leave bacteria-laden feces on your skin. When you scratch the itching bug bite, you can spread the infested feces into the open bite wound or other cuts on your skin’s surface. That deposits typhus bacteria into your bloodstream. You can get scrub typhus if a mite infected with the bacterium bites you, even if you don’t scratch the bite. The disease is transmitted by the human body louse, which becomes infected by feeding on the blood of patients with acute typhus fever. Infected lice excrete rickettsia onto the skin while feeding on a second host, who becomes infected by rubbing louse fecal matter or crushed lice into the bite wound. There is no animal reservoir.

Typhus outbreaks usually only occur in developing countries or in regions of poverty, poor sanitation, and close human contact. Typhus is generally not a problem in the United States, but you may become infected while traveling abroad. Untreated typhus can lead to serious complications, and it’s potentially fatal. It’s important to see your doctor if you suspect that you may have typhus

Typhus fever occurs in colder (i.e. mountainous) regions of central and eastern Africa, central and South America, and Asia. In recent years, most outbreaks have taken place in Burundi, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Typhus fever occurs in conditions of overcrowding and poor hygiene, such as in prisons and refugee camps. The risk of being infected with typhus is very low for most travelers. Humanitarian relief workers may be exposed in refugee camps and other settings characterized by crowding and poor hygiene.

Symptoms:

Typhus is a series of acute infectious diseases that appear with a sudden onset of headache, chills, fever, and general pains, proceed on the third to fifth day with a rash and toxemia (toxic substances in the blood), and terminate after two to three weeks. It is caused by different species of rickettsia bacteria that are transmitted to humans by lice, fleas, mites, or ticks. The insects are carried person to person or are brought to people by rodents, cattle, and other animals. The onset is variable but often sudden, with headache, chills, high fever, prostration, coughing and severe muscular pain. After 5–6 days, a macular skin eruption (dark spots) develops first on the upper trunk and spreads to the rest of the body but usually not to the face, palms of the hands or soles of the feet. The case–fatality rate is up to 40% in the absence of specific treatment. Louse-borne typhus fever is the only rickettsial disease that can cause explosive epidemics. With any kind of typhus, you’ll start to feel ill about 10 days to 2 weeks after the typhus bacteria get into your body. At first, you’ll feel chills, run a fever, and develop a severe headache. You may start to breathe fast and get full-body muscle aches like what you’d have with the flu. Stomach pain and vomiting are common, too. A few days later, you might notice a spotted rash on your chest and midsection, which often spreads to other parts of your body. With scrub typhus, you might see a dark scab on the area where the chigger bit you. Complications from untreated typhus can include conditions such as pneumonia, meningitis, or septic shock.

Symptoms vary slightly by the type of typhus, but there are symptoms that are associated with all three types of typhus, such as:

headache

fever

chills

rash

Symptoms of epidemic typhus begin within 2 weeks after contact with infected body lice. Signs and symptoms may include:

Confusion

Cough

Eye sensitivity to bright lights

Fever and chills

Headache

High fever (above 102.2°F)

Low blood pressure (hypotension)

Nausea

Rapid breathing

Rash that begins on the back or chest and spreads

Severe headache

Severe muscle pain

Stupor and seeming out of touch with reality

Vomiting

Brill-Zinsser disease

Some people can remain infected, without symptoms, for years after they first get sick. Rarely, these individuals can have a relapse in disease, called Brill-Zinsser disease, months or years following their first illness. When this happens, it often occurs when the body’s immune system is weakened due to certain medications, old age, or illness. The symptoms of Brill-Zinsser disease are similar to the original infection, but are usually milder than the initial illness.

The symptoms of endemic typhus last for 10 to 12 days and are very similar to the symptoms of epidemic typhus but are usually less severe. They include:

dry cough

nausea and vomiting

diarrhea

Symptoms seen in people with scrub typhus include:

swollen lymph nodes

tiredness

red lesion or sore on the skin at the site of the bite

cough

rash

The incubation period for the disease is five to 14 days, on average. This means that symptoms won’t usually appear for up to five to 14 days after you are bitten. Travelers who get typhus while traveling abroad may not experience symptoms until they are back home. This is why it is important to tell your doctor about any recent trips if you have any of the above symptoms.

Diagnosis:

The symptoms of epidemic typhus are similar to symptoms of many other diseases. See your health care provider if you develop the symptoms listed above following travel or contact with animals.

I f you suspect that you have typhus, your doctor will ask about your symptoms and your medical history. To help with the diagnosis, tell your doctor if you:

are living in a crowded environment

know of a typhus outbreak in your community

have traveled abroad recently

have had contact with flying squirrels or their nests.

Diagnostic tests for the presence of typhus include:

skin biopsy: a sample of the skin from your rash will be tested in a lab

Western blot: a test to identify the presence of typhus

immunofluorescence test: uses fluorescent dyes to detect typhus antigen in samples of serum taken from the bloodstream

other blood tests: results can indicate the presence of infection

Laboratory testing and reporting of results can take several weeks. Your health care provider may start treatment before results are available.

Treatment:

Antibiotics most commonly used to treat typhus include:

doxycycline (Doryx, Vibramycin): the preferred treatment

chloramphenicol: an option for those not pregnant or breastfeeding

ciprofloxacin (Cipro): used for adults who are unable to take doxycycline

The most effective therapy for all three kinds of typhus is the antibiotic doxycycline. A single dose of doxycycline has proven effective against epidemic typhus. Doxycycline also works quickly on other strains of the disease. For the best results, you should take it as soon as possible after your symptoms start.

If you’re allergic to doxycycline or if it doesn’t work, doctors may choose another antibiotic such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro). Epidemic typhus should be treated with the antibiotic doxycycline. Doxycycline can be used in persons of any age.

Prevention

There is no vaccine that can protect you from typhus. But basic hygiene helps. This includes very simple things like bathing at least once a week and changing your clothes on a regular basis. Wash louse-infested clothing at least once a week. Machine wash and dry infested clothing and bedding using hot water (at least 130°F), and dry on high heat when possible. Clothing and items that are not washable can be dry-cleaned OR sealed in a plastic bag and stored for 2 weeks. You should also keep a safe distance from wild animals known to carry typhus, such as rats, flying squirrels, and opossums. Don’t leave food waste or other trash in your yard where it could attract them.

For murine typhus protection, you may also want to spray flea-control products on your furry pets and in your yard, and don’t let your pets share your bed. If you travel to places where murine typhus or scrub typhus are found, use an insect repellent that contains 20% to 30% DEET.

Do not share clothing, beds, bedding, or towels used by a person who has body lice or is infected with typhus. Treat bedding, uniforms, and other clothing with permethrin. Permethrin kills lice and may provide long-lasting protection for clothing for many washings. See product information to learn how long the protection will last. If treating these items yourself, follow the product instructions carefully. Do NOT use permethrin products directly on skin. They are intended to treat clothing not people.

sources: x x x x x

#typhus #tw: pregnancy #cw: louse #long post

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hutchhitched · 4 years

Text

The Vintage Joshifer Series: End of Love—Chapter 19

End of Love by hutchhitched

A kazillion years ago, I started posting this story. I never intended for it to drag on this long in between updates, but life happens and so does writer’s block. I know there’s little readership in the Joshifer fandom anymore, but I needed to finish it. If you’re still around to read it, thank you. If you want to dive in, I’d appreciate it. You definitely don’t have to be a Joshifer fan to read it since Josh and Jen’s characters are historical actors and not versions of their modern selves.

Historical events in this chapter include the following:

Richard Nixon won the presidential election of 1968. He triumphed over Vice President Humphrey and third party candidate George Wallace, who famously defended segregation at the University of Alabama earlier in the decade. Nixon won by appealing to the Silent Majority, those who believed the radicalism of the 1960s had gone too far. During his presidency he worked to build a national Republican Party after it all but disappeared during the Great Depression during the 1930s. Nixon called this the Southern Strategy (downplaying civil rights by rejecting the GOP’s original stance of the anti-slavery party in 1860, when Lincoln won the election).

After winning the election, Nixon did stop further troop deployments to Vietnam and reduced the numbers already there. Instead, he instituted a bombing campaign of the Vietnam and neighboring Laos and Cambodia. This was called Vietnamization.

Chicago, Illinois, November 1968

“Hutch, what’s good?”

“Andre, my man. It’s been too long.” Josh clapped his friend on the back and welcomed him into headquarters. Volunteers buzzed around them, and Josh reminded himself that spending time with a good friend in from out of town for a day was just as important as working to support the Democratic candidate for president—even though Josh was almost positive his party was going to lose the election.

Nothing had been the same since Bobby died. The Kennedy magic was gone. Instead of the former Attorney General being the nominee, the current VP who was tainted by LBJ’s Americanization strategy in Vietnam would likely lose to Nixon. If that happened, and it almost certainly would, he knew the positive changes in civil rights and economic equality would disappear with when the GOP took power. It was beyond comprehension, but election day loomed in two days. Two days until the world fell apart.

“Let’s grab lunch,” Andre suggested. When Josh hesitated, he offered, “My treat.”

Reluctantly, Josh agreed, and they headed down the street to a local diner he and his friends had frequented during the campaign season. He settled into the booth and stared across the table at his friend. It had been too long. Since that night with the two girls. Before he admitted how much he cared about Jennifer. When he hadn’t sold out.

“Fucking Nixon,” his friend swore, and Josh grinned. Leave it to Andre to put everything in the bluntest format possible.

“What the fuck is ‘the silent majority’ anyway?” Josh asked with a roll of his eyes. “Too fucking scared to speak up for what’s right? Racist a majority of the time?”

Josh was sick to death of Nixon’s campaign strategy—catering to what he termed the “Silent Majority,” a group the Republican candidate insisted comprised the bulk of American society and were sick of the protests in the country. Nixon argued conservatives who were okay with the status quo were the majority in the nation and only radicals demanded change from the government in treatment of women and minorities. It wasn’t true, but a lot of people bought it. Josh just assumed that meant most people were god damned stupid.

No matter how hard he and other activists worked to right wrongs and get real democracy to win out against conservative assholes, they were met with GOP rhetoric that villainized the very people he’d marched with, who’d sat next to him in jail, who burned their draft cards along with him in unheard protests against American presence in Vietnam.

Of course, the New Left had grown more radical, pushed for more change and faster, dropped out, doped up, and raged against Johnson’s administration. The problem was he and the other activists had worked and fought and hoped for real change, and the administration and rest of the nation was dragging its collective feet. Josh’s question was why hadn’t more people sought to right the wrongs he and so many of this friends saw as glaring inequalities that only weakened the state of the nation rather than strengthening it. It was time. It was past time, and he was getting really antsy.

“So, how have you been? Really?” Andre asked. “The last time I saw you, you were hightailing it out of bed with two women in New Haven and coming here to get your girl. Seems like different priorities.”

Josh shook his head and tried to work his mind around his friend’s words. He’d been feeling unsettled for a long while, but the conflict between him and Jennifer had been growing since the protests in August and her trip to Atlantic City to cover the pageant. He’d considered leaving while she was gone, but he couldn’t quite make himself slink away like a coward. He still had work to do in Chicago, and he loved his…whatever she was to him. They’d been living together for months, but he hated labels. She hadn’t pushed, and he’d been grateful for her willingness to let it go.

But this election would change everything. He knew it, and he also knew he was biding his time.

“I don’t know, man. It’s such a bad scene right now. Since Bobby and King and ’Nam and everything, this country’s a bomb.”

“But you’re a good cat, Josh. You’re making things better.”

Josh laughed and smiled ruefully. “Am I? It seems to me I’m getting laid a lot by a doll who works for the man instead of the people.”

“Do you love her?”

“I…” Josh paused and swallowed hard. He did. That wasn’t in question but admitting it was another thing completely. “She’s fab. She is.”

“But?”

“I should be doing more,” he admitted. “I don’t know what, but I keep feeling like I should bug out and work somewhere else. Or dropout all together. Go live with the beautiful people and leave everything behind. Get high and blitzed and commune with nature.”

Andre took a bite of his burger and shrugged. “Sounds like heaven to me, man, but I don’t think you’d be happy that way. You’re going steady, right?”

“I’m not sure—”

“Hutch. Man. You’ve been shacked up with her for months. You’re not sleeping with anyone else. Tune in. You’re together, and you’ve been head over heels for her since college. Wake up,” Andre said, exasperated.

Josh sat silently for several minutes as he processed the information. No one had forced him to face what was happening until now, and he wasn’t sure he liked what he saw. Jen left him the night of his graduation. Maybe he’d never really forgiven her for that. Perhaps that’s why escaping was always in the back of his mind, to punish her for hurting him so much. Or, it was also possible that he really wasn’t comfortable in such a position. He’d always been restless, always been someone who pushed the boundaries, and falling in love with Jennifer, who came from privilege and affluence, didn’t seem like it fit. None of this was fair to her, but that didn’t change how he felt.

“Maybe I am,” he admitted, “but I’m not sure it’s enough.”

“Then be up front with her once you figure it out. You both deserve that.”

“After the election,” Josh breathed. “After Tuesday.”

“By then we’ll know if the world’s ending or not.”

“Right on.”

****

The world ended. Josh sat on the couch in Jen’s apartment as the sun set and the room darkened around him. He’d chosen to watch by himself, unsure how he’d feel when Nixon and Spiro Agnew were declared winners and all the gains over the past eight years would be overturned in a matter of time. Jen was at work, covering local reaction to the election results, and he’d intentionally not watched with his activist friends. Hippies were either remarkably anti-political or flying high, and he needed to be lucid and engaged for this.

Election results rolled in one after another, and none of it was good for the Democrats. Texas went blue, but the West went red. Big time. George Wallace stole the South for the Dixiecrats, who couldn’t reconcile themselves to JFK or LBJ’s Democratic party of Civil Rights but weren’t on board with the GOP either. A hundred years prior, Republicans were the party of Lincoln and “freed” the slaves.

“People are fucking stupid,” Josh spat into the emptiness. “Racist fucks. God bless Texas for sticking it out.”

One by one the states reported, and his hope for the future of his country sunk lower with each call for Nixon. At least there was hope for a pullout in Vietnam. That was big, but would that be enough to make up for what would happen domestically? If Johnson had been able to focus on his Great Society instead of getting caught up in Southeast Asia, things could have been so different.

“Fuck the Cold War. Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

When Nixon got 270 votes, Josh lit up a joint and took a long, hard drag. He stared at the TV, the electoral map, the celebration in California at Nixon’s headquarters, the concession speech by Humphrey. His muscles relaxed, his mind wandered, and he turned off the part of him that cared. He started drinking next, and he was blitzed by the time Jen returned. She looked at him, her face a mask of concern mixed with a hint of fear, and he knew she dreaded what he already knew he’d have to do soon. He couldn’t stay. He just couldn’t. He already couldn’t breathe, and the election wasn’t even official yet.

Jennifer curled up on his lap, and he let her undress him. He couldn’t move. His limbs weighed a million pounds apiece, and he couldn’t feel anything except despair. She kissed him, and he responded, but he didn’t feel anything.

“Josh?”

He heard his name, but she was a million miles away from him. Her voice was barely audible, and her face swam in his vision. He wanted to leave, to getaway, to run. He must have vocalized his desperation because Jen raised her hand so he could see her palm. Four sugar cubes lay there, and he breathed a prayer of thanks as he put one on his tongue.

Josh had tripped before, but none of the other acid he’d taken had given him quite the same effect. The apartment bent and sparkled as the drug spread through his system. Jen’s eyes shone beams of sunlight, and he swore rainbows spilled out of her mouth and ears. He tried to swallow them, his mouth against hers, his fingers wrapped in liquid gold that flowed from her temples and past her shoulders. He was warm and flying and soaring above the earth, and he felt nothing except his skin against hers.

Every nerve ending was on fire, and her fingers against his chest created bright purple sparks that exploded into golden stars. She straddled him and rocked against him, and he idly wondered why. His lap was warm and damp. His mouth swallowed the diamonds on her chest, hard and cutting against his tongue. Jen’s head fell back, and he realized the diamonds were tits. He bit down hard on her nipple, and she screamed. It sounded like a folk song, a call for peace and justice.

She grew louder, and he sang with her. Her name fell from his lips, a litany of what was right with the world and everything that was dreadfully wrong. He needed her, and he had to escape. Tears streamed down his face and they glistened from her eyelashes. He palmed her ass and counted the contractions as she milked his cock. They were fucking, he realized. It felt like he was flying, but instead, he was shoving her onto the floor, bending her in half, and rutting against her.

The floor underneath him shook and exploded into fiery heat. A vice gripped his cock. A melody of praise. Flashing lights. Unicorns flew by his head. His dad walked toward him, out of his wheelchair. His grandfather waved hi, even though he’d died several years ago. Josh wondered if he was going crazy, but he didn’t really care.

Josh sat up, and Jen lay in a heap on the floor. His right hand jacked his dick mindlessly. It was wet and sticky, just like the puddle beneath his girlfriend. That’s what she was, he admitted. It was easier in his altered state, easier to accept the truth that they were together. She was radiant, skin glowing, as she watched his hand get faster and faster.

When she spoke, it was in a foreign language. Urdu, maybe, or ancient Greek. Whatever it was made complete sense to him.

“Jerk it, baby.”

She reached over and took his cock from him, and he realized he was the one talking, not her.

“I don’t know Urdu,” he slurred.

“I do,” she said before swallowing him.

Her cheeks hallowed out, and he fucked her mouth hard. He was crying, and she joined him as he thrust down her throat.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, although he was still inside her. He should have asked if he was hurting her because he hadn’t stopped. He didn’t want to stop. He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to go.

He had to. He had to. He had to. He had to.

His body split in two. Part of him drifted up to the ceiling and danced there on happy feet. The other sank into the floor in a puddle of melted wax. Streaks of cream-colored icing decorated Jen’s face, and he leaned over to lick her cheek clean. It wasn’t sweet enough. Needed more sugar.

They had two more cubes. One on his tongue. One on hers. They stumbled to the bedroom. He flew around the room, his wings flapping, circling and swooping and riding the currents. He landed on the bed. The lights went out. She was on top. She was on his face. He was in her mouth. Waterfalls. Waves. Giggles and jokes and mapping body parts with tongues and fingers and marking each other with bands of dried moisture.

Hours and minutes and seconds and days and decades and centuries passed. No time passed at all, and then a curtain pulled behind his eyes, and he slept.

****

The next morning dawned with a throbbing headache, aching limbs, and a broken heart. He opened his eyes, and he instantly regretted losing control so badly the night before. Their bed was destroyed. The sheets were filthy, striped with evidence of multiple orgasms. The room stunk like sex and piss. His mouth tasted as if something had died inside, and he wanted to murder someone when he saw Jen curled into herself.

Josh hadn’t been in control of himself last night, and he was scared to death he’d hurt her. She didn’t warrant that. She deserved better than him. She should be lavished with only the best. He’d always been less than he wanted for her.

He vowed to do better.

****

On Inauguration Day, he wasn’t doing better. January 20 came and went, and Josh had spiraled into a mess. High every day, he’d fallen into a cycle of depression and spent more days on his friend’s couches than doing anything even remotely productive. He was twenty-five and hated what he’d become. He had a brief moment of clarity on New Year’s Eve when he was convinced 1969 would be a good year, but then Nixon took office.

The new president catered to racist southerners and turned a blind eye to FBI stings targeting the Black Panthers. Riots broke out, more men came home in body bags, and women raged. Jen stayed busy at work, while he tuned out. He avoided his family and Jackson’s. He barely talked to Jen. He was a mess, and he knew it.

A few weeks after the inauguration, Nixon announced a reduction of American troops in Vietnam, and his younger brother called him from Stanford where he was enrolled in his first year of grad school.

“The son of a bitch did it,” his brother said when Josh answered the phone.

Josh blinked rapidly and attempted to ground himself. He was high, as usual, and he found he needed to concentrate inordinately hard to understand what the words his brother spoke meant.

“Did what?” he garbled and slid down the wall to sit on the kitchen floor.

“Nixon. He’s pulling us out of ’Nam. We’re safe.”

“Safe?” he asked. “Safe from what?”

“What’s wrong with you, man? Are you tripping?”

“Not today,” Josh sighed and grinned dopily at the wall. “Maybe tomorrow. Definitely was yesterday.”

Connor grunted in frustration and snarled into the phone, “Have you been paying attention to what’s happening? We’re not going to Vietnam. No more new troops. A pullback of boots on the ground. They’re calling it Vietnamization.”

“Yay, America…” Josh drawled and waved his finger in the air in celebration.

“Come to Cali, man. I’ll help you get straight.”

“Why bother?” Josh asked. “It’s all going to hell anyway.”

“Just come,” his brother insisted. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, but you’re not the big brother I know. You wanted to save the world, not wallow.”

“We lost. As soon as Bobby died, it was over.”

“If you’re not here in four days, I’m coming to get you,” Connor threatened. “Mom and Dad don’t need to know about this, but I’ll tell them if I have to.”

“Don’t tell them,” Josh entreated. “Dad can’t take the stress. I’ll be there.”

“Four days.”

Josh replaced the receiver and looked around the apartment. There were so many good things about his relationship with Jennifer. He’d loved her for a very long time, but he wasn’t where he needed to be—physically or mentally. He wasn’t an undergrad anymore, and he wasn’t doing anything to help the world. He was dragging her down, and the last thing he wanted to do was make life worse for her. Whether or not he liked it, Nixon was the president for the foreseeable future. Josh needed a change of scenery, and his kid brother was a genius. If anyone could help him get back on track, it was Connor.

With a breaking heart, he entered the bedroom, grabbed a rucksack and started packing. He shoved his clothes into the bag but was careful to leave some of his things that Jen loved to wear when they were alone in their apartment. He grabbed a few books—his dog-eared copies of The Catcher in the Rye, Howl, and On the Road—and his toothbrush. He shuffled through a stack of papers and found his draft card, which he shoved in his front pocket. Once he got to Palo Alto, he and Connor could burn them together in celebration. When he had everything he needed, he grabbed a pencil and a notepad and wrote Jen a note.

Dear Jen,

I know you’ve been expecting this for a while, but I didn’t mean to leave while you were at work. I know I have to, though, or I won’t be able to walk away. I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you at Berkeley, but I was too stubborn and terrified to admit it. You’ve always had the same fire as me, even if it’s been directed somewhere else than mine. I’ve lost myself. I’ve got to find the spark again. You deserve that. You’ve always been better than me. You shouldn’t settle for someone broken. Right now, I am. When I’m fixed, I’ll let you know. I love you. Don’t ever doubt that. You’ve been the best part of me for a very long time. I’m so sorry.

Always, Josh

He was crying by the time he finished writing. He’d put this off for so long because he wasn’t strong enough to leave, but Connor’s phone call had woken something in him he hadn’t been able to find for ages. He’d call her in a few months—once he had himself together again. He wouldn’t leave her without any word, the way she had with him. He wondered for a second if he was punishing her because of what she’d done, but leaving her was much more of a penalty for him than it was for her.

He swiped at the note he wrote her, and the tear that had fallen smeared his name. He was already fading in this place. All that was left was to walk out the door.

Just as he turned to go, he noticed a picture of her peeking out from the corner of her desk. Her long hair was down and falling over her shoulders in blonde waves. She wore a white, high-collared lace dress that made her look like an angel. He tucked the image in his wallet and grabbed his bag before slipping through the door and locking it.

He was to the bus station within ten minutes and halfway across the state before she found the note. He was almost to California before she stopped crying.

#joshifer #joshifer fanfiction #fyeah-joshifer #joshiferrecs #the vintage joshifer series #joshifersource #end of love #1960s #jhutchdirectory

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orenonahaichigoda · 4 years

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I had a rough day, and came to a realisation. I will say a bit about my own experience, and then, after having to lay the groundwork of explaining 400 things about Japan because American schools and media think the whole world is the US, Western Europe, and places to blow up, making explaining necessary, will tie it to Ichigo, or at least how I portray him.

I'm Post Dankai Juniors, growing up in Japan. So's Kubo, actually. The boundaries of this Japanese generation are roughly '75 to '85, Yutori, the following generation that's always translated and localised as Millennial, pretty solidly set as beginning at '86. These things are always fuzzy because you can't vivisect living brains and find the part that likes char siu buns and the part that likes jazz fusion. I *majored* in Social Science. You'll have teachers who say "it is absolute that we date people who are similar to us because we're all actually narcists." (It *might* be because they're like our beloved family or community. Narcistic Personality is not universal) But it really just is fuzzy, and that teacher/book author is an idiot. Anyway, Yutori is always translated as Millennial. I don't know the end boundary. Post Dankai Juniors covers almost totally a debated throe for Germanic nations (I know Britain, Germany, and Nederland use the same generations as America, and their languages are Germanic) because of how fuzzy it all is, though.

Anyway, so since coming to the US, my interactions with other Asians, again, how is this defined when China, Mongolia, Japan all border Russia and West Asia includes Jordan and Saudi Arabia, South Asia is India's area, Southeast Asia is Laos, Thailand's area, I mean, find the Arabic kanji. I don't think Thailand even uses soy sauce. What the heck IS Asia, really? (Or "Middle East" when half of that's Africa and the other half shares plate with Europe? )

Anyway, my experience with Asians that are Boomer ages tends to be people who immigrated as adults, who more identity with a generation like "Dankai" or "Sirake." My experiences with Latinos older than me... I've never actually asked if the generational labels are even the same.

The thing about that is that when the name is the same, it means enough cultural traits are shared.

My biggest experience with people who grew up under the term "Boomer" are Black and white.

I've noticed a unifying trait.

If they're something oppressed (Black, gay), their attitude tends to be"it is mandatory to stand up for *my* demograph...but kicking the person behind me on the ladder in the teeth is wholesome, pure, and fun."

Outing me to large groups and saying I "speak Asian" seem to be the most common two. Calling me "Chinese" long after I've cleared this up for them is a close third.

I mean, don't get me wrong--my experience with Italian Americans past GI generation has been that now acquiring the "white" label, just like biphobic/aphobic/transphobic cisgays, they're more often staunch priveledge defenders than cishet people of Anglo descent! And it's just as true for X and Y as it is for Boomer (for the latter, one need only look at NYC destroyer and trump defender Giuliani) I actually don't really identify with my Italian side at all because I was kinda locked out of making any meaningful connection.

But back to my point that even in so-leftist-it's-almost-not-America Bay Area, Boomers are still like this!

The kind of stuff that flows out a X/Y TERF's mouth, or the mouth of an X/Y person with a Confederate flag on his wall, American-raised Boomers say with ease regardless of their alignment! It's banananas.

(Please note that I also just have not met a whole lot of Native Americans, period, nor enough people significantly older than me from any one place in Africa, that was an omission of lacking data, not intended as erasure)

How I tie it to Ichigo--

So Kubo avoids specifying birth years for anyone.

When I see something like this, I generally assume date of publication, as do most people in most fandoms (which of course gets screwy when you have something endlessly rebooted like Superman or Batman or something eternally unchanging like Detective Conan)

Anyway, the first Bleach something published was the comic in '01.

I generally assume it was supposed to be the start of a new school year, as Ichigo doesn't know many of his classmates until at least the first test scores come out. So it's probably April or something.

If Ichigo was 15 then, he'd also be Post Dankai Juniors, just barely. If Ichigo TURNED 15 shortly after, during his adventure, he'd be undebatably Millennial.

Now, there is still something up with Dankai and Sirake. PM Abe is the latter, b. 1954. A lot of his age-peers are behind him. This is the guy who supports remilitarisation and was caught funding a private militarist/fascist high(?) school that teaches that people from countries Japan conquered during its brief phase of trying to beat colonial Europe are less than dogs.

Now, I left there as a teen. Clinton was US president. Scandals still got people kicked out of public office in Japan. I hadn't figured or come out yet. Sure, I got bullied for being mixed, but kids will pick if you like different singers than the "cool" ones. They'll pick based on what's in your lunch. That data is sausage.

I'm not 100% sure what Ichigo would face day-to-day sociopolitically as he grew up/aged. I haven't had living family since'95 there, and friendships don't get deep enough to ever last distance until at least high school. For me, adulthood.

But I've kept/caught up enough (you try keeping up in the South before the internet was more than ten University sites!) that I know he'd face fascists (c'mon, the guy takes on a martial law government to save a new friend--that's anarchist, he just doesn't seem anarchist in his own world. He only fights humans in defence) I'm not sure how he'd feel about the JSDF, but he only fought the sinigami's war out of feeling like it was his responsibility because the adults around him kinda made it so. I super don't see him being for *starting* wars. In a human war, I see him actually being like Sugihara Chiune, a historical figure who died when I was a kid who I majorly admire. He worked at a Japanese embassy in Nazi territory, and when the embassy was evacuated,he continued throwing passports to Jewish people to go to Japan from the train he was departing on,and is hidden from Americans in the same spirit that Martin Luther King is...pulled the teeth out of. (PS, speaking of,go Google Steven Kiyosi Kuromiya)

Also, Ichigo's whole schtick is defending those worse off than him. He's not someone I see defending Yamato Japanese priveledge. Heck, I could see him joining Uchinanchu efforts to get Parliament and the US base to leave them alone. I can easily see him sticking up for a Filipino domestic worker he met thirty seconds ago.

To this end, I think regardless of what he is, he'd have a large rub with Japan's equivalents of Boomers.

Not to mention that Abe supporters tend to be very sexist and queerphobic, which isn't even homegrown but imported from Américanisation. I mean, there were female warriors--assasins, which is what Yoruichi and Soi-Fon are styled after, and go look at some Ukiyoe, like Utagawa Kitamaro. Quite a few artists in the 200-ish years of the Edo period depicted life in the queer districts. I've also had people posit that Noh might've been a welcoming draw for trans people the same way drag was all over the US in the twentieth century and still is in rural areas, where there's less cisgay gatekeeping. But this isn't something I can reasonably research without access to plenty of older and not well known dusty documents, and lots of time, and I live in the US many years now. And do you know how much round trip airfare alone is!? Also, the language changed so much and I can't read anything before Meiji without dropping words. Rukia, Byakuya, Yoruichi all have made for TV old-sounding Japanese like period dramas. Actual 18th Century Japanese would be unintelligible to the unspecialised.

So this stuff isn't really native, but Abe and a lot of people his age support all these -isms.

I super don't see Ichigo being happy about this.

(I also feel like Issin's old enough to remember before these -isms, but that's my own thing. In my project, he was in those districts, but that's me)

At the same time, I'm still writing this through my own lens. Also, not still being there, I just don't have enough data on Yutori in adulthood, or the grown Yutori lens. Honestly, even most other immigrants I meet are older than that. Or older than that and their adorable three year old children. So I have no clue.

In the early 2000s, I got myself from the South to CA and began to reconnect, but began to is the key phrase. I can tell you right now that Abe is as much of a second phase of Nakasone as trump is of Nakasone's buddy Regean. But what shifted when, I can't say. I'm not entirely sure how Koizumi ran the ship, as it were. I know some things, but not enough to say.

But whenever things shifted however, and whichever year Ichigo was born, I just cannot imagine him being any more on board with current events than really anyone in my area not born between 1946-1964 and raised in America.

I feel like he'd probably be too tired or self-effacing to fight for himself, but he'd take on, loud and proud, any bigotry against *others.*

I...also can't really say I'm much different, except my joints are held together by the power of wishes, so I'm more like "get the victim to safety" than "give the attacker plenty of regret." So, I can only do anything in limited ways.

Ichigo is also entirely fuelled by the power of love. Lost his ability to protect and feels like his sinigami friends ditched him? Mondo depressed, however much he wants no one to notice--which most do a great job of ignoring! Everyone in his world turned against him for a guy who has attacked people close to him? Terrified, and murder can now be an answer. (Fullbring Arc)

I was going somewhere with that. I've forgotten, but I'll leave it.

But anyway, I feel like he really only comes close to fighting for himself when others are taken away from him in a way that's also wronging them.

So yeah, I super don't see him happy with current events or Sirake gen.

I'm not sure how much I see him fighting for himself as mixed panromantic grey-ace. I mean, we know he fights people who are about to punch his face in for his looks, but what else can you reasonably do at that point? Get your head bashed in? I'm not sure how much I see him fighting hateful words pointed at him versus resigning himself to "people are the worst." I mean, when he talks about being picked on, he kinda seems resigned, or at least like it's a fact, like shoes being for outside or something.

I guess I tied it to Ichigo a lot better than I thought!

But also, the struggle against people born just after the war is not just you, and not just America. It's a major problem.

And it's likely that Ichigo would agree.

#out of body #musings #baby boomers #generation x #millennials #Japanese generations #Japanese politics #queerphobia #colonialism #moritomo gakuen scandal #sugihara chiune #japanese history #yoruichi shihouin #edo period

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goldstarnation · 5 years

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SEPTEMBER 2019 GOLD STAR MEDIA SCHEDULES & REVIEW

Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of October 7 KST:

A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly total).

A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on their monthly schedule.

Threads do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.

These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.

Reminder: August schedule posts are due by the end of September 7 KST.

Overall Company

In the aftermath of their company concert, Gold Star executives are pleased with the turn out and there’s talk they’re considering taking the family concert overseas in the future to take full advantage of the pull their company name has in places like Southeast Asia and the US. In the meantime, everything is back to normal around the main building, and all Gold Star idols get a three day break for Chuseok unless they’re beholden to other voluntary individual schedules.

Important dates:

September 12-14: Chuseok break (no activities save for specific voluntary individual schedules).

Gold Star Soloist 1

This month marks her eleventh anniversary since her debut, an achievement few in the industry can rival, especially with her kind of success. To celebrate, Gold Star has arranged a schedule VLive on her anniversary which will be advertised as an online fan meeting of sorts. She’ll have mostly free rein over what she does during the live stream as long as management is informed in advance. The following week, she’ll be doing a free public “busking” event performing some of her songs and select covers. It won’t be completely authentic busking, as the time and location will be announced following her anniversary VLive and she’ll be performing on a small raised stage with adequate security.

Important dates:

September 18: Scheduled 11th anniversary VLive.

September 25: 11th anniversary public busking event.

Gold Star Soloist 2

On top of recording for her upcoming album the whole month, her Seoul concerts have finally arrived for the weekend right after Chuseok. Gold Star anticipates a more general public audience than a fandom one, so most of the promotion for it is out of her hands and she’s encouraged to focus on being in her best vocal condition for the concert instead.

Important dates:

September 15: I AM concert at Olympic Hall in Seoul, South Korea.

September 16: I AM concert at Olympic Hall in Seoul, South Korea.

September 21: Performance at K-Crush 2019 Concert at Impact Challenger Hall 1 in Bangkok, Thailand (also performing: 7ROPHY)

Gold Star Soloist 3

The first three weeks of the month are spent finishing off his promotions for “Runaway”, so the short Chuseok break is only a brief reprieve from music shows and the expectation is for him to keep himself in top shape for his tour to continue once promotions wrap. He’ll get only a one day break on the 22nd before he flies out to the first stops of his Europe tour.

Important dates:

September 21: End of music show promotions.

September 24: Self-titled tour concert at Time Out Studio in Lisbon, Portugal.

September 25: Self-titled tour concert at Cool Stage in Madrid, Spain.

September 28: Self-titled tour concert at Santeria Social Club in Milan, Italy.

September 30: Self-titled tour concert at Lucerna Music Bar in Prague, Czech Republic.

Silhouette

The members finish recording their upcoming mini-album this month and begin learning the choreography after they return from their three-day Chuseok break. They’ve also been chosen as the new faces of sportswear brand Mizuno, so they’re scheduled to film their first CF for the brand and will be hosting a fan sign at the end of the month after the CF begins airing nationwide. With Origin’s comeback mysteriously delayed, what had previously been a low-pressure comeback ups the ante and expectations from management to perform well have increased in a way that is unlikely to go unnoticed by the members.

Important dates:

September 8: Mizuno Sports CF filming.

September 29: Mizuno fan sign in Seoul.

Aria

As rehearsals continue for their concerts next month, the members are given the opportunity for solo (or duo) stages as listed below. Members will be given the chance to suggest what stages they would like to do, but the final decisions are made by management, whether that aligns with the member’s choice or not. They’ll be rehearsing those all month on top of several of their latest title tracks and b-sides, and have also booked another mobile game CF to film after their return from their short Chuseok break.

Leader/vocal/rapper & main dancer/lead vocal - I Didn’t Go To School

Main vocal - Domino

Maknae/vocal/rapper - Gashina

Main rapper and lead vocal - All Hands On Deck

Lead dancer and vocal - New Face

Important dates:

September 16: The Rulers mobile game CF filming.

September 28-29: Performance at Super K-Pop Festival Indonesia 2019 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition BSD in Tangerang, Indonesia (also performing: Aria and Decipher).

Origin

A meeting is called on September 9 when the members come in to record in the studio and they’re told that a decision has been made to go back to the drawing board with parts of their album. This means scrapping songs, including ones members may have had a hand in and had been told were confirmed for release, and working on “a better quality album”. It’s a shock considering they’d begun comeback preparation with everything in place at the end of last month and this has never happened before, but management doesn’t take time for questions. There’s bound to be rumors about all of the reasons behind why, but it does in part mean a slightly less heavy workload this month, though they’re still as packed as always. They’re sent right back to the studio to record something that was already planned and has now been moved up, which is a series of unit track collaborations with Western artists for the soundtrack of Origin World. They won’t meet or directly record with any of their collaboration partners.

Vocal 1, lead vocal/lead dancer, maknae/main vocal/lead dancer - Dream Glow ft. Charli XCX

Main dancer/lead rapper, vocal 2 - A Brand New Day ft. Zara Larsson

Main rapper, lead rapper - All Night ft. Juice WRLD

Important dates:

September 11: Photo shoot for Anan Magazine October issue.

September 15: Origin 2020 Season’s Greetings photo shoot.

September 17: Lights/Boy With Luv (Japanese Ver) hand shake event in Tokyo, Japan.

September 18: Lights/Boy With Luv (Japanese Ver.) hand shake event in Osaka, Japan.

September 24: Lotte Duty Free CF filming.

September 26: UNICEF Love Myself Global Campaign video filming.

Impulse

They kick off their world tour at the beginning of the month with their Seoul concerts and follow up with a KCon Thailand performance as headliners later in the month. That all means a lot of rehearsals and long night practices together as group save for the brief three-day Chuseok break. From he beginning of the month, members are also in the studio recording for another new Japanese album release before the end of the year, which means members are expected to be brushing up on their Japanese too.

Important dates:

September 5: End of music show promotions.

September 7: Keep Spinning 2019 World Tour concert at KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea.

September 8: Keep Spinnign 2019 World Tour concert at KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea.

September 28: Performance at KCon Thailand at Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.

Fuse

The end of one comeback promotion period doesn’t mean a break for Fuse. As soon as the month starts, they hit the ground running on concept meetings and recording for songs off of their next mini-album, which will drop before the end of the year. The concept seems to be much more summery than Zimzalabim despite its slated late fall release date, which is sure to raise questions as to what Gold Star is thinking and whether they may have prioritized Femme Fatale having a successful comeback at the detriment of Fuse, but management claims it’d all part of Fuse’s “experimental” concept design.

Important dates:

September 11: Release of Sappy Japanese album.

September 28-29: Performance at Super K-Pop Festival Indonesia 2019 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition BSD in Tangerang, Indonesia (also performing: Aria and Decipher).

Element

Element are saved another month from Gold Star’s love of VLives to connect with fans, although this is a double-edged sword as won’t go unnoticed by the fan base, who wanted more activities for the group in addition to the fan outreach versus instead of. In addition to concerts in India, making them the first group from Gold Star to perform in the country, and a festival in Germany, Element have been picked for their first group brand ambassador deal since they came onto the scene. It’s a deal with a Japanese footwear brand, but they’ve been chosen as Southeast Asia regional ambassadors instead of serving as ambassadors within their own country, a reminder of their struggle for popularity domestically.

Important dates:

September 15: ASICS CF filming.

September 20: 4lement tour concert at Talkatora Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, India.

September 22: 4lement tour concert at Shilpgram North East Zone Cultural Centre in Guwahati, India.

September 28: Performance at Finger Heart Festival in Mannheim, Germany (also performing: Alien).

Femme Fatale

The members are performing in their first major concerts since their debut this month as their Japan arena tour kicks off in Osaka (please see August’s schedule for their assigned solo stages). The attention their latest comeback has gotten internationally is particularly noticeable for them this month, as they’ve been booked for photo shoots in both a Chinese and Japanese magazine and have signed a deal as the new (and first) regional brand ambassadors for Shopee in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

Important dates:

September 8: Photo shoot for Grazia China October issue.

September 16: Photo shoot for Glitter Magazine Japan October issue + individual interviews.

September 17: Femme Fatale Arena Tour at Osaka-Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan.

September 18: Femme Fatale Arena Tour at Osaka-Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan.

September 22: Shopee CF filming.

#fmdschedule #queued post

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