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rainbowsky · 3 years

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Did DLS Out DD During a DDU Recording and Make Him Cry?

This has been making the rounds on Twitter and YouTube and even Tumblr, for a while now. Fancam footage of DLS making a boyfriend joke and then leaning in to a supposedly upset DD and trying to smooth things over.

This whole thing is based on fancam footage taken during the recording of the DDU 20190825 episode. In this episode dating was being discussed using four beautiful young women, DD and QF along with two handsome young guests as a backdrop.

The subtitles of the fan cam present a scenario where DLS supposedly refers to DD as ‘not needing a girlfriend because he already has a boyfriend’ and then leaning into a supposedly emotional DD and apologizing, trying to calm him down; saying viewers won’t understand what was said.

Let’s take a look at the video:

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youtube

The full fan cam footage that this out of context clip was taken from can be found here.

If you watch the episode and the complete fan cam footage, you’ll see that this happened during the segment where they were being asked to comment on various dating scenarios. An announcer would present each scenario in a multiple choice format, asking the women to choose between four options based on the type of guy they’d most like to date. For example:

How would you like the boy you like to invite you for a meal on the weekend?

A] Save your weekend for me. Do not say no.

B] You had breakfast at 7:50 this morning and lunch at 12:30. It’s already 7pm now. You have to eat meals on time. Why don’t I take you out for dinner?

C] I tried to explain my thoughts when I look at you, but I failed. So do you have time for dinner with me this weekend? Let’s talk about it.

D] Get out. Dinner.

My opinion

We should always, always be suspicious of anything that is presented without context. 99.9% of the time, when someone removes context they are doing so to mislead audiences. This clip is a perfect example of that. The video creator appears to have removed important context in order to make the clip better fit the narrative they’re trying to sell.

In this segment of the episode, the hosts and guests were seen commenting on the options as they were being read out. The comments DLS is making appear to be in response to something the announcer has said. I don’t think the comments have anything whatsoever do to with DD.

I also don’t think DD looks even remotely upset. Certainly not near tears. Some fans seem over-eager to claim DD is crying. We’ve all seen DD cry, but it’s exceptionally rare and only happens in very personal situations. This doesn’t qualify. It wouldn’t qualify even if everything the video creator claimed was true. DD would be more likely to get angry than cry in such a situation. He isn’t doing either of these things.

Whoever made this video simply doesn’t ‘get’ DD’s personality at all. The people who buy this are similarly unfamiliar with him.

I invite everyone to use your own eyes and your own judgment. Ignore what’s being claimed, ignore the framing you’ve been given of the scenario by me or the video creator, and instead just watch the clip. Does that look like a man on the verge of tears to you?

Second and third opinions

I asked the indispensable @potteresque-ire and @knivescharade what they thought of the clip. I didn’t tell them anything about my opinion, but simply sent the clip and asked their thoughts - are the subtitles correct, what do you think of the lip reading, etc.

@knivescharade

wow, for this person to put this analysis in i would say that lip reading is a very difficult skill. and to try and lip read someone like DLS, who speaks like a bullet train and doesn't really enunciate SUPER well (unlike Han-ge, for example) ... i would say the interpretation is only very vaguely possible at best.

i know both the cand int fandom have a major something for how WYB keeps swallowing around XZ, but honestly. WYB tends to get throat issues. i think swallowing has become one of his habits at this point. so... in conclusion... there are already lots of major, amazing, and irrefutable candies in the fandom already, let's not bother with such iffy ones :D

he is indeed saying that "this man has a boyfriend", but i cant quite remember which part of the show that was in. i watched that episode, it was something to do with love and having 4 guys paired with 4 girls or something like that, and listening to 'types of guys responses to etc etc' so DLS wasnt saying that WYB has a boyfriend - he was saying that 'this man', the one whose voice was playing in the audio, has a boyfriend.

That tracks with my interpretation of what was happening.

@potteresque-ire

Unless people have learned the dialect, Mandarin speakers cannot understand Cantonese, and vice versa. This is why I don't support or wash auditory candies, especially if it involves someone from Northern China (such as DLS, who is a Beijing native). Their local accents make their Mandarin even more difficult to understand.

This dialect restriction is actually not specific to a me, or other Hong Kongers. Someone whose family is entirely from Northern China would be equally prone to making mistakes if they're asked to lip read southern Chinese.

Lip reading also removes tonal consideration, which makes everything that much more uncertain. Have you heard of the Mr Shi Eats the Lion story? This is why, even if I hear some similarities, I'd hesitate to say X has to be saying ABC. Context is important.

Cantonese speakers are especially picky about tone. Mandarin have 4. We have 6 or 9, depending on who you ask. So... I may be more picky than I should be that way too. And I don't want to spoil anyone's fun 😊

The translation was correct in the sense that it was faithful to the Chinese words in the clip I saw, which replicated what DLS said accurately. But the video itself was from a fancam. Where that fancam happened (and got cut off) was at Q3 at the Q & A segment, starting ~9:34 of the official YouTube clip.

DLS said what he said half way through the voiceover of Option A (very precisely, right after the words "I'm the only one"). Technically speaking, therefore, he wasn't talking about DD.

However, it was also a little strange why DLS said what he said. If you watch that segment, all options have a certain personality attached to them. C was very talkative / pretentious. D was connected to DD because it was blunt and direct. A was the so called "overbearing CEO" personality... which is common in het romance dramas but isn't one that has been connected to the gay stereotype. And so, DLS's timing of saying that ... is curious.

Dd did look a little ... I wouldn't say upset, but tense after DLS said that. Maybe it's because that comment kinda came out of nowhere (because of its curious timing), and so it would be read as hinting at something. But that comment is harmless, wording wise.

Alternate theory

I’ve seen some talk from fans about a different theory for why DLS said what he said. Fans say the announcer for option A was Bian Jiang, the actor who did the voice of LWJ in The Untamed. They say that DLS was making a joke about LWJ not needing a boyfriend because he already has one. That actually makes a lot of sense to me as well, and if that’s really Bian Jiang, then I’d say that’s the most likely explanation for this entire thing.

Conclusion

It’s my firm opinion that DLS was not talking about DD having a boyfriend, nor was DD ‘near tears’ in this clip. Whatever DLS said to DD after that, it almost certainly wouldn’t have been ‘words of comfort to placate an upset DD’.

The Bian Jiang theory fits best, but we don’t need to know why DLS said what he said to be able to conclude he wasn’t talking about DD.

Cute DD candy from this episode

If anyone wants a better candy from this episode, look no further than when he emerges from “door #2″, chosen by one of the women as someone she’d like to date based on the food he’d picked out, and immediately launches into “I want to take a man back to my place and hide him.” A LWJ reference (which DLS and Wang Han clarify with him because they appear baffled by what he just said), but still a tactful, perfect rejection of this woman he’s being paired with. 😅

#bjyx #yizhan #ddu #ttxs #bxg fact checking #ggdd entertainment circle #ggdd signs #Youtube

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potteresque-ire · 3 years

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Hiya! I've only just started watching Chinese dramas and the drama behind the drama is already blowing my Western mind. Thanks for your meta btw! I was thinking about what you said about Chinese government not explicitly banning anything, rather people had BETTER catch on to what they mean 😨 Is it possible that delaying OOL is their way of warning future productions to think twice before involving Xiao Zhan, because they want to undermine his popularity? As he is 'too entertaining' 💀

Hiya Anon!! The decision to air a c-drama lies in both the government and the platforms. Once the drama gets the distribution permit from the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), it's up to the platforms to schedule the airing date.

The distribution permit for OOL was issued in May 2020, and so the government cleared it for airing a while ago. And so, it is the platforms that are holding the airing date back.

Multiple considerations go into the decision of when to air any drama. Here are some financial considerations I can think of: are there fierce competitors in the same period? It's usual for multiple c-dramas to begin airing on similar dates. The week between 2019/06/23 and 2019/06/30, for example, 9 series began airing—including The Untamed on 2019/06/27. And on that very same date, another prominent, very well-made drama also began its airing—The Longest Day in Chang'An 長安十二時辰).

And then, has a popular drama of a similar genre been aired right before? If so, it may be wise to push back the airing date a little. Is it exam period or is it summer, with students being on vacation and having more free time to watch TV, chase after their favourite idols and buy merchandises? That’s the golden season for idol dramas! Are the production studios, platforms under pressure to produce a solid profit report to their investors? Better move a series with very bankable stars then ...

Afterwards, there are, of course, political considerations. For those who may be worried about c-ent’s current upheaval, I’d like to emphasise this: the government swooping in and say, or hint, that this and that popular thing displeases its Socialist sensibilities isn’t new. Dangai isn’t the first genre to be soft-banned, for example; before that, there was the ... Imperial Harem infighting genre 宮鬥劇 (sorry for the silly translation, I don’t know what’s the proper name for it!), which was extremely popular at the time of the ban with recent hits such as The Legend of Zhen Huan 後宮甄嬛傳 and Story of Yanxi Palace 延禧攻略. There was the time travel genre 穿越劇 (For example, Scarlet Heart 步步驚心). The state criticism against “sissy” 娘炮 idols also made its former round in 2018.

And so, while there may not have been precedences where the government targets c-ent’s obsession with “traffic” 流量—a relatively new term that describes the heavy flow of social media posts, of buzz and cash surrounding a beloved something or someone, c-ent has a long history of, and ample experiences with, dealing with their government’s displeasure at something that its audience loves, that is financially lucrative for the industry and most importantly, along that line, something the industry wishes to keep.

The last point may be worth emphasising: the production studios, the platforms (streaming, social media etc), the marketing companies, the yxh, the companies who employ celebrities as their spokespeople etc etc, all of them desperately want to keep stars like Gg and Dd around. This is especially true with c-ent being in its “bitter cold winter” financially since 2018, with the tightening censorship that means hit dramas, and "top traffic” 頂流 stars, are increasingly more difficult to make or come by. “Top traffic” stars, in particular, are very attractive to the industry because their fans are (far) more willing to spend money, generate the needed buzz on social media to bring in more “passer-by” audience and in turn, more revenue, and more investment, and more endorsements and sponsorships (see: the number of Dd commercials in SDOC4).

Therefore, as fans and audience, I think it’s safe to assume this: at least on the front of wishing to protect Gg and Dd’s star status, to protect potentially popular dramas and genres such as OOL, these financial interests stand with us. Does this “saving” go against what is safe for these companies? One can say so. It would be safer for the platforms, for example, to air ... um, say, The Best Speeches by President Xi in place of dramas like OOL. The act would likely please the government very much; signal, perhaps, that the platforms have caught on its ultimate dream, with Xi being the One Idol of China. But this decision would also go against the very nature of these companies as for-profit entities, these Capitalist Existence that are traded in stock markets and are driven to make as much money and as quickly as they can.

What, then, is the easiest way to protect traffic stars like Gg and Dd, like Yang Zi 楊紫, the lead actress of OOL who is also very popular and who, reportedly, also has her own rather ... rambunctious corner of fandom? What’s the easiest way to “save” a potentially popular drama like OOL? Saying what is *the* easiest way may be difficult, but I believe I can name one easy way: to simply keep these popular people, these (potentially) popular things out of attention for a while, especially with October 1st (Communist China’s birthday) drawing near and in 2021, the year of the Chinese Communist Party’s Centennial.

After all, regulations from the Chinese government tend to come in bursts—axes falling left, right and centre for a while and in quick succession, followed by an extended period of silence (and neglect). The wait, therefore, doesn’t have to be long at all. As short as after a few month’s time, certain parts of c-ent may return to what it was like before and these c-ent companies, having had so much experience in working around situations like this, would know when that time comes, when the coast is clear.

Meanwhile, as fans, we wait. Being in i-fandom means our words and actions have relatively little effect, but if we were in China, our best action would, too, likely be similar to the platforms that delay the airing of OOL, except we cross out the the word “popular” and replace it with “beloved”: we keep our beloved people, our beloved things out of attention. We refrain from going around and complaining, no matter how much we wish to watch the show. We refrain from starting fights. We stay out of hot searches. The Chinese government is bureaucratic and corruption is rampant, which means often times, the higher-ups in charge of dropping the axes have little knowledge about who or what their axes are supposed to fall on, and little care if they get it wrong. In such circumstances, the key to survival is to not stick one’s head out; to make sure we don’t offer our neck, and more importantly, our favourite stars’ neck, for the axes to fall on.

It may be difficult sometimes. We’ll hear hisses, from antis, from doubters, from those who simply aren’t familiar with the situation, that will tempt us to put ourselves and our favourite stars out in the open where the axes are raining. Patience and independent thinking are important in times like this, qualities that allows us to stop, excuse ourselves from the virtual crowd and think ~ wait, is what is being said true?

The government’s attack on “traffic”, for example, together with the soft-ban on Dangai, have led to soft hisses that Gg and Dd are the targets.

I invite everyone to step back and think a little—are they?

Here’s one small, but important point that may be lost in translation (and lost, too, even in some Chinese discussions where netizens have scrolled through their feeds too quickly): in the state opinion pieces, the term used against “traffic” stars has consistently been “唯流量”, with 流量 = traffic, and 唯 = only. The presence of the character 唯 is crucial: 唯流量 are not simply “traffic”, or popular stars; they are stars with only traffic, with nothing but traffic. No acting skills, no singing or dancing skills, no other demonstrated capabilities beyond getting their fans to vote and comment and buy things for them.

Are Gg and Dd 唯流量?

Here’s Gg:

youtube

(For those who may not know: A Dream Like A Dream 如夢之夢 is not just a Chinese language play. A Chinese adjective that has been used to describe it is 殿堂級 ~ “palace hall grade”, ie, it’s a royalty. Trivia: the version in China ends with a cappella with Patient #5 singing about himself, which means Patient #5 can ruin the finale of the 8 hour show if he fails to sing well, and beautifully.)

And here’s Dd:

youtube

I think I can rest my case. My fellow turtles, what do you think?

Such rumours—that so and so, this and that are the alleged targets—are currently running rampant on Chinese social media, with almost every noteworthy celebrity and media projects etc being named by a few who dislike them. However—or rather, ironically, one may say?—because everyone and everything under the sun has been named, the net effect is not that different from if nothing has been named at all.

If a similar rumour, if more of such rumours creep onto the shores of i-fandom, therefore, please do not be afraid and remember—these speculations, these noises will most likely fade into obscurity unless the populous Gg+Dd fandom amplify it with their voices, even if theses voices are words of defence.

Silence can be a defence. Silence can be the best defence.

For the time being, with the greater sociopolitical environment being what it is, with “Capital” being reportedly targeted by the state (previously discussed here), platforms and TV stations that are part of Capital may be extra careful and temporarily keep all traffic stars out of their productions, out of sight.

But I remind myself this ~ this isn’t about Gg and Dd. This probably isn’t about 99.9% of the stars who may be temporarily kept out of these productions in the coming weeks, some of whom may have starred in Dangai. As a corollary, I find it important to remind myself that too, to think twice before wondering aloud who may be the targets, to make sure I do not, even accidentally, put any non Gg Dd star and their fans under the axes—not because my words can influence the Chinese government, but rather, because of a simple, almost cliché reason: Do not do unto others what you do not want others do unto you.

After all, one step outside fandom, people cannot tell one idol from another, cannot tell one drama from another, cannot tell cpfs from solos ...

As fans of c-ent, we’re in this together. ❤️💛💚

#pie metas

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fidgeting · 4 years

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thoughts on my own relationship to fanfic writing, b/c there was some talk about it on the tl (plus many many posts in recent weeks/months):

i went through a period a few years ago when i was trying to convince myself that what was necessary to pursue my original writing “seriously” was to quit fandom and stop writing fic, etc etc, because i was conceptualizing it like a sinkhole for my attention or writing energy. taking that step back was useful for me in some senses, mostly in terms of gaining perspective wrt stupid and stressful fandom infighting and making me reassess what i actually wanted to get out of being involved in online fan communities, but it was quite lonely--for better or for worse, i grew up a terminally online rural queer teenager in an evangelical christian mileu, and online fan culture was really formative to the person i grew into as an adult. it’s a type of social interaction that isn’t easily replaceable, even as i have a very different irl environment now.

so, in practice, what “backing off of fandom in the name of my Art” led to was a fallow period in my writing life. think i was so fixated on the dichotomy between my fic writing as something inherently silly that i needed to grow out of and that had no bearing on the “real” writing i wanted to make, which was going to Say Something About The World, that it became really hard to actually do that “real” writing because it felt joyless and bogged down in expectation vis a vis quality and Seriousness. what ended up getting me back into writing after a year or so of not producing much of anything worth talking about was rediscovering a sense of joy about writing through getting back into fanfic, because it was something that i could do as part of a community that felt playful--i wasn’t overthinking things to death or berating myself for how my work was out of step with what publishers want to see, etc, because it was irrelevant. the only point was to make something for myself--which you can do with original writing, of course, but i needed that encouragement and sense of group interest that comes from sharing work to a limited-but-enthusiastic ready-made audience, which is one of the things fanfic has going for it.

it’s been a few years since then and my relationship to writing in general has changed A Lot, but losing my sense of shame about fic writing being a hobby that i enjoy for its own sake did a lot of good for my relationship to my writing in general. taking on self-indulgent projects that exist outside of publishing marketability has done a lot for helping me get a sense of what kinds of narratives and unexplored corners of existing works i’m drawn to, in a way that i can then take and apply to my original writing. that could definitely have happened even if i never came back to writing fic, but i think would’ve been slower. i’ve stopped writing original work with the mentality of trying to appeal to a nonexistent subset of the publishing market, and instead been following desire lines to figure out what i, personally, want to be reading that doesn’t yet exist, rather than trying to figure out how to pivot my own personal history into thinly-veiled autobiographical queer memoir that could get some minor success as a cancon title or whatever. is writing novels without consideration for what editors want to see in slushpiles a good decision? probably not, but i’m actually, like, writing them now instead of just feeling guilty for not writing them, which is better than nothing. and i do find writing fanfic really fun and joyful, and cultivating a joyful approach to fic writing--as something done purely for pleasure with no expectation of material gain or name recognition etc--really helped me figure out how to translate that mentality to my original work.

so anyway. corny careerist acafans who claim that fanfic is inherently radical and artistically valuable are embarrassing, but i’ve also stopped giving a shit about the opinions of people who think it’s cringe to write fanfic as a 25 year old or whatever, largely because it’s truly just a hobby i do for fun and i don’t think i owe anyone an apology for that. that being said, i think it does enrich my relationship to my original work, which it should be noted is also just a hobby, as i have no desire to be a writer full-time (though i would like to pursue publication at some point.) at the same time, i can’t subsist on a diet of fic alone--i’ve read a lot of fic in my time that’s stuck with me and impacted me artistically/emotionally, but i have a hard time maintaining my interest in writing in general unless i’m consuming other types of fiction and poetry as much if not more than i am ~transformative work~, and i always experience the cringe emotion when people who feel insecure about their writing/reading patterns respond to that feeling with wild takes about the lack of value of genres of published fiction they patently don’t read. kids can we lighten up a little...

tl;dr i think writing stuff for fun in the context of an online fan community can be an end goal itself if you are indeed having fun with it and there isn’t anything inherently embarrassing about it; personally speaking my orig work and fic work have interacted in generative ways but are also just different activities that serve different purposes for me; the two positions of “fanfic is actually the most amazing real and true form of art because it’s METATEXTUAL and QUEER and POPULIST etc etc unlike stupid ‘BOOKS’” and “no one has ever written fanfic for any reason than to jack off about cartoon characters” are both dumb asf and it really is not that serious

that being said i do also just like to read and write weird p*rn in an environment where writing and consuming weird gay p*rn is socially normalized. i’m only HUMAN

#.txt

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tonyglowheart · 5 years

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@imaginaryelle replied to your post:*me sipping tea* (x)

I would really enjoy seeing more of your thoughts on this, if you ever want to share them.

:’) a lot of my thoughts are salty rants and I’m TGCF on main right now so uhhh not at the moment but if you wanna hmu on like a chat thing of some sort I probably will eventually rant about my dislike of The MXTX Antis and the Problematic Culture people and the purity culture wank :’)

actually you know what, since I’m a parody of myself and I’m like always mood of "and another thing,” I’m just going to. go for it ig

so my biggest thing, is with the MXTX antis/MDZS wank/MXTX wank. is like....god it FRUSTRATES me so fckn much lmfao in so many ways and on so many levels. like listen. I’m not saying there isn’t stuff to critique in MDZS. But there’s people who are first off: critiquing the writing quality, when I’m like “there’s like a 90% chance you’re reading the EN translation, and probably from ExR, and honestly I know it’s not fandom etiquette to critique fan content bc we’re all doing this for free out of passion, BUT I do, in fact, have some major issues with ExR’s translation quality, and also I lowkey feel like they have a strong traditional yaoi bias and sometimes it leaks through in how they handle certain things.” Big mood of this twitter thread about how when you’re reading in TL you can’t be criticizing the writing bc you’re already reading it filtered and like. you gotta consider things like the TL’s own personal biases or takes, etc. Which I feel like some people don’t in their critique, or at least they don’t take the time to acknowledge it and instead start spinning off into more and more impassioned reactions to perceived slights or faults.

The other thing is like. I admit when I first read MDZS - which I did while simultaneously watching bc I was kind of using CQL as a vehicle to get into MDZS, I had the HARDEST time trying to read ExR’s translation when I was going into it cold many many many moods ago rip - I was also squicked out by the explicit scenes shown. It did remind me a lot of traditional yaoi tropes, and I wasn’t into it. HOWEVER I was also a psych major, and I want to point out that the T/N’s do read to me as having a strong yaoi bias, and also before ExR redid their site they had large “SERVING YAOI AND BL” banners on EVERY page lol. And I think that also primes people to see things a certain way. (I just. am :/ about ExR also bc like... their whole vibe as a “yaoi scanlator” and also I. can’t be sure the TL wasn’t 17 when they were tl’ing it lmfao,, and they did the whole rant - which fine they apologized for, but I think sort of reflects on a general attitude still w/ the team - about how some other TL had bad quality or something, but their existing TL has a lot of clunky English phrasing and actually a lot of editing issues, too, I was creating myself a back-up copy from their site and like google docs was already catching a bunch of typos and tense issues and such :’) and that’s beyond clunky EN translation phrasing. I just am like. they have a patreon lol, so I can’t say ExR is doing it wholly not-for-profit/dollars, and also like... it’s not like they’re licensed? I get that within scanlation circles, there’s an etiquette of “first come first serve,” but with translation, I think fans are only served with more translations? but I also care about the original work lol, I mean I get the vanity of “I want MINE to be the AUTHORITATIVE tl” bc I feel that mood too, but also I’m like. fam you didn’t bid for a license lmao.)

But yeah like. My petty gripes with ExR aside lmfao, I think when you look at WangXian, the whole “it’s yaoi tropes” gets really strawman. Like from a Watsonian perspective, I mean like... both WWX and LWJ really ARE useless virgins, lol, WWX’s first kiss was stolen by LWJ and his whole idea of sex comes from porn; LWJ is GusuLan and like. yeah. Who is teaching them about lube? certainly not porn. (but this also gets into the whole. like people saying explicit material is “problematic” because it doesn’t show “realistic” sex and I’m like. fam it’s smut, not a sex manual.) And like... they’re both kinky and WWX has a pregnancy kink, and like... good for them I guess?

From a more Doylist perspective..... I think for me, I’m like. well why not? gay media doesn’t have to be uwu to be “Valid,” and like, the people who start attacking mxtx personally because of the way she chose to write WangXian, or saying she’s homophobic because of WangXian or she doesn’t have the range... I already Know they didn’t read TGCF or SV lol. (and yeah SV is more “problematic” but I also think it’s VERY genre aware and both satirizes and also plays with and subverts some of the typical genre “problematic” things. not everything, but like. again the whole idea that non-mainstream media needs to be held to a higher standard to not be cancelled? I don’t hold by that). [But more on the Doylist thing: it’s dumb to me that people react like it’s a moral failing of non-straight works if they don’t fit EXACTLY their personal idea of what a thing should be. And this comes up EVERY time there’s some new thing. hell it’s not even just lgbt-related stuff; Hamilton, Crazy Rich Asians, etc all had nitpicking. Which again, isn’t invalid! but also like. :/ because we DON’T have enough representation right now to pick, and my take is always: the solution is to get to the point where we can pick and choose and can afford to have bad media just like the straights/whites do :’)]

The thing about WWX and LWJ is neither of them, as they’re written in canon, fit within “traditional yaoi” seme/uke stereotypes. The kiss I see people rail against as “dubcon” and also their sex scenes but I’m like. yeah I think it’s fine to say it’s not your cup of tea but to say that that makes them traditional yaoi rapey tropes I’m like. Fam that’s not it lol. LWJ is shown as being SO incredibly responsive and attentive to WWX’s wishes and desires. I mean that’s examples of his passion exploding out, but we consistently see LWJ being respectful of WWX’s wishes and autonomy even when it like. fucks him/them over :’) like when WWX was so hell-bent on hurtling down the mo’dao route :’)

plus also WWX literally fantasizes about them retiring as farmers and he’s the one out working the fields and LWJ is staying at home weaving lol, like c’mon, ya wanna talk gender roles, let’s talk about this.

the other thing is the whole mxtx anti stuff about “she’s homophobic” and “she’s a filthy fujo” and I think there’s issues that people aren’t considering, which I don’t know as much about but I feel like it informs my consideration of mxtx - such as like... not everyone’s internet is as wide open as, like, the West. I don’t know so much about Chinese censorship other than it exists, but I’m like. I think this would affect people’s access to resources which would inform them about how things work/where people are with LGBT thought? It reminds me of when young tumblr kids trash talk older queer people for using terms they see as “problematic” now, and I’m like “you really gotta pause a moment of (1) have some empathy (2) consider the person’s individual personal and cultural context.” MDZS wasn’t made for a Western audience in mind lol, it’s not going to reflect Western values! And China has a different history with its LGBT progression and it’s m/m media, which I don’t know enough about to comment specifically, but I think it’s incredibly disingenuous to judge it based on Western standards. A lot of people probably don’t realize they are! in that it doesn’t even occur to them, which is why they feel so free with their judgment! But also I’m like. lowkey THAT’s a problem for me bc of like. cultural imperialism lmfao. and also reflective of EN-language imperialism, when people are judging EN tl’s they’re seeing on face value without realizing or considering that they’re...reading... a translation... and that translations are NOT in fact direct one-for-one and that there’s a LOT of considerations that go into both translating and reading a translation of a work.

I think the points antis pull up against MXTX is like... stuff she’s said before in interviews - and I don’t know from when, but I imagine years ago at this point - where she was asked about shipping the other characters in MDZS, and she said something I think about how to her, she wants to write in a way that “preserves realism” or maybe she believes in (I only read a TL of it, so I hold the exact phrasing with a grain of salt), and for her, not everyone is gay so she doesn’t write all of her named characters gay. and I’m like. whatever that’s her prerogative as the author. And I think there’s also something that I don’t know if it’s an official “rules”/”guidelines” she wrote bc again I’ve only seen secondhand/thirdhand sources, but it’s something mxtx-antis also quote, where she said to not break up the main couples and also don’t “reverse” them. but again when we’re getting into the shou/gong dynamics, that’s where I don’t feel comfortable commenting because I don’t know enough about the sociopolitical implications of these terms and how they interact within that fandom/community subset. But I do think people need to be taking the stuff they read - ESPECIALLY if they’re only reading it in EN - with a grain of salt. or like a big ol pinch of it.

edit: I know more about this now lmao and I know exactly which question people use piecemeal of vilify her. Here’s a recent-ish translation someone did. Read it through - the WHOLE thing, and think about the wider context.

But also in general I just don’t think anyone is valid when we start getting into ad hominems lol. Especially when I feel like they’re not really taking a moment to consider what wider contexts and influences might be at play and instead are playing Tumblr telephone with outrage and virtue signalling

sidebar: I also fucking HATE CQL purists lmfao. I don’t feel like I’ve seen or encountered anyone saying CQL fans are less valid than novel fans except in the sense of CQL fans getting defensive about their dislike of the novel - which, whatever, people have opinions - or decision not to read the novel and saying anyone saying they HAVE to read the novel is gatekeeping - which I hold to less but mostly bc I think it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of fan language, some of us say you HAVE to read it not in a neckbeard way but in a I’m so desperately passionate and I want more people to know about this way, kind of like how the “I hate you” in fan language GENERALLY means “I love it so much and I can’t stand it”? - but I HAVE seen people say the novel “ruined” wangxian, or CQL people who seem to be like... purity-wanking, like idk if you were around but god after Infinity War and the number. of fckn ironstranges. posting in the tags. about “love how healthy our ship is” and I’m like. this is still anti culture/purity wank but the other side of the coin 8). I encounter sometimes this lowkey attitude of CQL (or other adaptations) “redeeming” MDZS from the author, and I’m like. y’all are wack lmfao. There’s people wiht MDZS or even TGCF main, and they hate mxtx? and they say shit like “mdzs was only good on accident”? and I’m like. can you just leave lmfao. if you hate her then why are you here. (bc they’ve mental gymnastics this into a virtue ethics thing about “o the work is good and therefore morally fine but the parts I don’t like are because mxtx is morally bad and unworthy and tainted it, and CQL with its Purity has Redeemed it” but I’m like. this is because of censorship lmao. The team did a FANTASTIC job working the character dynamics and story, but like it also is directly because of censorship.)

like I... have more thoughts than this lmfao bc ofc I do, but anyway, here’s... some of them lol

#imaginaryelle #replies #living la vida salty #*

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ali-oh · 6 years

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Subtext in Guardian: An Analysis

What is Guardian?

What is subtext?

There are subtext in Guardian which is universal and easily understood, but what I would like to explore are the subtext meaningful to Chinese culture and context.

(Caveat: As I am not (by any means) a scholar on Chinese culture, I may make mistakes from time to time. If so, I welcome concrit. Note, I am not saying that these subtext/tropes are limited to Chinese culture.)

I will not be mentioning certain things, such as Shen Wei taking care of Zhao Yunlan while he is sick etc, because these seem to be pretty universal.

The Setting

Firstly, it is important to understand the setting of this entire scene. It is set in Zhao Yunlan’s home. In Chinese culture, the home is a space largely reserved for people who are considered close family members. Even if friends (or distant relatives) are invited to visit, there are also certain boundaries and formalities to be observed.

Therefore, it is also interesting to note that, at this point in the show, Shen Wei is only an intriguing acquaintance to Yunlan, and a neighbor who recently moved in.

In light of this context, I am going to discuss the following.

1. Staying The Night (without an invite)

The boundaries between friends in the home are as follows: if you brought a buddy to his doorstep, that’s basic courtesy in helping a friend. If you are thoughtful, you might make sure that they are in bed (which is great material for some h/c fic). In line with friendly boundaries, you would leave soon after.

However, Shen Wei stayed the whole night.

(Yunlan is also incredulous and skeptical about this, as he asks if Shen Wei watched over him the whole night.)

As mentioned earlier, friends who enter a home have certain boundaries and formalities to observe. Staying over is not something as simple as crashing on a friend’s sofa. In Chinese culture, you would only stay over at a person’s place if you consider them to be as close as family. And you would only watch over people who you consider to be family.

The act of staying and watching over Yunlan for the whole night, shows us that Shen Wei views himself being as close as a member of Yunlan’s family.

2. Organizing Zhao Yunlan’s Apartment

During his stay, Shen Wei spent his time to organizing Yunlan’s apartment.

Given that the home is a space that is reserved for family, this usually means that guests do not usually touch objects within a home; it is handed to them. Unless you are close friends with someone, you would never go into a home and casually pick up an object, especially if it is the first time you went to the person’s place. It is a form of politeness, something that Shen Wei prides himself in.

You can see this in Shen Wei’s and Yunlan’s interaction, when Shen Wei was looking for the medication. He asked Yunlan where he could find the medication. Only after Yunlan told him that the medicine was in the refrigerator, that he opened and went through it.

However, in organizing Yunlan’s home, touching and moving objects to where Shen Wei considers them to be their rightful place, Shen Wei shows that he does not see himself as merely an acquaintance or even a casual friend.

Shen Wei was also shown folding Yunlan’s clothes. Laundry is not something causally done in general (even among close friends), much less male friends. This action is transgressing the boundary of not only the neighborly acquaintance that Shen Wei and Yunlan share on the surface, but also non-romantic male friendship as well.

Also, the closer an item is to your body, the closer you would have to be with the owner to touch and care for it. This is why Shen Wei folding Yunlan’s clothes is considered to be quite an intimate activity.

(before)

(after)

The fact that Shen Wei organised the entire space, while Yunlan was asleep and unconscious, is an action that transgresses a friendship boundary. Together with the details of the entire scene, the action is very much romantic.

Later in the scene, Shen Wei states that he organised the space as a gesture of thanks for Yunlan saving him from the hooligans in the street. This makes no sense at all, as there is no Chinese cultural context for this action. Typically, if someone saves your life, you would treat them to a meal or help them with some task. In extreme cases, you might become sworn brothers and protect each other for life.

But to organize and clean up a space as thanks for saving a life? It only happens if you pledge your life to each other as a romantic couple, for male-female relationships. And for Shen Wei to exhibit this behavior, this action is meant to come across as romantic subtext.

3. Cooking

Cooking for a romantic partner is a very common trope in Chinese (and Asian) media in general. It is something created with love and effort, a provision of nutrition and energy to take on the day, or comfort at the end of a hard day.

This piece of subtext does not stand on its own, in the Chinese cultural context, unlike the previous 2. We have to take into consideration of the fact it is a trope, and how it plays into this trope. Between of the 2 person environment, atypical behavior between male friends, and the cooking, this turns into romantic subtext.

The provision of food is very much linked to being part of the family, especially if you are in the home environment. To make food for the someone, is to demonstrate the depth, time and effort you would spend on this person. The dish that Shen Wei cooks is porridge, which takes time and effort.

As this is a well-recognized romantic trope, and as this behavior is atypical between 2 male persons in Chinese culture, it conveys a romantic context instead. This is further emphasized because of the 2-person setting as well.

Shen Wei demonstrates the depth of affection for Yunlan by cooking for him.

Furthermore, while Yunlan eats the porridge, Shen Wei says that if Yunlan wants to eat porridge, he find Shen Wei next door at anytime and Shen Wei will cook it for him. This re-emphasizes the cooking in a romantic context, because causal cooking between 2 persons is usually between lovers.

(A thing to note: The author’s intention in the original novel is to have Shen Wei as a top and Yunlan as bottom. However, as Shen Wei does not exhibit typical alpha male behavior, and he engages in things like cooking - traditionally the role of the female character, this has led to drama fans viewing Shen Wei as the bottom instead. I personally have no preference in fandom couples for top/bottom, but I am fascinated to see this general discrepancy between drama fans and novel fans.)

4. 沈巍啊沈巍你说你这么好要我怎么舍得放手

Zhao Yunlan says this, right after he takes the bowl of porridge from Shen Wei.

Shen Wei ah, Shen Wei, you are such a good person (to me), how could I bear to let you go?

The key word/phrase here is the use of the word “bear”. In the original Chinese text, the word used is 舍得. While the literal direct translation is “willing”, 舍得 conveys a feeling of reluctance in having to give something up / to sacrifice something, rather than about the willingness to do so. Thus the use of the word “bear” is more suitable.

To use this phrase 舍得, in reference to a person, is to also convey a sense of thought about this person. This person must be viewed as someone who is precious and important to you, and for them to not be by your side would be considered as a sacrifice.

Thus, this phrase is used only for people whom you are very close to, those you feel would be a sacrifice if you had to give them up. Taking into the context of Chinese drama tropes as well, among similar aged characters, it is most often a romantic sentiment between lovers, especially in the context of letting someone go.

To let someone go (放手), there are many situations. A parent sending a child to war, a cop letting a criminal off, a master allowing a servant to leave the family. But, when you combine the phrase of 舍得 with letting someone go, it becomes a very specific context as a well-recognized romantic trope.

The tone is also important here, as Zhao Yunlan’s tone can either be serious, or, at the very least, flirtatious teasing. This sentence was not played for laughs, and we didn’t get a no homo statement after Yunlan said this. Novel!Yunlan would probably be serious with this sentence (given that he bought a home for Shen Wei, even before Shen Wei agreed to go out with him). For drama!Yunlan, this is probably flirtatious teasing, which romantic in nature.

5. 这件事情等我回来之后再说吧

As Yunlan tries to get Shen Wei to join SID as a consultant, he lays casually in bed.

Then, Shen Wei says the following sentence,

For this matter, let us discuss this after I return

This statement, in the setting of a home, is very classic of a domestic Chinese couple. It is a common statement between couples when they have a difference of opinion or if further discussion is needed, usually at breakfast before the start of a busy day.

If Shen Wei and Yunlan had a disagreement about work, and this statement was said at the SID, it would be taken in a work context. However, as it is said in Yunlan’s apartment, thus, this brings out the romantic subtext of the statement.

Also, Shen Wei simply says, when I return. He does not state the location he returns to, and since he is in Yunlan’s place, his statement also implies that he will be returning to Yunlan’s apartment, which further strengthens the romantic subtext.

Furthermore, Yunlan’s response to this statement is a casual 好啊 (meaning okay), in acceptance of Shen Wei’s request to delay this conversation. This casual agreement denies none of the above romantic implications, and indeed, they do resume this conversation in a home at a later time, in Shen Wei’s apartment.

Hopefully, this analysis has been insightful and useful to the Guardian’s fandom, providing further understanding of Chinese culture and context inherent in the interactions between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan.

I do have plans to do other scenes, so keep a lookout for them if you are interested!

#guardian #镇魂 #cdrama

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dulcetines · 2 years

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hi teh c, aku pengen tau pendapat kamu tentang sexualizing bias (yang jelas udah salah, tapi aku mau liat dari pandangan kamu), terus au coret itu apa termasuk sexualizing? thanks before, have a nice day teh c!!

there's no denying that it's bad, but you gotta understand that for some people the act of sexualizing itself does not come as intentional. i sincerely believe people do not get up in the morning and say “hey you know what let's sexualize this person today”. what they might say is, “i wanna have some fun writing a steamy sex scene today”, and then we notice how they write about it comes off as sexualizing, sometimes even bordering on degrading.

the thing is that people often go to fandom spaces specifically to explore niche fantasies they aren’t getting from non-fannish spaces and real life. so if you ever see someone on the internet hyperfixating on something (writing? simping? scenario creating? shipping?) that comes off as sexualizing, i am most certain that deep down they are exploring something they have difficulty finding elsewhere. it’s of course frustrating to discover that other people are not in fandom for the same reasons you are, or see your favorite person the same way that you are, but you have to accept that we’re all here for our own reasons—mainly to have fun.

for me, whose writings are always based on fan interpretation of dynamics and interaction between two real people displayed through the media, i have some kind of electrical switch inside my brain that asks the question “how will this [interaction between two people] benefit me in writing? in expressing my stories?” and i gotta be honest, that’s not going to change any time soon. i’ve written some very smutty fics about them in the past, so i’ll leave that information for your own consideration. but i believe that my ability to pursue a story is not more important than the real people’s lives and privacy. ever. what this means is, if i gotta walk out because the content of my work has personally harmed them, then i’ll happily do so. but we all know from experience that it’s never the content that brings harm: it’s the attitude that we bring with the content, that actually causes the harm. and this kinda doubles down on the “blinded by having too much fun” thing i talked about in the beginning.

so tl;dr i see sexualization not necessarily as the main intention of our actions, but rather a “side-effect” that comes out from having too much fun on the internet. but this is exactly the reason why, when you notice someone having too much fun on the internet they’re not even aware that what they’re doing can translate to real consequences for real lives, it is best that you don't call them out: you call them in.

#meta #fandom wank

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foryouandbits · 7 years

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omgcplovefest - day 2

For @omgcplovefest day two - Rec your top 5 OMGCP Fics

Careful the Tale You Tell by @tiptoe39

I am not really a Patater fan (although, really, I am. It’s complicated), but I am always down for really good fic, and really good lines from fic. This is by far the best fic in this fandom in terms of quality. I’ve re-read this one more than I think any other, and it’s all because of the quality of the writing.

Best line: "The slow ascent that’s taking them, above the heads of millions, to a small private island in the sky."

Apprivoisé by @sadquebecois

This is a tumblr fic that I can’t read without sobbing. It’s sad in the way that one of Jack’s biggest secrets is sad – Jack believes he cannot play hockey and love a boy too. If you’ve seen a reblogged version I highly recommend you go to the source because if you don’t know French, translations are built in for you. And gosh, is it beautiful.

Best line, en francais: “Je ne veux pas d’être un secret, mais je t’aime surtout. Si je dois être caché, je le ferai pour toi.”

If We’re Falling in Love by @northerndownpour (sunfair on AO3)

I’m always a sucker for Madison fic, and I think this is the best version of those first few days that Bitty and Jack have together after their first kiss. It’s got a good mix of longing, desire, and peace as they learn how to love each other.

Best line: He isn’t sure what he wants to tell her, exactly. This is a big deal for me, or this is important to me, or Jack is important to me and I need you to please try to understand that even if I can’t completely explain it right now.

baking is punk as fuck by @heyfightme

Way back in my first fandom I read a fic that had a considerable amount of music in it – each chapter started with lyrics and some scenes were highlighted with lyrics, all that I had never heard before. I sent $10 through the mail to the author and she sent back two cassette tapes (yes, cassette tapes) with the soundtrack to the story. That fic shaped my musical taste to this day. What I’m trying to say here is that yes this fic is interesting and well written, but the omgcp fandom needs this fic. The best part of fandom is sharing your interests with others, and I wonder how many people out there will have their lives forever altered because they were exposed to a different type of music because of this story.

Best line: Staring as he is, he can make out the words I DREAMT OF YOU IN MONTRÉAL in a speech bubble emerging from what appears to be a skull.

C/O Eric Bittle by @luckiedee

I had the privilege to beta this fic and I still come back to it again and again now that it’s been posted for a while. This is kind of random, but I love that so much of this fic takes place over the threshold of a door as they teeter around getting to know each other well enough to be let inside.

Best line: The hallway is empty, and Eric is surprised his heartbeat isn’t echoing off the walls.

#fic recs #omgcplovefest #omgcp

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potteresque-ire · 3 years

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More ask answer about Word of Honour (山河令, WoH) and the so-called “Dangai 101 phenomenon” under the cut ~ with all the M/M relationships shown on screen, does it mean improved acceptance / safety for the c-queer community?

Due to its length (sorry!), I’ve divided the answer into 3 parts: 1) Background 2) Excerpts from the op-eds 3) Thoughts This post is PART 2 💛. As usual, please consider the opinions expressed as your local friendly fandomer sharing what they’ve learned, and should, in no ways, be viewed as necessarily true. :)

(TW: homophobic, hateful speech quoted)

The following are three opinion pieces published by state-controlled media re: Dangai and WoH:

O1) Published on 2021/03/04, in Shanghai Observer 上觀新聞

8.6分爆款武俠劇《山河令》背后，是90后愛看的江湖 Behind the 8.6-score Wuxia drama WoH is the Jianghu loved by those born after 1990

[Pie note: the 8.6 score refers to the score WoH got from the popular TV and film review site, Douban]

O2) Published on 2021/03/16, in China Comment 半月談:

國產電視劇掀起「耽改」熱：「腐文化」出圈，青少年入坑 The Rise of Dangai in C-dramas: “Rot Culture” exits Circle, Youth fell into the Ditch

and its related editorial:

「耽改劇」盛行？警惕對「腐文化」進行無底線炒作和過度消費 Dangai Dramas Prevailing? Be alert to the Uncurbed Hyping and Excessive Consumption of “Rot Culture”

[Pie Note: “Exiting the Circle” (出圈) and “Falling into the Ditch” (入坑) are both fandom vocabularies. “Exiting the circle” refers to something being so famous that it is no longer contained within fandom (the circle) and instead, breaks into public consciousness, mainstream. “Falling into a Ditch” means to fall for a fandom so hard that one cannot crawl their way out it. For example, c-turtles commonly refers to their joining the YiZhan fandoms as ditch falling, followed by being “hammered to the bottom of the ditch” by Gg and Dd’s candies.

“Rot” 腐 refers to the same rot as in fujoshi 腐女 and “rot selling” 賣腐 described in PART 1.]

O3) Published on 2021/04/07, in 光明日報 Enlightenment Daily

耽美作品改编盛行带偏大众审美 Popularity of Dangai Dramas leads the Public’s Aesthetic Astray

To summarise first,

* Article O1 was very light on the characterisation of Danmei—the terms Danmei and Dangai never even appeared in the article. It focused, instead, on WoH’s Wuxia elements, including the beauty of its presentation—much like People Daily’s review of TU focused on the drama’s aesthetics, including its world view. The relationship between Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing was never mentioned, not even garnering a description such as 摯友 (“close friend”) as LWJ and WWX did. The article did point out that the drama was catering to a women audience.

* Article O2a (the opinion piece) and O2b (the editorial) are about Danmei and Dangai, collectively as the subculture they named “Rot Culture” (腐文化). No drama names are mentioned (in reading Chinese news, it’s important to note whether the critiqued target is named or not; the former (點名批評) is considered significantly harsher). The article, as hinted by the word “rot” in its title, leaned heavily towards characterising Danmei and Dangai by the traditional BL characterisation. Article O2a was also the only article out of the four that explicitly addressed homosexuality. Rather than addressing the queer elements in Danmei/Dangai as queer, however, the article argued the genres could turn their young audience queer.

* Article O3 is also about Danmei and Dangai as the “Rot Culture” subculture, without the naming of any dramas. This article is notable for its association of the genres and the state’s concern with the “feminisation” of Chinese men.

Based on these op-eds, the state is characterising Danmei and Dangai predominantly as characterisation 2 — traditional BL, women’s fantasy. They recognised the psychological need behind the popularity of the genres among their (het) women audience, and the tone, is overall, of understanding and approval:

One of the cores of Dangai is the pursuit of “beauty”. The “double male leads” in Dangai dramas score sufficiently high beauty points to become the party to be defined, to be gazed, to be consumed. It is a counterattack to the male gaze. In addition, such “double male leads” enjoying equal relationship, admiring each other and fighting together shoulder-to-shoulder, also reflects the ideals of women towards relationships.

In the visual world of Dangai, two beautiful men respecting and treasuring each other, progressing together shoulder-to-shoulder, not only fits with women’s ideal model of relationships, but also also create wide, yet-to-be filled emotional spaces for women’s unstoppable imagination to flex. Such relationships have less considerations of reality and self-interest, and thus appear to be more pure.

However, these opinion pieces have also made clear that the state saw the queer elements surrounding the genre, and its opinion of them is much more … reserved, especially when they cross the fiction / reality line and become the focus of the promotion of the dramas via the actors, who straddle that fiction / reality line.

Due to the lengths of these articles, I’m only translating the notable “chunks” in each of them—the “chunks” that connect the genres with queerness. I’m deliberately keeping these passages as “chunks”—ie, without removing sentences in the middle—to highlight the state’s logic in making the connection.

From O2a: 國產電視劇掀起「耽改」熱：「腐文化」出圈，青少年入坑 The Rise of Dangai in C-dramas: “Rot Culture” exits Circle, Youth fell into the Ditch

“M/M CP”, “Beautiful Men Economy”, topics surrounding this market—today, nobody bets an eye anymore at “selling the rot” being the industrial phenomenon. “Sell the rot” is to sell “rot culture”, with “rot culture” being the subculture for the audience’s imagination, of M/M (ambiguous) love stories for major content.

Such subculture, if confined within its fandoms, may be harmless. However, if it is to be adapted into TV dramas in significant scale, if it is to break through the subculture circles and enter the realm of general public entertainment, then one must take caution of its bad influence, especially to inexperienced youths.

With the established review system for web and TV dramas, production teams often remove the “romantic plot line” between the two male leads in the original Danmei canon and display “brotherhood love” in the TV drama, while “playing edge ball” to provide their audience with room for imagination. In the subsequent promotion and marketing, however, the two male actors may have to “sell the rot” as well.

[Pie note: I’m translating 打擦边球 literally as “playing edge ball” as this is a very commonly used term in discussions of China’s censorship. It means to step as close to the forbidden line as possible without crossing it, to take advantage of loopholes.]

Author of the article “On the Danmei-ization of Chinese Dramas” believes that, in recent years, CPs “selling the rot” , the practice of which is rooted in Danmei culture, have become a hit in the Chinese TV industry. TV dramas with Danmei elements entice their audience to create CPs around the leads of the dramas; they make use of the fervour generated by the discussion topic to achieve high viewership.

In recent years, academics have already expressed concern and investigated the influence of Danmei culture on the youth’s gender awareness, their opinions of marriage etc. For example, the article “Sexual Orientation of Some Youths in Hunan Province and Analysis of their Potential Causes” investigated the sexual orientation of 1,260 youths in the province and discovered that: among males, 2.9% self-identified as homosexuals, 4.9% bi-sexuals, 12.4% unknown; among females, 2.4%, 12.4%, 14.3% respectively. 37.5% of the people knew about Danmei or Doujin (同人; fandom), among which 32.3% indicated they “liked” it. 11.9% indicated that they longed for the homosexual romance in such works.

The author of the article analysed that, students who knew about Danmei or Doujin were more likely to report bisexuality or unknown sexual orientation. This demonstrated the influence of such culture on the sexual orientation of youths.

( Cartoon from O2a, titled “Learning to be “cool” 學酷 )

From O2b:「耽改劇」盛行？警惕對「腐文化」進行無底線炒作和過度消 Dangai Dramas Prevailing? Be alert to the Uncurbed Hyping and Excessive Consumption of “Rot Culture”

Not to be overlooked is this: the severe reality of “Rot culture” exiting the circle and becoming immensely popular is urgently awaiting the entire society’s alert and attention. Objectively speaking, many Dangai works are not aspiring to positively, proactively guide and display Danmei culture, but only to set up attention-grabbing gimmicks, the purpose of which is solely to “sell the rot”. Not a small number of Dangai’s plots are illogical. Worse, in order to attract attention and satisfy the “taste” of fans, some production companies are forcibly selling “M/M CPs”, conducting “bound” promotion [Pie note: as in bound by CP pairing] and embarrassing interactions [Pie note: as in, getting the actors to interact in a suggestively romantic way] , “playing the edge ball” [Pie note: as explained above] to generate personalities, consuming “Rot Culture” without a bottom line. These poor marketing tactics not only hurt the interest of Danmei audience, but interfere with the online environment and its order. The indulgence of radical language, moreover, challenges and affects mainstream values. These bad influences must be paid attention to and supervised.

From O3) 耽美作品改编盛行带偏大众审美 Popularity of Dangai Dramas leads the Public’s Aesthetic Astray

In addition to the explosion of the number of Dangai dramas, many dramas that are not originally Dangai are attaching themselves to the Dangai genre, by setting up double male leads, by playing up the suggestive atmosphere between male characters in their plot lay out. Some variety shows make use of the plot setup, the post-editing, the promotion of topics etc, to forcibly pair up their male guests for the purpose of hype and attention. This vulgar custom of “playing edge ball” as a means to tempt, to lead the audience into indulging in fantasies [Pie note: sexual fantasies implied by the idiom 想入非非] have spread from visual media production to the areas of promotion and marketing. Some interviews, magazine photoshots, short video production have also joined the bandwagon of borrowing the popularity of Danmei culture. They use all sorts of sensitive topics to tease and excite the public, tirelessly, happily guiding the fans to overanalyse Dangai dramas and even, the relationship between the actors of Dangai dramas. With the push of such gimmicks, Danmei is reaching the public through multiple channels, gathering popularity and turning into a phenomenon.

From O3) 耽美作品改编盛行带偏大众审美 Popularity of Dangai Dramas leads the Public’s Aesthetic Astray

Men with delicate looks, with traditionally feminine (soft and reserved) quality, are often sought after by the rot women (fujoshis). There has been a recent, popular saying in the industry: to find out if a male star is popular or not, find out if there are fans calling him “wife”. Artists with a tough image often do not make it big, but explode in popularity once they switch to a soft beauty style. Netizens have teased “Ten years as a tough man known by none; one day as a beauty known by all”. This take on aesthetics is influencing visual media creation and entertainment production to a certain extent. Watching from a distance, more and more traffic-generating stars look like “cream young men” [Pie note: 奶油小生, from 奶油 “cream” + 小生, “the role of young men in traditional Chinese opera”, is an old-fashioned term traditionally used to describe young, good-looking actors who often presented as pale, mild-mannered, scholarly]. Some entertainment venture capital picks “flower men” as their choice for leads regardless of the TV dramas/films’ subject matter, follows the young (male) idol path. Commercial products and ads extend their offers to “little fresh meat” [Pie note: 小鲜肉 is the nickname for young (male) idols]. Even cosmetics, which have conventionally been thought of as women-only products, are no longer asking only women stars to be their spokespeople. Feminine beauty can exist, but all things shouldn’t be taken to the extreme. As “flower men” overflow on screen, masculine, tough men are reducing in numbers. This may counter the basic rules of art creation, and disrupt the development of diverse social aesthetics.

Any product produced by the mind, in the process of production, is also producing minds that will accept it, consume it. Audience of Dangai include not only adults, but also not-too-mature youths who pursue “Rot Culture” as a fashionable trend. In particular, as the aesthetics of men in the eyes of young women turn even more feminine, such change can indirectly influence the cognition of young men, cause the young men to subconsciously shift their own gender expression closer to the feminine beauty anticipated by women. Most Dangai stories are far removed from reality; some young audience nonetheless mix them up with real life, develop biased understanding such as “only love that doesn’t treat matrimony and reproduction as destinations is true love”. Although Daigai is often made “Danmei-less”, in that the romantic relationship between the two male leads are re-written as brothers and zhiji (confidants), the canon and the Rot Culture behind it still hides large amounts of pornographic, violent content, including biased, unhealthy perspectives on gender, and un-scientific, even wrong biological knowledge. If such content isn’t given restrictions, it will seriously mislead the values and self-fulfilment of the young.

PART 1 PART 2 <-- YOU ARE HERE PART 3

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