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wangxianfics · 1 year

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deeeep dive into why and how wei wuxian and lan wangji love each other, complete each other, are the inverse reflection of each other’s deeply hidden internal selves mirrored through the other’s external self, lan wangji’s inner wildness that he has to conceal and protect recognizing and loving wei wuxian’s outer wildness, wei wuxian’s deep, fuddy-duddy morality and values that he conceals with an elaborate subterfuge of jokes, mischief, and bravado, seeing and loving in lan wangji the ability to say no that it was never safe for him to express directly, “between you and me there is no need for thank you and sorry”

oh and a slight diversion midway through into a manifesto on WEI WUXIAN IS NOT INSECURE the whole story is about a society where being liked is ESSENTIAL for survival and it is actually completely perilous not to be liked, and his “people pleasing” is a skill and tool for his survival especially as an orphan and proven to be a necessary one when he stops doing it and STOPS SURVIVING

after the cut discussing the very interesting dynamics of consent in general in the novel, but not going into the consensual non-consent kink stuff till the last paragraph if you need to avoid for any reason.

I’ve been thinking about how Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian the exterior, unfettered expression of the wildness Lan WangJi holds in him and protects with rigid codes of conduct, propriety and outward dignity.

I have had this sense that these two are mirrors, either one reflecting the hidden, interior (and unallowed) self of the other. but it seemed more clear from Lan WangJi’s side, especially knowing about his history with his mother and the spicy side that emerges when he drinks and in the extras.

I also - just… the way this whole story shows how romantic love is truly this longing for your self, to become yourself, to become the thing you’re not allowed to be, seeing in that person the expression of whatever it is you can’t become and longing for it, protecting it, joining with it as closely as you can without ever being able to let it live inside your own body.

On the surface it seems a lot more difficult for Wei WuXian to find a piece of his soul in Lan Wangji. I think its a bit too simplistic to see whatever draws Wei WuXian to Lan Wangji as a reverse-psychology sort of craving of acceptance from the only one who won’t give it, pushing and pushing against this impenetrable boundary that he needs to break to feel assurance that no matter what he can make anyone accept him.

And he is SO drawn - in a mind boggling way, in the teenage flashbacks Lan WangJi rudely and aggressively throws him off over and over and Wei WuXian cannot keep away! Even when he talks about how boring Lan WangJi is, he never stops trying to be around him and talk to him.

I’ve seen discussions of the way Wei WuXian has always relied on the goodwill of others to survive, and that his placating of others to survive is a character flaw. Although that seems only halfway true.

As a young child he didn’t have anyone’s goodwill for a while and he survived, and it seems like he can always find a way to survive from whatever means and sometimes very limited resources he has at his disposal. Doing what he has to do to become powerful enough to survive losing his core and being thrown into the burial mounds slowly costs him the goodwill of everyone around him - and what happens to him as a result shows how much placation was a truly necessary for someone without the protection of biological/hereditary family bonds.

(Don’t get me started on how his loss of his golden core and his development of demonic cultivation to give himself power by ‘unnatural methods’ through the use of a musical instrument is a metaphor for disability and the way ableist society sees the use of accessibility devices and tools. Actually please DO get my started haha.)

Wei WuXian is so charismatic and seems very used to getting what he wants and needs on the strength of that. He pushes a lot of boundaries and seems pretty confident and flexibly prepared to handle the consequences, whether beatings or harsh words. But he does work so hard to make others feel good, good with him, good with themselves.

When he is in the cave with Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian is described as “like one who forgets all past pain as soon as the wound heals”. He can’t resist coming up beside Lan WangJi and talking to him again and again after every time Lan WangJi pushes him off, only finally staying away when Lan WangJi bites him (and he still keeps trying to talk to him after a little bit!) and then calls him an awful person (!!! Bad Wangji! :(((( ). In the end, when Lan WangJi (very minimally) discloses what happened to his sect and his father, and even cries, because of all the defences/assaults Lan WangJi has put up Wei WuXian can’t do anything or say anything to help and feels miserable.

Lan WangJi just absolutely refuses to allow Wei WuXian to take care of him - and I began to wonder maybe that’s what Wei WuXian actually really likes about him? Why he is unable to resist coming up to Lan WangJi again and again? Maybe because Lan WangJi refuses to let Wei WuXian appease him. He’s not trying to crack Lan WangJi to get to this impenetrable place of approval and acceptance. In a way he can’t quite understand, Lan WangJi is a respite for Wei WuXian from the constant work to be the one who pleases.

And how different this is to how Wei WuXian is (or has to be) with Jiang Cheng when he wakes up in Lotus Pier after the cave. Jiang Cheng gets so down and really really needs Wei WuXian to do what he does so well (and wasn’t allowed to do with Lan WangJi) - chasing Jiang Cheng down while being injured and reassuring him about all his insecurities about his father’s acceptance and becoming a sect leader and Wei WuXian’s own abilities excelling his - and at first Jiang Cheng is pushing him away, but he really does need Wei WuXian to do all this to feel better.

Wei WuXian is described as not wanting to be lonely, and not wanting to see other people unhappy, and he keeps trying to push and pull with whatever he has to not be lonely and lift the mood for those around him. I don’t think it’s a kind of codependency or insecurity. It’s not that Wei WuXian is afraid to say no, in fact I would say he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do, but he must always do it creatively, with humour. Similarly to Nie Huaisang, he uses a persona of foolishness to give himself a covert agency.

I also think I’m writing this because I don’t like seeing this discussed as a sad bean character flaw for him to always need to be liked - its a strategy, its a tool, its how he survives and excels. Doesn’t the whole story prove how essential being liked is to a human’s survival? And he is so so good at being liked, in making others happy, even when he is refusing to do what others want from him that he doesn’t want to do, he does it in a way that deflects criticism, with a smiling bravado that never says what it truly means and has people writing him off as shameless or foolish or just endearing himself toward them despite themselves.

He is always at work really, with jokes and flattery or mischief and teasing, to get the resources he wants and needs. Case and point, when he makes a big coquettish show for mianmian, definitely not being “people pleasing” for her, but the group of girls around them all find it funny and cute and in the end she gives him a perfume sachet which ends up being a valuable resource for later. Or the time he outright tells Jiang Cheng that if you give the girls some lotus seeds they’ll remember you and return the favour in the future. (Also notice how his interactions with girls seen as flirtatious are actually strategic resource-gathering acts.) These are the skills he has developed to meet his own needs. (THIS IS NOT A CHARACTER FLAW. I REPEAT.) He takes what he needs and steals from the Lotus Pier markets knowing it’ll be paid for, he lives like he never know when his next windfall will come from so he’ll take what he can when he can find it. Like Jiang Fengmian said, if there is no guarantee of a meal in the future then today’s meal should still be enjoyed. It’s how Wei WuXian said to Nie Huaisang at Cloud Recesses, you have to find ways to make your own fun out of whatever you have. So he gets kicked out of class, goes fishing, gets alcohol, he pursues his own pleasure. He actually is quite insistent of his own agency and right to choose, he just can never directly say no.

And that little detail that Wei WuXian always tucks coins into his clothes just in case, that makes him able to buy food when he and Jiang Cheng are on the run… breaks my heart and reveals so much about the way Wei WuXian is constantly at work on ensuring his own survival and never takes for granted whether he is safe (he knows he never is).

I’ve seen some people talking about Wei WuXian sacrificing so much for his brother and sister out of a need to be accepted out of a chronic sense of insecurity. But isn’t this just true? Doesn’t he live in a world where being accepted is absolutely essential for survival? Doesn’t this whole story show the cruelty of a social system based on networks of hereditary/biological family that closes out and scapegoats any outsiders, and that without biological family connections that can enclose around you, you can never truly be safe if not constantly working to earn acceptance? (And then beautifully ends with the way a gay romantic relationship that queers marriage/family/etc disrupts all this and creates safety and inclusion for Wei WuXian without needing a normative family.) (AKA romantic love does not resolve some internal personal problem in Wei WuXian but disrupts and refuses and rebels against the problem of SOCIETY.) (*breathes heavily*)

And that’s why Lan WangJi is magnetizing to Wei WuXian. Lan WangJi is always saying no. Although what Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian is an exterior wildness, Wei WuXian is not really out of control so much as he is playing and caring and supplicating and showing off and pleasing people to get the resources and the acceptance he needs to live his life. He has firm values and desires that he can never outwardly state, only creatively spinning plates to distract and deflect while he refuses what goes against his values, protects who he cares for, or takes what he needs to in order to survive/thrive. Lan WangJi embodies an exterior of resoluteness and direct agency that Wei WuXian doesn’t have the luxury of. And he’s so drawn to him for his ability to repeatedly say no, to refuse to get along, or make others laugh, make other people happy, but just simply follow what he thinks is right.

Wei WuXian’s outward wild movement protects an inward stillness. He is an exterior of people-pleasing around an interior of refusal. He is an exterior of youthful rebellion around an interior of unflinching morality. He sees in Lan WangJi the outward expression of his stillness, his morality, his resistance that he can’t express, that he’s had to protect.

FYI after the cut gets more into the dynamics of consent in the story, and the last paragraph directly talks about consensual non-consent kink play in wangxian’s relationship.

#wangxian #meta

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wangxianfics · 1 year

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come to think if it, wwx‘s parents naming him wei ying (literally baby) has exactly the same energy as wwx naming his sword suibian

#wwx #meta #wwxmeta

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wangxianfics · 1 year

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People: WWX needs to experiment and can’t be happy with only one person and he doesn’t actually want to be monogamous with LWJ.

WWX on Phoenix Mountain: A hint of heat and a swelling sensation on Wei WuXian’s lips kept on reminding him he had just lost the first kiss that he had been guarding for twenty years.

WWX, confessing his love to LWJ: I don’t want anyone but you—it can’t be anyone but you.

WWX, finding out that LWJ was the one who kissed him: Well, I’m beyond happy that you kissed me so early. It was my first kiss, after all. Congratulations, HanGuang-Jun.

#wangxian

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wangxianfics · 1 year

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okay i like the 'wei wuxian is adopted' jokes as much as anybody, but i do see people taking that premise seriously and like

it's kind of pivotal to the narrative that he wasn't, actually?

adoption is, within the setting, a specific, deliberate process with legal repercussions. people can be formally adopted. that exists. he was not.

adopted wei wuxian would have been in a vastly more secure situation; his ambiguous hovering position where he's simultaneously a nobody-orphan with no formal connections and part of the upper echelon of society is definitional. it's what allowed things to fall out the exact way they did.

adopted wei wuxian could not have walked away from jiang sect so easily; he would have been jiang wuxian. adopted wei wuxian would have been a sect leader candidate, when jiang cheng was out of the running because of wen zhuliu. adopted wei wuxian would have had actual status.

the fact that he's their brother but not on paper drives a significant amount of his jiang-sibling-related plotlines!

adoption would have made a huge difference at a whole bunch of junctures, and it was technically an option on the table that was not taken.

i bring this up for a lot of reasons but also because like. adoption and marriage have a lot in common, as formalized transfers of someone into a family.

there were good reasons for wei wuxian to not get adopted! (also shitty reasons that nevertheless presented valid constraints.)

there are much better reasons of a similar nature for lan wangji not to marry him. to deflect, to try to have it both ways. but they get married anyway.

the fact that our MC is coming into this from a lifetime of his familial bonds being informal and unrecognized and lacking any legal status and vulnerable to summary dissolution while still of passionate importance is not, i think, irrelevant to the novel culminating in a fuck-the-haters gay marriage.

#meta

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wangxianfics · 1 year

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I saw a video on tiktok today that made me think:

Can you imagine being the emperor of MDZS and finding out about all the bullshit in the world of cultivation? And why has no one ever written about WWX being reincarnated into the body of one of the emperor's family? And is amazing how the emperor is just existing but is never mentioned, i actually like this!

#wangxian #ficpromts

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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Hello! Sign ups for the THIRD Wangxian Winter Solstice Gift Exchange are now open :)

Back for another year to spread some extra Wangxian lovin’ around Winter Solstice/Dōngzhì for us all!

How it works

You MUST have a Tumblr

Also list what you’d like to receive (e.g. gifsets, drawings)

Sign ups are done via a form

»» Sign Up Here! ««

After that assignments will be send out to everyone by email on October 23rd/24th, and then you’ll have seven weeks to make gifts for the person assigned to you :)

Gift Giving Guidelines

Just in case it isn’t clear to anyone, all the gifts have to be WANGXIAN-related! Fans of all adaptations are welcome and yes, this gift exchange allows NSFW content.

>> Read the full guidelines here <<

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: SATURDAY DECEMBER 10TH (Midnight Pacific Time)

On Winter Solstice/Dōngzhì (December 21st) all the gifts will be posted for everyone! Once the gifts are posted, it will be revealed who made gifts for whom, then after that you’re of course free to post the gifts you made to your own Tumblr :)

If you still have questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now!

And feel free to signal boost this post, I’d appreciate it <3

|| Sign Up || Guidelines || Follow || Ask ||

#wangxian #mdzs #cql #wangxiansolstice22 #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #lan wangji #wei wuxian

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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🎨 狐狸大王a

#the untamed #untamed art #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #lan zhan

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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Mdzs is most importantly a story about how even introverts who have insane resting bitch face can find their own manic pixie dream boys

#text

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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@Fanfic writers:

My friend send me this link, is a series on a profile on Ao3 (tumblr) that has different tutorials to insert things to fanfics via html code, I thought I would share bc it’s really cool

Lists of tutorials:

How to make images fit in mobile browsers

This is a tutorial/live example on how to make large images fit on mobile browsers but remain normal size on desktop browsers.

How to mimic letters, fliers, and stationery without using images

This is a tutorial/live example on how to mimic the look of letters, fliers, and stationery (as well as other forms of written media) without using images. For all your epistolary fic needs.

How to make a “choose your own adventure” Fic

This is a tutorial/live example on how to create a "Choose Your Own Adventure" fic. While this has been explained before (see here), this particular tutorial shows you how to use a work skin to hide the next parts from the reader until they click through to get to them.

How to make linked footnotes on Ao3

This is a live example of how an author can create linked footnotes in their work with only a little bit of HTML and no workskins required. This is best viewed by clicking "Entire Work". While I've included the actual coding in bold and italic once you click "Hide Creator's Style", there's a more detailed explanation here.

How to change text on Ao3 when the cursor is hovering over it (or clicked on mobile)

This a tutorial/live example on how to have text change or appear once a cursor is hovering over it. Helpful for pop-up spoilers, language translations, quick author's notes, etc.

How to mimic author’s notes and Kudos/Comment buttons

Anonymous on tumblr: do you have a skin that would mimic the author’s notes and review/kudos buttons section from the end of a fic? the desired effect being that the fic could go on after the “end” of the fic, so after the author’s notes and review/kudos buttons

Here's a tutorial/live example to do just that, with some of the buttons actually functioning. I'll explain more inside!

How to wrap text around images

This is a tutorial/live example on how to align images to the left or right of the screen and have text wrap around them.

How to mimic email windows

This is a tutorial/live example on how to mimic email windows on AO3 without the need to use images.

How to make ios text messages on Ao3

This is a tutorial/live example on how to mimic iOS text messages on AO3 without the need to use images. There's also a chapter on how to have emojis displayed on AO3 as well.

How to make Customized page deviders

Bored with the default page dividers? This is a tutorial/live example on how customize your page dividers with no images needed (though I do show you how you could use images if you wanted to do such a thing).

How to make invisible text (That can be highlighted)

This is a live example how to make invisible text that can only be seen by highlighting the text. Tutorial is included in text, and you can always leave comments about questions you may have.

MOBILE USERS: Sadly, this probably won't work for you, since highlighting in a mobile browser is different than web. I've tried correcting this, but have yet to find a solution.

How to make a rounded playlist

Original coding and design is from layouttest. I make no claims for it, just tweaked it so it will work on AO3.

How to create notebook lined paper on Ao3

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of lined notebook paper in their work. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

Sticky notes on Ao3 without using images

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of sticky notes (aka Post-Its) in their fic. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

How to make deadpool’s thinking thinking boxes on Ao3

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of Deadpool's thinking boxes in their fic. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

How to make newspaper articles on Ao3

This is a live example of my AO3 skin that allows the author to recreate the look of a newspaper article in their work. To learn more about it, you can find the tutorial here.

#ao3 #resources

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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Hello! I was wondering if I could ask you a question about something I noticed in post 136427994491 (and in tradition Chinese photography in general). I've noticed that there are sometimes a red marking on a women's forehead. Do these markings mean anything? I'm particularly curious about the one that looks like a flower and the ones that are a dot

Hi, of course I’m happy to answer your question!

The forehead markings are called “huadian/花钿", and they are a purely ornamental type of accessory that was most popular during the Tang Dynasty. Huadian came in a variety of colors (red, green, yellow - but mostly red), shapes (flowers/petals, animals - birds/fish, etc.), and materials (paint, paper, gold, pearls, petals, fish bones, seashells, feathers, etc.). Nowadays it is usually painted on/a temporary tattoo. Fouryearsofshades has a write-up on huadian here. Below - historical huadian:

Huadian can be worn on the cheeks, as seen in the two left pictures in the 2nd row above - these are called mianye/面靥 or xiaoye/笑靥. They usually took the form of a dimple about one centimeter from each side of the lips, and came in a variety of shapes, including coins, peaches, birds, and flowers.

There is a legend about the origin of huadian, recounted by Hua Mei in the book Chinese Clothing

(pdf):

“The Huadian or forehead decoration was said to have originated in the South Dynasty, when the Shouyang Princess was taking a walk in the palace in early spring and a light breeze brought a plum blossom onto her forehead. The plum blossom for some reason could not be washed off or removed in any way. Fortunately, it looked beautiful on her, and all of a sudden became all the rage among the girls of the commoners. It is therefore called the “Shouyang makeup” or the “plum blossom makeup.” This makeup was popular among the women for a long time in the Tang and Song Dynasties.”

The flower/petal shapes typically represent the plum blossom. I’m not sure if the dot represents anything significant, besides being a common shape.

Below - actresses wearing huadian and mianye in film/tv:

Hope this helps! :)

Edit: See here for post identifying the actresses/films/tv series in the compilation above.

#resources #other

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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It is lovely in MDZS how Wei WuXian essentially has the “male” role, in that he is the one pulling on Lan WangJi’s figurative pigtails, the one to give him flowers repeatedly, the one to say he’s pretty out loud and in his head all the time, and the one trying to get him to pay attention to him.

Lan WangJi, meanwhile, gets teased, looks pretty, receives flowers, gets embarassed, defaults to ignoring his crush to appear aloof and keep control, his chaste modesty is being scandalously transgressed via super-meaningful Lan ribbon and cold pond shenanigans, and he secretly keeps all the tokens of Wei WuXian’s affections

And also kisses him forcefully against a tree (but even then in the text and Wei WuXian’s view, he’s a “shy maiden”) and fantasizes about shutting him up in a very specific way

Socially also, Lan WangJi is the pure and treasured daughter niece/sister, thematically, while Wei WuXian is the handsome devilish rake who “corrupts him”

And I find it hilarious how they both subvert everything I’ve mentioned above (by virtue of being extremely well-written characters who aren’t confined to one stereotype but feel like real, complex, subtle people instead), especially after Wei WuXian’s resurrection when their dynamic changes to become extremely funny more balanced

#wangxian #meta

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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my aro/ace ass reading about wangxian being each other’s first and only kiss and all else: this is normal and romantic.

reading fics where one or both have had casual sex: ah, yes. I am a statistical minority, and my rare oases of fairy tale romances are once again besieged.

#wangxian #other

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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an important note on wwx's characterization that i think is important and sometimes people will get wrong, is that wwx doesn't have low self-esteem ("i'm stupid, i'm ugly, i'm annoying, i'm bothersome, nobody likes me") nor does he have low confidence ("i can't do this" "i don't know this" "i can't do anything right"). in fact, both of these are extremeeeely high in his personality as a teen and young adult

what wei wuxian does have, however, is low self-worth, specifically when it comes to his own needs and well-being compared to other people. couple that with his high confidence and urge to pay off debts of gratitude, and you get his extremely self-destructive behavior ("it's fine if i lose my core as long as jc has it for the good of the sect, i can survive without one", "it's fine that i'm being forcefully kissed by a stranger because she's nervous and i don't want to embarrass her", "it's fine, it's all fine, as long as it's me, because i can take it")

#wwxmeta #wwx #meta

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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Do you have any fic rec where multiple people crush on Wei Wuxian

Hello there! Here's the tag you're looking for:

Crushing On WWX

#ask

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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Wangxian is such a pervasive otp because it fits literally every trope at once. It's both slowburn because they have 20+ years worth of miscommunication foreplay and fastburn because they get married and start fucking literally the second they're alone after affirming that they're dating. It's a high school romance and a romance between 40+ year old coworkers. It's enemies to friends to enemies to lovers. They're both "I could fix him" AND "I could make him worse". Obsessed.

#wangxian #other

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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Made a comprehensive guide on MXTX’s series’ main characters! I noticed a lot of people on my TL were having trouble distinguishing characters apart (let alone knowing there were 3 different novels), so I highlighted character traits and wrote them down ^^ I hope it helps!

#infographics #resources #other

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wangxianfics · 2 years

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Diminutive forms (diminutives) of names in Chinese are usually created by means of 阿 (A-) or 儿 (‘er): Wei Wuxian -> A-Xian from Modao Zushi, Xiejieliubo -> Xie'er from Word of Honor. Both 阿 (A-) and 儿 (‘er) can be added to female and male names. Both are used by parents to address their children, by older - to address those who are younger, or between close people. When used this way, characters 阿 and 儿 have no meaning of their own.

If a name consists of 2 characters, then A-/'er is usually added to the 2nd character: Wen Kexing - A-Xing. It is also possible to add 儿 ('er) to the whole 2-characters name, but it will sound more formal: (Li) Daikun'er.

Doubling of the character of the name is also used to create diminutives: Mian-mian from Modao Zushi. If the name consists of two characters, then usually it’s the second character that is doubled. This is a more affectionate and intimate form than A-/'er, it’s more often used for children or between lovers. Female names often consist of doubled characters as it’s considered cute: Fan Bingbing (actress), Gu Miaomiao from Word of Honor.

There are other ways to create diminutives for names, but A-/'er and doubling are the most frequent.

The character 儿 ('er) may be part of the name and not have a diminutive meaning: Yue Fen'er 岳凤儿 from Word of Honor (fen'er - literally: a phoenix chick, figuratively: a talented child); Li Baoer 李宝儿 - an actor who played one of the Ghosts in Word of Honor, Li Ping'er 李瓶儿 - a heroine of Plum Blossoms in a Golden Vase (ping'er - vase, bottle), Ping'er 平儿 - a maid in the Dream of the Red Chamber.

How to determine whether 儿 ('er) is a part of the name or an indicator of the diminutive form? If the full form of the name without 儿 ('er) appears somewhere, then, of course, its form with 儿 ('er) is a diminutive. Also, the diminutive, as a rule, will not be used together with the surname (not always the case with 儿 'er though), in the author’s speech (unless the character in question is a child), in official documents. It’s also worth considering who and when uses the name with 儿 ('er): whether the diminutive form would be appropriate in these circumstances.

In Word of Honor, Zhao Jing always calls his yizi “Xie’er” 蝎儿 which is a diminutive form derived from his national, “southern-barbarian” name - Xiejieliubo 蝎揭留波. The name “Xiejieliubo” has no meaning of its own in Chinese: the Chinese characters are used only as phonetics to convey sounds of a foreign language. The first character of the name, 蝎, means “scorpion”, hence it’s used in the name of the assassins’ organization “Venomous Scorpions” 毒蝎 and in the nickname (or the title of the leader of this organization) “Xie Wang” 蝎王 - Lord / Prince of Scorpions, Scorpion Prince. The English subtitles translated “Xie’er” 蝎儿 as “Scorpion”, ignoring the fact that it’s a diminutive form of his name and thus missing an important part of characterization of Xie Wang and Zhao Jing’s relationship.

When talking to Zhao Jing, Xie Wang uses this very diminutive as a pronoun “I”, which is normal for a child but very strange for an adult well into his twenties (close to thirties?): such a deliberate infantilism creates an effect ranging from comedy to creepiness. (There are many different ways to say “I” in Chinese, depending on the relationship between the interlocutors, historical era, etc.)

After the adoption (when Zhao Jing declares Xie Wang his son at the feast), Xie Wang’s name changes to “Zhao Xie” 赵蝎. In the series, when publicly naming Xie Wang his son, Zhao Jing calls him “Zhao Xie'er” 赵蝎儿, however, from what I saw, this is perceived by native speakers as a strange and not very inappropriate usage of the diminutive, considered the circumstances (the reactions of characters in the show seem to reflect this as well). When native Chinese speakers write fanfiction about Xie'er as Zhao Jing’s adopted son, they use the name “Zhao Xie” 赵蝎.

#meta #resources

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