2023 Baihe Reading Round-Up

[douqi]

I read 22 baihe novels (and one collection of baihe-adjacent short stories) this year, out of a total of 77 books read (including playtexts and graphic novels). Here's the full list, in order of when I read them.

1. Miss Forensics (我亲爱的法医小姐, pinyin: wo qin'ai de fayi xiaojie) by Jiu Nuan Chun Shen (酒暖春深). The biggest baihe novel of the last few years lives up to its name. Big action scenes, big emotional set-pieces, big emotions. The author commits hard: she's going straight for your emotional jugular and simply doesn't care if she has to get there by way of a cliche or wobbly plot point. Lin Yan, the self-destructive forensic pathologist, is an absolutely compelling character. The narrative prose does leave something to be desired, particularly in the early sections, and the main couple's sexual dynamics fall into the tired trope of 'horny gong'/'maidenly resisting shou', a choice which made absolutely no sense given the characters' backgrounds and predilections. Because of this, I found the push-pull relationship between the lead characters much more enjoyable before they got together and when they're apart and pining — the pining is top-notch, and I believe the author realises this whether consciously or subconsciously as she invents more and more contrived reasons to separate them.


2. Distance (距离, pinyin: juli) by Mi Nao Nao (米闹闹). A contemporary romance billed as 'woman who has broken a thousand hearts vs woman who has never lost her heart'. Quite a number of mainland baihe readers seem to rate this (and Mi Nao Nao's work in general), but I found it rather disappointing, being seriously underwritten and very lacking in structure for about the first 75%. The last 25% had a little more emotional heft, and the characters got some cute moments, but that was hardly enough to make up for the serious initial weaknesses.


3. The Collapsing Palace (宫倾, pinyin: gong qing) by Ming Ye (明也). It's difficult to say much about this novel beyond its basic premise (Rong Yuge marries her cousin, the crown prince, so that she can seduce his mother/her aunt, Empress Wei Mingxi) due to extreme spoilers, but suffice it to say that I went in knowing about the big third-act twist, from which the book derives much of its fame/infamy, and was still floored by how messed up it actually ended up being. Again, the prose leaves something to be desired (the author visibly struggles with appropriate historical language at points), but Rong Yuge ends up being a very compelling and sympathetic character, and the sex scenes (written during a more permissive period of JJWXC's history) were effective.


4. Life is Like a Dream (浮生若梦, pinyin: fusheng ruo meng) by Qing Xiang (青湘). A short novel set in the Yue opera scene during the Republican Era, inspired partly by Cantonese opera's best-known real-life lesbian couple, Yam Kim-fai and Bak Shuet-sin. Small-scale and elegantly understated: my main complaint is that the romance was written in an overly understated way. Where the novel truly shines is the author's detailed knowledge of Yue opera and the opera scene, and the way she deftly uses extracts from relevant operas to lend emotional weight to key scenes. In particular, the two farewell scenes from The Butterfly Lovers (梁山伯与祝英台, pinyin: liang shanbo yu zhu yingtai) are used to amazing effect: once to underscore their breakup, the second time to parallel their reunion.


5. Bo Zhou (柏舟) by Ruo Hua Ci Shu (若花辞树). A short time loop novel with the premise: if at first you don't succeed in rescuing your girlfriend from a horrible death, try, try again. This was competently plotted, excellently paced, and genuinely suspenseful (though with a somewhat wonky ending that made some emotional sense but not SFnal sense). The lead characters were not drawn with a huge amount of depth, but were likable enough to do the job given the premise.


6. Suffocation (窒息, pinyin: zhixi) by Hua Qiong Ran (华琼苒). One of those 'toxic lesbians' de Sade-adjacent thrillers. Here, the protagonist is repeatedly stalked, imprisoned and tortured by her own wife. I didn't find it particularly successful in doing what it set out to do, as the story quickly got repetitive (pro-tip: anyone writing this kind of thing should build up the depravity gradually, otherwise there's just nowhere for the story to go) and the emotional/relationship development (such as it was) rapidly plateaued and became stagnant. The author also simply didn't dwell in the protagonist's secret shameful enjoyment of this treatment enough (vital, if you're going to get me invested in the premise!)


7. Zebra Crossing (斑马线, pinyin: banma xian) by Yi Bai Shou (易白首), a very early baihe novel featuring a fuckbuddies-turned-lovers romance between a CEO and a police detective. A very strong beginning, with the CEO's younger sister getting kidnapped and the police detective sent to investigate the case, and some interesting characters, but let down by a meandering middle and end, and a very odd approach to extras (almost a sequel to the novel proper). I found the secondary romance (between the CEO's outspoken sister and the woman who kidnapped her 'by accident') much more fun than the main romance, and was a bit disappointed when it sort of petered out after the first half.


8. She Belongs to Me (她属于我, pinyin: ta shuyu wo) by Da Ying (妲婴). One for the 'two attractive femme women resolve their relationship issues decorously through Better Communication' folder. Does have the plus point of (1) starting with a contract marriage and (2) a few big k-drama-style romantic moments (booking an entire restaurant for a date; dirtying her million-yuan high heels in order to help her wife).


9. The Tribulation of the Peach Runaway Blossom (逃花劫, pinyin: tao hua jie) by Ning Yuan (宁远). A solid xianxia/xuanhuan adventure, with a big cast of complex female characters. The writing is assured, the world feels rich and lived-in, and world-building details are woven deftly into the text. The main romance was at once the lynchpin of the plot and not particularly present on the page, but the multiple secondary romances (all f/f) somewhat made up for it.


10. The Abandoned (弃仙, pinyin: qi xian) by Mu Feng Qing Nian (沐枫轻年). Features sapphic xianxia shizunfuckery, multiple rebirths, double-, triple- and quadruple-crosses, creepy babies, and surprisingly cute monsters from the dawn of time. The first 40% of this novel was everything I could ever want. The first chapter alone features the protagonist masturbating to a painting of her shizun (this is literally the opening scene), sex pollen (well, more a curse, but it works the same way narratively), multiple instances of hurt/comfort, stratospheric levels of unhealthy disciple/shizun co-dependence, a double rebirth, the protagonist allowing her shizun to stab her in the shoulder so that she could get close enough to kiss her shizun, and the protagonist stealing her shizun's jade pendant for use as a masturbation aid. The whole thing just escalates from there... until about 40% in, where it abruptly becomes a pretty paint-by-the-numbers xianxia novel. Sigh.


11. Her Mountain, Her Sea (她的山, 她的海, pinyin: ta de shan, ta de hai) by Fu Hua (扶华). This classic high school romance was, for the most part, very competently written, and handles the lead couple's growing relationship deftly and delicately. There are two main things the novel can be criticised for. The first is some rather random plot points happen towards the end, including an extremely violent and emotionally shocking incident that doesn't really take the story/relationship anywhere. The second is that, if I'm being honest, the lead couple's transition from friendship to romance is handled somewhat clumsily and unsatisfactory (especially in contrast with the author's deft development of their friendship in the early stages) which I felt was ultimately a significant flaw, given the nature of the book.


12. The Creator's Grace (造物的恩宠, pinyin: zaowu de enchong) by Ning Yuan (宁远). I know I use this comparison too much, but if Russell T Davies had written a lesbian sci-fi thriller in Chinese on his best day, this is what it would be. The sci-fi aspect I felt was somewhat undercooked, used to give resonance to the romance rather than the other way round, but the author does that to such great effect that I can't fault her too much. The sex scenes had such an impeccable emotional through-line that I didn't even get exercised about the fact that the character who usually bottoms is canonically not very good at topping. The author also gets kudos from me for the deft depiction of that one character who never appears on-page but whose presence haunts the whole book. This is some good Caroline Crale from Christie's Five Little Pigs stuff.


13. Minister Xie (谢相, pinyin: xie xiang) by Ruo Hua Ci Shu (若花辞树). In this historical court intrigue novel, billed (by no one except me) as The Goblin Emperor meets Sha Po Lang, teenage emperor Liu Zao does her best to turn her prime minister Xie Yi (who is 14 years older than her) into her wife, while trying to get to grips with ruling an empire. The first half of the novel did a stellar job with the premise, with strong, believable character work and nuanced court politics. The author also makes excellent use of incidents and characters drawn from Chinese history (specifically the Han Dynasty). The second half of the novel I found incredibly frustrating, due to the author's glossing over of an important emotional transition on Xie Yi's part, and as it turns out, my strong personal belief in the importance of constitutional checks and balances (I don't care what Liu Zao thinks, a court where the empress holds formal political power is woefully and dangerously unbalanced).


14. Snow on Her Pillow (枕上雪, pinyin: zhen shang xue) by Liu Yuan Chang Ning (流鸢长凝). Historical fiction (and I'm calling it that because it hews much more closely to historical facts than the standard webnovel) featuring a romance between Princess Jieyou and her devoted attendant Feng Liao (described as the first official female diplomat in Chinese history). It starts with Princess Jieyou being sent to marry the king of the Central Asian kingdom of Wusun as part of the Han Dynasty's policy of marriage alliance. The focus is on how the leads manage to overcome various external obstacles while remaining steadfast in their devotion to each other. The writing is extremely competent and the emotional transitions and character development are for the most part believable. The author also manages the incredible feat of depicting Central Asian characters more or less as... regular people.


15. Spring on the River (河上春, pinyin: he shang chun; or if you really want to lean into the author's dreadful punnery, River Tops Spring) by Da Ying (妲婴). A xuanhuan novel featuring supernatural women behaving very very badly, very weird structure and pacing (not much happens for most of the novel beyond Dangerous Liaisons-style emotional/relationship shenanigans), and a rather hapless main character who frequently reminded me of a protagonist in a shoujo reverse harem novel.


16. Listen, God (听神, pinyin: ting shen) by Xian Yu Bu Chi Cai (咸鱼不吃菜, literal translation: Salted Fish Doesn't Eat Vegetables). A time loop thriller with a romance between a reclusive scriptwriter and an up-and-coming actress. This was recommended to me as a 'smart', carefully and cleverly plotted, and for the first 80% it was mostly that, though the relationship development between the leads left me a little cold. That is to say, it was done with some skill, but all the beats felt slightly off, and the author had a tendency to lean away from the emotion and horror inherent in the premise, making for a rather muted reading experience. In the last 20%, the plot started to unravel (it was technically 'resolved', but to my mind unsatisfactorily), it was revealed that the relationship whose development I thought I'd been following from the very beginning was actually an established relationship (very little was made of this). I was also hit with a full face of what the author didn't seem to realise was ableism.


17. A Taste of You (食局, shi ju) by Si Bai Ba Shi Si (四百八十寺). A contemporary romance featuring a love story between a talented chef and a CEO. For the first 80%, I found this an enjoyable read — a more grounded, realist novel than the average contemporary baihe, with earnest discussions about careers, family, class differences, told via the protagonist's wry, humorous first-person POV. The last 20% took a fast and unexpected turn into multi-POV melodrama, which would have made for an excellent story in itself but was tonally very jarring when considered against the rest of the novel. The novel features many excellent descriptions of food (with details of what makes the food good, not just lists of dishes, unlike many Western-published novels praised as 'omg the food!'), though the protagonist's culinary skills take a back seat as we approach the denouement (I did feel this could have been integrated better). The protagonist also expressly identifies as butch and is visibly embedded in the local lesbian scene. This novel also has the distinction of being the one that told x_los about stuffed bean sprouts.


18. Snow in the Spring Courtyard (春庭雪, pinyin: chun ting xue) by Liu Yuan Chang Ning (流鸢长凝). I reviewed this wuxia baihe here. This features a classic pairing of an unorthodox 'witch' (from a literal fortress of assassins) and a nice, proper 'good girl' from an orthodox sect who turns out to be harbouring a secret scheme for vengeance. The relationship development was well set up and convincingly drawn, and it was easy to understand why the main couple's attraction for each other. The 'witch' character is also extremely compelling. The overall writing of the novel was very competent (bar a misunderstanding as to the role of neigong in qinggong at the end). The pacing was good and the plotting was logical even if it sometimes failed to maximise the emotional potential of certain setups. These things are likely to make it appealing for many readers. However, for me personally, it ended up taking an extraordinarily bleak view of the jianghu which retrospectively marred the reading experience.


19. I Think About You Day and Night (朝思慕暖, pinyin: zhao si mu nuan) by Yu Shuang (鱼霜). I reviewed this contemporary CEO romance here. I enjoyed this a lot (more than I expected), because of the author's willingness to commit to the dramatic potential of the tropes and premises she had chosen to use. The relationship development is well done, and the main characters are drawn in ways that give them real likability and depth rather than having them remain stock types (a rare feat, I think, for this kind of novel).


20. Cover Her Face (遮面, pinyin: zhe mian) by Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai (清汤涮香菜). I reviewed this historical novel (with a dash of wuxia) here. A mostly breezy, mostly fluffy, and unexpectedly sexy romance, with likable main characters.


21. Waiting for You (余情可待, pinyin: yuqing kedai) by Min Ran (闵然). I reviewed this showbiz novel here. An exes-to-reunited-lovers story courtesy of a handy rebirth and time rewind, and another one for the 'two attractive femme women resolve their relationship issues decorously through Better Communication' folder.


22. Climbing High (登高, pinyin: deng gao) by Po Po Po (破破破). In this historical court intrigue novel, aspiring scholar Fang Jian sells herself into indentured servitude to court official Gao Yunqu in exchange for the latter's promise to help free her parents from unjust imprisonment. Very strong political writing (though the author and I differ on certain values), with a great cast of complex female characters. This is set in a world where women have rights to education and inheritance, but this is a relatively new development, and so there is much patriarchal resistance to be overcome. The novel is published on PO18, so is allowed to be sexually explicit in ways JJWXC and Changpei novels can't be, and the author makes full use of this (though I found the sex scenes between the tertiary couples stronger than those between the main couple, for the most part, for reasons I'll elaborate on when I come to write the full review of the novel).

So looking back, I think I've managed to catch up on some pretty classic and popular novels, mixed in with some more niche titles from subgenres I wouldn't typically be super drawn to. For 2024, I'm especially keen to read more work from Ning Yuan and Liu Yuan Chang Ning, and maybe Ruo Hua Ci Shu (despite her letting me down so terribly with the ending to Minister Xie). In fact, I'm slightly toying with the idea of making my way through as much of Ning Yuan's back catalogue as possible over the coming year, maybe at the rate of one Ning Yuan novel per every three baihe novels I read. I'm also interested in reading at least one more each by Yu Shuang and Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai, as I found their books unexpectedly enjoyable.

Comments

[superborb]

Reading this, I'm somewhat surprised that more "strong female" cnovels don't have the empress gaining excessive official political power. Maybe most people do recognize it as too much concentrated power?

[douqi]

Maybe it's because 'empress' is already an established role with existing avenues for exercising political power that it doesn't occur to people to think beyond historical limits for expanding the role? I do feel that Minister Xie is a significant outlier in the way it does this.