Introductions

[douqi]

Comment on this post to tell us a little about yourself! What got you interested in baihe/GL media in the first place, which works or what kinds of media you're most interested in, and your fanfic, fan art, fanvids and fan translations!

Comments

[kwirkee76]

Hello there,

Thank you for setting this up, along with everything else that you do :-) I wish I knew how I could show you the appreciation I feel for all the time and effort you put into sharing.

Would you believe I don't remember how I exactly got started reading baihe? *blames Covid brain-fog*
Anyway, I'll try to be succinct because no one likes long-winded explanations. Even though I'm Chinese, all my life, I've never been very interested in anything to do with "Asian-ness". This took a drastic turn about 7 years ago when I got kinda obsessed with learning more about "black hair" stuff *haha I wonder if you understand what I mean by that* I've always loved reading and then ... I stumbled onto Kpop fanfic *gasps* and enjoyed reading it for several years until I just got tired of it. There's definitely some quality writing there but a whole lot of crap, too.

I understand your aversion to MTL but as a non-speaker/reader, beggars can't be choosers. I do have concerns that I'm dumbing down every time I read a translated novel. The quality ones (like your translations) are few and far between. Also, I might have started my foray into baihe with the novels by Please Don't Laugh (I promise not to speak more about her and her novels). I do love long (the longer, the better) novels but I can understand the attraction to shorter stories.

I'm still a newbie in this regard (by that, I mean reading baihe novels) so I'm hungry for more and am not as picky as I'd like to be. As time goes by, I hope to see more quality translations of great novels. Reading is really a great escape.

I'm happy to know that I can always rely on you for the best when it comes to all things baihe. After all, you did introduce me to A-Qi *wink* ha ha ha

Again, thank you for everything.

[douqi]

Heyyyy you made it here! *waves*

Believe me, I'm also frustrated at the lack of human translations of baihe novels, if only because I can't shove stuff at people while yelling 'READ THIS NOW'. Part of the idea behind the comm is to draw attention to novels I think ought to be translated but which I would/could never do myself. Haha, we're going to have to amicably differ on 'the longer, the better', I think. My experience of reading webnovels shows that, as they approach the 400k-word mark, the risk of them collapsing in on themselves rises exponentially.

[kwirkee76]

*waves enthusiastically* Hi Douqi

I should have paid more attention when I used to go to Chinese school so I could both enjoy all these stories and also help translate so others could get in on the action. Ahh, too bad.

Do you know of (m)any others who are working on translations? Of your caliber, I mean. You’ve spread yourself rather thin … I can’t imagine anyone else as hard working.

I should clarify my position on the word length thing. I agree that it’s difficult to retain one’s interest if the story becomes too long. There’s the risk of repetition or simply writing words for the sake of writing words. It’s just that, when I enjoy a good story, I never want it to end. One of the best things about a good story is knowing when to end it.
I’m looking forward to reading Burn since it seemed to have such an effect on you. I want to be affected, too

[douqi]

Re: other people working on translations, I actually... don't read that many translations (which I really should do more of, to get a sense of what other people are doing and how they do it). Of the ones I have read, I really rate the translator for Exploring an Empty Tomb, and really hope they come back and pick it up again soon!

I'm glad someone is translating Burn, as the book deserves a translation for so many reasons. I'm also glad I'm not the one who has to do it, because I'd basically have to read myself into writing in a style that very much does not come easily or naturally to me. Hoping new chapters of the translation get released soon!

[kwirkee76]

Hahaha! That is a funny notion and something that never really crossed my mind. Of course you’d never actually have the need to read the translations because duh, you can read the original! lol I could have worded the question better; I meant, do you have friends/acquaintances/colleagues whose work you would recommend and who isn’t as visible. Something like that. Anyway. The rec you gave is really really long, isn’t it??? And probably would never get fully translated.

I won’t ask you to expand on why you can’t see yourself translating Burn but what you said is interesting. I never knew translating could be so complex. I thought as long as one knew both languages, it’d be easy-peasy.

[douqi]

That comment about translation is interesting! Maybe I should write a couple of posts about translation at some point.

[kwirkee76]

Please do consider it. It would be highly informative, I think.

Oh, I wanted to ask something unrelated: is it worth watching The Evidence Tells? 32 episodes is a lot to watch for measly crumbs and/or that I would have to base on my own creative and far-reaching imagination. lol

[douqi]

I'd say it's worth watching. The episodes are very short, about 20 minutes each, and they're pretty fast-paced. The gay quotient is lower than Couple of Mirrors but significantly higher than the start of The Message. You might want to check out this recommendation post by aurumcalendula if you haven't already!

[kwirkee76]

Thanks. I'll watch it seeing as I managed to get through The Message (with the help of the ladies being beautiful lol) which was sparse in its barely-there subtext so if this has an itty bitty bit more, then it should be worthwhile.
I wonder if we'll ever get S2 of CoM.