Brief Rec: Seeking Immortality in Vain
Mar. 27th, 2025 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aurumcalendulaI'm really enjoying Pale Mirror's translation of Seeking Immortality in Vain (枉求仙) by Jian Gen Qianbi (捡根铅笔)!
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
aurumcalendula
aurumcalendulaReading the Remnants (问棺) by Qi Xiao Huang Shu (七小皇叔), translated by Pale Mirror:
( some vague spoilers )
( some vague spoilers )
douqiPre-orders have opened for volume three of showbiz baihe manhua Miss Gu and Miss Qu (顾小姐和曲小姐, pinyin: gu xiaojie he qu xiaojie), based on the novel of the same title by Wan Zhi (晚之), with art by C Naisi (C奈司). Here are some of the online bookshops you can order from, each with slightly different merch:
The manhua was originally published via Kuaikan Manhua. An authorised translation can be read here at Tappytoon under the title Twin Flames of Destiny (I continue to be unsure why they chose a title translation that sounds like an 80s pulp fantasy adventure). The novel can be read here on JJWXC.
The manhua was originally published via Kuaikan Manhua. An authorised translation can be read here at Tappytoon under the title Twin Flames of Destiny (I continue to be unsure why they chose a title translation that sounds like an 80s pulp fantasy adventure). The novel can be read here on JJWXC.
Two Ning Yuan Novels: Reviews
Mar. 14th, 2025 06:46 pmdouqiHaving put this off for quite long enough, I thought I might as well review Ning Yuan's Something I Need to Tell You (有件事想告诉你, pinyin: you jian shi xiang gaosu ni) and Fateful Encounters (逢场入戏, pinyin: feng chang ru xi), especially since they're both set in the entertainment industry — a shared-universe entertainment industry, it turns out, as the main characters from the former novel make an appearance in the latter.
Chronologically, Something I Need to Tell You is the earlier book, as it started serialising in 2015. It's the story of Ye Xiaojun, an up-and-coming scriptwriter who refuses to compromise on her art, and Lu Jingsheng, the young and ambitious CEO of a media company. The two of them first meet under very unpromising circumstances. Ye Xiaojun has just caught her girlfriend, an actress named Gu Lan, cheating on her with a director. As she flees from the scene, overcome with emotion, she runs into Lu Jingsheng, who makes a snide remark. When Ye Xiaojun returns to work (the setup here is that she's the salaried employee of a media company, rather than being a freelancer), she learns that her company has been taken over by a new CEO — who is, of course, Lu Jingsheng. Ye Xiaojun finds Lu Jingsheng's mercenary, ruthlessly commercial approach completely unpalatable. To her shock, she subsequently receives a mysterious email telling her that she and Lu Jingsheng will soon become romantically involved. She continues to receive more emails from her mysterious correspondents (known only as 'bearxxx'), all predicting her future more or less accurately.
( possible spoilers for Something I Need to Tell You )
Fateful Encounters, first published in 2020, is a much more straightforward, sweeter, lighter story. The main characters are Chen Ge, an actress whose career has stalled after a promising debut, and Luo Jingyi, a top scriptwriter (Ning Yuan does love her scriptwriter characters). Chen Ge is a long-time admirer of Luo Jingyi, and her debut role was coincidentally in a film written by Luo Jingyi when the latter was much younger. The two of them are thrown together in a countryside-themed reality show being directed by one of Luo Jingyi's friends, and their relationship develops from there, with the twist that Luo Jingyi is appearing under an alias, so Chen Ge doesn't know her true identity at first.
Chen Ge is one of Ning Yuan's ingenues, which is to say she's sweet and earnest, but also determined and resilient, and actively kind to people (with a lot of ingenues, it seems the reader is expected simply to accept that they're good, kind people without the text ever showing us this) but not a pushover. Luo Jingyi has some of the characteristics of a classic jiejie (typically aloof, rich, generally composed, highly fashionable) but with quirks that make her much more human and fun, including a very sharp tongue that she has no compunctions about deploying, moments of extreme smugness (that are often punctured by subsequent events) and occasional entertaining bursts of temper. She also has misophobia, which had been an obstacle in getting into any sort of serious relationship (not that she was trying very hard to have one, or particularly desirous of having one) until she met Chen Ge, who cheerfully accommodates her without her even needing to say anything.
( possible spoilers for Fateful Encounters )
While Fateful Encounters was significantly less ambitious than Something I Need to Tell You, it was much better executed throughout. Lu Jingsheng makes a cameo appearance in Fateful Encounters as an investor in one of Luo Jingyi's films, and Ye Xiaojun also appears briefly at the end as 'legendary scriptwriter Ye Xiaojun' (whom Chen Ge also admires deeply, leading to a brief and entertaining fit of jealousy on Luo Jingyi's part).
I read the Chinese original of Something I Need to Tell You here on JJWXC. For Fateful Encounters, I read the uncensored simplified Chinese print edition. The web version of Fateful Encounters can be found here.
Chronologically, Something I Need to Tell You is the earlier book, as it started serialising in 2015. It's the story of Ye Xiaojun, an up-and-coming scriptwriter who refuses to compromise on her art, and Lu Jingsheng, the young and ambitious CEO of a media company. The two of them first meet under very unpromising circumstances. Ye Xiaojun has just caught her girlfriend, an actress named Gu Lan, cheating on her with a director. As she flees from the scene, overcome with emotion, she runs into Lu Jingsheng, who makes a snide remark. When Ye Xiaojun returns to work (the setup here is that she's the salaried employee of a media company, rather than being a freelancer), she learns that her company has been taken over by a new CEO — who is, of course, Lu Jingsheng. Ye Xiaojun finds Lu Jingsheng's mercenary, ruthlessly commercial approach completely unpalatable. To her shock, she subsequently receives a mysterious email telling her that she and Lu Jingsheng will soon become romantically involved. She continues to receive more emails from her mysterious correspondents (known only as 'bearxxx'), all predicting her future more or less accurately.
( possible spoilers for Something I Need to Tell You )
Fateful Encounters, first published in 2020, is a much more straightforward, sweeter, lighter story. The main characters are Chen Ge, an actress whose career has stalled after a promising debut, and Luo Jingyi, a top scriptwriter (Ning Yuan does love her scriptwriter characters). Chen Ge is a long-time admirer of Luo Jingyi, and her debut role was coincidentally in a film written by Luo Jingyi when the latter was much younger. The two of them are thrown together in a countryside-themed reality show being directed by one of Luo Jingyi's friends, and their relationship develops from there, with the twist that Luo Jingyi is appearing under an alias, so Chen Ge doesn't know her true identity at first.
Chen Ge is one of Ning Yuan's ingenues, which is to say she's sweet and earnest, but also determined and resilient, and actively kind to people (with a lot of ingenues, it seems the reader is expected simply to accept that they're good, kind people without the text ever showing us this) but not a pushover. Luo Jingyi has some of the characteristics of a classic jiejie (typically aloof, rich, generally composed, highly fashionable) but with quirks that make her much more human and fun, including a very sharp tongue that she has no compunctions about deploying, moments of extreme smugness (that are often punctured by subsequent events) and occasional entertaining bursts of temper. She also has misophobia, which had been an obstacle in getting into any sort of serious relationship (not that she was trying very hard to have one, or particularly desirous of having one) until she met Chen Ge, who cheerfully accommodates her without her even needing to say anything.
( possible spoilers for Fateful Encounters )
While Fateful Encounters was significantly less ambitious than Something I Need to Tell You, it was much better executed throughout. Lu Jingsheng makes a cameo appearance in Fateful Encounters as an investor in one of Luo Jingyi's films, and Ye Xiaojun also appears briefly at the end as 'legendary scriptwriter Ye Xiaojun' (whom Chen Ge also admires deeply, leading to a brief and entertaining fit of jealousy on Luo Jingyi's part).
I read the Chinese original of Something I Need to Tell You here on JJWXC. For Fateful Encounters, I read the uncensored simplified Chinese print edition. The web version of Fateful Encounters can be found here.
aurumcalendulaI just finished reading Lin King's translation of Taiwan Travelogue (台湾漫游录) by Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子)!
( some spoilers )
( some spoilers )
Two Works by Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子)
Mar. 8th, 2025 09:14 pmdouqiSomehow I managed to miss telling absolutely anyone about what, as far as I can tell, is the first baihe novel ever to be published in English translation. It's not anything that I've ever seen discussed in fandom circles online. It is Taiwan Travelogue (臺灣漫遊錄, pinyin: taiwan manyou lu) by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子), translated by Lin Kang. The English translation was published by Greywolf Press in November 2024, and won the National Book Award for Translated Literature for that year. Here's the synopsis from the publisher's website:
As the synopsis indicates, it's a lot more literary than something one might expect out of, say, your average JJWXC novel (though a litfic strain of baihe writing on the major platforms does exist). It's also not a classic romance as such. In this interview (in Chinese; no English translation available), the author discusses her interest in exploring a relationship that's 'greater than friendship, but short of a full-blown romance',* which she views as a (or perhaps the) classic preoccupation of baihe (and its very adjacent genre, yuri). She should know, because she's one of the (if not the) leading authority on Taiwanese baihe, having literally written the book about the genre (based on her Masters thesis on the topic).
*This, incidentally, explains why the major English-language reviews generally describe this as a tale of 'friendship'. Talya Zak's review in The Atlantic does get somewhat closer.
There's also a Japanese translation, by Yuko Miura, of Taiwan Travelogue available, which was published in 2023. It won Japan's 'Best Translation Award' for that year.
Yang Shuang-zi has also written a number of other baihe works, none of which have been translated officially into English. However, noonreveries on Twitter is currently fan translating the manhua adaptation of another Yang Shuang-zi novel, Fantastical Tales of Flowers (綺譚花物語, pinyin: qi tan hua wuyu) into English. The first part of the translation can be read here.
Some autobiographical information about Yang Shuang-zi that I cribbed mostly from the Chinese-language Wikipedia entry about her. 'Yang Shuang-zi' is a pen name; her real name is Yang Jo-tzu (楊若慈). She had a twin sister, Yang Jo-hui (楊若暉). They were both interested in yuri and baihe, and Yang Jo-tzu apparently began her writing career with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fanfic. The Yang sisters initially intended to use 'Yang Shuang-zi' ('shuangzi' means 'twins') as a joint pen name; however, Yang Jo-hui died of cancer in 2015, before they were able to publish anything jointly. The name 'Shuang-zi' is rendered in kanji rather than traditional Chinese characters as a tribute to Yang Jo-hui's interest in Japanese history. There's more information about Yang Shuang-zi and her work on the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture's website.
May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.
Soon a Taiwanese woman — who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name — is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the "something" is.
Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.
As the synopsis indicates, it's a lot more literary than something one might expect out of, say, your average JJWXC novel (though a litfic strain of baihe writing on the major platforms does exist). It's also not a classic romance as such. In this interview (in Chinese; no English translation available), the author discusses her interest in exploring a relationship that's 'greater than friendship, but short of a full-blown romance',* which she views as a (or perhaps the) classic preoccupation of baihe (and its very adjacent genre, yuri). She should know, because she's one of the (if not the) leading authority on Taiwanese baihe, having literally written the book about the genre (based on her Masters thesis on the topic).
*This, incidentally, explains why the major English-language reviews generally describe this as a tale of 'friendship'. Talya Zak's review in The Atlantic does get somewhat closer.
There's also a Japanese translation, by Yuko Miura, of Taiwan Travelogue available, which was published in 2023. It won Japan's 'Best Translation Award' for that year.
Yang Shuang-zi has also written a number of other baihe works, none of which have been translated officially into English. However, noonreveries on Twitter is currently fan translating the manhua adaptation of another Yang Shuang-zi novel, Fantastical Tales of Flowers (綺譚花物語, pinyin: qi tan hua wuyu) into English. The first part of the translation can be read here.
Some autobiographical information about Yang Shuang-zi that I cribbed mostly from the Chinese-language Wikipedia entry about her. 'Yang Shuang-zi' is a pen name; her real name is Yang Jo-tzu (楊若慈). She had a twin sister, Yang Jo-hui (楊若暉). They were both interested in yuri and baihe, and Yang Jo-tzu apparently began her writing career with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fanfic. The Yang sisters initially intended to use 'Yang Shuang-zi' ('shuangzi' means 'twins') as a joint pen name; however, Yang Jo-hui died of cancer in 2015, before they were able to publish anything jointly. The name 'Shuang-zi' is rendered in kanji rather than traditional Chinese characters as a tribute to Yang Jo-hui's interest in Japanese history. There's more information about Yang Shuang-zi and her work on the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture's website.
New Policy: No Commercial Use
Mar. 2nd, 2025 09:30 pmdouqi[ETA: These rules, with minor adjustments, have now been formally added to the comm rules in the top stickied post. Please respect the spirit as well as the letter of these rules and that will save everyone a lot of unpleasantness.]
This has been on my mind for a while because the boundary between fan work and commercial/paid work in the general c-media and c-novels fandom is relatively porous. It now seems to be established practice for publishers to recruit artists and translators from within fan communities, and fan artists and fan translators often take up paid work alongside their (non-commercial) fan work.
While it is obviously right for people to be able to pursue their ambitions, and to seek financial remuneration for their skills (though I would always, always advise reading the contract very, very carefully), there is also value in maintaining this comm as a non-commercial, fandom-only space. This is especially the case as such spaces are becoming increasingly rare. Maintaining the comm as a non-commercial space also allows members to engage more freely in critique and discussion of commercially-published works.
With that in mind, I am proposing to add the following to the comm rules:
***
No Commercial Use Policy
This comm is a strictly non-commercial, fandom-only space. Members should therefore not engage in any commercial activity on the comm, including (but not limited to):
Not a rule but a strong suggestion: when a commercially-published work or a commercial project is being discussed in the comm, members who are involved in or commercially affiliated with that project should refrain from participating too actively in the discussion. This is to avoid a 'chilling effect' on the ability of other members to discuss that project freely. In response to a review, for instance, a simple 'thanks for reviewing this!' would be fine. A rebuttal of the points raised in the review would be problematic.
Comm members are free (and indeed encouraged) to subject commercially-published work to rigorous critique, discussion and review. This is the case even if another member is involved in the production of that work. There is no expectation for comm members to 'pull their punches' (so to speak) when discussing a commercially-published work simply because another member is involved in it.
***
If you are working on a commercial project that falls within the interests of this comm, you are of course free to construct a space to promote that project outside this comm. It is good to have a diverse range of spaces for conversations on these topics. By the same token, it is valuable to maintain this comm as a non-commercial, fandom-only space, to encourage specific types of discussions.
I would welcome suggestions for refining these rules, making them clearer, and perhaps adding more scenarios I had not thought of. However, I'm committed to the basic principle underlying them.
I'll leave this post stickied for a week, and will then formally add the proposed rules (with appropriate adjustments, to take into account any suggestions) to the comm rules in the top stickied post.
This has been on my mind for a while because the boundary between fan work and commercial/paid work in the general c-media and c-novels fandom is relatively porous. It now seems to be established practice for publishers to recruit artists and translators from within fan communities, and fan artists and fan translators often take up paid work alongside their (non-commercial) fan work.
While it is obviously right for people to be able to pursue their ambitions, and to seek financial remuneration for their skills (though I would always, always advise reading the contract very, very carefully), there is also value in maintaining this comm as a non-commercial, fandom-only space. This is especially the case as such spaces are becoming increasingly rare. Maintaining the comm as a non-commercial space also allows members to engage more freely in critique and discussion of commercially-published works.
With that in mind, I am proposing to add the following to the comm rules:
No Commercial Use Policy
This comm is a strictly non-commercial, fandom-only space. Members should therefore not engage in any commercial activity on the comm, including (but not limited to):
- Promoting their commercial projects. This includes projects in which they are not directly involved, but which are carried out under the direction of an organisation with which they have a commercial affiliation (e.g. if A is an artist who contracts on a regular basis to work for a particular publisher, A should refrain from making posts promoting that publisher's titles). Of course, everyone remains free to recommend, review, discuss and hype up commercial projects in which they are not involved (regardless of whether another member is involved) and to which they have no commercial affiliation, in the usual fandom way. Members who do fan work alongside commercial work remain welcome to plug their non-commercial fan work;
- Carrying out market research, such as product testing, focus groups, surveying members as to their reading preferences and habits, favoured genres, willingness to pay, demographic characteristics, and so forth;
- Crowdsourcing ideas and suggestions for the purpose of developing a commercial project.
Not a rule but a strong suggestion: when a commercially-published work or a commercial project is being discussed in the comm, members who are involved in or commercially affiliated with that project should refrain from participating too actively in the discussion. This is to avoid a 'chilling effect' on the ability of other members to discuss that project freely. In response to a review, for instance, a simple 'thanks for reviewing this!' would be fine. A rebuttal of the points raised in the review would be problematic.
Comm members are free (and indeed encouraged) to subject commercially-published work to rigorous critique, discussion and review. This is the case even if another member is involved in the production of that work. There is no expectation for comm members to 'pull their punches' (so to speak) when discussing a commercially-published work simply because another member is involved in it.
If you are working on a commercial project that falls within the interests of this comm, you are of course free to construct a space to promote that project outside this comm. It is good to have a diverse range of spaces for conversations on these topics. By the same token, it is valuable to maintain this comm as a non-commercial, fandom-only space, to encourage specific types of discussions.
I would welcome suggestions for refining these rules, making them clearer, and perhaps adding more scenarios I had not thought of. However, I'm committed to the basic principle underlying them.
I'll leave this post stickied for a week, and will then formally add the proposed rules (with appropriate adjustments, to take into account any suggestions) to the comm rules in the top stickied post.
Some thoughts on Couple of Mirrors
Feb. 27th, 2025 10:38 pmextrapenguinI watched Couple of Mirrors and had some thoughts, posted on my journal. (Also, could someone please explain the last ~5 minutes to me? *g*)
Ning Yuan Mentioned in Reactor Magazine
Feb. 26th, 2025 11:00 pmdouqiThis article by Xueting C. Ni ('Beyond Liu Cixin: 5 New Translated Chinese SFF Books') in the SFF magazine Reactor (formerly Tor.com) mentions Ning Yuan's To Embers We Return towards the end!
Here's the relevant excerpt:
I can't swear that this is the very first time baihe has been discussed (if only briefly) in an Anglophone SFF outlet. But I can't swear that it isn't, either. Despite my vicariously complicated feelings about Tor.com, I'm overall quite chuffed by this.
(h/t toanne, who first posted about it on the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
c_ent comm!)
Here's the relevant excerpt:
The fan favourite author, Ning Yuan has created an amazing story in her To The Embers We Return, about an imperial machinist trying to fix her lover, an injured and broken warrior who has lost her memory. Another title which I really feel the English reader deserves to get their hands on. Until the Anglophone publishing world starts to spread its net a little wider, we have to rely on the talent and tenacity of fan translators, such as douqi, to keep Embers burning.
I can't swear that this is the very first time baihe has been discussed (if only briefly) in an Anglophone SFF outlet. But I can't swear that it isn't, either. Despite my vicariously complicated feelings about Tor.com, I'm overall quite chuffed by this.
(h/t to
anne, who first posted about it on the c_ent comm!)aurumcalendulaI was very excited to see more bookstore listings for the English translation of The Beauty's Blade (美人剑) by Feng Ren Zuo Shu (封刃作书)!
Here are some I found (I believe ebooks will be available to preorder closer to the November release date):
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Blackwell's
Books-A-Million
Bookshop
Indigo
Room of One's Own (their preorders begin on May 4th)
Thalia
Here are some I found (I believe ebooks will be available to preorder closer to the November release date):
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Blackwell's
Books-A-Million
Bookshop
Indigo
Room of One's Own (their preorders begin on May 4th)
Thalia
douqiPre-orders have opened for the third volume of the Miss Forensics manhua (亲爱的法医小姐, pinyin: qin'ai de fayi xiaojie) adapted from the novel by Jiu Nuan Chun Shen (酒暖春深) with art by Shu Nü Sen Te (鼠女森特). Here are the online bookshops you can order from, each with slightly different merch:
The web version of the novel can be read here on JJWXC and the web version of the manhua can be read here on Kuaikan Manhua (you may need to open links via the Kuaikan Manhua app).
- Huawen Tianxia (the publisher)
- Xinshijiao
- Jinse
- Boku
The web version of the novel can be read here on JJWXC and the web version of the manhua can be read here on Kuaikan Manhua (you may need to open links via the Kuaikan Manhua app).
douqiOnce again I have become overly invested in an upcoming, yet-to-be-published baihe novel. This time it's There's Something Weird About My Roommate (我的奇怪室友, pinyin: wo de qiguai shiyou) by Yu Shuang (鱼霜). The reason will be pretty clear from the summary (which is wild, also hilarious). Translation by me, even rougher, faster and looser than usual (wait why did that sound vaguely obscene).
Or, in three words: tentacle girlfriend baihe.
You can read the original summary here on JJWXC.
Yu Shuang said on Weibo that she plans to start serialising her next novel soon, and has set up a fan vote between this title and a (contemporary) rebirth one called The Love Letter (情书, pinyin: qingshu) to decide which one to publish first. At the time of writing, unfortunately to all tentacle girlfriend anticipators everywhere, The Love Letter is leading by some thirty votes. It's not particularly high-stakes though, as Yu Shuang said in the same post that she plans on finishing both of them this year, and it's just a case of which one she starts with.
A BNF of Yu Shuang's has also posted an amazing fan comic based on this summary alone.
A note about the title translation: technically, 我的奇怪室友 translates more or less literally into 'my weird/odd/strange roommate'. However, if it's going to be in that format, I strongly feel it needs to be in the formulation 'My Weird [RELATED ADJECTIVE] Roommate' to be sufficiently punchy (hey, it worked for My Hot Butch Roommate, didn't it). Since I couldn't think of a sufficiently good [RELATED ADJECTIVE], this is the formulation I've opted for. And also technically speaking, my British/Commonwealth English soul balks at 'roommate' to describe someone who shares the same flat/house at you — it should be flatmate/housemate. To me, 'roommate' is, properly speaking, someone who shares the same room as you. In this regard, I have reluctantly given in to the Americanisation of English because I felt 'roommate' was much more globally comprehensible (we have US sitcoms to thank, I guess).
Shi Jingsheng's beautiful new roommate is a writer. Whenever Shi Jingsheng passes by her roommate's door, she can hear her roommate typing away furiously inside. How dedicated she is, sighs Shi Jingsheng.
One day, as she's scrolling idly on her phone, she comes across the profile of a webnovel author with the same name as her roommate, and an average posting rate of about 50k new words a day. She's so prolific that her fans call her a tentacled freak — that's the only explanation for her writing speed!
As they're eating dinner, Shi Jingsheng asks, 'How do you do it?'
'I have lots of hands,' her roommate reminds her delicately.
She must be joking, Shi Jingsheng believes. Until one day when, in the midst of a high fever, she pushes open the door of her roommate's room thinking it's her own. Inside is her roommate, typing valiantly away with her eight tentacles. Shi Jingsheng's vision goes black and she faints.
When she comes to, her roommate is sitting next to her. Shi Jingsheng is about to scream when her roommate claps a tentacle over her mouth.
Then another tentacle helps her to lie back down. A third tentacle brings her water. A fourth tentacle hands her some painkillers.
Shi Jingsheng: (nonplussed silence)
Shi Jingsheng: I should just die, shouldn't I.
Song Qingyin doesn't let her die. Under her care, Shi Jingsheng soon makes a full recovery. Another restriction is added to their list of house rules: Song Qingyin is prohibited from revealing her tentacles where Shi Jingsheng can see.
Song Qingyin complies obediently with the new rule — except in bed. As she and Shi Jingsheng lie curled up in each other's arms, she asks seductively, 'Can they hug and kiss you too?'
Shi Jingsheng blushes furiously and gives Song Qingyin a bite. Hugging and kissing? That's all they get to do, okay?
Or, in three words: tentacle girlfriend baihe.
You can read the original summary here on JJWXC.
Yu Shuang said on Weibo that she plans to start serialising her next novel soon, and has set up a fan vote between this title and a (contemporary) rebirth one called The Love Letter (情书, pinyin: qingshu) to decide which one to publish first. At the time of writing, unfortunately to all tentacle girlfriend anticipators everywhere, The Love Letter is leading by some thirty votes. It's not particularly high-stakes though, as Yu Shuang said in the same post that she plans on finishing both of them this year, and it's just a case of which one she starts with.
A BNF of Yu Shuang's has also posted an amazing fan comic based on this summary alone.
A note about the title translation: technically, 我的奇怪室友 translates more or less literally into 'my weird/odd/strange roommate'. However, if it's going to be in that format, I strongly feel it needs to be in the formulation 'My Weird [RELATED ADJECTIVE] Roommate' to be sufficiently punchy (hey, it worked for My Hot Butch Roommate, didn't it). Since I couldn't think of a sufficiently good [RELATED ADJECTIVE], this is the formulation I've opted for. And also technically speaking, my British/Commonwealth English soul balks at 'roommate' to describe someone who shares the same flat/house at you — it should be flatmate/housemate. To me, 'roommate' is, properly speaking, someone who shares the same room as you. In this regard, I have reluctantly given in to the Americanisation of English because I felt 'roommate' was much more globally comprehensible (we have US sitcoms to thank, I guess).
douqiThe second season of Taiwanese GL drama Fragrance of the First Flower (第一次遇见花香的那刻, pinyin: di yi ci yujian huaxiang de na ke) has started airing on GagaOOLala. The first two episodes are now available here. The drama is also available on Netflix Asia, where the first season (originally consisting of eight episodes of approximately 20 minutes each) has been re-edited into two hour-long episodes.
Here's the trailer which the platform posted ahead of the release:
The second season will have twelve approximately 30-minute long episodes.
Here's the trailer which the platform posted ahead of the release:
The second season will have twelve approximately 30-minute long episodes.
douqiDetails have been released for the second volume of the Vietnamese edition of Waiting for You (余情可待, pinyin: yuqing kedai) by Min Ran (闵然). This can be found on publisher Meibooks' Facebook page. The special edition of the book comes with a bookmark, a wooden keychain with a chibi design of protagonist Jing Xiu, a pop-up card, and a postcard. The standard edition comes with the bookmark only.
Here's the cover design for the book:
And here are the merch designs:
Here's the cover design for the book:
And here are the merch designs:
A new multifandom vid!
Feb. 16th, 2025 04:45 pmaurumcalendulaTitle: Fever
Fandom: 相思误 | Led Astray By Love, 云芊传 | Legend of Two Girls, 穿书-恶毒女配改命 | The Second Female Lead Changes Their Fate
Music: Fever by Dua Lipa
Summary: 'before you came around, I was doing just fine'
Notes: Premiered at TGIFemslash 2025! Password = AurumCalendulaVids
Warnings: some sudden bright light (0:05 - 0:17), flickering candlelight, and quick cuts
AO3 | DW | tumblr | bsky | Vimeo
Fandom: 相思误 | Led Astray By Love, 云芊传 | Legend of Two Girls, 穿书-恶毒女配改命 | The Second Female Lead Changes Their Fate
Music: Fever by Dua Lipa
Summary: 'before you came around, I was doing just fine'
Notes: Premiered at TGIFemslash 2025! Password = AurumCalendulaVids
Warnings: some sudden bright light (0:05 - 0:17), flickering candlelight, and quick cuts
AO3 | DW | tumblr | bsky | Vimeo
douqiThe ending theme song from the audio drama adaptation of Dreaming into the Milky Way (梦入星河, pinyin: meng ru xinghe) has been subtitled in English by laine4466. Watch it via the link below (age-restricted; login required).
Dreaming into the Milky Way is a novel by Jiao Hua Mao (叫花猫), and can be read here on PO18 (the novel is free to read, but registration is required to access it). Given the nature of the platform, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that it is a very high heat romance.
laine4466. Watch it via the link below (age-restricted; login required).Dreaming into the Milky Way is a novel by Jiao Hua Mao (叫花猫), and can be read here on PO18 (the novel is free to read, but registration is required to access it). Given the nature of the platform, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that it is a very high heat romance.
aurumcalendulaTitle: Lethal Woman
Fandom: 月满西楼 | Moonlight Fills the Western Tower (2024)
Music: Lethal Woman by Dove Cameron
Summary: 'she walks like a saint, floats like an angel/ sharp like a knife under the table'
Notes: Made forfiercynn for festivids 2024! Password = AurumCalendulaVids
Warnings: contains quick cuts, some flashing lights, source-typical violence, and some frame rate weirdness from the source
AO3 | DW | bsky | tumblr | Vimeo
Fandom: 月满西楼 | Moonlight Fills the Western Tower (2024)
Music: Lethal Woman by Dove Cameron
Summary: 'she walks like a saint, floats like an angel/ sharp like a knife under the table'
Notes: Made for
fiercynn for festivids 2024! Password = AurumCalendulaVidsWarnings: contains quick cuts, some flashing lights, source-typical violence, and some frame rate weirdness from the source
AO3 | DW | bsky | tumblr | Vimeo
Suffocation (窒息) Audio Drama: Review
Feb. 6th, 2025 11:15 pmdouqielectropengwing on Bluesky has posted a review of the audio drama Suffocation (窒息, pinyin: zhixi), based on the dark, thriller-y, stalker-y novel of the same title by Hua Qiong Ran (华琼苒). It features popular baihe voice actress Hei Zhi Shao (黑芝烧) playing the stalker character, very much against type — she's normally known for warm, sunny, somewhat androgynous roles, and one of her more famous early roles is as none other than Wei Zisong in the audio drama adaptation of Purely by Accident (纯属意外, pinyin: chun shu yiwai).The audio drama (which is not yet complete; it's a non-commercial production, so releases have been sporadic) is available here on the Fanjiao app. The novel is available here on Changpei.
New Year Greetings From Chu Dao
Feb. 4th, 2025 09:12 pmdouqiTo celebrate New Year, mainland print publisher has been posting handwritten/voice greetings from some of their published authors over the last week or so (including some pretty well-known danmei authors). One of the greetings they posted was a voice greeting from Chu Dao (初岛), author of well-known baihe showbiz tragedy Burn (烧, pinyin: shao).
The video is available here on Weibo, and I've also uploaded it to Google Drive here.
(how can someone who sounds so innocent have done me so much emotional damage, smh)
The video is available here on Weibo, and I've also uploaded it to Google Drive here.
(how can someone who sounds so innocent have done me so much emotional damage, smh)
Fan Art for To Embers We Return (焚情)
Feb. 1st, 2025 09:21 pmdouqiThere is! Fan art! For To Embers We Return! By the amazing guoldu on Bluesky (aka skuzzybunny).
Here's Shen Ni welcoming the reader to the empire:
(originally posted here)
And here's Shen Ni from the first chapter, on the way to collect her soon-to-be wife from jail.
Now excuse me while I continue gazing dreamily at the art.
guoldu on Bluesky (aka skuzzybunny).Here's Shen Ni welcoming the reader to the empire:
(originally posted here)
And here's Shen Ni from the first chapter, on the way to collect her soon-to-be wife from jail.
Now excuse me while I continue gazing dreamily at the art.
