Chinese GL

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.



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.

So I'm not sure who around here is reading in Chinese or interested in doing so (I'm planning to make a suggestion for a reading club soon-ish and will check in more formally then), but a heads up that Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai, who normally writes contemporary romance, has started serialising a historical novel which is going to be short (she says she's planning to wrap it up within the month), completely free, and will be mostly sweet and have a happy ending. I thought I would highlight this because so many webnovels are so intimidatingly long!

The title of the novel is Cover Her Face* and so far three chapters have been released. You can read it on JJWXC here. As is often the case, the novel summary is deeply uninformative, but there are jianghu/adventure elements in what has been released so far.

Note: The title of the novel in Chinese is 遮面, which is literally cover/hide + face, and doesn't actually tell us whose face is being covered, so my translation may turn out to be completely wrong, but I'm also very extra and cannot resist a opportunity to make a Duchess of Malfi reference.