A New Era of Wuxia: the Female Writers
The global popularity of Chinese historical fantasy has brought forward a new era of female writers. How did this revolution start?
Posted in Articles and tagged books, chinese drama, fantasy, female writers, literature, martial arts, novels, SFF, TV, Wuxia, Xianxia
Mesmerising Mythical Mayhem: Jentry Chau V.s The Underworld Part 1
There have been a slew of fantastic YA animation projects recently that have captured fan’s hearts, such as She-Ra, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and The Owl House, all of which I have loved, but none of them grabbed me by the face, and screamed at me “this has been made for you”, in the way that Jentry Chau vs the Underworld did. My excitement for the project was lit the moment I saw the announcement images and teasers, and I began to talk about it on social media, but duties and deadlines actually stopped me from sitting down and watching the show until Spring Festival. I was blown away, and consumed the whole thing in a couple of days. Like any rich banquet devoured so greedily, I knew I would have to sit and digest it before being able to convey how much I enjoyed it.
Posted in Articles and tagged Chinese, demons, Emmy's, fantasy, ghosts, horror, Jentry Chau, mythology, Netflix, occult, SFF, spirits, TV, underworld, YA
On Chinese Gothic part 1
When thinking about gothic, people tend of think of soaring castles and misshapen stone spires. But the Chinese have a sense of the gothic, which has been quietly flourishing in recent storytelling like moss on the gravestone, and harks back to literary traditions. Instead of derelict abbeys and dungeoned great houses, we have ruined temples and equally labyrinthine ancient mansions, usually enclosured with courtyards and gardens sprawling into unfathomable depths. Instead of the ghostly woman in black, we have the ethereal woman in white, for white is the colour of death and mourning for the Chinese, the white-robed woman often symbolising the innocent and pure. She is ever briefly glimpsed, through abandon quarters and desolate fields, singing, weeping, or brushing her hair. In traditional stories like Pu Songling’s Liaozhai, she’s mostly a femme fatale, a ghost or a fox demon, luring men to their demise, or leaving them to wake up cold in cobwebbed ruins. Contemporary Chinese horror inherits this aesthetic, a prime example being Cai Jun’s novella Huangcun (which you can read in Sinophagia), but the emphasis is placed more on the phantomising of victims by traditional societal constraints and expectations. This is evident in the story of the vanishing brides in Snow Tower, the ‘ghostly figure’ at the Long Clan mansion leads the protagonists to eventually discover that the women had been murdered and buried by the clan’s deranged leader on their stormy island, where the tombs of the clan’s female infants lie hidden in the underground caves. Continue Reading →
Posted in Articles and tagged books, Chinese, drama, fiction, gothic, horror, literature, storytelling, TV
Love and Sword: A Dream of Jianghu
Love and Sword (directed by Cha Zhuanyi, starring Xuan Lu, Gao Weiguang), is a Tencent wuxia romance series released earlier this year. Loosely a chuanyue (Chinese for isekai) story, its protagonist Fang Yi, a young woman in contemporary China, gets transported into a dream world after being in a road accident. The woman with whom she shares her name, whose body she ends up in, is one of the greatest fighters of the land. She is being held to ransom within an inch of her life, and rescued by the dashing swordsman Yanshao (literally “dashing youth”), on a white horse. They make a hazardous journey back to her clan. At first, our heroine is anxious to get home, but as she recovers fragments of traumatic memory of her world and bonds with the people of this one, she begins to like it here, rather a lot.
Sound like a typical wuxia story? Well, it’s meant to be. The show doesn’t hide the fact it’s a dynastic world of the wuxia imagination, adopting an only slightly more sophisticated title of “A Mere Dream of Jianghu” than the novel it’s based on “Sleeping with Yanshao”. And it delivers all the romance, excitement and mystery that we typically find in wuxia novels. This is precisely why I am writing about it, from its archetypal trappings, characterisation and tropey plot developments, we can see much of what makes wuxia storytelling popular, and learn about the genre in contemporary times. As an enthusiast who grew up with wuxia TV, went on the read the novels, and now write about it as an author, I’ll be tapping into my considerable research (recently more focussed and academic). Heads up that because I’m taking the story apart, there will be spoilers.
Posted in Articles and tagged chinese drama, fiction, jianghu, martial arts fantasy, novel, TV, Wuxia
The Untamed: Why Here? Why Now?
Though I have very much appreciated The Untamed and Modao Zushi, and have written about both the works, and the phenomena of their success, I have generally avoided being drawn into the fandoms, (though there’s nothing wrong with enthusiastic love for a show) or dampening any gushiness with my cultural critique. However, I knew that I would invariably be talking about it professionally at some point, as I ended up doing on a panel discussing the show at 2021’s Eastercon, ConFusion2021, along with two enthusiastic fanfic writers, and a moderator who turned out far more interested in joining in the discussion than facilitating it.
Posted in Events and tagged C Drama, china, Chinese, culture, Daoism, fantasy, idol drama, MDZS, MXTX, SFF, society, The Untamed, TV, Xianxia, xiuzhen, xuanhuan
Chinese Cultures In Avatar the Legend of Korra: Continued
As “Legend of Korra” finishes its second season on British TV, its third season in the US and a fourth season is announced, I thought it would be a good time to gather my thoughts for a second article on the elements of Chinese culture from which the series draws inspiration. I will be touching on “Last Airbender” for themes that sweep across both series. In the last article I looked at the traditional Chinese stylistic influences on “Korra”, in this article, I will explore the historical and cultural elements which inspired the storytellers.
Posted in Articles and tagged Avatar, Ba Gua, Boxer Rebellion, cartoon, china, Chinese, Ci Xi, Hong Xiu Quan, Kangxi, Legend of Korra, Qianlong, Red Lotus, tai chi, The Last Airbender, TV, White Lotus
Iron Fist or Ham-Fist?
A dramatization based on Marvel’s Iron Fist took a long time coming. The comics themselves which began in the 1970s only came into being with the craze for kungfu films in the US at the time, and even with its blatant cultural appropriation and lumping together of all non-white cultures, it was a beacon as a Western comic with a semblance of diversity. The Fraction/Brubaker series in the 90s paid its dues to diversity, nodding to a long line of warriors from different backgrounds, who held the title of Iron Fist, though still representing in quite stereotypical terms the nation the culture of which it owed so much of its world building.
In the 21st century, with the popularity of superheroes TV series, and the success of the “Daredevil” and “Luke Cage”, many have been anticipating one on the warrior of K’un-Lun, and there has been calling from fans and celebrities alike for an Asian casting of its protagonist Danny Rand. The series had been delayed, due to creative debate on the on-screen depiction of the hero’s fiery powers. At last, it was released on Netflix on the 17th of March, and I watched through it all in one go to bring you a continuous commentary on social media. Owing to the positive response I’ve received, here’s a write up of the various themes and points of interest that have come to light.
Posted in Articles and tagged china, Chinese, comics, commentary, culture, diversity, Iron Fist, Marvel, Netflix, review, TV