#lmao I did not get svsss. it's fine and I liked it a lot!!

[meichenxi]

ATTENTION: MXTX BOOKS ACQUIRED!!!!!

!!!! yes!!!!! you heard that correctly!!!!!  I now have copies of TGCF and MDZS in traditional chinese, vertically laid out, plus a whole bunch of other books!!

(I have just returned from taiwan; it was by far not my only purpose in going, but I also decided to stay four days extra at the end after my friend had left just so I could go a-hunting.)

I am. so unbelievably excited. and especially because, with never having a) looked at these books in chinese, b) never having read anything beyond a few lines in traditional, and c) never having read vertical formatting, they are....readable? not with a dictionary on kindle or pleco like I’ve done before to make sense of things, but readable cover-to-cover without a dictionary at all. 

that is a HUGE step for me. reading has always been a bit of a mental block and with the traditional especially and the formatting I was very much expecting it to be a strugglebus situation and don’t get me wrong, it requires a good fucking deal of mental concentration and yes, I do occasionally run my finger down the page to not lose my place like an old person, but...I’m reading them

in the last four? three? days, I’ve read, as of right now, 68 pages of tgcf volume one consecutively (as in, just from the beginning) and over 90 pages in total (+ the pages I read for the scenes I like and skipped to). and it’s so FUNNY!!! I had honestly forgotten. I’m laughing out loud at points!! I read extremely quickly in english, and also have a terrible memory, which combines into flying through books and never having any idea what happened in them - reading more slowly I feel like I can enjoy what is going on more, and appreciate just honestly how funny the writing is. it’s hilarious. xie lian is such a moron (affectionate). ‘next time, if you have to throw something, throw me and not the food, ok?’ what a loser!!!! what a guy!!!!! 

so, 68 pages in, now for an honest appraisal of where I’m at.

first, formatting. 

 the vertical layout - look, going to be honest, I kind of hate it. I’m not used to looking up and down and feel like I’m bobbing my head, and it makes scanning a line more time-consuming. on the other hand, I can feel a massive increase in speed and comfort from even when I started three or four days ago, so I think it’s a matter of practice. I noticed also that when I went to the bookstore I still have the completely hilarious and useless habit of tilting my head to look at the books. the titles of which are written vertically. 

second, traditional. 

I am reading a lot slower than I do in simplified and horizontal laid-out texts, which is not surprising. the traditional is the biggest stumbling block definitely - but it’s not as big actually as I would have thought. I’ve been picking up frequent very different characters with two or three repetitions; not enough to internalise them and read them as seamlessly as in simplified chinese, but enough to look at them, even when it’s a little jarring, and go ‘oh, that means this’ in my head. I have found that I tend to subvocalise more with a) the increase in very different traditional characters, and b) the difficulty of the text. when there are simple conversations or directions I don’t subvocalise at all, which I consider generally speaking to be a good thing as it improves your speed of reading. when there’s a lot of mid-frequency fairly different characters (i.e. ones that I have picked up in these few days but aren’t common enough to be every two lines, and that I still very much have to think about), I subvocalise a LOT. when the characters are ones that I think I probably don’t know in either traditional or simplified, or there are a lot of very confusing descriptions, I don’t subvocalise at all, even if I could by phonetic components. I just - vibe. which brings me onto the next part. 

reading traditional - the brain feeling. 

I CANNOT describe how strange it is to read traditional and how wonderful an organ the brain is. it honestly feels like magic. if you’re still reading at this point and I’m not just shouting into the void, you probably know that I can’t handwrite in chinese to save my life - what that means practically for character recognition is that you could ask me to name the components of a character I see 100000 times a day and I couldn’t do it. it’s all subconscious. I have NO memory or understanding of what radicals are used where at the best of times in simplified chinese, and it’s all done via The Vibe. 

this is EVEN stronger in traditional chinese. I have not really ever deliberately learnt or consumed any media in traditional apart from a few characters you commonly see written or appeared when I have done a little bit of Classical chinese, like 馬，為，無 etc. I also got up to about halfway through the hsk1 course on skritter for a while on one of my endless attempts to learn how to write - so that gave me characters like 歡，對，甚麼 and so forth. in total that’s....still not that much. the VIBES I get when reading, though - incredible!!!!! I see these characters (not just ones with components that are predictable in traditional forms, but fairly or very different ones) that I have no memory of ever seeing before in my life and go, oh, that feels vaguely like this one. and then I look it up and I’m right. 

some of these are things of course are not objectively difficult - if you know the two components, you can go, oh, those are the two traditional versions of the components and so stuck together is the traditional character. but since I don’t consciously know the component parts off the top of my head of more than about 12 simplified characters (rip), this feels like utter magic. I have also been guessing quite a lot based on context and radicals.

I also know I probably HAVE seen some of these characters before at some point, I just don’t remember. nevertheless. it feels amazing, especially with the ones that are not predictable and are totally different. it’s a very bizarre experience. the coolest part though is the ability to remember new characters without looking them up or ‘learning’ them - a large majority of the traditional characters I can know recognise have genuinely been learnt over the last three days. if I see them for a second or third time - they’re mine now. and that is very cool and comes with practice and NOT anything innate blah blah because when I first started, I remember looking at characters over 20 times and still not being able to remember if I had even SEEN them before, let alone what they mean. so that ability has improved a huge amount, and I think reading and learning new words within the context of that book is mostly to thank for that. 

(not really relevant to any of the above, but reading in a foreign language is so interesting, because you really notice the vocabulary the author uses again and again and again more than in your native language. for instance, mxtx is constantly saying 这下. also 莞尔 as a word for smile - xie lian is CONSTANTly 莞尔一笑 . those are the two I’ve noticed a lot so far.)

overall then:

there are plenty of individual words I don’t know, but it’s usually clear what they mean in context, and when I know I’m reading a description of someone’s elegant fingers that's all you really need to know. none of it has affected my reading experience enough to make me physically put down the book and open pleco. 

I haven’t needed the dictionary for anything so far that I can’t get from context or memory of what happens. this means that I am Reading It Reading It, as opposed to Pleco Reading It or Kindle Reading It. which feels like a huuuuuuuuge milestone and difference and you know,,,honestly tearing up a little bit!!!!! because it’s so cool and I never thought I’d get here!!!!!! 

----

with all of that in mind, my plan for reading these is just...go from cover to cover with the first volume of tgcf, but let myself - since I know the story - jump around to read and re-read the bits I like reading. I want to get at least through the first two books of tgcf before I try to tackle any of the other books that I have bought. I’m not stopping to learn vocab really without the dictionary as most of it hasn’t been necessary so far and would interrupt the reading flow, but sometimes if there is a word I have seen 238290 times I will. I have only done this a few times, however, so I think for pulling vocab from this book I will have to do it separately - i.e. choose a passage I like and write down all the vaguely useful / fun words I don’t know. 

I have also got mdzs. now. the thing here is that...I love tgcf, but I’m not as precious about it as I am about mdzs. I have also NEVER read mdzs in translation because I have hated all of them so much, so I want the first time I read it to be as smooth as I possibly can, and to get as much impact and beauty and *shakes fist* as I possibly can. so...I might put it off for a while, maybe another 6 months or so whilst I improve my reading and traditional recognition skills. we’ll see. I don’t want to dip into it in the same way, and I feel like I want to use tgcf as training wheels first. we will see!

updates soon!!! big excite!!!!!!

#meichenxi manages #chinese #tgcf #mdzs #mxtx #lmao I did not get svsss. it's fine and I liked it a lot!! #but I don't like it well enough to struggle head-first through in the same way as these two #honestly I am kind of afraid to even look at mdzs #I feel like...I will either look at it and decide I need to read it immediately #or be emotionally thrown a curveball and just run away #it feels like...hmm. how do I put this. #reading mdzs in chinese feels like such a turning point to me in a way that nothing else does #which is weird because tgcf is longer!!! and not an easy read either!!!! and I'm reading that perfectly well!!!! #but mdzs....would feel like coming full-circle. it would feel like Success. #since it was the untamed that got me into learning chinese properly in the first place #also because I have never read it in English and have deliberately waited until my Chinese was good enough #but now I feel like....it could be good enough....and I want to wait until it's better ahsfkjsa #so that I can properly smoothly read it. not going to say 'effortlessly' but...better than now #I want to be shocked and moved and saddened and given hope by it in the way cql did #and I feel like....I don't know. I don't want the chinese to impede in any way my reading experience of it #which is so stupid!!! because it obviously willl!!! It will ALWAYS be so much more difficult than english #even if I keep learning until I'm 100 #but part of me thinks. look. three years ago you couldn't read a hsk1 sentence in chinese. #if I wait for another year or two years....how much easier and how much more would I get out of it then? #anyway the whole thing is stupid. I'm reading tgcf slowly but like...we're reading every sentence here. not missing anything. #I think I'm just afraid to Finally read mdzs. it feels like the Last Thing. because then what next in that fandom? #I've given it this almost mythical status and that's my own fault but like....argggggh #if I define 'success' as 'reading mdzs' I know for a fact I COULD read it now. but I don't feel like I have achieved success? there's still #SO very much to go? #so I think the problem is that one of my goalposts has shifted. and the other one has stayed in the same place.

[dyouevendraw]

About me

So, I thought I’d probably be best to just make a pinned post with some info so I’m not just a void who throws art a a wall. (I’m probably gonna edit as things change) But here we go:

My tiktok is dyoueven

My instagram is dyouevendraw

My name is D, sometimes people still call me Fay, I don’t mind that either

I’m 22 years old

I use they/them pronouns, I’m fine with he/him too. I’d call myself nonbinary or even agender, leaning towards the masc side. It’s a struggle

Additionally to that, I am ace and my romantic attraction is 🤷🏼. I like androgyny and femininity if that says anything lmao

I have a hypermobilty condition, thus, my physical health is very inconsistent. Sometimes I feel fine for weeks, sometimes I can barely move my arms. Luckily, I don’t dislocate easily, I mostly get joint pain, pinched nerves, random bruises and badly healing wounds. Additionally, I seem to have a mild variant of long covid, which is making my lungs weak, so sometimes physical activities winds me badly even though it’s not hard work.

I am autistic and only found out around 2 years ago, thus, school burned me out! I was bullied by my teachers and they ignored all the signs of a struggling student, so I developed bad social anxiety (added by other events with former friends and general genetics probably). I took a year off of art to focus on getting a better mindset, and I guess I’ve been back since this year.

I am a clumsy and unlucky person, that’s why I say I am like Xie Lian a lot (send me a Hua Cheng)

I like k-pop. Currently, I like BTS, TXT, SKZ, LE SSERAFIM, New Jeans, Red Velvet and SHINee.

Other artists I like are: Tatsuya Kitani, Eve, The Oral Cigarettes, Vaundy, King Gnu, Queen Bee and MCR (what a mix)

Fandoms I’m in include(I’m sure I’ll add more danmei when I’m done reading them):

TGCF (I have beef with it but I’m deeply in love)

MDZS

SVSSS (still reading, on volume 2)

JJK

AOT

Sometimes I like Marvel. I only care about Spider-Man and Loki

TLOZ

Pokémon

(Always open to suggestions for more things, especially when they’re queer🤠👍🏻)

I write my own stories and am working on an AU that includes many fantastical being, though I am not entirely sure if that’s ever gonna see the light of day bc I don’t see anyone caring about my writing lol (it already has 137.000 words I’m not even joking it’s not funny, why am I writing this)

I’m sure I’ll post more of my OC’s when I find the time. My favorite is Harumi, he’s the main character in the fantastic beings AU, as a werewolf

I am so sorry my humor is super trauma based, bare with me it’s okay to laugh at my pain, it’s how I process, I swear

My favorite food is anything indian (especially aloo mutter, I bathe in that), pizza (only the one I make), and (red) thai curry.

That’s the only thing that sets me apart from Xie Lian, I eventually did learn how to cook and apparently people like my food!! (I add cinnamon and chili to everything, maybe that’s the key?)

I love building lego and organizing things by category (why I didn’t get diagnosed with asd is beyond me, I’ve always been like that)

I mostly draw on an Ipad with procreate, but I wanna get into watercolor and copics too, I just feel like I’m wasting the suff when things don’t turn out how I wanted them to be

I am horrible at texting and get anxious over it

I had another account here I was running for years, but I was in a pretty icky fandom and didn’t want to associate with the reputation that came with it, thus, I left. I am not the stupid, hurt and depressed teenager I was anymore, and that’s great!

I am german, though, I speak English so much I might as well be a native speaker

That’s it for now, you can always feel free to ask my questions, my (anonymous) asks, submissions and reblogs are always open, I just won’t answer if you’re rude🤠✌🏻

#artists on tumblr #about me #about myself #about the blogger #about the artist #art #random #text post #pinned post #danmei #tgcf #anime

[danhoemei]

Hi...how are you? If you don't mind me asking, what are your top 5 fav danmei novels (until now)? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....

I’m good, thank you! I don’t mind you asking at all :) You’re actually the first person ever to send me an ask so whoa I feel appreciated :0

Choosing only 5 was a tough decision so I cheated a bit, if you can forgive me 🙏 Also, I’m still a beginner in Chinese novels so I haven’t read many titles yet 

1. MXTX’s stories in general (novelupdates)

Stories with elaborate plots, compelling characters, a lot of humor, and devotion and love that grabs you by the heart. You get a few punches in the gut which make you bleed internally for these characters, but also a lot of love and justice for them, warming your insides after the pain. It’s ups and downs on a road of intriguing plots which engage you until the very end, with many twists and turns and unexpected events. I am forever impressed by MXTX for the art of storytelling and for creating such wonderful and rich worlds which are not black and white. There are numerous moral dilemmas and it’s not that easy to say who is in the right, leaving you with many questions about human nature and areas to explore.

MDZS was my first Chinese novel actually, I started reading it while it was still being translated. My door to this world, so I am additionally fond of it. The beginning was pretty tough because of all the names and sects and details, as for many people I presume. But boi was it worth it. I fell in love with MC, a ray of sunshine with a heart of gold, ready for the greatest sacrifices for his loved ones and for what he felt was right, bearing heavy responsibilities on his shoulders while still keeping his free and cheerful self. And so smart. I am weak for smart people. The plot engrossed me and I was almost going insane waiting for new chapters to be published. I love crime stories. I could go on and on about all the characters and things I love about MDZS but it’d be a few k words long so I’ll end here lmao.

TGCF makes me burst of rainbows when I think about the main pair asfvhbvjernovn. I think it may be my favourite pair ever. What these two had to go through made me physically feel pain and I wailed like a baby reading The Cursed Book 4. But what they found in each other, the pure raw devotion... just messes me up, truly. Also, the humor is just top notch for me lmfao I love MXTX’s humor.

SVSSS was extremely funny to me, but it was also quite frustrating. At some point I was pretty much tired of the misunderstandings. Also the world was not that interesting? I mean, MC was lazing around and nothing much happened there around the world before ML started... some stuff. But the last straw was the main pair’s relationship. Really not satisfying to me, [spoiler] MC just going “ugh fine”, and their first time being pretty much r*pe. I know that they did develop their relationship in the extras, but [end of spoiler] I still felt kind of disappointed by their dynamic, not really my thing. But the secondary pair moshang hvyuhivtyfuhvctfygu goddamn I love them, one of my OTPs 💙 And I HURT for qijiu. And love lqg. Overall, I enjoyed the novel for the humor and I love side characters and side threads, but I experienced a lot of frustration and wasn’t satisfied by many parts, so it’s the only MXTX novel I didn’t reread and needed a lot of fanfics to feel the main pair because it didn’t manage to click for me in the original work.

There are many more things I could say about these novels but let’s stop here lmao 

2. The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love (novelupdates)

One of my favourite. Also a comedy so there is a lot of laughing, especially because of MC's poker face and disabilities which caused a lot of funny misunderstandings. Actually never have I read a cnovel with a handicapped MC (he's deaf without his hearing aid and blind without his glasses). There is a lot of angst and healing, about being broken and betrayed countless of times... It’s another trope which speaks to me - when a broken, betrayed, full of mistrust and hatred person meets someone who is truly and honestly devoted to them, and slowly learns to open up to them and trust again 😭 The plot and the world is also very interesting. There are some silly parts or minor cliches, but what I like about this novel is how it takes those cliches and turns them into something original and surprising. Yeah, this novel has a lot of layers.

3. Faraway Wanderers (novelupdates)

I’d say that while MXTX meticulously weaves her intricate stories, Priest in TYK went “there is some plot going on somewhere in the background but main characters couldn’t care less” lmfao. While reading the novel I had so many ideas how some details could be used, but they just weren’t xd I saw some of what I expected being used in the drama though (Word of Honor), but I still haven’t started watching; waiting for more episodes to be translated plus I want to finish the fic I’m writing before diving into the drama, to keep novel-compliant. So generally, the plot in the novel wasn’t really compelling but I absolutely adore the main pair. I’m weak for the grumpy and hard to get shou and obsessed unhinged gong lmao. And generally power couples. And the slow gaining of trust, peeling the layers and becoming vulnerable in front of each other. Mmmm yeah many tropes that just hit me likes

On a side note, this is my first Priest novel, so can’t say much about her other stories yet

4. Transmigration into a fucked up world with a yandere ML xd

Transmigrating into a Mob Character to Rehabilitate the Villain Plan (novelupdates)

Read it quite some time ago. Hmmm quite heavy and I'd put a lot of warnings here, very explicit and with some dub-con. Starts lighter though, the first book was pretty cute. But also awful most of the time xd The characters suffered a lot... I remember that I was pretty hooked on the plot, had some "but"s here and there and I think it got pretty ridiculous near the end? But I still enjoyed. I may have something for unhinged MLs 👀

Picked up by the Protagonist of a Tormented! MC Novel (novelupdates)

Didn’t finish unfortunately, got too busy with Uni before it got translated fully and never could go back so I don’t know how it ended. What was fascinating was that the MC got thrown into a body of a literal infant while he still retained his mind. So we get to see him grow with a very smart and very suspicious ML, requiring the MC to be extremely careful to act like a child and not be thrown away, but also help ML in any way. This novel was ruthless, just a warn, two small children on the streets going through literal hell. Not sure, but there might be r*pe in the chapters I didn’t reach, so a bit :/ I should read it again and finally finish sometime in the future xd

Every Day the Protagonist Wants to Capture Me (novelupdates)

It starts exactly like SVSSS but develops differently. It's one of those novels which was good and interesting in the first part and got ridiculous and kinda disappointing towards the end. Enjoyed the first half very much, was disappointed by the second half though.

5. The Legendary Master’s Wife (novelupdates)

It's so long it took me months to read. The translation I read at the beginning was utterly disastrous and I had trouble understanding, especially since there is a lot about cultivation or how pills are created (MC is not a cultivator but a pill-maker, also a plus for something fresh), so for a newbie me it was an additional difficulty. But it was my 2nd cnovel ('cause it was picked up by exiled rebels and I was fresh after mdzs on their site), and y’know one can stand a lot at the beginning lol. Pretty silly, with cliche tropes and a lot of holes, but I laughed many times. I enjoyed it while I was bedridden with one awful flu and needed something light. So I like it for a few personal reasons. The world and its mechanics are actually very detailed, I think that's what kept me mostly, the curiousity to learn about another layer and the outcome of some disputes.

----

Overall, I like most of them for some parts, but wouldn’t rate them as masterpieces and have quite a few “but”s. But the novel doesn’t need to be perfect to be enjoyed :)

I read some more but let’s just end with these xd Hope this satisfies you!

#ask #ask opinion #thanad zid #mxtx #mdzs #tgcf #svsss #the reader and protagonist definitely have to be in true love #transmigrating into a mob character to rehabilitate the villain plan #picked up by the protagonist of a tormented! mc novel #every day the protagonist wants to capture me #faraway wanderers #tyk #priest novels #lmw #the legendary master's wife #meta

[youareunbearable]

I dont want to do school work so instead im trying to figure out how to make a SVSSS/TGCF crossover without it being weird/making either canon wrong

So far all i got is that SVSSS took place before the massacre that lead to Jun Wu leading the heavenly capital, and that Ghost City resides somewhere in the demon realm (maybe??) and that LBH is basically HC’s very distant boss/ruler, cause even tho HC is a King, LBH is a heavenly demon and emperor and therefore more op and powerful than HC, he’d just never do anything about HC doing anything cause he doesnt really care and HC is fine with that, he just pays his taxes occasionally and doesn’t think about it

plot wise, i kinda got that since SVSSS took place before the heavenly massacre, i kinda want the CQ peak lords to maybe have ascended and therefore died in that massacre, and only a couple of the svsss characters lived to be in the tgcf crossover. Basically, any character that survived was in the demon realm at the time cause they never ascended (sqq, sqh, im dragging lqh into this too cause im a fan of liubingqiu and hed be the only god who lived cause he was bugging sqq about his fans, and maybe like nyy and lmy cause they married the new harem mistress shl) and they cut off all ties to heaven and it’s new ruler cause even if LBH might have won in a fight against JW, sqq and sqh basically held him (and lqg) back with tears in their eyes after everyone they cared about died cause god everyone they cared about DIED those ppl were OP and DIED you CANT go fight that!!! 

So basically svsss squad cut all ties with heaven and don’t really interact at all with the new gods cause theyre old jaded and bitter about it and are all kinda huddled around lqg cause he’s basically the only survivor and if jw finds out about him being alive and knowing what he did theyre fucked. They go between the demon realm and the mortal one and thats it

SO ACTUALLY PLOT TIME!! HC gets a letter from LBH basically asking him to come to court and bring his little “godly” friend too, and HC is like Ah Fuck I fucked up shit shit i can’t ignore this but i will fight the emperor if he tries anything funny with gege but XL is like lmaoo lets go why not im sure its nothing, so they go to the court and HC is basically giving a crash course of backstory for XL so he knows what hes going into and XL is interested about the fact that theyre all older than JW and know about Before, but HC is like God gege please dont ask them about it its a sensitive topic

they get there, and its a full court, all of LBH’s generals and his two husbands are here and HC and XL kneel and LBH is like “u have a lot of balls bringing in not only a god but That Man’s apprentice into my realm” and HC is sweating but also trying to sweet talk his way out of them needing to go into protective services to not die and the entire time SQQ is squinting at XL over his fan until he cuts HC off like “omg (fake alias) is that you? I haven’t seen you in over 200 years you never let me properly thank you” and is like excitedly chattering at XL who is like ???? ive never met you before but you know a name i used so we must have?? and SQQ is like “LBH this is the man that rescued me that one time 200 years ago! They were planning on sacrificing me to that god of misfortune so it would curse you to fall during that rebellion. (fake alias) swooped in and rescued me and waited with me until i had enough energy to fly back home, I was going to take you back with me for a reward but you disappeared as I was preparing to leave” and XL blue screens cause he just is so bad with faces and names before hes like “Oh!! Shen Yuan!! yes yes i remember now! wow lmao i see youre doing good, oh this must be ur husbands u talked so much about”

Like a flipped switch LBH went from “give me one good reason why i shouldnt kill you were u stand” to “I WILL SHOWER U IN BLESSINGS NAME UR PRICE ULL GET IT FOR SAVING MY SHIZUN!!!” and invites them for dinner and HC is sweating but also just pleased that nothing bad will happen to XL now that he has favor, but LQG is still glowering over the fact that he’s JW’s apprentice but over dinner they talk about what happened and XL is sosososo sorry and shares how he was tricked and abused by JW too and then they both just bond over fighting and swords and even agree to spar one martial god to another and everything just kinda ends up being ok

#amber rambles #fic idea #svsss #tgcf #i dont think ill ever write the full thing but i might make a drabble snippet