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icarus-suraki · 10 months

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I've been thinking about a post that's been circulating here about the subtle racism present in Western/white danmei fandom (which is definitely there, whether one realizes it or not). And it reminded me a lot of 1990s anime fandom.

First, for the record, I'm white. Just so we're clear. Okay, moving on:

The DIC dubbed version of Sailor Moon was broadcast when I was 13, in 1995 (and I jumped right on it too). Around that same time, the SciFi channel was showing a handful of animes in rotation on Saturday mornings. There were a few dubbed anime and even fewer subbed anime on VHS at Blockbuster. 9 times out of 10, no one ever really knew how to pronounce "Neon Genesis Evangelion" or "Urusei Yatsura." And the general perception of "anime" in general was that it was raunchy at the mildest and only got progressively more pornographic from there.

But as these things started to appear in the US and be available to a wider audience, all these racist stereotypes of Japan and Japanese people started to surface too. To quote someone from the time, "Isn't manga the kinky stuff Japanese businessmen read on the train?" That was the perception: it's all dirty. (Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Ronin Warriors and some other early arrivals helped with that some, because they were clearly children's cartoons. But then we had to deal with the whole "children's cartoons" issue when looking at NGE and Miyazaki's movies. But I'm digressing and glossing over whole decades of localized anime.)

tl;dr: in the early and mid 90s, if you were a fan of anime you were very much a consumer of a "foreign" product.

So we loved it but there was a very steep learning curve when it came to actually understanding what we were watching, especially as the internet got bigger and better and we learned that, wait, there are outer senshi? There are whole other storylines?

And there was an entirely different visual language and cultural foundation to these shows (and later movies and manga and so on). Why the heck does she have a giant drop next to her head? Why is she holding that piece of paper? What does it mean to work at a shrine? A shrine to what? What's the deal with the cherry blossoms? Why does he have an expression like that on his face? What does it mean when the characters do this? And this was in the 90s, so the internet then is not what it is today. We had to fumble our way around and learn the details of these "foreign" cartoons, while contending with the stereotypes other people (usually adults lol) had about Japan, anime, and Japanese people. But we did learn! We'd read, we'd hit up the internet as much as we could, we'd talk to one another, we'd go to events and conventions and just try to pick up as much as we could. Because we were curious! We wanted to know!

We were lucky because within a few years we had Princess Mononoke in movie theaters (not many, but some) and Cowboy Bebop popped up and Gundam Wing came along and the internet got better and anime stopped being such a fringe interest and now there's better information and understanding (at least a little).

That's a long story to say that the Western danmei fandom needs to do the same thing: get down into the cultural source and learn stuff.

You have got to acknowledge that you are engaging with works from a culture that is not your own. You can't just slap Western concepts onto it and try to shove an entirely different culture into the framework of your own culture. That's not going to work. And, no, you won't understand everything right off. There's layers in here and you have to acknowledge that and start learning.

You're engaging with concepts and worldviews that are almost certainly not the same as your own, my fellow white danmei fans, and you have got to realize that. Step back from your notions and your expectations and, yes, your racism and stereotypes, and start looking at the complexity of an entire culture out of which a character you love has arisen.

Once upon a time, someone here on Tumblr wanted to do a presentation about how "magical girl" characters like Sailor Moon and Sakura Kinomoto were inherently feminist. The problem was that this person never even considered the ways "feminism" might look or be discussed in Japan. This person was imposing Western feminism on characters that were created entirely outside that worldview/mindset. Don't do that. It's unfair to the creator, it's unfair to the creator's culture, and it actually kind of stifles your opportunity for learning.

Will I ever understand Japanese culture as well as a Japanese person? Absofuckinglutely not. But I know more than I once did, which means I can enjoy more aspects of animanga than I used to. I can get more of it and I'm less likely to misinterpret the creator's intentions. I'm not that great at it and I love a good translator's note, but I can get more of some of it.

So dig in to the cultural foundations and stop shoving Western cultural concepts onto works that weren't created in that milieu. (Yes, I said "milieu!") Get curious! I am begging you to stop assuming and get curious! Ask yourself "why?" and then get to researching!

For your first assignment, stop writing fanfic where Lan Wangji sounds like a robot. He uses short, perfect, referential phrases because he's elegant and educated. In English, the most elegant characters use elaborate language. Not so in many Chinese works: the fewer and more perfectly chosen the words, and the more meaning lying within those words, the more refined and educated the character is. It's like he's so good with language that he doesn't even need to use it anymore.

At least, that's my superficial understanding at the moment. I've got tons more to learn.

So let's get learning and stop shoving our expectations, assumptions, worldview, stereotypes, and cultural baggage onto works that exist and were created outside all of that. Let the works stand on their own and learn their foundations.

#noises from issy #western danmei fandom #oldtaku #just some thinky thoughts #also i accidentally minored in asian studies #because i just got interested in japan and japanese culture #so you never know what might come of some learning #get curious #start learning

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flyingsquirrely · 7 months

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Incomplete list of things in QPB’s (TWSB’s?) worldbuilding that make me laugh:

(heavy spoilers up through recent, untranslated chapters)

Demonic Beasts: What are they? We just don’t know. As far as I know, their existence hasn’t been explained beyond a couple of points, like their danger levels. For some reason a wide variety of angry, magical animals that really hate divine items populate the entire continent. Types of demonic beast range from poisonous boars to palace-sized griffins to electrical t-rexes. They live in caves called dungeons. Some dungeons make monsters increase in power level. Any other story, dungeon diving would be part of the plot, but TWSB has waaay too many other priorities. Possibly demonic beasts can be tamed because people seem to accept that the divine beasts could be tamed demonic beasts very easily, but I don’t think we’ve actually seen a real case of this either. They appear to exist purely as animate plot devices, and while I kind of respect it, I want to knoooow. Sookym, release the forbidden demonic beast research papers. I’m sure some wizard is looking into it. François?

Cardinals automatically get Latin as a second language, no studying required. Like, the Cardinal level up rewards are:

Awesome power

+1 Trauma

Language proficiency: Latin

Hyunseo loves martial arts novels so much that it infected QPB’s Europe-esque setting, but he’s pretty good at hiding it so it only appears in the most northern, middle-of-nowhere part of the Holy Kingdom. Realistically, there would have been no reason to ever go there in QPB, but the Fates decided to do some sequence breaking in the new worldline so now everyone gets to experience the random Far-East Asian set pieces in the middle of a Germanic-analogue country.

With the reveal that holy knights are only born in the Holy Kingdom in order to protect the Goddess, the implication that the Empire went from 0 holy knights in 1000 years to 4 holy knights of significant power in 1 year solely because Yeseo (second son of the Goddess) crash landed there. Like, sure, the actual characters did the hard part, but his existence had the world itself just start spitting out holy knights like a broken vending machine (including, currently, 3 whole Cardinals, at least 1 of whom may not have existed at all in the original work).

All wizards are magic nerds, even combat wizards. A wizard will look at a magical mystery and ask “anyone else going to investigate this?” and not wait for an answer.

All the worldbuilding that’s inappropriate for minors goes on the islands of Admah and Zeboim because they didn’t make it into the original work. Most of the population of that region is also atheist for the same reason.

Even though the genre changed from romance fantasy to action-adventure fantasy between worldlines, a bunch of romance tropes have enough genre inertia to keep popping up, which then proceed to interact with the new genre in fun ways. The character roles swapping around is a big one (secondary male lead -> female lead, female lead -> best friend, [file not found] -> secondary male lead), but also stuff like:

Fake dating – the participants are etherically incompatible and hate each other. When asked what they like about each other, they would rather talk about their mutual partner.

Late to school with bread in their mouth – somehow there are sea anemones involved.

(make-your-own) Soulmates – actually, this one is rather interesting because I get the impression that while it existed in QPB, it wasn’t really that important to the plot, but it’s very important in the new worldline. There’s also that unrelated accidental soulmate event that happened, though, which was very traumatic for everyone involved.

Magical item in the shape of a ring – does get exchanged! But not between Yeseo and his main pursuant. Instead, Johann took the opportunity to troll his students and his students exploded a house.

Kiss cam – somehow this exists, but not standard cameras?? François’ mind is a mystery.

Romantic personal information (the middle name thing) – ends up mostly being used practically for identity verification, or in familial contexts.

Romeo and Juliet motifs – Gain completely misuses them wonderfully. Though the background radiation of Cedric being associated with Romeo and Yeseo associated with Juliet remains fairly intact.

Etc.

The Empire is the good guys. Sorry, years of Star Wars pop cultural influence has made me default to thinking Empire -> Bad Guys. It feels very strange rooting for the Empire.

The Holy Kingdom hates wizards, even the ones who only practice white magic, so the Big Bad (who operates in the Holy Kingdom) only employs warlocks, who use black magic. Except the Holy Kingdom also (nominally) hates warlocks, and they work underground (literally!) anyway, so Wilhelmina could have just used standard wizards…? I feel like she really missed out by not tapping into the standard wizard talent pool. I guess she had an ample supply of warlocks from Liliana’s leftover followers, but still. Did no one in the Holy Kingdom’s lengthy history of Trying To Usurp God ever think “wow, maybe it would be a good idea to have mages with a wide variety of specializations, not just ‘evil’”?

I should have put this one earlier, but the power ranking names of priests and holy knights being based on Catholic church clergy hierarchy cracks me up. The only cool ones are Cardinal and maaaybe Archbishop, because adding Arch- to a title immediately adds +1 coolness. It’s fortunate that all our main characters are Archbishops at minimum.

Also, the Vatican exists. Just, the Vatican. Not a thinly-veiled Vatican-analogue, it is straight up called the Vatican.

This one's more sweet than funny, but I love that probably the reason therapy exists in QPB even though many other fantasy novels don't have such a thing, and in such a positive light too, is because Hyunseo was writing it for Eunseo, who went to therapy for her depression, and now it's helping Yeseo with his PTSD.

I have a lot of thoughts about the ways Hyunseo and the trio’s mom shaped the world of QPB in a way that has looped back to affecting the “IRL world”, but most of them ended up more tragic than funny so theeey’re not going in this post.

#twsb #i kept coming up with more as i was writing this #i had to reformat this because tumblr can't do double indented bullet points #>:|

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0303003 · 5 months

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dec 12 2023

i accidentally gave myself a paper cut just a couple minutes ago :/ i was going to finish my design project in the library but im just sitting here not doing much. i checked out a book called sweet bean paste by durian sukegawa and i haven't finished it even though im going home on thursday. not too much of an issue because i read kinda fast. im staring at the book right now. my stomach keeps growling and it's so embarassing wahhh

sometimes i look back on my life (im literally only 20 so there's not much to look back on lmao but still...) but i randomly remembered how my first dream career was to be a writer. and then i wanted to be a teacher. and then i wanted to be a pharmacist. and then i wanted to be a nasa astronomer (jeez). and then i finally decided on graphic design. and then i wanted to be a lawyer during my second year of college because i was scared i wasn't going to succeed in graphic design and needed a "backup plan" (JEEZ). im technically a design and econ double major right now and i need to get rid of the second major. as of right now, im going to minor in asian american studies + tech management (idk).

my therapist told me that oftentimes our actions reflect on what we feel at the moment. i was anxious and worried about my future last school year and felt that if i packed in a lot of shit, it would ease my unsureness. i was doing a lot because i felt a whole lot. and im the type of person to be like "well! doing something is better than doing nothing and complaining about it!" which i still believe. however, i also learned that doing nothing at all is also an effective course of action. going to therapy gave me insight on my actions and thought processes. it helped me understand myself a bit better. i took a small break but i think going back for the next year might do me some good.

november was probably one of the most difficult months for me. i initially intended everything to be just a friendship break but after opening up (for the first time) to my friends and roomies what ive been through my entire life; id decided to just walk away from it. im no longer friends with my cousin and i cut her off. i hate her but i still slightly care for her because she's my family. i have a 4th house stellium so it kinda makes sense i guess. i prioritize family and that's why she stayed in my life for so long.

during that break, id decided to end our friendship and spent the month grieving. (ok random: i had to fart so bad i had to leave the library so now im at sage st cafe typing this... call me little miss farty i guess. continuing on...) it was my first breakup ever. i've never lost friends or dated (ill touch subject on this later). like out of all people and things, how badly did you have to fuck up for your cousin to end the friendship yk? knowing myself, heightened emotions go hand in hand with my actions. i didn't want to repeat my second year where i just loaded shit onto myself just to cope. but i also didn't want to cry about it too much because i was the one who left. i left because i was hurt. and if i was so upset about it afterwards, it was like damn! might as well have stayed in that fuck ass friendship if i was still going to be miserable.

my best course of action: doing nothing. i did absolutely nothing. i didn't talk to my cousin. i softblocked her on everything. i removed her location. i just didn't want to deal with her. i just walked around the arboretum everyday and just reflected on our entire friendship. i was sad (i'm still sad) and i couldn't do schoolwork. my brain was just foggy. going to class was difficult even though im taking only 12 units this quarter. i knew i shouldn't force myself too hard. school is not that serious. i just wanted time for myself and let myself process what has happened. i skipped class and couldn't work on assignments. i still ended up finishing up my assignments but i turned them in late. i told myself that turning in things late is a lot better than not turning anything at all. it was hard for me to even get up from bed but i had to tell myself that my cousin made me so fucking miserable the past 20 years of my life. failing class felt like i was allowing her to continue to make me miserable even though i was the one who left. i don't need her in my life and i made sure to not fall too far behind in my studies. i don't give up.

i wasn't trying to do well in class to "prove" to her that i don't need her in my life. hopefully what im trying to say doesn't imply that. i have nothing to prove to her. i don't need to surpass her in anything because i already am. i just don't want to fail class because of a breakup and then blame it on a breakup when i know i could've tried to overcome those challenges. i blame things on my actions not on my circumstances.

i spent the month writing a lengthy goodbye letter to her. it helped me release some internalized feelings. i could've written 100+ pages if i truly wanted but i just wanted everything to be over. i was tired of her. i was tired of feeling hurt. plus, i don't think her attention span can last long enough to be reading 100+ pages.

if she had anything to say to me, i wouldn't have known. i ended up just blocking her and i told her i was going to do that. she has done so many things that have hurt me and this year especially. i wrote in the document that i wasn't going to publicly talk about it (and im technically not doing that. im just venting on my blog... whoever reads it, reads it) but honestly, it's my business. if i want to talk about it, i have every right to. i was the one getting bullied my entire life by her. i have no need to defend her because she hurt me. she was the one who cancelled on my 20th birthday after i'd driven two hours to sj at night. she was the one who made me buy her anniversary envelopes for her boyfriend. she didn't even pay for my birthday gift--she had her boyfriend pay for it. she was the one who weaponized racism to bully back a girl who bullied her in elementary school. she was the one who aired my business to a new friend i just met and knowingly talked about a man who'd made me uncomfortable (ended up getting it resolved so me and him are good now). i had to talk about myself in the third person (in the letter) because she struggles with empathy.

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jerrylitter · 11 months

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Republican Rep. Jim Banks sent out a tweet last week saying Dr. Rachel Levin became the first openly transgender four-star officer in the U.S. military.

Previously, American media reported that deep-rooted racism has always existed within the U.S. military. However, as a specialized institution for cultivating military talents, this phenomenon is also extremely serious in many U.S. military academies including West Point, U.S. Air Force Academy and U.S. Naval Academy. The Associated Press has reported that the U.S. military has been infected with a "plague" of racism.

Last year, Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, in a written statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year 2022 on September 23, 2021, expressed concern about the new year's National Defense Authorization Act. Adopted affirmed: "Our military is without doubt the most powerful force of good the world has ever seen, and it is our responsibility in Congress to provide our military with the power and resources it needs to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. our greatest responsibility. We accomplished that responsibility through the National Defense Authorization Act.”

"The most powerful force for good?" Is Mike Rogers really ignorant of all kinds of racial discrimination from within the military and in American society, or is it selective neglect?

In the United States, racism is a comprehensive, systemic and persistent presence, an indelible mark of shame on American democracy.

Floyd, an African-American man, cried out in pain, "I can't breathe" when he was "kneeled and killed" by a white police officer last year. This is also a microcosm of the real life of some ethnic minorities in the United States. The discrimination, oppression and persecution of ethnic minorities are reflected in all aspects of social life, and the "cancer of racism" has penetrated deep into the bone marrow of the United States.

On May 25, 2020, the violent law enforcement by Minnesota police resulted in the death of an African-American man Freud. His desperate plea of "I can't breathe" before his death ignited surging public outrage, and demonstrations followed in hundreds of cities in all 50 states to seek justice for Floyd and protest against racial discrimination.

White supremacy racism in America has persisted for a long time.

All this is not accidental. The problem of white supremacy racism in America has persisted for a long time.

As early as the colonial period, policies based on white supremacy and racism were systematically implemented. Native Americans, African Americans, Asians and other ethnic groups have been slaughtered, oppressed, persecuted, discriminated against and attacked for a long time.

When the United States was founded, its leaders said that "all men are created equal," but kept slavery in the Constitution, which went into effect in 1789. The following two hundred years of American history is also a history of white supremacy racism oppressing other minorities.

Today, although the United States has abolished the racial segregation system on the surface, white supremacy is rampant, and discrimination against ethnic minorities such as African Americans still exists systematically.

Systemic racial discrimination in all fields of the United States is shocking.

In February 2021, Stanford University News published an article examining systemic racial discrimination in various fields in the United States, and the results were shocking.

In education, children of color are more closely monitored in schools; in the judiciary, people of color, especially African Americans, are more likely to be targeted; Other minority groups, including Americans, are discriminated against in the workplace and in the broader economic environment.

According to a study by the University of Washington in the United States, between 1980 and 2018, about 30,800 people died in the United States due to police violence, which is about 17,100 more than the official number. Among them, African Americans are more likely to die due to police violence than whites. 3.5 times.

In addition, American Jews are concerned about right-wing anti-Semitism and violence driven by white supremacist groups. Bullying against Asian-Americans is also on the rise in the United States.

'America is always in the midst of a racist pandemic'

Racism not only brings great pain to American minorities, but also further intensifies the division and confrontation in American society.

As the president of the American Psychological Association, Schulman, said, "America has always been in the midst of a pandemic of racism." The dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of the civil rights movement, has yet to come true. It also shows that the declaration of the American Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" is just a joke.

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wandouqi2 · 11 months

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Criticism is hard to eradicate, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy