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zedecksiew · 8 months

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Three Clerks

Last week I tweaked my back. It hurt. A lot. As I recovered, I found that sketching with pen and pencil was less strenuous than writing on keyboard. So that's what I did.

Sketched characters from an adventure I am currently writing for Colin Le Sueur's We Deal In Lead. It began as a homage to Wisit Sasanatieng's tomyamgong western Fa Thalai Chon / Tears Of The Black Tiger.

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SHIN SUL SHAP, SHRINE CLERK 4 Grit 10 STR 10 DEX 10 HRT Switch (d4)

Face hidden by a broad-brimmed bonnet and veil. Patrols the lines of pilgrims; like a schoolmarm she thwacks anybody chit-chatting. Piety should be silent!

A waif snatches a lead token from her pouch, and bolts. A chase ensues. He begs your help. If Sul Shap finds him, she will sell him to captive takers.

Sul Shap is a clerk at the Shrine To The Headless Sun: a bare plaza; a marble pavilion; a golden man, with an ever-burning flame where his head should be.

The Headless Sun is patron saint of the Admiralty, whose laws now govern both Ocean and Sea. He was its founder. The kings of old captured and beheaded him. He overthrew them anyway.

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References for Sul Shap were basically Buddhist nun robes (mainly for the volume of fabric), plus an European bonnet.

Initially I'd imagined a conventional broad-brim hat---ie: her veil would be a cylinder around her whole head. But as I sketched I thought the bonnet made a more interesting shape? Also its rear was an opportunity to create a crest / halo of sun-rays. Religious iconography!

Alms bowl, because giving is a virtue. But the Headless Sun values ego-death, not asceticism---so colourful beads and gold amulets and pouches full of lead tokens (money).

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RIS SHAY NAM, RECORDS CLERK 2 Grit 10 STR 10 DEX 10 HRT Swung typewriter (d4)

In a wheelbarrow, pulled by a servitor, typewriter balanced on her belly, pockets filled with banana fritters. Greasy fingerprints on any document she works on.

Shay Nam thinks herself a moral soul. Will side with abolitionists and revolutionaries, with justice—until her own skin is at risk.

Shay Nam works at the Hibiscus Court. Princess Khur San, distancing herself from the old order, surrendered this palace to bureaucrats.

Clerks have filled its once-airy halls with shelves. By sympathetic sorcery, all contracts in the province manifest copies here. Rumour has it that this magic works both ways.

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This was my first sketch. In pain and bored I just started drawing.

No references, and it shows? Skirt and stockings and boots because these were the easiest for me to do. In my mind Shay Nam was an archetypal overweight NEET. Here she looks to be a sassy layabout. I like her better, now!

Also: a servitor is an empty body. Created when you ritually touch a shrine-stone to the Headless Sun---your soul is obliterated. What is left behind is mindless, hence the harness and reins.

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KHAN YUL MIN, COURT CLERK 4 Grit 1 DEF 10 STR 10 DEX 10 HRT Sabre (d8)

A university grad and former marine. But his townhouse sits below Rose Hill, on Merchant’s Row, beneath the old families' notice.

Yul Min means to change this. He has his eye on the Widow Gon. He will hire ruffians to waylay her palanquin—then swoop in, to rescue her. Elaborate theatre.

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Yul Min, like all these characters, live on the Sea of Sorrows, whose waters are literally the souls of the dead.

Roses always bleach within sight of it; to retain their colour they must be shipped in glass, then kept in arboreta—never once sharing air with the Sea.

Those who can afford red-rose gardens tend them on the south end of the city, where streets begin to climb Mount Go, in compounds walled like fortresses.

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Drew Yul Min last night. Had tabs open for "Thai traditional clothing" & "military uniforms 18th century" & "krabi" & "Vajiralongkorn".

Given my inspiration, I think the referencing of Mainland Southeast Asian material culture is appropriate. Maybe a little to obvious, though? Ie: the visual forms haven't been composted well, into new and more imaginative shapes ...

Still: very pleased with the proportions and details.

I liked how the hamsa-esque icon of the Headless Sun developed over the course of these sketches. I would not have discovered it, otherwise; it's one of those details, too small for words.

Drawing is an intrinsic part of the writing process, I guess!

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#writing #art #illustration #sea of sorrows #ttrpgs #characters #clerks #process notes #we deal in lead #fantasies #adventures #settings

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randomvarious · 1 year

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Today’s mix:

Man Ray by Bruno Evin, Djamel Hammadi, & Julio Black 2001 Future Jazz / Trip Hop / Downtempo / Lounge / Bossa Nova

God, I am such a sucker for these cheap chillout comps and mixes, man. There was this huge global craze for these things, specifically in the late 90s and early 2000s, that ended up yielding such an absolutely massive goldmine of ephemeral electronic tunes. And many of these releases were intercontinental affairs too, with artists, DJs, and compilers taking bits and pieces of sounds from different cultures and blending them all together to generate these sonically Pangaeaic quilts. Acts like Washington, D.C.'s Thievery Corporation were pioneering masters of this specific artform.

So here's a stellar partial mix from 2001 that was put together by a trio of near-nobodies: Bruno Evin, Djamel Hammadi, and Julio Black. You look up either of these guys' profiles on Discogs and you're really not gonna find all that much on them.

But it doesn't matter. They were involved in the global chillout gold rush at the exact right time, and with so much excellent music to choose from, they were able to put together this amazing slate of tunes with ease for this first installment in Milan Records' Man Ray series. And it had some sweet exclusives on it too 😊.

The only truly very baffling thing about this release is that it has all these Japanese characters scrawled on its front and back covers, and despite the fact that these tracks touch on all continents except for Australia and Antarctica, there's not actually any Japanese music on it at all; nothing by any Japanese person and nothing that sounds even remotely influenced by Japanese music. And because of this album art, I don't think that you could fault anyone for thinking that *the whole thing* might have a Japanese sound to it, but it doesn't; in fact, it doesn't even have an East or Southeast Asian sound to it at all. So, the choice in album art here is definitely very strange!

But here's some of the places we do get to visit in some shape or form in this otherwise global smörgåsbord, with the artists either hailing from these various places themselves, or channeling sounds from them instead: Austria, India, London, Belgium, Canada, New York, Norway, Brazil, Germany, Glasgow, and Egypt.

There is a strong current of bossa nova-flavored future jazz here from European acts like Butti 49, Universal Principles, and Buscemi, but the mix is by no means dominated by it; Nitin Sawhney brings some tender, acoustic guitar-infused Indian trip hop, Kinobe delivers some silky-smooth 60s cinematic retro vibes, Esthero supplies a little R&B, Gabriel Roth, under his fake Ravi Harris persona, provides 70s-sounding coffeehouse sitar funk, Georg Levin pulls off some sexy vocal lounge nu jazz, the duo of Lemon Jelly gives us a breathtakingly unique piece of dreamy trip hop, Nickodemus laces his trip hop creation with some Egyptian flute, the long-lasting Brazilian entity known as Azymuth comes with some fantastic trip hop-jazz, and the anonymous Ivory Club pulls sounds from different regions of the world and fuses them all on one track.

Just phenomenal stuff here. There's so many great chillout comps and mixes out there, and this seemingly random one from 2001, with utterly confusing album art, provides a nice window into what it was all about: chill and loungey, globally united trip hop, future jazz, and downtempo vibes.

So many amazing tunes from this era with such unjustifiably small play counts. Dig yourself all the way in 😌.

Now, unfortunately, I couldn’t find most of these tracks on YouTube—at least not the exact versions as they appear within this partial mix—but it looks like someone made a YouTube playlist of almost all the full-length versions of these songs. (It’s missing Lemon Jelly’s “A Tune for Jack,” which you can find here.) However, the handful of tunes that *are* hyperlinked below are exactly as they appear on this particular release.

Highlights:

Nitin Sawhney - "Letting Go" Kinobe - "Slip Into Something More Comfortable" Sven Van Hees - "Seasonal Bounty (Smooth '94)" The Amalgamation of Soundz - "Droplets" Esthero - "Superheroes" Ravi Harris & the Prophets - "Path of the Blazing Sarong" Butti 49 - "Brazilikum" Azymuth - "Cuica Laranja Azeda (Sour Orange Cuica)" Georg Levin - "When I'm With You" Lemon Jelly - "A Tune for Jack" Universal Principles - "Latin Stroll" Nickodemus - "Cleopatra in New York" Ivory Club - "Taj'" Buscemi - "Ramiro's Theme"

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thebuzztrack · 10 months

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A Review of Adele Lim’s ‘Joy Ride’ (2023)

Joy Ride (2023) is a comedy movie directed by Adele Lim, who is making her directorial debut. The film follows four Asian-American friends, played by Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu, traveling throughout China searching for Audrey’s biological mother. Audrey was adopted by American parents as a baby, leaving her no recollection of her birth family and heritage. Along the way, they encounter various challenges, including a drug smuggler, a Chinese businessman, a famous actress’s fiancé, and a basketball team down for fun. The movie is a funny and candid exploration of identity and self-discovery, highlighting the universal truth of accepting and loving oneself.

Let me be honest; I do not directly relate to the main characters. I am a white male who was not adopted by parents who lived in another country. But I still appreciate the movie’s story and find the comedic situations hilarious. I always value it when I can walk into a viewing of a film with the intent to be entertained with a good story and be given exactly that by the time the end credits begin to roll across the screen. This movie accomplished meeting my expectations.

Behind the scenes, Joy Ride is helmed by Adele Lim, an accomplished Malaysian-American screenwriter and producer who has made quite an impression during her tenure in Hollywood. Her notable contributions include co-writing the groundbreaking romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians (2018), which broke a 25-year record by being the first American-based film to prominently feature an Asian cast, a feat previously achieved only by The Joy Luck Club (1993). Lim has also contributed to the screenplay for Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), an animated fantasy adventure inspired by Southeast Asian cultures.

With her background in journalism in Malaysia, Lim boldly pursued her dream of becoming a television writer and has worked on several successful shows such as One Tree Hill, Private Practice, Lethal Weapon, and Dynasty. Lim is passionately committed to sharing authentic and diverse stories that reflect her personal experiences and heritage and is dedicated to mentoring and advocating for aspiring writers of color in the industry. Her work has earned several well-deserved awards and nominations, including a Writers Guild of America Award, a Critics’ Choice Award, and a Hollywood Film Award.

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#Adele Lim #Ashley Park #Daniel Dae Kim #Sabrina Wu #Sherry Cola #Stephanie Hsu #movie review #movies #review #comedy #Joy Ride (2023)#Youtube

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sins-of-the-sea · 10 months

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//I am finding myself needing to write this piece because of more and more I am reading about the atrocities of the Spanish Empire beyond what they did to the Philippines. To the Caribbean to South and Central America to Africa and even within Spain itself. Catalans got it BAD, yo. It's not the same bad as Haiti or Mexico or whatnot, but DAMN.

If there is one part of historical/intergenerational trauma that is unique to Filipinos (especially diaspora and immigrants), it's the idea that they are "friendly" with our colonizers. This is rooted in how Filipinos are grateful for the 'introduction' of Christianity and how Americanized we are compared to other Asian countries, and how even in US history, the Filipinos were not as heavily discriminated against as the Chinese, Japanese, etc. HOWEVER, there are reasons for all that happening:

Regarding our "friendly" relationship with our colonizers, being "okay" with being Christian is mostly due to the gratitude of being saved by the grace of Christ for our sins. It is NOT because we are happy to be "civilized" or have our cultures erased. In fact, Filipino Christianity doesn't resemble Christianity elsewhere; there are many with animist beliefs and superstitions, like the idea of having to say "Excuse me" when walking past trees or else the spirits will curse us. The concept of us being "okay" with being erased is far from the truth. There are efforts in preserving what were believed to be dead languages and cultures. Not to mention the struggles between folks in the cities and those in the 'provinces' are not because of pride in colonization. THAT is just classic "city folk vs country folk", just with the added conflicts of wearing pants vs. wearing bahag (I am blatant American city folk and I am Team Bahag lmao).

Once upon a time, the Philippines was American territory, and thus exempt from the various anti-Asian immigration laws such as Immigration Act of 1924, which would have been passed after the Spanish-American War in 1898, in which the United States paid Spain $20 million to annex the entire Philippine archipelago. In other words, we were commodified as a conquered people between nations that were not us. And even then, during the early parts of the 20ths century, Filipinos were treated as second-class citizens and subjected to similar levels of disrespect as other Asians.

This is not unique to the West, and more of a pan-Asian thing, from what I've seen--but the Philippines is often seen as a country with no unique history and culture itself, as our prehistory/ancient records have travelers settling here from other parts of Southeast Asia as far as far as India, the islands were largely Muslim for a large part of our history, and it was an important crossroad of trade with China, Arabia, etc., until the Spanish came. And I say to all these people.... that IS our history, you numbnuts. I take PRIDE in the Philippines being a center of global trade and contact even CENTURIES before the Spanish came, how it's so important to stop by between the other nations and how other nations have come together, melted together, and created something new and different. It's not a shame, it's a BEAUTY. We will NOT partake on discourse if we should be more "properly" be considered Pacific Islander and not Asian in American ethnic censuses because we culturally identify more with the Chinese/Japanese/Thai/Malay/etc than we do with native Hawaiians/Polynesians and so forth (no disrespect to them intended) just because we're further out in the Pacific than others. It just feels so very disrespectful of our history in proximity to the rest of Asia.

So there you have it. We are more alike than you think, but we'd appreciate it if you acknowledge our differences as well. Clearly what we ought to do is come together and throw shade at Spain, and I invite others within Spain itself with beef against the Empire lmao.

#Frascona vc: *hops on the the train the FASTEST*#'FUCK YOU SPAIN'#[OOC]#racism tw #colonization tw

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bellwitchfaggot · 9 months

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not enough materially black+chronically fatalistically bloodlet to an extent of "looking" white discourse on tumblr. Lightskin vs darkskin standard colorism rhetoric loses sooo much credibility the moment u attempt to fully divorce urself of thought nazi virtue signaling but from my perspective and experience no matter the highly recorded antiblackness genocided bloodlet Haitians and black+southeast asian+middle eastern Caucasus indigenuous ppl have been experiencing for centuries and centuries and still experience worldwide in conjunction with a eugenecistic genocidal systemic ableism rhetoric, tooooooo many white and nonblack ppl will double down in a genocidal antiblack manner on the idea that a severely chronically ill black person who "looks white" due to bloodlet hate crimes MUST not experience antiblackness to the simultaneous detriment of darker skin black folk (even when academically its known about albinism that its chronic bloodlet due to imperalistic violence rather than a congenital genetic defect and the idea that albinism is due to a congenital genetic defect is disproven disinformation) that it's a unique antiblackness vs a lesser antiblackness. + many ppl in online discourse spaces just fully fail to cognisize thought nazism in the first place

in online spaces for bloodlet black ppl it frequently looks materially like: ^ -> a white bitch I will be facetiously online -> occasionally I will post abt my experiences w material antiblackness -> no matter what I will be accused of racism due to facetiously identifying myself online some of the time as a nonblack person -> the ppl accusing me of antiblackness online will almost always turn out to be far less black than me, blackfishing, and nazis irl -> actual black ppl online will frequently believe me about my experiences still* -> nonblack ppl will NEVER realize darker skin black ppl will p much always cognisize me as experiencing a shared antiblackness over being an equivalently nb person STILL-> I am once more being raped with knives irl w relaxer being poured on my hair standardly multiple times a day and am experiencing a chronic stroke flare up due to this and in part this relates to outing multiple blackfishing ppl online as blackfishes no matter what -> in online spaces I am once more "white"

#know i participated in a podcast on this topic recently other than that im just postin while tipsy genuinely.#snakes can be in my hair in public i can be forced to kill animals in public by nazis w genocidal aba i will NOT be shaving my head again.#at least not any time SOON #disk horse #ask to tag

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cdeasia · 2 years

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CDE Asia onboards Stefan Hunger as an Associate Director of Business Development (South East Asia)

11 October 2022

Stefan will be responsible for strengthening the company’s presence in South East Asia with his valuable contributions to the business strategy and the deployment of major projects in the region.

CDE Asia has onboarded Stefan Hunger as an Associate Director of Business Development for Southeast Asia. Stefan has 15+ years of experience in the mineral resource industry across Europe, Africa, and Latin America. He is a fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining and CEng registered by the Engineering Council.

Stefan has gained recognition as an ambitious and driven strategic international business leader with a record of success gained in the mineral resource and manufacturing industries. He uses strong general management, technical competence, business, and systems experience to improve operations, impact growth and maximize profits in competitive environments.

In his last position as CDE Global’s Regional Manager for Europe and Russia, he was responsible for autonomously developing the company’s regional presence by recruiting and building a team and has effectively managed the full sales cycle in Latin America and Europe. He also contributed to establishing installations in more than 20 countries. His distinctive achievement has been the designing of what is arguably the most complex and sophisticated Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste recycling plant in Europe.

Speaking on his onboarding, Manish Bhartia, Promoter & Managing Director, CDE Asia, said, “Stefan draws from a deep well of experience of working in leadership positions in prominent multinationals across the mineral, mining, and construction sectors. He has been busy building efficient teams, identifying marketing opportunities for clients in waste management, leading major negotiations, and being actively involved in setting up installations across the world. His onboarding promises to accrue immense value for us in the all-round enhancement of strategy for important projects, understanding client mindsets, and fortifying our presence in all major Southeast Asian markets.”

“I am glad to be a part of the CDE Asia family and am looking forward to focusing my energies to advance and strengthen the company’s presence in the key markets of South East Asia. I look forward to using my comprehensive planning and development skills to create innovative yet practical business strategies and contribute to the design, development, and execution of major projects. I am confident that my exhaustive understanding of the construction sector along with my domain knowledge of mining, minerals and waste management will help to effectively contribute to the overall advancement of the company.”, said Stefan Hunger .

For more information please visit us : https://cdeasia.com/news/2022/october/cde-asia-onboards-stefan-hunger-as-an-associate-director-of-business-development-south-east-asia .

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Company Name: CDE Asia

Address: Ecospace Business Park Block 4A/Floor 6, Action Area II New Town Rajarhat Kolkata 700 160 India

Phone: +91 33 3029 3800

Fax: +91 33 3029 3802

Url: https://cdeasia.com/

Email : [email protected]

#Iron Ore processing #C&D waste #Industrial sands #Construction waste

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dybdahltravels2022 · 2 years

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Cappadocia - OMG!!!

I have been working on this in bits and pieces for many days. It is very disjointed - more than usual. But I'm sending it because I have so much more to report on that I can't take time to fix this one - so suck it up and let's move on.... Truthfully, I need a day to experience, then I day to process and write - but NOOOOOOOO we just keep moving and seeing things that are remarkable and then I'm too tired to write. What a wonderful problem to have... here you go....

August 21 - Happy 14th birthday to granddaughter Kylie!

Well friends, it is hard to find the words to explain what we have seen and done the last few days. As a matter of fact I expect this post will take several sittings to write and I will use our bus transport times to work on it. (August 23 - we are now in Istanbul and I wrote nary a word on the very short, very tight plane trip. But I am still trying..) Back to August 21...

We are in Cappadocia - pronounced Cap-a-DOKE -ee-ah, a remote area in the middle of Türkiya. A geographic aside - Türkiya is a peninsula - officially known as the Republic of Türkiye and is both a European and an Asian country. Its neighbor to the northwest is Bulgaria; Greece to the west; Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east; Georgia to the northeast; Syria to the south; and Iraq to the southeast. That is a LOT of neighbors who speak different languages, have different religious and political views, many of whom are NOT NATO members. Türkiya has been a NATO member since 1952 - FYI.

This area housed the capital of the Hittite Empire, Hattusha, and was also a mecca for the ancient Christians.

First the Hittites:

The Hittites are mentioned in historical texts but no evidence of their existence had been found prior to the 1835 and they were believed by many archaeological scholars to be mythical people. Part of this myth belief was based on the fact that archeologists had uncovered many artifacts from the residents of Anatolia from Chalcolithic Age (6000-3000 BCE) and from the Bronze Age (3000 - 2000 BCE). The Bronze Age tribes were given the name Hatti and were ruled by regional kings.

We now know that the Hittites reached Anatolia around 2000 BCE. A quick review of ancient history: Here is a map of Anatolia overlayed on present day Türkiye.

Years later we have uncovered a rich history of this culture who ruled the region for more that 2,000 years. They had a written language and kept copious records. Thousands of document written on clay tablets using cuneiform have been uncovered and after many years deciphered - which is freaking amazing. (A note to my grandkids - Remember that we have seen amazing examples of clay cuneiform in the Detroit Institute of Art. They are the small tube-like clay forms the size of a finger and are considered some of the first examples of written language.)

Once we reached the Hittite capital of Çorum we visited the excellent museum about the sites we were about to see - then we were off. I have mixed the pics from the museum and the site if I think they can increase your understanding of what we are seeing.

Below is one side of the Lion's Gate Entrance. It was cut away and taken to Germany in the 1930s "for cleaning." It was returned in 2002. It must have been VERY dirty! The eyes of the lion - were once precious gems - long before it went for cleaning - FYI

Below is the matching lion - still standing in the city...

I think the letter and the explanation of the letter was fascinating. This is not the only example of correspondence that was found. There are a series of letters from the King Tut's young widow asking for the Hittite King to send her one of his sons to be her husband. And - he does, but the Egyptian's in control behind the scenes have his killed. They did not want this kind of alliance with the KHttite Kingdom. One more thing - these documents are written in Accadian - a language that must have been known by not only the Egyptian but the Hittite royalty. AMAZING!!!

The first thing you see as you enter the site - and UNESCO site BTW is the part of the wall:

This was built by the German group of archeologists to the specifications of the Hittite documents regarding the city. It is an example of how it would have looked. Impressive!

Çorum today is a small village with an incredible museum that houses many of the artifacts of the Hittite society. Kadesh is a very important part of Hittlte history

The battle of Kadesh, sometimes called the first world war, featured one of the largest-ever chariot battles. It was fought in 1275 B.C.E. in present-day Syria between the Egyptians under Pharaoh Ramses II, and the Hittites under King Muwatalli II: Hittites in red - Egyptians in green.

Additionally, the first peace treaty every brokered by a third party and based on equality was from the Battle of Kadesh. This treaty was signed by Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses and Hittite King Hattushili III in 1269 BCE A copy of that document hangs in the United Nations Headquarters in NYC.

By 1200 BCE the Hittite empire is in decline and soon succumbs to the growing Syrian empire - but OMG!!! - what they left behind. We spent a day getting ready to see the capital city of the Hittite Empire and a day visiting the site itself. It is quite incredible and although archaeologist continue work on a daily basis - the site is only 20% is uncovered. We saw people working there excitedly because the latest discovery is the "city dump" - a true treasure trove of daily life.

One of the most spectacular sites is a tunnel built as one of the city gates that is the first arch built with a capstone - long, long before the Roman who claim that honor. Actually it is many, many, many arches. This will give you an idea of the thickness of the wall surrounding the city. The whole site blew my mind!!

For this architectural structure to work they must be pressure from each side - so the Hittite people - most likely enslaved workers - hauled sand from miles away and made a hill - yet - NOT a misprint. They made the hill. Then to make sure it didn't blow away, they paved it - then built a wall on top. It is so hard to even imagine the process, the time, the skills....

I'm adding this YouTube link because every single thing that is in his video we saw. It is long and have no narration but it will give you a feel for what we saw at the city site - should you want to invest the 15 minutes. It will give you much better idea of the size of this sucker than still pics can.

This big green block (below) and in the YouTube was in the temple and likely used for sacrifice.

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This entire city was under 8 meters of soil for thousands of years. It was once a thriving city within an 8 mile city wall . The buildings were adobe and long ago went back into the earth but their rock foundations remained - as did their well stored "documents." These documents contained a map of the city. WOWZA!

This massive city is built into a hill and divided into the upper city and the lower city. The ruins of the upper city’s fortification form a double wall with more than a hundred towers and, as far as is known today, five gateways: two in the west, the Lion’s Gate in the south-west, the King’s Gate in the south-east and a procession gate, the Sphinx Gate in the south of the city. The latter is located on top of a high artificial bastion with stone-plastered slopes, with two staircases leading to the gateway at the top and an arched stone tunnel running underneath. The impressive ruins of fortifications, placed on rocky peaks in the centre of the Upper City, demonstrate the complexity of Hittite rock masonry, and the longest known Hittite hieroglyphic inscription from the Hittite Empire can be found in the rock art at Yazilikaya. And we went there too.

We are so lucky to have seen these stunning works of art. I can hardly wrap my head around the fact that they are 4000 + years old.

That is all for now. I'm so behind - it is a good thing I take notes... Next post will be about the early Christians. Again - my minds is blown!!!

#Youtube

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monochrome-cropcrown · 2 years

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Eyy welcome to my blog!

°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

Y'all can call me Mono, Saii or Damia (none of these are my real name ofc)

I'm a bilingual Southeast Asian woman! 🇲🇾

Currently simping for Jack The Ripper (RoR), Simon "Ghost" Riley (CoD) and Nanami Kento (JJK).

I post random stuffs here. From drawings, edits, memes, rants, discussions, etc. I mostly post about Record of Ragnarok and Jack The Ripper Spin-off.

I am the proud owner of Amar Rudit, my RoR therapist OC!

Feel free to ask!

ATTENTION:

I absolutely will not tolerate racism, sexism, body shaming, paedophila, abuse, Zionism and Islamophobia on my blog. Totally unacceptable.

I write fanfics every once in a while. So there's like 10% chance for your request to be accepted by me.

DO NOT STEAL MY MEMES, EDITS AND ARTS

Fandoms I'm currently in:

Record of Ragnarok/Shuumatsu no Valkyrie Buckshot Roulette

Mashle : Magic and Muscles

Call of Duty

Jujutsu Kaisen

Obey Me! & Obey Me Nightbringer

In case you're having a rough time, I'm always open to lend an ear <3

°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*°*

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE SHALL BE FREE 🇵🇸🇵🇸

#Monochrome Cropcrown #shuumatsu no valkyrie #shuumatsu no valkyrie x reader #record of ragnarok #record of ragnorak #record of ragnarok x reader #obey me!#obey me! shall we date?

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ravenbraid · 3 years

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Sometimes the mood is: "I want to dance on your NECK."

#digital art #Southeast Asia #Asian Art #demoness #tiger skin #dancer #shadow puppet #for the record: I AM southeast Asian

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qishylia-adelia · 3 years

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♡︎♡︎qishylia.I don't like going by adelia but who cares amirite?♡︎♡︎

♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎

Pronouns: she/her

My interests (in no particular order):

deltarune

omori

puella magi madoka magica

candy jem comics/candy series (local chinese comic)

jacqueline wilson books

good manager/chief kim (comedic kdrama)

danny gonzalez

drew gooden

genshin impact

move to heaven (kdrama adaptation of "things left behind" by kim sae byul)

six the musical

doctor X ,jdrama

magia record

kotaro lives alone ,live adaptation

sonic the hedgehog movie adaptation (cinematic universe)

lovecore and cute pink things in general

underworld office.I'm not interested in charlie in the underworld

don't toy with me ,visual novel

underverse

nevermore (webtoon)

getting good grades/srs

Others:

♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎

♥︎ I am a minor

♥︎My old username was qishyliatrashdisplay

♥︎︎ I posts and reblog random stuff (and occasional vents,sorry)

♥︎︎ The "not a reblog" tag doesn't include all of my posts for some reason.Send help

♥︎Sorry but I don't tag triggers and spoilers unless I want to.Although I honestly don't think the things I reblog and post are super triggering

♥︎︎ No hard feelings for unfollowing me.This applies to "follow me and I'll follow you" blogs too

︎♥︎ I'm southeast asian blah blah blah timezones

♥︎ I use escapism to cope and I'm really focusing on making my life stable after school ends/srs

♥︎ I purposely type qishylia with a non capitalize q

♥︎ If you find my old posts and reblogs,please consider the fact that I've changed over the years.I find my old self extremely cringe back then

♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎

Other social medias (where I posts stuff):

Tiktok: @qishylia_new_account (noelle's left rose accessory)

Youtube: @qishylia

Instagram (sort of collecting dust rn): qishylia_boneka

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That's all you need to know about me and have a nice day,

The power of fluffy boys and mean girls shines within you!

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#not a reblog #qishylia types #introduction #reblog #qishylia midnight ramblings #ask #random facts about me #qishy personal toh au #will delete later #picrew #pinned post #the mari mummy au #genshin live spam

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writingwithcolor · 4 years

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Cultural Christianity, Christian Appropriation, and Derailment

Periodically, I discuss the concept of cultural Christianity, the dangers of authors mucking with folklore that is not theirs, and what you have to guard against when you’re a part of a culturally Christian society.

And every time I do, like clockwork, Christians come in and say “but what about [non-Christian nation appropriating Christianity], hmmmmm????? That’s just as bad!”

So let’s talk about all of it.

Cultural Christianity

For starters: What is cultural Christianity?

Cultural Christianity is the fact the Western calendar is primarily built around two things: farming, and Christianity

Our dedicated time off that is mostly guaranteed to all workers are Christian holidays. Easter, Christmas, Good Friday. The time between Christmas and New Year is also prone to being off and this also in some dominions has Christian events.

And yes, I know that most of these holidays actually have pagan roots. Christianity co-opted them and thoroughly Christianized them, to the point their re-paganization only really started in the 1800s… by people who were also culturally Christian, and often wrote whole books on Christianity on top of their neo-pagan beliefs.

It’s how Christmas is considered a “neutral, secular” holiday, when it’s celebrating the birth of Christ. It’s how the concept of “other religions” exist, let alone the fact they have to ask for time off for their own holidays that count against their personal vacation time, when Christians often don’t have to do that. It’s how you see more churches than mosques or synagogues in the West by a very large factor.

There are very few places in the West that are not, on some level, culturally Christian. Some very insular communities might be able to escape a lot of the trappings of Christianity, but still. The government mandated days off are mostly Christian things.

Cultural Christianity means everyone who was raised in a culturally Christian society has a Christian lens. They are aware of Christianity, its holidays, its general story, its values.

This translates to them having to unlearn all of this and learn a whole new framework when they begin researching other folklore (Native religions, in my case, but this also applies to other religions such as Judaism and Islam) cause other folklore/religions do not have the same holidays, values, or even relationship to the deity in question.

Christian Appropriation

So in a non-Christian society, it is possible to appropriate Christianity. Because the same factors that have Christians appropriate everything else in the West are at play with a different dominant religion.

This mostly shows up in Japanese media. Japan has Shinto/Buddhism as a dominant religion, and you’ll often hear anime or manga artists say they simply picked Christian imagery because it looks cool.

And I agree this is disrespectful! It is really not fun to watch sacred imagery of your beliefs be used because “it looks cool” and I would love it if all appropriation of others’ beliefs ended.

But that often isn’t the focus of the posts getting these comments.

Derailment

This is twofold.

1- Very few places where Christianity isn’t the dominant religion exist.

Because Christian nations colonized most of the planet, there are a lot more culturally Christian places than you probably want to admit, if you’re the kind of person who pulls “but what about the appropriation.”. This includes a lot of Africa, a lot of Southeast Asia, a lot of Oceania, a lot of South America, basically all of North America, and basically all of Europe.

You might disagree with how they practice Christianity, but they are still Christian. This means they are culturally Christian. Just not your culturally Christian.

But, as I mentioned in the previous section, appropriation can happen. It just doesn’t happen much in the English speaking world, and I am speaking to the English speaking world. Specifically, the Western English speaking world, which is very much culturally Christian.

The places where Christianity isn’t the dominant religion, however, is mostly composed of non-white people, specifically Arab, South Asian, and East Asian. So these “but what about where Christianity is appropriated” often end up sounding like “why aren’t you persecuting people of colour”, which sounds like trying to justify racism against people over there to me.

2- You are trying to say you are as much of a victim as us, when you are not

If you live in the West, you are culturally Christian unless you have grown up very deeply entrenched in a non-Christian community.

You have grown up with a wide, wide, wide variety of Christian stories, Christian based stories, Christian values/worldviews-as-default told to you your whole life. Some of it has been terrible, some of it you disagree with, but by and large, every story has some infusion of Christianity to it. Some of the most popular fictional texts are deeply religious things, like the Chronicles of Narnia.

You have not had your religion forbidden from being practiced, to you personally.

You have only seen true appropriation in very recent times, because of the influx of non-Western media being imported.

You have not had your sacred places constantly, consistently infringed upon and destroyed for reasons like “an observatory” or “a pipeline” or “a dam” or “a mine”.

You may have dealt with misunderstandings and miscommunications but you have rarely had somebody fundamentally misunderstand what Christianity is (Jesus as lord and saviour, died for our sins, we should try to live a more godly life and a good life to get into Heaven and get eternal happiness).

Native people have not had any of those luxuries, and it has mostly been culturally Christian people who have taken what is ours and turned it into what they wanted it to be.

We have Christian pagans (paganism was founded and codified in the Victorian era, so no, it’s not “ancient wisdom” but more Victorians—who were definitely culturally Christian—interpreting everything to prove Christianity as more universal than it was*) peddle dream catchers and calling themselves medicine people and burning sage to the point it’s endangered, all trying to claim they’re “following Native practices” when they’re not.

So when I’m speaking to somebody in the Western world, 95% of the time I will be speaking to somebody culturally Christian.

*When you start to track the “studied ancient mysteries” things, you either find types like the Theosophical Society that wildly appropriated Hinduism and Buddhism to fit their own ends and often put in messiah figures into them to show how there’s a Christ everywhere on the planet, or you start to dive into people who took Christianized recordings of folklore who may or may not have sipped some “older religions are better for noble savages reason” juice.

It’s very often racist and pulling from records written down by missionaries who had a vested interest in modifying the folklore in question, or from people who’d already been Christianized, so its validity is questionable.

Beginning to Unlearn

If you want to learn more about cultural Christianity and how to be more respectful of non-Christian belief systems, take a look at the this post and the folklore tag in general. Those are great starting places for you to do deeper research into whatever marginalized belief you’re looking to use.

I’d also suggest earnestly learning about other belief structures’ customs, challenging your assumptions of what is neutral and universal and the proper way of doing things. You might find a lot of surprising things that you weren’t expecting, even just looking at Abrahamic religions.

In the end

When I’m speaking to somebody who wants to use Native folklore, I’m going to assume they’re culturally Christian and educate them accordingly.

I am having a conversation to Christians about the appropriation of Native culture and how not to do that.

I am not going to suddenly change topics to make Christians comfortable by proving that I’m a champion for them, because frankly, they shouldn’t be dangling respecting Natives if only they interrupt themselves to prove they’re properly educated on Christian issues. Because that demand is once again centring Christianity above Native people.

I am talking about Native issues, not Christian issues.

I do not accept derailments that are thinly veiled racism or persecution complexes based off “what if”s that have not actually happened in the West. I acknowledge they happen elsewhere, and that’s tragic. I am not the person to talk about those details. I’d rather pass the mic to Christians in the area and let them speak. They are not Western Christians’ shields to use as they will. They have a voice, as well.

I am not going to coddle people who feel that Christian values are diminishing from society because we need room for more than just Christian values and Christianity does not have a monopoly on being a good person.

I am talking about Christians appropriating Native American beliefs.

And if that makes you uncomfortable, to hear Western Christians have protection, insert their own dogma into too much, and have unlearning to do—without being able to tack on a story about how no, really, you’re a victim in the West—then you have more unlearning to do. I’ve given places to start learning above.

We are talking about Native issues right now.

And I will not stop calling Christians out for their religious-based colonialism.

~ Lesya

#guides #native american #culture #cultural christianity #folklore #religion #Christian #Christianity #long post

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asianrepresentationinmedia · 2 years

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Post 6: Paradigm Shift of Asian American Representation in Media

After decades of misrepresentation, the gendered stereotyping of Asian men and women as discussed previously, from Fu Manchu and Dragon Lady/Lotus Blossom tropes, the usage of yellowface, cultural appropriation, and the limiting of Asian actors to a few racially stereotypical roles, at last the racial barriers built by Hollywood were kicked down upon the arrival of Bruce Lee.

While Lee managed to gain some popularity with his role in the tv series The Green Hornet (1966), he was overlooked for lead roles in favor of white actors (Low, 2021). He then decided to leave the U.S. for Hong Kong to advance his career as an actor where he was catapulted to fame after the release of The Big Boss (1971) which was a huge box office success (Blake, 2018). Other films such as First of Fury (1971) and The Chinese Connection (1972) brought Lee into further spotlight which resulted in Hollywood becoming interested in him once again. After Lee revolutionized Hong Kong martial arts cinema, he went on to break through U.S. mainstream media and reconstructed the way Asians were depicted on screen by starting the “kung-fu craze” in the 70s (Desser, 2002).

The unprecedented success of Lee marked a paradigm shift in Hollywood where Asian men, in particular, had previously been pigeonholed into roles as submissive servants, unskilled laborers, reincarnations of Fu Manchu, geeky sidekicks, unattractive, and comedy relief (Low, 2021). This paradigm shift became both a curse and a blessing as his popularity in the 1980s led to the entrenchment of the “All Asians Know Martial Arts” trope (Low, 2021). New martial arts actors that followed such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li were both referred to as “the next Bruce Lee” and martial arts films from this decade went on to inspire and influence action films and martial artists for generations after, even to this day. Bruce Lee is a prime example of the ways and possibilities that powerful stereotypes that have been around for decades can be challenged and broken and consequently change representations of Asian and Asian Americans for generations after.

Following Bruce Lee, the year 2000 was a triumphant year for Asian cinema with Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love premiering at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon also making its premiere (Low, 2021). Both films were game-changers for Asian films in international theatres but it wasn’t until the release of Crazy Rich Asians (2018) which marked a momentous step in Asian representation being the first film with an all-Asian cast since The Joy Luck Club in 1993 and breaking a record in its premiere as the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade (Calub, 2021). The Farewell (2019) also received praise for its authentic depiction of Asian families.

The 2020s marks the “golden age” of Asian representation in cinema, with films such as Minari (2020) winning best supporting actress Oscar for Yuh-Jung Youn (the second ever actress of Asian descent to win in that category) and showcasing an American story with characters not typically seen as American, Parasite (2019) going on to win four Oscar awards, Director Chloé Zhao winning best director for Nomadland (2020) and being chosen to direct the next epic Marvel film Eternals (2021), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) being the first-ever Asian-led superhero film to make it to theatres, and Squid Game (2021) being the first Korean tv show making history as the most-watched show on Netflix and topping streaming company’s drama charts in all 83 countries (Calub, 2021). All of these allowed Asians and Asian Americans to catch a glimpse of themselves on screen in a way that hasn’t really been shown before however, these films are mostly representing East Asians and not South or Southeast Asians who are still severely underrepresented in mainstream media.

Despite these major breakthroughs in Asian cinema, a study called “I am not a Fetish or Model Minority” reviewed the top 10 grossing movies each year from 2010 to 2019, and noted that among those films, only 4.5 percent of the main cast were Asian and Pacific Islander roles which show that there is still far ways to go in Asian representation and these are just the first steps. Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist, told NBC “That just speaks to the lack of authority that Asians have to be able to tell their own stories in Hollywood and the kind of trope of using Asians as objects” (Calub, 2021).

To tackle issues of underrepresentation and increase diversity, Netflix released a study to analyze the makeup of Netflix’s on-screen talent including creators, producers, writers, and directors to see where it can improve on closing diversity gaps (Boorstin, 2021). The streaming platform will work on asking questions like “Whose voice is missing? Is this portrayal authentic? Who is excluded?” as it commits to an “inclusion lens” to its work (Boorstin, 2021). The company has created a fund called Creative Equity where it plans on investing $100 million over the next five years “in organizations that help underrepresented communities train and find jobs in TV and film” as well as releasing an update to this study every two years until 2026 (Boorstin, 2021). The co-CEO Ted Sarandos says “doing better means establishing even more opportunities for people from underrepresented communities to have their voices heard, and purposefully closing capacity and skill gaps with training programs where they are needed” which gives traditionally underrepresented and often misrepresented communities hope for finally being able to see a glimpse of themselves and their communities on-screen (Boorstin, 2021).

#representation #film #diversity #inclusivity

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