#period drama xi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xiakeponz · 11 months

Text

for modern AU fics - what chinese media did diaspora consume?

making this post because some of us in the diaspora server were having a chat about what Chinese media "Diaspora Chinese" watched in the 90's - 2000's (and even sooner than that) while not having access to satellite chinese media or streaming services - this is in the context of writing modern AU fics based off Chinese media/novels (so your main character's grandpa or uncle is not, in fact, watching an episode of Friends or Shortland Street or something as flavour text because sorry what the hell-)

We generally watched a lot of stuff on VCDs, including bootlegged and non-bootlegged movies, shows, anime/donghua. My household had a whole VCD album of this, and a lot of VCDs (even if they were pirated editions) would have a fancy hardcover box with a magnetic clasp and some artwork representing the show on it.

All of this is Mandarin - so not TVB stuff, because I'm from Northern China and I don't know any cantonese - but Canto friends, please feel free to add to the list! This is mostly stuff my parents liked to watch, or I liked to watch with them, with the exception of a few which I mainly watched with friends/cousins when I was maybe (in most cases) eleven/twelve years old onwards. This is a pretty personal list, meant to give people general idea of a possible "ballpark" of sorts, and by no means exhaustive.

Now, for the list of shows which I can confirm I had or someone I know had on VCD or some kind of offline media format lol (I'll try add release year stamps and links to the EN wikipedia where possible):

Period dramas (mostly Qing Dynasty stuff):

Huan Zhu Gege 还珠格格 (1998, April-) This is a classic, so many memes come from this show; hugely popular series, basically cemented Zhang Tie Lin's face as the face of the Qing Emperor for about a decade. Tie Chi Tong Ya Ji Xiao Lan 铁齿铜牙纪晓岚 (2002-2010) - I loved this show as a kid and watched all four seasons on repeat with family... The "trio" in this show are well known and loved.

Amazing Detective Di Ren Jie / 神探狄仁杰 (2004) A very popular and addictive show. Ok now the Big Four:

Romance of 3 kingdoms 1994 / 三国演义 (1994) - a classic that has had many remakes, my older cousin would play this on repeat...

Hong Lou Meng/红楼梦（1987） - another classic with many remakes, but I think the most recognised by the public one is the 1987 one.

Journey to the West / 西游记 live action (1986) - I think the 1986 version of the live action is the most recognised one. *Shui Hu Zhuan / 水浒传 (1998) - I am not too familliar with the live action of this one in my household tbh bc my mum doesn't like it lol (she keeps saying it's too depressing) but I'm sure it's up there with the rest of the big four, if anyone has an opinion on this one please let me know!

Modern setting shows:

My dad loved all the Sun Honglei (孙红雷 - actor name) stuff, iirc it was a lot of MinGuo period espionage stuff, your shanghai 1920's sxc aesthetic. This actor has been around since 1999? Qian Fu （潜伏）was very famous, and Ren Jian Zheng Dao Shi Cang Sang （人间正道是沧桑）。 These were around '08 and '09.

Chuang Guan Dong - 闯关东 (2008) (Baidu link, sorry - couldn't get an EN wikipedia one). This show was huge when it was airing, everyone was watching it. I was pretty young but even I watched it and got invested ... and I thought it was such an "old person" show at the time lmao. Xiao Bing Zhang Ga / 小兵张嘎（2004） (sorry, again Baidu link) - yo, anti-japanese war movies set between 1937-1945 were crazy popular - this is one of them and was very popular):

Donghua/Anime (all the stuff kid me watched and some which I didn't but were popular):

喜羊羊与灰太狼 (2005-) Calabash Brothers / 葫芦兄弟（1986-1987） Black Cat Detective / Hei Mao Jing Zhang 黑猫警长（1984-2010） Lan Mao Tao Qi 3000 Wen 蓝蓝猫淘气3000问 AKA 蓝猫 (blue cat) (October 1999 - Present) Legend of Ne Zha 哪吒传奇 (2003) Journey to the West/Xi You Ji 西游记 This was truly the Donghua I grew up on from when I was a bb, the OP song and ED song are classic bangers all kids know. Slam Dunk/ 灌篮高手 - People truly watched a lot of anime that may or may not have been terribly dubbed into mando (possibly canto too). Late 80s and 90s kids were all over this, and Dragon Ball, Crayon Shinchan (labixiaoxin).

Taiwanese Dramas:

This is mid-late 2000's, I would be remiss to not talk about the Taiwanese dramas of this era. Mike He, Rainie Yang, Wu Zun (amongst many, many others) were huge. Stuff like Dou Niu Yao Bu Yao, it started with a kiss, Hua Yang Shao Nv (Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi) were all pretty popular. Not sure if these shows all hold up in 2023, but boy were they popular at the time.

Note about CNY:

For CNY, people would try to tune into 春节联欢晚会 (the CCTV official CNY show) at that One Friend Who Had China Satellite TV's house. Zhao Ben Shan / 赵本山 was a comedy staple, and the show would often feature people from the music industry to perform. Eventually these people became more and more relevant to my gen and Jay Chou etc started appearing.

Last but not least Xian Jiaaaan 仙剑:

In 2005 I was all over 仙剑奇侠传 (Chinese Paladin), based off the video game. This show was crazy popular and probably sent me and a whole lot of other kids into Xianxia / Wuxia hell (and Hu Ge hell, and later I came back to love Liu Yifei). Thank you. The OST is a true banger.

#cnovel #mdzs #cdrama #chinese diaspora #danmei #not a lot of jinyong wuxia shows here so people who have opinions please chime in!#whew that was more than i thought #music could do with another post #but i dont know too much about my dads music i was just a 2000s cpop nerd #also this doesnt cover movies either #please no lan qiren watching friends #this breaks me out of my immersion immediately unless there was a specific reason why shufu is watching friends #not even sure how to tag this #late 2000s you could pretty much stream and download stuff i think i did that for bbjx when it came out #even tho my parents hated The Internet i managed #feel free to add more to this in a post or tags or whatever

143 notes · View notes

dangermousie · 10 months

Text

Oh, brother...aka keeping it in the (royal) family

I recently realized that for some reason “multiple brothers one girl” seems to be a popular category in costume dramas. I am not sure why such sharing is necessary in a polygamous society for fancy royals each of whom can get himself a whole harem, but I am not complaining that it appears any remake of the Hollywood classic “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” would clearly be changed into “One Bride for Seven Brothers, and Some of the Brothers Spit Blood and Die” if it were a cdrama. Here are some of the dramas at issue.

Liu Shi Shi appears to be the queen of this subgenre to such an extent that I am vaguely wondering if it’s in her contract. We are gonna start with THREE of her dramas:

Bu Bu Jing Xin - Liu Shi Shi has not one, not two, but THREE hot royal brothers, played by Nicky Wu, Kevin Cheng and Lin Gengxin, pine for her time-traveling self. Since this is an exquisite (no, seriously, it’s amazing) period piece about loss and longing, she ends up with none of them, instead of a hot vagely-’cesty gangbang as one might expect from that set-up.

Lost Love in Times - poor Liu Shi Shi, she’s a sexy witch having to pick between William Chan and his shady brother Joe Xu. To make it even trippier, the two actors look like each other, to really hammer the whole “siblings want her” theme.

The Imperial Doctress - why bust what’s not broken? It’s the true and tried Liu Shi Shi and hot royal brothers formula. She’s a doctor who spends most of her time practicing medicine, escaping barbarians and creating feminism, not noticing that as she pines for one royal brother played by Huang Xuan, another royal brother, played by infinitely hotter Wallace Huo, is pining for her.

Gong/Jade Palace Lock Heart - if Liu Shi Shi is the queen of that set up, Feng Shao Feng is the king, what with this and Military Seal, both of which star Yang Mi. Clearly, there are worse ways to make a career than stealing Yang Mi from a royal brother. Here, Yang Mi is a spunky time traveler in the middle of Kang Xi’s sons’ fight for the throne. She first falls for Four but ends up with Eight. In between, she offers to bang Four to save Eight as one does. Gives a whole new meaning to sharing is caring and “have you brought enough for the entire class?”

Legend of the Military Seal - Yang Mi and FSF strike again. FSF is madly in love with his brother’s wife, and since she’s not afflicted by blindness, she shares his feelings. Surprisingly, but delightfully, happy ending ensues.

Who Rules the World - more like which brother rules awesome Zhao Lusi’s heart. Going by the rule of “hottest brother wins,” Yang Yang gets the girl in a drama that is pretty yum yum.

Colourful Bone - one hot seriously whumped out royal brother and one whiny immature one, oh who should the heroine pick? This drama stands for the proposition that you should protect and save abused people, especially if they are hot men, since they will always turn out to be an emperor in disguise. This drama btw is one giant kinkfest for yours truly.

The Eternal Love - you could make THREE whole seasons out of timetravel and brothers into the same girl, who knew.

Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty - if you’ve seen Gong or BBJX, you know the drill. Horde of queued brothers queueing for the heroine.

(Mine and all my brothers’, that is -Ed.)

Princess Jieyou - Yuan Hong narrowly escaped the curse of fancying his brother’s woman in BBJX, being about the only sibling not in love with LSS in that one. But clearly, you can’t fight fate and shortly thereafter he’s got to be a sister-in-law luster in a drama of his very own. He is a barbarian general who falls in love with a woman only to discover she’s to marry his brother. Angst and deliciousness and eventual happy ending (the husband fulfilled the uglier brother’s duty by eventually kicking the bucket.)

The Promise of Chang’an - if you want to watch brothers with the same woman but no happy ending, and have already watched BBJX, I present this recent drama where Cheng Yi gets to, as always, suffer beautifully watching the woman he loves marry his annoying brother. Pretty much everyone dies at the end of this one, going off to a great big threesome in the sky.

Twisted Fate of Love - will Sun Yi pick the delicate Tan Jianci or the sexy as fuck bastard that is Jin Han? Being a smart woman, she picks the latter and my hormones rejoice.

Go Princess Go - this is a drama that parodied every cliche there is, so why not brothers into one woman? Who is actually a man in a woman’s body making it even more delightful!

Ashes of Love - even being divine, with women from three separate realms available will seemingly not prevent love interests being a scarce resource leading to sibling love rivalry. Deng Lun and Luo Yunxi duke it out ostensibly for Yang Zi but in reality for who can suffer more prettily. Deng Lun might get the girl, but LYX wins the suffering crown, so it all more or less evens out.

Princess Silver - are siblings in love with the same woman not spicy enough for you? How about TWINS in love with the same woman? One awesome (Aarif Rahman) and one psychotic (Jing Chao) want our heroine and both marry her at one point. Only the awesome one gets to bang her though. (But the psychotic one gets to stick meathooks through his brother in compensation for not being able to stick...ummm...meathook through the heroine, so it’s all OK.)

Secret of the Three Kingdoms - and now we are gonna go REAL PERV! If twins are not enough for you, seekers of strong sensations, how about IDENTICAL twins? Ma Tianyu replaces his dead identical twin brother as the last Han emperor and gets to woo Wan Qian (whose plan it was in the first place.) At least she doesn’t need to get used to a new face?

We are gonna end here and not get into father and son sharing the same woman a la Empress of China.

(Congrats to Aarif Rahman for getting to bang both his brother’s and his father’s wives on screen. That is an interesting niche.)

#cdrama #secret of the three kingdoms #princess silver #empress of china #twisted fate of love #jade palace lock heart #lost love in times #the imperial doctress #bu bu jing xin #ashes of love #princess jieyou #the promise of chang'an #legend of the military seal #colourful bone #dreaming back to the qing dynasty #go princess go #who rules the world #the eternal love

100 notes · View notes

braemjeorn · 3 months

Text

CHAPTER XI [masterlist]

pairing: bang chan x ofc

genre: general audience

notes/warning: regency period drama; lightsickness; christmas; gidts; loving eyes; paternal bonding

wordcount: 2.1k

summary: i hope you'll like another sprinkle of sickfic and winter fluff!

also available in ao3, if you prefer that format

⚠️ All characters that shares the name of real life person in this story are represented in a fictional manner for entertainment purpose, and not to be alluded with real life.

TAGLIST: @spookykryptoniteperson @nixtape-foryou @do-you-know-what-else-is-big

The Commodore’s responsibilities as landlord were of little significance to Seungmin and Jeongin. Not that the other boys now and then peered into the study to greet their father, but the two youngest had a penchant for wandering in and admiring the odd contents of his desk. Mari's scoldings and reminders for them to remain out of the door were futile. It was clear when she saw the Commodore’s eyes sending her a pleading gaze over Jeongin’s mop of hair, she was alone on her side.

“He made a good revelation as to what I should do with the bridge down east,” Commodore Bang reasoned. He did not object to the boys wandering about his room. Mari had protested—but then the Commodore continued that he had set the boys some rules upon the matter, with firm consequences should they be broken, especially when guests visited. With some shame at thinking him too lenient as a father, Mari relented.

“But why should they disturb you when they already have you for lunch and afternoon?” came her weak argument. It was not untrue; the Commodore had set a routine to involve himself with the boys from lunch to bedtime. He’d take anyone willing in his lap to read or practise English or hear the older ones grumble about their day. He took it in an easy stride, sharing their wonder and giving them his well-thought responses to questions. Even through the distractions, he was a ready ear and aid, easy hands fixing their toys and tying their puppet strings.

It might have excluded Mari from attention or necessity, which she suppose will happen in any other house. The boys, however, never ceased to mention her before the Commodore. Like she was not sewing a mere few chairs away, and capable of making her defences. They rambled on about the things she had shown or explained to them — or not know, much to her chagrin. Something she mentioned in the past summer, or the morning class. She reminded herself to be more careful with her words in the future, though the boys merely reveal them to seek their father’s opinion. The Commodore, to her surprise and delight, did not sneer or refute her words—he might have done that a season ago. “Did she?” was asked with a teasing brow, otherwise he corrected nor refuted her (or the boys' reiteration of her knowledge). He spoke to his boys about what he knew of the matter while keeping his eyes on her. Like some form of peacekeeping, and acknowledging her part in it. She appreciated it, though Mari still had to defend herself on her stance in the reiteration. Otherwise, they make mild arguments of their differing opinions, or she divulged the subject deeper and easily correlated it with the Commodore's understanding.

“You must teach us both sometimes,” Seungmin piped up. "And explain things together."

“Don’t you think this is already a class, lad? An afternoon class?” the Commodore asked back.

It didn’t take long for Mari to notice how involved she was in the family of eight. For goodness sake, yes, she’s employed by them! But she knew not whether it was by the lack of a maternal figure or that they genuinely were fond of her (both ideas made her huff to scold herself) that made the boys seek her for advice and comfort. Perhaps she was only used to seeing children in the class till the afternoon, and those weeks of constant presence developing deeper into trust came as a surprise to her.

She had wondered if her scolding or discipline could come too harsh for them, that they would shirk away. They did in petulance, which only lasted for hours before they shyly asked for her help, like a veiled request for a truce. In a way, they seemed unable to make do without her company. Like that time Hyunjin had pulled her out to join them in a walk with their father. Mari had thought they might enjoy the company of their father, but the lad had said it would not do without her. That was all there was to it. Something warm swelled inside her at the inclusion, though a firmer thought had nudged it from blooming. Mari could only wonder what the end of her stay would be for them all, entangled in their midst.

An additional thought to these mullings, Mari might as well chide herself for acting so friendly with the Commodore. Their afternoon conversations had settled the air between them into something lighter. They might tease one another, and it was easy enough to sound their displeasure without sounding too brash. These mullings did not please her as she sat before bed in front of her mirror. Such casualty with her employer will not bode well, she thought with flushing skin. And yet, how bad could it be, to esteem her employer as a friend and respect him in the same regard? She might even speak with him in the easy way Minatozaki-san and Mr Kang spoke with him, sans the familiar address. Yet with the two having known the Commodore before his fortune, Mari was not sure if she would have the same leeway.

Not that the Commodore seemed to have any reservations about her seeing him in various dishevelled states. Either mere flushings as the boys teased him, or red-nosed with hair all awry, hurrying to join his boys on the floor before the fire after his excursions.

Jeongin fell ill one day, with sniffles and a warm body. Commodore Bang offered to look after him when Mari brought up his breakfast. Thus a plain table and chair were settled by the bed for him to continue work. Jeongin sleeps after breakfast, and Mari is content enough to start the other’s lesson. Jeongin was in good hands, and she promised the two to come back by lunch.

When she returned, the room and the table were vacated. Mari turned to the adjoining playroom, looking in from the broad open door with the strewn toys and books. Jeongin was kneeling upon the rug, the Commodore lying prone on his back before him. The boy clutched his fox doll, his other hand stacking wooden beads upon his father’s long nose. The Commodore’s palm rests upon his chest like a corpse, his eyes shut. Yet he was smiling, making the beads roll away from the planes of his face, even as Jeongin placed them on his flat forehead or lodged them on the crooks of his eyes and nose.

“Appa, don’t laugh,” came Jeongin's soft demand, followed by a sniffle. The words only served to make the man shake with laughter. The beads tumbled away, and Jeongin huffed. But he noticed Mari approaching, and rose to meet her.

“It’s lunchtime, little kit,” she said, taking him into her arms. “Shall I call for it here, or are you up to going down?”

“Will you eat with me here?” Jeongin asked.

“If you like.”

The youngest considered this and then spoke again. “Can I go down?”

“If you’re feeling better,” Mari allowed, for his skin’s cooler after his medicine and an early nap. He will be well by the next day.

“I’d like to go down,” Jeongin decided.

“Very well.”

Mari turned to the Commodore, still prone on the floor watching their exchange. He didn't seem disturbed at Mari finding him on the floor, smiling wider when their eyes met. She leaned down to speak with him, the way she does with the boys.

“You’re too good for us all, Miss Son,” Commodore Bang declared before she could say a word.

Mari gaped, perplexed by the sudden words. But with a short laugh, she brushed it away and continued, “I thought you would still be busy at these hours, Commodore.”

“There was little work today—or I arranged it to be so,” he smiled. “For my youngest was skilful to divert my attention to him.”

He sat up from the floor, rising first and then offering his hands for Mari. Jeongin stretched his hands, and Mari sighed at his request to be carried. Commodore Bang laughed at them, giving his hands for the youngest to hold.

With Christmas approaching, Mari spared some hours from studying to teach the boys how to craft garlands and boughs. With Mr Park helping them fish twigs and ferns (and mistletoes) from the park, it was quite an exciting little project. Christmas decorations had not started, but Mari would return home before the twenty-fifth. She can only help them bind the greens, not hang them. Many sullen faces appeared at this arrangement. Yongbok dared to mutter that it would be boring to stay with their father for two weeks.

“Boring?! No, indeed!” Mari laughed. “Weren’t you having good fun with your father these days?”

“But it's not the same without you,” Yongbok said, who had curled beside her like a cat.

“Come now—at least your father did not come home after Christmas this year.” Minatozaki-san’s reminder did nothing to ease the pouts. Yongbok slumped deeper to Mari’s side.

“The thing is Miss Son, hadn’t it been for you all these might not have happened—Appa might not even stay,” Minho pointed out. “We ought to celebrate it with you.”

“That is my reward?”

Minho hesitated at her teasing stare. “Of a sort.”

Mari laughed. “Will allowing me to return home not be enough reward for me? For I haven’t seen my good mother and sisters for a long while, and why shouldn’t I spend a good time with them on this lovely Christmas?”

“We would not detain her here,” Commodore Bang said, having just stepped into the room and sat on a low stool. “After all, I promised her that she would receive her seasonal holiday as is her right. I would not persuade her to do less. She has her own family to go home to, and we will go see our own.”

“We’re going to Grandmother’s!” Jisung recalled, rather pleased with the recollection.

The air shifted with more pleasure; Mari’s gaze drifted to the Commodore and smiled in gratitude. He nodded, and turned again to his boys, “There now. You shall see your cousins and your uncles—and you have much of the sea to discover anew.”

Yet as if still in revolt to being unable to stop her departure, they pile upon her many gifts to bring home. Minho insisted that she must not leave empty-handed, thus with his brothers, packed condiments and preserves for her. The basket was soon full of jars of jellies and tins of biscuits. Mrs Park, the cook, scolded them for a good hour. More for ransacking the pantry than sending Mari with it. The Commodore gave them a mild lecture, before insisting that a goose be brought from the poultry. Mari stammered as she took the basket, seeing a book from the library above the napkin. The boys slipped hellebore blooms in her hand and beckoned her for kisses. She laughed and hugged them.

“I long to return home now — but be assured my thunderous little gentlemen,” she said. “In twelve days, I shall be wanting your company again.”

Thus she returned to the little white cottage over the hill, finding some sobriety from the three women. Mari relished the calmness, even while relaying them lively tales of her charges; every penchant of mischief the boys had to laugh over tea. She gazed long out of the snowy garden and hummed as she walked to the church or around the neighbourhood, feeling the comfort of the familiar pine trees. Like a warm blanket after a cold and tiring day.

“The finest goose and venison our Sukja did ever see,” Mrs Ahn commented upon the Commodore’s gift. While Inha had rambled in her surprise and excitement—”You spoke well of him lately, but to have a family favour you so, you are the luckiest employed woman among us!”—the elderly woman gave her fond praise of Mari’s employer and the boys.

“Such finely prepared condiments—a kind family, indeed. To have such warm generosity when you are a patron of so many individuals—there is no greater blessing than to have such a leader to look up to. And to think of your earlier descriptions of him being cold and distant! But, you have told us, Mari, he has changed now. A very good man you are, Commodore Bang. I hope that nothing but joyful times will come to his life and his family. After all the tragedy in his life, he deserves to be repaid with nothing less.”

9 notes · View notes

mirageofficial · 11 months

Text

— WELCOME TO THE UPSIDE ! !

with a total of 22 shows and 16 stops across eight countries, MIRAGE finally takes center stage at their very first headlining concert series: ENTER THE UPSIDE! the setlist is an attempt at performing the group’s staple hits (and solos) while feeding fans with the most beloved b-sides since debut—it also features the unreleased songs monster + shooting stars (their latest english song). the live songs will share a glimpse of MIRAGE’s lore, friendship, and lessons learned in real time. the members were able to promote their english hits at broadcasting stations and festivals throughout the many countries they visited.

tickets were in high demand before the presale period opened, especially due to the fact that the majority of booked venues were smaller-scale arenas (minus south korea, japan, united kingdom, and indonesia’s stadiums). VIP, meet & greet, and standard tickets sold out within hours overall—some instantly in certain countries— and it’s reflected MIRAGE’s overlooked global popularity beyond south korea. since the announcement of the tour, netizens have been discussing whether or not KQ ENTERTAINMENT, their small label, has the strength (and money) to continue managing/supporting MIRAGE as they continue to climb to the top of the charts… or would a different label ruin the group’s strategies?

( full setlist ! )

( opening VHS ) intro: end of the world

act i the jinx

i + opening roll the dice

ii ( mashup ) black mamba + illusion

iii bewitched

iv breathe

v addicted

vi + act i finale secret story of the swan

act ii changes

interlude ( visuals ) natural

vii interlude: illusions

viii changes

ix relapse

x the happiest girl

xi + act ii finale rainbow spectrum

act iii maknae unit + elder line's solos

xii + extended intro monster ( xepher, nako, & arin )

xiii halfway ( nari )

xiv + act iii finale queen of the night ( eunae )

act iv vivace

interlude + VHS WE ARE THE PIXIES

xv starlight

xvi greedy

xvii ( mashup ) alive + outro: vivace

xviii ( mashup ) a little different [eng. version] + not a stereotype

xix + act iv finale shootings stars ( unreleased eng. song )

act v our promise

xx wanna:be

xxi + special VHS for PROMISE domino

xxii chillin' with you

( finale ) our promise

( encore ) mago

DID YOUR FAVORITE SONG MAKE IT TO THE SETLIST?

between the first two opening nights in seoul and the first half of tour, many kpop stars came out to see MIRAGE in action! which guests do you think caused the most commotion/drama on stan twitter?

ATEEZ

TOMORROW X TOGETHER

NCT ( taeyong, mark, jungwoo )

WAYV ( winwin, kun, hendery, xiaojun )

THE ROMANTICS ( rue )

MANIA! ( byeol )

UNIVERSE-4 ( jihun, marley, sakura, AJ )

FROMIS_9 ( saerom, jiheon )

SEVENTEEN ( seungkwan, DK )

THE BOYZ ( kevin, sunwoo, new )

PENTAGON ( jinho, kino, shinwon )

NOAH ( @qtnoaly )

AESPA ( qiao @darkestlovers )

TAGLIST | @qtnoaly @neocityocs @alixnsuperstxr @darkestlovers

JOIN THE TAGLIST HERE

#mirage / the upside tour 2023 #mirage / eras / rebirth #fictional idol group #idol au #idol oc #kpop addition #kpop gg #oc girl group #fictional idol community #kpop oc #oc gg #mirage / discography

31 notes · View notes

potteresque-ire · 2 years

Text

The Big Politics Meta

0. Introduction; content notes and warning >> 1. The Boring Overview: 3rd Time is the Charm? 2. The Political Legacy of 2/27: A Hypothesis 3. Case Report of a Traffic Robbery, Committed October, 2020 4. Two Stories about a State-approved, Top Traffic Star 5. Afterthought: The Big Environment

(Below the Cut — 1. The Boring Overview: 3rd Time is the Charm?)

It’s October, the month that can leave a mark in Chinese history.

Starting on the 9th is the so-called 兩會 (”Two meetings”) — the 7th Plenary Session of the 19th Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (七中全會), and the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (第二十次全國代表大會). By the end of the month, the world will know whether President Xi will enter his 3rd 5-year term as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and by officially breaking the previously established term limits, also become China’s next potential Dictator-for-Life.

The outcome is, of course, highly significant to all Chinese people, but it’s significant too for this little corner of ours. After all, our turtledom of overseas Gg and Dd fans have also felt the effects of President Xi’s ideology. The genre (Dangai) that has brought us together has been axed under President Xi’s governance, and we rarely see our favourite stars showing their idol roots anymore, with all the restrictions on hair color and earrings and traffic etc. Readers who have followed this blog (❤️), you’ve seen me talk (rant) about the various marks President Xi has left in c-ent over the last 10 years: how the industry has been steadily less about entertainment and more about being the propaganda apparatus for the Chinese government; everyone being tasked to being promoters of core socialist values (including paparazzis) and the ever elusive, hard-to-define 公序良俗 public order and good customs, and punished heavily, and / or in ways unfit to their misdeeds, when the celebrities among them fail. TV stations have been reprimanded by the government for being “too entertaining”, and forced to “restructure” their popular, entertaining shows. Beloved genres of little use to propaganda, from Dangai to time travel to imperial court drama to horror to romance, have had their creative spaces drastically slashed by censorship rules, if not destroyed altogether.

A Hong Kong news site made this infographic about the punishment of entertainment celebrities between 2001 to 2021, and the type of controversy (legal/political/moral/not-own-fault) that led to their punishment. The y-axis represents the severity of the punishment, from not at all (top) to very severe (bottom). The x-axis represents the year. Each dot represents a celebrity, and the color of the dot, the type of controversy surrounding the celebrity. I put a box around GG’s name: his controversy was “not-own-fault” (purple). The number of celebrities being punished, and the severity of their punishments, both increased significantly in the President Xi era (2012-2021). (Source)

Even dramas that boost the image of the government have had an increasingly difficult time passing the content audit — Being a Hero, for example, has a very much delayed broadcast (the series was filmed in 2020); its marketing was also lacklustre compared to other series of the same summer period and, critically, being of a genre that traditionally fare much better in viewership when co-broadcast on TV (i.e., air simultaneously on one of the TV satellite stations, or on CCTV), BaH chose to air without such a TV co-broadcast. While it can never be confirmed, the rumoured cause has to do with BaH’s story touching on drugs, undercover, officials involved in crime — all of which had once been acceptable topics but were, in the summer of 2022, considered sensitive. The series’ marketing being arguably unprepared was because, allegedly, BaH aired just days after it had got its net broadcast license. It didn’t co-broadcast on TV because TV broadcast requires an additional license with even stricter content requirements, and to wait for such a license to get approved may mean the series will never meet its audience, should the content restrictions tighten even further as they have the last several years.

President Xi’s fingerprints are, really, already everywhere in our fandom.

And whether he will continue to be the General Secretary, the President and China’s Paramount Leader, whether his “New Era” ideology will continue to dictate the country’s political narrative, will have an effect on to-be-aired projects by Gg and Dd too.

Example: Gg’s Where Dreams Begin, which is about the “Reform and Opening Up” 改革開放 era of the 1980s and 1990s：

This era has become a political-sensitive issue. It has been for a while, but it has become even more sensitive in the months leading up to the National Congress.

“Reform and Opening Up” has become a bit synonymous with … “No More Xi”.

The background is this: with the strict Zero-COVID policy that limited the flow of goods, people and money, and the heavy-handed crackdown of multiple big, lucrative industries in China over the last few years, China’s economy hasn’t been doing well. This is the kind of not-doing-well that almost everyone can feel the effects of: it isn’t limited to, for example, the housing market, or the stock market. It is people failing to receive income, while seeing no decrease in their daily expenditures. People in lockdown are often unable to reach their jobs; they have increasingly been required to pay for the compulsory quarantine and DNA testing — because the provinces, which are supposed to pay for the central government for these services, are out of money themselves. People who are lucky enough to keep their jobs often have their pay slashed, or delayed for months. There have already been several instances of banks freezing their clients’ accounts, denying withdrawal requests.

In July, holders of frozen deposit accounts protested in front of a bank in Zhengzhou, Henan. They were eventually beaten up by “unidentified men” (Source and Video), who had nonetheless been seen to have arrived at the scene with the police. Earlier on, many of the account holders had found their Health Code — the government-issued, mandatory COVID pass on their cell phone — turning red without reason. A red Health Code bars its holder from travelling anywhere.

Enter “Reform and Opening Up”, referring to the direction of the country envisioned, and then executed by the Paramount Leader after Chairman Mao, Chairman Deng Xiaoping 鄧小平, to savage the economy destroyed during the Mao years.

Dissenters of Xi have been missing, and asking for the return of “Reform and Opening Up”. The era was marked by, among other things, China’s mass privatisation — ie, the government loosening its control on the economy…

... along with all areas of life, including speech, including entertainment. I recently introduced the Taiwanese singer 鄧麗君 Teresa Teng, the singer of Dd’s Mid-Autumn BGM, 但願人長久, who became super popular in China during the 1980s. Despite disliking her, the government didn’t ban her, nor did it punish the people for liking her.

According to its screenwriter, 蘆葦 Lu Wei, Farewell My Concubine got its approval for release in 1993 from Chairman Deng himself. The production company had already been reprimanded by the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Propaganda for making the film, and its head, made to write a letter of repentance, when investors submitted a copy of the film to Chairman Deng via his daughter. Chairman Deng watched the film and approved it, saying that it only required minor modifications (Source).

(The relative political freedom of “Reform and Opening Up” came to an end in June 1989, when the People’s Liberation Army opened fire at the protesting students on Tiananmen Square. Even though Deng was more open-minded than Mao, mobilised, passionate youth with a unified cause also proved to be too much for him. The Chinese Communist Party got their power, consolidated their power via youth movement and knows what the latter can do, is suspicious and frankly, terrified of it.)

(This is a very important point to remember. As a preview, this attitude likely explains the Qing Lang “Clear & Bright” Campaign, the current crackdown of fan culture, and “traffic”.)

(Fans are mobilised youth with a unified cause of supporting an IP. A genre. A hobby.)

(A star.)

President Xi is widely believed to be not a fan of “Reform and Opening Up”. After all, Chairman Deng was clear about his policies’ aim of 撥亂反正 righting the chaos from — ie. the mistakes of — Chairman Mao. President Xi, meanwhile, has imitated Mao in multiple ways, reframed Mao’s mistakes as something more benign — The Cultural Revolution, for example, has been reworded as a “difficult exploration”. President Xi also, critically, removed the most important safeguard Chairman Deng put in place to prevent another Chairman Mao from happening again — the 10-year term limit on the General Secretary, the head of the CCP post.

If President Xi doesn’t like “Reform and Opening Up”, then why does this term, this era still matter? China isn’t a democracy; the voices of dissenters among the general population hardly mean a thing — this Spring, we have seen 26 million people in China’s most affluent city wishing to leave their homes to buy food, to buy medicine, and given the deaf ear for two months (The Shanghai Lockdown). Who has been talking about “Reform and Opening Up” that have the ears of c-pol watchers perked up?

The answer: the premier 李克强 Li Keqiang, the Number 2 Man of China after President Xi.

Premier Li has repeatedly mentioned “Reform and Opening Up” in his public appearances over the past few months; an economist by training, he has insisted that that it is necessary for the country’s development. Does it mean his boss, President Xi, is actually more okay with “Reform and Opening Up” than he appeared to be? President Xi has never really talked about “Reform and Opening Up” himself — the narrative from his recent speeches has been focused on the great victory against COVID and the West, and on the “Two Establishes and Two Safeguards (兩個確立, 兩個維護) — which is about, essentially “Obey No One but Xi, Obey No Party but the Chinese Communist Party” (Really).

Are President Xi and Premier Li merely playing a strange version “Good Cop, Bad Cop”, with President Xi playing the nationalistic hand and Premier Li, the pragmatic hand? But then, it makes little sense that the clip of Premier Li’s August visit to Shen Zhen, in which he said China’s Opening Up must continue because 黄河長江不倒流 — “The Yellow River and Yangtze River don’t flow backwards”, i.e., we can’t go back to the past — was censored on Weixin. Premier Li had also, intentionally or not, embarrassed President Xi before. While the propaganda machine had been on full blast touting President Xi’s eradication of poverty in 2020, Premier Li, as the head of 國務院 State Council, the chief administrative authority (i.e., it does the stats and numbers), went on record to say 0.6 billion people in the country — more than 40% of the population — had an income of < 1000 RMB (140 USD) a month.

(The poverty line for China’s median income, by OECD’s standard, is 1148 RMB a month. In 2019, China introduced its own standard of 333 RMB a month.)

(There are two ways of eradicating something: eradicate it, or change its definition.)

This, to many political watchers, signals that President Xi’s ascension to Dictator-for-Life may not be as smooth, as sure as it appears to be. How much support, or opposition has President Xi met behind the scenes?

Is Premier Li a collaborator, or dissenter of the President? Is he a contender for some, or all of President Xi’s official titles come the National Congress? But Premier Li has never been truly politically powerful; before this year, his public appearances were few and far between. He, and the so-called 團派 “League Faction” he represents, has had their influence significantly diminished during the Xi era. 團派 “League Faction”, BTW, broadly refers to the politicians who’ve risen up the ranks of the party via the Communist Youth League 共青團, who are mostly of ordinary, “plebian” background and joined the league as most university-educated youth of the country have, and worked their way up. This is in contrast to the so-called Princeling faction, which President Xi is a member of, who are made up of descendants of powerful Chinese political figures.

Something that has long baffled c-pol analysts: The Xi family were victims of the Cultural Revolution. Here, President Xi’s father, 習仲勳 Xi Zhongxun (wearing the placard) was being publicly denounced by his fellow comrades as being an “anti-Communist”. Xi Zhongxun would be absolved in the Deng era and become an advocate of “Reform and Opening Up”, and introduce its policies to the city of Guangzhou. (Source)

Premier Li may not the only person possibly not standing on President Xi’s side. Inside Zhongnanhai 中南海, the headquarters, the … palace of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing (it is really in a former imperial garden), there are the Elders — the power men who once served in the government but have now retired — who participate in the workings of the government via convos behind close doors and who, traditionally, have a say of who gets to be China’s next Paramount Leader. 宋平 Song Ping, an Elder and one of Communist China’s founding fathers (he’s 105 year old), also said, recently and allegedly, that “Reform and Opening Up” is a must for China.

Allegedly, because the video isn’t available to the public. Allegedly, because Song had made the statement during a semi-private event, and the statement was, allegedly, edited out of the video.

Even if Song had made that statement, how much his words — or the words of any Elder — still weigh in 2022 is unknown.

For those who’d like to have an entertaining look at how Elders influence the election of Chinese leaders, the movie Election by 杜琪峰 Johnnie To is a good choice. The movie famously used the election of Hong Kong mafia leaders as an analogy of how the process worked.

This is power struggle, Chinese style. It’s the opposite of the loud, incessant, (annoying) shouts of ‘I’m Good and They’re Bad’ in the pre-election months in the United States. Every piece of info comes with more questions than message, more smoke than view. China’s social media is eerily peaceful these days, Weibo hot search being filled with light topics — often from entertainment when just after the rapid succession of celebrity cancellation in the summer of 2021, hot search had been off limits to tags related to entertainment for a while. Outside the hot search, netizens have found their posts restricted in traffic (ie. cannot be reblogged), their images turning into more broken links in a seemingly random manner. While such methods to prevent information spread has always been around, they are usually not employed so widely, so indiscriminately. Nonetheless, with the counter-methods Chinese netizens have developed over the years to avoid triggering the censorship filters, rumours, some of them wild, continue to fly under this guise of peace — the latest, as some may have seen on Twitter, is about a military coup and President Xi being under house arrest (it has been proven false; this article went into detail about the elements that hinted on the rumour’s falseness). This isn’t something one can see in Weibo posts at all, however, not even a netizen or two just wondering: I’ve heard this ... something. Is it true?

When the power struggle in China does make noise, it often does so under the guise of something else. Support of Zero-COVID policy is now understood by the politically aware to be synonymous to support of President Xi’s brand of ideology. Even the less politically sensitive among Chinese netizens have become largely aware that Zero-COVID is now a political movement, that the wellbeing of them as citizens of China may matter less than the political purpose it serves.

An anti-COVID banner, which said: “Coronavirus isn’t scary, as long as everyone listens to the Party” (Source)

Last month, there was a major accident involving a bus carrying people out of the city of Guiyang for quarantine, resulting in at least 27 fatalities. The thing is … all passengers were not only COVID negative, they had been under lockdown in their homes for the previous two weeks, ie. the chance of them having been a close contact of a positive case was essentially zero. But the local authorities had decided to move them out of the city anyway — the government-issued deadline for reaching a zero case count for the city was coming in two days. The people were therefore smuggled out of the city overnight, using a highway that was usually closed those hours because it was unsafe to use in the dark. Making this trip even more dangerous was the condition on the bus, which was also specified by the government: the driver and passengers were all to wear the white, stuffy PPE suits, the driver was to wear a N95 mask as well and the air conditioning must be turned off, the windows must be closed at all times and there could be no eating or drinking on the bus, as there would be no restroom breaks for anyone. Only the driver knew where the bus was heading and the trips were often hours long — this one was expected to take four.

The bus often turns into a steaming sauna room under these conditions; heat exhaustion is common among the passengers by the time they reach their quarantine locale.

And the drivers had complained about not being to see well with their mask, the steam and the heat. The night hours also mean they are often tired, and the food + drink + bathroom bans mean they can be even more uncomfortable while having to drive.

Accidents like this one were ... a matter of time.

And all of this, all of the discomfort and suffering and lives lost, only because the local authorities needed to report a victory against a virus on a certain day to the central government. The COVID virus, these little spheres of RNA with some spikes for decor, are now treated like a human army on the battlefield, an opposing force that can be crushed in a certain, pre-scheduled battle. Those in the country who wished for a scientific approach to the virus, the most famous among them Dr 張文宏 Zhang Wenhong, also called China’s Dr Fauci by some, were censored and attacked by pro-Xi, nationalistic netizens. Dr Zhang was called a traitor, a blind follower of Western beliefs.

(He was called similar names when he had suggested children to have egg and milk, ie protein, for breakfast, instead of the traditional, 100% carbohydrate Chinese congee).

The Guiyang bus accident was attention catching enough to make the hot search for a day. At first, it was described as an accident involving a tour bus. It was only later, when the truth spread and public opinion could no longer be contained, that the tour bus’s purpose was made clear. The local authorities apologised, signalling the end of discussion of the matter and the hot search was removed. The smuggling of people for zero COVID counts continued.

Whispers, despaired and anxious, also continued, by people not tagging their posts to avoid triggering censorship filter. We’re all on the same bus, these netizens said. They understood what had happened to that bus of passengers could happen to any of them — Guiyang was far from the only place that smuggled people out to reach the zero case goal, and even without the smuggling, the bus ride to quarantine in broad daylight was little different. It headed to the unknown for the passengers, where conditions could be frightfully poor, where they would be left there for an unknown number of days.

All they needed was one tiny, invisible COVID viral particle to intrude their community.

Disease-prevention personnels, colloquially called 大白 Big White because of the PPE they wear, guarding against the escape of travellers trapped in the airport of Xishuangbanna when the city went into sudden lockdown on 2022/10/04. Angry travellers confronted them, asking why they were pointing their guns at their own people (Video). Big White can be medical personnels, police or other officers under the uniform.

Does it mean these lamenters are dissenters of Xi? Not at all. The propaganda has portrayed COVID as a fearful, deathly virus (and it is one, especially in its early days), and most of them do not wish for their country to emulate the (evil) Western countries and let the virus loose, let the people die. They are willing to do what they can to prevent the virus from spreading — it’s just that what they have to do now terrifies them.

Anyways …

Just as support of the Zero-COVID policy is now understood to be synonymous to support of President Xi, support of “Reform and Opening Up” is now understood to be, if not anti-, then, at least skeptical of President Xi and his ideology, the direction the country is heading under his leadership. To prefer “Reform and Opening Up” means to prefer a focus on the ailing economy; and to cure the the ails, the Zero-COVID policy, President Xi’s pride, has to be the first to go.

Eventually, President Xi’s Maoist tendencies have to go as well. Because of China’s development during the “Reform and Opening Up” era and its subsequent decades, “Reform and Opening Up” also carries the implicit meaning of opening up the country’s economy to the rest of the world, of forging foreign cooperations in general, which is in contrast to President Xi’s “Warrior Wolf” style hostility towards the West, and his encouragement of “internal circulation” — expansion of the role of the domestic market to Chinese economy — that has been taken to mean shutting the doors to international economy and community.

This is how “Reform and Opening Up” has become a politically-sensitive term.

And when “Reform and Opening Up” becomes a politically-sensitive term, so do media projects about the era, such as Where Dreams Begin. Where Dreams Begin will likely be all right —this February, one of the companies producing the series announced that it had been chosen as a sponsored project of the Beijing branch of NRTA. 楊夏 Yang Xia, the producer of Where Dreams Begin (and The Untamed), was not only spotted at the 11th Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) in December 2021, but carrying a title (中國電視藝術家協會新文藝組織和新文藝群體工作委員會副秘書長) that hinted she had connections at the right places. This was, after all, a conference that President Xi attended and spoke:

President Xi, speaking at the 11th Congress of the CFLAC, 2021. (Source, including the full text of his speech, which touched on the moral requirements of the arts community. No concrete guidelines were given; the prose was largely rhetoric.)

Still, the content of Where Dreams Begin will likely be scrutinised by auditors again right before airing. 獻禮劇, the special genre of TV and film that not only had a propaganda element, but is devoted to the glorification of the government and CCP must, in particular, be current with the message the government intends to spread. We may have seen another example of this very, very recently:

On 2022/09/27, the Chinese military officially “upgraded” the categorisation of its first homemade stealth fighter jet, J-20, from 4th generation to 5th generation. It also confirmed J-20′s deployment to the Taiwan Strait. In the media, the categorisation of the fighter jet had been divided between 4th and 5th generation, with the 4th generation categorisation still found in a state media social media post as late as May 2022. Such an official categorisation change, a demonstration of China’s prowess in military technology, would have to be immediately reflected in propaganda projects depicting the J-20, including the movie Born to Fly, which was originally scheduled to premiere on the same day.

The airing time of propaganda films and series are, therefore, necessarily affected by the political climate, by the choice of Paramount Leader whose ideology decides the appropriate message to spread. If the Paramount Leader continues to exhibit touchiness about “Reform and Opening Up”, for example, then, having a drama about “Reform and Opening Up” airing and hanging out on hot search may not be the best idea.

Best to wait till he looks away.

While I am at this, I should clear up this something that may be confusing. Perhaps some of you have noticed that I’ve used the term “Paramount Leader”, instead of President, or General Secretary, the latter being the post he may be getting his third term for. Is Xi being the General Secretary for the 3rd term equivalent to his continuing to be the Paramount Leader? What, exactly, is the Paramount Leader?

Hmm. I’d say, there’s a … 99.9% chance that General Secretary = President = Paramount Leader. It isn’t a rule though. Hence, the not-100%. Meanwhile, unlike the Presidency, the Paramount Leader is not an actual position one can hold. Rather, the Paramount Leader is the person recognised, by implicit understanding, to be the person who’s really calling the shots.

Xi’s official titles are President (中華人民共和國主席), General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (中國共產黨中央委員會總書記), and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (中國共產黨中央軍事委員會主席). Of the three titles, “President” is actually least prestigious, with the least numbers of actual duties and many of which are ceremonial. “President”, moreover, has always been occupied by whoever is serving as the head of the Chinese Communist Party (ie, the General Secretary), and the Commander-in-Chief of the People’s Liberation Army (ie, the Chairman of the CAC), even though no laws dictate that it must be that way.

In other words, the General Secretary and Chairman titles are where the power really is. This is why President Xi’s being potentially the General Secretary for life is such a big deal.

From the recently published, succinct guide on the National Congress by BBC: a recommended read.

This also means, hypothetically, that it is possible for Xi to remain General Secretary but lose control over the military and along with it, the Presidency and Paramount Leadership — and this has been the scenario anti-Xi people have hoped for. The General Secretary failing to be the Paramount Leader has, in a way, happened in the past. There was actually a leader between Chairman Mao and Chairman Deng, 華國鋒 Hua Guofeng, who held the highest offices (including the head of the CCP and Commander in Chief) between 1976 and 1981. However, his leadership was mostly seen as the continuation of Mao’s in the first two years, and afterwards, Deng usurped his power and became the de facto Paramount Leader.

So, Hua was a “he-is-but-not-really” Paramount Leader, despite holding the equivalent title of the General Secretary.

Deng would demonstrate another way to be the de facto Paramount Leader after he officially retired in 1990. His influence would remain larger than his successor, 江澤民 Jiang Zemin, until when he finally, truly retired in 1994. With that, he showed that a Paramount Leader can even be a regular citizen; between the years of 1990-1994, Hong Kongers pointed out the absurdity of this by calling (former) Chairman Deng 鄧普通 Ordinary Deng.

Along this line of thought, a not-100%-impossible, reverse scenario of Xi keeping his titles but losing his Paramount Leadership would be his installing a puppet, stepping down from all his positions, and remaining the de facto Paramount Leader.

Anything is possible in the country when a person, a party is above the laws.

Complicated, isn’t it? Hence, October 2022 is a time for observation. Even if President Xi held on to all his titles, political analysts and also, people who must stay current with the government’s message — including those who work in propaganda, including c-ent — will be watching for clues to how much power he actually retains. Aside for looking for evident changes in his policies such as Zero-COVID, other things to watch for include, for example, what positions will his close associates win or lose? Where will these positions be won or lost? Positions in the four direct-administrated municipalities 直轄市 — Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing — are prestigious; those in poor provinces like Guizhou, not so much. Will President Xi get to place more of his people in the nice places? If so, he will be considered the true winner of this round of political struggle. If not, how ugly will their downfall be and who will be the people taking over the lost positions? Will they belong to the League Faction? The Jiang-BigTech Faction? Princelings? How many times will Xi’s name get mentioned on the front page of People’s Daily? In Xinhua News? Where on the front page? On top and at the center? At one of the bottom corners?

It’s ridiculous, I know. It’s incredibly exhausting too. But then, this is China, and there are often no better, more reliable sources of information.

* Phew *. Okay, enough of these title things. Now, I think I can finally get to what I intended to talk about when I started this meta (* facepalms at all the words above *) … something more relevant to us turtles, a question that is more likely to be on our minds. It’s understandable why c-ent is being so watchful now, why investors and companies and cast and crew have to expect their projects being affected by the news, the decisions coming this month. But why are certain stars — all right, let’s be specific here — Gg and Dd so … quiet?

As turtles, we have double the number of favourite stars, both being so beloved and beautiful and ... we’re supposed to have double birthdays with double the amount of equally popular and easy-on-the-eyes material to celebrate. We should have double the joy and fun. And yet, both birthdays this year were so … quiet.

It’s difficult to not feel a little let down, isn’t it?

Other stars … we’ve watched them, and they’ve laid low too — compared to 10, even 5 years ago everyone has laid low (Weibo 10 years ago was WILD compared to today). But they have still been more active. And those who also have birthdays this October, this close to the two meetings, still celebrated. This time of this year being politically sensitive doesn’t seem to adequately explain the so-quietness of our boys.

Then, what is it?

What is it they have, or they carry, and other stars don’t?

#pie metas

39 notes · View notes