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#vietnamese folklore
briefbestiary · 10 days
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Despite the literal translation of its name being "chicken ghost", the Ma Gà is not the spirit of a chicken. Instead, they are named after their favorite food. Should they not be fed properly, the ghost will either enter a family member's body to demand food, or even cause general declines in the health of the family.
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writingwithcolor · 3 months
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[Running Commentary] Zombies are Zombies: Cultural Relativism, Folklore, and Foreign Perspectives
She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 
Rina: OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/
Marika: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 
Rina: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 
~ ~ ~
Based on the reception we received the last time we did one of these, the Japanese moderator team returns with another running commentary. (They’re easier to answer this way) (Several of Marika’s answers may be troll answers)
Our question today pertains to foreign perspectives on folklore—that is, how people view folklore and stories that aren’t a part of their culture. CW: for anything you’d associate with zombies and a zombie apocalypse, really.
Keep reading for necromancy, horror games, debunking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Hong Kong jiangshi films, Japanese disaster prep videos, and Vietnamese idol pop...
Essentially, in my story there’s an organization who wants to end the world. They think this one woman in particular, a woman of mixed Vietnamese (irreligious, Kinh) and Japanese descent who spent her formative years in Japan, is the person to do it because she’s (for lack of a better term) a necromancer; powers are semi-normal in this world. She prefers not to use her powers overall, but when she does she mostly talks to ghosts and spirits that are giving people issues. She could technically reanimate a corpse but she wouldn’t because she feels that would be morally wrong, not to mention she couldn’t start a zombie apocalypse in the traditional sense (plague, virus, etc.) in the first place. 
(Marika (M): Your local public health officials would like to assure necromancers that reviving the dead will not provoke a zombie apocalypse. This is because necromancy is a reanimation technique, and not a pathogenic vector. Assuming that the technique does not release spores, airborne viruses, gasses, or other related physical matter that can affect neighboring corpses in a similar way, there should be no issue. However, necromancers should comply with local regulations w/r to permitting and only raise the dead with the approval of the local municipality and surviving family.)
M: I think it makes sense for most people of E. Asian descent, including Japanese and Vietnamese people, to find it culturally reprehensible to reanimate the dead. I imagine the religious background of your character matters as well. What religion(s) are her family members from? How do they each regard death and the treatment of human remains? Depending on where she grew up, I’m curious on how she got opportunities to practice outside specialized settings like morgues.
M: It’s true, space in Japan is at a premium, even for the dead. You note that most of Japan cremates, but, surely, it must have occurred to you that if there aren’t that many bodies in Japan to raise…she doesn’t exactly have much opportunity to practice with her powers, does she? I yield to our Vietnamese followers on funerary customs in Vietnam, but you may want to better flesh out your world-building logic on how necromancy operates in your story (And maybe distinguish between necromancy v. channeling v. summoning v. exorcisms). 
She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 
Rina (R): OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/
M: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 
R: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 
R: And yes, the Tofugu article uses Resident Evil and those games to support its theory, with the reason that they are set in the West. But that only suggests that Japanese people consider zombies a Western thing, not that Japanese people consider zombies nonthreatening if they were to exist. 
M: Same with vampires - series like Castlevania also use Western/ European settings and not “Vampires in Japan '' because vampires just aren't part of our folklore.
(M: Also, realistically, these series deal with individuals who quickly perish after their bodies are used as hosts for the pathogen in question, rather than the pathogen reanimating a corpse. Although the victims are initially alive, they soon succumb to the pathogen/ parasite and their organic matter then becomes an infectious vector for the disease. It should be noted, infecting ordinary, living humans with viruses to grant them elevated powers, is not only a major violation of consent and defies all recommendations made by the Belmont Report (in addition to a number of articles in the Hague Convention w/r to the use of WMDs) and is unlikely to be approved by any reputable university’s IRB committee. This is why the Umbrella Corporation are naughty, naughty little children, and honestly, someone should have assassinated Wesker for the grant money.)
R: wwww
From what I know Vietnam didn’t have a zombie movie until 2022. 
R: Do you mean a domestically produced zombie movie? Because Vietnamese people have most certainly had access to zombie movies for a long time. The Hong Kong film Mr. Vampire (1985) was a gigantic hit in Southeast Asia; you can find a gazillion copies of this movie online with Viet subs, with people commenting on how nostalgic this movie is or how they loved it as a kid. 
M: “Didn’t have a [domestic] zombie movie” is not necessarily the same thing as “Would not have made one if the opportunity had arisen.” None of us here are personifications of the Vietnamese film industry, I think it’s safe to say we couldn’t know. Correlation is not causation. It’s important to do your research thoroughly, and not use minor facts to craft a narrative based on your own assumptions.
(R: …Also, I did find a 2017 music video for “Game Over” by the Vietnamese idol Thanh Duy which features… a zombie apocalypse.)
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(R: The MV has a very campy horror aesthetic and zombie backup dancers (which I love, everyone please watch this lol). But the scenes at the beginning and end where people are biting their fingers watching a threatening news report clearly establish that the zombies are considered a threat.)
So at one point, she laughs about the idea and remarks how ridiculous it is to think zombies could end the world. What I’m struggling with are other ways to show her attitude on the issue because I’d assume most non-Japanese readers wouldn’t get why she thinks like that. Are there any other ways to show why she thinks this way, especially ones that might resonate more with a Japanese reader?
R: The problem is this does not resonate in the first place. Your line of thinking is too Sapir-Whorf-adjacent. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, otherwise known as linguistic relativity theory, claims that language shapes cognition—that you can’t conceive of something if you can’t express it in your language. This is a very weak theory that you can easily bring evidence against: think of the last time you felt an emotion you had a hard time putting into words; just because you didn’t have the language for it doesn’t mean that you didn’t feel it, nor does it mean that you won’t be able to understand or recognize it if you feel it again. Similarly, it’s not a sound assumption to say that if some kind of subject matter does not exist in a culture, then people of that culture couldn't possibly conceive of it. This excerpt from linguist Laura Bailey sums it up quite well. 
M: Just because ghosts may be more culturally relevant doesn’t mean that zombies (or vampires, or whatever) are nonexistent in a Japanese or Vietnamese person’s imagination when it comes to horror and disaster.
R: Really,  if anything, Japanese people are much more attuned to how easily a society’s infrastructure can be destroyed by a disruptive force without adequate preparation. Japan is natural disaster central. A Japanese person would know better than anyone that if you aren’t prepared for a zombie epidemic—yeah it’s gonna be bad. 
M: Earthquakes, tsunami, typhoon, floods: Japan has robust disaster infrastructure out of necessity. 防災 or bousai, meaning disaster preparedness is a common part of daily life, including drills at workplaces, schools, and community organizations. Local government and community agencies are always looking for ways to make disaster and pandemic preparedness relevant to the public.
M: Might “zombie apocalypse prep as a proxy for disaster prep” be humorous in an ironic, self-deprecating way? Sure, but it’s not like Japanese people are innately different from non-Japanese people. Rather, by being a relatively well-off country practiced at disaster preparation with more experience than most parts of the world with many different types of disasters (and the accompanying infrastructure), it likely would seem more odd to most Japanese people within Japan to not handle a zombie apocalypse rather like might one handle a combination of a WMD/ chemical disaster+pandemic+civil unrest (all of which at least some part of Japan has experienced). Enjoy this very long, slightly dry video on COVID-19 safety procedures and preparedness using the framing device of surviving a zombie apocalypse.
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M: Living in Los Angeles, I’ve often experienced similar tactics. We do a fair amount of advance and rehearsed disaster prep here as well. In elementary school, the first and last days of class were always for packing and unpacking home-made disaster packs, and “zombie apocalypse” simulations have been around since I was in middle school for all kinds of drills, including active shooter drills, like the one shown in this LAT article. The line between “prepper” and “well prepared” really comes down to degree of anxiety and zeal. So, it wouldn’t be just Japanese people who might not be able to resonate with your scene. The same could be said for anyone who lives somewhere with a robust disaster prevention culture.
M: A zombie apocalypse is not “real” in the sense of being a tangible threat that the majority of the world lives in fear of waking up to (At least, for the mental health of most people, I hope so). Rather, zombie apocalypse narratives are compelling to people because of the feelings of vague, existential dread they provoke: of isolation, paranoia, dwindling resources, and a definite end to everything familiar. I encourage you to stop thinking of the way Japanese people and non-Japanese people think about vague, existential dread as incomprehensible to each other. What would you think about zombies if they actually had a chance of existing in your world? That’s probably how most Japanese people would feel about them, too.
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nananarc · 1 year
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Truyện Kiều (The Tales of Kieu - 傳翹) - Illustration Final Project
"The Tale of Kiều is an epic poem in Vietnamese written by Nguyễn Du (1765–1820), considered the most famous poem and a classic in Vietnamese literature. The poem recounts the life, trials, and tribulations of Thúy Kiều, a beautiful and talented young woman, who has to sacrifice herself to save her family. To save her father and younger brother from prison, she sells herself into marriage with a middle-aged man, not knowing that he is a pimp, and is forced into prostitution. "
You can grab some merch of this and more on my Redbubble.
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mecthology · 8 months
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Quỷ Nhập Tràng from Vietnamese folklore.
Quỷ Nhập Tràng are spirits of the dead who prey on frail, dying people, seeking to consume their souls and steal their bodies so as to indulge in earthly pleasures. When that happens, the sick person will appear reinvigorated but also start to act oddly. Often, they ask for lots of food, sometimes including peculiar things such as raw blood or even living animals.
Their behaviors might be mistaken for signs of recovery, which is why this version of Quỷ Nhập Tràng can live among people for days before anyone starts suspecting anything. In truth, though, the person is already dead, their body possessed by another soul. It is said that once the evil spirit is expelled by an exorcist, the body will immediately show signs of decay, as if having been dead for days.
Follow @mecthology for more lores and legends.
DM for pic credit or removal.
Source: https://thesmartlocal.com/vietnam/vietnamese-ghosts-demons/amp/
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hoisinblackcat · 2 months
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Behold a series of little drawings of the little guy that has been festering in my mind so much that I had to make designs for him
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raybeanschildrenslit · 2 months
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My Grandfather’s Song - Picture Book
My Grandfather’s Song by Phùng Nguyên Quang, Huỳnh Kim Liên Published 2023 by Penguin Random House
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Published in 2023, Quang and Liên released My Grandfather’s Song, a “tribute to the very first pioneers to the south of Vietnam” and the respect paid to ancestors and the land. This story follows a young boy as he travels with his grandfather in a tiny boat over water to a jungled land that would become their new home. We watch as grandfather prompts his grandson to listen and learn the new song of this new land as they build up their home and rice fields and become more familiar with this new and oftentimes scary new place. Larger than life animals take up large spaces in the landscapes they traverse as they find rhythm and harmony with the land, animals, and weather. As they join the choir of their new home, others join them to create a safe and wonderful community and pass the song on.
In Vardell’s 2019 text- Children’s Literature in Action: A Librarian’s Guide (3rd ed.)- we are introduced to evaluation criteria in regard to children’s picture books. Vardell lists criteria such as characters, plot, setting, theme, style, illustrations, and cultural markers, let’s take a look at a couple (2019). In regards to Cultural Markers, Quang and Liên have had a number of Vardell’s evaluation criteria intertwine their fingers. In this story of the first pioneers to the south of Vietnam, a cultural marker is its overall story and existence in tribute to these first peoples and the Vietnamese culture. We are reading- the plot- of the origin story of their arrival to this new place and the dangers of settlement. A Theme present throughout the narrative as well as highlighted in the back of the book through a letter from the authors is the discussion of the relationship between humans and their environment. We watch as our two main characters learn to respect and work with the nature of the animals and elements of their new environment by learning its rhythm and song and keeping harmony with it. 
In a library setting, I think this story would work great in a range of areas of discussion/ activity/ reading/ display etc.: Origin Stories/ Traditional Tales, Vietnamese Heritage, and Environmentalism off the top of my head. There is a range in which this piece of literature can exist in an educational and representational setting with what I would like to think would be great presence and range. There is an opportunity to learn and appreciate history and culture as well as discuss the importance of respecting and caring for our environment.
-Ray 11/19/2024
Quang, P. N., & Liên, H. K. (2023). My grandfather’s song. MAKE ME A WORLD. 
Vardell, S.M. (2019). Children’s literature in action: A librarians’s guide (3rd ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio. 
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quitealotofsodapop · 12 days
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man I love yokai/yaoguai creatures and mythos. my irish butt researches this stuff and the primordial Irish part of my brain goes; "Ah. Perfectly understandable fae behavior."
Now I'm thinking of LMK situations where (due to a mix of immigration/tourism) MK has to deal with entities that he has no context for as an urban chinese teenager.
How this boy suppose to respond to a gotdang giant foot coming out of the sky like a Monty Python bumper?
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Mei learning about different "dragon princesses" from Japanese, Vietnamese, and Cebuano mythos (Example: Otohime the daughter of the Dragon King of the Sea in Japanese folklore) and writing to them asking if they're possibly related and/or if they'd be interested to an awesome city break to Metropolis.
Pigsy gets paid in money-thats-actually-leaves once by a raccoon-dog spirit and almost strangles the spirit the next time he sees them.
Tang ofc has like a million folklore + basic language guides on hand to figure out who/what they're dealing with.
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kutiepied · 8 days
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Sometimes I think about making some fix it video of ATLA because I think it could be fun tbh -
My main want to "fix it" idea is Kataang, because I'm not a fan of the ship but I know it could have been handled much better. Like let's make Kataang make sense from Katara perspective too please 🥺
Tho I think with the NATLA an avatar "rewrite" could be really cool to do in the sense of I can get what I most like about both versions and get rid about what I think doesn't compliment the plot or characters and just explore that.
Tho I'm a Zutara shipper so if I ever make a "rewrite" ATLA I would totally go for Zutara development rather than Kataang (even if I wanna show people how kataang could have been handled much better)
Also I think it would be interesting to add Taang to the rewrite. Why? Because Aang and Toph are so similar and different that I feel like a relationship between those two could make each other grow so much!!!
Like the thing with Suki and Sokka is that Suki forces Sokka to grow and in a way Sokka helps Suki expand her horizons. So that's why this ship is the only canon ship well handled and I actually like it despite disliking the other canon ships....
If I ever do a rewrite I would also like to add air nomads descendants that survived in hiding all these years and Make Ty Lee an Air Bender! (It would make so much sense!!!)
Also let's get Mai a better character arc and make her find herself + give her a better romantic relationship, she deserves it.
And one of the things I would also change would be the original fire benders- Like avatar is an Asian world so wtf there's Azteca people in it???? Like is nice to get different cultures and representations but I feel that it was a bit of a stretch when we have so many Asian cultures and civilizations that could have been used for it tbh...
Like we don't have much Indian representation even if the Air Nomads are based on Tibet monks.
We don't have Korean representation and tbh probably we would have it if it was made today (because now Korea is popular)...
What about Indonesian, Philippine, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thailand cultures? We ignore South Asia in avatar and I think we could add so much world building with them.
So instead of goin out of Asia for original Fire benders or swamp benders we could actually just derive from other Asian cultures and folklore that would surely fit in the world of avatar!
Like let's add another water tribe in the east for example! And they are resisting the fire Nation because they can't get to them thanks to the difficult currents between the islands. What is this based on? On Indonesia and more exactly Javanese history of queen Dyah Gitarja! Like damn and I only thought of this because I love playing with Indonesia in Civilization VI, imagine if I did some research!
The world of avatar was great for it's time, but still can be improved a lot! And idk I'm just going out of topic.
But yeah, some day maybe
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Little break between work. I'm reading this little Vietnamese folklore book my late grandpa gave me again.
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I'm a sucker for fairytale and folklore and history. As a 5 yo kid I learned to read just so I could devour my mom' whole bookstore and then my grandparents' bookstore too. I knew so many things, and I used to be so so proud of it. Now I've forgor most of it, and sometime I have to pick up on what I used to read when I was little.
I remember there is one folklore story that made me cry as a kid and it's maybe about poly love. I don't know, maybe just love, they're in love.
I should tell you guys about this love story when I have time to. I love it so much.
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six-magnitude-girl · 2 months
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Title: longing for the mountain peaks // AO3
Author: Anonymous
Status: COMPLETED (One-shot)
Summary: Floch jostled his way in front of Eren and sketched a flamboyant bow. “Princess, your beauty is even more captivating now then what I caught those tantalizing glimpses of you at my shores, and heard your melodic voice serenading the waves.”
Ymir leaned over to Historia, asking, “Is she going to retch?”, with a quirk of her head at Mikasa.
“By my father,” Eren grumbled with a roll of his eyes.
“Is that all you have to say?” Floch turned his nose up at Eren.
“I want the princess’ hand because there is nothing that would satisfy me more than having her in my home.” Eren shot Floch a challenging smirk, adding a mutter of, “And my bed.”
Tags: Inspired by Vietnamese, Mythology, Smut, Breeding Kink, Minor Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss/Ymir of the 104th, Minor Levi Ackerman/Erwin Smith, One-Sided Floch/Mikasa, Eren Yeager is a Little Shit, incel floch, Mikasa Ackerman Loves Eren Yeager, Eren Yeager Loves Mikasa Ackerman, Not Beta Read
Relationships: EreMika, minor Ymir x Historia, minor Levi x Erwin
Thoughts: This reminds me of those folklores that slipped past the censorship of what is and isn't kid-appropriate that I used to read in my school library! This delighted me so much. I just cannot stop smiling while reading this. I am just a sucker for these types of stories where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.
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rainboopz · 3 months
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🔗✨ Rain's Viet Verse Site
While the Toyhouse folders themselves need lore updates, all the characters for "Tale of Châu" and "Happy Asian Market" have their bios uploaded!
And fun fact: both these stories share the same universe! I thought I'd make a fun document to showcase some rules I follow pertaining to Vietnamese folklore and supernatural beliefs. Take a gander if you want!
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guardian-angle22 · 6 months
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Nine ten books
thank you to @rmd-writes who tagged me (ages ago) in this... not sure you knew what you were going to unleash when you did that but here we are. 😅
I think the prompt for this is just list nine favorite books, but because I can't be normal about books and my taurus energy is strong today... I'm breaking up these book recs into categories, adding visuals, and also adding a tenth book to make it an even number. Cheers!
Books #1 & #2 (Nonfiction)
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Ace by Angela Chen - Hello! Your friendly neighborhood asexual over here recommending that everybody read this book! It's such a good exploration of what it's like to navigate the world as an ace person and also the vast spectrum involved within asexuality.
Yoke by Jessamyn Stanley - Even if you've never done a single yoga pose in your life, I think you can gain something from this book. It's not a how-to yoga guide, but instead essays about her relationship to yoga, cultural appropriation within the community, fatness, colonization, capitalism, etc. It's fantastic and funny!
Books #3 & #4 (Excellent on Audio)
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Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski - This fiction book (and the following books in the series) follows an investigative journalist who has a true crime podcast. The audiobook is full cast and it feels like you're following along to an actual podcast, but one you know you'll get a conclusion to. Highly recommend all of the books in this series on audio if you enjoy mystery/thrillers.
Where to Begin by Cleo Wade - The author narrates the audio version of this and her voice is like a balm to the soul. It feels a little bit like she’s a counselor guiding you through a thoughtful meditation. It’s short but it packs a punch.
Books #5 & #6 (Seasonally Appropriate)
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Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas - This is a YA book following a young trans boy, Yadiel, who wants to prove to his family that he's truly a brujo and attempts to summon the ghost of a murdered family member. Except he accidentally summons a classmate who has no idea how he died. Adventure and mystery ensues!
The Changeling by Victor Lavalle - I've always loved the folklore surrounding changelings, but Lavalle's writing just takes this to another level. This is set in NYC and he somehow managed to make the city feel like a character in itself. Super chilling, creepy read.
Books #7 & 8 (Graphic Novels)
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I Hate Fairyland by Skottie Young - This is a 4 volume series about a little girl named Gertrude who is whisked away to Fairyland, where she's told she must go on a quest to find the key to unlock the door back to her world. Turns out she sucks at quests and 30 years pass and she still hasn't found the key. Now she's stuck in the body of a six year old and just murders everything she comes across. The contrast of bright, happy colors vs. the murderous, jaded Gertrude is hilarious and wonderful.
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen - This is a standalone graphic novel following Tien, the son of Vietnamese immigrants, as he navigates how to come out to his parents. The art in this is wonderful and the use of color to define when we're in the past, the present, or a fairy tale was done so beautifully. A gorgeous read!
Books #9 & #10 (Books from Favorite Authors I Will Read Anything From)
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A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers - This book/series follows a tea monk who encounters a robot looking for the answer to the question, "what do people need?" It's cozy and comforting. I've read every Becky Chambers book published and will continue to do so. The way she weaves hope into everything she writes is phenomenal.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater - This series owns my soul. I don't even know how to pitch this other than it has a magical forest, a found family, the slowest of slow burn queer love, and Maggie Steifvater's atmospheric writing. Maggie is another author that I will read pretty much anything from (the werewolves weren't my cup of tea so I can't claim to have read all her books).
OPEN TAG to anyone who wants to list off some book recs/fave books. Tag me so I can get some new recs!! also no pressure tagging: @lemonlyman-dotcom @mikibwrites @alrightbuckaroo @reasonandfaithinharmony
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famousinuniverse · 3 months
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Vietnamese Literature
Since the 11th century, Vietnamese culture has been storing folklore and histories to pass down to the future generations. Early folk literature, mainly preserved in the oral form in Vietnamese, is still accessible to the layman today. They're usually about creation or origin stories, cultural icons, gods and goddesses and other supernatural beings. A well-known story is Lac Long Quân, Âu Co.
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Kim Văn Kiều, or the Tale of Kiều, by Nguyễn Du (1765-1820)
Medieval literature was written in Classical Chinese, making it difficult to access for most Vietnamese today. Official proclamations and documents by the king as well as the first poetry and creative work to be written down survives in the Chinese script. These works need to be translated into colloquial Vietnamese for the general public to be able to relish them. Notable works include Gia huan ca ( The Family Training Ode), a 976-line Confucian morality poem attributed to Nguyen Trãi, written in the 1420s.
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Vietnamese Literature from the 15th - 18th Century , A Letter Written in Chu Quoc Ngu, the National Script of Vietnam
The use of the 'chu quoc ngu' national script brought the written word to the masses, and made national literature accessible to a wide section of people. The script struggled to gain acceptance during the 19th century, as many people saw it as an imposition of the French colonial rule. However, with the Vietnamese independence and the vastly successful literacy programme of the government, the script was officially adopted and became the primary means of writing in the country. Prominent works include So Do by Vu Trong Phung, written in 1936.
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mecthology · 1 year
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Ông Táo from Vietnamese mythology.
A long time ago, there was a couple, Trọng Cao and his wife Thị Nhi who were married for many years with no children. One day, they quarreled over some trivial matter, and the husband, in a fit of anger, beat and threw his wife out of their home. Although Thị Nhi still loved her husband, she had no choice but to go away. Thị Nhi went far away and met a very kind man called Phạm Lang. He married her and he loved Thị Nhi very much. Their life was happy and peaceful but Thị Nhi could not forget her first love. As for Trọng Cao, he had been filled with remorse from the day he sent his wife away. He waited, and waited hopelessly for his wife’s return. Eventually, he decided to set out from his home to search for Thị Nhi. He traveled far and wide, but he could not find his wife. His food ran out and he had to beg for his meals. One day, starving and thirsty, he knocked on the door of a house to ask for food. He was shocked when he recognized his former wife. The sudden appearance of Trọng Cao deeply moved Thị Nhi, and she invited him inside and gave him a good meal. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. It was Phạm Lang returning. The thought of being discovered with her former husband sent Thị Nhi into a panic. She hid Trọng Cao under a stack of straw. Unfortunately, Phạm Lang set fire to the straw because he needed ashes to fertilize his field. As the flames spread out, Trọng Cao accepted his fate to be burnt to death to protect Thị Nhi’s virtue. Thị Nhi was distraught. She could neither save Trọng Cao from the fire nor tell her husband. She had no choice but to throw herself into the flames. Phạm Lang could not understand why his wife killed herself. Filled with sorrow, he jumped into the burning fire and died. Ngọc Hoàng in the heavens knew the sad story. He was so moved by their devotion that he decided to help them to live together forever. Using his magic, he changed them into the three hearthstones around the cooking fire, where they became Kitchen Gods. Since that time, the three Táo Quân have been responsible for taking care of all household affairs.
Follow @mecthology for more myths and lores. Dm for pic credit. https://www.instagram.com/p/ClQ5I0FILIM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
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cynopter · 5 months
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Orange Peels on Fire: aka Townsend lore
because someone asked: here's a big dump of stuff about the story Townsend is from, i.e. the narrator of Choker!
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Major TW for suicide/hanging, and obviously OCD.
Also, heads up that it's a really silly, REALLY emo story about ghost hunting lol.
Townsend is the deuteragonist of a (really extremely unfinished) story I had, that was provisionally called Orange Peels on Fire (opof). I started working on it when I was watching a lot of Demon Slayer, and it was basically my attempt to create a cast of shounen anime characters who were all girls but look exactly like the typical shounen anime protagonists. (I mention Demon Slayer because I took a LOT of inspiration from that - at times I described it to people as a shitty lesbian Vietnamese Demon Slayer knockoff... wow it's like it was made for me!!!)
A lot of lore is super wishy-washy because I did like the OG concept art in 2021, then I just kinda fucked around until 2022 when I revamped it for a screenwriting class. I don't really consider either version more canon, but I did a lot more work on the screenwriting version so I'll just describe that :P
Setting
It's set in post-apocalyptic US (either Virginia or like California but I couldn't commit because I've never seen California). A lot of the human population is gone - old civilization is being reclaimed by nature and the surplus oxygen means that there are also giant bugs now who take a lot of the niches previously held by mammals (like mice, dogs, deer etc). The oxygen is also how I campily explain away people being able to do epic anime jumps and stuff lmao. This, plus global warming, also means that the middle of North America now has a sort of tropical climate.
The part that actually matters is everyone in the US lives in tiny villages created out of suburban neighborhoods, and they're constantly having Ghost and Monster Problems of some nature because society has forgotten how to properly bury the dead --- and also because that apocalyptic event 100-or-so years ago caused so many ghosts to be created.
Phượng Lê
The protagonist is Phượng Lê, an 18 year old girl who can see ghosts. She's a triplet, with a living brother (Thanh) and a stillborn sister (the titular Cam / "Orange") who she's always seen as just a normal sister because she's a ghost that lives with them.
(All three of these characters are from a depressing realistic fiction short story I wrote, which I personally consider to be their "true" versions, but I imported them into this because I thought it'd be stupid and funny to turn a story like that into a shounen anime lol)
This is what Phượng looks like! (modern on left, old on right)
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She's struggled with depression her whole life, partially because everyone thinks she's a sad and delusional pyromaniac for acting like she has a living sister (whose bones she keeps in a box) and for burning stuff to send it to her. Because of that she puts a LOT of stock in Cam's happiness because keeping Cam's ghost kind of cost her everything (including her parents abandoning them etc).
Cam's remains get stolen one day and long story short, Phượng and Thanh end up traveling around the country trying to solve ghost problems, scooby-doo style, in pursuit of the person who stole them. There's like a different category of ghost every time, based on Vietnamese folklore. (And if you're wondering, Cam's bones are valuable because stillborn baby remains can be used for evil magic, which is of course what the evil people in this story want to do).
That finally brings us to...
Townsend! (aka May Hoàng)
Townsend has pretty different lore between 2021 and 2022, but again I'm going with the latter because I've spent more time on that.
In the story:
She's a self-proclaimed "evil ghost" who haunts a tree at the edge of town. Phuong comes to her to ask if she's seen Cam; Townsend is surprised to meet a human who's friendly to ghosts.
She lightly antagonizes P & Th (in what is later revealed to be an attempted suicide-by-cop type thing) and runs away from them a few times before finally deciding to join their team. (In some versions she has to pretend to be human to deceive Irene, the secretly evil lady helping P & Th out).
Originally I had her birth name as Townsend - in the most recent iteration, this is a nickname Phượng gives her through this miscommunication:
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She's the only member of the team who can actually, you know, touch ghosts? (Except when Phuong goes all danny phantom on their asses but I don't need to get into that).
Despite this, and despite the fact that she constantly threatens to kill people*, she basically bursts into tears at the thought of enacting violence on people/ghosts, so she ends up just serving as their strategist **(as the only one who isn't kind of dumb lol).
* Her catch phrase is basically "Don't touch me, i'll kill you." This is really emo lol, but what you find out eventually is this is actually a warning and not a threat.
**Specifically, because Thanh is the only one with absolutely no ghost powers, he has to use weapons made by Phuong, and because Phuong is like the main character, Townsend and Thanh have to work together to strategize & fight in the background. That's a whole arc because Townsend is a coward who doesn't want to be in fights, and Thanh doesn't trust Townsend because she constantly threatens to kill him and Phuong. Fair, I guess.
Townsend's backstory:
She's supposed to be this fundamentally irrational character, who eventually becomes a love interest of Phượng (they're both lesbians) but still never brings herself to stop antagonizing her whenever they get too close. After months and months of working together, Phượng finally gets Townsend's backstory:
She was originally a 17-year-old girl named May Hoàng, who lived in a town next to Phượng's. She suffered from something that we would in modern times describe as OCD, but had since been forgotten by society because of the apocalypse (rip). Her family was Catholic, and they didn't think much of her earlier obsessions (except that she was being annoying), but when she confided in them about her newest obsession about dropping and strangling her baby brother, Meri, they confided in the church - and eventually all the townsfolk came to believe she was being influenced by the devil.
May's parents kept trying to work with her, but eventually she ran away to hang herself.* In some versions, instead of going through with that, she conveniently gets attacked by a hangman ghost (which is how I really loosely translated ma thần vòng) right before that, who strangles her and she still dies. Fun!
*This is what's described in the beginning of Choker. In the original version, she runs away on the back of a giant-giant american millipede, as depicted on the cover, and that becomes kind of a faithful steed that they can all ride around on later.
Either way, what she didn't realize (I guess because she's Catholic) is that if you hang yourself and nobody finds your body, you turn into a hangman ghost, and can only pass on if you strangle a living person to take your place.
So..... obviously that's not going to happen.
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Phượng & Townsend
May died about a year before the story starts. She was kind of hoping Phượng could just exorcize her, but because it takes about 3 seconds to realize May isn't actually a threat, Phượng refuses to do that.
Instead they kind of fall in love (shipname Phuongsend if you're wondering lol), and they eventually figure out she's just mentally ill and reinvent ERT or something.
Meanwhile, because of both Cam and May, the whole team is looking for a way to turn ghosts back into living people. I never decided if they actually succeed, but honestly I don't think they ever will. May committed suicide and that's just not something you can undo.
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As foils
They both care a lot about each other, but that's despite (or maybe because of?) some very conflicting values. There's a little undercurrent of each trying to change the other's morals.
Phượng's mother abandoned her and Thanh because of her obsession with her sister, Cam, who was stillborn and never even got a chance at life. She's only leaving home now to find that sister and maybe even bring her back to life.
From Phượng's perspective, May HAD a shot at life, and somehow thinks she has the right to get it back even after squandering it. May also loves her baby sibling to death, but her idea of protecting him was to run away forever --- and to Phuong, that's just about the worst thing you can do to someone you love.
They were both treated as heretics, but Phượng reacted by getting a superiority complex and starting to hate everyone, while May still thinks everyone is fundamentally good, except herself. Phượng is (technically) a younger sister and constantly pushes back against Thanh's overprotectiveness, something May sees as disrespectful and scary, as an older sister who spent years obsessing over Meri's safety. Finally, Phượng's violent tendencies/occasional anger issues are something May sees as a big moral problem.
And.... that was a LOT. I'm not sure if I'll keep this post up honestly because there's still like a TINY chance I'll adapt this into something. But for now enjoy the lore dump :P
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Considering how France colonized Vietnam for like a century, it's truly aggravating how Kim was portrayed as a total meathead simp for a bratty rich French girl, has a name that can be misinterpreted as the French word for dog, and his miraculous...is based around...the Monkey King.
Which, don't get me wrong, we love Journey to the West too but...that isn't our folklore. You know what is in our creation myth though? The Dragon King 🙃
But I guess Astruc is too busy weabing out and confusing Chinese and Japanese culture (what little of it he knows) to bother pretending to give a shit about any other Asian cultures.
I guess the writers thought it would be cooler to give Kagami the Dragon Miraculous because they associate dragons more with the Japanese, and thought that since Vietnam is pretty much a stone’s throw from China, they wouldn’t mind if they gave the only Vietnamese hero a hero identity based off a Chinese story.
It’s even worse when you learn that there are some Japanese folklore stories featuring monkeys, so with a few tweaks, you could easily give Kim the Dragon for a Dragon King motif, and you could give Kagami the Monkey for a motif centered around a monkey character from Japanese mythology, like a more heroic version of the Yokai Sarugami.
If there are any other people who have something to say about the depiction of other cultures in this show, and how it differs from what actually happened, I’d be open to hearing more stories like this, or suggestions on Kwami swaps that fit the ethnicities of certain characters like Kagami or Kim.
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