mssdare

A moment from the brilliant fic Ceasefire - by hollycomb

Needle Felted Griffins

© 千景绘STUDIO

There’s an interesting story behind Lan Wangji’s name. It comes from the last line of a poem by acclaimed Chinese poet Li Bai. The sentence reads “我醉君复乐 陶然共忘机” (wǒ zuì jūn fù lè, táo rán gòng wàng jī), which translates to “I become drunk and you’re merry; in our happiness we forget about all worldly matters”. In my mind, this scene perfectly brings to life Xianxian enjoying a jar of Emperor’s Smile with Wangji in the Cloud Recesses after his resurrection, when he is no longer concerned with the vanities of the world.

“Wangji” is a Taoist phrase which means “to hold oneself aloof from the world”. The direct translation is “to forget about worldly crafts”. Chinese fans often describe him as “一尘不染” (meaning not be soiled with even a particle of dust) and “不食人间烟火” (a Taoist phrase now used to describe a person who has otherworldly qualities, who does not associate himself with ordinary temporal matters).

Bonus edit:

Wangji’s birth name 湛 (zhàn) derives from the 诗经 (Classic of Poetry), one of the Chinese ‘Five Classics’ dating back to the Zhou Dynasty and a core pillar of Confucian thinking, studied by scholars to this day. The common meanings of this word are “deep” or “crystal clear”. The phrase 湛清 (zhànqīng) is often used to describe a transparent personality or state of mind that is at its purest form, with no distractions or obscurities. The name is really perfect for Wangji, as the phrase 湛深 (zhànshēn) can be used to describe a person displaying profound knowledge and/or mastery of skills in a complex field. 精湛 (jingzhàn) also means to be deeply proficient and skilled at something, normally used to address masters and pioneers. Interestingly, 湛 has another pronunciation, ‘dān’, which means “happiness” or “indulgence”. A third, rarer way of pronouncing the word is ‘chén’, which means “to sink” or “to make extinct”. I think the multifaceted nature of this character perfectly embodies the deep and complicated being that resides within Wangji. I can’t choose a better name for him.

Bonus trivia:

Wangji’s title is 含光君 (hánguāng-jūn), which directly translates to “noble bearer of light”. 含光 is also the name of one of three of the most powerful swords in Chinese history/mythology, said to have been under the care of Shang Dynasty emperors. Its blade is described to be invisible, and a mortal cannot see it being wielded with their bare eyes. Later interpretations during the Warring States period described the three swords as symbolic stages of a person’s journey to finding the Taoist path, with Han Guang being the final stage of ‘preparedness to enter the Way’ (入道合体之状).

WWX’s name story here

JC’s name story here

Continuing from last time where I explained the origins of Lan Wangji’s name, I thought I’d also post one for our beloved Xianxian.

His surname Wei (魏) primitively meant “ghosts and spirits” (the radical 委 means spirit and 鬼 means ghost). After it became a royal family name, it is to this day used to describe something as “grand, tall or mighty”.

His zi, or courtesy name Wuxian (无羡), comes from the last line of a poem by Ming Dynasty literati Xu Ben. “即无羡鱼志，外物非所迁” (jí wú xiàn yú zhì, wài wù fēi suǒ qiān) translates as “to be free of envy and aspire to greater heights; not be misguided by honorary reputation and personal gain”.

即 - to seek; aspire

无羡 - to be free of envy

鱼志 - derives from the Chinese idiom 鲲鹏之志, originating from a literary work by Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi meaning “to be ambitious”

外物 - literally means “objects external to the body”, now used to describe personal gain and external honours

迁 - misguide; led by

To me, this is the perfect embodiment of Xianxian’s character. He comes from a lowly background as the son of a manservant, but lived his life not being envious of Jiang Cheng’s destined position as Sect leader, even sacrificing his life’s potential for him. He always did what he thought was right, even if it meant going against the will of the majority. He could have easily kept his honour as the almighty Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation at the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, but chose to abandon it all and help the feeble and abhorred Wen clan survivors, as he knew they were wronged.

Bonus trivia: Xianxian’s birth name Ying (婴) commonly means “infant”, but there is actually another interesting story behind this word. Another meaning for Ying is “to pester, to touch”. This second meaning derives from a famous piece of literature by Western Jin Dynasty official and writer Li Mi called 「陈情表」 (chén qíng biǎo). The first two words 陈情 is also the name of Xianxian’s flute. The work describes the story of Li Mi’s grandmother’s great sacrifice to bring him up and his determination to repay her. Today it is one of the most famous literary works for teaching new generations about filial piety, a key Confucian virtue. Even though 陈情 on the surface has two meanings, (1) “to convey one’s inmost feelings” (abbreviation of 陈述衷情) and (2) “former relationship” (abbreviation of 陈旧的情义) , I think this side story gives the name much more depth. Maybe Xianxian sees his cultivation of the demonic path as a way of repaying the Jiang family for everything they’ve done...

Jiang Cheng’s name story here⚡️🪁

For the past decade, English language fanwriting culture post the days of LiveJournal and Strikethrough has been hugely shaped by a handful of megafandoms that exploded across AO3 and tumblr – I’m talking Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Dr Who, the MCU, Harry Potter, Star Wars, BBC Sherlock – which have all been overwhelmingly white. I don’t mean in terms of the fans themselves, although whiteness also figures prominently in said fandoms: I mean that the source materials themselves feature very few POC, and the ones who are there tended to be done dirty by the creators.

Periodically, this has led POC in fandom to point out, extremely reasonably, that even where non-white characters do get central roles in various media properties, they’re often overlooked by fandom at large, such that the popular focus stays primarily on the white characters. Sometimes this happened (it was argued) because the POC characters were secondary to begin with and as such attracted less fan devotion (although this has never stopped fandoms from picking a random white gremlin from the background cast and elevating them to the status of Fave); at other times, however, there has been a clear trend of sidelining POC leads in favour of white alternatives (as per Finn, Poe and Rose Tico being edged out in Star Wars shipping by Hux, Kylo and Rey). I mention this, not to demonize individuals whose preferred ships happen to involve white characters, but to point out the collective impact these trends can have on POC in fandom spaces: it’s not bad to ship what you ship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no utility in analysing what’s popular and why through a racial lens.

All this being so, it feels increasingly salient that fanwriting culture as exists right now developed under the influence and in the shadow of these white-dominated fandoms – specifically, the taboo against criticizing or critiquing fics for any reason. Certainly, there’s a hell of a lot of value to Don’t Like, Don’t Read as a general policy, especially when it comes to the darker, kinkier side of ficwriting, and whether the context is professional or recreational, offering someone direct, unsolicited feedback on their writing style is a dick move. But on the flipside, the anti-criticism culture in fanwriting has consistently worked against fans of colour who speak out about racist tropes, fan ignorance and hurtful portrayals of living cultures. Voicing anything negative about works created for free is seen as violating a core rule of ficwriting culture – but as that culture has been foundationally shaped by white fandoms, white characters and, overwhelmingly, white ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, we ought to consider that all critical contexts are not created equal.

Right now, the rise of C-drama (and K-drama, and J-drama) fandoms is seeing a surge of white creators – myself included – writing fics for fandoms in which no white people exist, and where the cultural context which informs the canon is different to western norms. Which isn’t to say that no popular fandoms focused on POC have existed before now – K-pop RPF and anime fandoms, for example, have been big for a while. But with the success of The Untamed, more western fans are investing in stories whose plots, references, characterization and settings are so fundamentally rooted in real Chinese history and living Chinese culture that it’s not really possible to write around it. And yet, inevitably, too many in fandom are trying to do just that, treating respect for Chinese culture or an attempt to understand it as optional extras – because surely, fandom shouldn’t feel like work. If you’re writing something for free, on your own time, for your own pleasure, why should anyone else get to demand that you research the subject matter first?

Because it matters, is the short answer. Because race and culture are not made-up things like lightsabers and werewolves that you can alter, mock or misunderstand without the risk of hurting or marginalizing actual real people – and because, quite frankly, we already know that fandom is capable of drawing lines in the sand where it chooses. When Brony culture first reared its head (hah), the online fandom for My Little Pony – which, like the other fandoms we’re discussing here, is overwhelmingly female – was initially welcoming. It felt like progress, that so many straight men could identify with such a feminine show; a potential sign that maybe, we were finally leaving the era of mainstream hypermasculine fandom bullshit behind, at least in this one arena. And then, in pretty much the blink of an eye, things got overwhelmingly bad. Artists drawing hardcorn porn didn’t tag their works as adult, leading to those images flooding the public search results for a children’s show. Women were edged out of their own spaces. Bronies got aggressive, posting harsh, ugly criticism of artists whose gijinka interpretations of the Mane Six as humans were deemed insufficiently fuckable.

The resulting fandom conflict was deeply unpleasant, but in the end, the verdict was laid down loud and clear: if you cannot comport yourself like a decent fucking person – if your base mode of engagement within a fandom is to coopt it from the original audience and declare it newly cool only because you’re into it now; if you do not, at the very least, attempt to understand and respect the original context so as to engage appropriately (in this case, by acknowledging that the media you’re consuming was foundational to many women who were there before you and is still consumed by minors, and tagging your goddamn porn) – then the rest of fandom will treat you like a social biohazard, and rightly so.

Here’s the thing, fellow white people: when it comes to C-drama fandoms and other non-white, non-western properties? We are the Bronies.

Not, I hasten to add, in terms of toxic fuckery – though if we don’t get our collective shit together, I’m not taking that darkest timeline off the table. What I mean is that, by virtue of the whiteminding which, both consciously and unconsciously, has shaped current fan culture, particularly in terms of ficwriting conventions, we’re collectively acting as though we’re the primary audience for narratives that weren’t actually made with us in mind, being hostile dicks to Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans when they take the time to point out what we’re getting wrong. We’re bristling because we’ve conceived of ficwriting as a place wherein No Criticism Occurs without questioning how this culture, while valuable in some respects, also serves to uphold, excuse and perpetuate microaggresions and other forms of racism, lashing out or falling back on passive aggression when POC, quite understandably, talk about how they’re sick and tired of our bullshit.

An analogy: one of the most helpful and important tags on AO3 is the one for homophobia, not just because it allows readers to brace for or opt out of reading content they might find distressing, but because it lets the reader know that the writer knows what homophobia is, and is employing it deliberately. When this concept is tagged, I – like many others – often feel more able to read about it than I do when it crops up in untagged works of commercial fiction, film or TV, because I don’t have to worry that the author thinks what they’re depicting is okay. I can say definitively, “yes, the author knows this is messed up, but has elected to tell a messed up story, a fact that will be obvious to anyone who reads this,” instead of worrying that someone will see a fucked up story blind and think “oh, I guess that’s fine.” The contextual framing matters, is the point – which is why it’s so jarring and unpleasant on those rare occasions when I do stumble on a fic whose author has legitimately mistaken homophobic microaggressions for cute banter. This is why, in a ficwriting culture that otherwise aggressively dislikes criticism, the request to tag for a certain thing – while still sometimes fraught – is generally permitted: it helps everyone to have a good time and to curate their fan experience appropriately.

But when white and/or western fans fail to educate ourselves about race, culture and the history of other countries and proceed to deploy that ignorance in our writing, we’re not tagging for racism as a thing we’ve explored deliberately; we’re just being ignorant at best and hateful at worst, which means fans of colour don’t know to avoid or brace for the content of those works until they get hit in the face with microaggresions and/or outright racism. Instead, the burden is placed on them to navigate a minefield not of their creation: which fans can be trusted to write respectfully? Who, if they make an error, will listen and apologise if the error is explained? Who, if lived experience, personal translations or cultural insights are shared, can be counted on to acknowledge those contributions rather than taking sole credit? Too often, fans of colour are being made to feel like guests in their own house, while white fans act like a tone-policing HOA.

The Casting:

Anne Elliot - Lan Wangji

Frederick Wentworth - Wei Wuxian

Lady Russel/Sir Elliot - Lan Qiren

Mr. Elliot - Jin Guangyao

Admiral & Mrs. Croft - Jin Zixuan & Jiang Yanli

Louisa Musgrove - Luo Qingyang

Captain Harville - Wen Qing

Captain Benwick - Wen Ning

Fanny Harville - A-Qing

Mrs. Smith - Nie Huaisang

And while both Anne & Wentworth have siblings, I did not parallel the actions or personalities of either character from Persuasion, hence Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen don’t rate a cast listing. ;)

hi. I’m not sure when you might have sent this message. I’m sorry if it was a long time ago. I haven’t logged into this account in over a year.

IDWL #7 will never be finished.

I posted #6 more than three years ago and have been trying to finish the series ever since. I failed to do that. I fail at everything.

the last fic I wrote was published a little more than a year ago, for the KBB. it was difficult for me to write. I was dealing with a lot at the time and writing was hard. I only finished it because it was a collaboration and I didn’t want to let my partner down (but I think I let her down anyway).

there won’t be another fic. I don’t write anymore. I don’t have the ability. I lost it a long time ago.

honestly, even if I could finish the series, it would be for the best if I didn’t. you would not have been satisfied by the ending, because I’m not capable of writing a satisfying ending.

I was wrong about everything. I never understood the characters - who they were, what they wanted. I was (and am) a complete fraud.

I understand now that I did nothing but embarrass myself with my stupid little stories. for years, people mocked and derided the kind of content I made (even as some of them consumed it in secret).

in this fandom, people routinely categorized the tropes I wrote alongside noncon, bestiality and underage - my work was that abhorrent, that disgusting, that unfit for consumption.

I kept going with my stupid fics but I shouldn’t have. obviously there was a reason why most people who read my fics didn’t want to admit to it publicly, where their friends could see. I was an embarrassment. I should never have posted Bear in the first place.

I realized everything too late.

the standard advice is that you have to make content for yourself, not for others. you have to focus on your own enjoyment, not the response it gets from the community. and that’s good advice. it makes sense.

but sharing things with other people for their enjoyment is what made fandom fun for me. all I wanted was to entertain and be useful and help people have fun. I’m so sorry that I couldn’t do that. I have nothing to offer anymore.

I didn’t mean to waste your time. I’m sorry I produced such cheap, empty work, and I’m sorry I kept you waiting for something I would never finish. I wish I had said something sooner. I really did mean to finish. I hoped that maybe I could someday but I can’t. honestly I should take my fics down.

there were so many stories I wanted to tell, and so many that I wanted to finish. I didn’t finish any of them and I never will. I look back at my wips and I’m ashamed.

A-Xian, A-Cheng and I; us three will always be together, never apart.