#asianlesmisweek

Burmese Fantine for @asian-les-mis-week , wearing thanaka paste.

Thanaka is commonly worn amongst Burmese people, and has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It's also often used as makeup, and can be applied in a leaf-like design!

Korean Amis wearing Hanbok for @asian-les-mis-week !

[From left to right: Enjolras, Combeferre, Prouvaire, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Bossuet, Joly, Grantaire.]

Important Style Notes as follows: they're all wearing long styles (which I have, too!) which aren't a super modernized look. Many modern hanbok styles have shorter jeogori/top parts so that they resemble shirts, but you can still find the traditional jeogori about. They all shimmer with the exception of Feuilly's and Bahorel's, since most colorful hanbok are traditionally made of silk (Courfeyrac's got the extra embroidery cos he's Fancy; Enjolras and Prouvaire i also gave extra detailing on their shoulders because they're wealthy only sons and they should get a little fancier details). These days you can get a fairly good and affordable one made of polyester or cotton. Feuilly's got a quite-modernized collar and little snaps!

Prouvaire's is from the Silla kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period! (This is where the tv series Hwarang was set, though Enjolras is the hwarang of the group, historically speaking). Some notes about Silla fashion is that men wore their hair down and long, and the layering is different! You get the straight lines coming down in a sort-of overcoat fashion rather than being tied off in front like the others do.

The white parts of Combeferre's collar align whereas the others don't; this is also intentional! Some styles will require the white ends to match up when worn correctly, while others form a sort of lowercase Y. Combeferre, Enjolras, and Joly are also more obviously wearing sebojae (which are like string things tied around the waist for form and keeping the thing on. Enjolras's has 9 visible beads; Combeferre's norigae (dangly accessory) is shaped like a moth. (Also, trans rights hanbok 👀)

Bahorel's wearing a durumagi style which is like a big overcoat-style hanbok. Most of the others, as you might tell from the sleeves, have an undershirt/overshirt situation where the overshirt (jeogori) is sleeveless. A durumagi is full sleeves and sometimes you can have a two-tone! (Yellow is a more radical/protest color than red in Korea)

Funny how these things work out.

I will be sharing this blog until the week is over. This was something that I requested for. I gamble on the idea that I am remembered... No, wait! I gamble I am not remembered. No... I gamble on semi-remembrance of meself... Maybe I'm not meant for gambling.

That sure was a sentence I just said

For @asian-les-mis-week, I humbly present an AU concept: Kazakh Les Misérables. Look, all I can say is that this project snowballed considerably...

on the last day of @asian-les-mis-week, i'm finally putting together a sorts of intro/masterpost for this au that's had me in an iron grip for [checks notes] OVER A YEAR??? i had no idea i'd had it for so long.

what:

an alternate universe story/retelling of hugo's les miserables, set in the backdrop of the third and fourth republics of korea. it follows the protagonist jang byeong-chul, our equivalent jean valjean, over 19 years. the 3.18 movement, a failed student-led revolt against the regime in the city of gwangju, serves as the equivalent of the june rebellion.

when:

it follows the linear progression of the novel, taking place from 1962 to 1981 over 19 years. key years include 1962 (the year jvj was released from prison), 1971 (fantine's death), and 1980 (the date of the failed rebellion).

where:

i haven't fully figured this out yet! because the june rebellion's equivalent is set in gwangju, at least the latter half should revolve around the gwangju district, but i originally wanted it to be set mostly in seoul to reflect les mis being in paris. i haven't figured out what region each character is from either. more on this soon <3

okay, but can we get more historical context?

absolutely. from 1961 to 1988, south korea was under two dictatorships. park chung-hee ruled from 1961 to 1979 after staging a military coup. his regime was the third republic. in 1980, chun doo-hwan came to power after assassinating park chung-hee. his regime was the fourth republic. both regimes had widespread censorship, a militarized government, and surveillance.

the 3.18 movement (AKA: march 18 movement or gwangju uprising) was in response to chun doo-hwan declaring martial law. it was organized by university students in gwangju on march 18, 1980. roads were blocked and barricaded by vehicles and furniture. the korean national guard brutally suppressed it, and the estimated casualty ranges from 600 to 2300. this is this AU's equivalent of the june rebellion.

the uprising was later labelled a small riot by the government, and heavily censored in media. only decades later was it acknowledged. much like how the june rebellion was initially a failure but spurred on later revolts, resulting in the revolution of 1848, the 3.18 movement also eventually spurred on the june democracy movement of 1987, achieving democracy in south korea.

(by the way-- you might remember that the former president yook seok yul declared martial law last december. within hours, korean citizens and lawmakers stormed the national assembly, climbing over walls and wrestling the national guards away, and forcibly overturned it that night. the reason we had such an immediate and widespread response was because we already have a history of dictatorships arising from martial law. people didn't hesitate to go out at 12 am to protest immediately after the declaration because we know what happened before. wish they didn't hesitate to prosecute him either but at least they arrested him)

who:

now we get to the fun part. below is a list of every character and their original counterparts, plus some basic info mostly on their names. i've named the characters based on similar phonetics to their french names. please note that in korean, the surname comes before the given name, so in the case of jang byeong-chul, jang is his surname and byeong-chul is his given name.

jang byeong-chul (jean valjean): born 1917 to a family of tree pruners and farmers. he stole a red bean pastry from his local market, and you know the rest. he's the most unchanged from the original jean valjean possibly because jvj is the ultimate everyman. byeong-chul is a fairly common name as well.

aegi (fantine): her name literally means "baby", based on how fantine was likely derived from enfantine meaning childish. she grew up with a group of fellow orphans in her small town, and being the youngest, she was affectionately called "the baby" even as she grew up and wasn't the baby anymore. met tholomyes, went to seoul with big dreams; it did not go well. more on her here.

ja bin (javert): born in prison to a single mother who died when he was 7 years old, then taken in by the police force. he has canon javert's extreme black-and-white thinking, added with extreme loyalty to the dictatorship, which is a terrible combination. a couple posts talking more about him are linked in the section below.

go sa-lang (cosette): one of the only ones who does not have a phonetically similar name. sa-lang literally means love. it's not her real name, like how cosette was just fantine's affectionate name for euphrasie, but i haven't figured it out yet. follows canon cosette's story without much deviation, besides that she attends a catholic private school from middle school and onwards.

ma lee-hwan (marius): follows canon marius' storyline fairly accurately. while his grandfather is a staunch supporter of chun doo-hwan, i haven't figured out lee-hwan's politics exactly. tentatively, i have made his father a korean war veteran. one noteworthy thing is that lee-hwan works as a translator, but only for english despite not speaking it well.

ae bo-mi (eponine): i have the least written out about the thenardiers because i've done most of my research on the 3.18 movement itself and not much about the surrounding history. more or less the same as canon eponine besides that. bo-mi means "born in the spring", which she was in this au.

ahn jo-il (enjolras): the only son of a jaebol family. perfectly respected upper-class young man by day and student insurrectionist at night. wears brown bomber jackets religiously. buys his friends instruments for street performances when the police break their old ones. more on him here.

ga tae-il (grantaire): more or less the same as canon grantaire (but korean!). his surname, ga, is also the first letter of one form of the alphabet. the others called him ga-na-da, with na & da being the second and third letters. it's my equivalent of the grand R pun, and also unintentionally a reference to the original les amis' group name.

kim soo-ri (lesgles): right now he's the only ami whom i've named besides e & r. soo-ri means eagle in korean, while also meaning "to fix", so that's a double pun on lesgles/l'aigle and him constantly breaking things.

where can i see more of this?

you probably already know this from the amount of times i've left things vague, but i.... haven't written much of this 😔in fact this is more of a collection of scattered post it notes in my brain and this post was my attempt to organize them into piles.

but you can find all posts about this under #les mis korea au. here are some noteworthy posts i felt were good enough to specifically mention:

my first intro post before this one (at one point talks about korean dialects that i couldn't fit in this post)

that time me and @calamansi-calamari went insane together over it (with a lot more info as well) (on xir blog not mine)

exactly 2 sentences from a wip oneshot

hair/skirt length info (context: during the fourth republic's regime, random hair and skirt length checks were done on the street to ensure "citizen respectability". this was about how various characters would style their hair/skirt in response to it)

me bullying javert for having a goofy name

me apologizing for bullying javert's goofy name

Valvert from Javert's police colleagues who had to hear him rant and obsess over Valjean:

Translation- But that should just be flirting (in a playful banter / like fake fighting) no?

Valvert from both sides:

Translation: I like him but at the same time I also kinda wanna kill him

Javert:

Translation: Rules are dead, but no worries, so can I

Marius to Cosette:

Translation: I love you so much but I don't dare to find you

Post Seine Valvert:

Translation: I am angry, I am furious, I am confused

Javert concerning Monsieur Le Maire:

Translation: I am his dog

Valvert:

Translation: The urge to punch your husband to death is also a feeling of love

Most adaptations of Javert every time he sees Valjean // All versions of Marius towards Cosette:

Translation: Everything besides him / her is all bullshit

Bonus: Me towards Valvert and Marisette

Translation: Can't you see how suitable they are for each other?