#week 104

We want to express our appreciation to @c-kaeru for all the amazing art!

Consider giving @c-kaeru a follow and check all the amazing art work and so that way you won’t miss out on any new posts.

Banner was made by the talented @litlifelover

Here is week 104, folks. As always, thank you to these amazing authors who provide me with endless amounts of entertainment. You are all amazingly talented!

Readers-please make sure you show these authors some love!If you’d like to check out my previous posts, follow #rachel’s fanfic lists or search the tag on my blog. Happy reading!

Forever My Always - everlarklover1960

A Marriage That Was Never Meant to Be - Outtake - @gabzep

Cutting Room Floor - @katnissdoesnotfollowback

Of Christmas Trees and Traditions - miffy aka @themiffywrites

Stay, Peeta - professional9100 aka @neverstopwhileyoureahead

The Christmas You Never Knew You Always Wanted - @mtk4fun

The Lake House - @sohypothetically

On Borrowed Time - panskiss123

The Quiet Boy - juststella aka @justajjfan

Inevitability - xerxia aka @xerxia31

When You Kiss Me - @chele20035

Carol of the Bells - @historywriter2007

The Four Generations of Chang E by Zen Cho. 2012.

To celebrate this year’s Mid Autumn Festival (中秋节), sinθ is featuring “The Four Generations of Chang E,” an immigrant narrative that puts a science fiction twist on the beloved mythology of the goddess of the moon, Chang’e (嫦娥). The story is from Zen Cho’s Crawford Award-winning short story collection Spirits Abroad. 

Zen Cho is a Chinese Malaysian author currently based out of England. Among her works are Crawford Award-winning short story collection Spirits Abroad and British Fantasy Award-winning novel Sorcerer to the Crown. We also interviewed Cho for our sixth issue.

(From top, clockwise) Desire (欲), Song of Soul  (淨魂曲), Puppet (傀儡) by Zeen Chin. 2016 - 2017. 

Zeen Chin is a freelance illustrator and concept artist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has worked on RPG game Legend Of The Cryptids, the cult phenomenon board game Kingdom Death and Applibot’s card game Galaxy Saga. A great deal of his personal work explores themes of childhood - he describes it as “ the happiest time of [his] life” - and is inspired by Asian folklore and popular media.

A self-taught artist, Chin began painting digitally after falling in love with Katsuya Terada’s artwork. Initially, he tried to emulate Terada’s style with watercolour, but bought a Wacom and started practising digital art upon receiving advice from a friend. Due to his love of Hong Kong horror films as a child, the imagery of the otherworldly and occult have become a frequent feature in his illustrations, creating a landscape eerie as it is fantastical. 

Images courtesy of Zeen Chin. 

Spring Subway ( 開往春天的地鐵). dir. Zhang Yibai ( 張一白). 2002.

“After seven years, is there still love?” 

Spring Subway is a mellow Chinese romance film directed by Zhang Yibai. Jianbin (Geng Le) and Xiaohui (Xu Jinglei), are a young married couple of 7 years living in Beijing. Their relationship is at a halt, plagued by the boredom of their existence and their silent suffering in the urban city. The supporting cast includes Zhang Yang, Gao Yuan Yuan, Tu Qiang and Fan Wei. Jianbin is laid off from work but hides this from his wife by spending most of his time riding the Beijing metro and hiding his briefcase in the public washroom. As he spends most of his time sitting on the subway, Jianbin becomes aware of the various romances that blossom in the environment around him. Jianbin’s life continues to spiral downwards as he becomes aware of his wife’s affair with another man and his increasing shortage of money. 

Spring Subway is Zhang Yibai’s first feature film as a director after primarily working with music videos in the past. This independent, stylistic film represents a new style in Chinese cinema, experimenting with chronological conventions and breaking the fourth wall to directly address the audience. Despite being an independent film in its genre, Spring Subway garnered positive attention and was well received in China.

Horses by Ma Xinle (马欣乐). Ink and color on paper scroll. 2012.

Horses are a common motif in Ma Xinle’s works, as his fascination with their form and energetic movement originally stemmed from the fact that his surname means “horse.” This particular depiction of horses galloping through a snowstorm was commissioned by Steven C. Rockefeller, Jr. In one of his curatorial exhibits, Ma stated: “The one who influenced me most was Master Huang Zhou, one of the most famous painters in modern China. I was inspired by his paintings of animals, which are vivid, lifelike, and portrayed with great spirit.”

A graduate of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, Ma Xinle was a student under several modern masters Cheng Shifa (1921-2007), Liu Wenxi (born 1933), and Huang Zhou (1925-1997). Ma also studied connoisseurship alongside artist-collector C.C. Wang and received an MFA in oil painting from Bowling Green State University while after moving to the United States. Ma is well known for his traditional Chinese painting technique that blends his area of expertise with his Western influences. Me has exhibited in both China and around North America, and also serves as an educator and art advisor to various organizations. His The Nine Galloping Horses was gifted to Queen Elizabeth II for her 90th birthday from the People’s Republic of China.