#week 83

You can reblog this post and do em all now, save 'em and find 'em as you have the energy/time, or just use it as a heads up for what's comin'.

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CONFESSIONS ★ WEEK 83: @scandinavian-punk

This week we have the opportunity to feature the works of @fluffiestlou, @kalesrebellion and @dickspeightjrs

The Sciomantic Medium (乩身) by Sun Pin (孙频). 2017. Translated by Chelsea Shieh.

Sun Pin is a young, up-and-coming Chinese female writer. Born in 1983, Sun graduated from Lanzhou University’s Chinese Language Department, and is currently studying creative writing at Renmin University in Beijing. She began writing short stories in 2008, and her works have widely been published in magazines, as well as in her short story collections Salt (盐) and Pain (疼), among others. Her works are known for exploring heavy topics, and are often set in rural mountain villages, featuring characters that have little to no way out of their troubled lives.

Sun’s short story “乩身”, which approximately translates to “The Sciomantic Medium”, is about a blind girl named Chang Yong, who is abandoned by her parents as an infant, and taken in by an old man who raises her as a boy in order to protect her from the evils of society. The story explores the themes of societal alienation, disability, gender performance, and trauma.

Eternal Summer (盛夏光年). dir. Leste Chen (陳正道). 2006.

Eternal Summer is a Taiwanese coming-of-age film directed by Leste Chen, starring Joseph Chang (張孝全), Ray Chang (張家振) and Kate Yeung (楊淇).

Set in the seaside in southern Taiwan, the intimate film centres on three high students and their experiences with the rewards and consequences of love, friendship and yearning. Studious and reserved Jonathan (Ray Chang) befriends his rebellious and charismatic classmate Shane (Joseph Chang) as a request from his elementary school teacher. They eventually become close friends, and enter high school ten years later. Jonathan and Shane’s budding friendship becomes complicated when Carrie (Kate Yeung) befriends Jonathan. Her observations lead her to suspect that Jonathan is in fact in love with his best friend Shane. As Carrie becomes closer to Shane, Jonathan faces a sexual identity crisis and their relationships are changed with newfound sensitivity and passion. Despite hiding their emerging feelings, the three are eventually forced to confront the truth. 

 The three characters have underlying poetic meaning based on the astrological significance of their names. Shane (守恒) represents the Sun/Star (恒星). Jonathan (正行) represents the planet Earth (行星). Carrie (慧嘉) represents the Comet (彗星). Heavily influencing the plot, the poetic subtext is as follows: 

The Sun is always shining.

The Earth is always following the route around the Sun at a distance, but cannot approach it.

The Comet is a surprise to the solar system.

It cannot be complete if one of them is missing.

Eternal Summer was nominated for four awards at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards in 2006. Ray Chang won Best New Performer, Joseph Chang was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best New Performer, and Eternal Summer (盛夏光年) by Mayday (五月天) was nominated for Best Original Song.

One Word is Worth Ten Thousand Words (一句顶一万句) by Liu Zhenyun (刘震云). 2009. 

Recipient of the 2011 Mao Dun Literature Prize and considered the Chinese version of One Hundred Years of Solitude, One Word is Worth Ten Thousand Words is a bilateral exploration of loneliness in company, the meaning of family, and complications arising from the intertwining of past and present. The first part of the novel depicts embittered protagonist Wu Moxi’s desperate search for his abducted adopted daughter, Cao Qing’e, the only person he could confide in. The second narrative describes Cao’s son Niu Aiguo’s spiritual return to his hometown, also seeking someone to talk to. 

Liu focuses on the experiences of ordinary folks and members of lower social echelons in his writing, centering this novel in his hometown province, Henan. In One Word is Worth Ten Thousand Words, he ascribes a universal “Chinese loneliness” to a lack of organized religion in China. "The biggest difference between a religious society and an atheist society is not that people have a god to worship, but that they have something to talk to. People in a religious society can talk anytime and anywhere, for God is omnipresent," Liu explained. The imaginative spiritual themes and plain, stylized language of One Word is Worth Ten Thousand Words have rendered it a bestselling work and characteristic of Liu’s oeuvre. 

In 2016, the novel was adapted into a film entitled Someone to Talk To by Liu’s daughter, Liu Yulin. 

You Are Not Truly Happy (你不是真正的快樂) by Mayday (五月天). 2008.

This song appears in Mayday’s seventh studio album, Poetry of the Day After (後青春期的詩) released in 2008. You Are Not Truly Happy is a song about healing: facing guilt and sorrow, letting go of regret, putting down the protective mask, having the courage to find true happiness in the hardships of love and life.

Poetry of the Day After was the fourth bestselling album in Taiwan in 2009. Suddenly Missing You (你不是真正的快樂), a tender, rock-ballad on heart-ache, was the top track of the album, placing in the 2009 Hit FM Top 10 Songs of the Year. Several of the album’s chart toppers also received nominations for year-end awards, including You Are Not Truly Happy (你不是真正的快樂), Like Smoke (如煙) and Breakthrough Day (出頭天). You Are Not Truly Happy and Poetry of the Day After (後青春期的詩) were nominated for Best Song at the 20th Golden Melody Awards. Mayday also received Best Band at the 20th Golden Melody Awards and Hit FM Awards.

Mayday (五月天) is a Taiwanese rock band formed in the 1990s and is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of rock in Taiwan. The band consists of five members, Monster (leader, guitar), Ashin (vocal), Stone (rhythm guitar), Masa (bass) and Guan You (drums). Their songs are recorded in Mandarin as well as Taiwanese Hokkien. Having roots as a student band, their raw musical style captures the passionate vigor of Taiwanese youth. Mayday’s songs are characterized by teenage angst, growth, coming of age and the journey of life, often drawing influences from cultural icons such as the Beatles, Sun Wu-Kong, Mickey Mouse, Neil Armstrong, Superman, Che Guevara and Haruki Murakami. Being one of the most influential Asian bands in the 2000s and breaking concert records, Mayday is dubbed “The Chinese Beatles” and the “Kings of Concerts” in Asia. They also won the Golden Melody Award for Best Musical Group in 2001, 2004, 2009 and 2012.