Here I think will be where I will collect any personal thoughts and notes I have on various activities of the current OTW Board of Directors and the upcoming election and where I will link to various write-ups, roundups and guides I come across.
( Revisions )
Or I'm forced to recollect about more OTW things this past month than I maybe wanted lol
end-otw-racism is organizing a second call to action, #Vote to End OTW Racism, to turn out members to vote in the upcoming election for four board of director positions on August 11 to 14, 2023. So if you had perhaps donated to OTW before all these recent discussions, then check if you're eligible to vote. You also still have until June 30, 2023 to donate $10 USD and become a member to vote in this year's election. Edit: [email protected] is offering "to send 10 USD to ten fans of color who want to vote in the upcoming election but cannot afford to pay" and the offer is matched by someone else for up to ten additional fans of color.
And if you rather not donate to OTW, then you can still read up and submit questions to the seven candidates running or participate in the upcoming candidate chat (no membership required for either). Deadline for submitting questions is June 25, 2023. The chat is expected sometime in July.
I debated whether I actually want to donate to vote this year. I had donated the first two years to vote in elections but the elections were uncontested, and then I stopped donating because I realized that OTW wasn't really prioritizing making the archive and its organization more diverse and inclusive. I did, however, volunteer as a tag wrangler from 2011 to 2015 (before the election implosion) in a small effort to make OTW and fandom more diverse and inclusive.
But I read the candidates' bio and platforms from this year and am excited that there are three Asian candidates, Anh P., Qiao C. and Zixin Z., pushing to make OTW more accessible to non-Anglosphere users like translating the AO3 interface and Fanlore articles. To provide some contexts, OTW had been working on translating the AO3 interface into multiple languages as early as 2011 lol. I don't know if the project has stalled since then or what but I'm glad to see the feature being pushed again.
I also want to note that these candidates are being super careful in their wordings due to the Sinophobia and racism that one of the candidates faced last year 😔
See also ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doctorskuld's Preliminary rundown of the candidates for OTW Board 2023 for his summary and takes of the candidates.
I'm also under no illusion that a new board will fix everything or anything really. See the 2011 and 2015 elections and the turnovers of the board.
( But yes, in the spirit of trying to achieve changes )
And in the month of updates, Mythical Dragons & Wild Unicorns: A Decade Later has also been updated again: see End OTW Racism, Postscript and the rough timeline visualization and table of selected events. Take care!
OTW posted an update and response to End OTW Racism (also on AO3). Here's end-otw-racism's response to OTW's update. Fans in the comments of OTW and AO3 posts are also asking OTW to address their AO3 volunteer abuse issue as well. Content notes for racism and CSAM content discussions in the comments of the AO3 post.
A current volunteer also has come forward publicly with an important Letter to the 2023 Board of Directors of the Organization for Transformative Works, which includes another letter that was sent and posted in OTW public internal Slack channel in 2020, asking OTW to address structural racism within the organization and better support BIPOC volunteers.
I wish I could articulate more thoughts beside cosigning and +1 but OTW can and should do better.
Mythical Dragons & Wild Unicorns: A Decade Later has been updated with the latest happenings except for the Letter to the 2023 Board of Directors of the Organization for Transformative Works. See End OTW Racism and postscript on OTW volunteer & fiscal managements for contexts ICYMI.
Edit 6/13/2023: Post all updated and as current as I can follow anyway. ( I also left a comment on the AO3 post. )
And I meant to link but the next OTW Quarterly Public Board Meeting is on July 2, 2023 at 20:00 UTC. runpunkrun posted about How to Find and Attend OTW Board Meetings.
Good night!
end-otw-racism is organizing a call to action from May 17 to 31, 2023 to "protest against the lack of action from the OTW on addressing issues of harassment and racism on AO3 and within the organization": End OTW Racism: A Call To Action, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Social Media Toolkit for #EndOTWRacism.
end-otw-racism is also doing a great job addressing derailing comments and tags on their Tumblr.
I updated Mythical Dragons & Wild Unicorns: A Decade Later in February and just now to link to end-otw-racism as well as some recent conversations:
fiercynonym's Twitter thread on some possible questions to pose to OTW which is compiled in Questions for the OTW, on AO3 structural racism and on AO3 racism discussions
And updates to OTW's Inactions in Addressing Racism and Anti-Blackness.
On me: I had planned a longer post, but oh well, I created another fannish website, still very much an ongoing work-in-progress but going back to Geocities-style. Mainly, because I wanted to create a Now page for me to reflect where I’ve been, where I am and where I might head to fannishly. But also because I wanted to organize some of my lists into one page like for example, Chinese Media List. We'll see where this project for an audience of one takes me!
🐶🐱 《二哈和他的白猫师尊》 肉包不吃肉 or "The (Dumb) Husky and His White Cat Shizun" by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat (Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou)
Erha or 2ha (as is referred to by fans) is a webnovel by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat published in 2017 with 311 chapters (and originally 10 extras) that is being officially translated to English by Seven Seas. Erha (二哈) is a slang referring to huskies and their dumb behaviors.
omg this is way harder than it should be 😬
I haven't backup my Dreamwidth in ages and relearned that Dreamwidth's Export Journal feature, a LiveJournal legacy, can only export by month and doesn't export comments. I found instructions to mass-export comments before remembering Semagic and ljArchive which I haven't used in ages either.
Semagic is a third-party Windows posting client developed for LiveJournal but supports Dreamwidth, Blogger and WordPress, and is still actively maintained. ljArchive is a third-party Windows backup tool for LiveJournal and was last updated in 2006 but there is an updated forked version.
Today's findings:
Semagic still works, but for logging in to Dreamwidth, you'll need to generate an API key as instructed by this ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_dev post and change the server from http://www.dreamwidth.org to http://dreamwidth.org.
And a note that Semagic will download all your posts and comments as a database, but to export them outside of Semagic, you'll need to export each post one by one still.
For Mac, I found this Semagic on Mac post by the developer of Semagic, and I'm in the process of trying it, but the libraries looks to be very buggy...and I couldn't install any of the libraries to get Semagic to work.
Regarding ljArchive, the forked version will work for LiveJournal, but I'm getting server connection errors for Dreamwidth, unfortunately, even after using the API key and trying variations of http://www.dreamwidth.org, http://dreamwidth.org and the server URLs in this Dreamwidth compatible clients post 😤
Another day then.
This post turns out a bit different than when I thought to draft it and keeps changing even as I'm drafting. But Twitter is imploding, and the latest debacle this week means Twitter going offline may be more imminent because Elon Musk seems to have fired all the staff. You can follow The Verge's continued coverage on the implosion.
The election also just happened in the U.S. and I've been following how the results have been shaking out nationally and locally (the latter was close but still ended disappointing 😞). So I've been puttering around the Internet as one do, restless and distracted, and this post is the result lol
( On Old and New Social Media )
( On Alamat, a Pinoy pop band that recently debut in 2021 )
( But to the reason for drafting this post, ICYMI, I updated some posts and posted a new one )
KinnPorsche รักโคตรร้าย สุดท้ายโคตรรัก is a 14-episodes drama from Thailand aired earlier this year based on a webnovel by daemi.
( Spoiler Premise & Thoughts )
On that notes: some content warnings for the series byThe series is available with English subtitles on iQIYI though region access may vary: TV Version and Uncut Version. English translation of Volume 1 of the webnovel is available on MEB.
Guide, Lists & Etc.
- 2022-05-03:
luckydragon10: Damn Good KP Meta
- 2022-05-10:
- 2022-07-10:
- 2022-07-21:
- 2022-08-08:
On Culture
- 2018-06-22: Anna: Thai Culture: Thai names explained, why are they so long and weird?
- 2022-09-01: Anonymous: Thai language and culture including How Thai names work & honorifics
Before I go on, this post highlighting some prevalent anti-Central/Northern Asian portrayals in Chinese media is excellent and, also, applicable to various non-Han portrayals in general as well. I also just saw this quick interesting thread on examples of anti-Central/Northern Asian portrayals and this thread on hair braids being deeply charged, deeply political markers of non-Han identity.
Firstly, on ( Peerless by Meng Xi Shi )
Secondly, on ( Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi )
Thirdly, ( The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua by Meng Xi Shi )
This time, I'm watching Word of Honor (山河令) (ShānHé Lìng) on Viki. Previously, I watched the show on YouTube to around Episode 30 then on Yooku for the rest.
( Some brief comments as I slowly re-watched the series. Include spoilers for the entire series. )
I linked to most of these posts elsewhere already in my posts on Nirvana in Fire, MDZS, Guardian, Chinese Webnovels, Disney's Mulan and Han Hegemony, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, and Word of Honor (or need to add to the appropriate lists). But I find the need to collect and organize them together in one list as well or else I'll keep thinking about them.
Last Updated:
- 2023-02-11: Linked to How to Use: Myrics (Registration & Top-Up) & Official English Danmei Translations
( ... )
I just finished watching a TV series and in its entirety too which yay, happiness. I haven't been able to focus on any TV series for awhile.
SHL is loosely based on Faraway Wanderers (天涯客) (TiānYá Kè), a danmei [2] wuxia [3] webnovel by priest who wrote Guardian. TYK is one of her earlier and shorter works published in 2010.
SHL has 36 episodes with a bonus extra ending and can be watched with English subtitles via its official channels on Youku, YouTube and Viki (depending on regions availability). I watched the series on YouTube and there seems to be some bonus scenes in that version.
English fan translations of TYK can be found at sparkling water translations (chapters 1 to 30), wenbuxing (chapters 31 to 67) and Chichi's Dives (chapters 68 to 77 plus 4 extras). There is also a new re-translation from Xuxunette up to chapter 5 as of this post but we'll see how long it'll be hosted on AO3.
( Some other links )
🐮🧧 Chúc mừng năm mới an khang thịnh vượng!
Here are two New Year songs that I've been listening on rotation since last year:
- 阿蘭 (alan) - 《新年好》 (Happy New Year)
- Đức Phúc ft. Hoà Minzy - Thế là Tết (roughly, That [Feeling/Home/Loved Ones] is New Year)
In spirit of the New Year, 18millionrising linked to Happy Family Radio: a monthly mix series highlighting music of the diaspora, from the traditional to the experimental, for dance parties or meditative moments, spanning anything from Malaysian Doom Metal to early 2000’s K-Pop.
Their first episode was posted last August 2020, curated by ![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png){kind=icon}
matthewvu and called Vietnamese New Wave (scroll down to the end of the page for the post and tracklist); this is the direct link to the playlist (but without a tracklist). A fun mix with 80s/90s track with lots of English - and the odd French - covers.
Unsurprisingly, I've spent since most of October burrowing further in a rabbit hole, anxious about U.S. President Election and then about the transfer of power - the pandemic didn't help - but now I can finally exhale that 45 is no longer in White House and the President. 😌
All that is to say, I saw this great letter linked the other day: mdzs fandom, diaspora, and cultural exchange (also, on TwitLonger and Twitter) posted by pumpkinpaix.
The letter was made in response to two incidents which are part of a larger trend:
- White people not crediting or stealing the research, ideas, work and labor of Chinese diaspora
- White people re-imagining a Taoist sect into a Jewish sect and erasing the cultural and religious identity of Chinese Taoist characters
I didn't witnessed the two incidents referenced in the letter, but the letter was recently relinked ( because of a different incident where a white Jewish author, I think, posted a MDZS fanwork where the Lan sect is Jewish even after concerns were raised. )
Last Updated:
- 2/6: Linked to
- 1/30: Added link to
Or: ⟪天龍八部⟫ 金庸, ⟪Tiān Lóng Bā Bù⟫ Jīn Yōng, "Thiên Long Bát Bộ" - Kim Dung
I've been craving wuxia [1] media, but I don't really have the attention span to watch or rewatch a TV drama and none of the translated webnovels that I came across have the same chaotic gay energy as Record of the Missing Sect Master so I thought to try reading a Jin Yong work.
( One of my favorite Jin Yong's TV adaptation series is the 1997 version of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils )
The full English fan translation is posted at Spcnet Forum by a mixed group of different translators starting in 2001 and completed in 2018 using a mix of 2nd and 3rd Edition.
I've only read up to chapter 4 and progress will be slow, but I'd like to blog about the series as I read. Well, I say that but most likely, it will be a constant refrain of Character X is a fool (said fondly or not so fondly).
Also, in the middle of my reading, I found a radio drama of the series in Vietnamese by VOV Giao Thông FM 91 uploaded on YouTube and archive.org. So my thoughts will be a mix based on the English fan novel translation and the Vietnamese translated radio drama.
( Chapters 1-4: More spoilers ahead! This turns out to be more a recap than anything. )
Or: ⟪教主走失記⟫ 一世華裳, ⟪Jiàozhǔ Zǒushī Jì⟫ Yīshì Huá Shang, "Giáo Chủ Lạc Đường Ký" - Nhất Thế Hoa Thường [1]
The English fan translation of Record of the Missing Sect Master just finished, and what a satisfying romp! A callback to old school wuxia [2] but with more chaotic gay mischief.
jeannette_ng's ‘Mulan’ Has a Message: Serve China and Forget About the Uighurs and Beyond Authenticity: the Spectre of Han Hegemony captured some of the thoughts that I've been trying to articulate about Han ethnocentrism and harmful tropes about the non-Han Other, for lack of better terms.
KatjeXia's Twitter thread provided some specific examples that they've seen in wuxia on this topic.
freeuyghurnow’s Everything Wrong with Disney Mulan summarized the current sociopolitical contexts in which Disney's 2020 live-action Mulan is released. (Transcript of the infographic is available here.)
diversireads's We Don't Need Your Hero & We Don't Need You to Mediate Our Relationship with Her: Four Chinese and Chinese American Adapations of the Ballad of Hua Mulan (which I believe was published in 2017 in response to Disney's live-adaption Mulan news) has some great reviews of Hua Mulan adaptions and additional historical notes about Hua Mulan (at the end of the post).
But Han ethnocentrism is something that I've been thinking more about recently after watching the Detective Dee film trilogy and when reading priest's webnovels, Sha Po Lang, Guardian and Lord Seventh. Like these works may have great wordbuilding and storytelling, but I also think they are pretty flawed and harmful in how they Othered non-Han characters and cultures. And when I continued to see trends in a series or body of work, it affects my enjoyment of the works, especially when I considered current and past sociopolitical contexts of Han Chinese colonialism and imperialism.
And sometimes the Othering may seem innocuous at first but may be equally harmful like as seen in my still much beloved series Nirvana in Fire as coffeeandink noted in her post about Nirvana in Fire and assimilation and as others previously discussed in this Tumblr thread: Nirvana in Fire, post-Episode 43 feels from thatbuildingisalsoastarbucks & responses from
gixininja.
Anyway, just something for me to continue thinking about when consuming Chinese media (e.g. dramas and webnovels) :)
Since I've come across at least three new English translations of MDZS so far this year, each with different translation approaches, I want to see how different their translations are. It was easier and clearer for me to see with a line-by-line comparison so for those who are similarly curious, here's a table comparison of English Translations of MDZS Chapter 1 from five different translation versions (plus a machine-translated version for reference).
Note that I haven't read all the translation versions beyond Chapter 1, but from reading experience, translation style can change while the translator is translating. I think this is the case for at least one translation version so one chapter is not indicative of the rest of the translations, and some of the translators included a post explaining their translation approaches on their sites as well (if not in the footnotes).
Note that I haven't read all the translation versions beyond Chapter 1, but from reading experience, translation style can change while the translator is translating. I think this is the case for at least one translation version so one chapter is not indicative of the rest of the translations, and some of the translators included a post explaining their translation approaches on their sites as well (if not in the footnotes).