Jeez. Why Did He Have To Hit Your Face? He's Worse Off Than I Am. You Can't Compare Your Face And His

Jeez. Why did he have to hit your face? He's worse off than I am. You can't compare your face and his ugly mug!

NO GAIN NO LOVE (2024)

The On1y One visual analysis (Ep. 6): Boys in blue

The first few minutes of Episode 6 were so gorgeously shot.

The use of negative space to portray Jiang Tian's loneliness, the claustrophobic framing to represent Sheng Wang's despair--the angst and longing were on full display. The On1y One uses quite a bit of camera movement so the static nature of each shot gave this sequence an emotional heaviness we hadn't yet experienced from the show. There was a distinct lack of the warm exasperation that usually permeates the characters' disagreements.

Also, the use of a dissolve edit in the top screenshot to create a sort of split screen dividing them? That hurt (so good). I really need to pay more attention to how the show does its editing.

Side Note: I’m not a color theory girlie but the consistent use of blue and orange to represent Tian and Wang's bedrooms really works here to highlight the separation. They're so right for each other but could not be further apart and the use of complementary hues elevates that tension on a visual level.

All the pain of those initial scenes just makes the second half of the episode that much sweeter.

Tian and Wang once again renegotiate their relationship by the window and the camera language celebrates their make-up by becoming more dynamic and free. You can feel Wang's almost indescribable awe at Tian grabbing his wrist with that gloriously slow pan from Tian's gently smiling face to Wang's.

But, once again, my favorite shot of the episode has to be this long take with multiple rack focuses, which casually meanders back and forth between Wang and Tian's fond gazes. In my analysis of Episode 5, I talk about how The On1y One likes doing long uninterrupted shots that keep both characters in frame and smoothly changes the focus between the two to mimic their emotional connection visually.

So I love the idea of this camera movement being Wang and Tian's visual love language so to speak. There's something very precious about the idea of these two in particular moving forward with no regret, unencumbered, and together.

[A woman who forgets her cringey past has no future]

That is a line. I fully support this.

The On1y One Episode 5

Ooh this looks like an excellent companion to Geng Song's Televising Chineseness: Gender, Nation, and Subjectivity and Jamie Zhao's edited volume Queer TV China: Televisual and Fannish Imaginaries of Gender, Sexuality, and Chineseness.

The few chapters both books had on MDZS/The Untamed made me want to read a dedicated volume on the IP and here we are. A Christmas present to myself from myself 🙌🏼

You have questions! We might have answers.

What is this collection?

As Maria puts it: this collection is a critical look at some of the things that we, the editors, think have made CQL such a hit around the world. Of course, part of that success comes from the webnovel MDZS and the show CQL themselves—we love the characters, the mystery, and the drama, who doesn’t?! However, the authors in our book also look at topics like translating danmei (both officially and unofficially), adapting danmei for new audiences, and interacting with fandoms and fanworks. The larger argument of the book is that all of these things played a huge role in CQL’s visibility and success, and we wanted to start making those moving pieces visible, especially for audiences who mainly watched CQL in translation.

You keep using the word “academic”—what does that mean, exactly? 

Maria: Ok, not to get pedantic here, but this actually touches on some things that I’m really excited about for the book. Traditionally, academic work is written by people who have a deep expertise in the subject (signified by having a PhD and doing specific kinds of research), and then the work itself is peer-reviewed (i.e., sent to other experts in the field for them to evaluate whether it’s sound, original, and interesting enough to publish, without knowing who wrote it). And both of these things are true about our book—our authors have deep knowledge and the book was peer reviewed—but also. We specifically asked for chapters from younger scholars and from fans who also have deep knowledge about topics that academia doesn’t always know or value enough, and we include an interview from the fan-translator K. who did the Exiled Rebels translation. So the hope is that: this book is academic, and also—more!

Who are you? 

Yue studies adaptation, fantasy, and popular culture texts using a feminist lens. She wrote an early, influential article about danmei adaptations and also has a book about feminist adaptations of Chinese fantasy.

Maria studies fanworks, contemporary fantasy, and genre literature. She’s scrambling to finish her dissertation right now.

How were the chapter spotlights chosen?

Voluntarily! The concept of a small social media promo was kicked around by some of the contributors and those interested in the idea filled out a short interview with what they wanted to share. We'll be posting about 2 introductions and 2 spotlights a day for the next week or so!

Are you making any money off of royalties from this book? 

LOL not even remotely

Where can I find this book? 

You can find our listing on Peter Lang’s website here. As for other retailers, a quick search should turn us up!  

How can I access this book if I cannot buy it from Peter Lang / [book retailer of choice]?

As collection editors and contributors who signed a legal agreement with Peter Lang, we have granted Peter Lang exclusive right and license to edit, adapt, publish, reproduce, distribute, display, and store our contributions, and we must cooperate fully with the Publisher if the Publisher believes a third party is infringing or is likely to infringe copyright in the contribution. 

That being said, these are academic papers, which means that contributors may make copies of the contribution for classroom teaching use! (These copies may not be included in course pack material for onward sale by libraries and institutions). Of course, any linking, collection or aggregation of chapters from the same volume is strictly prohibited.

(FAQ may be updated periodically!) (all posts on Catching Chen Qing Ling)

This is exactly how her strange brain works and I love her for it!

Yes, get the most out of that assault charge right in front of the police! And the look on Ji-wook's face!