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the children yearn for the winter get me out of this heatwave hell

Rip bunny corcoran you would’ve loved overusing the word demure just to piss henry off

BAI JINGTING as GU JIUSI DESTINED 长风渡 (2023) dir. Yin Tao @userdramas event 16: fools

sun wukong would have a blast with therapyspeak. he’d be an absolute menace

sea_Pall

What would you like to order? If I had to guess, maybe soup noodles with sweet and sour pork ribs? Boss says Jianjian likes to eat sweets, you like noodles, and Lingxiao likes meat, so he invented this dish that all three of you would like. This dish isn’t on the menu, besides you three, no one else would order it.

What would you like to order? If I had to guess, maybe soup noodles with sweet and sour pork ribs? Boss says Jianjian likes to eat sweets, you like noodles, and Lingxiao likes meat, so he invented this dish that all three of you would like. This dish isn’t on the menu, besides you three, no one else would order it.

are you cousins? - no, we are from the same family. 

half blooded? - different parents. - then you have no relations.

 how could it be? they are both my brothers!

go ahead 以家人之名: episode 05

“I treasure them so much. I raised them since they were this little to this big. I held them in my palms. I couldn’t bear to hit or scold them. But there are some people who have to remind me that I’m not their father by blood, that I’m not their father, not a part of their family. Then where are their families?”

once I latch onto a scene in a drama that has made me felt insane I honestly never stop writing about it… I know… for example the scene from “go ahead” where jianjian realizes that lingxiao is sick. the dialogue that follows is so well written like I shit my pants every time. I’ll listen to it without the build up of the previous scene and I still tear up every timeeeeeeee. It went something like “I watched the person that I cherish from afar. there, at a distance he was like a beacon, so bright and so complete, but somewhere along the way without me knowing he’s been broken. deep into the night he’s been hurting and he’s pieced himself together from broken shards to create the perfect image in front of me. now that I’m close, I can finally see all his scars.” this shit sounds like it’s a passage from an english provincial exam that you have to analyze but THE POINT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the connotations and importance of that scene are so well displayed and it was such a well written blurb that encapsulated the troubles of the main character, and the revelation of them to his family. If you haven’t seen this drama then please DO IT!!!! do it for good writing and immersive storylines and scenes that make you lose cognitive function 

go ahead 以家人之名:episode 40

a happy family 🥺

The dance itself is inspired by a traditional Chinese painting called “A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains千里江山圖”, which is one of the greatest works of Chinese landscape painting. The use of green and blue colours in that painting creates a harmonious panorama of mountains and rivers back in the Song Dynasty (10th century to 13th century), something the new performance reproduced.

The poetic dance is a recreation of the traditional painting, by two female directors and 17 artists taking part, with the whole design process lasting for over 20 months. It has been highly praised by people on Chinese social media for its delicate design and in-depth understanding of the tradition. The clip of the dance has already hit over 7 million views on Weibo alone, with many Chinese social media platforms buzzing due to this dance.

✏️篆刻、織絹、採石、習筆、淬墨…心中若能容丘壑，下筆方能匯山河。宋代十八歲天才少年王希孟，壯志凌雲半年繪制傳世名畫《千里江山圖》後絕塵而去，空留一段傳奇任後人評說。一輪明月朗照千年，今日展卷，青綠依舊。

#dance #chinesepainting #art #chineseart #舞蹈 #畫 #history #culture #traditional #藝術 #人文 #文化 #歷史 #傳統 #繪畫 #zhiciqinglv #只此青綠 #千里江山圖 #傳承 #電影 #movie #國畫

re: Story of Kunning Palace. If we get into Themes of the Novel...

I can see why Xei Wei is positioned as her ultimate romance.

The story seems to be a character journey for FL. Part of this jouney is coming to terms with herself and not just being "redeemed" but FEELING redeemed. Look at her conversation in jail w Yan Li. I'm bad, she says. It's something she still believes.

JX enters the story thinking of herself as unworthy of ZZ and in her mind, getting to be accepted & loved by him would be a barometer of goodness. But that's not what she NEEDS. She doesn't need a gold star blessing from a paragon of justice. She needs to accept the ugliness of her past and her imperfections and be able to live with it, to no longer be ashamed. As trite as it sounds, she needs to learn to love herself.

Look at this MTL passage from the novel, on the barrier between her & Xei Wei in her 1st life....

No one knew that the reason why she didn't want to learn the qin after entering Beijing was because of Xie Wei.

Four years ago on the way to Beijing, Xie Wei was holding a qin. She thought this man was really a distant relative of the Jiang family, he was dressed in white clothes, he had nothing but a qin, and he looked sick. Although he was in the same vehicle as her, he didn't like to talk to others, and closed his eyes most of the time to rest his mind. Only when he stopped occasionally in the middle of the journey, he would touch the qin.

Jiang Xuening didn't understand, and she didn't like him either.

Only then had she learned her true background, and knew that there was a "sister" who was praised by everyone in the family. She was afraid that she would be looked down upon by the maid who came to pick her up in Beijing along the way. One has to put on the posture of a young lady, for that humble and pitiful "self-esteem".

Young ladies are all condescending and domineering. Therefore, she was also superior to others and bosses them around - and "others" included Xie Wei.

She grew up in the countryside and didn't learn any rules, but this person had rules when walking, sitting and lying down; whether it's the posture of holding chopsticks when eating together, or when leaning in the carriage for a nap, he was always in order. It hurt her to see it. At that time, she felt that this man was shabby but still carried himself well.

It was only after a long time that she was willing to admit that the reason why she felt uncomfortable was because even if she didn't understand, she could still feel the difference between cloud and mud. And this difference is exactly the difference between her who grew up in the countryside at that time and the bustling capital she was about to arrive in.

But people are always reluctant to admit such truths.

Even after she became a queen, she didn't want to see Xie Wei, and Xie Wei's name was always associated with the qin, and she didn't want to see one.

When she was most terrified and miserable in her life, she was seen by this person. As long as she saw this person, she would think of that past.

And this was what she tabooed the most in her previous life.

Who knows what Xie Wei thought of her at that time? Today's empress was just a country girl who wore a dragon robe and didn't have the look of royalty.

As long as she thought about it, she felt embarrassed, so Jiang Xuening always just told herself that this past does not exist.

The insightful Xie Wei probably knew what she was thinking. Even though he had a high status in the ruling and opposition parties, and frequently goes in and out of the court, he rarely appeared in front of her, and never mentioned it.

As for the scar on her wrist, she asked the imperial doctor to prescribe a prescription, and carefully applied the medicine for two years, and it disappeared completely.

// What i can't stop thinking about is Xei Wei telling her in the drama that he liked the miss ning'er that met during that journey. The girl she was so ashamed of in her first life (before she realized there are worst things to be). He thought she was unpolished jade and was upset to see her sink into the habits of a cold hearted noble in the capital.

She misunderstood him but more importantly she misunderstood herself. She repressed the parts of her that didn't fit the lifestyle she was trying to gain. But in her 2nd life she no longer feels the need to fit in with the other capital nobles, to take back from her sister, to climb the imperial harem. Letting all sides of herself free and meeting Xei Wei head-on is thematically important.

Now that the final SoKP episodes have passed thru my eyes... Things I miss from the novel:

* Sorry but Jiang Xuening should have killed You Fangyin's murderer with her own hands.

* Jiang Xuening becoming obsessed with Xie Wei's cooking, such that she loves to quietly hang out in the kitchen with him whenever there's a break in the scheming. It's their safe space.

* Jiang Xuening going from being in the palace and part of the target/victims of the rebellion in Life 1 to being one of the financial backers of it in Life 2 and accompanying their fighting forces as they move up through the country as Xie Wei outsmarts the emperor & Xue family & Lord Pingnan's forces at the same time. Spending her 2 years away building the capital needed to help spearhead the rescue of the princess and then go to fuck up the emperor who sent his sister a letter to end her life for the benefit of the country.... (chef's kiss)

* The glorious revolution and making the royal family kill each other to save themselves in order to demonstrate the type of people they are

* Jiang Xuening moving into Kunning Palace at the end, as basically the unofficial minister of finance. She ended up in the same place at the end, but hearts & minds are changed and so the result is different

* Jiang Xuening putting the pieces together that the princess died in the 1st life due to her pregnancy & the emperor cutting ties (intrigue!) Team Fuck The System helping her safely give birth to her son, who she loves despite his origin. Our fav lesbian never has to get married to another dude and can just chill with her son, the cabinet of ministers, and her Ning Ning (with psycho husband in tow, but hey nobody's perfect 😂). Using her power to spread schools for women's literacy with Xie Wei terrifying the detractors into submission.

* When they try to use the Jiang family in the capital to threaten XW and he's like, so what? I was gonna pay back those bastards next for Ning'er so you're saving me time lmaaaaaaoooo

* Speaking of which tbh I prefer the lack of a last ditch bandaid on the Jiang family relationship. She's let all of the pain of the past go and isn't personally seeking to take anything away from them in this life... but she is just done with it. Dad is nicer but he's let his wife behave like this and has been mostly hands off. Feels sorta like Story of Minglan to me - letting the favoritism & emotional abuse happen while playing nice guy. In both novel & drama, he spends years not protesting how Jiang Xuening is cast as the troublesome, uncouth, inferior model. But then the drama decides to rehabilitate them. (Though to be fair, even the drama was half-hearted on this 'wash', cause at the end she's mentioning they're not close and in the last scenes the parents are with the sister and Ning'er is with her found family.)

Improvements in the drama:

* I liked that we got to see Jiang Xuening tell multiple people that she loves XW before she gives him her answer. The angst of it being uncertain what conversations she's having with the princess & ZZ, the risk that she's going to abandon XW for being a hot mess... it made for good dramatic tension in the novel. But for the ROMANCE and creating a sense that the feelings he has are truly returned... It makes the ship better.

* The relationship that FL and ML had with the fake Xue Dingfei was richer. He was a standout for me.

* Yan Lin had a happier ending. He really stole my heart in this 2nd life and like Jiang Xuening I felt no need to see him haunted by his vile actions in another universe. It was emotionally satisfying in the drama to see him at peace. You got us all rooting for him.

* Consolidated the Lord Pingnan plot! We really didn't need to get into their factions and introduce more antagonists.

* Consolidated the You Fangyin romantic interests - no need for a marriage of convenience with 1 dude and then Xie Wei's buddy also carrying a torch.

* I felt like the drama gave Zhang Zhe more personality and I did find it delightful when he was "fighting" side by side with Xie Wei.

* Xue Shu (the Xue daughter) felt like a more developed, fully realized antagonist.

* As much as it "sings" in the narrative to have her end up in Kunning Palace with power in the government at the end of the novel (that was brilliant)... maybe emotionally it spoke to me more to see her initial wish from the start of her rebirth fulfilled. Her original reborn goal was to avoid reentering the palace & exit-out of everything to have a quiet life of peace. None of that power ever made her happy.

* Marriage scenes of the otp thank uuuuuuuuu

* No and actually.. After her royal marriage in the 1st life she definitely doesn't need another big celebration. And with her messed up family relationships and his dead parents... Them doing the marriage ceremony all on their own, cause it's another pact between them, makes a lot of sense and I dig it.

* The reverse callback of whispering while she's waiting for a kiss to say "I'm yours" instead of "get out" 👌👌👌

Be Xie Wei 1st Life Failure:

>was freakin busy with paperwork after he and cousin yan lin took over the government

>hasnt slept in days and needs work to get done so he has someone send him up the narcotic drugs popular among court

>takes the drug and gets high. hallucinates empress striding in, mentioning his blood debt to her, and offering herself to him in exchange for his protection.

>thinks she is an evil spirit sent to tempt him and challenge his monk lifestyle.

>draws a line on her neck with red cinnabar in order to exorcise her.

>"get out" evil spirit!

>she leaves in shame and humiliation

>xie wakes up to find the ginseng soup she brought in his dream was real

>orders the servant who allowed her into his office to be found and executed

>decides to visit the empress to clear things up

>overhears empress and her bff inside the room shit-talking about him. Also overhears her plan of totally submitting to his cousin who "bullies" her.

>gives up and leaves

>has someone wordlessly send a dagger to the empress instead

>plans to set crown prince up as emperor

>his cousin yan lin has crown prince assassinated. yan lin yells that empress should just marry yan lin and yan lin become emperor himself. yan lin declares that he'd kill anyone who hurts/kills the empress.

>has his cousin angrily tied up. picks up a sword. and brings the guy to empress.

>calls empress to come out coz "everyone is dead." he's holding the sword. yan lin is sobbing beside him

>empress meets them and brings up his blood debt to her in exchange for the court judge zhang zhe's life

>agrees after coldly confirming if that's what she really wants

>empress kills herself with the dagger that he gave her

>in total shock and misery. he drops the sword

>visits zhang zhe to tell him the empress is dead. zhang zhe learns his mother is dead later

>destroys the plum blossom the empress had one of her fave officials sent to be given to zhang zhe

>tries to let zhang zhe go but zhang zhe writes his own irrefutable death sentence.

>yan lin threatens him using the birthday meteor sword because of the dagger

>breaks up alliance with yan lin after he reveals that the dagger he gave her was always meant to kill yan lin and not for suicide

>props up a beggar orphan to become emperor instead

>alone in a temple he stabs himself with the dagger she once used to give him her blood. he's holding the golden hairpin that fell out from her hair when she died

>lays and bleeds himself out on the grave originally meant for him since he was a kid.

Zhang Ling He as Gong Zi Yu

EP.01 | My Journey To You 「云之羽」 (2023)

"If I have to say something, I just want to live a normal life. Wash clothes for my beloved and make porridge. Light a lamp on an obscure corner of a snowcapped hill and guard the fire. Living a quiet and peaceful life."

EP.08 | My Journey To You 「云之羽」 (2023)

Clothing and accessories of ancient China-Qing Dynasty(2): Manchurians, melange, clothing and hairstyle.

qizhuang旗装 fashion

Zhou Xiaobai was the best performer and singer here, but she had a conflict with Shifu and was chased out.

JIANG MENGJIE as Zhou Xiaobai Link Click (2024)

new life begins has me by the THROAT. the first goal of this show is female friendship and the second is unionize. all the romance tropes that typically lead to two females fighting are almost immediately flipped on their heads to pave the way to friendship instead. the one(1) relationship that doesn’t do this leads to the sweetest enemies-to-(girl)friends plotline. the men are terribly in love with their wives and shy about it. one girl nearly dies and her friends storm two mansions, threaten suicide, commit treason, and bear corporal punishment to save her. brothers are uniting and calling out their shitty father in the name of brotherhood. so many couples genuinely like and support each other. a son yells “thank you” and kowtows 3 times to his shitty father as the biggest “fuck you” in the show yet. I’m barely halfway through and I haven’t even scratched everything i love in this show it is SO good.

I got a particularly poetic practice sentence doing Clozemaster flashcards today:

随着夜幕降临，整个城市进入了梦乡。 suí zhe yè mù jiàng lín zhěng gè chéng shì jìn rù le As night descends, the city sleeps.

The translation provided by Closemaster is considerably less poetic than the original phrasing.

夜幕 yè mù - defined by my browser's pop-up dictionary as "the gathering darkness" or more literally "the curtain of night" with 夜 yè meaning night and 幕 mù meaning curtain.

降临 jiàng lín is a verb that combines the character 降 jiàng, meaning "to descend" with 临 lín meaning "to arrive" so it could be translated as "to come down/touch down." If you used this word to describe a bird landing on a tree branch, you might translate it as "to alight."

进入 jìn rù means "to enter" or "to join." 梦乡 mèng xiāng is another fun word. 梦 mèng means "dream" and 乡 xiāng means "country/countryside" so the two characters together mean "dreamland."

I'm reminded of a Robert Lewis Stevenson poem that contains the couplet:

But every night I go abroad Afar into the land of Nod.

There, "the land of Nod" is both a pun on the expression "to nod off" and a biblical reference.