douqi | Reading

halfcactus posting in

Some of these double as song translations—if English subtitles don't automatically appear, please tap the CC button.

Hikaru no Go: "Brightest Star in the Sky" (gen, ensemble cast)

Watch on YouTube

Description: An ensemble-cast video of the characters and the various journeys they take to get where they need to be. (Hug compilation at the end :P)

Notes: Some flashing transitions. There's also a vertical version here.

Also on: AO3

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Justice in the Dark: "Sinner" (Luo Weizhao/Pei Su)

Watch on YouTube

Description: Short (30-second) video about physical touch and UST, from Luo Weizhao's PoV.

Notes: Clips sourced from eps 1–21.

Also on: AO3

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Justice in the Dark: "Borrowing" (Luo Weizhao/Pei Su)

Watch on YouTube

Description: Luo Weizhao borrows bits and pieces of everything to protect Pei Su: the length of a river to carry him to shore, a patch of Paradise to keep him warm.

Notes: Flashing lights at around 1:00; Clips are from eps 1–27, with major spoilers for up to ep 16. Also I spent a lot of time on the lyric translation :')

Also on: AO3 / tumblr

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BONUS: Also subbed the new(!!!) updates for the Mo Du / Silent Reading audio drama:

June 8 update: a message from Fei Du, Luo Wenzhou, and Luo Yiguo

June 9 update: Fei Du and Luo Wenzhou's VAs read out passages from Macbeth

dancing_serpent posting in

c_ent

The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
or

geraineon posting in

cnovels

Time for free for all Friday, a day for random chit-chat!

Do you want to talk about the other novels you are reading or find a read-along partner? Practice your Chinese? Request for fics? Ask for beta readers? Just talk about your day?

Go right ahead!

halfcactus

Fanvid set to Mao Buyi's 借/Borrowing: In which Luo Weizhao borrows bits of everything to keep Pei Su safe and warm.

Clips were sourced from eps 1–27, with major spoilers for up to episode 16.

CW: flashing lights at around 1:00

Watch on YouTube

Also on: AO3 / Tumblr

( Translation notes )

geraineon posting in

cnovels

This is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!

For spoilers:

<details><summary>insert summary</summary>Your spoilers goes here</details>

<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*

full_metal_ox posting in

c_ent

Which I’ve arbitrarily decided is a thing.

Courtesy of

linggluu:

( Lengthy_picspam. )

extrapenguin

I did, in fact, make a premiere for

vidukon_cardiff! Despite moving internationally. (I have, alas, been kind of busy after it as well, and my commute is horrible by my standards now, but I'll make a post about my experience ... later this month!) Here's the vid:

Watch on YouTube

I also spoke on the Premieres Timeline Show & Tell panel, hosted by

marah_sarie! I revealed that, due to this whole "moving internationally" thing, I had not had the time to make a vid, and a week before the deadline, I was feeling a bit :( about it. I went through the short songs in my music library but wasn't feeling very inspired, so on the Sunday, I decided to give up and instead add song length information to my giant music spreadsheet. Then, when I got to B, I came across a song where I'd already had a concept for a Rey vid back in 2023 (back when all I knew of the OT and ST was through osmosis, lol) and, as I already had all the clips, I decided I'd be doing that. I've lost the planning post-it, but on Tuesday evening, I wrote down something roughly like this:

intro - Order 66
verse 1 - Rey alone on Jakku
bridge 1 - Rey in the outpost on Jakku
chorus 1 - Finn can't train her
verse 2 - Luke won't train her
bridge 2 - temptation of Kylo
chorus 2 - Kylo won't train her
instrumental - Leia dies on her
chorus 3 - Palpatine won'ẗ train her

( more talk, incl. on the miracle of clipping )

In retrospect, there are a few places where I would like to adjust the timing or add an extra clip to make the tempo of the edits better match the tempo of the music, but, well. I did accidentally play myself into making a vid album (Beyond the Black, self-titled album) so this can be the single version and the album version can be a bit tweaked.

(Also, the album includes a Game of Thrones fansong. halp wtf am I supposed to do with that)

profiterole_reads

The Dark Touch by Beth Ross was excellent! In the United Republic of Britain, Nova finds out that witches are not extinct and that she is one of them.

This contemporary novel mixes an alternate history, urban fantasy and some elements of activism (women's rights, including abortion, and queer rights). A large tapestry of characters are introduced little by little, making it relatively easy to learn who's who. There's no cliffhanger, but I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Nova has a bi awakening at 23 (same!), there are sapphic characters of various orientations and there's major f/f. Abigail is on the autism spectrum.

larryhammer posting in

cnovels

I reviewed I Am Average and Unremarkable by Yue Xia Die Ying in my journal. TLDR: A heroine-centered xianxia that's great fun to read even with its strong engagement with moral questions.

---L.

dancing_serpent posting in

c_ent

Welcome to Topic Tuesday! Right away I want to stress that discussion posts are always welcome to the community, you don't have to wait until a Topic Tuesday rolls around, and then maybe be disappointed by the current topic of discussion. Whenever you want to talk about something, please simply make a separate entry to this comm, no matter the week, the time, or the topic. All right? *g*

The topic I picked for today is Underrated Dramas. It comes from a list of suggestions to a post I made on Bluesky, and I'm very happy with all the ideas people came up with!

Quoting directly: Underrated dramas? Not necessarily those that have low ratings on MDL (because we all know those are not always reliable), but those that managed to fly below the radar and are still liked by the comm members.

Do you have a drama you really like, but feel like it somehow passed by people, hidden among the huge number of constant rew releases? Tell us all about it - people might appreciate a rec!

As usual, if you want to talk about spoilers, please use one of these codes to hide them.

or

forestofglory

Here's some thoughts on media I read and watched recently

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen— This YA fantasy novel was really fun! There are lots of heists and disguises. All the moms are terrible but they aren't dead (being Death doesn't count). I really hated all italicized German words (it is not a problem that they were German I just hate it when “foreign” words are italicized, it's both othering and distracting to me as a reader) However this really sucked me in! It’s fast paced and twisty and the worldbuilding feels grounded.

Coffee Prince ep 5-20— I finished this classic of crossdressing girl media. It was cute and fun! I got a great comment on my post about crossdressing girl media about how crossdressing allows women to form friendships with men on more equal footing. This drama really leans into that and the pleasure of being ‘one of the boys” without having to justify oneself.

This did the best job of “The MC thinks he’s gay because he likes the crossdressing FL” that I’ve seen (Though I haven’t seen many) it could be even better but I was pleased with it nonetheless.

(Content note: Blink and you'll miss it miscarriage and fertility issues)

The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy— Somehow no one told me that it is a crossdressing story but trans. That is, the main character is a trans girl who starts the book thinking she’s a boy in disguise. Interestingly she "disguises" herself as a girl so that she can go out into the world and become a witch (mostly crossdressing men in media are trying to access "inner" spaces). The author even thanks Tamora Pierce in her acknowledgments, so it's very clearly part of that tradition.

What people did tell me about this book is that there are a bunch of meetings, in fact I was expecting more meetings based on how much people talked about them.There are some meetings, but they don’t drag out and are often summarized. But I was not expecting it to be quite as brutal as it was, there was a lot of fighting and some killing, and also quite a bit of phillosy about power and making choices. Definitely a book that gave me a lot to think about.

I don’t often go seek out reviews after I read a book, but this one I really wanted to see what other people said about it. I really liked Roseanna’s review.

The Truth Season 3 cases 4-5— I continue to really enjoy this show! I especially liked the set of costumes that looked part of a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also they have been playing with the format in fun ways with these two cases.

halfcactus posting in

cnovels

A second audio drama update to commemorate a milestone: Fei Du (Yang Tianxiang) and Luo Wenzhou (Liu Cong) read out passages from Macbeth. (Fei Du's VA sounds like he might have a cold in this recording...)

Original post:
https://www.missevan.com/sound/player?id=11069730

Subtitled audio:

Watch on YouTube

If subtitles don't appear automatically, please tap the CC button to display them.

Orange subtitles = Luo Wenzhou
Purple subtitles = Fei Du

Notes:
The second "excerpt" they read out is "语言是有魔力的，你说出了它，它就会缠绕着你". Thank you so much to

llonkrebboj for going through CN and EN versions of the text to confirm that this is not a real quote. ^^; There were a few web sources that claimed (confidently but wrongly) that this was a line from Macbeth, which was mystifying and kind of funny.

Cover art:
dreamlike illustration of a book opening against the background of sky, birds, and voyages

dreamlike illustration of a book opening against the background of sky, birds, and voyages

yuerstruly posting in

baihe_media

Welcome to the read-along for Miss Forensics by Jiu Nuan Chun Shen! As previously stated, we will be reading FIVE (5) chapters a week, so a new read-along post will go up every 2 weeks. Each chapter summary will be posted and serve as parent threads for each chapter, so please do your best to keep your comments under the correct ones!

One chapter will go up per day, Monday through Friday, and I will do my best to slip them in before it's evening in Asia. Of course, if you are up for it, please feel free to post the chapter summaries to get the read-along going!

The link to the novel on JJWXC can be found here.

You can also follow the novel through the audiobook on Himalaya, though there may be slight changes and ommissions from the original.

halfcactus posting in

cnovels

The Mo Du/Silent Reading audio drama just hit a streaming milestone, so they recorded a short message which they released today, shocking everyone who subscribed to season 5 with an update notification in the year 2025. You can hear/view the official post on Missevan here, where it's publicly accessible even without an account.

I have subbed the update here (tap the CC button if subtitles don't automatically appear):

Watch on YouTube

(Translation may have mistakes, feel free to let me know if you see any.)

And here's the cover art!
Luo Wenzhou is scolding Fei Du as Fei Du is filling the sink with water, which overflows with floating vegetables.

Luo Wenzhou is scolding Fei Du as Fei Du is filling the sink with water, which overflows with floating vegetables.

halfcactus

I've been neck-deep in a hundred different fandom projects that I have yet to cross-post but for the meantime, some bullet points:

Mangadex got hit with a big DMCA take-down, so that's a lot of fantranslations disappearing.

Justice in the Dark fandom had another round of tension at the end of May when Wowow released a statement about, idk, piracy and copyright infringement; in reaction to this, people started locking their accounts, deleting their posts, taking down translations(?)... I've also locked my Twitter account, more for fandom peace of mind than the fear of WWW seeing my GIFs/edits and cancelling the show lol. I've been having a lot of feelings about fandom, fandom norms, and Anglo cfandom experiences that I want to process but I'm too distracted to write about them. Anyway I'm pretty excited for the show to be fully released so the air feels more clear.

白鲨Jaws/Baishajaws (the band who does Link Click's theme songs) disbanded. I've only skimmed internet reactions but it seems like a messy situation involving copyright(?), pay, and allegedly the front man being a dick.

The Mo Du / Silent Reading audio drama hit a new streaming milestone, so they recorded a message thanking the listeners and wishing us the best. (I literally screamed when I got the update notification lol.)

A screenrecording of my subtitling process because I was showing someone how to sub on Resolve... Now I'm wondering if other apps (eg. Aegisub) are better, after all. (I use Resolve bc I also edit videos and I just supplement with other software, depending on my needs.)

On my reading list: Inside Gaming - Interview with Former Square Enix Translator Tom Slattery

Art advice by

nn-ee-zz:

I keep finding out again and again that people react to my designs the most when I draw earnestly. I recommend the same to you, the world is a lot more interesting with your vision in it. If you’re scared people won’t like it just remember that you should be your biggest fan and that you’ll be glad you put your heart on paper. An honest design will last you a lot longer than a popular one. It’ll make you stand out more, too.

Art rec: Prutas card series (Rambutan / Papaya, Mango / Pineapple / Sugar Apple / Banana / Durian by emeldraws: anthropomorphized fruits, with very interesting design choices. I'm kind of obsessed with these!

368 chickens game (h/t

superborb), my new source of distraction and rage.

dancing_serpent posting in

c_ent

geraineon posting in

cnovels

This came up in a recent read-in-progress (I think), but what's the strangest/most unique spirit/Yao/youkai/etc. you've encountered in a novel/novel adaptation?

What kind of Yao/spirit/youkai would you like to read about?

qian

I enjoyed watching bits and bobs of this 1980s BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, dramatised by Fay Weldon (!) -- I saw it recommended on my network though I can't remember by whom. As might be expected of a novelist's adaptation, it makes good use of Jane Austen's own perfect sentences (the screenplay for the 2020 Emma, written by Eleanor Catton, did this too), and it dramatises some scenes you don't get to see in the famous more recent adaptations.

Despite my unswerving affection for Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennet, I think this is genuinely the best Lizzy Bennet I've seen -- at first I thought she was too pretty, but she absolutely has the sweetness and archness "which made it difficult for her to affront anybody". Jane is not prettier, which she should be, but she is at least as pretty (though her eyebrows strike me as distractingly modern). But I find the Darcy a let-down: a friend recently remarked that Colin Firth is not good-looking and that is why she doesn't like the 1995 series, but actually this Darcy, who is better-looking, is a reminder of why Firth works in the role. Colin Firth manages to convey the sense that he is fundamentally a decent guy underneath it all and that's why he works; there's a vulnerability to him which makes his Darcy very sweet and human. The 1980s Darcy too kayu lah.

Are there any (relatively) obscure Austen adaptations you'd recommend? In my top tier are the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries, the 1995 Persuasion film, the 2020 Emma and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. I don't like the Keira Knightley P&P film. And I thought the Romola Garai Emma was, like, fine, though that's mostly because I find Johnny Flynn's Mr Knightley more fanciable than Jonny Lee Miller (though fair dues to both of them for making him fanciable at all -- one of the least sexy heroes Austen ever wrote, only slightly less sexless than Edmund Bertram). I would love to watch a really good Mansfield Park adaptation some day ...

halfcactus posting in

cnovels

Freebies from the 小蘑菇 Little Mushroom audio drama starring 孙路路 Sun Lulu as An Zhe and 阿杰 A Jie as Lu Feng. These are all free to listen to on Missevan/Maoer FM, I just wanted to archive them and share download links for personal use.

Cover art

Ringtones with streaming, source, and download links

Alarm tone (An Zhe version):
Good morning.

Watch on YouTube

Links: Missevan (source) / Download (MP3)

Ring tone (An Zhe version):
According to human etiquette, shouldn't you be answering your phone?

Watch on YouTube

Links Missevan (source) / Download (MP3)

Alarm tone (Lu Feng version)::
Morning.

Watch on YouTube

Links: Missevan (source) / Download (MP3)

Ring tone (Lu Feng version):
Answer your phone.

Watch on YouTube

Links: Missevan (source) / Download (MP3)

Also compiled on Tumblr.

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I'm really fond of these. Everything is so pretty and you can feel how the music has been used to add to the characterization and worldbuilding—An Zhe's is warm, sunny, and gently rolling or floating, Lu Feng's windswept and shifting like the lights of an aurora. :")

profiterole_reads

lydamorehouse presents the 2025 Pride Bundle in this post.

I've already read several of these books and recommend them all:
- Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
- Fairs' Point by Melissa Scott
- A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert
- Reforged by Seth Haddon
- Welcome to Boy.Net by Lyda Morehouse
- Power to Yield by Bogi Takács

Part of the proceeds go to Rainbow Railroad, an NGO that helps LGBTQ+ people escape state-sponsored persecution and violence worldwide (same as the DuckPrintsPress bundles I posted about here).

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Page Summary

halfcactus in c_ent - Fanvids: Hikaru no Go, Justice in the Dark
dancing_serpent in c_ent - Weekly Chat
geraineon in cnovels - Free-For-All Friday
halfcactus - Fanvid: "借/Borrowing" (Justice in the Dark, Luo Weizhao/Pei Su)
geraineon in cnovels - Read-in-Progress Wednesday
full_metal_ox in c_ent - Xiao Zhan as Zang Hai for Wet Man Wednesday!
extrapenguin - Premiere: Is There Anybody Out There?
profiterole_reads - The Dark Touch by Beth Ross
larryhammer in cnovels - Review of I Am Average and Unremarkable, Yue Xia Die Ying
dancing_serpent in c_ent - Topic Tuesday - Underrated Dramas
forestofglory - Meida Round Up: Crossdressing Girls and Other Disguises
halfcactus in cnovels - Subbed: Silent Reading audio drama x Macbeth
yuerstruly in baihe_media - Miss Forensics 我亲爱的法医小姐 Read Along: Chapters 1 to 10
halfcactus in cnovels - Subbed: Mo Du (Silent Reading) audio drama update
halfcactus - Recent fannish developments
dancing_serpent in c_ent - Weekly Chat
geraineon in cnovels - Discussion Friday
qian - Austeniana
halfcactus in cnovels - Little Mushroom ring tones and alarm tones
profiterole_reads - Pride StoryBundle

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