All of my overthinking meta here.
everytime jin ling asks "are you wei ying" i can't help but imagine this
Book names + authors under the cut
Sic em girls
【The New Epilogue of TGCF Novel】Hand-writing letter to readers
Translated by CRT.
What to know about the newly published, fully revised version of TGCF
For starters, it’s exciting stuff, I’ll tell you that!!! While I go into detail, please keep in mind that the version I am describing is the censored Simplified Chinese version, the version that has been released in mainland China. There is an expectation that the uncensored version will be released someday, but there are no announcements about this, and any discussion on that front right now would be purely speculation. For now, this is all we have.
And it still seems really freaking cool!!!
Last year when we were learning about the audio drama, we heard that we would be getting an extra 100k words with the revised edition. MXTX confirms this in a afterword at the end of the newly published books
However, some people are saying what we have gotten is closer to an extra 140k+ words (source is a respected fan translator within the mxtx community, who translated the mdzs audio drama)
With the edits, along with new storylines and hualian content, there has been a character that was removed entirely— Lang Ying. I presume, the ghost Lang Ying. The reasoning is presumed that he is one of the things clipped out in order to streamline the book, as mentioned in the image above.
There is a new extra that has been written for this release— it is a common practice for censored publications, in order to make up for any removed content. This one is supposedly about 10,000 words long. (Source is the official english translator of TGCF. She typo’d in her first post but corrects it later in the thread.) I will not spoil what it is, but everyone’s agreed that it’s really good!!!
Last of all, due to the censorship, there has obviously been some changes in how hualian interact, but according to some readers, it still feels very hualian. From what I can tell, the kissing to exchange power has been changed into forehead kisses. So cute!!!
Alright folks, that’s all I got!! If anyone knows anything more, or has anything to correct me on, please feel free to do so!!! Lets share the hype for this together!! 😁
MXTX Interview with Risa Wataya for Subaru Magazine P.7
Which creative works influence you:
Risa: Please tell us which creative works influence you.
Moxiang: Professor Jin Yong’s wuxia novels (*)! Professor Jin Yong is my number one teacher in the craft of writing. His skill in crafting wuxia stories, his artistic palate, the sheer intellectual depth and philosophical complexity of his stories and characters. Professor Jin Yong’s wuxia novels have a profound and immeasurable influence on all modern Asian creative professionals.
(*: the legendary late professor Jin Yong. He’s not as well-known in English-speaking spheres due to the complexity of his works being very difficult to translate to languages outside of the Sino-Tibetan language family. But in Asia, he’s a literature titan. He’s comparable to Tolkien in that he laid the foundation and codified the tropes of wuxia as a modern genre (alongside Gu Long and Liang Yusheng) and brought about the first and subsequent wuxia waves, and that there’s also university courses and entire research field on Jin-Yong-ology. However, he’s a much more prolific writer, having produced 15 wuxia series, among which 14 are of comparable length or longer than the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit combined.
It would be no lie to say there’s not a single creative professional in Asia that is not influenced by Jin Yong in some way, shape, or form.
One of Jin Yong’s trademarks is the overwhelming, often obsessive, sometimes destructive love that his characters exhibit. There’s not one work of his that is not threaded through with larger-than-life romance, not just among the protagonists, but also among the villain characters. The trend of modern Chinese literature, especially wuxia and xianxia, to portray larger-than-life romance can be traced directly to Jin Yong’s influence.
Interestingly, he’s also credited as having accidentally created the proto icon of danmei as a genre.
I’m sorry. I’m so excited I want to cry. Professor Jin Yong is also my first teacher in the craft of writing. It turns out we all step in the footsteps of the giant, huh, Moxiang?)
I also watch a lot of 90s Hongkong movies. Do you know “Shaolin Soccer’?
Risa: I do know!
Moxiang: Stephen Chow’s comedy movies, Tsui Hark’s wuxia, and fantasy horror movies. Lam Ching-ying’s walking corpse movies. I love all of these.
Risa: That’s closer to jiangshi (*) than modern zombies.
(*: a type of Chinese walking corpse. The name literally translates to stiff corpse. Jiangshi is typically translated into Chinese hopping vampire in English due to their similarity to Western vampires. They are the dead that comes back to life. They suck yang energy from living people. They fear the smell of garlic. Etc… Jiangshi has real-life basis in an extinct profession in China: the corpse walker, i.e., people who made a living out of ‘walking’ corpses back to their home provinces in times of war and chaos. Corpse walkers are mentioned in Liao Yiwu’s historical book ‘The Corpse Walker’)
Moxiang: That’s right. That’s right. A hopping jiangshi. I watch a lot of such movies. Some movies are from before I was born, such as 'A Chinese Ghost Story’ and 'Sword Man’ (*). I have watched them more than ten times! If I meet someone who has never watched those movies before, I will enthusiastically drag them along while saying, “Let’s watch them together!” My novel bears obvious and immense influence from these movies… For example, the funny scenes in my story are very close to the atmosphere of comedy scenes from Hongkong cinema. Or the walking corpses in my story. My inspiration came from these undead corpses. In the novel, I mentioned using glutinous rice as a cure for corpse powder. This knowledge came from the movie “Professor Jiangshi” (named 'Mr. Vampire’ in English in the Wikipedia).
(*: Both of these movies are Tsui Hark’s movies and are counted among the top 100 best movies of Asian cinema. They are known for their fantasy elements, eroticism, and homoeroticism. These movies came from a time where Asian cinema was pushing boundaries left, right, and center. Swordsman and its spin-off were adapted from Professor Jin Yong’s The Smiling Proud Wander. The very same work in which he accidentally created the proto-icon of danmei. I wrote an essay about this as part of danmei history last year. I will make a separate post after this.)
Risa: To be honest, when I reached the part where glutinous rice was used to cure corpse powder in 'Mo Dao Zu Shi,’ I was moved.
Moxiang: Ah? A Japanese author saw the glutinous rice scene in my novel and linked it to jiangshi movies… That is so surprising!
Risa: When I was young, I watched a lot of jiangshi movies. I love them!
Moxiang: I feel increasingly close to Ms. Risa now. As for other foreign literature, Emily Bronte’s 'Wuthering Heights’ greatly influences me. When I read it during elementary school, I was shaking from excitement. Perhaps because of the influence of Wuthering Heights, that whenever I see complex, intertwining love-hate situations, I feel such joy and nostalgia in my heart.
There’s also my favorite childhood mangaka Rumiko Takahashi! This kind of light-hearted, rowdy atmosphere where characters argue and rib each other is so cute! I especially like 'Ranma ½’. I think it’s the best comedy manga. Other than that, 'Inuyasha’ can only be described by the word romantic. Romantic! To this day, Kikyo is still a goddess in my heart.
Risa: Although 'Ranma ½’ is a work that features China in it, what do Chinese people think about it?
Moxiang: The first thought that comes to my head is 'charming!’ After that is probably fond familiarity. This work (Ranma ½) features many Chinese elements. I feel that the distance between our hearts is lessened.
To be Continued (The next part will be the last)
Translator: Sythe / NPD Khanh
MXTX Interview with Risa Wataya for Subaru Magazine P.1
INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR MOXIANG TONGXIU IN JAPAN ON May 6th 2023 ABOUT INSPIRATIONS for MDZS (P1)
(Risa Wataya is a very famous novelist in Japan)
Risa Wataya: “Mo Dao Zu Shi” is very famous in Japan. When the Japanese version of the novel came out, I was so excited that I waited in line before the bookstore opened. This work is a “Chinese-based fantasy novel”, so there are also some settings that I am not familiar with, but by consulting the material, I feel I gained a deeper understanding of the work. This makes me feel very happy. In addition, because Japan also uses Chinese-like characters, the image of places and names can be communicated directly, making the worldview easy to understand.
Ms. Mo Xiang, when this work also became popular abroad, how do you feel?
Mo Xiang: I never thought my work would be well received by foreign readers. I was very happy and also very surprised. I was also surprised to hear my friends say that Wataya likes it. Thank you very much.
Risa Wataya: For Japanese readers, the fantasy world of China is refreshing, with long-haired characters hovering in the air by manipulating celestial arts, sometimes displaying stunning moves or engaging in fierce power struggles. Environments like hidden lands, dignified palaces, and haunted houses all make people excited. Why did you choose such a fictitious setup?
Mo Xiang: Because I love traditional Chinese culture very much. If I have to describe it, I prefer old palace gardens, natural mountains, and river scenery to modern high-rise buildings. Compared to modern costumes, I also prefer the character in Hanfu with flowing hair.
Risa Wataya: Is there anything that’s exclusive to the fantasy genre?
Mo Xiang: This classification is very liberal. Anything can be written. For example, a beautiful woman that does not age for a hundred years, does not die in a hundred years. Or a monster that cannot die for a few hundred years. Imaginations that cannot be exercised in the real world can be used here.
Risa Wataya: So it turns out. What is special about Chinese fantasy novels, compared to other countries’ fantasy novels?
Mo Xiang: It can feel different to describe traditional emotions (*) that only Chinese people can understand. For example, other countries may have different views on blood relations between family members.
(*: can be understood as intrinsic social and cultural values and customs)
Risa Wataya: Indeed, it is rare for Japan to feel such deep house/clan ties through novels, so this work of Magic gives people a very refreshing feeling. On the contrary, what do you think is the reason why this novel is also famous abroad?
Mo Xiang: Maybe because everyone focuses on the characters and their feelings, not the setting and value system of the work.
Risa Wataya: I understand. The character concept here is great.
Mo Xiang: It could also be because my own setting is relatively simple and easy to accept. For example, when I was writing, I was obsessed with the southern and northern Wei Jin dynasties.
Therefore, I have read a lot of related literature, and the power structure mentioned in the work also mentions some Wei and Jin regimes. But when it comes to actually adding these elements to the story, I need to make it shorter and easier to understand. I didn’t want the context to be too complicated, because I basically just wanted to describe the story of great Houses, so I thought of using a context like “The Hundred Cultivator Houses”. For example, if you are familiar with magicians riding on flying brooms, understanding the setting of flying swords should not be difficult.
Risa Wataya: This is the first time I read the scene of exchanging jindan (golden core) and flying swords. Both are very cleverly interspersed in the story, which is a great setup indeed.
Mo Xiang: The concept of jindan can be a bit confusing for people from other countries. The jindans that appear in my works are a little different from the jindans that appear in other Chinese works. Readers consider it to be “exchange of spiritual energy in the body”. In the novel there is also “The so-called jin dan is a ball of qi that forms in a cultivator’s body after cultivating to a certain level. It is used to store and circulate spiritual energy.” This kind of description, my friends told me: “Treating spiritual cores like an organ transplant. I have never seen such a ridiculous setting.”
To Be Continued (The article is quite long)
Translation by me: Sythe / NPD Khanh
MXTX Interview with Risa Wataya for Subaru Magazine P.2
How to describe the main characters of “Mo Dao Zu Shi”
Risa Wataya: One of the charms of “Mo Dao Zu Shi” is that the characters are depicted in multiple dimensions. Even characters who are seen as villains or enemies will have such complex backgrounds. Sometimes I feel that some scenes pay more attention to depicting the deep psychological connections between the characters than the plot. In terms of describing emotional and psychological relationships, is there anything that needs to be emphasized?
Mo Xiang: My personal belief is: “First, let the characters interact and talk to each other in my head. Then portray them. So that I can feel that the characters’ emotions are real. At this point, it’s natural to imagine the way the characters talk and behave.
Similar to real-life interpersonal relationships, you have to give the characters enough time to develop and incubate a certain amount of emotion before you can start writing the story, so my creative process is very slow.
Risa Wataya: How long did it take you to finish writing “Mo Dao Zu Shi?”
Mo Xiang: Last year of university, when I was about to graduate, I started to come up with ideas. It took about ten months to write an outline. Even though I posted constantly (*) online at that time, it took me five months to finish.
(*: Here, MXTX used a term from Chinese e-literature platforms, which means daily posting for long-form novels. So she wrote and posted every day for 5 months to complete MDZS)
Risa Wataya: So quick!
Mo Xiang: “Mo Dao Zu Shi” is my second work, and I have only completed one before. So there’s still plenty of room for the imagination. Actually, I had a lot of ideas for a long time, and in my spare time, I started writing when I was about to graduate in my senior year. After the serialization process really started, I felt that it went smoothly, and I felt that the writing speed also became faster.
Risa Wataya: So that’s how it was. That’s incredible! Returning to the subject of the character, Wei WuXian, one of the main characters, although deeply misunderstood by those around him, he is still a genuinely good-hearted person. And he is also very talkative. Even in the love scenes, he talked constantly, but he never lost his charms. This makes him so much more attractive.
Mo Xiang: I think Wei WuXian is a very interesting character. If you become acquainted with him, you probably won’t be able to hate him. I like the loving side of him. Whether it’s fellow travelers, family, friends, passersby, or children, he is the first to show affection and take real actions.
Whether to me or to Lan Wangji, such a personality is of extreme importance. To put it bluntly, I sympathize with Lan WangJi, so for me, Wei WuXian is a fascinating and important (*) character. If I can’t make myself feel “Lan WangJi will definitely love Wei WuXian. Moreover, this kind of love will be so strong that he can’t forget it for the rest of his life”, then I can’t convince myself to believe in their love and continued writing it. Since the relationship between these two is a very important element in the work, I thought a lot about it.
(*: the way she used the word important here is in a personal and deeply emotional sense. So Wei Wuxian’s character being the way he is, kind and affectionate towards everyone and backing up his emotions with real actions, is deeply important to MXTX herself and not just the plot. The wording also means here that this is the crux of why he becomes Lan Wangji’s beloved and gaining tremendous weight in Lan Wangji’s eyes)
To Be Continued
Translation by me: Sythe / NPD Khanh
Thinking a lot about how, in a series filled with liars and deceivers, when it comes to keeping big secrets, Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang lie in the exact same way.
In terms of truly big secrets that they have to keep for a long time, Nie Huaisang has one and Wei Wuxian has two. Huaisang's is the collective secret of his grand plot to destroy Jin Guangyao and avenge his brother, and Wwx's are the loss of his golden core and his post-resurrection true identity. And how do both of them go about covering the parts of themselves that they most want to hide? They play up their own existing traits and lean as hard as they can into their more negative public perceptions.
Artist: 长陽_RIN
This is by far my favourite fanartist💕 I’m in love with both his drawing style and interpretation of the story’s key moments. Mdzs fans are so damn talented it’s unreal👏🏼
I compiled everything I wrote that can be found in my mdzs meta tag and.... it’s 3k words shy of 100k words.
hanguang-jun, you’re so cruel 😩 to not give a well-deserved kiss to your patient and well-behaved husband! 😭🥺
