More on The Poppy War, and Kdrama

[issenllo]

At the last 1/5 of book, and Nezha isn't dead! yay! At least, I gather so by the way the protagonist Rin describes how beautiful he is again and how he's hinted to have hidden powers, so even though he's appeared again and then disappeared, I think he'll pop up again somewhere? (No spoilers please.)

And whilst I should not be surprised that a book with strong lashings of recent China and East Asia history eventually gets round to some exceedingly violent and senseless, well, violence, I am still a bit peeved at the reference to Rape of Nanking and comfort women. (Giving me the impression no other types of violence were ever inflicted elsewhere.) And since the book is titled Poppy War, I was waiting for the opium thing to show up, and it finally did. Grr.

Yes, this has been an emotional response. >_<

I'm gonna think strongly about whether to read the other books in the series. Not that I don't enjoy the writing: it is still very good but... I dunno what. My ideal plot development is more mystery (as in whodunit)? I'll keep reading for Nezha?

Segue into how, if you've watched the same Hong Kong dramas featuring Nezha in various remakes of Investiture of the Gods, it's just impossible not to adore Nezha. Or maybe that was just me? To a child working out how you relate to your parents and their seeming power over you the child, Nezha's death decision/fuck-you to his parents was like a punch in the head. It was horrifying, blood-soaked and powerful. I think I never saw my parents in quite the same light afterwards. I mean, I still love them and have the typical Asian child's attitude towards them, but there's that little bit sticking out too. Maybe you just had to be there, lol.

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Also watching a new Kdrama, Under the Queen's Umbrella (trailer), period palace drama currently at episode 4, where Kim Hye Soo (from Signal) is the queen and mother of five sons, racing to (1) find cure for Crown Prince eldest son's illness while (2) keeping an eagle eye over her other sons, (3) amid potentially deadly palace politicking. I'm purely watching it for Kim Hye Soo really (and her eyebrows). It's supposed to be a bit of a comedy but there've been loads of serious moments, including at the end of episode 3 with her third offspring. So not bad for the Deepavali break.

Happy Deepavali/Diwali to everyone! More than ever, we need the forces of evil to be defeated, yes?

Comments

[larryhammer]

FWIW, my impressions of Nezha were molded by Journey to the West, where he does not come across as adorable.

I haven't found a translation of Investiture of the Gods that holds my attention, though, and I hope to actually read it some day.

[issenllo]

To my embarrassment, I've never read the Investiture of the Gods, only seen the dramas. I think it's written in classical Chinese which is beyond my powers. >_>

I've always felt that in Journey to the West, he's portrayed more as a representative of the heavenly troops, where he's part of the heavenly hierarchy, a good little soldier taking orders - which just makes it feel like he's been brainwashed. I much prefer the Nezha of folktales, where he's more of a rebel.

In folktales, Nezha died too young, he's warlike, angry and maybe even (a little) irrational. That's part of what makes him so formidable. He's not even meant to be human; after his suicide, he was given a body made of lotus roots and flowers (so goes the stories) and that made him indestructible but also meant he'd never grow into real adulthood. Because he's supposed to be so uncontrollable, there came about the side-story of how Li Jing was given a magic pagoda with which to imprison Nezha whenever he's intractable. Who else doesn't think that was fucked up? There's something unbearably tragic yet monstrous about him.

(Ok, now I wonder how much Nezha of Poppy War will take resemble those traits, and whether I'm going to get annoyed if that happens.)

I must add that the portrayal in Saiyuki does have its adorable side, though it hints at the problematic aspects too, such as his relationship with Li Jing.

Can you tell I have many thoughts about Nezha? ^__^;

[larryhammer]

Actually, Investiture is in vernacular Chinese, though of course old enough that it feels rather literary (and the opening poem, eh, literary enough that it may as well be classical Chinese).

Yeah, that's rather different from his portrayal in Journey. If I was invested in him, I'd have many thoughts about this, too.

(I have many thoughts about Wukong. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )