Sugardy Candy

Still reading 瑯琊榜 Nirvana in Fire, chapter 121 of 149. I'd say that reading this novel is improving my Chinese, but unfortunately a lot of it is classical Chinese or archaic words (or both) that don't see much use in modern times. Kind of fun, though, if you are interested in the language.

And between the more serious chapters I turn to clips of the series for entertainment (beware spoilers), like this one of Xiao Jingyan watching Mei Changsu aka Lin Shu pull his sword (oh dear, that sounds so naughty). I love that moment when Mei Changsu is inwardly going "ohshit ohshit I just gave myself away wtf I'll just pretend nothing's happened".

Or where Xiao Jingyan gives Mei Changsu aka Lin Shu a present (wtf, it still sounds naughty)- and also, that moment when you'd expect Mei Changsu to gasp and say, "I do!"

And I've rewatched this like five times: where Fei Liu splashes Lin Chen with water while Mei Changsu watches - a rare instance of a cheerful and genuinely amused Mei Changsu.

yifu posted on this: China TV-series 琅琊榜, which has the odd translated title of Nirvana In Fire (wonder which publicist thought that up) (see also http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nirvana_in_Fire); I just search for "langyabang" on Youtube.

It's a serial-numbers-filed-off version of ... costumes and setting looks like it could be 3rd or 4th century China, where there were still many small countries and territories, a time when kingdoms rose and fell in a matter of decades. This one features a fictionalised country of Liang, into which comes an ethereal-looking (to use yifu's description) strategist played by Hu Ge (yes, really), who is sickly but brilliant in mind. He goes to Jinlin, the capital of Liang, with a hidden agenda and backstory that slooowly becomes clear as he strategises one of the princes to the throne.

I think it's a bit of an unusual side of Chinese culture (even though in the series, Liang - and other countries - haven't been heavily Sinicised) that makes you think sickly scholars are totally cool, even though the country of Liang, like its neighbouring country, is supposed to prize itself on martial arts and the physical prowess of its armies. Luckily this is fiction, or I would totally side-eye the interplaying concepts. The court intrigue isn't just confined to the harem, but to different departments of the government and army - and the characters are multi-dimensional, all with different motivations for their plots. There's a bit of romance, but overall the series is quite focused on stuff like loyalty, integrity, brotherhood, and so on. Add villains that you love to hate, lots of action scenes, people talking in occasional mock literary Chinese (they probably dumbed it down a lot for plebs like me), georgeous clothes, and I'm there.

So I woke up to 阳关三叠, from one of our CDs, played by my dad as a way of being Chinese-y without resorting to the usual barrage of Chinese New Year songs.

Lunar New Year has come early and took me a bit unprepared. Usually there's a bit of a longer lead-time from Jan 1. But it's supposed to especially auspicious this year as it is the year of the dragon. Ironically, this year bodes ill for those born in the year of the dragon as they are supposed to have offended the god of Jupiter (太歲) - so the astrological section says - by their very existence this year. Well, well.

Happy New Year anyway!

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( 步步惊心 )

The Yearly Revolution, 4 parts (scroll down for links to the other parts) Sherlock/John, Sherlock, by methimyesterday

Moving In, Hikaru/Akira, Hikago, by harukami