Nel-ii - An Homage To My Thirteen-year-old Self

you pick a les mis cast recording at 16 and that’s the one you’re stuck with for the rest of your life i fear

Fantine and her long hair, 도둑 (1996)

There’s certain hobbies and interests that aren’t inherently conservative or regressive but do attract a lot of people who are those things or worse and when you’re a progressive person involved in those hobbies hearing that someone else is interested in your hobby usually has to involve some “But are you normal about it?” conversations before you get too excited

brand new world

2014 Summer Valjean/Javert Exchange [x] Prompt: Pokemon AU

Les Misérables used as political messaging across Asia (incomplete)

In my intro of my blog, I talk about the utilisation of Les Misérables for the purpose of giving political statements being available to search on my account. (Usually via the hashtag 'protests')

I'm just going to create a separate list (this one) compiling of information that I found which talk of certain events in countries across Asia. (as the list I have now in my intro largely limits itself to adaptations/translations only) If anybody has anything else to add, please tell me!

The following will have different levels of research be put into it. I've put a link to the post which has the most relevant information regarding to the matter for a quick link to the research, however it necessarily won't be the only informative post about it.

It's definitely a work in progress! Think of it as a blog update.

Otherwise, here's the list thus far:

1868 Armenia -> Pro-literacy movement via translation and how Les Misérables was used for political criticism and national consciousness

#1868 translation

1903 China -> Criticism of the Qing Dynasty & International relations (Western countries and influence on China)

#Su Manshu

1926 Vietnam -> Combatting the post-colonial state from the French Empire and Criticism of the Nguyễn Dynasty

#Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh and #Hồ Biểu Chánh and #Ngọn Cỏ Gió Đùa

1938 Japan -> Anti-war messaging.

#kyojinndenn

1945-9 Indonesia -> (Real world comparison to:) War of Independence / Indonesian National Revolution and the Dutch colonisation and Japanese occupation

#Indonesia independence

1955 India -> Criticism of the British colonisation and the representation of the Quit India Movement (Heavily incomplete- I need to do much more research regards to the historical background and setting)

#Kundan

1957 Malaysia -> (Real life comparison to:) Declaration of Independence (Merdeka) and ethnic & patriotic unity and the British colonisation

#Malaysia

2019 Japan -> Contemporary Japanese identity; protests and earthquakes (still largely incomplete)

#owarinaki tabiji

2019-20 Hong Kong -> Independence Protest ('dyhtps')

#Hong Kong protests

2020 Thailand -> Critiques systems of inequality, selective morality, (youth and women's) incarceration, women's rehabilitation centers. (Heavily incomplete- I haven't read the book yet nor have I researched Thailand's modern political climate regarding these themes.)

#A wish in the dark

Honourable mentions: Yang Kui (Taiwan: 1895-1945); Gezi Park Protests (Türkiye: 2013); Candlelight protest for the Impeachment of the President Park Geun-hye (S. Korea: 2016-7); Aragalaya protest (Sri Lanka: 2022).

Non-Asian shoutout: Fabrika's protest against President Mohamed Morsi's government and suppression on artistic expression (Egypt: 2013). [Context: It was in the midst of Calls for Resignation for the President.]

[These are put into 'honourable mentions' because Les Misérables was more of a mention in the protests or rebellion, rather than it being a consistent and a major factor for a cause or political belief.]

Maybes:

1996 S. Korea -> 70s-80s South Korea (Most likely a criticism of the political climate, but I haven't watched enough episodes to comment.)

#1996 Korean tv series

Bless Valjean and his big muscles for it’s good services.

Enjolras in Korean can be spelt with Ahn as the first letter, which works because Ahn can be a surname.

This awoke a memory for me of a jokey tale I told on ao3 many years ago:

Grantaire is Korean, and he is dating Enjolras. The problem is, Enjolras is White (and he's a man, but that was lowkey irrelevant lmaoo). This takes place in the late 80s/early 90s.

Grantaire tells his parents that he's dating Mx. Ahn.

You see, Grantaire had always wanted to date a foreigner, mainly because his father was very racist and Grantaire himself was seen as a burden on the family, a black sheep if you will.

So, to piss him off, he had dated many foreign men. Enjolras was the only one who was living in Korea and could speak some Korean.

When his family finally wished to see Mx. Ahn, Grantaire felt pressured to introduce him to the family.

All throughout the lead-up to this family introduction, Grantaire had never indicated that Enjolras was White (and a man, I suppose).

It wasn't until when Enjolras came through the door with a tiny whisky in hand did everybody find out on the day what kind of preferences their Grantaire had.

Enjolras knelt in front of the matriarch and poured whiskey for the drunk and disinterested father, and finally got accepted and was allowed to continue dating Grantaire.

You see, before this meeting, Enjolras was given a 'practice run', given how serious this meeting was going to be.

Éponine, a Japanese friend of Grantaire, decided to act as a ''matriarch'. She had asked Grantaire what she was supposed to do, and how she was supposed to act, and given her young age, really took a dramatic and comedic approach to her role as the matriarch.

She pointed at the cushion in which Enjolras was supposed to sit in, had a huge fan in her hand, and started being condescending and judging about him.

"You're a man." She said as she fanned.

"Yes, I think so."

"You're American."

"I'm French."

"What's your name?"

"Éponine, you know me."

"No I don't! I am Mrs. Kang, the head mistress of the household and you will address me as such! Where's the whiskey?"

He popped out a bottle into sight. Grantaire sighed in unison with the action. He had pushed for him to get a large bottle, and indicated, through mimes, to Éponine that she should remark on its size.

"Why is your gift so cheap?"

Enjolras glared at his boyfriend. "I am not getting drunk."

And so on.

I think the great thing about seeing Enjolras as the personification of Revolution is that as logical and cruel as he can be, he is still caring, he doesn't enjoy violence, he's capable of so much empathy and forgiveness...

If revolution were to be a person, I think it's so beautiful to think of them as compassionate.

“So you have no mother.” “I don’t know,” answered the child. Before the man had time to speak again, she added:— “I don’t think so. Other people have mothers. I have none.” And after a silence she went on:— “I think that I never had any.”

Les Misérables 2.3.7, Hapgood translation

+ Starchild [The Ghost Quartet]

LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - Entrance on the Scene of a Doll, LM 2.3.4 (Les Miserables 1925)

The last of these stalls, established precisely opposite the Thénardiers’ door, was a toy-shop all glittering with tinsel, glass, and magnificent objects of tin. In the first row, and far forwards, the merchant had placed on a background of white napkins, an immense doll, nearly two feet high, who was dressed in a robe of pink crepe, with gold wheat-ears on her head, which had real hair and enamel eyes. All that day, this marvel had been displayed to the wonderment of all passers-by under ten years of age, without a mother being found in Montfermeil sufficiently rich or sufficiently extravagant to give it to her child. Éponine and Azelma had passed hours in contemplating it, and Cosette herself had ventured to cast a glance at it, on the sly, it is true.

At the moment when Cosette emerged, bucket in hand, melancholy and overcome as she was, she could not refrain from lifting her eyes to that wonderful doll, towards the lady, as she called it. The poor child paused in amazement. She had not yet beheld that doll close to. The whole shop seemed a palace to her: the doll was not a doll; it was a vision. It was joy, splendor, riches, happiness, which appeared in a sort of chimerical halo to that unhappy little being so profoundly engulfed in gloomy and chilly misery. With the sad and innocent sagacity of childhood, Cosette measured the abyss which separated her from that doll. She said to herself that one must be a queen, or at least a princess, to have a “thing” like that. She gazed at that beautiful pink dress, that beautiful smooth hair, and she thought, “How happy that doll must be!” She could not take her eyes from that fantastic stall. The more she looked, the more dazzled she grew. She thought she was gazing at paradise. There were other dolls behind the large one, which seemed to her to be fairies and genii. The merchant, who was pacing back and forth in front of his shop, produced on her somewhat the effect of being the Eternal Father.

In this adoration she forgot everything, even the errand with which she was charged.