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Last song - #357 of a 413- song Zhou Shen playlist. I’m working my way through ALL of Zhou Shen’s songs!

One of my favorite recent discoveries (I am truly grateful to all those Youtubers who put these long playlists together) is when some show had some people in costume trying to sing 芒种Mang Zhong and doing a terrible job of it -- like, it sounded like me trying to sing, and my kids won’t even let me sing them lullabies --, and then Zhou Shen struts in with an entourage, singing with confidence, power, perfect pitch, and crazy charisma.  It’s worth it to hear the bad singing in the beginning just to more fully experience and understand just how different and special Zhou Shen’s singing is.   

And then he sang a little bit of 左手指月(Left Hand Pointing at the Moon).  Wow. 

Last movie - The last movie I watched that was new to me was 刻在你心底的名字 Your Name Engraved Herein, on Netflix.  It was crazy good. It was so good that I spent the next week obsessing over it and not feeling the slightest bit tired (my new measure for how strongly something affects me: if it can replace sleep, it’s Good).  Some reviews mention that the movie is sad, but I watched through to the last second and actually found it quite positive.  It ends with happiness and hope.  That’s enough for me to look forward to a(n emotionally wrenching but ultimately sweet) re-watch.  

The last movie that I actually watched was 闪光少女Our Shining Days (no longer on Netflix, but still free on Youtube!).  It’s the perfect antidote to all emotionally wrenching media, while still being beautiful and subtle and, actually, kinda deep and meaningful, especially for those of us who really care about traditional Chinese arts. And it’s hilarious and the music is Awesome.

Currently reading - 镇魂 Guardian by Priest.  I’m only on Chapter 4, but I’m totally enamored.  I am still getting used to the new vocabulary and sentence structures of Priest (new to me) vs 墨香铜臭Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (魔道祖师 x2!), though, so it’s slow going right now.  

Currently watching - ...still on Street Dance of China Season 3.  Someday I’ll finish Episode 9.  I really like it, honestly!  I just really like to give it my full attention, read all the cute little pop-up comments, and, well, I haven’t figured out yet just when I’m (stealing my kids’ ipad and) doing that.

Currently craving - Anything Asian.  Please!

Tagging: @herr-zhou, @coffintownkids, @bimingjue 

18 notes

Hey, I saw a post in which you said that if we had the means we should support MXTX through legal means. I'm a white American who only found out that danmei was a thing through CQL and then MDZS. How would I go about supporting MXTX? Are there places I've been missing where I can give money in exchange for my enjoyment of her world or something? I keep looking for a DVD of CQL or a print book of MDZS in English, but no dice. Have I been overlooking another way to support her?

Hi there! :D I don’t blame you, it’s pretty hard to find stuff in english, but I have a few masterposts for you (*´▽`*)

Alas for any print editions of MDZS in english, they don’t exist (yet). AFAIK, no english publisher has the rights to it, but if you’re interested in the traditional Taiwan print edition, I have a masterpost with links here

@the-social-recluse‘s pinned post (here) is a fantastic resource on different places to stream/purchase MDZS’s various forms legally as well as sources to scanlations and fansubs etc. (there’s a buying guide for the audio drama, which I highly recommend :DDDDD)

if you are interested in the audio drama, I have a masterpost here (first link is just to an outdated version of post 2) that includes a link to a tipping guide for the audio drama team and also a link to my episode guide lol

most official merch is on taobao stores, so you can either purchase directly (though i will readily admit that navigating through it can be a Whole Ordeal + you need to be cognizant of what is/isn’t possible for them to send directly to the states -- I uh, mostly learned through trial and error RIP -- but there are guides online to help you do it!) or use an agent (I use Superbuy for certain items that can’t be sent directly). Shipping direct using their consolidation function costs around ~15USD/lb, so it can get hefty, but agent shipping is definitely more expensive. ;A; still! agents are relatively painless to use and they speak english, so, you know. ANYWAYS, if you’re interested on that front:

KAZE makes beautiful MDZS stationery items! mostly washi tapes. also sometimes stuff like mousepads, enamel pins, candles, etc. :3 do note: sealing wax, candles, pens with ink are not able to be consolidated, as I have Learned haha

Official CQL Taobao store. bit of a grab bag of CQL merch lol. please note, you can’t ship any makeup, wax, liquid etc. directly, so you’d have to use an agent for that (and I’m not sure it’s guaranteed??)

Official Donghua Merch (aimon). exactly what it says on the tin lol. keychains, plushies, knicknacks etc.

another official merch store (assortment??) this collects some items from a bunch of other official stores, including KAZE and aimon, but also has listings i haven’t seen elsewhere! there’s some really pretty jewelry (not... sure if you can send that directly, i sort of doubt it rip)

this.... is maybe a lot ahaha. if the taobao stuff is too intimidating to deal with, you can also find resellers on ebay pretty often as well. there’s also always stuff like group orders (i’ve pretty much only used OnlyDream and @shandian-go, both of whom were very good!!).

anyways!! hope you found this somewhat helpful!!

Here is Part 2 of my annotations of First Edition MDZS, Volume 1, pages 87 - 147.

jin zixun has such a main character complex that he thinks wei wuxian, the yiling patriarch, declared enemy of the cultivation world cursed him specifically for something that happened like a year ago and when zixun accuses him of doing so wuxian’s like look man first off i don’t care about you enough to hold a grudge i only have a vague idea of who you are and second off it’s awful bold of you to assume i’d let you live if i did

Shino’s meta is making me emotional again

(find the full meta here)

The sweetest scene ever ❤️

Your name engraved herein (2020), dir. Kuang-Hui Liu

CLADISTICS ruined my life

“If I can play a monkey and shoot illogical dramas, how difficult can these problems be?”

Words to live by 🥰

I love you, 朱一龙！

Zhu Yilong: No time to swell

EN translation of Zhu Yilong's Esquire Sept 2018 Cover Issue Feature Interview by wenella

朱一龙：我来不及膨胀

Zhu Yilong: No time to swell

ESQ: When did you realise that you became popular?

Zhu Yilong: I was filming (note: My True Friend) so I didn't feel anything... But when I went to record Happy Camp in Changsha, I was shocked to see so many people at the airport. Even the police was mobilised.

ESQ: Your fans praise you for maintaining the integrity of your acting despite a bad script. How did you do it? What do you think of imperfect dramas?

Zhu Yilong: I managed to develop pretty good tolerance over the years. If the script isn't great or is illogical, I will sort out the character's development and his lines to make it better. If not, it will be impossible to act.

ESQ: How do you feel about your previous acting experiences?

Zhu Yilong: How many good dramas are produced in a year now? Good dramas that excite audiences, that are praised by the industry, that feature excellent actors & directors? Probably one drama a year? With such limited good productions, it is hard for actors to land themselves in good roles. In fact, even though many actors are constantly acting in new shows, they rarely get the chance to play a role that they they really want. Well, one can choose to say, "I will not act if it isn’t a role that I like." But if you don’t act, who will approach you with roles in the future? If I didn’t accumulate a decade of acting experiences after graduating, how can I be sure that I will do well when I receive a a good script? Hypothetically, I could have taken up my role in Guardian even as a fresh graduate, but the result would definitely be different.

ESQ: Probably a tricky question; what motivated you to create your role as Savage in Hunting Savage (2011)?

Zhu Yilong: I was quite resistant initially. I thought, a savage? How do I play a savage? When I first started, I felt that I had to sort out the character's story. I was on very good terms with the director and we came to a consensus: let's just have fun. And we did.

ESQ: What did you learn from this experience?

Zhu Yilong: That all actors need experiences like this. It will help to build your resilience. After filming Hunting Savage, I found it easier to face other problems. I mean, what problems? If I can play a monkey and shoot illogical dramas, how difficult can these problems be? Therefore, whenever I encounter any problems with my scripts now, it isn't as devastating as before. I am able to resolve the issues. I have a better mindset and I do not shy away from any difficulties or challenges.

ESQ: Can you share if there were any dramas or roles played by you that were integral in shaping your acting style and approach?

Zhu Yilong: There are three shows. "Family Banquet," "Love for Three Lifetimes," and "The Story of Minglan."

Let’s start with Family Banquet. Feng Douzi’s personality is really different from mine. He is a bad student and all he wants to do is to make money. He sells houses, gets into illegal pyramid schemes; well, he is basically a rascal. I was only a year out of college when I played this character.

Looking back, I was glad that I did it. I can’t possibly do aloof and cool roles all the time. When I acted as Chi Rui in Love for Three Lifetimes, I wasn’t confident as I had very few lines. At that time, audiences often criticized actors for being expressionless. I mean, everyone loves animated and vivid performances, but Chi Rui was written as an aloof, icy, and expressionless character; what could I do about it?

ESQ: So it became a test of your emotional scenes......

Zhu Yilong: Yes, but audiences probably weren't able to understand this. I was very worried during the filming and kept discussing my scenes with the director. In the end, I didn't express Chi Rui's emotions through his facial expressions, but internalized them instead. I took his love & hatred to extremes and differentiated them.

ESQ: How did "The Story of Minglan" impact you?

Zhu Yilong: I tried to do something different in The Story of Minglan; that is, I did not design anything for my character. In the past, I had to be sure of the character’s logic and development before the filming and hence, I'd prepare extensively for my role. This was to ensure that my acting was consistent & logical. But Qi Heng had very limited scenes and the director had full control over the drama's pace. It was hard for me to tell what the eventual result would be like, so I couldn't follow my instinct.

ESQ: So what did you do this time?

Zhu Yilong: I didn't prepare much. When I first joined the set, I kept discussing my role with the director. I asked Director Zhang Kaizhou, "So what do you think of Qiheng?" I trusted him a lot. Director Zhang was very insightful and had a totally different personality from Qi Heng. Thus, he was able to look at this character more objectively. I adjusted my acting according to his demands. And as the filming progressed, I kept reminding myself to be more open-minded.

ESQ: What do you think of the relationship between an actor and good looks?

Zhu Yilong: Firstly, I don't think they contradict one another. There is no correlation between good looks and acting skills. Some genres require actors to look good. If not, it would be hard for the audience to accept them as the character. In film and tv, being good-looking can help an actor enhance the character's charisma, but this is also dependent on how the actor uses his good looks. He can’t behave in a way that impresses on audiences that all he does is to try and look good.

ESQ: You acted in a theatrical adaptation of “Devils on the Doorstep” (Dir. Jiang Wen, 2000) in college?

Zhu Yilong: Yes! I played Er Bozi (Second Neck) and all my lines were in Tangshan dialect. “I have a mouth just like my mum’s; it can’t keep secrets.” The previous version was played by Huang Bo. Several students from my cohort are particularly fond of director Jiang Wen, so we produced a new version.

ESQ: You're different from Jiang Wen. He's more flamboyant than you.

Zhu Yilong: Actually, we are pretty similar. I think flamboyance stems from one’s confidence. If you are like Jiang Wen and made a successful film such as In the Heat of the Sun (1995), you should express yourself confidently; your ideas are probably right as whatever that you say is based on the success of the work. However, if you insist on flaunting despite not having what it takes or if you think that being ignorant is cool, it is impossible for you to gain the recognition of others.

ESQ: Have you ever taken risks in your acting?

Zhu Yilong: I've always taken risks, but not without fear. I think I was a bit more daring when I first started filming. I thought that no one would watch those late-night movies on TV anyway, so I experimented with different acting styles.

ESQ: You’ve picked up some acting techniques by now, such as swallowing fake blood before puking or playing lame by stuffing a rock in your shoe. Why don't you try a smarter method instead? For example., you can get a sense of how it feels to be lame for a few days and you remove the stone from your shoe during the actual filming.

Zhu Yilong: I don't think there are any short cuts to acting. I can definitely try the smarter method. However, after reading the interviews and biographies of foreign actors, I realised that I haven't been able to immerse myself in my role as much as they did. This is something that I hope to achieve. (The former method) may be more harmful for my body, but I feel that it is more meaningful as I get to immerse myself in the character during the filming. If not, what is the point of acting? Using short cuts and techniques? What’s the point?

ESQ: You've played a lot of roles that are very different from yourself. Looking back, do you feel surprised by your performance? Do you feel a sense of accomplishment?

Zhu Yilong: To be honest, those roles aren’t great. I think the characters are rather superficial. Actors can express a range of emotions and play a variety of roles, but it takes a lot more to make a character deep. No actor can play one role today and another role the next day. Every role is contingent on one's experiences; you need to invest time to experience a character’s life.

ESQ: Have you been this sober since you were a kid?

Zhu Yilong: I don't know. In retrospect, it might have something to do with my dad. My dad loves to talk to me about life & values. When I was 13 years old, my dad dragged me into the snow on New Year's Eve and told me that "people need to decide how to lead their entire life." My dad is a loving father; he has never scolded or hit me. Whenever my dad was in a good mood, he’d come to pick me up from school and took me to play games. My mum would chase after us and drag me back home. She’s pretty strict.

ESQ: Your parents treat you very differently.

Zhu Yilong: Yes, I looked better when I was a child. I had curly hair and big eyes. My mum loved to tie my hair into a ponytail, apply red nail polish on my nails, and dress me in skirts or dresses. My dad, who used to practice Sanda, was very upset with my mum over this. He threw me into a Sanda training team as a way of developing my masculinity. Looking back, parental education has a direct impact on a child's development.

ESQ: You said you want life to be simpler, but characters you play to be more complicated. Why?

Zhu Yilong: Because I’m lazy (laughs). Life is so complicated every day. There are so many things to think about, it is tiring. I like a simple life; to keep interactions with people simple. To keep things simple. As for my roles, I like them to be more complicated & layered. I don’t want to play a role that will allow people to predict what will happen to him in the last episode just based on the first.

ESQ: Some people say that your generation of actors debuted at the wrong time.

Zhu Yilong: When we just graduated, the main characters on TV were played by actors such as Sun Honglei and Zhang Jiayi. We could only play their son or younger brother. We didn't have opportunities to play more sophisticated characters as we weren’t senior enough.

And when we finally made it into our 30s to play the roles that we want, audiences seem to prefer very young actors. It is as though we have missed out on something.

ESQ: Do you feel upset?

Zhu Yilong: Not really, I don't think too much about this. I'm neither a young fresh meat nor a veteran actor. If I can't play the role I want, I'll just try something else. I mean, I've played a monkey before, there is nothing that I can’t act, right?

Post translation note: It warms my heart to read a 2018 article and realise how Zhu Yilong has grown closer to his acting goals since then. This interview was probably done in Aug 2018 after Guardian concluded. I like it because it focused a lot on getting Zhu Yilong to express his views on the craft of acting, rather than to answer the usual (and meaningless) questions regarding “high traffic stars” or “idol vs. actor.” Happy reading. If you want to re-translate this thread into another language, pls DM me for permission and credit + share the link to the original post. Thanks!

The tiniest WangXian doodle.