decided to do a separate thread for this so here we go: how Song dynasty poet Lu You poem-liveblogged his descent from cat owner to cat slave 800 years ago
The year is 1183. Down On His Luck scholar-official Lu You gets a cat because rats keep munching on his books. 1/?
the effects are GREAT!! Lu You is delighted!!
THIS IS LITERALLY THE TITLE HE GAVE THE POEM I AM NOT MAKING SHIT UP
(also feel free to correct my translations because my classical chinese is not that good LOOOL) 2/?
several years later, Lu You gets ANOTHER CAT!! he calls it Snowy!! (probably had white fur then)
he loves it so much he suspects it was a child of his reincarnated from a past life 3/?
and then cat #3, Pink-Nose!!!
it seems that Lu You's cats have fish to eat now, but Pink-Nose seems to be slacking on its mice-eradicating duties...? 4/?
the power dynamics in the Lu household now seem to be experiencing some shifts. who is the master and who is the servant now?? 5/?
it finally hits Lu You, what has happened. he has made a terrible mistake, spoiling his cats so much. they're not working anymore. there is no going back. this is his life now. a life full of rats and birds his cats refuse to kill. 6/?
does this mean Lu You hates his cats now? naaah, son, he has accepted his fate and cuddles with them on stormy nights like the full-fledged cat slave he is 7/?
(RELATABLE STRUGGLES AS IM TRYING TO DO THIS THREAD)
anyway if you noticed there's no Poem For My Cat 2, it's because it's technically this one that I translated for my post yesterday, but I can't quite place its timing in relation to the others
and there's one final poem but i'm so bad at translating it that I gave up loool. just know that Lu You was in a position where he'd be sad and lonely but he wasn't because he had his FAT CAT with him
OH and I gotta add that in modern China, cat owners really are called Cat Slaves ็ซๅฅด or Poop Shoveling Officers ้ฒๅฑๅฎ (which implies that the cat is the emperor) ๐ฅด
this thread is going around again so bringing this back
ALSO for those who missed it, there's another poet around this era who also wrote cat poems!!
Omg so in China "ruining a soldier's marriage" is a jailable crime but I just saw a case where a soldier wants to sue his wife for having an affair...except it's with a woman, so if he wants the charge to stick the state has to legally recognize same-sex relationships ๐ญ๐ญ
I highly, highly doubt it would happen or that the case would even go to court but IMAGINE if same-sex partnerships get recognized in China just so they can jail this woman for wrecking a soldier's home ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ
IMAGINE IF THIS WAS HOW IT HAPPENED
and yes if you mess around with a PLA soldier's spouse they WILL throw you in jail
Totally forgot cheese isn't really a thing in most of China and it's absolutely wild to read a thread full of people going "I thought cheese would be so delicious by the way Tom and Jerry ate it on TV but when I had it for real for the first time I was so disappointed : ("
Come to think of it I legit don't think my grandparents have ever tasted cheese
User 1: "It was a bit sour, with a very heavy taste and kept making me suspect if it'd gone bad. I thought the first time was a fluke, then I went to McDonald's and got a cheeseburger and confirmed that I do not like it"
LOSING IT @ THIS MING DYNASTY UNDERWEAR RECREATION
OK upon further Research it's not Ming dynasty it was recreated from artifacts ranging from Tang to Southern Song. I knew the Ming weren't slutty enough for this.
More pics + If u wanted to buy the set for real.... m.tb.cn/h.Uddr0ef
Turns out my publisher got a Japanese VA to narrate it, which means ALL the Mandarin in it is wrong. I didn't find this out until after its release bc I was never sent samples of the audiobook in progress or any preview of it 1/9
I'm pretty annoyed bc when my publisher first sent me a list of four candidates to choose from, I instantly suspected they were all either Japanese or Korean, so I asked if any of them were native Mandarin speakers, bc there's a LOT in the book so that's rather important 2/9
My publisher assured me all the candidates can handle Mandarin, so I was like uhhh okay and just chose the voice that seemed most suitable for Zack 3/9
AHH I AM OFFICIALLY A MIDDLE GRADE AUTHOR! ZACHARY YING LAUNCHES INTO THE WORLD TODAY!
12-year-old me, this one's for you. Other kids may call you the weird Chinese kid obsessed with Yugioh, but one day that's gonna get you PUBLISHED in BOOKSTORES so now who's laughing?๐๐
AS ALWAYS, ENDLESS LOVE TO KARYN LEE FOR DESIGNING AND @Velinxi FOR ILLUSTRATING THIS COVER THAT TAKES MY BREATH AWAY EVERY TIME
Biggest lie I ever believed about publishing was that it's a meritocracy and good books will inevitably get attention lol
Through the traditional means of entry to publishing, Iron Widow was judged as only having the potential to sell a few thousand copies 2/?
I am acutely aware that if I had never gotten mad at a Disney movie, the same text now hitting bestseller lists every week and being shortlisted for an unbelievable number of awards would've barely made a blip 3/?