Korean Amis wearing Hanbok for @asian-les-mis-week !
[From left to right: Enjolras, Combeferre, Prouvaire, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Bossuet, Joly, Grantaire.]
Important Style Notes as follows: they're all wearing long styles (which I have, too!) which aren't a super modernized look. Many modern hanbok styles have shorter jeogori/top parts so that they resemble shirts, but you can still find the traditional jeogori about. They all shimmer with the exception of Feuilly's and Bahorel's, since most colorful hanbok are traditionally made of silk (Courfeyrac's got the extra embroidery cos he's Fancy; Enjolras and Prouvaire i also gave extra detailing on their shoulders because they're wealthy only sons and they should get a little fancier details). These days you can get a fairly good and affordable one made of polyester or cotton. Feuilly's got a quite-modernized collar and little snaps!
Prouvaire's is from the Silla kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period! (This is where the tv series Hwarang was set, though Enjolras is the hwarang of the group, historically speaking). Some notes about Silla fashion is that men wore their hair down and long, and the layering is different! You get the straight lines coming down in a sort-of overcoat fashion rather than being tied off in front like the others do.
The white parts of Combeferre's collar align whereas the others don't; this is also intentional! Some styles will require the white ends to match up when worn correctly, while others form a sort of lowercase Y. Combeferre, Enjolras, and Joly are also more obviously wearing sebojae (which are like string things tied around the waist for form and keeping the thing on. Enjolras's has 9 visible beads; Combeferre's norigae (dangly accessory) is shaped like a moth. (Also, trans rights hanbok 👀)
Bahorel's wearing a durumagi style which is like a big overcoat-style hanbok. Most of the others, as you might tell from the sleeves, have an undershirt/overshirt situation where the overshirt (jeogori) is sleeveless. A durumagi is full sleeves and sometimes you can have a two-tone! (Yellow is a more radical/protest color than red in Korea)
[Image protected with Glaze from the University of Chicago.]
Beyond Death, Beyond Darkness by infinitespaceferrer
Dropping this here for Asian Les Mis Week since I recently learned that one can share these things on Tumblr, too! Dunno if I’ll finish it before the week’s out, but the start of it is here at least! Les Mis AU set during the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea, focused on Les Amis.
Hello, this is my last day of participating in Asian Les Mis Week, with the sixth prompt being: Childhood.
Synopsis: Javert enters a Human Pavilion while carrying an internal conflict of his own Ryūkyūan identity and his place in the Imperial Japanese Army.
Set in 1903.
This fic doesn't focus on Javert's childhood for so long, but it is thematically vital to the character in the larger story I am building.
I was very happy to come back and say hello and write for the fandom. I actually hadn't written for les mis in such a long time and scarcely so, thus I am thankful this has been a positive experience.
I am happy for the kudos and comments I did receive, and I'm also happy that whenever someone scrolls through my Les Mis fics, they will land on Nigel Farage/Count Binface crack ship in my account. This is the image I must uphold.
I am excited to look forward to any contribution there may be in the future regarding Asian Les Mis Week, and I am so thankful that this blog stayed alive after my mental health issues causing my departure from this lovely, intelligent, kind fandom.
I wish people well, and I will be packing my things up! The fandom week is not over yet but I shall say bye bye from Hadley! ~
This fic approaches the fear of imperialism from a more feminine perspective than I have written before.
Cosette is disturbed, stripped, and vulnerable from the mysterious figure that she doesn't knows if it's a human or a shadow. Either way, she tries to save herself.
It's a short fic and it's a wuhluhwuh eposette fic as well.
Even though I have written about female violence in my fics of the week (since I'm writing about imperialism since that's what I'm writing my dissertation on so my brain is a bit limited atm), I haven't made the perspective front and centre yet. So this was to provide for that error.
At the same time, it takes place in Taiwan and I'm not too confident in writing about the country, but I couldn't continuously talk about Ainus & Japanese, so I switched it up.
For a non-prompt day, I wrote about Éponine smoking and trying to chill without hearing a sudden agitating, grating voice.
This is my only North Asian content I can offer due to my lack of knowledge in geography. It takes place in south of Sakhalin, a location once under the governance of Imperial Japan.
This area was as a frontier between the Japanese and Russian expansionist conflict, and those who were native to the location, Ainus, Ul'ta, and Nivkh were victims to this violent squabbling.
I was reading a document written by a Japanese colonialist who situated himself in Karafuto (south of Sakhalin) called Nakanome Akira. He set up a Dojin school (to forcibly assimilate the natives into the nationalist Japanese identity). I thought it was interesting in how he was building the case of justification of colonisation, but also his tactic in making people listen to him.
It turned out, a lot of the natives just ignored what the Japanese colonists were saying. I wouldn't say it was most, nor do I know the precise population portion, but I thought it was an interesting 'We don't recognise you here' form of resistance.
In his work, 土人教化論 (1916), he spoke of the already established Ainu lifestyle. The reason why he focused on Ainu life specifically was that they were the ethnic majority and indigenous, so the other ethnic minorities listened to them for government guidance than the Japanese. I took the details Nakanome underlined as a problem and tried to present it in the fic that hopefully is an enjoyable read.
I took some notes from the document:
Promoting disciplined living
“The aim of turning the natives into subjects is to transform them into obedient labourers.” (94)
Found the fishermen didn’t work long hours (usual shift was 3-4 hours a day)
They didn’t like disciplined lifestyle
They took ‘breaks’ such as sitting around the body of water and smoking. This was seen as ‘no productive work.’
The problem was the psychology of thinking “their livelihood is secure even without working.” (Pp. 95)
The annoyance is throughout the pages 90s where the lack of hard labour and maximising profit is evident. They wanted Ainus and other ethnic groups to abandon “menial” work and participate in bigger and grander fishing cooperation and operations (pp. 96). Again, this being the meeting point with mainlanders is used as another benefit into why they should move indigenous ppl into a more profit driven work. (Pp. 97)
The worry was that ppl weren’t trying to build more than they already had: “the indigenous people do not lead a settled life and possess nothing beyond absolute necessities.” (Pp. 98)
Nakanome also showed a strange characteristic of lamenting the loss of ainu culture later in his life even though he had advocated for the eradication for it. In his perspective, he was only teaching the natives how to become civilised.
One important thing to also note is that Nakanome was against migration from one place to the other as semi-nomadic people. As I've noted earlier, this frustration was due to capitalist reasons and that the Ainus, Ul'ta, and Nivkh weren't valuing. The solution to this said 'problem' was the following (my notes):
It was desirable to assimilate Sakhalin Ainus and other residing Native Peoples to permanent settlement.
“Establishing a fixed residence and building permanent homes would cause them no hardship or inconvenience; in fact, it would be highly advantageous for the elderly, women, and children. Although they claim their wandering is driven by the need to herd reindeer, that necessity is largely a matter of tradition, as they have little actual need for reindeer in the present day.” (92)
Against resistance, taxes was a way to assimilate the Peoples residing in Ainu Mosir. Nakanome argues for ideological transformation within the natives. He argues that the Ul'ta do not truly see themselves as Japanese imperial subjects because they neither pay taxes nor experience the ordinary obligations of citizenship. In his view, this allows them to imagine themselves as an independent people existing separate of Japanese authority. Taxation thus becomes a symbol of sovereignty, and thus paying taxes to Imperial Japan would legitimise their authority.
Nakanome also took notes from the Hungarian government’s policies against Romani people/Travellers. -> the problems they had with them was that there was no nationality and regarded as an 'inferior race.' They made money through "lowly looked occupation such as music and magic tricks." (91)
Problem of being nomadic is that they “constantly move from place to place; consequently, they avoid acquiring items that are difficult to transport or possess excessive bulk, making the accumulation of wealth impossible.” (Pp. 91) If they settled in one place, they could “achieve a higher level of cultural advancement” (pp. 91) Material ownership and availability was seen as a benefit to ‘civilisation.’ The document further suggests that it was the duty or at least the possibility from the policymakers (government interference) to actively encourage ‘civilising’ the population.
Based on observation with the Hungarian government policymakers, they noticed assimilation of the Romani population allowed to fill the shortage of manpower “despite having land available.” (pp. 90) Thus, the Roma were forced to engage in settlement and agriculture. Romanian government also did something similar to one of their ethnic groups to turn them into agricultural labourers. China also did this with the Aisin Gioro clan (nomads), and after assimilation, found that the result was favourable as “they are indistinguishable from the rest of the population.” (Pp. 91)
This was discussed because of the lifestyle of the natives migrating for hunting season and bringing back carry-able portions rather than large (because the latter would need transportation).
I thought I would write this part in as well since the popular (head)canon of Javert is that he was Romani. Many struggles and oppressive rule are inspired by each other. If anyone made it down my rambling, I hope that's the main thing you carry away presuming you didn't know about this this. Idk how much ppl may know.
I believe the accumulation of wealth is a nicer way and more a veil in stating that they need a large labour workforce that would push for industrialisation and help capitalist bourgeoise accumulate more of their wealth. For the working class peoples to have wealth just meant they were participating in the capitalist system that ultimately benefits the top few.
But what do I know. I actually don't study politics. I hope I didn't grossly misinterpret anything.
Hello, it's Hadley. Do you remember someone vaguely in the past who ran the Asian Les Mis week the last time? (PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE) I'm visiting only for a week. I'm mainly back so I can watch the posts the come in to the blog so I can be the first to celebrate a contribution, and oh look this time it is conveniently my own fic.
Funny how these things work out.
I will be sharing this blog until the week is over. This was something that I requested for. I gamble on the idea that I am remembered... No, wait! I gamble I am not remembered. No... I gamble on semi-remembrance of meself... Maybe I'm not meant for gambling.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
My silly half-Filipino Montparnasse headcanons are back, this time with a whole dramatic story because I needed to explain why he looks like 12 😭. The basic story is that the Patron-Minette were infiltrating this fancy wedding, and sent in Montparnasse and Babet (maybe I will draw him someday) as father and son. So they both wore traditional clothing.
This is my submission for @asian-les-mis-week . There may be more but no promises.
Six nights before the event starts! Be sure to check out all our info and get your questions in before the event start! Can’t wait to see what everyone makes!
I really love the idea of writing projects like this kind of blog, it also made me think of something.
What if someone also made an "African Les Mis Week" competition in a similar manner as this one, as with any other continent (e.g. Oceania, Europe outside France, the Americas)? It's just occurred to me that the global struggles for decolonization very much fall in line with the spirit of the original Les Mis. Bonus points for former colonies like Senegal, Algeria, or Madagascar etc., as stories told from their contexts would have the French Republic (i.e. the same republic people longed for in the original Les Mis) as the oppressors of someone else.
Yes!!! That sounds like a really concept and much in the spirit of Les Mis <3
Around one month until the event starts! Since I don't know anyone in the fandom in my timezone, I thought to go ahead and poll to see what timezone was preferred for submissions to open and close, based on the more common time zones I see here. I'm happy to queue things!
What time zone is preferred for the event to run on?
Since it ended as a tie I'll run the event on my timezone. Submissions open at 00:00 on July 12th and will close 23:59 on July 16. This converter should work to see what that is in your local time!
Asian Les Mis week @asian-les-mis-week - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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