Pardal, Sparrow or Digital, whichever is your fancy!
sie/hir/they/them - adult (+21) - white brazillian
Welcome to my JttW and chinese animations and mythology sideblog! my focus on it comes and goes so i'll let you know when turning on notifications to know when i'm posting again might be a good idea.
While this blog is mainly focused on JttW, I'll bring up other stories and legends, like Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi) or Lotus Lantern (Bao Lian Deng). this is also for Chinese animations and series as I find and explore them, and i'll occasionally do livereads of books, especially academic ones.
Follow me over at my main @sparrow-in-boots if you'd like my more assorted interests <3
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THIS BLOG IS +21 and will contain: fantasy and realistic violence, gore, body horror, discussion of mental illness and suicide, sexual themes, and other sensitive subjects. They will be tagged appropriately as cw but please be advised and proceed with caution.
PLEASE DO NOT TAG MY AUs AND CONTENT AS LMK unless i do so! LMK content is tagged with #not a lmk blog (head on over to my LMK sideblog @digitaldoeslmk if you want my art and aus)
AU info and tags below!
#Expedition to the West au
my take on JttW if it was (more or less) rooted in the real world and the historical Xuanjang's journey. follows mostly the plot beats as outlined by @journeytothewestresearch's article, so giving it a read will help contextualize where I diverge or fill in empty spaces with my own takes and ideas. full props to OP, their research has been an immense help and inspiration!!
#Sun clan au
[CHARACTER DIRECTORY]
started as my own version of giving Wukong a mother figure, now it's me fleshing out the monkey population of Huaguoshan with ocs to explore Wukong's bonds and filial piety, as well as the repercussions of his actions. expect a lot of family fluff AND angst!
note that both AUs are somewhat connected but I'll tag them separately as needed.
#Havoc in Midgard au (NOW HOUSED AT @fimbulvetrblues)
God of War/JttW crossover AU. Linked to my Fimbulvintr Blues AU where Atreus and Mimir are kicked back into the far past of Kratos' Spartan General days, and have to catch up to his current time the long way. I'm focusing mostly on his trips across the continents and pantheons as he retrieves the giants hidden there by Týr and slowly but surely acquires a veritable arsenal of magical artifacts, special powers and baffling alliances. And of course, his short but chaotic stint in the Three Kingdoms during the time of both Wukong's youth and the entirety of the Investiture of the Gods.
#bell dragon art
my art tag regardless of AU or fandom. i also use it when announcing commissions and sales!
MEDIA TAGS (in no particular order)
1986 series - 1996 series - Conquering the Demons - Demons Strike Back - A Chinese Odyssey movies - Monkey King: Hero is Back - Monkey King Reborn - New Gods movies - NG: Nezha Reborn - NG: Yang Jian - Jiang Ziya - Nezha 2019 - White Snake movies - Tian Zhen Pai: Xiyouji 2019 - Havoc in Heaven 1961 and related movies - Chang'an 2023 - Luoxiaohei - Fei Ren Zai
note: when a movie springs conitnuations or side content, it will still be tagged with the original movie (ie: Nezha 2 (2025) will be tagged #nezha 2019), save a few exceptions
ASSORTED TAGS
jttw liveread: quotes and tidbits from the novels i felt like sharing
fsyy liveread: same as above, but for the Investiture of the Gods (Fengsheng Yanyi)
oedipal god liveread: comments and quotes of the book "Oedipal God: The Chinese Nezha and his Indian Origins" by Meir Shahar
jttw book club: chapter reviews and comments by myself and others who have joined the reading group over at @/journeythroughjourneytothewest
A monk’s spade,also called a Shaolin Spade, is a Chinese pole weapon consisting of a long pole with a flat spade-like blade on one end and a smaller crescent shaped blade on the other. Neither blade was designed to be sharpened. In old China, Buddhist monks often carried spades (shovels) with them when travelling. This served two purposes: if they came upon a corpse on the road, they could properly bury it with Buddhist rites, and the large implement could serve as a weapon for defence against bandits. The crescent was designed as defense against small to medium-sized predators such as wild dogs and leopards. The way it is used is to hold the animal at bay by positioning the crescent at the animal’s neck and pushing it away if needed. Over time, they were stylised into the monk’s spade weapon.
Scene from the tv series “All Men Are Brothers”(2011)
Happy disability pride month to everyone who suffers from disabilities of any kind, physical or mental, you guys are strong as hell and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, you’re awesome (this totally isn’t being said by someone who may be biased since I have ptsd but it’s not any less true)
Dragon boat racing on land in Yunnan. Land boats are also a prop used in folk art performances for New Year's or other festivals, popular in Shandong, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei.
Quick reflection on the usage of 物(Wù) in Chinese:
So apparently 物 means “thing” (a concrete entity that exists in the world and can be categorized, often viewed by its nature or function rather than individuality), and it can be combined with multiple other character to create really useful words like:
食物 (shíwù) — food
食 = to eat
食物 = things that are eaten
动物 (dòngwù) — animals
动 = to move
动物 = living things that move
植物 (zhíwù) — plants
植 = to plant / grow
植物 = things that grow rooted
宠物 (chǒngwù) — pets
宠 = to dote on / spoil / cherish
宠物 = things you dote on
废物 (fèiwù) - useless thing / waste
废 = waste, useless, ruined
物 = thing
生物 = living things / organisms
生 = life, to be born
生物 = entities that possess life
礼物 = gift / present
礼 = ritual, courtesy, propriety, etiquette
礼物 = a thing given according to social ritual
事物 = things / matters / phenomena
事 = affair, event, matter
物 = entity
事物 = things as they exist and change in the world
怪物 = monster
怪 = strange, weird
怪物 = a strange being / strange thing
人物 = character / figure / notable person
人 = person
人物 = a person treated as an entity within a narrative or context
Today on What Am I Researching For Fanfiction, we're covering the history of scissors in China. There are oddly more sources on this than you would think. Scissors were first introduced in China during the Han Dynasty specifically for needlework, and they were big old iron shears that looked like this:
Everyone on Reddit is confused as to how they would work.
Anyway, by the time the Tang Dynasty rolled around the design had been simplified and even prettied up with elegant engravings because the people of the Tang Dynasty had no chill when it came to decorations. Look at them, they're gorgeous:
And apparently at the time scissors came with a chain with tweezers attached. I am yet to figure out what these tweezers were for and how common they actually were but this antiques auctioning site insists that it is very hard to find scissors with the chain and tweezers preserved, which does not make me feel encouraged about future research.
