STORYWORLDS

No story is told alone.

[hihiworldposts-blog]

Concluding post: Journey to the West

I really enjoyed blogging about my favorite novel Journey to the West and have gained a lot of insights from this project. My enduring fascination on this story world really comes from the different adaptions I read during different stages of my life - I started out knowing this story world through the 1982 TV shows when I was in kindergarten; then I read the comic books and the children version of the book in elementary school. It was only until grade 11 that I finished reading the original novel. 

I was surprised that I had a completely different feeling reading/watching various adaptions vs the original book – partly because the TV shows and other adaptions selected the most exciting and intense parts of the novel, and partly because when I watched Journey to the West as a child, I firmly believe in the story world the author constructed, and had a lot more my own imagination on the story. But now, when I go back and revisit the original novel for the blog post, I see it more as a great classical novel in Chinese literature that requires me to analyze and have some deep thinking on the plot design, opening poems, how are certain elements related to buddhism, whether the author is satirizing the political system and society back then. The satisfaction I get from reading it just for fun versus gaining insights and enlightenment after serious interpretation and analyzation, are different but equally fulfilling.

I didn’t pay too much attention to the gender when I first read this story world. But I do remember some of the demons I really don’t like, lady white bone (白骨精) and spider spirits (蜘蛛精) are female, while two of my favorite characters, Guanying Pusa (观音菩萨) and the King of Nverguo(女儿国国王) are also female. As a child, I think I focused more on whether the character is good or bad, rather than the gender. The fox spirit and demons in the Journey to the West reminds me of Pu Songlin’s Liaozhai (聊斋志异), where in his work, there are also many female fox spirits and demons; in his story, the identity does not matter, whether it is a human, a ghost or a fox spirit, their virtues will be rewarded, and vice will be punished.

Journey to the West is probably the most popular one out of the “Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature”, and has the most adaptions. I believe it is mostly because of the character of the Monkey King, who is a symbol of rebellious spirit. He is a hero fighting for freedom, but eventually he has to compromise and becomes one in the system; many great movies and songs focus on this controversy.

My favorite movie adaption is A Chinese Odyssey (大话西游) that came out in 1995, which focuses on the character of the Monkey King, with the hallucinatory time-traveling narrative including a most unlikely rendition of The Platters’ Only You; near the end of Part Two, the fairy Zixia sacrifices her life to save her great love, the Monkey King, who in turn regrets discovering too late his own feelings for her. The theme song “Yishen Suoai” (一生所爱 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h46F_sQVLjI) is a classic. Another song focusing the complexity of the character of the Monkey King is called “Wu Kong”（悟空); the song is unique in arguing that the Monkey should follow his heart, and going through the eighty-one calamities and being the buddha wouldn’t be satisfying or enlightening for the Monkey if he loses the freedom.

Two more thongs on Wukong that I really enjoyed: 

Qi Tian Da Shen （齐天大圣） – Hua Chenyu

Qi Tian （齐天） – Hua Chenyu 

One thing I really want to explore more is how the language affects the story world, especially when it is translated from Chinese to English.  For example, in western philosophy, people see things through dualism, which is a vertical disjunction between evil and good, damnation and salvation while in Chinese philosophy, the dualistic structure, such as yin and yang is characterized by their interdependency. I will continue exploring the connotations in the novel as I plan to take the Buddhism class next semester.

[m-feng-blog1]

Lame Duck Post: The End

Just like a presidency, any storyworld about the White House has to eventually come to an end. 

Coming into this project, I really wanted to explore the worlds that have been built and maintained that surround American politics. It is something that has been long-pervasive in my everyday life, and I have recently come onto so many political dramas that it was only natural that I really sat down and thought about the intersection between these universes. I think that by and large I am pleased with how my storyworld developed because it revolved around a key interest of mine and integrated the material that we learned in class to really create a synthesis of information that enriched my own understanding of a world that I have longed to live in.

One particular thing that this class helped me realize about the storyworld I analyzed was how to disaggregate and then re-aggregate components of the story. That is, while it is obvious on face to think about plot and setting, it is sometimes difficult to really think about how the characters interact specifically with the setting or why the setting is truly important for the development of the characters. In the second post, I think our discussions in class helped me find the idea about intimacy and how the setting of the story accentuates the interpersonal dynamics that exist. 

Something else that I think this class in particular helped me realize was the role of the teller in the story. Often times I have been accustomed to just taking in news on face and just digesting information. But I do not think as much about the incentives that inform those perspectives, whether it be why the news media is reporting it a certain way, or why the government chooses to spin something in one way or another, or why certain governments are so keen in these instances to jump out. This was also something that I think only became evident to me after doing it a few times in this class.

In exploring this world, I think that there were some things that I wish I would’ve done had I had more time to dive into literature. While I make mentions to and am familiar with the general domain of post-White House memoirs, I think that reading some of them and comparing those war stories to what we hear in the moment and also what is portrayed in fictional depictions of the White House would have made my understanding of some of these perspectives much richer. For example, I am able to, on a surface-level, understand how it might be that memoirs inform a hindsight perspective of their time in the White House (which is a mention I make in the sixth post), but actually knowing specifically what we can find out after the fact that we were unable to know at the time because of restrictions of access (an issue I explore in the third post) would make that post much more detailed.

Overall, I am not unhappy with the state of my coverage of these kinds of political dramas and their relative veracity with respect to the real world. I think that this is something I might want to continue in the future, whether it be officially on this forum or whether it just be in the ways that I view shows in the future and internalize those plots. I definitely will not be consuming these stories in the same way.

[m-feng-blog1]

Putting Presidential Pen to Paper: Authorship Across Stories

There has been a discussion about how in all stories there is a controlling of the narrative from within the White House as there is a constant “struggle” between the internal narrative and the external one that the media can control. Additionally, we have talked about how different presidents have grown into their roles differently, but to this point, we have not understood how exactly it is that each president controls and writes their own story.

Real world presidents, up until President Trump, largely let their staffs wrangle the narrative and get out their message. That is, there is a significant amount of teamwork involved in controlling stories, as the Press Secretary must work with departments and agencies, and in specific moments (e.g. during national crises such as Sandy Hook and during national triumphs such as the killing of Osama bin Laden), then there may be an appearance by the president. 

The difference for the Trump Administration is that there has not been a visible a presence from characters such as the Press Secretary. This is not to say that they are not more (in)famous but rather that they literally do not brief as frequently. The mechanism, therefore, that this Administration has tried to spin their own story has been rather unconventional but very well-known, which is through President Trump’s tweets rather than through proper or official means as we have previously seen. For the most part, this has led to absurdity, but it is still worth noting that this is the state of ‘storytelling’ from within the White House.

The West Wing is quite similar to that of previous administrations, meaning that there is a lot of delegation of responsibilities and a large degree of autonomy. The ensemble nature of the cast also means that just structurally the story has to involve the characters in meaningful ways, so it often is the case that controversies involve many characters working together to put out a fire. While it nominally appears to be that way in House of Cards at times as well, much of the activity of the Press Secretary is dictated by the Underwoods as well. A meaningful and pronounced difference is that the administration in The West Wing has more autonomy in making decisions and are trusted more to do their jobs, something that is evidently untrue in House of Cards. 

[m-feng-blog1]

Getting the Story Straight: How Time Affects the Narrative

Many times, we hear of former aides, disgruntled and otherwise, telling us stories about how the Administration works. For reasons discussed previously related to how denial of access makes ever drop of information, even if it is rampant speculation, more desirable, we eat up stories from people like Omarosa, even if it may be doubtful at best. But this is also how it works, both in fiction and reality: we see what happens but have many gaps in information that are filled in later. Because the government is not necessarily in a position to go back and revise history to a correct (or incorrect but desirable) set of events, it is the case that these kinds of memoirs dominate the discussion. This is how timelines operate in reality - there is a present timeline where we devour current news, but there are also these depictions of the White House from people intimately involved in administrations who air their dirty laundry or tell war stories that remind us of the past, for better (nostalgic) or worse (traumatic).

But aside from reality, it is also the case that we see these kinds of storylines play out in fictional stories too. The West Wing and House of Cards employ the use of storylines and flashbacks in two different ways. For The West Wing, flashbacks are used in a handful of episodes across the series to give us more color on characters. It gives us some origin stories and really helps show us how these people have developed (because you can develop them over six seasons, but it is also useful to regress them with a flashback so that you can see how their current character developed from that one years ago). 

In contrast, however, House of Cards uses flashbacks of things that the viewer has already seen. That is, the main thrust of the show is how your ascent to power is delicate and built like a house of cards such that one wrong move can send it all tumbling down. In this sense, Frank Underwood’s ascent to power is based on a few murders, one after the other, that are meant to cover up prior crimes and erase tracks to silence critics. But these kinds of stories don’t die, and much of the series is designed to revolve around the media focusing on those prior actions that the viewer has already seen but that the journalists are trying to piece together. In this way, the viewer is privy to more information than many of the characters, but as the journalists slowly put together the puzzle, we re-live that timeline and see the events “unfold” again.

[m-feng-blog1]

China (but in that Trump voice)

Another example that I realized of how little things have changed over the past twenty years came during the sixth season of The West Wing, in which there was a lead-up to a summit with the Chinese on issues like trade liberalization and North Korean nuclear proliferation. Much as we had a similar summit with North Korea, there was a lot of fictional fanfare about the summit with the Chinese President Lian. There are, however, some key differences.

One, is that the nature of our understanding of the Chinese issues comes mainly from the government. In the TV series The West Wing, it is more the case that we see the technical side of things where they discuss the minute-by-minute breakdown of how the summit will go. Moreover, it is the case that they also have an understanding that the public-facing side of the summit (that is, public remarks and prepared statements) are fundamentally not what the summit is about. In reality, we often hear these statements and are also dismissive of them, but we do not hear the strategy of the behind-the-scenes discussions and how countries will perceive small changes to procedure and ceremony, which is a big hang-up in The West Wing. 

Secondly, there is also a different depiction of China. While it is the case that China is (rightly) criticized in reality, there is a sense of optimism in The West Wing. This may have less to do with the medium (fiction vs. reality) and more to do with the fact that we were all optimistic that China would adopt more market-oriented policies back at the turn of the century. This is probably an era-specific and era-differentiated observation. I think that this is further validated when we see depictions of China in shows such as House of Cards which frame China as more corrupt. Still, the depiction in this show does not necessarily do China justice, as it is more painted as a developing country where their main export is corrupt millionaires, which is not true of China today, which is a vastly powerful country with a much stronger global presence. This might, however, have to do with what House of Cards sets out to do - it is a depiction of an internal power struggle, not one of international chess or actual governance, which is what The West Wing aims to portray.

Separately and relatedly, this is an incredible piece that was the second reason I wanted to make a post about China. Read here:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/18/world/asia/china-rules.html

[m-feng-blog1]

Truly Presidential: Comparing Obama and Trump to Barlet and Underwood

While certainly not intentionally designed, Presidents Obama and Trump have experienced some “character development” while in office similar to how fictional counterparts Presidents Bartlet and Underwood, from The West Wing and House of Cards respectively, have grown. 

For real life presidents, the character development largely seems to be dependent on the context around them – for example, President Obama came into office in 2008 on a message of hope, but because of a relatively obstructionist legislative branch, the administration developed into being more pragmatic (by crafting more compromises) and cynical (by bashing Republicans and pointing out their hypocrisy). Nothing is more emblematic of this than the Merrick Garland nomination, which was the ultimate moderate proposal yet was still shot down, prompting justified attacks from the left about the absurdity of the right. 

In contrast, President Trump has not faced similar resistance from the legislative (yet, hopefully). So his and the administration’s character development has largely been based on enablement rather than pragmatism. Here, we have seen the Trump administration largely stick to expectations but also become more pronounced (e.g. with the recent efforts to repeal birthright citizenship), so it could both be argued that this hardly constitutes character development, instead reflecting a constant, and that this is indicative of broader change from abstract identity politics, which was prevalent during the 2016 campaign cycle, toward concrete measures, which are present now. 

For fictional presidents, it is not necessarily the case that they are products of their environments. Rather, the very fact that these stories are told from a position that is centered on them makes it so that the change has to largely come from them rather than from external forces. For instance, in House of Cards, the vast majority of the plot is centered on schemes that Frank and Claire Underwood have engineered; similarly, The West Wing details even engagement with Congressional counterparts as being part of strategies (e.g. the Chief of Staff or President direct Josh Lyman or Toby Ziegler, two top aides, to meet with members on the Hill). For President Underwood, that development therefore looks like an emergent and evident willingness to gain power at all costs – whereas at first we see that he is willing to exchange small-scale favors or engage in the gossip of the city, his ambition rears a more malicious head later in the story as he is willing to kill others and also mentally torture them. 

President Bartlet experiences development in the sense of growing into the general idea of being ‘presidential’. Nothing embodies this more than the contrast between his reactions to two separate acts of violence in the Middle East that kill people close to him. In the first season and early in his presidency, he questions the merits of a proportional response, letting emotions take over in his demands to carpet bomb the region, but toward the conclusion of the fifth season, his reaction instead is to veer away from any and all violence and instead convene a peace summit that brings opposing and warring parties to the negotiating table. This is closer to what people conventionally expect of a ‘president’ – while President Bartlet always had the same level of idealism, it has been that he has been more persistent in seeing it through rather than capitulating to his impulses when his idealism is shattered.

[m-feng-blog1]

Access and Coverage: A Deeper Dive

The premise of this storyworld is that there are differences between access in the real world’s White House – that is to say, very limited – and access in a fictional White House – that is, whether it be The West Wing or House of Cards, a much more personal experience. This post will take a deeper dive by looking at one particular event arc of The West Wing and comparing the coverage surrounding that issue with how it would be covered in the real world. 

Season 5, Episode 21 of The West Wing details a fact-finding codel that has been sent to Gaza in order to make headway on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the process, some of the contingency are involved in a road-size explosion targeted at the Americans, which results in the deaths of the former Joint Chiefs of Staff and two Representatives. Subsequent episodes detail how members of the White House respond, professionally and personally. 

There are a few ways in which we see clear similarities and also drastic differences. Initially, it can be said that the issue area itself is very realistic, as it is not infrequently the case that the United States and its representatives are subject to the kind of violence being depicted. Still though, the show does engage in some gratuity, as it is less often that that violence is directed toward officials so high up in the United States. 

The aftermath diverges tremendously as well. What we the public see is similar to how the press corps and network news react in the show – questions are abound about how the United States will respond in the region. However, the similarities stop there because the show takes us on a deeper dive, detailing how employees are personally affected because of the people specifically lost. This personal angle is virtually invisible to us when the news media covers these events, but they are undeniably part of the process. 

Another angle evident in the show but not as apparent in reality is the deliberative process of how exactly options to respond are weighed, how disagreements arise, and how decisions are made. For instance, the Chief of Staff and President disagree on the merits of a military response, creating significant tension in their relationship. These kinds of disagreements are likely common in the White House but are rarely covered because the press does not get the inside look. 

The West Wing creates a hyper-realistic scenario for us to appreciate and watch and gives us a deeper dive into the real issues that lie behind the public-facing decisions that we read about in the news (e.g. that we launched a missile strike or that we condemned attacks).

[miss-watolock]

Watolock: Miss Sherlock, Queerbaiting, and Portrayals of WLW in Media

Queerbaiting and portrayals of WLW (Women who Love Women) in media deserve their own barrages of blogs dedicated solely to these topics, but I will be condensing and selecting some aspects that I feel are especially pertinent to Watolock in Miss Sherlock.

Disclaimer: I know queer is not a term that everyone in the community is comfortable using for themselves, and I in no way want to force this term upon anyone who rejects it. That being said, a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community have reclaimed the term, so I will be using it here NOT as a slur in any way.

What is queerbaiting? The Wikipedia definition:

“Queerbaiting is the practice of hinting at, but then not actually depicting, a same-sex romantic relationship between characters in a work of fiction, mainly in film or television. The potential romance may be ignored, explicitly rejected or made fun of.

The derogatory term “queerbaiting” is meant to imply that this is done for the purpose of attracting (“baiting”) a queer audience with the ultimately unrealized suggestion of relationships that appeal to them. The concept arose in and has been popularized through Internet discussions among the fandom of popular films and television series.”

Now for some background, we’re going to fast-forward to an infamous moment in WLW content history: Lexa’s death in The 1*0. I won’t write out the whole of what went down (too much), but I will focus on the aftermath that ensued. There was an online campaign that rallied around “LGBT Fans Deserve Better” and to my recollection, this is the first time I’ve personally witnessed the outrage of fandoms mobilizing a large number of people to reach people who weren’t even in these fandoms. The Bury Your Gays trope became a focal point in discussion for mainstream media representation what with people becoming more aware of how terribly LGBTQ+ characters are treated and the negative effects on LGBTQ+ viewers (I remember seeing how calls to LGBTQ+ teens suicide hotlines skyrocketed after Lexa’s death, etc.) 

This incident and the whole movement helped bring the prominence of how LGBTQ+ representation gets sidelined and has always been sideline to a mainstream consciousness. And while this issue harmful LGBTQ+ representation is very much still present , there have been strides that show even minute changes. For one, a variety of people actually talked about it, not just LGBTQ+ fans who were so easily ignored before. ClexaCon became a thing. Media with thoughtful and fleshed out representation like Moonlight and The Handmaiden are critically acclaimed. We have seen shows choose deliberate responses in how they interact with potential queerbaiting like with how Wynonna Earp specifically had Officer Haught wear a bulletproof vest that saved her life (even more pointed considering how Lexa was killed off by a stray bullet) and how Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Andi Mack, The Legend of Korra, and She-Ra: Princesses of Power all have overtly LGBTQ+ characters. 

I do think the issue of queerbaiting is especially prominent in Sherlock Holmes and related fandom, mainly because of BBC’s Sherlock. I avoided watching any of the show because that was the first thing I heard about it - the show queerbaits like none other but then yanks the rug right after with strong denials of queerbaiting and repeated statements that nothing like JohnLock will ever come to fruition. And as someone tired of shows alternating between queerbaiting to lock in a certain demographic of watchers and then having the token non-straight character only to kill them off in some manner (https://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv16). So many characters have died and note: a lot of them did not have to die. Seriously. It’s not that hard. There aren’t that many LGBTQ+ characters out there, and it’s telling that so many of them end up dead.

For Sherlock Holmes fandoms, you already feel the difference between BBC’s Sherlock and Miss Sherlock in how people frame the relationships between the Sherlock and Watsonian character. There are at least 3 allusions to JohnLock being in a gay relationship within the first episode and no one ever seems to question whether Watolock could be vaguely romantic. To be fair, with Miss Sherlock, you have the context where the legitimacy of wlw relationships in media are already so often questioned (’They’re just really good friends, the best of friends, who would die for each other and repeatedly profess that the other is their most important person) along with being in Japan, an Asian country that is not exactly the most progressive when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues. 

This ties into how society frames relationships between certain genders - man-woman must always be romantically linked, man-man that has any connection must be romantically linked because how else could you have a close relationship with anyone else as a man, and woman-woman must be friends only because the limits of friendship can be so stretched for women and not at all for men so that it is inconceivable that women could ever be together in a romantic notion. 

Back to Miss Sherlock because what’s been said in the previous paragraph can be disseminated in so many ways - I am reluctant to claim that Miss Sherlock has queerbait written into Watolock. I am however suspicious that HBOAsia as a TV network or the writers, producers, anyone involved in the show would not expect for people to interpret the relationship between Watolock as a shippable one given that they take cues from past Sherlock adaptations - all of which have interactions with fans who rabidly ship Sherlock and Watson.

https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=%23misssherlock%20from%3AHBOAsia&src=typd&lang=en is a link to HBOAsia’s twitter with the hashtag MissSherlock - and 3 of those involve Watolock.

https://twitter.com/HBOAsia/status/1009965542738878464 => basically I don’t believe at all that they didn’t expect this - maybe they didn’t expect how big the ship would be given that it is 2 Asian women together, maybeeeeeee, but I still don’t buy it. 

I guess I do appreciate them highlighting Watolock in a positive manner instead of shouting from the rooftops that it could never ever happen. But please don’t let this turn out to be like SwanQueen. Pls. 

For fans who ship wlw or mlm ships, there is always a lot of reading in between the lines, over-analyzing subtext, making our own fanon because canon would never recognize such ships as truly legitimate. It is tiring when the only options are to just be resigned to these characters never getting their happily ever afters and having fan-created content that canon content creators mock as ‘Cute. But that would never happen.’

This is a topic I tire of having to explain to people who could never really get just how painful and exhausting it is to sometimes have to interact with this kind of content for scraps of representation that no one should ever have to settle for. I appreciate Watolock as the non-queerbaiting form it is in at the moment because it’s true that the two have a special relationship in the show and have been recognized within and outside the show as such. I just hope that this show could possibly join the slim ranks of positive wlw media out there, or at the very least be a concrete stepping stone  of inspiration in paving the way for other shows that will be more willing to be overt and respectful with its LGBTQ+ representation. LGBTQ+ Fans Deserve Better. 

[miss-watolock]

Final Reflection

I was really hoping to have done more creative little projects on this blog - creating gifs, videos, even creative writing. 

But there’s nothing stopping me, after the conclusion of the academic project portion of this blog! 

There’s a lot more that can be said about Miss Sherlock, and the tributaries of all sorts that stem from Sherlock Holmes canon. The show itself could be analyzed in so many other ways apart from what I’ve covered so far on this blog with the show composition itself, camera work, specific plot choices, placing what has been a mainly Western story into a Japanese setting and context and genderbending it at that. The characters of Sherlock and Wato themselves are fascinating in their own right - Sherlock’s name has been revealed (Futaba Sara Shelley) but not the reason for her use of Sherlock itself, and the characterization of Wato in comparison to the standards of the Watsonian character would be great to delve into. 

I’m really craving for more Miss Sherlock content - fanmade and canon-wise. To give the fall of Sherlock without her inevitable revitalization would just be :/

It’s safe to say that Miss Sherlock is my most favorite rendition of any Sherlock Holmes content, and I recommend it to anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes in any capacity. Please. If you haven’t watched season 1, do yourself a favor and watch it. The actresses have definitely done other shows, and Miss Sherlock has demonstrated their strong acting chops and I myself am tempted to check out some of their other stuff. 

It has been rewarding to take something I’ve so enjoyed and critically analyze it and look at various aspects of the show, and I definitely want to continue this kind of interaction with other types of content I enjoy. 

That being said, I’m nowhere done with the Miss Sherlock fandom. A fan forever, if you will. 

[miss-watolock]

BACKGROUND: Sherlock Holmes adaptations (original text versus intertexts)

The viewing experience of Miss Sherlock is always going to be colored by the pre-existing adaptations of Sherlock Holmes canon. The only instance in which I can think where you would not have an already influenced perspective of the series is where you’ve never been exposed to literature/TV/film/popular culture or actively stayed away from consuming any of the aforementioned mediums. Basically, Sherlock Holmes is one of those characters that you can’t get away with NOT knowing. 

With this in mind, it would be foolhardy to provide meta analysis on Miss Sherlock without keeping prior adaptations in mind. This post hopes to acknowledge both overt and subconscious influences that can be dissected from this lovely miniseries. 

Because the amount of Sherlock Holmes content out there is OVERWHELMING (there are 91363 AO3 fics as of the last time I checked), I will be focusing mainly on ACD’s OG Sherlock Holmes and BBC’s Sherlock - ACD for background and canon references, and BBC’s Sherlock for characterization that has made fanon transcend into canon. Keep in mind, I’ve only read a few of ACD’s Sherlock Holmes stories and watched 3 episodes of BBC’s Sherlock so this is going off of my own observations and opinions, and I have no real impressive credentials to offer. 

The OG canon consists of 4 novels and 56 short stories which were written from 1887 to 1927. Off the top of my head, I’ve read “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” The Sherlock Holmes character was inspired by Joseph Bell, a surgeon that ACD had clerked for, who apparently also could draw conclusions from minute observations. Despite ACD’s insistences that Sherlock Holmes was indeed a fictional character, it is still a existent conspiracy to this day that Sherlock Holmes was a real person that ACD knew and merely recorded his adventures. I’m personally inclined to believe that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character but to each their own.

Sherlock Holmes was killed off in “The Final Problem” in 1893 but was brought back to life with The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901 - a plot point that is especially relevant to BBC’s Sherlock and Miss Sherlock. 

A few things about Sherlock Holmes adaptations tend to stay constant: the partnership between the Watson character and Sherlock, the iconic deduction skills that makes up the core of the Sherlock character, and some incarnation of the Moriarty character. 

This brings us to BBC’s Sherlock, with what I deem to be the most relevant example of how fanon has become canon for the Sherlock Holmes character. Don’t know what I mean?

“I’m not a psychopath, I’m a high-functioning sociopath.”

ACD’s Sherlock Holmes would likely be hard-pressed to be considered neither a psychopath nor a sociopath but as someone without the knowledge to really say anything accurate, I’m not touching upon that. I’m rather touching upon the fact that BBC has taken the Sherlock Holmes character to be an asshole, and somehow justify that by shoving the label of sociopath upon him. The asshole part is not really canon Sherlock, but it seems safe to say that most people - because of BBC’s Sherlock - would associate him to be one because he’s of such godly intelligence and above everyone else, or just someone completely out of touch with his own humanity. 

Which I find rather unfortunate because there kind of has to be some component of humanity in the Sherlock Holmes character, in my opinion. In “The Adventure of the Yellow Face,” Sherlock is proven to not only be fallible but capable of recognizing that fact and asking for Watson to check him (”Watson, if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper ‘Norbury’ in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you” - a quote in relation to Sherlock’s investigations of a case that dealt with interracial marriage, a radical issue at the time). This Sherlock cares enough about other people and is not so sure of himself that he would disregard any possible suspicions about his own capabilities to call upon Watson to offer such assistance should the situation arise. 

Now, Miss Sherlock is an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes that has caught my eye, and I’m going in with some already set-in-place perceptions of Sherlock Holmes. I’m excited to see what this version has to offer, and what it will continue to contribute to canon and fanon for Sherlock Holmes - because I certainly am hopeful and sure that it will offer a lot more positive characteristics for Sherlock Holmes fanon. 

[hihiworldposts-blog]

Journey to the West - 1982 TV Series

Journey to the West has been adapted many times in modern film, television, stage and other media. My favorite one, the version that I have been watching since kindergarten, is the two-season television series produced by CCTV, a 25-episode tv drama produced from 1982-1988 in China, directed by Yang Jie and starring Liu Xiao Ling Tong as the Monkey King Sun Wukong.

As the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, the very first episode of the TV series “Removing demons from Wuji Country” was designed to test the audience’s reactions in 1982. The feedback was mixed; therefore it was re-shot in 1986 and included as episode 13. The process of producing the episodes was not smooth. After the first nine episodes, the team ran out of money and CCTV refused to fund the rest of the episodes. The filming team eventually managed to secure a loan with the China Railway 11th Bureau Group for 3 millions yuan, which enabled them to complete five more episodes. Director was forced to scrap 5 episodes from the original 30-episode script, to the current 25 episodes. The scrapped stories were later featured in the sequel released in 2000.

Personally, I particularly enjoyed the witty and concise dialogues of this version. The soundtrack, 女儿情, has been very popular recently. The lyrics, as well as the traditional Chinese musical instruments, including pipa, zithers, chimes made the music particularly suitable for the scenes.

Another highlight is the actor Liu Xiao Ling Tong, who is the monkey in the TV series. His “fiery golden eyes” (火眼金睛) is so lively, and totally deserved the title of “Beautiful Monkey King” (美猴王). The flight scenes of the monkey was also impressive — the jumping skills, precision and monkey flexibility.

The filming team traveled 19 provinces all over China and then Thailand to film the perfect scenery. Throughout the series, they only used one camera. Although some endings of the episodes can be abrupt due to a lack of time, and the graphics are not as advanced, the 1982 version is still my all time favorite adaption. The director, Yang Jie, is someone I really admire, who insisted in her way of filming, and was involved all aspects of the filming including budgeting, finances, scouting, scripts, editing, casting, etc.

[hihiworldposts-blog]

Journey to the west - Sandy

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the characters in the Journey to the west carry deep philosophical thoughts on the life of human beings and their existence. I used to read the novel as pure entertainment, but as I grow up, I started to see the deeper meanings inside the stories. I would like to focus on the character of Sandy in this post, although many would think he is a colorless and pale character. 

Sandy represents the sober side of human nature; one of the most important roles Sandy plays in the novel is how he balances the negative emotion on the rest of the group – when Sanzang is anxious, Pigsy is impatient, or Monkey is frustrated. The below post is a joke made on what Sandy says most during the journey. 

However, Sandy’s character is, as Arthur Waley, who translated the book Journey to the west says, the embodiment of sincerity and discretion. Unlike Sanzang, Pigsy and Monkey who have some transitions in the course of the journey, Sandy is the same from start to finish. 

What made his character less entertaining is his qualities that keep extreme behaviors in check. This quality is so important to the group, as the group needs calm and balance. In an often exaggerated story world, good behaviors are sometimes mistaken for a sign of weakness of character. Sandy showed that he is an intelligent and heroic character in several episodes such as the Yellow Robe monster. Unfortunately, whether it is in the story world, solid but quiet individuals are often overlooked. 

[hihiworldposts-blog]

Buddhism in the Journey to the west

Journey to the West is a novel that incorporates the three major philosophies in China, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.  One of the first chapters that illustrates Buddhism is The Six Bandits. After Xuanzang frees the Monkey under the five elements mountain, six bandits, Eye-seeing Happiness, Ear-hearing Anger, Nose-smelling Love, Tongue-tasting Thought, Mind-born Desire, and Body-based Sorrow (“眼看喜、耳听怒、鼻嗅爱、舌尝思、意见欲和身本忧”) attacked them. These six bandits represents the six senses of the body, which impede enlightenment in buddhism. Monkey kills them all, much to Xuanzang’s dismay; Monkey’s execution of them illustrates his detachment from the human senses while Xuanzang’s compassion gets in the way of his perceptions, although people who supports Xuanzang would argue that “a Buddhist should not kill”.  I believe this episode’s bandits, however, are more about symbolizing obstacles to reach the state of self-awareness, of not in a state of fascination and attention attached to what we see, hear, desire, think, and feel, rather than representing the human bandits, which is in an episode in Chapter 57.

As the team progress on the journey, they are often beset by demons that attack the senses, and Xuanzang’s compassion frequently prevents him from perceiving evil. But at the end of the journey, he would transform into the mindset of the opening poem of the Six Bandits describes:

“Buddha is the mind, the mind is Buddha,

Mind and Buddha have always needed things.

When you know that there are no things and no mind

Then you are a Buddha with a true mind and a Dharma body.”

[hihiworldposts-blog]

Journey to the west - SanZang

A superficial reading of SanZang is that he is a holy monk, the leader of his group, and a role model to his three disciples in learning of Buddhism. But with a further analysis, we will see that he is merely a nominal leader of the group. It is through the process of 81 calamities (”九九八十一难”) in seeking the scriptures, that he gradually gains perspective and insights.

Through the events, readers can tell that SanZang does not possess the qualities that would make him a true leader; he is just like an ordinary person, but very pious and devoted to his calling. Monsters who want to eat him but dare not directly fight with Monkey, would appeal to SanZang’s compassion to gain their purpose. There are also several occasions where Pigsy wants to get even with Monkey also uses SanZang’s compassion for himself to hurt Monkey. 

In one of the episodes, the monster changes herself into a beautiful young woman with a basket of food. Monkey is away looking for alms while Pigsy, Sandy and SanZang could not recognize monsters in disguise. When Monkey returns and sees the monster, he strikes her down. Monkey tries to convince SanZang that the woman is indeed a monster with her basket of food left behind is actually maggots and toads. With Pigsy saying the Monkey kills the woman and turns the food into maggots and toads to avoid punishment, SanZang decides to punish the Monkey with the scripture of Tight Fillet. The same monster comes back twice more, and SanZang writes a formal letter of banishment after the Monkey strikes her.

“You manage to get away even after beating to death altogether three persons only because there ’s no one here to oppose you, to take you to task in these desolate wilds.But suppose we get to a crowded city and you suddenly start hitting people regardless of good or ill with that mourning staff of yours, how would I be able to go free from that kind of great misfortune caused by you? You’d better go back ( to where you came from)”

At this point, we can seed that SanZang was not able to appreciate Monkey’s ability in handling the adversities on the road initially, and he worries only about himself and his mission. As SanZang being captured by another monster after the Monkey left, he starts recognizing Monkey’s devotion and begins to trust him.

[hihiworldposts-blog]

Journey to the west - Authorship

Journey to the West (西游记) is a novel of one hundred chapters, first published in 1592. The controversy surrounding the identity of the author of this novel is as old as the book itself, since the book has countless editions, and some people believe Wu Chengen, whom the work that is attributed to, only edited the story rather than created himself as an original work. In fact, the author is only officially set to be Wu Chengen in 1920 when the book was first printed in mass.

The translated versions are also worth discussing. When Arthur Waley translated Journey to the West in 1943, he gave the book the title Monkey. At the same time, he also reduced the original work of one hundred chapters to thirty chapters and to 294 pages. Arthur chose to preserve the chapters relating to the birth and growth into adolescence of Monkey, the story of origin and mission of SanZang, while omitting some of the poems, and a number of calamities. The overall structure of the book is persevered well even although rather than 81 calamities (九九八十一难), the translated version only has 18, since many calamities fall into similar patterns and can sometimes be repetitions. There is also a complete unabridged translation of the 100 chapter version by Anthony Yu published during 1977 to 1983 in four volumes. Personally, I really like Arthur Waley’s version, as it captures the essence and atmosphere of the story.

[miss-watolock]

Finale: The Dock - WATOLOCK, True Love, and why we need more Miss Sherlock

fjadflkasdf cannot believe we’re at the end of S1 Miss Sherlock. 

Keep reading

[miss-watolock]

Ep. 7: Stolen Virus - Sherlock’s Humanity, Wato’s Pain, and the Most Logical Villain Reveal

I’m pretty sure at this point in pop culture, any scene where a scientist is seen to be dealing with test tubes means that shit is about to go down in the form of a world-ending virus. No? Just me? Biological terrorism and warfare is very much a reality I could see descending - and the popularity of games like Plague Inc. and Pandemic really echo just how aware of or at least present in society’s psyche biological terrorism/warfare are. Japan is no stranger to such external forces providing massive tragedy to the country (atomic bombing, Tokyo subway sarin attack, etc.) so it comes at no surprise that Miss Sherlock would use a deadly virus as a plot point.

Keep reading