Ok. I feel slightly more ready than yesterday to talk abt WYB's birthday love letters. (*screams* why are they so romantic!!!)
As we all know, a super long birthday essay gets posted on YIBO-OFFICIAL every year on his birthday, and it's sth that has been happening since 2020. Below is a screenshot of this year's.
For which there is a great translation and analysis by accio-victuuri.
So naturally what Y13 and I did was to scour Weibo to check if anyone else does this, i.e. to answer the burning question: How unique are these letters to Yizhan? Because context is, as always, key.
Heh... We spent most of last night (after the cakes) looking at the weibo birthday posts of as many Chinese stars as we could bear to dig up, going back as far as 2021 for each.
I will...spare you all the screenshots...there were so many and I've not read this much Chinese in one sitting since binge reading TGCF. And I honestly thought it was gonna be a quick and easy search. But erm AnYWay
Our answer is: no and yes.
No, they're not unique, in the sense that the 工作室 Studios of many Chinese stars will sometimes write a long birthday dedication to said star on Weibo. These dedications can also be very poetic, reflective and quite personal. Not too far in tone and style from the letters WYB receives. Examples include the birthday dedications posted by the studios of Lay Zhang, Meng Ziyi and Bai Jingting last year (2024)
I'll translate these if anyone asks. But for now just note the sheer lengths of these dedications.
So, in case anyone thought it was only Yizhan who posts these, they are not.
However, why do I still say the letters WYB receive are unique?
1. Consistency. Of all the Chinese stars we looked at, not a single one received these long dedications every year. Some years they only had a short greeting, other years a photo collection, some had a prize draw. Even if they did receive two dedications in a row, these tended to be in different formats or tones. Nobody had a consistent pattern. One guy had a dedication that started with a quote from the Yijing 😵 like what??
WYB, on the other hand, has been receiving these letters every year (except 2022) since 2020. And these letters have remained in the same format, with the same greeting ("XX year old, Wang Yibo, how are you ~") and were clearly written by the same person each year.
2. Identity of writer. For the others, it was very very clear that the dedications were written by staff. The writers use "we" and "us", or they refer to the star as "big brother" or "big sister" or "boss" or "princess". Plus the dedications are just that. They recap what the person has achieved that year or the journey they have undertaken, they thank the star for all their hard work, they encourage the star to keep going.
For WYB, on the other hand, we are never sure who the writer is. "We" was only used once, in 2020, and that letter was the most impersonal in any case, almost like the writer was still finding their footing. And the writer is clearly writing a letter, not a dedication, just based on the way it starts (by addressing WYB directly), and also the content it covers. I really truly cannot see a staff member writing these things. Especially the most recent one. How can a staff member say "deep down you are still a clumsy romantic"??? How would a staff member know in the first place?? And the writer also advises Yibo, telling him not to worry about what's ahead, just do what you want. How can a member of staff write that??? In the others, they only give their best wishes for the future, and never actually tell the star what they should do with their life. Also, the letters never actually thank wyb for all his hard work like all the others do.
3. Content. In the others, the focus is always on the star's works. What they have accomplished. What roles they have played. What albums they've released. What they have contributed and all their hard work.
The content in WYB's letters are so much more intimate and personal. Actual works are rarely mentioned. It's always about what he has gained as a person, what he has learned, what he has struggled with and overcome, what's important to him, what he likes, what he aspires to. It's about him as a person, not merely as an actor or singer. And there is an unmistakable thread of tenderness that runs throughout all the words of every letter, something I did not see anywhere else, like someone is pouring out their heart and soul into these words, not just celebrating the person's life but also cherishing every moment they spent together.
I just---arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I cannot with these two. 😵😵😵
And I just want to note one last thing, these three points are unique to WYB alone. Even XZ's dedications do not have these features and appear to be written by staff as well.
This means that WYB alone is getting love letters each year from a highly ritualistic bunny.
Oh oh also for 2022, neither wyb nor xz posted anything on their birthdays. Wyb was because Pelosi visited Taiwan right before his birthday that year, and so it was deemed inappropriate to post such things under the political tension at that time. There was sth else political going on around XZ's birthday that year, but that didn't stop Lay Zhang from posting around the same time (7 Oct) so we think it's more likely that XZ was showing solidarity with his poor slighted piggy, and decided to remain silent that year too. (This is not related to the anxiety at 25 mentioned in the letter, that's another incident altogether)
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