reading and dreaming

25+ (she/her) | Half-asleep bookworm with too many fixations | Translations are tagged as #my TLs, with more archived on my Carrd | ENG/中文/日本語 OK!

[jasmineflower9]

《阴客》 Yin Ke by 木苏里 (Musuli) - English Fan Translation [COMPLETE]

Bit of shameless self-promo, but I've picked up the English translation of Mu Su Li's 2016 novel 《阴客》 Yin Ke!

JJWXC novel listing: >>Link<< [Purchase the novel to support Mu Su Li!!!: >>Guide to JJWXC<<]

Novel Carrd: >>Link<<

Chapter 1-16 by @/choco_lava_cake: >>Link<<

Chapters 17 onwards by me: >>Link<<

Carrd archive of my danmei translations (extras etc): >>Link<<

More specifics about the novel under the cut!

One-line intro by Mu Su Li: “Lived too long and accidentally became twisted” gong x “Lived too close to the twisted person and ended up twisted too” sickly, fragile shou [misleading]

Summary: There was a schedule posted on the door to the forensic clinic located in a corner of Kanghe Hospital’s third floor.

Mondays, Wednesdays: Municipal Public Security Bureau; Tuesdays, Thursdays: District Public Security Bureau

Of course, this was just what an ordinary human could perceive. In actuality, there was another sentence below…

It stated —— The Yin Ke is present every month on the fifteenth. Latecomers will not be accommodated; seek elsewhere for services. 

On the fifteenth of a certain month, Yin Wushu stood on a black rock by the side of a bridge. From afar, he remarked to Xie Bai: “Ever since you came to live in this damned place, you’ve never let me enter.”

Xie Bai gripped the side of the door, his face stony. “Are you done talking?”

Yin Wushu: “For good or bad, I painstakingly raised you for over a hundred years.”

Xie Bai responded coldly: “So?”

Yin Wushu: “Slam the door with a little less force?”

Xie Bai wordlessly lifted a hand and slammed the door shut with a “boom”. The stone bridge shook with the sheer force of it.

Yin Wushu: “...”

*****

Content labels: 1vs1, HE, Filled with nonsense, filled with nonsense, filled with nonsense (important things must be repeated three times).

Tags: Strong x strong, supernatural (gods, ghosts and spirits), one love interest only, modern-day fictional setting

Main characters: 谢白 Xie Bai (MC/shou), 殷无书 Yin Wushu (ML/gong)

*****

If you've read and enjoyed Mu Su Li's Panguan, give her earlier work Yin Ke a try for its mixed historical and modern setting, a lying Shifu, long separations, and SO MUCH handholding!! It's very much her version of short and sweet, and it definitely doesn't lack her signature snark and banter.

As one of her earliest works, it may come off as a rough prototype or early draft of Panguan at first, but the chaotic CP definitely have a flavour of their own!

I guarantee that there's fewer knives :)

*****

JJWXC novel listing: >>Link<< [Purchase the novel to support Mu Su Li!!!: >>Guide to JJWXC<<]

Novel Carrd: >>Link<<

Chapter 1-16 by @/choco_lava_cake: >>Link<<

Chapters 17 onwards by me: >>Link<<

*****

Happy reading!

Edit: *Also, I ask that you do not link my translation to novelupdates.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

2026 Grand Dragon Boat Tournament for Duanwu Festival

[jasmineflower9]

Mist [Unlimited] Mini-Theatre for the Duanwu Festival/Dragon Boat Festival

Mist [Unlimited]：端午节小剧场 (Duanwu Festival Mini-Theatre)

by Wei Feng Ji Xu （微风几许） *Original Weibo post here. P4 is the Mist [Unlimited] mini-theatre. Ji Yushi was no expert at cooking, but if he pu

Wei Feng Ji Xu released a little mini-theatre on weibo for Mist [Unlimited] in celebration of the Duanwu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival)!

[yuexuan]

Duanwu Festival (端午节), time to eat zongzi 粽子 - they are quite tricky to wrap ne?

Trying out new contrasting palettes~

[syea-say]

Chenshi was my art warm ups

[mios-art]

That’s basically the start of Copper Coins book 3 🙂‍↕️

[zariqwq]

[motherfuckingshakespeare]

A HANDY CHART FOR THOSE OF YOU WONDERING WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THESE. NOTE THAT THESE ARE ALL THE INFORMAL AND YOU IS THE FORMAL SO LIKE YOU WOULD ALWAYS ADDRESS YOUR SUPERIOR/ OLDER PERSON/ SOCIAL BETTER WITH YOU BUT WITH YOUR BUDS YOU CAN USE THESE. 

[sbooksbowm]

the bard would fuck with being referred to as “shakes”

[silveryinkystar]

[ID: A chart titled “How To: Thou/Thee/Thy/Thine/Ye” with three rows, titled “Shakes”, “Modern English”, and “How the Fuck to Use It” respectively. The chart will be transcribed in the order as listed already (emphasis mine)

Thou = You thou whoreson = you son of a whore

(To) Thee = (To) You *“You” is the object, hopefully “it” isn’t herpes I gave it to thee = I gave it to you

Thy = Your *In front of words starting with consonants thy mother = your mama

Thine = Your *In front of words starting with vowels thine enemy = your enemy

Ye = Y'all hear ye = listen up y'all

End ID]

[thekansta]

sunspots

[rwsprinceofxin]

Five mourning degrees of ancient Chinese funeral

Credit to: 端木策渊, translated by: RWS

丧礼作为五礼中的”凶礼“之一，《周礼·春官·大宗伯》记载：“以凶礼哀邦国之忧：以丧礼哀死亡...”，丧礼是哀悼死亡的礼仪，是凶礼中最核心的部分。

丧礼中的丧服制度，依据血缘亲疏分为斩衰、齐衰、大功、小功、缌麻五个等级，称为“五服”。

Funeral is one of the Five Rites of ancient Chinese, The mourning attire system in funeral rites is divided into five levels based on the closeness of blood relations (of course, for male-line relatives as the main): Zhan Cui, Qi Cui, Da Gong, Xiao Gong, and Si Ma, collectively known as the "Five Mourning Degree".

斩衰（p1）：丧期三年（实际27个月），最重的丧服。适用于子为父、未嫁之女为父、嫁后因故复从父居之女为父，嗣子为所嗣之父、承重孙为祖父，妻妾为夫，父为长子。明清时期，规定子（包括未嫁之女及嫁后复归之女）为母（包括嫡母、继母、生母）也服斩衰。

Zhan Cui (Unhemmed funeral hempen robes; p1), first degree: Three years period (27 months in actual), and the highest mourning clothes. This applies to sons and unmarried daughters to their fathers (including daughters who, after marriage, return to live with their fathers for various reasons); adopted sons/grandsons to adopted fathers/grandfathers; wives and concubines to husband; father s to their eldest son. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was stipulated that sons and daughters should also wear zhan cui to mourn their mothers (including step-mothers and father's primary wife)

齐衰（p2）：次于斩衰的第二等丧服，又分为四个等级：齐衰三年，齐衰杖期，齐衰不杖期，齐衰三月。

（1）齐衰三年：丧期三年（实际27个月），适用于在父已先卒的情况下，子及未嫁之女、嫁后复归之女为母，母为长子；

（2）齐衰杖期：适用于父尚在世的情况下，子、未嫁之女、已嫁复归之女为母，夫为妻；

（3）齐衰不杖期：适用于为祖父母、伯叔父母、兄弟、未嫁之姐妹、长子以外的众子以及兄弟之子；

（4）齐衰三月：适用于为曾祖父母，高祖父母。

Zi Cui (hemmed hempen cloth; p2): Second degree, divided into four grades:

First: three years period (27 months in actual), applies to sons, unmarried daughters and returned daughters to their mothers if their fathers already passed away; mothers to their eldest sons

Second: applies to sons, unmarried daughters and returned daughters to their mothers if their fathers are still living; husbands to their wives

Third: applies to grandparents; uncle & aunts: brothers and unmarried sisters: younger sons; nephews

Four: three months period, applies to great-grandparents and great-grandparents

大功（p3）：丧期9个月，次于齐衰一等。适用于为从父兄弟（伯叔父之子，即堂兄弟），已嫁姑母、姊妹、女儿，未嫁之从父姊妹（伯叔父之女，即堂姊妹）及孙女，嫡长孙之外的众孙（包括未嫁的孙女），嫡长子之妻。

Da Gong (coarse hempen cloth; p3): Third degree, 9 months period; applies to first cousin-brothers; married paternal aunts and first cousin-sisters

and their further descendants, married; unmarried first cousin-sisters; wives of younger sons; unmarried first cousin-sisters; maternal grandparents; maternal aunts; younger grandsons & unmarried granddaughters; eldest daughtes-in-law

小功（p4）：丧期5个月，次于大功一等。适用于为从祖父母（父亲的伯叔父母），堂伯叔父母（父亲的堂兄弟及其配偶），从祖兄弟（父亲的堂兄弟之子），已嫁之从父姊妹及孙女，长子外的诸子之妻，未嫁之从祖姑姊妹（父亲的伯叔父之女及孙女），外祖父母、从母（姨母）。

Xiao Gong (fine hempen cloth; p4): Fourth degree, 5 months period; applies to grandfather's brothers and their wives and their further descendants, married; father's unmarried first cousin sisters; wives of younger sons; unmarried first cousin-sisters; maternal grandparents; maternal aunts

缌麻（p5）：丧期3个月，最轻的丧服。适用于为族曾祖父母（祖父的伯叔父母）、族祖父母（祖父的堂兄弟及其配偶）、族父母（祖父的堂兄弟之子及其配偶）、族兄弟（祖父的堂兄弟之孙），从祖兄弟之子，曾孙、玄孙，已嫁之从祖姑姊妹，长孙之外的诸孙之妻，姑祖母，姑表兄弟，舅表兄弟，姨表兄弟，岳父母，舅父、女婿、外甥、外孙。

Si Ma (thin fine hempen cloth; p5): Fifth and the lowest degree of the mourning, 3 months period; applies to grandfather's uncles and their wives; grandfather's cousin-brothers, included their sons and further descendants; married cousin-sisters; wives of younger grandsons; grandaunts; maternal cousins; parents-in-law; sons-in-law; maternal nephews & nieces; maternal grandchildren

[kimyoonmiauthor]

GenAI v. not GenAI round up.

So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.

Pro GenAI websites/Programs:

Facebook

Instagram

X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)

Threads

Pro Writing Aid

Grammarly

Duolingo

Google Docs

Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.

Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)

Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.

Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)

Canva Takes and feeds their machine.

Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.

Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.

Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.

Neutral ground:

Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai

Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.

Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).

Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.

Strong positions against AI:

Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.

LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)

Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.

yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.

Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.

Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.

Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.

Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.

Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.

Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.

Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.

Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)

Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.

Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.

Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)

Handmade: A Global Artisan Marketplace

Discover a world of creativity and craftsmanship through Handmade, an innovative platform connecting passionate artisans with discerning buy

Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.

But you need a pro website...

Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/

Use cloudflare:

Use Nightshade:

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

which will poison the algorithm

Use Glaze:

Take Away:

The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.

AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data - Nature

&nbsp;Analysis shows that indiscriminately training generative artificial intelligence on real and generated content, usually done by scrapi

And why not help that along?

I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.

[thekeymonster]

You can add Procreate to the anti AI list. They have vowed time and time again when people ask that they will not use AI in their software.

Creativity is made, not generated — Procreate®

We are not adding generative AI to our apps. Here's why.

[asterekmess]

Will also add that elllipsus has options for sharing work with Betas and getting comments in-line wjth the text, a lot like google docs does.

I know a lot of writers stick to gdocs for thaf specific feature but you dont have to!

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

insane some people don't use ad blockers? babe why r u rawdogging the internet

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

it's a CESSPIT out there. wrap it before ya tap it babes!!!

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

the notes are insane

"im on mobile" adblocking exists for mobile

"im broke :(" ADBLOCKING IS FREE

"im lazy" i truly sympathize with executive dysfunction, but this is one of those quality-of-life things you need to prioritize. 3 minutes of research/installation will save you a thousandfold in time and energy. it can even help with brain fog (most people don't realize how much mental energy ads actually steal)

"i like ads" my jaw is on the fucking floor. you chose to live in a sewer, yet you will never be a ninja nor a turtle. you do not have a warrior's heart.

[sickviking-fr]

"adblock exists for mobile"

"Adblock is free"

That doesn't sound real but okay.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

*inhaling deeply and reminding myself that Shaking The Baby only endangers the baby, and does not assist it to learn or grow* in spite of everything there are beautiful and important truths within this world that you must learn, and i must help you to learn

[enby-opossum]

Adblock DNS is easy to install! Works for all phones! It works on most ads, but not video or tumblr.

Settings → Network → Private DNS, paste in dns.adguard.com

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

⬆️⬆️⬆️ Can confirm, I use this method (alongside others) on android. for iOS the steps are different (and it may be easier to install the AdGuard DNS app instead)

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

the above will decrease the amount of ads you see system-wide. however: hands down the BEST ANDROID ADBLOCKING feature is the ability to install Firefox with uBlock Origin enabled.

Install Firefox -> Settings -> Extensions -> uBlock Origin

this only blocks browser ads, but HOLY SHIT does that matter if you try browsing websites over apps when possible. which you should bc it's awesome and gives you SO much more control. E.g. blocks youtube.com ads and you can play videos in the background. I have never consensually opened the youtube app in my life

Pro tip: toggle on 'Desktop site' to avoid mobile sites that are purposely designed with fewer features (to bully you into using the app).

Note: for iOS users this isn't possible bc Apple hates your guts, but there are other browser options with built-in adblocking.

[my-random-fandoms]

[thetrekkiehasthephonebox]

Verified: Microsoft 365 gets massive 45% price hike — and it's all to do with AI tools (Tom's Guide - January 17, 2025)

[mothwizard]

oopsie i tripped and spilled my link to archive dot org's downloadable copy of Microsoft office suite for 2007, which features no AI tools and is a powerful word processor that still holds up just fine on windows 10!

[daniel-oneiroi]

Updated with working 32bit link

[frontmansdefender]

wigginsgolf on instagram

[redsugarx]

Evolution of the Mamianqun: Conclusion

Nav: Presentation // Intro // Southern Song 南宋 // Yuan 蒙元 // Early Ming 明初 // Mid-Early Ming 明中前 // Mid-Late Ming 明中後 // Late Ming 晚明 // Fabrics Pt 1 // Fabrics Pt 2 // Misc Fun Facts // Conclusion

If you thought this was gonna be a short conclusion you were WRONG I am doing REFLECTIONS(tm) There will be two parts: (1) Things That Were Good and (2) Things That Were Bad! The second part will be significantly longer than the first part because it is more detailed but overall it was a good experience I promise!!!!!!!

(This is probably not as fun to read for people but it is mostly an exercise in reflection. Also if you want to see the sheer amount of ways things like this can go wrong and feel better about yourself, this is a good place to look)

As viewer tax here is @/qiuqiuchinese's instagram reel on the behind the scenes of the project (the person she's interviewing is my older sister Yulan, I'm the one that pops in for like 2 seconds at 1:14 with a mask on cuz I'm shy) (also the captions say 姐姐 but I am Yulan's younger sibling by 6 years, so it should be 妹妹)

Things That Were Good

Massive coincidence while we were looking for videographers: a few days before deciding, Rachel (@/qiuqiuchinese) reached out to us looking to collab because she was going to be in Southern Cal (she lives there now but she used to be based in Boston). She mentioned that her husband happens to be a videographer by trade, and it turned out that they were in town and free at the exact right time to shoot this video with us, so it ended up being a collab!

Videography was a 100% new thing for me; I'd never done a project anything like this. To come up with the idea almost a year and a half before doing this project, and step-by-step bring it to life, is a really rewarding process, though it was very rocky and frustrating most of the time. I learned a lot from going through all the grueling parts of the project, and even though a bunch of stuff went wrong and it took SO much of my time and energy over the past year, I'm glad I did it and I'm happy with the results.

Chef's kiss to the models; they were absolutely perfect for their looks. Having modeled myself I really admire their tenacity—I start twitching thirty minutes into being in the makeup chair; these two had to sit for upwards of two hours a look, over and over and over again. Even when they weren't the ones being styled, they were off-stage on steaming and organizing duty, which were a huge help to keeping things running smoothly. My personal favorites were Tiona in the mid-early Ming look and Emily in the Song look.

Yulan's makeup skills keep getting better every time—she was unsure about being able to pull off a more classical makeup look at first, because her makeup work usually leans more modern, but she pulled it off beautifully following the notes I gave her and the end result looks fantastic. Because she was involved in both the styling and the detail shot maneuvering parts of the shoot, she was the only person on set who had practically zero breaks over the course of each ten-hour day, and I'm astonished at how energetic she was able to stay (I got the chill directing job sitting on the side yelling at people for most of the time and I was still dead by the end of each day).

Lizi from Lizi Studio was also a godsend; she sponsored a bunch of stuff for us including the studio and a bunch of props, and her hairstyling skills are unparalleled. We 100% couldn't have pulled this off without her and it was wonderful to get to know someone else in Cali seriously pursuing hanfu.

Kevin (Yulan's bf) did so much driving back and forth for us, I'm super grateful that he was able to come. Everyone was busy on set and we sent him to get food, drinks, forgotten keys, forgotten items, etc. like fifty times over the course of the day; even though he was rarely on set we still managed to keep him busy most of the time.

I think I can add Premiere Pro to my resume skills now, given that I basically learned the program from zero over the course of the editing shenanigans

Things That Were Bad

Design & Manufacturing (Tops)

Switched fabrics halfway through because the lighter teal was too bright and didn't match the outside well enough (had to remake 3-4 garments)

Made the earlier time period tops ~10-20cm too long for the effect that I wanted, had to remake (had to remake 4-5 garments)

One of the garments got messed up and the wrong fabric was used in the wrong place (remade 1 garment)

Changed a bunch of trims on the Song beizi like three times cuz it didn't look right

Buzi was wider than most machines had the capability of weaving without repeats, took forever to get one that could do it

Design & Manufacturing (Skirts)

In the process of trying to figure out how to manufacture woven-on-demand mamianqun fabric, reached out to like 50+ workshops, actually went through and tried 6 different ones, and ended up with 3 viable ones (aka spent SO MUCH money)

Initial teal color was too dark, had to exchange for a different thread color

Typically two kinds of gold filaments can be used for the fabric: round or flat, flat looked better initially on early fabric samples but the machine of the fabric workshop we went with could only handle round so we had to switch to round again

Warehouse that I was storing fabric in was unfamiliar with how mamianqun fabric worked and kept cutting the roll at the wrong place when distributing fabric to the tailors x-x

Last-minute added an extra gold outline to the design of the longma mane and tail to help add a bit of detail in, had to get all three of the patterned skirt digitizations updated, it was a huge hassle and huge cost and I lowkey regret doing it because tbh you can barely see the outline anyway

The damask from one factory was different from another, so the black damask parts of the Late Ming skirt used for the video looks different from the rest because it was woven with a different technique (I had a replacement made but it didn't get here in time)

Shooting (Transportation)

The BART got rerouted on my way to the airport—I think it was something about construction or power outages, but they diverted in a different direction and told people to get out and wait for the next train which was half an hour away. I had to get out in Oakland and call a Lyft, but the traffic was really bad and I still didn’t make it on time and had to reschedule my flight for later in the day. I did get there eventually thankfully

So much airplane trouble on Yulan's end... she was supposed to get here at 5pm, she didn't end up getting to the airbnb until like 2am that night

At the end of the second day, we left the studio and went to drop off Emily at her house first, then went home to our airbnb. Except, instead of the airbnb's address, Kevin accidentally put the address of the studio into the GPS again so we drove all the way back to the studio and didn't realize until we pulled into the parking lot. And then had to drive all the way back again

Shooting (Set & Lighting)

Time mismanagement on two days on set: We had two days for this, 12/21 and 12/22. We originally had three days planned, but it would have required me to go straight from taking my last midterm to the airport, and it would’ve been really really tight with very little wiggle room, and flights get canceled all the time; we decided not to test our luck, but it resulted in things getting really really tight during shooting

Like 3/4 of the first day was spent setting up the set. Partially because I was picky, partially because we hadn’t done this before. We had originally planned to do three looks on day one and three looks on day two, but we had to make it 2+4 instead because we’d been on set for more than ten hours at that point

I hadn’t brought any fishing line and the studio lost theirs, so I resorted to using an elastic cord I usually use for hair. This was an extremely non-ideal material to use: it sagged under weight (duh) and made it nearly impossible to position the scrolls accurately. I spent like two hours on a ladder trying to make it work. We eventually found the fishing line but it was too late by then lol

The power cut out like three times in the middle of filming—the lights were consuming a lot of energy and the circuit breaker must’ve gotten tripped. Unfortunately it was in a big office building and the circuit breaker was elsewhere in the building where we didn’t have access, so we had to call people to come reset it; we ended up connecting the lights to a separate power generator of their own

On the first day we had an iPad that mirrored the camera so that we could see how everything looked while being elsewhere in the room. On the second day we forgot to bring it so we were Blind (we tried with Yulan's phone but it was way too small)

Closeup shots ended up kinda blurry :(

Shooting (Actual Shooting)

Yulan forgot to bring black leggings so she was in a skirt (originally we wanted all non-models in all black so we wouldn't distract) and therefore had a knee cameo in the skirt shots for some of them lol

On the first day we literally didn't know wtf we were doing and didn't get enough detail shots, ended up having to manipulate a lot in editing to make up for it

A lot of the closeup shots ended up out of focus but there wasn't enough time to reshoot

The spinning shots (affectionately termed "rotisserie chicken shots," i shit you not that's just what we called it the whole time while on set like "okay time to do the rotisserie shot") were done on a turntable that could only go really really slowly, so the models had to do the mannequin challenge while spinning

^ they did a good job but their eyeballs could only move in twitches and not completely smoothly (normal ofc) so it can be a little distracting on screen

Tiona accidentally knocked over the screen walking behind it while recording once, had to reposition everything else as closely as possible

Models had never done hanfu bows before, the first few especially on day 1 were really really awkward looking (they got a lot better as time progressed though)

On the second day while we were shooting the Early Ming makeup sequence, Emily suddenly got dizzy and almost passed out. We lowkey still don't know what happened, but she completely recovered after lying down for a few minutes and getting some water, and she was completely fine the rest of the day (we were super worried and constantly asking).

Shooting (Styling)

Emily's hair ended up being too short to do the swallowtail hairstyle on so we had to improvise and finish off the back of her hair in a different way for her looks

Yuan Dynasty ribbon was way too long, should've gotten something like half the length to get the look right

For Song, initially had pants tucked into the socks (bc that's more traditional), but then I decided that was ugly and untucked them for the subsequent ones, which resulted in a really weird inconsistency but it was too late to go back and refilm the Song Dynasty one

Couldn't find a matte highlighter on the first day, everything people had was sparkly (which doesn't look very historical). I ended up bringing my personal palette on the second day and they used that for the later looks

Tiona was lowkey like half sick the whole time (like almost recovered but not quite) (it's ok she still looked beautiful though)

The sponsored hair accessories had to keep their price tags on so we did our best to hide them in the hair but they still showed up in some parts

The beads kept falling off my diy deerskin crown lmaooo (we glued em back on with hot glue though)

Editing

Getting the footage was a Hassle because there was So Much, had to get everything onto a hard drive and wait for it to be shipped over

Editing software mismatch, not everyone was using the same one x-x there were like 4 different programs involved, so much work went down the drain

Lots of communication errors because... isn't there always?

Had to drop a lot of money to bring in a last-minute editor to help smooth a bunch of things out in the span of like 24 hours (she did awesome though and stayed up till like 4/5am with us to get it right)

Still ended up having to do SO much ourselves over Premiere

Music was lowkey not figured out until the last second (thats lowkey on me rip but there was a lot of other stuff going on and it just kind of wasnt a priority. Until it was. Oops) We ended up using free music which... I'll be honest I don't really like it very much but it was the best that we could get that was non-AI

All of this made our post deadline move like 5 times (it was supposed to be release on LNY eve, then LNY, then Lantern Festival, then we gave up on doing it on a holiday and went a day over, and then since it wasn't a holiday anyway we went another day over... etc etc etc)

Took us three days to upload the final video because Yulan was in the middle of the goddamn ocean with shitty wifi

List of things that I was going to include but ended up nixing because there wasn't enough time/it got lost in the rush

Kept forgetting to switch out the scrolls in the background, nixed two of the paintings (I had each one matched up with significance and time period and everything hhh)

Forgot to put the earrings on for mid-late Ming ;-; Switched out the sequence because of that, unfortunately didn't match up quite as well chronologically as we hoped but oh well

Was originally going to put a petticoat under the mid-early Ming skirt for the rotisserie shot to show what the horse-hair skirt might have looked like, but ran out of time

More detail shots, especially for the first two looks

Beauty shots (of the makeup after it was finished) after the first two time periods

Fur stole as accessory on Late Ming to represent the onset of the Little Ice Age

Different shoes for each look (scrapped this one early on because the shoe selection is already so limited)

Different pants from different eras for each look (also scrapped this one early on because almost nobody knows how to make the Jiajing and Qianshi pants that would've represented the other eras, and anyway the structure of the Dingling pants did exist throughout all of Ming anyway so it wasn't worth the extra trouble since the pants weren't the point anyway)

We were gonna try to fit in a music collab but it didn't work out because the timing was too late

(bonus pic of me and my sister hiding behind Tiona's late ming sleeves to finish out the series)

May or may not add an extra behind the scenes post to the end of this, but otherwise consider this project background series finished :)

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Painting Chinese immortals using dry ink brushwork by 字芾瑜号澄怀（概念写意)

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

I swear to fucking god. I would claw out OneDrive from my computer if I could. I would burn down their servers if I could. I would run down their stocks to the ground if I could. I hope every single one of their workers gets a better offer from a competitor in the next 24 hours. I hope every single one of their light bulbs explodes at the same time. I hope every single carton of milk in their fridge will always be expired.

Stop backing up my fucking files.

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I don't want a fucking reminder in three fucking days. Let me fucking say no.

Fuckers.

[prismatic-bell]

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Go forth. Be free.

[ophilosoraptoro]

Reblog to save a life... and someone's sanity