Inspiration @lltran - Tumblr Blog

Every culture has their own pantheon of deities, but also ghosts and demons. Vietnam is no exception. Here are just a few of them.

Bonus:

Quỷ Một Giò: one-legged demon

Xà Niêng: a human-turned gibbon after getting lost in the forest

Hồ Li Tinh or Cửu Vĩ Hồ: nine-tailed fox

Quỷ Nhập Tràng: a zombie created when its corpse was not properly wrapped and a black cat jumped over it

Ghost of betel and areca garden

Source: Võ Huỳnh Phú

#creature

vietphuc

During Lí and Trần dynasties, tattoos were extremely popular. Tattooing was already a custom to the Vietnamese before Chinese occupation, with vicious animal patterns to scare away sea monsters when working on the water. In fact, the practice was so widespread that the name of the pre-Sinicized kingdom of Vietnam was Văn Lang, or Land of the Tattooed People.

After Vietnam was occupied, this practice did not go away. By Lí dynasty, it was still present in the Vietnamese communities that worked in the sea. By the Trần dynasty, to increase the nationalism of Vietnamese, the Trần court ordered tattoos to become part of court laws. Every mandarin was required to have tattoos, or else they would not be allowed to be inside the palace. Emperors were required to have tattoos, and so did women of the harem. Servants and slaves were also tatted, and it was so widespread that when Marco Polo came to Vietnam, he described that to the Vietnamese, the more tattoos one had, the more prestigious and high class one would look.

The tattooing laws during this period was strict. One could only have tattoos at the thighs, chests, stomachs, and backs. Servants and slaves would have their occupations tatted on their foreheads to indicate their status. Only the emperors could have dragon tattoos, but not everyone adhered to that law. Tattoo patterns were varied, and mostly of animals due to the original purpose of this custom. Birds, reptiles, beasts like lions, dragons, phoenixes, and many others were used. Tattoos of words were also common, such as when soldiers tattooed 殺韃 on their foreheads when fighting against the Mongols.

This practice no longer became part of the court after Emperor Trần Anh Tông was so scared of needles that he refused to tattoo, thereby abolishing the mandatory tattoos. Although it was no longer required, the practice was still widespread, and was only completely gone from Vietnamese customs after Ming occupation. To Chinese, tattoos were only for prisoners and it was disrespectful to the body your parents gave, a belief stemming from Confucianism. This idea became widespread after Ming invasion, and stayed with Vietnamese ideals until the end of the monarchy.

Source: Ngàn Năm Áo Mũ - Phong Dương Comics

#culture

shoomlah

after eight years, I finally updated my huge Historical Fashion Reference & Resources Doc! Now in the form of a MUCH more easily updated Google Doc with better organization, refreshed links, and five more pages of books and online resources.

I know tumblr hates links, but it’s worth it for a doc that I can now update with far more regularity going forward! RIP to the original, you did your duty for far longer than you should have. 😔🙏🏼

#resource

vietphuc

Đại Việt Lịch Đại Long Văn Đồ (大越歷代龍紋圖) depicts five different styles of Vietnamese dragons throughout every major dynasty (from left to right): Lí, Trần, Early Later Lê, Restored Later Lê, and Nguyễn. Lí and Trần dynasties had the most distinctive dragon designs (with some influences from Chinese Tang and Song dynasties). By Early Later Lê onward, Vietnamese dragons became highly influenced by Chinese dragons of contemporary periods with few differences.

Source: Sên

#culture #creature #dragon

lotusinjadewell

Viên lĩnh & nón ba tầm are clothings of Lê dynasty. Credit to Nguyễn Hùng & Đông Phong

#culture

concerningwolves

Even More notes on writing deaf characters

Talking

People talk to themselves and that includes Deaf people

I sometimes sign to myself, but whether I mutter or sign depends on why I’m talking to myself

Cooking? Verbal speech to keep myself on task. Trying to work out an emotional scene? Signed speech.

And using my whole body to talk to myself is allows more creative freedom

Also even if a Deaf person identifies as non-verbal, they might still talk

maybe a hearing person wouldn’t recognise it as speech, but sound is a part of signed language

so muttering and breath-noises are common.

It’s also worth mentioning that “sounding deaf” isn’t what you think it is.

We don’t yell or make incoherent noises (usually)

and even if we do, that’s fine

but generally, people who are Deaf over-enunciate and speak very clearly.

This is either intuitive and perfected over time, or taught in speech therapy.

“How much can you hear”

People love to ask this question, and I can’t give them an answer.

Unless I’m feeling snippy. Then I usually ask “Well how much do you hear?”

They can’t answer either.

Ergo, if you’re hearing and writing a d/Deaf character, don’t compare the way they hear the world to the way that a fully hearing person would.

Be particularly wary of percentages

I’m 75% deaf

and I have no idea what that means

because hearing loss is very nuanced.

I’ve met someone who is 80% deaf, but she could hear in pitch ranges that I couldn’t.

Hearing aids don’t emulate sound either

so how a d/Deaf character hears with them in won’t be at the level a hearing person would

it’s also very obvious that the sound is electronically enhanced.

Putting in earplugs and walking around like that will not provide “Deaf experience”

you’re better to listen to Deaf people telling you how they experience the world.

The craft itself

Don’t fret about your word choices initially

you have the privilege of hearing and that’s okay

you take sound for granted, don’t worry about it.

(Yet)

Once you’ve got the story how you want it, set aside a whole revision just for using the right language if your POV character is Deaf

printing out your manuscript in a different font is very helpful

it’ll make it easier to pick out “red flag” words and phrases.

Whenever you find a chunk of writing focused on sound/hearing, highlight it

and then tear it apart.

Can your character actually hear that owl hooting, or would the background noise be too blurry?

Would your character hear the sound as it is, or would they have an association that overrules the sense?

I.e. do they see a raven open it’s beak and think about black bubbles of ink in their throat? I know I do.

Cross out any hyper-focus on sounds or re-write them in a different way.

The golden rule

Don’t write deaf characters

Write people who happen to be deaf

Please, include us.

Thank.

#writing #resource

theartofmany

Artist: Qi Sheng Luo Title: serenity “A tradional Chinese beauty. everything is hand sculpted in Zbrush, texturing in Substance painter, rendered in Arnold” So beautiful…

#culture

sartorialadventure

The Dayak /ˈdaɪ.ək/ or Dyak or Dayuh are the native people of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the central and southern interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable.

1. Dayak woman, Indonesia, c 1900

2. Ibans or Sea Dayak

3. Dayak dance, 2007

4. A Dayak Longhouse, known as Rumah Betang in Indonesia or Rumah Panjang in Malaysia, the traditional dwelling of many Dayak Tribes. Original watercolour painting by Carl Schwaner, 1853.

#culture

supersonicart

Corey Helford Gallery’s “Lucky 13 - Part 2.”

Opening on May 18th, 2019 at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, California is part two of the 13 year anniversary exhibition, “Lucky 13.”

The exhibition features a massive amount of artists from the New Contemporary movement including (above): Yuka Sakuma, Bruno Pontiroli, Andrew Brandou, Helice Wen, Kristen Liu-Wong, Soey Milk and Hikari Shimoda plus many, many others.

The exhibition will be on view until June 22nd, 2019.

Be sure to follow Supersonic Art on Instagram!

#style

superheroesincolor

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (2011)

In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life’s questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family’s fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer.

Grace Lin, author of the beloved Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat returns with a wondrous story of adventure, faith, and friendship. A fantasy crossed with Chinese folklore, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a timeless story reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz and Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Her beautiful illustrations, printed in full-color, accompany the text throughout. Once again, she has created a charming, engaging book for young readers.

by Grace Lin (Author)

Get it now here

Grace Lin is the award-winning and bestselling author and illustrator of Starry River of the Sky, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, When the Sea Turned to Silver, The Year of the Dog, The Year of the Rat, Dumpling Days, and the Ling & Ting series, as well as picture books such as The Ugly Vegetables and Dim Sum for Everyone! Grace is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Massachusetts. Her website is gracelin.com.

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#magic #creature #dragon

dreamfall-deactivated20220922

letting a traumatized character have their happy ending where they can recover from their trauma will always be a thousand times more powerful than killing them off for shock value

catfromwonder

Lead artist at Game Insight

#magic

fuckyeahchinesefashion

©停岚

#culture

superheroesincolor

The Origin of Others (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) (2017)

America’s foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?

Drawing on her Norton Lectures, Toni Morrison takes up these and other vital questions bearing on identity in The Origin of Others. In her search for answers, the novelist considers her own memories as well as history, politics, and especially literature. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Camara Laye are among the authors she examines. Readers of Morrison’s fiction will welcome her discussions of some of her most celebrated books―Beloved, Paradise, and A Mercy.

If we learn racism by example, then literature plays an important part in the history of race in America, both negatively and positively. Morrison writes about nineteenth-century literary efforts to romance slavery, contrasting them with the scientific racism of Samuel Cartwright and the banal diaries of the plantation overseer and slaveholder Thomas Thistlewood. She looks at configurations of blackness, notions of racial purity, and the ways in which literature employs skin color to reveal character or drive narrative. Expanding the scope of her concern, she also addresses globalization and the mass movement of peoples in this century. National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates provides a foreword to Morrison’s most personal work of nonfiction to date.

by Toni Morrison

Get it now here

Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. She is the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, at Princeton University.

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#to read