while I fully agree about the deeply problematic way that people draw and portray xue yang, i do lightly disagree on the point about death penalty
One of the reasons the death penalty is terrible is the flaws in our political system and how so many people get falsely accused
Xue yang is a serial killer. Very canonically. And every time he escapes death, he brutalizes and tortures more innocent people
I am a xue yang fan, but it's really difficult to claim that the world is better off with him alive in it.
And yes, there is the hypocrisy within mdzs society where the crimes he committed wouldn't even be considered crimes if he were someone 'powerful' and 'important' (a sense of classics that even carries on into the fandom, people are much quicker to dismiss jin gunagyao and jiang cheng's acts of mass murderer because they are in the ruling class so it's 'okay' for them to do that, whereas it's more 'reprensible' when xue yang does the same thing because he isn't)
My broader point is saying 'xy deserves to die' isn't necessarily a statement about the death penalty. He's not a real person. We know for a fact what he did and how he acts.
It's a complicated situation, but because of the nature of him being both fictional and very much guilty of all the crimes he commits (and continues to commit right up until the day he dies), i don't think someone saying "hey, I wish the mass murderer who murders and tortures people should stop being able to do that and the only way he stops (canonically) is death, so let's go with that" is inherently a statement about a person being pro no trial death penalty and more about a person being so anti-serial killer that they make a thoughtless statement about it. Yes, to be truly anti death penalty, you need to be comfortable with the reality that people like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmor get to live, but someone making a throwaway statement of "Ted Bundy deserves to die" isn't necessarily making that political statement, it's just being so thoroughly disgusted with his crimes that you're glad he's dead
Basically, I just think too much about a person's politics is being inferenced from that statement. Idk, I just think it's valid for someone to dislike a serial killer enough to eish he was dead. even tho I very much love xue yang
Personally, I'm more offended by the crimes of the corrupt politicians in mdzs (it's a lot more real to me than a serial killer and classism pissed me off), but i don't begrudge people who hate the very canon serial killer
But yes, I cringe like crazy every time I see dark skinned curly haired xue yang drawn next to skinned thin haired xiao xingchen. It's pretty transparent racism from the artist and it's gross. Also I contend that giving xxc a tan would be nice to see, or just any of the characters who are "morally good". I see nmj with a tan, but never lxc. If a character is pure hearted, no one ever headcanons them with dark skin and I think that's gross
Tho, I will say that because it's become the fanon norm, some people are probably just copying what they see others see thoughtlessly. I still think accidental racism is bad and disgusting and it should be stopped and seriously, it's 2026 how are you guys still not aware of colorism. But, I do think more often than not it's the ignorant mindlessly copying what they saw another artist do. So I have a lot more disdain for the artists who have been in the fandom for a really long time and done this, because they're the ones who spread this and set the standard headcanons and perpetuated it to the extent that it is
In general, I think danmei fandoms have a huge racism problem that goes unaddressed because people are just mindlessly copying what they see and don't put any thought into how they're copying a microaggression ("jiggy", "China is evil, danmei good", most discourse abt the Jiang family pro and anti, gross misunderstandings of Chinese words and culture slapped around with all the tact of "im kawaii desu, sempai-kun! GomenaSorry!")
My advice is to maybe ask yourself twice whether you should be just blindly copying something you saw someone else do in the fandom or actually do literally five minutes of research to understand basic shit. If fucking googles gross little delusional ai bot is better informed than you and you've been participating in this fandom and blindly spreading sinophobia because you'retoo lazy to notice that your favoritefanfic author is a hack perpetuating and spreading microaggressions, maybe you should feel bad. Do better.
And to make myself very clear. Reading more danmei is NOT research. Reading fucking Naruto isn't going to give you a thorough and nuanced understanding of Japanese culture. Danmei can help you get a peek into it and start to understand it, on a very surface level, but it will not teach you enough. No matter how many you've read.
