The Untamed(陈情令/Chén Qíng Lìng)(2019) is a mainland chinese xianxia drama, based on the popular danmei novel 魔道祖师/Mó Dào Zǔ Shī. The series isn't exactly peak birdwatching, but it has a select few appearances of Weird Birds.
The main problem I will be tackling here is the presence of a small, but incredibly confusing, problem: a wild Canary.
In the fourth episode of this show, a character—Nie Huaisang— smuggles a songbird into class.
He claims to have captured the bird from the wild on his journey from his home(Qinghe) to the current location(Gusu). This problem is that the bird he has in this scene is a domestic variant of the wild Atlantic Canary, Serinus canaria. This species is native to the Canary Islands, off the coast of northern Africa, and to make things worse, this particular individual has a color pattern known as Red Factor, which was created from humans intentionally hybridizing domesticated Atlantic Canaries Serinus canaria forma domestica with south american Venezuelan Red Siskin (Spinus cucullatus). This is essentially like he was wandering around in the woods of northeastern china and found a purebred Chihuahua.
But the actual species of the bird is not necessarily the only important factor in fiction. The species the birdy actor is intended to be portraying also comes into play. While the official english subtitles do refer to the bird as a canary, the words actually used in chinese are 金雀/jīn què, directly translating to gold bird. This name is colliqual, not scientific, and can therefore be referring to multiple different bird species of similar appearance. I am led to believe that the species intended to be portrayed here is, in fact, the Eurasian Siskin, Spinus spinus. If this is the case, a canary is a fine choice for casting, as wild type Domestic Canaries and Eurasian Siskins are quite similar in appearance.
Additionally, a Eurasian Siskin is a very realistic species to be found in between the real life northeastern china.
Unfortunately, by casting a clearly domestic red-factor, the similarity is lost.
I do believe Eurasian Siskins remain an ideal candidate for the intended species, if not aesthetically, then thematically. For you see, while Eurasian Siskins are sometimes referred to as jīn què, they are more commonly known as 黄雀/huáng què.
The word huáng què is used in the classic chinese idiom “螳螂捕蝉黄雀在后了/tángláng bǔ chán huáng què zài hòule” which is often translated to “the mantis stalks the cicada, but the oriole is behind”. This alludes to an individual that is so focused following their goal, they fall prey to others. In the context of this story, and the placement of the canary there appear to be two major options.
Warning: Its major plot spoiler time
In the early series, Nie Huaisang is characterized as an unserious and rather careless young man, but at the end of the it is revealed that he has spent many years(during a plot-relevant time-skip), engineering the downfall of one of the series’ major antagonists, Jin Guangyao.
The most straightforward option, is that Nie Huaisang is holding the bird as a representation of himself, being the “huáng què” to Jin Guangyao’s “mantis” in the eventual reveal, but i think there could be more to it.
Huaisang refers to the bird specifically as a jīn què, not a huáng què. While this may be intended to distance the bird from the idiom, in order to make the foreshadowing more obscure, it does not seem coincidental that the jīn in jīn què uses the same character as Jin Guangyao(and the entire Jin sect, but regardless-).
So i propose that the bird is more specific foreshadowing, meant to represent Jin Guangyao, the huáng què who, while stalking a prey intent on another, did not look behind himself for the greater predator, a man.
Nie Huaisang, specifically was said to have stalked the bird for several days before capture, a far cry from the rest of his characterization at this point in the series. It could be simply intended as a demonstration of his tenacity when given the appropriate motivation, but it becomes a far more pointed commentary if it was intended to mirror his quiet hunt for Jin Guangyao in the later series.
A lot of symbolism for a bird with 3 seconds of screen-time, or not, it could be simply flawed bird casting. Please don’t get me started on the chicken.
Thank you for reading!! If anyone has any good medias for me to look at birds in, send me an ask! I would love to hear about them!
I will be posting all my bird metas under the tag #meta as well as #bfw(my general works tag).
