Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@liddi

Vietnamese is my other language.  Unfortunately, I don't know Chinese. Thought about learning it. But the writing system is extremely intimidating. 

I'm currently reading the Vietnamese translation of the novel. There are official translation as well as a plethora of unofficial ones for me to choose from. When it comes to Asian entertainment content, particularly Chinese ones, I vastly prefer the Vietnamese translation/subtitles to English. Probably due to the thousand of years of shared history,  similarities in culture  and language, I find Vietnamese translation  richer/deeper compared to English. Some words and phrases are near identical. English just missed so much.

XL is definitely Tong Hua's favourite. Whenever we sees him through XY's POV, she always describes him as otherworldly, ethereally beautiful. He is gorgeous, with or without black markings on his face ?. CX and Jing simply can't compared. 

I loved that scene you mentioned from the drama. Personally, while I think TJC may not be considered the best looking out of the cast, as XL he's by far the most attractive. Good look and attractiveness are different things. The way he carries himself, and the excellent acting are what sealed the deal. Whoever cast him has a really good eye, because from a purely physical perspective, he doesn't screams  XL. I hope the TJC fans are not going to kill me ?.

I'm not loyal to any particular male lead archetype - I like them all ?. Bad boy is probably not the best way to describe XL. It's more the he walk the talk and get things done rather than saying beautifu, but empty words. XL has the aloof coolness typical of the male lead, but with the consideration and thoughtful devotion of the second lead.  Likewise, I particularly like the fact that he doesn't emotionally manipulate or blackmail her . The lack of self pity is also hugely attractive. 

Do you feel like XY/XL shippers are heavily bias towards XL? I admit that I am. It's unusual for me since I tend to favour the female side of the ship. But like you, it's XL that left me with that lingering feeling of sadness and yearning.   

 HeadInTheClouds:

Do you feel like XY/XL shippers are heavily bias towards XL? I admit that I am. It's unusual for me since I tend to favour the female side of the ship. But like you, it's XL that left me with that lingering feeling of sadness and yearning.

I'm very biased towards XL. It's like ever since XL spent 37 years under the sea with XY, my mind couldn't see the other dudes. I admit my loathing for the other one is a bit irrational.... ok, maybe more than a bit ? Also, I tended to favor XL more than XY. I didn't agree with some of her decisions....

XL definitely left me feeling sad and yearning too. I sound so dramatic lol but every time I see a fan edit of XY and XL on YouTube, I feel cold and sad and hope the video doesn't end on a bad note.

I will always believe that XY and XL are soulmates that couldn't be together in this life due to their backgrounds.

 luv2bafangurl:

OMG I really need to sleep instead of writing essay on XL. If only I was this diligent in my uni days??

Then, here’s another question I could have asked.

Is
     XL as is
          greater than
     TSJ (or CX) plus extraordinary things?

You’d probably answer yes, as most people in this thread probably would. This thought experiment didn’t help me at all, lol.

 AH :

I assumed you were a native speaker.

It makes me feel strange to read this, because I’ve long thought of English as my only language. It didn’t occur to me until now that I should stop my school-age thinking of referring to English as my weak subject, because it conjures up the idea that another language is my main language.

Here’s my funny little story. My parents were immigrants and “forgot” to teach me any English, before sending me to preschool. I literally didn’t know a single word. After my first day, my parents immediately switched to speaking to me only in English. Then, they never stopped. Fast forward a lot of years. I had forgotten almost all of the Chinese I ever knew, or so I thought. Fast forward to discovering Cdramas in 2020. I’ve been very, very, very slowly trying to learn more Chinese, lol.

 HeadInTheClouds:

If all it takes is a literal, word for word translation,  Google Translate would have put professional translators out of their job.

Google Translate has been striving for literal translations, and I greatly applaud their efforts and ongoing efforts. But, they have been struggling mightily to get close between Chinese and English. They have been using AI and public input to help, but I would say that they are currently only around 70% overall. Depending on what’s being translated, it could be much higher than 70% or much lower than 70%.

For example, Chinese frequently has sentences with double negatives. This confuses Google Translate. It often translates these sentences into the opposite of what they mean. For another example, Google Translate often mixes up he and she. It was so often that for this and other reasons, I finally gave up trying to slog through Google translations of episode summaries of various dramas on Baidu. For another example, Google Translate sometimes gets confused by Chinese grammar. It can translate a sentence in a way that I can’t figure out at all what the Chinese sentence might have meant. Of course, in many other ways, a lot can be lost in a Google translation too.

For those who don’t already know, Chinese TV companies (iQiyi, WeTV, MGTV, Youku, etc.) often start off using a machine translator for subtitles. Depending on how popular a show is, a human translator may or may not be assigned. Even if a human translator is assigned, they may only be given enough time to clean up the worst, most obvious problems (like opposites and he/she). When they are given the maximum amount of time a Chinese TV company is willing to give, the translators are still expected to move quickly through the translations. The standard is to be concise and loose.

Viki’s volunteer translators are much better than the Chinese TV companies. Netflix pays translators. But, they still aren’t as good as Viki’s volunteer translators. (I could go on and on about why Viki and Netflix are better. For example, they have good timing guidelines for English words, not Chinese characters, so they don’t have to be as concise. But, I’ll stop here.) I feel like there’s an opportunity here for a young entrepreneur, assuming this industry continues to grow.

Come to think of it, this makes it harder to compare the LYF drama’s English subtitles with Koala’s English translation of the book. Book translations have a much higher standard than subtitle translations. So, if you’re relying on an English subtitle vs. Koala’s or liddi’s translation, please be aware that the English subtitle may not be very accurate.

 nathsketch:

False. Lies. Conspiracy theories. Still gorgeous. ??

Not to mention the charcoal lipstick. Not everyone can rock that shade LOL

And, for me, above all, hilarious!

 Elise:

I can't even say his name lmaooo. I'm going to cringe when I rewatch the show and see my early Viki timed comments supporting his relationship with XY and saying they're cute together ahahaha ????

Ahahahahaha that Elise was an imposter.

I also have some timed comments that make me want to go back in time and bish slap myself hahahaha

 liddi:

You've convinced me with the lipstick shade. Shame on me for being dense LOL!

You're right! During an interview, 黄灿灿 said categorically that she is a very strong YaoLiu supporter, and it was also a great coincidence that as Yi Ying, she got to try and push Fangfeng Bei and Xiao Yao together, which suits her YaoLiu sensibilities.

The actress is a longtime friend of both Yangzi and TJC, so she might be a bit biased due to that too. The actress who plays Xiling Heng, XY's mother, is also YaoLiu, she posted on her social media a while back saying something to the effect that XY should choose XL.

Something I have been wondering for a while and I wish I could pick Yangzi's brain about. During a cast press event for LYF, a couple of big name fans in the novel fandom were invited to attend and speak with the cast. One of them, I don't know her fandom handle, had made videos analyzing the novel and story. When she spoke to the cast, YZ and TJC both told her they watched her analyses and found her videos useful in their preparation for their roles and thanked her. This fan is a YaoLiu supporter, I wonder how much of her YaoLiu sentiments came through in her analyses (I would think it most likely would have) and whether that influenced YZ in any way in her portrayal. YZ has mentioned that she played XY as having no idea about the extent of XL's feelings for her, but she also said in a cast livestream that her and TJC discussed it a lot during the filming of the scene when XL as FFB almost touches XY's face and how she just found it impossible to believe that at that moment XY still has no idea about XL's feelings for her.