Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

Does anyone remember if XL was referred to as a snake demon or some similar variation in the novel?

Maybe, we better not bother or take some obscure fan theories seriously. Noticeably a certain group are still hideously trying to mislead viewers by their nose, misinterpreting whole novel (selling their delusional theories and magazines etc.) Remember? how they dismissed whole drama LYF and accused author TongHua for not understanding her own novel. His fans, except jing, pretty much discarded every character as nothing important and projecting their image falsely. Their underlying assumptions are clearly questionable. They seems insinuating Thai translater as more than official (cause apparently that translater said good about Jing) and better than TongHua. Honestly, they can't bend, change or force everyone views. Opinions differs via different viewers. IMO, the ending is somewhat just an 'empty consolation' cause fl is atleast alive, have 'Companion' and not alone. That's it.

Considering dw/tsj fans & team previous harming attempts to distort drama, characters, leads, novel, author & production, Tencent is right to take any steps to avoid their 'delusional' attack in season 2.

 ZYHLJ:

But just when I thought she was about to write a classic that would be handed down from generation to generation, she suddenly bid farewell to this field.

I wonder if this was due to the restriction on fictionalizing historical figures, or was that banned solely for the TV and movie markets? All of her historical romances that I've read are based on some historical or mythical figures and if she can't no longer do this, maybe she couldn't find other inspirations. Are you planning on reading BBJX?

 ZYHLJ:

her writing style is classical but not obscure. Beauty, characterization and plot are all strengths.

Funnily enough, despite these very solid strengths in her writing, I don't consider myself to be a fan. I think it's because, to me, she's a bit too in love with tragedy and suffering. It's as if she thinks that only tragedy and suffering will give pathos to her characters or story.  Yes, life is suffering (thanks Buddha :-)), but there is light as well, and it can be difficult to find those moments in her works. At some point, it just becomes exhausting and contrived.

I think her predilection towards suffering makes her better suited to a historical/fantasy setting than a more modern one. Because the restrictions, limitations and life and death situations you find in these settings lent themselves better to the extreme emotions and tragedy that she favours. If you take them out of these settings into a modern one they become overwrought. I don't know if she has other modern novels, but Secrets Hidden In Time (I just realized the acronym for this novel. LOL) had these overwrought elements that resembled Kdramas in its early days complete with dating sisters, diseases and death and people acting as if they are in the 19th instead of the 21st century. I already had a problem with the whole meeting and promising at kids and then searching for this person as an adult thing in Songs in the Clouds, but when you have a 30-something professional woman in the 21st century doing something in the same vein, my WTH metre was going off :-)

 ZYHLJ:

She can write the second, third, and fourth lives of Xiang Liu with different names. I will never get tired of reading them(sniff).

Same same. If she ever decides to revisit this character, I'll be reading. In the meantime, I just have to rely on fanfictions to get my XL fix :-)

@HeadInTheClouds

"Funnily enough, despite these very solid strengths in her writing, I don't consider myself to be a fan. I think it's because, to me, she's a bit too in love with tragedy and suffering."

Same here, I am not really her fan either, but for different reasons. I love tragedy and angst and I would have love lyf to end up with XY following XL în death, even more than a happy ending, since I believe a tragedy would have been more fitting in keeping the flaw of the story and the identity of the characters intact, but all I got was a very frustrating ending. Honestly, her plots are weak, regardless of politics being her weakest point, her plots aren't very entertaining either. The romance and the characters are TH's strength, IMO. 

 HeadInTheClouds:

Sorry about the delayed response, liddi. I'm so behind on all the posts. Just getting some time to answer them now.

No apologies needed. I am just as bad myself. Thank you for backtracking.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Yin Nanzhao has many characteristics that we love in XL

 HeadInTheClouds:

I would say the barriers and challenges between YNZ and LL were more insurmountable than YaoLiu. 

Thank you for the synopsis of Memories Scattered. I know what happened to Yin Nanzhao (thanks to an excerpt that was shared on Weibo), and you have pretty much confirmed what I guessed as well. I find futuristic novels far more challenging to read in Chinese because of the terminologies used, but now you've gotten me intrigued to want to give it a go. Let's see how far I get, once I find the time to do so.

Tong Hua herself said this about Luo Xun in comparison with Xiao Yao: "I feel that [their] feelings are always mutual. Xiao Yao did not have Luo Xun's ability to throw herself passionately in[to a relationship] without consideration for life and death." So definitely in that respect, she sounds far more like A Heng. Insurmountable odds between them that are greater than YaoLiu? Is it due to their genetic make-up? Argh. Do you think with the English series and movies in the works, we might actually get an official English translation of the novel, for once? 

 ZYHLJ:

OMG this book title was translated by Google, I didn’t notice it was so wrong...

While the presumably official title is "The Memory Lost In Space", I still find "Memories Scattered Across the Galaxy" a more accurate, preferable translation for 散落星河的记忆.  

Likewise I prefer "Eternally Yearning for Each Other" rather than Lost You Forever for 长相思; "Frightened with Each Step" rather than Scarlet Heart for 步步惊心.

 ZYHLJ:

To be honest I didn't expect this, because it has always been difficult for romance writers to "leave" their home countries. I checked it, is the founder of this film production company Chinese? This made me suddenly feel like "because the censorship is getting more and more outrageous, Chinese producers are finally giving up on the Chinese market"

Actually there was a 2016 Korean remake of 步步惊心 called "Moon Lovers / Scarlet Heart:Ryeo" with Lee Joongi and IU, whom Tong Hua also personally met. For me, it suffered from very blatant pacing issues and failed to live up to my expectations against the original drama, especially when they tried to adapt it against their own cultural backdrop, but covering 3 kings. Hopefully the English series for Memories Scattered will fare far better, though there are already criticisms of Netflix's adaptation of Three Body and its focus as opposed to the C-production. 

 ZYHLJ:

Speaking of Chinese fandom, you know why I found this website? Because I want to find someone to discuss this drama and Xiang Liu, but similar websites in China have been almost flooded by the actors' fanatical fans

Glad you joined this forum. Fandoms can be a positive source of strength, or veer towards toxicity, which does the actor no good. Toxic fandoms exist everywhere, not just China, and are exhausting to see and engage with. Hence it is wise not to engage so as to save oneself a lot of unnecessary stress.

 AH :

Thank you for clarifying that. Do you know the difference between 朱萸 (Zhū yú / dogwood) and 茱萸 (Zhū yú / dogwood) by any chance, or why Tong Hua uses two different terms?

Or why Koala sometimes translated references to that character as  "Auntie Zhu Yu" and sometimes as "Auntie Ju Li"?

Revisiting this post from 10 days ago, because my copy of the 2013 edition finally arrived - strictly speaking, it was a [subpar] reprint but beggars can't be choosers, and it does allow me to see what the original printed text was meant to be.

Anyway, I confirmed from the physical 2013 version that every reference to Aunt Zhu Yu is actually 朱萸姨, not 茱萸 (dogwood plant), which means there were typos on the website.

Surprisingly this reprint (assuming it is the exact replica of the original text) says:

“I cannot remove the bug, but I can kill it.” Xiang Liu’s lips curved into a smile, and he tightly gripped Xiao Yao’s hand. Their palms were joined, blood and flesh intermingling until it was not clear whom the flesh and blood belonged to. “However, don’t blame me for deceiving you. It was you who didn’t ask!”

which is different from what was purported to be the web version of the original 2013 edition:

“I cannot remove the bug, but I can kill it.” Xiang Liu’s lips curved into a smile, and he tightly gripped Xiao Yao’s hand. Their palms were joined, blood and flesh intermingling until it was not clear whom the flesh and blood belonged to. “However, don’t blame me for deceiving you. You are the one who is useless!”

-- Vol3 Ch15  (Chapter 48)

which joins countless others as yet another of the mysteries surrounding the different text versions of this novel.