Lois’s answer to “Have I already thanked you? Thanks for the rec of Island of Siliang. Pure fun, lovely to look at. R…” > Likes and Comments

Wow, was I late to the party. I wish your stealth review had been more public! :) I watched a few other Yibo pieces. He's a brilliantly charming rogue, half Ferris Bueller, half Errol Flynn, in the otherwise fast-forwardable "Legend of Fei." And a dangerous, vulnerable, psychotic, mysterious killer in "Hidden Blade" w/ Tony Leung. He dances - moves like a hip-hop Fred Astaire, like a knife, so his martial arts and fight scenes are fast, focused and perfect. Gotta look into Zhan and his other work. The Untamed and Yibo, who is a shy yet feisty, athletic, emotionally intense, sensitive, confident, nerdy, good-boy Greta Garbo, have to pack up and move out of my psyche. Thanks, LMB, for an as usual smart, perceptive and educational review.

Good day (my body says eve, I’m jet lagging in Colorado). I realized I had more to say. Since you’re obviously several leagues ahead of me, maybe all of the following is familiar to you. I hope you can take a few mins to read the Vox Untamed review. I mentioned. Aja is Vox's culture writer, and is intelligent, funny, passionate, and thinks about the ethics embodied in stories. Plus, it turns out they, like me, are a fan of your work, so they think it’s way cool that I mentioned their review to you. Like you, I thought Siliang lovely, but it took UT to body-slam me down that steep slippery slope you mentioned, into the alternate universe of Asian stories, and the culture that produces them. I met Ang Lee a few times after Crouching Tiger, and he ignited a 20-odd year affection-affair I’ve had with period kung-fu Hong Kong movies (I recommend Iron Monkey, the Donny Yen one, and not dubbed, and Red Cliff, though there are scads more). But the BL series UT fanned a candle flame of occasional curiosity into a bonfire. I read the novel after watching the series. As you noted, it was dull to read in many long narrative sections. Easy to put down or skim. The puzzle-box time-jumping plot is echoed though not at all reflected in the recent Leung/Yibo "Hidden Blade” noir political thriller, which makes me wonder if this sort of structure is a Chinese cultural thing. I'm too ignorant to know. But the "extra" stories at the end of the novel were full of life and enchantment. Teen Wei Ying cavorting with his friends, stealing lotus pods with the stems, laughing and flirting and getting soaking wet - followed by teen Lan Zhan setting off alone to seek out a few lotus pods, getting soaked in the rain, returning home in silence and the next morning his brother finds the pods and stems arranged beautifully in a vase on Zhan’s veranda. The magic incense burner vignettes were unexpected, creative and too high-spirited to be merely libidinous. The novel could've used more of the sensibility of these final stories. As for the cultural deep dive: I'm eager to know how the business works for the actors, writers and directors. I understand that there are Idols and there are Stars and sometimes Idols become Stars. I wonder if Yibo and Zhan are curated by companies that to some degree own them the way the old Hollywood studio system stars were curated: hair, make-up, clothes, appearances, projects. I wonder how much agency they have in choosing their work, style and clothes (though the latter may be by designers who are paying them). Yibo dresses more adventurously than Zhan. Like Tilda Swinton and Audrey Hepburn, he's able to wear anything with relaxed confidence, as though he's lounging comfortably at home in pajamas. The writers of UT did a great adaptation esp considering the need to evade censorship. Did you know that in China, bunnies are a symbol of LGBQT love? And that a groom giving a bride a pair of chickens is an old folk tradition? (Lan Zhan gives Wei Ying pair of roosters.) Such trickery. The actors knew they were playing lovers, they talk about it in behind the scenes footage, but of course they knew the rules and how to toe propriety's line. All the ghosts, fierce corpses, spirits, and monsters are also rooted in Chinese folklore, and were concerns of the writers and director as Xi and his censors discourage the old beliefs in an effort to modernize China — except for the social and personal freedoms that modern societies allow and authoritarian regimes do not. (Which makes me wonder what a queer authoritarian regime would look like.) Another cultural point of difference: in the west, actors by and large tend to be a bunch of extroverts with big personalities. (My favourites are the private actors: Streep, Swinton, Audrey Hepburn, Viggo Mortensen, Keanu.) Tune into a talk show and you’ll see actors showing off their charm, their funny stories, their willingness to be embarrassed, their eagerness to be liked, their ever-present enormous smiles. I find it boring. But in China, actors in interviews are quiet, mannerly, reticent, humble, shy. Though to survive in the world, every introvert must learn to sometimes channel an extroverted persona, (assuming we accept such a simplistic reduction of human types) the dichotomy, the introverted extrovert, fascinates. In the US, if a child doesn’t speak up in class, participate, ask questions, play with the other kids, the teacher and parents worry about her and wonder if she needs some sort of professional intervention. In China, if a child is quiet, she is called “wise.”

Thanks again Lois, for your books and your reviews and your musings. I have a few friends on the nascent Xitter replacement Bluesky - which I recommend as you can curate your feed and find your people, your teachers, your passions, without being bombarded by algorithm-determined ads, kittens, embarrassing videos or extremist nastiness - and I mentioned I had recommended Aja’s review to you to a handful of UT loving contacts. A few of them reposted my post a few times, as they knew and loved your work, and today I saw responses from strangers who say they’re going to start reading your books starting yesterday. I hope all this at least brings you enough money to buy yourself a five-course gourmet Chinese dinner, nothing gross though.

PS: I have a list of C-Dramas, with an emphasis on BL,Yibo and Zhan shows/movies, that have been recommended by various people. If you’re interested, I’m happy to share but I wonder if you’ve already seen everything! All I’ve watched is Legend of Fei - which is really worth at least sampling to see some or all of Yibo’s charming performance, so uncannily different from his UT and Hidden Blade work. Sadly, though the story contains all the elements for a fabulous fairy tale, the execution isn’t what it should’ve been, and the leading lady, a star whose fame becomes understandable if you put yourself in Chinese shoes, is all wrong for a romantic adventure. If you search youtube for “Legend of Fei Compilation of Cute Moments” you’ll at least get an idea of Yibo’s work. As always, his movement and grace in the show are beautiful. And DuoLuo Continent, in which Xiao Zhan, though he does yeoman work holding the center, is saddled with playing a boy scout with a girlfriend who sports pink bunny ears. Wretched. Someone told me that in much of Zhan’s post UT work he plays a boy scout with bunnies, though there’s one that’s evidently superior; it’s on my list. I’m still living in the UT, though almost ready to go on another deep dive to explore more of the alternate world that’s just around the corner from us (my teenaged son is going there for 9 days over spring break, I want him to bring me some lotus seeds), but if you have any further recs I’d sure appreciate hearing them. Thxx

"...The Untamed is what put me at the top of the slippery slope of modern Asian media, about 3 years ago, and shoved."

FWIW, personally, the anime MDZS is better than the live action.