superborb

In particular, figuring out how to group words in pinyin is hard! So I wanted to write a reference for myself too. The goal of all these rules is to make it easier to read. There are other systems to romanize Chinese, but as MDZS / the Untamed are from mainland China, pinyin is the official way. This was written with an eye to common use cases in fic with untranslatable words or concepts. Also, like, do whatever you want, this is if you want to do it ~properly~.

Names: I'll use Wei Wuxian as an example. That was the proper way. Camel case (Wei WuXian) and separating the words (Wei Wu Xian) are incorrect.

Names with prefixes: The prefix is separated and capitalized. (Exception: historical figures like Kongzi (Confucius) are written together.) Therefore, it is properly written A Yuan. I know it looks weird. Sorry.

Names with titles: The titles following the name are separated and uncapitalized. Wei qianbei, Lan xiansheng. I know it looks even weirder. Sorry.

Place names: The distinguishing and the general "what this is" part are separated and both are capitalized. Jinlin Tai is correct because "Jinlin" is the distinguishing name for it and "Tai" means tower.

Proper nouns: In general, capitalization follows the same "proper nouns are capitalized" concept as English. Since Chenqing would be a proper noun in English, we capitalize it.

Grouping: Modern Chinese is polysyllabic, despite popular misconception. Therefore, you space pinyin based on words with a single meaning. There can be ambiguity here! Older brother (gege), martial older sister (shijie) are written in a group and uncapitalized. Words with more than four syllables are separated if possible.

If the group results in ambiguity, an apostrophe is used to separate the syllables (second syllable starts with a, o, or e). E.g. pingan could be pin+gan or ping+an, so you'd write ping'an to disambiguate. This is also why the city of Xi'an is written with an apostrophe -- otherwise it could be the single syllable xian.

ETA: Prefixes for non-names: These get grouped with the word they modify. Therefore, ajie is technically correct.

Hopefully that was helpful! It gets a lot more complicated, but this covers most of the common cases I've seen in fic.

ETA2: An update to point out that this is the "official" PRC Pinyin rules, and people may/may not follow them IRL and of course there are different rules in other countries! And I personally wouldn't necessarily follow all the rules (A Yuan could be ambiguous in English for example), but it's nice to break rules on purpose instead of accidentally.

Three is enough for a recs list right?? I sure hope so, bc this is kind of an esoteric theme and could not find more haha. I am excluding any canon sports here. Please link me more, it turns out that I have a predictable weakness for sports AUs, but sometimes you don't want to read about a Real Sport.

I feel like I win when I lose by so_shhy
The Untamed/MDZS, 26k, T
Competitive cultivation as a fight either solo or bw pairs! I liked how the canon magic was incorporated into the sport, and the details in LWJ's observations were fascinating.

Stargazer by Fahye
Yuri!!! on Ice, 22k, T
This is a sports AU of a sports canon, which is hilarious. The sport here is more of a performance (like skating). TBH, it's actually a bit more scifi!sport than fantasy!sport, but it hits the same button for me! I enjoyed how it handled the wider cast of characters and situated the sport in the wider universe.

and so my heart beats wildly by lily_winterwood
MDZS, 106k, E
As the length might imply, this goes more in depth compared to the other two in describing the mechanics and technical components of the fantasy sport, nighthunting. (It also does have social media bits.) I liked the descriptions of how the sport worked, and how the behind the scenes politics affect the in-sport event.

Would love more people to squee with if you're watching the hikago cdrama / qihun! According to the internet, eng subs will be released tomorrow!!

So far, I've watched (and livetweeted lol) eps 1 and 2, which are the ones where they are small elementary schoolers and are EXTREMELY CUTE. Baby!Akira’s actor is very good. (CW: if CCP propaganda about hong kong is distressing, skip the very beginning and end of ep 1.)

Pros:
1. Improves the gender balance in MDZS
2. Girls as the hope for the future, improving and moving past the war and prejudices of the previous generation
3. h/t

messyobatis for Thoughts on Mianmian having the only daughter reflecting that no one but her learned any lessons; but if we genderswap the juniors, this leaves room for fic where we reinterpret the canon in more promising ways where people have learned some lessons
4. OYZZ as the lone romantic boy with his squad of less romantic girls
5. Old men sect elders not quite sure what to do when confronted with all these polite yet firm girls overthrowing the status quo

Cons:
1. Would require some OCs to fill out the world of the junior generation to be really satisfying
2. Something something A-Yuan being a girl means she would have always been the last Dafan Wen

This starts as a fictionalized retelling of the killing of Latasha Harlins and the aftermath of the LA riots, but is primarily set in 2019. The two main characters are Grace Park, a sheltered 2nd gen Korean American pharmacist, and Shawn Matthews, brother of the fictional version of Harlins; most of the story follows Park and her family.

I was very reminded of Jodi Picoult. This isn't a criticism per se, but it is a particular vibe -- Picoult always reads to me as "I'm speaking to white, upper middle class women and drawing attention to moral and topical issues." In the same way, this book read to me as "let me summarize a lot of thorny ethical issues around how we talk about BLM and the murder of black children in a fictional package."

As a result, the Park family and the Korean and white Americans they interact with are drawn very realistically; they felt like they were drawn from the real world. Shawn Matthews and the Holloway family were sympathetic, but much more sketched out. I'm not saying they were poorly developed or unrealistic, but their voices felt almost second hand, like characters you'd read about in a long form article, or friends of friends -- somehow kind of distant?

Nothing content wise was a surprise, but there were quite a few scenes that I really enjoyed. A lot of those were awkward conversations, surprisingly for me. The most memorable were the conversation with Uncle Joseph, where you get to see how gossip spreads in the Korean American community, and the first meeting of Grace and Shawn. I also really liked Miriam, Grace's sister, and specifically how Grace is such a younger sister, both jealous of her big sister and yet when it comes down to it, wanting her big sister to swoop in to fix everything.

Overall, I don't regret reading it, though I might not have read it quite so rapidly if it hadn't been for a book club. Despite the topic, it was a very fast, almost light read stylistically.

Hikago is getting a cdrama adaptation?!?!

Trailer here: https://twitter.com/dramapotatoe/status/1319527767709413382

I was reading LtLJ's newest installation in her "hills and rivers" series, and it clarified something about a lot of post-canon fics that doesn't quite ring true to me.

It always bothered me when LWJ/WWX fics end with them living happily in CR without acknowledging WWX's like, entire THING with JC and JL. Beyond WWX's complicated family feelings, it runs straight into the all too common emotional arc of "and now you have a romantic relationship and that will take precedence over everything else" and privileging of romantic relationships over platonic in our society.

But even ignoring WWX's relationship with his family, he clearly ... didn't like being in CR? Like, it's nice that LWJ will break rules for him, and I know fandom loves the whole rule-breaker part of WWX's personality. But, he grew up his entire life feeling unwelcome in his family, is it really the happy ending to be somewhere where that will continue to be true? Where he'll always be in some low level of conflict with the elders?

I know that the novel ends with them living in CR, so it's "canon" of a sort, but I guess I don't feel like we've reached maximum happiness! Part of this is, of course, my bias that WWX would only ever be happy if he felt like he still had a home in Lotus Pier, because it would represent the fulfillment of his childhood hopes.

Anyway, there's recently been a lot more post-canon fic that doesn't end in "happily ever after after in Gusu" fics, which is nice.

Fall is the best time of the year because all the birds start FLUFFING THEMSELVES UP.

I was in fact That Person taking DSLR shots of pigeons at a major tourist site in Spain last year. But look at that pigeon!! Look how round!! I’m always astounded by the variety in pigeon colors in Europe; when they were introduced to the US, there must not have been as much variation in the starting population.

As most of you know, I inadvertently hiatused around a decade ago by dint of being unable to make the leap from LJ to tumblr. As a result, when I jumped back in head-first a little over a month ago, I was trying to find people from information left a decade ago. Some folks were curious about what kinds of response rates I got, so here are some (hopefully obscure enough to not erode anyone's privacy) numbers.

Overall, there were 110 individual people who I was friends with on LJ (who still had accounts and hadn't totally deleted in the meantime). Of these, I tried to reach out to 95; the others I didn't feel like I'd been close enough to to justify reaching out or in two sad cases had become very ill or died in the decade preceding.

Overall, I was able to get in contact with 52 people, just over 50%! This was much higher than I expected going in. Of those who responded, 38 were still active in fandom; an additional four (who I could track down to a new fannish home, but didn't respond to my message) were also active in fandom.

The highest response rate came from email or facebook: 17 people out of 22 that I had emails/facebooks for responded. An additional three people were still active on DW. 28 people had left enough forwarding information (or just didn't... change their nyms) that I could find a twitter/tumblr; of these, 23 people responded to my messages. I ended up sending out 42 LJ/DW messages, nine of which had a response.

EDIT: lol omg, 23/28 is a higher percentage than 17/22 please ... ignore that artifact of aggregating the numbers to make them less identifiable.

I am unabashedly unashamed that genderswap is my all time favorite trope. I love it. I love when it's a ~commentary on society~, I love when it's an excuse for porn. I love when it's an always-a-different-sex AU, I love when it's a sudden change.

We'd roll and fall in green, 27k / 2 works, ongoing series, by x_los
x_los has such a deft touch for immersing the reader into the world, and the two fics here really showcase that strength. The world feels so real, and wider than just the pair, even when you're looking from LWJ's POV (tightly focused on WWX of course). The second fic, when you get to the case-fic part of it... whoo I loved how creepy/scary it was and how, despite their experience, LWJ and WWX are still teenagers.

The life and times of a bad idea bear, 20k / 5 works, ongoing series, by houselesbian
This modern!AU series has a very scene by scene feeling. I really like how imperfect Jiang Cheng is, where his flaws are clear, but so are his feelings, and I especially loved the image of LWJ as hm, that kind of icy cold hot lesbian? This series is what definitely sold me on lesbian LWJ anyway!

my heart is kept as pure as ice in a jade vase/一片冰心在玉壶, 21k / abandoned?, by daledesu
This one is more of an unconventional rec. It was originally written in Chinese, and this is the translation by the original author. As such, the trope choices are different than English fandom would make, so I find that and the chapter endnotes really interesting.

A Troublesome Charge, 70k / 4 works, ongoing series, by Moonsheen
Another unconventional one, since the genderswap happens after a reincarnation. I've recced this before, so I won't go on about it, but I thoroughly enjoyed this post-canon series and especially the NHS characterization here.

Coming Back to Yourself, 22k, by acernor
To finish this off (hehehe), a fic that's just porn. I... don't know what else to say. It's hot?

The Story of Minglan: all the fun of harem drama but without the palace. It's long, at 73 episodes. Because the focus of the action changes scope from tightly within the family to the imperial household at large, it really feels like the characters grow and learn through the show.

You'll like it if: you like more historical dramas, realistic sister relationships in a world where they are jockeying for power, a protagonist who has learned to seek peace instead of standing out. Obviously, harem politics type machinations play a major role in the drama. Also, there are MANY excellent older women characters, and some of the bratty characters really learn and grow up!

You won't like it if: you don't like if some (not all!) characters are irredeemably evil. There are harem politics including attempts at murder, and some pretty serious physical/emotional abuse directed towards the male lead. If you're squicked at all by manipulation in romantic relationships, definitely not the right choice. There are servants with slave contracts, some of whom are punished severely (all scenes are skippable too, ugh why)

The premise: Sheng Minglan is the sixth daughter* of a low ranking official. She's the unfavored daughter, so she is (of course) bullied by her sisters and the other wives. She goes through several potential love interests (some really interesting!) before marrying the male lead, Gu Tingye. His family is also terrible, with an ultra manipulative white lotus stepmom, and we also see his rise from a playboy with a bad reputation to the trusted advisor of the emperor. The final arc involves some court politics as the new emperor establishes himself, which I found much weaker than the family focused stuff, because we didn't have enough time to get to know the key players.

It took me a couple tries to get all the way through the first episodes, but then I was hooked. I think it is a bit uneven at parts, and I had to 2x speed my way through... a not insignificant portion of the middle, but I still overall enjoyed it.

( Potentially spoilery cut )

The Romance of Tiger and Rose: a cute and funny drama, but I'd only recommend watching up to ep 16! It loses its charm after that, especially in ep 19.

The premise of the show is that the main female lead, Chen Xiaoqian, is a writing the script for a drama with a stereotypically matriarchal city and a stereotypically patriarchal city at odds; after arguing with an actor on the set about how unrealistic it is, she transmigrates into the arrogant third princess of the matriarchal city, who is about to die!

( Cut for length )

I find YZY a very fascinating character. I think she is unambiguously a terrible mother, and definitely caused some serious issues in her children. I think it's rare for a character to be a bad mother while still being portrayed as loving her children and wanting what's best for them, and I wish that was explored more! I can see arguments for her being more and less levels of abusive, especially considering how normal physical discipline is in their society and how much tougher having a developed golden core makes you.

After reading through all the fics on AO3 tagged with YZY in a day long frenzy, I come with five recs, all quite short:

Numbing by nekokoban [3k, G]
Food as a divider and a connector between YZY and the family she married into. I love this perspective on YZY's motivations: she feels like a real person, pushing against the constraints of the society she lives in. This fic was what caused me to become so interested in YZY.

MDZS short fics, Chapter 33 by nirejseki [1k, NR]
This is a much more forgiving view of YZY. Starting from the idea that YZY's actions are ultimately protective of her family and takes it to the logical conclusion.

纸鸢 • paper kite by ewagan [3k, T]
Second person YZY. I'm always fascinated by how YZY views JFM and how bad at communication they are; their "love languages" are so clearly incompatible.

unblemished by mud, Chapter 4 by chomrafy [1k, NR]
Short snippet of the women of the YZY generation as teenagers. Cute, and some fun lines.

Drowning Depths Blazing Blue by ExtraPenguin [1k, T]
A short nighthunt while WWX and JC are children. I loved the kid!logic here.

The theme is: less than 500 kudos! For the express reason that I had a couple dozen to rec, and this cutoff leads to a nice round 10 recs of presumably less widespread knowledge.

hear my voice and it’s been here by souridealist [56k words, E]

Jiang Yanli POV, and not an easy story. This is the fifth part of a series, and the one I loved the most; the others tell the story from other POVs. It can be read first. There had been two months between part 4 and 5, and I think not remembering the details of what happened in the previous parts immersed me in the limited view that JYL has in a more engaging way.

the final cut by wildehack [20k words, E]

This explores Nie Huaisang’s use of Mo Xuanyu, and is as dark as you’d expect from such a subject. Huaisang is complicated and so, so determined.

Call and Response by x_los [9k words, M]

The Lan brothers play Inquiry for Madam Lan, and what is revealed is, of course, tragic. There is one line, that Xichen thinks about Wangji, that punched me in the gut and made me gasp out loud. It’s not my headcanon, but it makes a seriously convincing argument on the backstory and relationship between the brothers.

The Same Cloth by x_los [8k words, T]

Lan Wangji reluctantly brings Wei Wuxian to see a merchant family. I love backstory and worldbuilding and this had both in spades. The descriptions of the textiles were amazing and so immersive. This one is much less dark than Call and Response; they are in the same series but not necessarily related.

A House on Fire by nirejseki [10k words, G]

Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao raise Jin Ling. It sometimes goes smoothly and sometimes... not so much. It’s quite episodic in the scenes described, which makes it move along very quickly. Each scene is a perfect gem of an interaction.

Warm in the Sun by 50artists [29k words, M]

Fix-it Jiang Yanli/Wen Qing. IMO this fic’s strength is the Yanli characterization: she’s strong and determined.

Rule 3001: Do Not Blink by EHyde [4k words, G]

It’s a Doctor Who fusion, which may seem absurd, but is executed so well. It’s from the Juniors’ perspective, as they investigate a mysterious statue. The perfect length to get a taste for the world in the fusion.

Sprout by EHyde [6k words, G]

Crack taken seriously is one of my absolute favorites, and this is such a fun one. Jingyi is a plant, and Jin Ling discovers this secret. Wen Ning’s final line in this fic is absolute GOLD.

I Don’t Get Paid Enough For This (But I’d Still Do It Anyway) by Quixiote [25k words, T]

This is technically a WIP, but I loved what was there. Someone made the joke that the Untamed could be a shonen anime from Jin Ling’s perspective... but what if it was a shojo instead! It’s a Cardcaptor Sakura fusion, and it fits so well. Fairy makes for an excellent Keroberos. Sizhui and Jingyi as Shaoran and Meiling! So good. So perfect.

something wrong with this (you know it) by myliobatis

Truly the fact that only ONE woman doesn’t get fridged is absurd, and Mianmian is rightly angry about it.

Happiness:
Reconnecting with fandom friends has been AMAZING. I've only been able to find and get in contact with a subset of folks, but I'm thoroughly reminded of how much I love fandom. People excitedly recommending their favorites! Throwing headcanons back and forth!! It's been everything I could have hoped for. The lack of a wider community and of long meta is a little sad, but the people are still around.

Also, in the intervening decade, people have done some amazing things! There are so many published authors amongst the people I looked up that my list of books to read has grown substantially longer. After all, I once loved their fic, so their pro work must be even better?!

Sadness:
A decade out of touch meant that it is only now that I learned that sunhawk16 has passed away and kracken is very ill. I didn't know either well, but I remember reading their Gundam Wing fic as a teen. I cried when I saw Sunhawk's farewell twelve days of Christmas 1x2 posts.

Of course, learning this made me only fear what could have happened to all the other folks I couldn't get in touch with, but in the absence of data I will just pretend really hard that everyone else is well!

FYI, I'm now superborb on twitter and tumblr, in case you were wondering who the weirdo who added you there was!

I was seriously wondering if I should update my username away from.... the extremely teenage weeb one I've had for the last decade and a half, but the decision was taken out of my hands by being unavailable on BOTH twitter and tumblr. I'm pretty sure anyone who still remembers me would associate me with my icon though, so I've kept that the same. We'll see...

The combination of finally leaving schooling behind forever (PhD, get!) and having a ton of extra at home time during the pandemic times has finally gotten me to want to engage in fandom again. I've also been extra nostalgic the last two days, and longing for the good ol' days of LJ. (That one is probably the leaving school and remembering high school times.) For the last oh, 10 or so years, I've been at the outskirts of fandom, mostly chilling on AO3 and occasionally commenting, but I've finally reached the point where I want to talk with people! To squee! Is that term too outdated now?

I've been drifting through cdrama fandoms for a while, and it seems like it'll stick around in my headspace, so I assume it'll be a good jumping back point.

My main joy has been MDZS / the Untamed, but from what I gather, the fandom is mostly on Twitter/Tumblr, maybe with some Discord for flavor? Leaving aside learning a new platform, my problem with those is they're such firehoses of ... large images, which I've always found intimidating! Give me a good wall of text anytime. What to do!

I should go back to that old mainstay of mine -- back in hikago days when I didn't know anyone, I was known for things like commenting on every single blind go fic. I can't imagine fandom has changed so much that that is unwelcome, even if the art heavy style of Twitter/Tumblr is foreign to me.

I'm sooo excited that I'm seeing familiar names posting YOI fic! I feel a little out of touch with the fandom because I guess it's mostly on tumblr... But I still can't figure out how to navigate tumblr properly. So I'll just babble about it here.

My current top five list:
1. Home by Pteryx Videos, one of the few vids that I've really enjoyed ever! It was so well cut.
2. Unimaginable by emilyenrose, a short fic that I thoroughly enjoyed and keep coming back to. Teenage!Victor shows up a few years post-YOI and is a bit of a brat. I really loved the Victor characterization in this. (A fic I'd consider in the same genre is Those Second Thoughts You Asked For by akisazame, where Victor can go backwards in time.)
3. Blood In The Water by Mhalachai, a series where Victor's mom is a rusalka. I think Mhalachai tends to abandon some of their long fics, but the fics that are complete in the series are great and standalone.
4. A Roe By Any Other Name by

mousapelli seriously made me crave sushi and want to go to Japan just to have sushi.
5. Stargazer by Fahye is a sports AU of a sports anime, and has excellent art to go with the fic.

I am also slowly reading the Nirvana in Fire web novel, but it's going... slowly.

I binge watched Nirvana in Fire this week, AND I AM OBSESSED.

I'd like to point out that I've never ever watched a whole show from start to finish before -- even Hikago, I watched pretty slowly, randomly watching episodes. In fact, I can't think of any other show that I watched a. in order and b. completely.

Sadly, my Chinese is definitely not up to the task of reading the original novel, and the online translations seem to only be for a few chapters.

The (English) fandom, or at least the AO3/pinboard recced part of fandom, seems quite small. I think I've at least read the first bits of all the 93 fics currently up. I guess most of fandom is generally on tumblr, but scrolling through tumblr makes me confused... Will just have to keep trawling AO3.

Basically: I should never get into a show that has a super tiny fandom because it just leaves me dissatisfied without long epic fics / meta to roll in.

Computers can now compete on the pro level and win. I wonder what Yang Hai would think?

In other news, I've been hit by a wave of historical-fandom interest and reading old-school Star Trek and CLAMP fic. I wasn't exactly ... alive for the former, so it's not quite nostalgia, but it's interesting to see how fandom has changed. For old-school ST, it's especially interesting to me how the reboot fics differ. Is it because of fandom changing or a result of the canon? There's few fic writers who've been around that long and write for both, so it's hard to compare

Profile

superborb

March 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Pink After Dark for Boxes and Borders by branchandroot
Resources: Salmon Spawn

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Apr. 29th, 2026 23:24

Recent Entries

A quick and dirty resource for proper pinyin (romanization of Chinese)

A trio of fantasy sports AUs

Who’s watching hikago?

Consider: genderswap juniors (optional: OYZZ remains a boy)

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

STOP THE PRESSES

But would WWX really be happy living in the Cloud Recesses?

in other news, it’s borb season

On finding people in fandom a decade later

Genderswap MDZS / Untamed recs list

The Story of Minglan

The Romance of Tiger and Rose

Yu Ziyuan rec list

MDZS/Untamed fic rec post

Happiness/Sadness

(no subject)

blows dust off

Yuri on Ice

Nirvana in Fire

For the Hikago fans...