moondreamlake's page

moondreamlake wrote:

Anorak wrote:

This is the good stuff! Read slowly and enjoy! Thanks, Tan Shao Han

You're welcome!! I am glad you said to read slowly and enjoy. It is something I wanted to make the feeling of... Time very central to the story, of a single night as well as of countless years that have passed...

Best,
Shao Han

I understand that. Time weighs heavy on me these days. On the bright side, you led me to find Judge Dee on Netflix.

Hahaha lemme know if you like that, or not! I just finished it a week or so ago. There are some really fascinating contemporary sociological angles to examine how they chose to produce this show. I enjoyed the main actor (Zhou Yiwei)'s work, and to a certain point I see his version of Judge Dee (especially that amazing first episode breakdown of the crime) as being my headcanon for what Ling Zhiyu looks/ feels like haha!

A prayer for swift reincarnation is such a touching thought. This was wonderful!

Is the War of the Widow-Makers meant to be Lung Wa's bloody dissolution? I love that name for it, and the lasting cultural scars something so apocalyptic leaves on a nation.

It's a term from inside the Tian Xia World Guide! The histories and events within the book are quite detailed, and you can find out more when the book releases tomorrow!! :)

Also, yeah... That's a common prayer and blessing in many Buddhist-influenced places and practices. Many Mahayana Buddhists (common in East Asia) do good deeds in the hope of transferring the spiritual merit of these good deeds to the dead, either to their own deceased friends and family, or to the souls of strangers, especially those caught in tragedy or accidents, to help them break cycles of pain and reincarnate out of... undeath, basically. So that's my inspiration for Zhiyu too!

Best,
Shao Han

This is the good stuff! Read slowly and enjoy! Thanks, Tan Shao Han

You're welcome!! I am glad you said to read slowly and enjoy. It is something I wanted to make the feeling of... Time very central to the story, of a single night as well as of countless years that have passed...

Best,
Shao Han

Q_Q

I'm crying. I love it!
I wanna see more of Zhiyu! And I wanna know the result for that couple's child!

I might write more about him in Pathfinder Infinite or something! I'll go check the rules for that... I do enjoy writing this character quite a bit.

As for the result... If there's a sequel, maybe you'll find out!

Best,
Shao Han

Hello, Shao Han, the author of this story (but I'm not the author for the Po Li section, where Changdo is, in the Tian Xia World Guide, releasing tomorrow). Hope you like this little tale! It was a privilege to be able to write this, and if you have any questions for me, I'll try to answer.

For bonus context...

Ling Zhiyu is my attempt at writing the kind of virtuous official, a stock character you'll find in Chinese fiction, especially in gong'an （公案）stories where virtuous magistrates disguise themselves as ordinary people to uncover some social corruption and deeply hidden crimes (perhaps most famous as the Judge Dee stories in the West, due to the Dutch translations and original novels by Robert van Gulik as well as many movies and shows about this historical domain character .. as well as the Justice Bao stories and folk tales). These characters use their education, intelligence, and wits to uncover mysteries; for Zhiyu's case, the mystery wasn't one that was a murder or some other dramatic crime, but there was still an element of loss and injustice, of history's victims and losers, so as to speak. Zhiyu's main virtues here aren't dramatic virtues too; he is benevolent, sensitive, and dutiful, and empathic to the point of being more than a little socially awkward.

It was fun writing him as an Oracle, because Oracles have supernatural powers, but at the same time the classical Confucian scholar doesn't really use supernatural powers; Confucius had discouraged the discussion of gods and spirits. So I thought of making Zhiyu more Confucian-inspired despite these challenges, by making him focused on propriety and family (I even built him as both an Ancestors and a Life Oracle!)... And gave him the Spiritual Sense feat too. That's why I wrote him this way, and emphasised his work in dealing with things properly - doing his duties and paperwork, settling affairs in order, respecting the lives of the common folk... This way, I could have a magic/ spirit-based character that still feels "proper" from a classical Chinese media tropey perspective.

At the same time, there's also another Chinese element - that of the New Year. Reunion dinners and celebrations are huge; we can imply Zhiyu is a workaholic, maybe one who is unmarried, has no time for family or relationships, and doesn't have any desire for socialising and politicking in big grand galas held to host Ministers and aristocrats. He's a virtuous magistrate after all, so that's the trope! But what about the two innkeepers? Why would they keep their business open on this day when everyone else seems reunited with their families? On one hand, that's to keep the place running for Zhiyu... But on another hand, maybe they don't have any living family, or anyone willing to invite them for family reunions... Due to the politics of the Successor States! That's kind of tragic, especially for the family-focused ethos of Confucianism. (But if you've read the story, perhaps they were already celebrating with their family all this time...)

Lastly, niangao are sticky glutinous rice flour cakes, popularly eaten as deep fried snacks during New Year. (For Filipino readers, that's tikoy haha.) Niangao, or 年糕, means "year cake", but could also be read as 年高, or literally "year rise", a hope that your new year will be better, will have more positive events basically. And that's part of the theme for this New Year setting for the story... To have a more upbeat feeling, despite it being about war and history.

Whew that's a wall of text! Enjoy the book when it's released tomorrow!!

Best,

Shao Han

A fun fact about arcade games and Singapore; while most media representations of Singapore present us either as glitzy megapolis of wealth and glamour (I'm not going to name specific movies or whatever, but you might know what I'm talking about), or a gateway to Asia, authenticity and culture poised with modernity and convenience yada yada.

Easily digested messages and memetic flows that are curated as much by tourist businesses and authorities, very top-down stories packaged to fly around the world to draw investors and visitors.

However, we have a bit of our own subcultural underdog story, and that's about, of all things, Street Fighter. We have, despite our small population, managed to make an impact on the global Street Fighter scene due to the efforts and passions of Xian, a fighter who picks technically difficult and challenging characters to play. Xian is not a friend, but as part of the arcade "jianghu" (the Sinosphere loves using jianghu/ wuxia metaphors for everything), many would know of and respect his work. He has a humble background, he said in interviews he got good at arcade games by necessity so he could make the most out of every coin he threw into the machines, lived in a tiny public apartment with his family, and initially chased his dream, eventually with the help of fighting game communities both locally and internationally, and managed to make a big mark on the world, doing well in many tournaments.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Kun_Xian

https://liquipedia.net/fighters/Xian

So in a way, while the inclusion of Alley Bashers isn't about Xian or the local fighting game community, I feel it is also in a way, a reminder of some degree of cultural pride for a small nation, an inspiration, perhaps to other Singaporean readers or players, kind of like a little bit of Singaporean culture that isn't glitzy or overly packaged heh.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this elicits a bit of curiousity about Singapore, too :)

- 绍涵 /Shao Han

Hello CorvusMask,

For what it's worth, I personally didn't think you were criticising anything - some of my players didn't really feel too hot on the "arcade" too when they read the story, and wondered if it would have been cooler with animated fighting puppets (like the Taiwanese Pili productions, perhaps most famously known in its expression as the Japanese-Taiwanese project "Thunderbolt Fantasy") instead of illusionary fighters, but when they "got" what I was going for, to talk about the tensions of effervescent Asian youth culture amidst stuffy Asian political culture, it clicked for them. (Also, I swear, the illusionary fighters for Alley Bashers have a tiny bit of 1e precedence, I swear they do.)

My players also did say too, that if they didn't have the same cultural resonances as I did, given our similar cultural backgrounds... They might not get the arcade, etc, so much. So I totally understand why you might not be the biggest fan of these story elements, and I also appreciate that you are still commenting and posting your thoughts; for me personally, I took no offence and felt no criticism whatsoever at your post, and thought it was an entirely valid expression of your subjective position and feelings.

I'm also glad you liked Michelle's story, and hope when Tian Xia World Guide comes out, you'll be interested to take a look at the other aspects of Goka (and the rest of the Tian Xia region)!!

- 绍涵/ Shao Han

Apologies for the misattribution there <3

Apology accepted! Thank you!

Thank you, I think somewhere along the line in the long posts, it became a bit mixed up about who wrote what. I appreciate your kind words and perspective, and hope you enjoy your kopi when you read the rest of Goka (and Tian Xia) soon!

Hello,

Just to remind everyone, I'm not the author of the flash fiction. That credit belongs to Michelle (the author credited at the end of the story), and my relevant work here is limited to the Goka section that is in the Tian Xia World Guide, which built on and expanded the existing work on Goka by Sen in Ruby Phoenix AP, and also on 1e legacy materials.

Setting it clear here because I feel it is disrespectful in my opinion to not get the author of this story right. I made the setting materials of "Alley Bashers" and introduced kopi-tiams, which were incorporated into the story, and Sen established there were popular male musicians in Goka in the Ruby Phoenix AP, but the work for this story, the vision, the labour, the dreams, all were done by Michelle.

You can praise or slam me for my decisions, but please don't ignore the work of my fellow writers. I know it might have been a mistake or oversight but I would like to course-correct here before it gets worse.

Thank you all for reading.

- 绍涵 / Shao Han

To hop in on addressing the anachronistic cultural content, I just want everyone to be aware of a thing...

I'm the one who started it by mentioning there's an equivalent of K-pop boy bands and the entertainment management companies back during the Ruby Phoenix AP.

*Starts slap-fighting Shao* I will not let anyone else take this credit and responsibility from me!

Yes, sorry, ow, Sen 姐, that is all yours, paiseh paiseh

Anorak - you're most welcome! I look forward to being able to talk more about Goka (and the rest of Tian Xia) when the books come out :)))

Something bout "Alley Bashers"... I was somewhat inspired by some things from the descriptions of Goka in 1e, but I guess that's all I can say for now! I can probably talk about that inspiration process, when the World Guide releases.

(One more tidbit that few might know about Asian "arcades"; here in Singapore, we used to have these shops which were totally normal storefronts, maybe they sold yoghurt, clothes, general supplies, and at the back, nestled in some corner where their excess stock is kept/ where they hollowed out an office.. they would basically plug in a few entertainment devices. You would pay a dollar or two per hour to rent the machines and tvs, basically the more expensive rates are for fancy 16-bit SNES or Mega Drives, the most premium then was the 32-bit Neo Geo rigs. I was poor so I would play the 8-bit games, cos they were cheaper to rent. the somewhat worried-looking shopkeeper, who then ushered you to the back, gave you a controller and choice of games, and would cut the power once your time was up.

Since arcades weren't allowing us delinquents in, and we didn't really want to go to the dodgiest places with the toughest kids - those were actual recruiting grounds for the Golden League, I guess - the arcades we ended up frequenting were actual shopping arcades, selling all kinds of consumer goods, from cheongsams and kettles to cakes and incense, secretly hiding kids trying to run away from exam stress and imposing parental pressures
...)

Also... I hope more people will appreciate and find out about the Southeast Asian phenomena that are kopi-tiams, mentioned as the place where the girls were having their post-basher snacks!

Kopi is coffee in Malay, tiam is 店 (shop; it's dian in Mandarin, diam or tiam in Hokkien), so kopi-tiam is a coffee shop. You'll find them in places across Southeast Asia; Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, etc, and of course, my home of Singapore, anywhere with a Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. These eateries, often open-air, serve far more than coffee, of course; tea, snacks, full meals of diverse cuisines and cultures. What people think of as "hawker centres" are oftentimes just really big "kopi-tiams".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_tiam

Hello! Shao Han here; I wrote the Goka section for the World Guide (as well as Alkenstar for Impossible Lands, which is another advanced megacity, so I might just have a liking for writing metropolises in Golarion). I really liked the story by Michelle, and am happy to see my section expanded upon in this fiction. (I also feel summoned by James, because I just happened to read this discussion a little after James posted...)

A ramble: as a Singaporean Chinese growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, video arcades were a huge part of my childhood; my biggest loves were comic books, RPGs, and arcade games, all of which my parents and elders forbade me from enjoying. They threw away my books and games, which made me want to play and read even more, and I ended up in many semi-legal or outright illegal video arcades run basically by gangsters and loan sharks. Why did I go to these exciting places? Because the legal arcades forbade students from entering them during daytime hours, so off to the red light districts and secret shady shops we went. I was supposed to go to tuition, cram schools, to mug for my exams, but I skipped class all the time, and met some of my best friends in these arcades, got into brawls, got chased by teachers, got dragged in front of my ancestral shrine to apologise for not doing well in school and playing video games, reading manga, the works.

Now, are these experiences things which I put into my work on Goka? To some degree, perhaps; it's not just about my own experiences of course. If you've spent time in Hong Kong or Taiwan as well, the more rough-and-rumble aspects of arcade cultures have some similarity with my own childhood and youth experiences. (A cool study of arcade cultures in Hong Kong, complete with the wuxia / jianghu analogies we gave arcade duels in the subcultures of the Sinosphere... https://gamestudies.org/06010601/articles/ng)

Are these experiences perhaps understandable, approachable, interesting to people outside the Chinese diaspora? This intersection of student rebellion, youth culture, stresses, search for competence and camaraderie in a pressure cooker environment?

I believe so... For me as an Asian citizen and scholar, I wanted, in my work, to give a taste of the feeling of that transient high and constant tension, the rush of feeling young and dangerous, that represent some of the feelings and dreams of youths in Asia. Perhaps they are anachronisms, but, hmm.. I don't really think they are stereotypes or cliches, per se... If they are, I hope they are heartfelt. These are lived experiences, that I hope to evoke, emulate, and share with everyone who visits Goka in this edition. I am glad and very grateful to have been given the chance to work on Tian Xia for this generation of RPG players. :)