I love how the author manages to show and entwine the toxic chinese culture of saving face throughout the manhua, and even does it so organically. We southeast asians save face , but not to this extent—at least from my experience. They always put importance on what they'd look like in public, and they even do so collectively.
Gu Qingpei was literally -ed, but he bounced back because of his pride (not arrogance, the self-image ego one if you know what I mean). I don't know, he should be traumatized, but then again, he has a different mindset there shaped by a strong culture or something. Maybe he is traumatized, but just chose to focus more on his "ego" because he did see that as Yuan Yang humiliating him. Do debate me if I'm wrong. Or just correct me haha. He saw that assault as Yuan Yang winning their unspoken game and a humiliation of his image, not something to carry or affect him in a very devastating, psychologically unsurvivable way. I just hope this won't influence or promote to those who don't know any better that is okay if it's to humiliate other people. It's wrong at any capacity. Please.
Anyways, that wasn't the point of the story, though I did hope the author didn't use assault because clearly they used it as a shortcut for two things: 1) to show their dynamic by glossing over it and reframing it as a display of Yuan Yang's dominance, and; 2) to boost their love story by having Yuan Yang "taste" him and then see him from a different light moving forward. Portrayal of assault or attempted assault has always been used in modern asian digital literature (im talking webnovels and webcomics) but rarely has it been used properly. The sad reality is that it's almost always only being used as a cheap shortcut for the two leads to have chemistry, even if the one doing the assault is one of the leads.
Now, I've also mentioned ego. Yes, their country has a very different way of internalizing(idk if i used the right term pls help) their ego. If us in southeast asia can lose face and take a hit from it... they take it more critically up there. If they lose face, it affects their whole social network (I'm talking family level, colleagues, maybe even ancestors). Basically less resilient than us, though I'm not saying all Chinese people are like this. This is such an interesting concept to study, and one we see more often than not woven into their literature at some capacities.
As a writer, it's so easy to see. Losing face is why their drama series are big on shaming competition or bullies instead of building their character — their villains are more often made as caricatures instead of being well-rounded. This is also why their media rarely produce anything involving a protagonist with negative traits. The ones I've read/watched so far that shows well-rounded characters and less linear plots are from authors who are a bit radical with their beliefs compared to the rest of their country (and radical has a different meaning in their context. For example, being gay is already radical for them. I can add more examples if u want). At least a lot of creative people there learned since kung fu panda haha.
Also, they are a very collective culture. They put more importance on stability and identity that they could get toxic. Think Yu Menglong and all those other stories of people there who didn't get justice. (I mus digress: his death could really be just an accident and not an organized crime as what their authorities say, but China had a lot of incidents with the same patterns under different contexts that it's just so suspicious now). Anything that could compromise their social harmony or ego(the public face), they must fix before it sprouts into the public gaze. So they settle things in private, delete stuff that could influence how the public perceives them, etc... This means their offsprings should also do good, because otherwise they failed as parents. One person reflects their whole family name, so they do their best to keep their kin in line.
This is also what their conservatism(not just politics) is basically about. Preserving established customs and anything pre-established. You have to at least grasp Asian conservatism to understand (yes, different regions/continents/countries have different views on conservatism). And saving face, for them, is a cultural mechanism to support their conservative values. You can also look up Confusianism to help understanding haha. Basically you lose face = you and your whole crew lose integrity = y'all lose credibility = your social role is scrutinized and questioned = public won't trust you anymore = you'd be shamed for a very, very long time. Better move to france if you did something bad haha.
We saw an example when Yang's father shared those hot pics, confidently so because his son's face is blurred, but felt threatened when Yang said he'd share the whole video. Sharing the video = Yang's face would be exposed = "what would people think of me raising a gay son?" "What would people think of us Yuans?"
Anyways, I should be preparing for an important exam in the afternoon lol. This is just an analysis, or a comment of fascination at the author's displaying of their culture in an organic manner. You can add to this, or get inspired to build your own fictional community where conservatism and saving face bleeds into their every action/reaction/interactions. I hope this helped in some way, or ragebaited if not lol. Peace out
I love how the author manages to show and entwine the toxic chinese culture of saving face throughout the manhua, and even does it so organically. We southeast asians save face , but not to this extent—at least from my experience. They always put importance on what they'd look like in public, and they even do so collectively.
Gu Qingpei was literally -ed, but he bounced back because of his pride (not arrogance, the self-image ego one if you know what I mean). I don't know, he should be traumatized, but then again, he has a different mindset there shaped by a strong culture or something. Maybe he is traumatized, but just chose to focus more on his "ego" because he did see that as Yuan Yang humiliating him. Do debate me if I'm wrong. Or just correct me haha. He saw that assault as Yuan Yang winning their unspoken game and a humiliation of his image, not something to carry or affect him in a very devastating, psychologically unsurvivable way. I just hope this won't influence or promote to those who don't know any better that is okay if it's to humiliate other people. It's wrong at any capacity. Please.
Anyways, that wasn't the point of the story, though I did hope the author didn't use assault because clearly they used it as a shortcut for two things: 1) to show their dynamic by glossing over it and reframing it as a display of Yuan Yang's dominance, and; 2) to boost their love story by having Yuan Yang "taste" him and then see him from a different light moving forward. Portrayal of assault or attempted assault has always been used in modern asian digital literature (im talking webnovels and webcomics) but rarely has it been used properly. The sad reality is that it's almost always only being used as a cheap shortcut for the two leads to have chemistry, even if the one doing the assault is one of the leads.
Now, I've also mentioned ego. Yes, their country has a very different way of internalizing(idk if i used the right term pls help) their ego. If us in southeast asia can lose face and take a hit from it... they take it more critically up there. If they lose face, it affects their whole social network (I'm talking family level, colleagues, maybe even ancestors). Basically less resilient than us, though I'm not saying all Chinese people are like this. This is such an interesting concept to study, and one we see more often than not woven into their literature at some capacities.
As a writer, it's so easy to see. Losing face is why their drama series are big on shaming competition or bullies instead of building their character — their villains are more often made as caricatures instead of being well-rounded. This is also why their media rarely produce anything involving a protagonist with negative traits. The ones I've read/watched so far that shows well-rounded characters and less linear plots are from authors who are a bit radical with their beliefs compared to the rest of their country (and radical has a different meaning in their context. For example, being gay is already radical for them. I can add more examples if u want). At least a lot of creative people there learned since kung fu panda haha.
Also, they are a very collective culture. They put more importance on stability and identity that they could get toxic. Think Yu Menglong and all those other stories of people there who didn't get justice. (I mus digress: his death could really be just an accident and not an organized crime as what their authorities say, but China had a lot of incidents with the same patterns under different contexts that it's just so suspicious now). Anything that could compromise their social harmony or ego(the public face), they must fix before it sprouts into the public gaze. So they settle things in private, delete stuff that could influence how the public perceives them, etc... This means their offsprings should also do good, because otherwise they failed as parents. One person reflects their whole family name, so they do their best to keep their kin in line.
This is also what their conservatism(not just politics) is basically about. Preserving established customs and anything pre-established. You have to at least grasp Asian conservatism to understand (yes, different regions/continents/countries have different views on conservatism). And saving face, for them, is a cultural mechanism to support their conservative values. You can also look up Confusianism to help understanding haha. Basically you lose face = you and your whole crew lose integrity = y'all lose credibility = your social role is scrutinized and questioned = public won't trust you anymore = you'd be shamed for a very, very long time. Better move to france if you did something bad haha.
We saw an example when Yang's father shared those hot pics, confidently so because his son's face is blurred, but felt threatened when Yang said he'd share the whole video. Sharing the video = Yang's face would be exposed = "what would people think of me raising a gay son?" "What would people think of us Yuans?"
Anyways, I should be preparing for an important exam in the afternoon lol. This is just an analysis, or a comment of fascination at the author's displaying of their culture in an organic manner. You can add to this, or get inspired to build your own fictional community where conservatism and saving face bleeds into their every action/reaction/interactions. I hope this helped in some way, or ragebaited if not lol. Peace out