Yes! I’d rather no one dumb down their culture for anyone. Even within the African continent, I highlight words and research them to understand the context because they don't dumb it down and definitely don't need to. The research aspect is part of reading!
The only hand-holding authors should decide to do is add a glossary.
Btw in your 20’s and 30’s you’ll start rediscovering the niche interests and hobbies you had as a kid. It’s very important you revisit them. Your younger self was actually on to something
@oldredink I asked every artist who worked on official art of the book to not use actual Chinese when depicting literomancy spells. Some artists chose to use alternate scripts, some used a blend of a few real Chinese characters with mostly fantastical ones.
@oldredink The language in TPE, if you read closely, is not Mandarin but a close fantastical derivative thereof. There exists Mandarin characters to honor the heritage but always referred to as “the Ancestors’ language.” (2/3)
@oldredink Yes! Thank you for asking. I didn't want my story to lose magic for readers able to read in Chinese. Asian readers need our own fantasies too, not just our actual history+language recycled and repackaged. That was important to me. (1/3)
If adherence to previous tradition is the only metric of literary value, then there would be evolution thereof, no innovation, no blending of philosophies, no old stories told in new places, no magic. Our beloved genre of fantasy wouldn't exist at all.
Because culture isn't static, a rubric to be measured against. It is, by definition, created by us. It's the sum total of all the stories we tell, all the art we make, all the traditions we practice in all the scattered corners of the world. Culture is humans, put together.
How we engage with our culture is individual. It's the dishes our mothers cook. It's the anecdotes our grandfathers tell. It's those long-anticipated visits home for New Year's when we can afford to. It's the stories we grew up reading and the stories we continue to tell.
China is a vast country with layered history. Culture varies vastly region to region, including within the mainland. One person's experience of it is not more valid or authoritative than another's.
Heard there was discussion about The Poet Empress and its historical accuracy on here so I reactivated my account to clarify a few things. (long thread)
Y'all gotta realize nobody's expecting you to deconstruct and abandon all your patriarchal habits in one week we just want you to think critically about shit and not do backflips to try to make your conformism into a radical feminist act