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reading some chinese manhua and i think i’m picking up some features of chinese culture that intrigue me. for example: it’s taken as a given that female attraction towards men is heavily mediated by wealth + status. also: “poor” is a typical insult, which is wild to me
i cannot remember the last time i saw someone use “poor” as an insult, IRL or in american fiction. it’s just not a thing people say even when they’re protected by anonymity on the internet! am i off base here? feels like an aspect of american discomfort w class
there’s also something about the way characters wield status and connections as weapons that feels uncomfortable to me. like everyone is sorta ambiently in the mafia or something. the MC wins conflicts because his enemy knows the owner of the mall but he knows the mayor
somehow i’m much more used to seeing heroic characters settle conflicts with either violence or personal charm. this isn’t quite either of those... i think in american fiction, characters who wield status and connections like this are practically always villains?
something feels oddly amoral about it all too. the MC isn’t exactly punishing evil, he’s punishing his enemies, who are mostly the people who don’t have the sense to defer to him properly. he doesn’t fight for good, he fights for his friends, family, and allies, who do defer
everyone is also comfortable with the MC humiliating his enemies and not letting them save any face in a way that feels uncomfortable to me and that i don’t see in american fiction either. i think american MCs are ideally supposed to be gracious and merciful to their enemies
it’s like... in american fiction you don’t live in a society with your enemies. either you or your enemies or both are outside society in some way. in these manhua you and your enemies are both people who live in society, and beating them means they submit to you as higher status
it’s striking how much more alien the read of chinese culture i get from manhua is than the read of japanese culture i get from manga and anime is. i don’t know if i’m more used to japanese culture by now or if it’s genuinely more westernized or what
the difference is like... japanese culture as revealed through manga has a fundamentally romantic / sentimental streak that jives with american pop culture, and chinese culture as revealed through manhua is... deeply pragmatic or something, by comparison?
in case anyone would like to check my work, links (reading on this particular site involves dealing with a bunch of annoying sexy ads tho): https://kissmanga.com/Manga/My-Amazing-Wechat … https://kissmanga.com/Manga/Rebirth-of-the-Urban-Immortal-Cultivator …
i should also say, this thread could be read as criticizing chinese culture but american culture also comes across weird in comparison in a few ways, e.g. it's actually strange how comfortable i am with "heroes" solving problems with violence as opposed to soft power / guanxi!
the prototypical "hero" in american pop culture is actually a glorified cop and i'm sort of amazed i never really made that connection. "heroes" take down threats to the social order with a monopoly on violence. wild
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