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
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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
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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?
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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 …
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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!
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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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Huh! Hot damn. So American fiction and myth-making is still mostly about the frontier? I'm trying to think of strong counter-examples... maybe in genres about long-game Machiavellian competition in politics or industry?
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ooh, hadn’t thought of it in those terms. pattern-matches to this
@sarahdoingthing post:https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/08/06/frontierland/ …
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