halfcactus

Made a lyric video of Zhang Xincheng's new song, 喜劇 (Comedy), from his upcoming album, in which the narrator is a boyfailure. Once again thanks to llonkrebboj for beta-reading my translation and being my CatGPT. 😆


Both the curtain effect and the starry background are Resolve presets! Also the text effects. I had some playback issues when I was making the lyric video but it was nice to keep the effort minimal.

-

thefridayfive:

1. Have you ever stayed in a hostel? If so, where? Did you like it? If you haven't stayed in a hostel, would you?
Yeah, very nice ones haha. Here's a picture of a local hostel my family stayed in *checks Tumblr timestamp* seven years ago on a road trip north. I don't have pics of the room but it was a cozy bunkbed situation where the cubby for your valuables was also your night light.


And here's a vlog of the hostel I stayed in in Taipei (and will gladly stay in again), though I technically got a private room with an private bathroom so the experience was more hotel-like. I'm definitely more of a hotel person. ^^;

2. What is your favo(u)rite airport that you've been to? Why?
Any airport that's not ours... The bar is in hell. I also don't travel much so I have no basis of comparison.

3. What is the best museum you have visited on vacation?
Taiwan's Pop Music Exhibit at the Taipei Pop Music Museum. (Also in the vlog above.) It was just really relevant to my personal interests, on top of being a well-designed experience.

4. Have you ever made friends while traveling whom you keep in touch with on a regular basis?
No.

5. Have you ever had a conversation with a seatmate on a plane?
Lol yes against my will. I once sat with a chatty, overly friendly, and seemingly affluent older lady on a flight back home who liked talking about herself/her family and asked me questions that are probably normal (my job, my school) but made me feel trapped. She was nice, though!

Was recently talking about ISMM again, and figured I'd translate the theme song (in which Wei Yanzi raps about staying up to read RPS of himself and Gu Yiliang) for a friend. Haven't heard it in a while but it's still a bop and listening to it still makes me smile.

Ty to llonkrebboj for going above and beyond with beta-reading and pretty much teaching me how to read. :P Really enjoyed reading their notes and comments! Learned a lot from that. Going through a feedback process also forced me to slow down and marinate in the lyrics a bit.

Watch on YouTube

Notes: I'm still not really sure about the second verse but it's the less important one so I guess I can let it go.

Tools: made the srt on Video Captions app, and the thumbnail on Affinity Photo app

I also made Chinese/pinyin captions (which will show up if you select Chinese as your subtitle language)! I then made the mistake of hitting the "auto-translate" button which made my work feel (as always) quite useless and redundant. Not that it's gonna stop me, but you know.

Watch on YouTube

I actually subbed this entire thing on my phone and then my phone crashed and I apparently lost my draft, so I had to redo it on my computer which was 1) faster, 2) srt-friendly.

Fun facts: Wang Yuwen and Zhang Xincheng are real-life childhood friends (I haven't been keeping up with their promos, but the ones I've seen have been a lot of fun, though unshippable because of the sibling energy), and Zhang Xincheng and Guo Yunqi are college buddies. And IIRC this is the one where the Young Blood cast has a cameo?

Also just rewatched So Close, which was gayer than I remembered, I guess because a lot of Karen Mok's character's moments flew over my head when I was younger. This movie was really formative for me in spite of me only having seen it once. Assassin sisters, all-woman cast with extended fight scenes, enemies to lovers... what's not to love? (Okay, the shot of Karen Mok in her underwear was unnecessarily male gaze-y as neither of the sisters was around to witness it.) (And they appear to have spent all their music budget acquiring Close to You because the BGMs are so repetitive... The clubbing scenes are dreadful.)

Anyway I made a bunch of GIFs.


Shu Qi gifsets (please appreciate her tear-away suit)


Zhao Wei x Karen Mok gifsets (yes they kiss)

Subbed this song last Sunday and only looking at it again today. I figured I should take note of my references so I can find them again...

It's the promotional song for what appears to be a musical about... poetry?? Su Dongpo?? Even though I am, as gixininja puts it, "out of the pit", I'm still very happy to hear ZXC sing this! He gets to utilize his toolkit as a musical actor more fully, which I like. I know I'm biased because I just read the lyrics, but I love the operatic flair in the verses and the way it genuinely evokes a sense of there being an audience to hear a recitation.

I'm still very ??? at the song because I don't read Chinese poetry, don’t know anything about Su Dongpo’s life, and have no idea how to read poetic language, and was mostly Googling phrases and playing connect-the-dots. (Never mind preserving the structure and flow when I'm still chewing over everything.)

Notes

一山一水 一扁舟 / 一路烟尘 一世游 / 一俯一仰 一声笑 / 一轮明月 一江秋

Reference: 一字诗 (陈沆)—this poem is borrowed almost word-for-word, and sets up the structure of the entire song (made of the character for "one"): "一帆一桨一渔舟，一个渔翁一钓钩。 / 一俯一仰一场笑，一江明月一江秋。"

缘来缘去 / 一程去留浑无意

Notes: The overall feeling for me is that fate comes and goes like the flowing river that appears in the first verse, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's still unclear to me whose 去留 is to be 无意'd. 一程 makes it feel like a crucial stage in one's life, maybe?

谁怨谁怕 / 一蓑烟雨任平生

Reference: 定风波·莫听穿林打叶声 (苏轼): "竹杖芒鞋轻胜马，谁怕？一蓑烟雨任平生。"

几时归去 / 对 一张琴 / 一壶酒 一溪云

Reference: 行香子·述怀 (苏轼): "几时归去，作个闲人。对一张琴，一壶酒，一溪云。 "

---

Recently:

Finished our groupwatch for The Makanai, which was like Midnight Diner but set in the bubble of a maiko house that seems quite untouched by time, external circumstances, and financial issues. The main characters are two childhood friends who left their home in Aomori to share a dream. Momoko, the older and peerless zombie-obsessed geiko who's sorely in need of a rival, is AMAZING.

We're watching To the Wonder next, the eight-episode drama adaptation of Li Juan's essays about living in Altay.

Got back into games by deciding to DNF FE3H—I was still in my first playthrough (Golden Deer route), but it just wasn't sparking joy anymore, in spite of my love for Hilda. I've instead picked up Eiyuden Chronicle as my new fixation. I'd Kickstarted it a while back in a fit of Suikoden nostalgia, but over the years my excitement fizzled away and I didn't feel a single thing when it was finally released a couple months ago. Now that I am playing it, I have SO MANY thoughts about it, and I really hope I don't lose interest after 20 hours... or after 20 recruitments...

I also found out that you can track Switch sales through Deku Deals and spent some time scrolling through it while waiting for my battles to load (the Switch version of Eiyuden takes FOREVER for battles to load). I got Wandersong as a treat since it was on sale for $5 but I have nooooo idea if I'll ever play it. (I'm mostly waiting for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective to go on sale, because I just played the demo version where I got to save a brave little doggie. ;___;)

My reading brain which had only just come back to life is now offline again. D: I'm hoping to be able to keep reading 1-2 chapters of 橋頭樓上 a week because I really don't want to lose track of the plot... It's the kind of book where you have to pay attention to the little details + I don't have a fantranslation to fall back on if I'm unclear about what's happening. Why can't I have more than 1 brain???

Watch on YouTube

Cross-posted: AO3 / Tumblr

Gu Yu fanvid set to 安和桥 (Anhe Bridge), a song about halcyon days and memories of being loved.

Prompt from jianghuchild: "Gu Yu-centric. Something that explores his character, especially his inferiority complex, his pride, his sort of 可怜之人必有可恨之处 type of thing." + 安和桥 vibes + "If you feel so inclined to make it shippy with Jiang Xueming I would love that too but no pressure"

This was such a great song suggestion from the requester herself! I got all the feels reading the lyrics and found it perfect for a number of Hikaru no Go characters. ;__; I tried to squeeze in as many shippy moments as I could (as requested) but the gen / Go Club feelings won out haha. I love them!!! So much!!!

There were a couple of lines in the lyrics I wasn't sure I understood, so I'm afraid I might have mistranslated them. Thankfully my audience of one doesn't need subs???

-

One last request left, with a week (and a whole weekend) to spare, which means I might end up dropping the ball on it. I feel bad for the requester already ajsksdfpa;sj;

A new trailer officially announcing Gone with the Wind's April 27 release (CCTV-8, Youku), this time highlighting the crime and mystery aspects. It's set to have 28 episodes that one can only hope they maximize with minimal onscreen gendered abuse/violence scenes... I also hope that the leads can be as shady as they look in the trailers. Be straight, do crimes!!!




Edit:
Alternate links now that it's blocked on Youtube: Dailymotion / Twitter

I finally have the power to embed shorts... thanks to this website. I've also been playing around with Capcut for "lighter" work. I don't really like the interface. I genuinely struggle to figure out where anything is and frequently have to Google (Inshot and Davinci Resolve have been much more intuitive, in comparison). But it has a robust library of animations and transitions and there's even a desktop version that's now compatible with my OS...

Zhang Xincheng

( Music awards and livestream cuts )

She Belongs to Me audiodrama:

(Also crossposted on Twitter / baihe_media)
( I'm a cat + lipstick scenes )
I'm still figuring out the fandom etiquette for posting audiodrama fansubs, and whether or not I'm in danger of getting copyright-struck on Youtube. I should probably put together some sort of master post for my own organization, though I'm kind of resigned that the Modu clips I live-tweeted as I went through season 5 will not make it anywhere else.


Other stuff:
Cdrama Gotcha For Gaza has opened sign-ups for creators and I'm still thinking about whether or not I should sign up. On one hand, I could use prompts so I can remember how Photoshop works. On the other, I'm not suuuuper sure I can deliver and anyway my Adobe might stop working in 5 days, in which case I will have a breakdown lol.

I did these back in September but I was going through my works this year and thought I'd round them up for archiving purposes...


Note: Dailymotion doesn't appear to automatically display external subtitles, so you have to tap the captions icon (bottom right) or gear icon (upper right).

SO many feelings about this performance and how much Tank is leaning on the cast to help him get through it—and Ella, Zhang Jie, and Penny giving him the best support. He was a nervous wreck beforehand and utterly relieved afterwards. （；へ：）He nailed it, though!!!


Related Links:

subbed: Tank, "Three Kingdom Love" (Time Concert performance)

subbed: Tank's Time Concert entrance—reuniting with Ella!

subbed: Ella and Tank talking about meeting in 2005

subbed: Tank talking about his physical and mental deteriorations (an edited cut for copyright reasons)

subbed: Reminiscing about Hana Kimi (S.H.E, Tank, Fahrenheit era) (this one has lots of typos oops!)

First of all: Zhang Xincheng has been releasing tracks from his mini-album, culminating in a music video that I (unexpectedly) like a lot! The teaser caught my attention because it was giving sapphic vibes, so the part in the MV with "our unbreakable friendship" made me LOL.


Lyrics are by ZXC himself. While they are not the most poetic, they are sincere and uplifting. Both visuals and message remind me a lot of Reese Lansangan's St. Petersburg (about giving the listener the time and space to wander) and Easier (a song for her fan-community: I know I can’t change the world to make it better, no / I can’t heal the wounds / But I can proudly show you how I bruise).

St. Petersburg in particular is one I remember accompanying me when I felt sad and overwhelmed, so much that I have an embarrassing blog entry about it from 2016. (And I'm highly reccing the MV if you want the island + community + FOOD experience and a true sense of space and light, and not just the idealized aesthetic hehehe (it's pretty much a travelogue set to music)

+I've been listening to Easier a lot lately!




I spent September and October making lyric videos of ZXC's other tracks (all compiled here) and at this point I'm ready to retire my Youtube channel lol??? I've been feeling extremely non-fandom-y and lately I want to go back to personal journaling; my planner is nothing but boring and increasingly long daily to-do-lists now and I think it's affecting me. I need quiet time and visual stimulation!!!!!

---

Time Concert: Old Friends

A list of ep2 things!

It is revealed that G.E.M. almost declined to join the show (at Jason Zhang's invitation) because she was nervous about having to sing covers; she attributes the success of her songs to the people who wrote and produced them for her, declaring her own singing quite ordinary. (+ She debuted early and never had the chance to play around with music or do covers, it seems.)

Ella is very consistent in her advice to just enjoy the time onstage. :') It's very sweet and it makes me glad to know that she likes performing!

Tank talks about how his older sister always fully supported his decision to pursue music (whereas their parents objected) until she passed away from heart problems. :( If I Become a Memory was written for her. And he talks about how Ella always made him feel safe and reminds him of his sister. Their siblingly dynamic is so sweet and cute!

ELLA, using her normal outside voice:
SO? NOT NERVOUS ANYMORE, ARE YOU? :D :D :D

TANK, embarrassed and long-suffering:
Can you lower your voice!!!

Personal Angel transforming from a song written for Hana Kimi to a very personal one about his sister, his friends, and all the people who've given him strength and watched over him. ;___; And Ella singing it with him because he still had stage trauma, and it turned out to be such a lovely duet, one I loved before knowing the context of their performance. I guess it makes sense for Ella to be so natural with harmonies since she used to be in a girl group, but her voice really is so smooth and unique. ;___;

Roy Wang (TFBOYS) telling Tank that Personal Angel had also given him strength. He has covered it before (Tank, smiling: "I saw.") and the covers helped him get fans.

Zhang Xincheng is proof that if you make your fandom your personality while working to make a name for yourself, you can not only meet your idol, but also have the opportunity to sing with him. XD

I've been having an emotional full-circle week; I really wanted to sub the concert vlogs because majority of the people who translate these types of content (including official translations for various cmedia) skip over the songs. I'm a tiny account, but I really hope!!! That the handful of people who see my videos!!! Become more interested in Jay Chou's (and his co-lyricists') songs!!!

(I did get one person thanking me for my notes in my subtitles, so there's that.)

I'm a casual Jay Chou listener at most, but he definitely has been integral to my life: first as a point of connection to a language and culture I wanted to be part of, and, more recently, owing to the longevity of his career and the heights of his popularity, as a point of connection with other Sino diaspora people I met online. I started listening to his music long before I had any functional Chinese ability (or the technology to learn it), when all the words were, for the most part, just syllables, rendered more mysterious by his disinclination to enunciate. It's been really surreal to revisit old songs with fresh eyes and realize I can understand and interpret them myself now without depending of fantranslations or needing to go over every word with pen, paper, and too much guesswork (though I absolutely still recommend this method, I learned so much from this).

(It does help that a lot of the singalong clips that were included in the vlogs—as well as ZXC's preferences, it seems—were the ones with straightforward lyrics. XD I still need to level up to unlock his other songs hahaha.)



Funnily enough, the parts I struggled the most with in translating were the chorus parts of You Can Hear It, which I couldn't get to come out more naturally or more cohesively. (My first thought for "太過依賴" was "clingy" or "needy", but they feel too colloquial and a little anachronistic for a song written in the 2000s???) On the other hand, I feel that I've really improved a lot in the past year in the sense that I'm much more comfortable with changing words and aiming for natural, concise, and reasonably paced, rather than precise. And also being more succinct with my notes, instead of overexplaining the way I used to. /o\

-

In somewhat related news, my dad has found out that I can read Chinese, while I learned that if I read out messages to him in Mandarin, even without me necessarily understanding what I'm reading, he can translate them in his head in Hokkien? It's making me feel both like part of the problem (by not learning the heritage language), but also... the solution (by having some level of literacy in the only feasible language). PS. He was especially baffled because I was reading text in simplified and tbh so was I. 😂