halfcactus

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\

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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. 😂

Rainless Love in a Godless Land (2021)
Omg I swear I had an entire post about this but Dreamwidth ate it. :(((((( tl;dr this was just an okay drama that is a bit of a cross between Good Omens and Goblin/Guardian, but had very, very, veeeery powerful cinematic moments (the entire intro, and then the Shi Shi performance in the middle, for example!) and a banger soundtrack. The soundtrack is really impressive to me--it's not only cohesive, but the lyrics are actually very relevant and used for maximum effect in the show!!! It's very purposeful about the music in ways that I found EXTREMELY satisfying. The Mayday song is used exactly once, in the end, and there are even some great BGMs that they saved until the later scenes.

I had and still have a lot of thoughts about its use of Amis folklore and I guess overall I appreciated the intention but ultimately I think it falls short. I wish they'd used their artistic budget to have short informative post-credits segments about the real lore and practices.

Other things I liked: Toem's everything!!!!!!! She is the single most interesting, and most well-executed character in the show. Best BGM, best styling (not just her excellent collection of earrings, but her outfits that play a lot with PoV), best storytelling. And generally I think this show did well with visual themes of dualities, reflections, and seeing people through reflective surfaces. I also loved that one scene where Hsieh Tienti compares prophecy with the experience of having to rewatch a movie and laugh at the same jokes again and again.


Midnight Diner (S1)
I've only finished maybe 7 out of 10 episodes, but I was enjoying this as a Sunday afternoon background watch! It's a slice-of-life show from the PoV of the diner's owner (known as Master)--his policy is to accommodate requests from customers if he has ingredients on hand. Each episode is centered on one customer and one dish, and dishes are usually simple, homey, comfort food, from butter rice to ochazuke to yakisoba.

Of all the food-related shows, this is the only one that genuinely made me want to cook and made me realize that I do actually enjoy food, haha.


Jay Chou, "The Greatest Works of Art" [album + MV] (2022)

This is the long-, long-,long-awaited Jay Chou album, though half of the songs appear to be re-releases of his older singles. I think it makes for a good workout album, and that Still Wandering and You Are the Firework That I Missed fit so well together, lyrically.

I really enjoyed the MV!!!!!!! Plot-wise it's a lot like his 2007 movie Secret (Jay really likes his magical pianos), but more artsy and glamorous and whimsical, and with an outlook that is more adult and less self-absorbed. There's a little piano duel in the middle (with none other than Lang Lang) that's actually fun, not just a directorial flex.