"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 87 - 106

[x_los]

Weeks 21 - 26 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 87 - 106. This discussion will draw to a close, and the next session will open, on October 31st.

I'll be doing a weekly post with thoughts on this community. Feel free to join in/discuss. If you'd like to join the Discord, contact superborb for an invite.

Chinese text: https://sj.uukanshu.com/book.aspx?id=17338
English translation: https://merelhyn.tumblr.com/post/641747965727358976/the-langya-list-epubpdf

SPOILER POLICY: I personally don't give a fuck or even like to give unearned credence to the concept, so since I'm writing the post, anything's fair game.

(If anyone is interested in dankodes running further poetry content during or after NiF, please let me know what you'd be keen to discuss. I'm happy to work with you on that. I'll probably ask this again once NiF draws to a close.)

Comments

Chapter 106

[x_los]

‘And then I realized that, in fact, Jingyan will not be able to see it at all...”’ Which is itself sad.

Truly an unexpected subplot for Banruo, with implications re Han nationalism that I didn’t get at all the first time I saw the show. I don’t think I’m comfortable with simply concluding that the show is ultimately and flatly conservative on this point? Banruo pointedly parallels Changsu, and while you could say that his legitimate masculine vengeance is characterised by a desire to preserve/build, and thus distinguished from her feminised desire to annihilate, I think even including her as a reflection of Changsu raises interesting questions that aren't easily dismissed (and which the novel makes limited efforts to neatly resolve, when it could easily lampshade this more).

What’s this ‘few curves’ business?