These months of living with random COVID lockdowns have given me more of an opportunity to read. Recently, I took on the challenge of reading a novel in Chinese, which I haven’t done since leaving high school almost 30 years ago. I am very happy to report that I did manage to understand at least 70 to 80% of the characters and got through the story just fine. Luckily, Netflix is currently also showing a live drama serial based on the novel. After I binge-watched the TV series, it turned out to be incredibly helpful when reading the actual book.
The title?
Novel title is: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation or Mo2 Dao4 Zu3 Shi1 in Mandarin.
Netflix show title is: The Untamed
Apparently there is also an audio drama in Mandarin and an anime version as well. Clearly the story is very popular! So please do go check it out.
It’s basically a love story woven around a mystery thriller, but instead of your typical het couple, the two principal characters are a pair of gay lovers. Obviously nothing of this relationship was shown on the TV series due to strict Chinese censorship laws, but the original novel leaves nothing to the imagination.
Anyway, whatever the format, I liked the love story so much that I decided to paint it for myself. I have to admit it is one of the more entertaining pieces I’ve painted.
After I read the book and watched the TV show, I decided to do a bit more research and bought a book called “Passions of The Cut Sleeve”, which is someone’s PhD thesis on the history of homosexuality in ancient China. I read the whole thing, and was indeed amazed to discover that homosexuality, and even bisexuality was widely tolerated and even accepted in ancient Chinese times. What a surprise.
