Sorry I Haven't Posted In Awhile. This Is My First Time Doing An Edit Like This, Hope You Like It 💕

Mousie’s New and Improved Top 20 Cdramas List

Because why not. These are ordered in terms of being my favorite as opposed to pure quality - if I was trying to be objective, it would probably be rearranged, but I like being petty and subjective.

You will notice that literally every drama on this list is a period drama. Much as I adore period cdramas, contemporary ones rarely work for me.  

20. Princess Agents (tie)

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll6x8zf2CnQ

Our heroine is a slave in a brutal society who becomes a feared general, fighting for freedom and love of a Yan prince. But her heart might actually lie with a seemingly cold adversary who is madly in love with her (I shipped them so hard!) I was one of five people who loved the infamous cliffhanger ending because it made a brutal kind of sense (You can read the novel if you want a different resolution.)

20. Tribes and Empires (tie)

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyRsPAGUz-Q

This one has a hell of an open ending, but it’s so gorgeous and epic, I don’t even care. Set in a fantasy empire, it follows three men - a half-human prince, a cursed son of a general, and an orphaned leader of a barbarian tribe. A feast for the eyes.

19. Ice Fantasy

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05lhfrWgQg

A visually stunning high fantasy with elves, quests, a shockingly wonderful hero, brotherly love, toughest lady general ever as OTP and basically everything I like.

18. The General and I

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XDR17kwXYM

The lengthy OTP separation brings its place in this list down, but otherwise a gorgeous romance between two enemies - a general and a female strategist, is a total swoon and so intense. 

17. Three Kingdoms 2010

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3RVpdYDpYA

This one is a magnum opus of 100 episodes, with a tour de force performance by Chen Jian Bin as Cao Cao. Battles, politics, and even though it’s very secondary, one of my favorite love stories in cdramas. This one is if you want to use your brain as well as your heart.

16. Colourful Bone 

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4O5yb3VBh4

It probably doesn’t deserve to be this high on the list but it hits all my narrative and shippy kinks with a common-sense heroine taking in an abused and mistreated death machine and teaching him to be human. Mmmm.

15. Young Warriors 

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO83qvKaoSM

What do you get when you have seven awesome heroic brothers, a star-studded cast, tragic stories about heroism and love and just amazingness? You get this drama. 

14. Strange Hero Yi Zi Mei

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFVDAuFOyWE

Band of misfits fight corruption and uncover mysteries. This one is the most underrated drama on my list. Also, Wallace Huo has never been hotter in his life and that is saying something.

13. The Battle of Changsha 

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbgFMaUfpnE

By the same people who wrote Minglan, this follows a family in 1930s China and is a quiet, devastating masterpiece.

12. Prince of Lan Ling

MV (warning - spoilery): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jUVGP0HETo

He’s the consummate battle god. She is a mystical shaman. He is fated to be with someone else per prophecy but he doesn’t care and chooses her. True love, politics, battles, jealousy, amazingness, tragedy. I love them so. 

11. Gong/Jade Palace Lock Heart

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVFPVkHaweo

This is Boys over Flowers goes Qing (where Domyoji’s behavior finally makes sense since he’s a literal prince and Rui likes to kill people.) This is such a amazing good fun, about a modern woman time traveling to the time of the fight for the throne between Kangxi’s sons. She thinks she likes the seemingly gentle Four but ends up with hot-blooded, awesome Eight. She herself is tough as all get out and this is pure deliciousness from beginning to end. Yang Mi and Feng Shao Feng had such amazing chemistry, people RPShipped them for years. 

10. Return of the Condor Heroes 2006

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzXsBqVYp0I

My first cdrama ever, and what a gorgeous one it was. That’s what got me into cdramas. The childhood eps are pretty awful but after that, it’s pure shippy perfection with an incredible OTP. If you want to be in a constant romantic swoon, in that story of female master and her male disciple and their forbidden love, this one is for you.

9. Eternal Love/Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-ry-W4Crg

Fated immortal lovers, reincarnations, the whole enchilada. Yang Mi and Mark Chao have insane chemistry that burns up the screen. The first few eps are slow, but it makes up for it afterwards.

8. Legend of Fuyao

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkMX1d0v7t0

A twisty epic romance with a super-powered heroine who is plain awesome and may destroy the world, and a smart, ruthless prince who’s only soft for her. I love it so much!

7. Legend of Condor Heroes 2008

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2fea109_qM

Plot twists, good guy hero with a mega smart OTP, tragic anti-hero who becomes a villain for a while with an amazing OTP, bromance, fights, everything. I just adore this one. 

6. Bu Bu Jing Xin/Startling By Each Step

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9B3Rddrqt0

The one that started the time-travel craze (well, that and Gong), about a modern woman who time travels to the time of Emperor Kangxi’s sons’ fight for the throne, this is a gorgeously filmed tragic love story, with one of the most perfectly brutal endings out there. I adore it.

5. Nirvana in Fire

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4wps7SK9xo

This is a smart story about politics and revenge, where a survivor of a wrongly destroyed family comes to get justice. Seemingly laid back until it explodes. Not much romance but it doesn’t even need it. 

4. Rise of the Phoenixes 

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0BUvMKSj4E

Like the dramas to destroy you? Come right in. A story about a disfavored prince and a lost daughter of a previous dynasty, this is smart, gorgeous, and is going to wreck you.

3. Ever Night (s1)

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x99seU5qJuc

I have talked enough about it recently so I won’t say much more, but if you want epic, movie-like quality, characters you will love, amazing battles and cinematography, complicated world-building and an OTP to die for, come right in.

2. The Myth 

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rfyfKM_Ww0

For the longest time, this was my favorite cdrama, to be replaced only by Minglan. It starts out funny and ends up tearing out your heart. This is the only time in my drama watching experience I cried so hard I threw up. The story is about two accidental time-travelers - a photographer and a cook - who end up in Qin Dynasty China. And from then on it’s about how that cruel, horrifying world takes two perfectly normal men and by wracking their very souls turns one into a hero and the other into a monster. To me, this is Hu Ge’s best performance and as you see his protagonist desperately try to hold on to his humanity and his love in a world that is doing its best to destroy it, I dare you not to cry like a baby. His character is my ultimate cdrama crush.   

1. The Story of Minglan

MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA7m2QktiUk

Aaaaaand, my n1. cdrama is the amazing, too short at 73 eps, The Story of Minglan. It is very hard to describe the plot of this - a sort of Elizabeth Gaskell meets period China. It follows three interconnected upper-class families, but more specifically, it is about Shen Minglan, a concubine-born daughter of a minister and Gu Tingye, the oldest, legitimate, and hated by his family son of a Marquess. Their narratives run largely parallel for the first half of the story and such is the genius of this drama that I, the ultimate romance junkie, did not mind that. Minglan is a rarity in dramaworld - she is fiercely smart, very collected and emotionally detached. Life in the troubled Shen household taught her to survive and to hide her feelings and talents. Tingye is a big cdrama love. Abused and reviled by his household where he can do no right (the Marquess hated having to marry his merchant mother for money and has displaced that hate on her son), Tingye manages to keep his warm heart but acquires the ability to go his own way. Both of the protagonists are wonderful and smart and magnetic and rootable for separately, but when they get together, the sparks go off the charts and they become my n1 cdrama OTP of all time. A lot of the story is about family battles, women’s world dilemmas and relationship (of all sorts) interactions. There is also politics and battles, but the true charm of this drama are the mundane details of the world and the fully-fleshed out people who inhabit it. If you watch only one cdrama in your life, make it this one.     

how do you draw cats in chinese painting

cr 艺术肚肚

husbands #2

You have a soft-spoken, mild-mannered friend who would never hurt a fly. One day, you accidentally overheard them talking over their phone in a cold, apathetic voice, “I don’t care how you do it. If you don’t return the money by tomorrow, you can say goodbye to your family.”

Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):

“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.

“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.

“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.

“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”

“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”

“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.

“Do it scared” but please realize that, if you Do It Scared too much and don’t let yourself rest + relax + have fun in between, you will fuck yourself up. If you “do it scared” all day every day, you will burn out badly and quickly. Sometimes this is temporarily necessary but please keep this in mind.

I don’t think anyone needs me to do a why-you-should-read for 2ha because I’m late af to the party, but no danmei rec is complete this year without 2ha and shizun and mo ran! I have feels okay, a lot of them!!!! Like?!! CHU WANNING?!!! So ethereal and gorgeous and deserves everything in the world, and also a shrine in my room dedicated to the beauty and grace and power that is shizun.

So here’s me trying to summarize and also delve into specific parts of 2ha as much as I can, although because I’m new to the fandom I’d say don’t take my word for it entirely XD It’s just Hao Yi XIng (Immortality) is coming out soon and we’re all gonna lost our shit, and it’s cool to have read the novel before the show comes out. This will be the first of… five parts I think to a full 2ha post, but no worries, I won’t like vomit em all out in the first week of January.

We can all agree on a shizun shrine though. Right? RIGHT?!!

Anyway with this one I’ve basically done 10 recs before 2021 approaches, so here’s the compilation:

My Top 2020 Danmei Rec List

Another Rec List

Enter 2021 with these Danmei Novels (with full descriptions + links)!

- Part of Min’s ‘Why You Should Read’ Series - 

Summary:

Emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian-jun (also known as Mo Ran or Mo Weiyu) has basically committed every sin there is and has at the point right before his death, slaughtered and killed innumerable people. The novel starts with Taxian-jun’s death as he kills himself, tired and weary of the world especially after his shizun, Chu Wanning died. He wakes up in his teenage body, in the first year he became a disciple, and decides that he has a chance to redo everything - to keep the love of his life, Shi Mei, from dying and to ensure that his cruel and hateful shizun, Chu Wanning, will not get the chance to let Shi Mei die again.

As his teenage, young self, however, as much as Mo Ran hates and resents CWN, he recalls all the times he spent with CWN in his previous life, where he made him his consort after stripping away all his cultivation and powers, wanting to punish him for not saving Shi Mei by keeping him at his side in that position. He lusts after CWN in this present timeline, remembering all the times they were in bed together, but is also conflicted about his shizun because on one hand, he hates him, but on the other hand, he can’t help but keep noticing shizun and paying attention to what he does. 

As he goes through the same events that he experienced in his first life as a disciple, Mo Ran continues to hate CWN but begins to see his actions in different light. He always thought that CWN thought him to be inferior, and that CWN was a pretentious, arrogant asshole, but as he goes through these same events with different changes (for example, he recalled sitting out of his very first mission with CWN and Shi Mei, but found himself actively involved, working together with his shizun in this present life), the time spent together allows him to better understand CWN’s actions now and also back then in their previous life when he was still a disciple.

CWN on the other hand, despite how he supposedly treats Mo Ran, actually dotes on and is very fond of Mo Ran (this was the case in the previous life, not that he has any recollection of that, and also in this life). He thinks that he is not good-looking and is undeserving of attention, concern and love, and so only knows how to quietly give and makes sacrifices without asking for anything in return. He knows that Mo Ran likes Shi Mei, and is both depressed and angry about that on his own.

As Mo Ran gets to know CWN all over again (and also hurting him here and there in the process), they reach the fated battle where CWN let Shi Mei die (in the previous life) in this life, and desperate still to keep Shi Mei from dying, he replaces Shi Mei’s role in the battle and nearly dies himself.

From then on, truths are revealed about both the previous and current timeline, and Mo Ran has to chase and woo his shizun back, all the while trying to figure out what is the mysterious force that sent him back in time to his current timeline and what danger lies ahead for him and CWN as they try to basically save the cultivation world from destruction.

- Timelines:

0.5 refers to Taxian-Jun and Chu Wanning as Chu Fei (Consort Chu) 

1.0 refers to Mo Ran as a teenager and Chu Wanning before the events of THAT battle

2.0 is when Mo Ran becomes Mo-zongshi and the Chu Wanning then as they date properly, fall in love, all the UST etc. hahahaha

- Chapters where everyone will warn you to prepare yourself for:

278-280, and no one can tell me otherwise

*This is also a highly contentious danmei novel, some for good reason, most of the times for dumb reasons. Do see the trigger warnings here on the sort-of official 2ha carrd, but also do read my thoughts/disclaimers at the bottom of the post.

*There are also some spoilers below, but none that’s really significant. However, just in case, do skip!

Read:

Novel (Online) | Novel (Print) - Pirated, Uncensored Version + Official Vol. 1 Dec 2020 Print (Censored) | Novel Translations | Fan Audio Drama | Manhua - Slated for Nov/Dec 2020 on Kuaikan but has since been delayed

*Normally I wouldn’t put any pirated version links, but this current one is the only one that has a proper print and the extras and notes are really hard to find even online, but this pirated version has compiled everything, no section is missing. But of course please do support the original versions, both online on JJWXC and the physical prints

Watch:

Hao Yi Xing (Immortality) - Slated for Spring 2021 release (TBA) | 50 episodes

Last I heard, they were supposed to be cleared for a Feb/Mar launch this month, but the review told them to make some adjustments so it’s likely to be delayed

I mean, for good reason, because there is NO WAY you can run platonic for the live-action based on the story, and the production itself has also reassured fans that they would be doing the novel justice (and from leaks, this does seem to be the case and damn, there’s NO WAY you can go pure platonic on this one, even bromance is far-fetched)

Luo Yunxi is a god among peasants, and Chen Feiyu is cute af

Some details are definitely being changed, for e.g. CWN obviously can’t be a Consort, so he’s been relegated to the Zither Player role (but if I’m not wrong the role itself like traditionally is also half euphemism for someone who sleeps with the Emperor as well)

2.0 Mo Ran - 1.0 Chu Wanning - 2.0 Chu Wanning 

1.0 Mo Ran - 0.5 Chu Wanning - 0.5 Mo Ran

Characters:

1. 墨燃 Mo Ran - His courtesy name is 墨微雨 Mo Weiyu and in the 0.5 version he called himself 踏仙君 Taxian-jun, which literally means a king who steps on deities/cultivators (fitting, since he slaughtered a lot of them). Initially, Mo Ran actually chose CWN as his shizun because he was the best-looking, and that was possibly one of the only times someone actually chose CWN voluntarily, and for that he always had a special place in CWN’s heart. 

As Taxian-jun (0.5) he forced CWN to marry him after stripping him of his powers and cultivation, imprisoned him for basically 8 years in the palace. He kills himself a little after CWN’s death, and then wakes up as CWN’s disciple again as a young teenager. He’s the last of CWN’s three disciples, and has a big, warm and kind heart. He also obviously was very fond of his shizun before things went spiralling out of control for various reasons that will smack you in the face after you finish 311 chapters.

He’s very intelligent, having actually mastered two of the three forbidden spells of the cultivation world in the 0.5 timeline. In the 1.0 timeline, he’s obviously still pretty talented/gifted for a disciple. In his past life, his chosen weapon was a sword called Bu Gui, and then in the present 1.0 timeline, he was given a whip that is connected to CWN’s whip (i.e. they were made from the same tree and were actually one full piece together before they broke into two). He accidentally names the whip “Jian Gui”, and everyone facepalms at that.

After he and CWN get past like….some of their misunderstandings (about maybe 70%, not that they knew it then), Mo Ran becomes full on devoted to his shizun, only has eyes for his shizun, totally clear that he perhaps liked Shi Mei, but never as much as he loves shizun, which is pretty amazing.

As Mo-zongshi (2.0), he’s super ripped, and CWN totally thirsts after him too XD

Has a really sad past that will only be revealed much later, and in the present timeline he is very much doted on by his uncle and auntie, who are Xue Meng’s parents.

2. 楚晚宁 Chu Wanning - WHERE DO I EVEN START. Talented, legendary gifted cultivator with not one but THREE weapons, in which the one he uses the most is Tian Wen, the whip. He doesn’t usually use Jiu Ge, the zither weapon, or his sword, Huai Sha, unless absolutely necessary. Also called 玉衡 as a title (晚夜玉衡 in full i.e. Yu Heng of the Night Sky), and in their sect, he’s referred to as Elder Yu Heng (玉衡长老).

Art picked by bookstores from various artists for the official print:

He has a really bad temper and takes no bullshit, and despite being really handsome, his self-esteem is down in the gutters - he thinks he’s not worthy of love and attention, and I recall in the first arc he always thought “who would love someone like me”. Because he’s so fearsome, other disciples don’t dare to talk to him or go near him, and he always eats alone, tends to his own wounds alone and basically does everything alone. No one cares about whether he’s eaten, if he’s hurt or not, etc. 

They’ve basically placed him on such a high pedestal that they forget that he’s just a person too. His bad temper also comes out usually when disciples think they can joke around with him or tease him etc. Everyone covets him in a sense that all sects want him to join them, and everyone knows him. He just takes no shit and kicks ass all the time.

Fond of Mo Ran (not romantically) when he first chooses him as his shizun when he is much younger. His romantic feelings for Mo Ran develop later, but he was first drawn to Mo Ran simply because he could feel how warm and kind Mo Ran’s soul was, and basically how he brightened up his life by not being afraid of him etc.

He does a lot of things for Mo Ran silently without him knowing, and lets Mo Ran misunderstand him on multiple occasions, knowing that even if he cleared things up, it wouldn’t change how much Mo Ran likes Shi Mei.

After the events of that single battle, in the 2.0 timeline, it’s CWN’s turn to be slightly oblivious as Mo Ran tries to care for him and woo him and let him know that he’s loved, but once they get past that, it’s so much love istg it makes you believe in love and weep all at the same time.

3. 师眛 Shi Mei - Beautiful gorgeous Shi Mei who’s Mo Ran loves and is fighting to keep alive in the 1.0 timeline. Shi Mei’s cultivation is in the direction of healing, and thus the way he trains is different from how the rest of them trains. He’s very respectful and considerate to his shizun, and is also the person Mo Ran thinks treats him the best. Mo Ran loves his special spicy wontons as well ;-;

4. 薛蒙 Xue Meng - Mo Ran’s younger cousin who in the 0.5 timeline hates him for taking shizun away and for killing his parents. In 1.0, he just detests Mo Ran and calls him a dog all the time. He’s been spoilt as the only child of his parents, and is also expected to take over the sect one day from his father. This gives him a bit of a complex XD He’s considered a little brash and impulsive, and definitely a little narcissistic as he thinks he’s the best looking so far, but he’s pretty much kind underneath all the preening. Has a huge sense of justice, and all he cares about are the people closest to him and his family. He also worships shizun a lot and always wants his attention, which shizun will give depending on the situation.

5. 梅寒雪／梅含雪 Mei Han Xue & Mei Han Xue - This ain’t a typo hahaha these two brothers’ names a re pronounced exactly the same but the character for ‘Han’ is different. One of them is flamboyant and a playboy, another is a little stoic and serious, with the latter always cleaning up after the former while the former breaks the hearts of women all over the region. They don’t feature very prominently in the first arc and come out more in 2.0 onwards, but it’s good to note that the both of them are possibly Xue Meng’s closest friends in both the 0.5 and 2.0 timelines, and after.

My Favourite Arcs & Moments:

The 1.0 arc is the most fun, I have to say - The plot isn’t as complicated yet then, and all you have is Mo Ran being his rebellious, horny teenager self going against shizun and also being confused by how much he wants shizun etc. 

Xia Sini arc - There’s the arc where CWN becomes a kid version of himself in size due to injuries where he’s called Xia Sini, and masquerades as a junior in the sect while he’s in that form - He also forms a bond with Mo Ran in that form, as Mo Ran seems to take a liking to this cute younger junior who acts like an adult

Hell arc - I will not give any spoilers but damn it was both hilarious and also my heart died at the same time

Farming arc - Everyone who has read 2ha knows of farming arc in 2.0 timeline, because we get two idiots thirsting quite obviously for each other, and also Mo Ran half naked all the time while shizun not quite deciding whether he wants to cover him up or stare at him for longer

The huge reveal arc - This one ripped my heart out, stomped on it, and then went for my eyes because I was crying so hard and for two days straight. The painful and devastating part is when Meatbun FINALLY links all the missing parts together and connects all the arcs and you’re literally slapped in the face with new revelations and a totally new understanding of what happened in 0.5 and 1.0 and then you wanna slap yourself too because now you’ve done it, you’re in this fandom, you’re in this black hole and your heart and brain and soul hurt

————

In terms of moments, I frickin died at the part where 1.0 Mo Ran first gets his whip and there’s a rule where whatever you say after you hold onto the weapon has to be the weapon’s name - And because I think Mo Ran trips or something, he said “Ah shit!” = “啊，见鬼” - And he inadvertently named his whip the equivalent of damn it/shit/crap basically, while everyone including shizun was like “damn it you stupid dog”

1.0 Shizun getting flashbacks from 0.5 and thinking that it’s just because he’s too horny and sinful and that’s why he’s dreaming of sex with a different Mo Ran like that (but it’s not, they actually happened in 0.5)

When Xia Sini waits for Mo Ran to have dinner with chicken soup he cooked and Mo Ran abandoned him to go find Shi Mei, and then ate up all the soup by himself without realizing that Xia Sini hadn’t eaten yet because he was waiting for him. Xia Sini says he’s a person too, he gets hungry, he hurts, etc. and I was like SHIZUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!

The fact that CWN is an idiot at life in general like cleaning or cooking or anything else - even 1.0 Mo Ran before he understood CWN was like “how the hell is he still alive”

FIREWORKS MOMENT y’all!!! It fulfils the unrequited love angst but also a bit of resolution, and from the leaks of the live-action drama for THIS VERY MOMENT we are all gonna die

WHEN MO RAN KNEELS DOWN IN FRONT OF SHIZUN!!!! 

I also liked it when CWN seemed surprised and also proud at all that Mo Ran had achieved as Mo-zongshi later

My Thoughts:

(Under the cut)

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