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MXTX, Neil Gaiman and Word of Honor.
Aug. 6th, 2021 01:50 pm++ I'm so excited since it's has been announced that there's going to be official English translations of all of MXTX's novels (The Scum Villain's Self-Saving Service, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, and Heaven Official's Blessing) which you can pre-order right now. There's release schedules of the volumes for each, and according to the sources the translations will be uncensored, will be featuring the extra chapters, and the proceedings will go to the author. I know there's been skepticism and concerns about the latter especially, and while I don't know much information myself and I want to directly support the author, I want to trust the people involved with this that they're being honest in those statements. Either way though, I am excited for this because MXTX's work has become more known thanks to the success of The Untamed, and I know it's been hard for a lot of international fans to get any kind of official anything of these IPs, and hopefully this will not only get more people to become aware and interested in these works but also help other Chinese novels to get officially translated into English, as well.
I am still going to purchase the Chinese editions of the novels though, simply because I want to, since I'm that kind of person who will buy, if possible, a book in its original language alongside the translated version.
(As a sidenote, I know that the MXTX fandom is quite wanky in itself, most of which I only know via osmosis through third parties because I don't delve that deep into that side of the fandom and keep to my own carefully curated space, and already there's been a lot of concerns and skepticism and pessimism over the EN translations, what this means for the fan translations already available online, what it means for expanding the fandom, etc. I get some of the concerns, as I'm also kind of wary of how the expansion of these fandoms will include Westerners bringing in their own biases and expectations and not understanding the cultural significances and differences and such, which is a learning curve but requires a lot of patience and listening to Chinese fandom instead of talking over them, as is always the case. But still, I'd like to take a more optimistic approach.)
++ Also, in a kind of related note, Neil Gaiman might have also spiked more international interest with Word Of Honor because one of the main leads of the drama endorsed one of his anthology books, Smoke and Mirrors (and also The Graveyard Book as well), which ended up topping the Chinese book charts, which he acknowledged and commented on both on his Twitter and Facebook being pleasantly surprised, which he then responded to wanting to watch Word Of Honor after a fan commented about it being available on Netflix.
It's just a surreal thing, two different fandoms from two different cultural backgrounds colliding with one another in an unexpected, but amazing way. I truly hope that not only does Neil Gaiman watch and enjoy the show, but that others that are discovering it enjoy it as well.
I am still going to purchase the Chinese editions of the novels though, simply because I want to, since I'm that kind of person who will buy, if possible, a book in its original language alongside the translated version.
(As a sidenote, I know that the MXTX fandom is quite wanky in itself, most of which I only know via osmosis through third parties because I don't delve that deep into that side of the fandom and keep to my own carefully curated space, and already there's been a lot of concerns and skepticism and pessimism over the EN translations, what this means for the fan translations already available online, what it means for expanding the fandom, etc. I get some of the concerns, as I'm also kind of wary of how the expansion of these fandoms will include Westerners bringing in their own biases and expectations and not understanding the cultural significances and differences and such, which is a learning curve but requires a lot of patience and listening to Chinese fandom instead of talking over them, as is always the case. But still, I'd like to take a more optimistic approach.)
++ Also, in a kind of related note, Neil Gaiman might have also spiked more international interest with Word Of Honor because one of the main leads of the drama endorsed one of his anthology books, Smoke and Mirrors (and also The Graveyard Book as well), which ended up topping the Chinese book charts, which he acknowledged and commented on both on his Twitter and Facebook being pleasantly surprised, which he then responded to wanting to watch Word Of Honor after a fan commented about it being available on Netflix.
It's just a surreal thing, two different fandoms from two different cultural backgrounds colliding with one another in an unexpected, but amazing way. I truly hope that not only does Neil Gaiman watch and enjoy the show, but that others that are discovering it enjoy it as well.
