rainwaterspark | Refilling the well (Reply)

I’ve been in a horrible reading slump lately. I’ve quit so many books, and even can’t pay attention to many audiobooks.

Surprisingly, the one thing that’s pulling me out of my reading slump lately…is Chinese danmei wuxia/xianxia novels.

I’d watched The Untamed and the donghua adaptation of Heaven Official’s Blessing a while ago, but I recently watched Scumbag System, the donghua adaptation of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. Because of censorship in China (siiiiiigh), I was curious enough about the plot of SVSSS to read the novel. And then I also started reading The Husky and His White Cat Shizun.*

(*This is not a post about Husky, but let me just get this out of the way: the romance is problematic AF, yet I kept reading because of the unexpectedly beautiful writing, rich detail, and fascinating fantasy worldbuilding.)

Something about being immersed in the aesthetics and descriptions of Chinese settings has felt to me like soaking in a warm hot spring. I just want to absorb it all.

Also, despite how long these books are, the pacing never feels slow. Not like many American fantasy novels, which put me to sleep because nothing happens for a hundred pages. Maybe it’s a function of having to keep reader interest high chapter by chapter, but whatever it is, it keeps me turning the pages.

I'm trying to think about what it is that draws me to these stories so much. Maybe it's the worldbuilding, which is so different from American fantasy novels (and even feels different from Chinese diaspora American fantasy novels?). Maybe it's the angsty romance that is devoid of instalove and takes many chapters to build to.

The only thing I know is that I want to read more. And I hope to be able to absorb enough to write my own Chinese fantasy novel(s) one day.