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x_los
2. Jiang Wanyin, nature’s punk, who cultivated a cut-out taste for Hard Sounds, All Kinds and never looked back, whose present-day music taste Wei Wuxian can best describe as Wu Tang Dynasty, who lives at either work or at Mako, who will listen to Chinese Metalcore, Deathcore, Nintendocore, Hardcore, Screamo, and basically anything with the words ‘core’ or ‘scream’ in it, has truly tried to be supportive about his sister’s artisanal c-rock with low-fi trad-music elements, and just cannot pretend he doesn’t fucking hate every note of it.
3. Wei Wuxian would hang out in a cesspit to spend time with his sister, much less at a talented musician’s occasional annoyingly-big stadium shows. Did you know that the Beijing Workers Stadium can fit 10,000 people? Wei Wuxian sure fucking does now.
At a Zewujun press event after one of these large scale affairs, Wei Wuxian properly commits to his true target. He’s previously noticed, and been intrigued by, a conservatively-dressed man he refers to as Lost Library Patron. LLP seems to be at as many of these things as Wei Wuxian himself, though he’s seemingly always busy: hustling towards the wings without stopping at the bar, putting out such ‘don’t speak to me’ vibes that Wei Wuxian (more mature about these things than he was as a mouthy teen, who got into everything) gives him space. Normally at press dos the cryptid can be found elegantly reading a book in the corner, as if he hasn’t noticed he scores of Zewujun’s admirers chatting around him. LLP tends to slip away when the meet and greets themselves start, so he is decidedly not a fan. But LLP earns a new sobriquet and Wei Wuxian’s full attention when he emerges from backstage at press conference number—Wei Wuxian doesn’t know, million and two?—and apologises for a delay in the proceedings in the most authoritative and least apologetic tone Wei Wuxian has ever heard.
Someone with a press badge tries for details, and insinuates something about Lan Xichen’s health. Angry Man (né Lost Library Patron) raises an eyebrow and stares at the pap until he apologises for asking an intrusive question.
“Who is he?” Wei Wuxian mutters. Yanli’s friend Mianmian whispers that a lot of people don’t remember that Zewujun started out as a double act with his baby brother, Lan Wangji.
Wei Wuxian, who actually listens to his sister when she talks about her interests, thanks, knows all about that. He knows that one ‘Lan Wangji’ (never pictured) is credited and thanked profusely in his brother’s liner notes, especially on the more interesting tracks, and that some corners of c-rock fandom think he does a significant portion of the act’s heavy lifting, in compositional terms. It hits Wei Wuxian that Angry Man, or rather, Lan Wangji, has been hustling to the wings to do set-up, and maybe even to perform from there—or at least to run the elaborate sound-mixer that has occasionally caught Wei Wuxian’s eye during Zewujun’s sets.
Given how the modern music industry works, one would be naïve to think ‘Beyonce’ was purely the name of a person rather than of a sifting creative collective. So Wei Wuxian gets that the musical entity ‘Zewujun’ is not always synonymous with this one guy, originally named Lan Huan. What he did not realise was that Lan Wangji was, like, the hotter brother? That the sweet baby boy in those aughties gala performances of ‘In This World, Only Mama Is Good’ grew up into this? Fuck, crush transferred.
Why has this fic been stuck for over a month? Well, arguably, it's finished! Just sitting there.
The whole composition process with this one was a big mistake. It's a One Where that got WAY too big for itself. I realised I was actively wrong about how not-idol music worked in modern China, so I went and did a lot of research into the history of it. Then, having done that, I wanted to include it and make the piece palpable. It can also serve, especially with the bibliography, as a How To for other people who want to write this kind of AU. Because it is NOT obvious how to do it with any kind of vague accuracy, this is an area of massive cultural disjunction.
I'm not at all sure about the title. It's random, it could be something else.
An initial reader pointed out that I could move a lot of the discussion of the bands to faux Pitchfork reviews at the top, which is a good idea, but also a massive bitch to execute, so I'm being lazy about it. They also suggested making an accompanying mix, which again, good idea, WORK tho. And describing the physicality of listening to music better (challenging, as China rn is a hardline no-medium Mp3 world where almost all transmission is piracy, but not impossible), and the music itself better (fair).
The trouble I run into here, again and again, is that I'm not a modern AU meet cute writer at all, and my investment in this kind of music is minimal: I learned for the story, I'm not into this outside of it. I keep thinking that fucking with this fic is pouring work into something not great, which as a piece I think some people will care about, but not me, exactly. Like I don't think it's bad, there's just an atmospheric gen piety to it, it's not a character-driven story. I didn't push the misleading and patronising 'make it diaspora' easy button, and I've learned a lot and should put it out there, and why not realise it the best possible way? The not-insurmountable challenges just seem big because I don't like the story. It's well-done, ish, but I don't care about it.
One writing thing is, you're really not going to Love Them All, and outside the frantic self-promo of professional creative spaces and indie spaces infected by their habitudes, you don't have to? You often have, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, a more ambivalent relationship with your work.
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Date: 2021-03-24 09:16 pm (UTC)I love so much that the set up for this is that it's Jiang Yanli-Wei Wuxian bonding time. I don't really get why that's not really a thing that happens in fic? They enjoy each other's company so much!
(And of *course* Lan Wangji sang a song called 'In This World, Only Mama Is Good'. Must you always sucker punch me with Mama Lan feelings???)
no subject
Date: 2021-03-25 07:54 pm (UTC)They made the mistake of letting him pick from the list of Approved Choices for Trad Folk Songs and his rendition was *way* too intense.