(no subject)

[skygiants]

I liked this is ridiculous so much that shortly thereafter I dove into Are You Okay, Qi Ying Jun's other extant/fan-translated work of meta-transmigration nonsense.

Are You Okay is sort of a mosaic novel -- it starts out looking like a collection of short stories about transmigrators, most of them quite silly and focused on Implicitly But Not Explicitly Romantical Relationships Between Men. The starting premise is that so many people from the future have been transmigrating into historical China that the Emperor has had to put policies in place to deal with the problem. For example, the first story focuses on an Imperial transmigration bureaucrat assessing a young man for possible transmigration fraud, because now that transmigration is happening all the time, people claiming 'I just woke up in this body and I'm not responsible for any of its crimes!' is also happening all the time.

Qi Ying Jun is a very funny writer who has a hundred jokes that she wants to make about transmigration and by god she is going to make them, but she is not just here to make jokes. After a few setup stories, the characters start colliding into each other and also into the broader plot about a cabal of frustrated transmigrators trying to push historical China to modernize as quickly as possible, and the silly meta-transmigration nonsense gradually transforms into a darker satire on war, technology, propaganda and progress. By the end I think the book sort of collapses under its own increasing weight -- this is ridiculous is overall a better and more coherent work -- but I had such a good time on the journey with Are You Okay that I'm not too mad about it. The jokes are simply so good! The chapter in which a hero from the jianghu has to undertake an investigative mission with the help of the world's worst historical Chinese Uber driver was worth the price of admission all on its own.

Comments

[blotthis]

great description of the emotional tenors of reading OK

[minutia_r]

You had me at an Imperial transmigration bureaucrat assessing a young man for possible transmigration fraud

(Actually you did not have me because there is less than a week before Pesach and I cannot start reading a webnovel right now. But in theory!)

[lirazel]

The starting premise is that so many people from the future have been transmigrating into historical China that the Emperor has had to put policies in place to deal with the problem. For example, the first story focuses on an Imperial transmigration bureaucrat assessing a young man for possible transmigration fraud, because now that transmigration is happening all the time, people claiming 'I just woke up in this body and I'm not responsible for any of its crimes!' is also happening all the time.

Okay, that's an amazing premise. This is the kind of crack I like: taking an idea to its logical extreme!

Why is it called Are You Okay?

[ehyde]

I agree with you about it collapsing under its own weight--there were some things that felt like solid callbacks and others that seemed to come out of nowhere, and it didn't quite fit together as coherently as I would've liked. I haven't seen season 2 of the donghua yet, but I thought season 1 did a decent job of tying together the different plotlines and characters into something a little more coherent. It rearranged the timeline of some pieces and gave a few characters (specifically a couple of female characters) bigger roles. Of course that doesn't guarantee it's going to stick the ending either. I should really watch season 2...

[chestnut_pod]

Transmigration fraud; I love it!

[newredshoes]

I continue to delight in your ability to find and share these amazing works!!!

[skygiants]

the epic highs and lows etc. I think you're absolutely right about it being deeply inflected by the Cultural Revolution

[skygiants]

It will still be there for you post-Pesach!

[skygiants]

I wish I knew! I am sure it's a meme/joke of some kind -- all of Qi Ying Jun's novels contain like 50% jokes I obviously get and another 50% things that are very clearly jokes that I do not have the cultural context to get but nonetheless are a little bit funny. There's a part in this is ridiculous where during a big epic battle the heroine leans over and shakily whispers something about the strength of the triangle to her love interest and they both laugh hysterically and it is definitely some sort of 'mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell' sort of meme format even though I don't know the specific meme.

[skygiants]

This is definitely making me want to watch the donghua. Love to hear that there are women in it! There were so many in this is ridiculous that I was pretty surprised by their near-total absence in Are You Okay.

[skygiants]

it's soooo funny. transmigration basic knowledge pop quiz!

[skygiants]

I have a powerful and ever-present weakness for all narratives that could be described as 'transmigration 201'!

[lirazel]

That's so funny!

One of the things that blows my mind about reading/watching, say, The Untamed is that there are so many subtle details that make me lose my mind with how great they are...and I know there are so so so many I'm missing. I can't imagine how rich the text is if you actually pick up on all of those!

[blotthis]

it feels like it's GOTTA be, but also i definitely don't know enough about Chinese history and contemporary conversations. feels a bit like 'guy who knows one thing: getting a real cultural revolution vibe from this' etc although i do think it's gotta be. like at least in the mix