Chinese Fantasy

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by warellis

No offense but wouldn't it be better to watch Chinese stuff about Chinese fantasy?

The Chinese stuff usually assumes you already know the background. The Korean (and occasional Japanese) stuff usually assumes you don't, and gives you more explanatory background material.

Usually. Not always.

If you're just getting started, I'd suggest going with works made by the outsiders. Once you've got a grounding in the basics, then go with the works made by the natives.

[SolemnGolem]

Originally Posted by hal

You might want to look at QIN: THE WARRING STATES for background inspiration.

Seconded - this is a well written setting with good sourcebooks - it has a fairly historically-conscious fluff setting, but adds in some decent powers with fairly appropriate scaling and flavor (as Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers does too, in my opinion).

It is set in the period of the Warring States (shortly before Qinshihuang's ascent) though, so it is a bit closer to Hero than it is to Journey to the West.

Tangent: One thing I thought was interesting about Journey to the West is that it had a couple of acknowledgements to corrupt monks in Buddhist temples around China. It was written clearly with a very strong pro-Buddhist stance, including the casting of India as the land of spiritual source, and Tang Taizong (Lishimin) as the benevolent virtuous Buddhist ruler. But in a few episodes, there are implied instances of embezzling monks (one abbot dashing his head against a pillar when he knows his crimes have caught up with him) as well as physical appetites despite monastic repression (a shapeshifter disguises itself as a beautiful woman and lures one of the monks outside to fool around).

There's also one single episode, about halfway through the story, where all four main bipedal heroes have been captured or isolated, and then the only thing left is the white horse that Xuanzang rode. And the horse turns into a dragon and saves the day! And after that it stays as a horse. (Granted, the origin story does refer to its status as a transformed horse, but it was a one-off performance in the limelight...)

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by warellis

No offense but wouldn't it be better to watch Chinese stuff about Chinese fantasy?

It would arguably be better to read Volsunga Saga or Nebelunglied then attend Ring Cycle to get Pre-Christian Teutonic legend but that does not mean it is not worth the bother. Korean TV is often well written and worth the watch. I also could not think of Chinese stuff at the time.

But now that you mention it, if you wish to pay the money for a ticket, Shen Yun might be what you want. They are certainly Chinese.

As a side note, Lloyd Alexander wrote one Chinese fantasy. But if you don't want Korean you won't want British.

[the_seeker]

If you want inspirational viewing, I recommend Rakuten VIKI and DramaFever. Content is primarily Korean, but both sites feature a lot of content from China and elsewhere. Most of the content is contemporary, but fantasy (of various "power levels") is well represented to include film adaptations of modern classics by Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng and traditional classics from Chinese myth and legend. A word of caution, however: these are not shows about mystic martial arts with melodrama as context, these are shows about melodrama with mystic martial arts as context; it is normal to go several episodes in a row with minimal use of powers. Viewer beware.

[jason taylor]

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is public domain at amazon.

[hal]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

Seconded - this is a well written setting with good sourcebooks - it has a fairly historically-conscious fluff setting, but adds in some decent powers with fairly appropriate scaling and flavor (as Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers does too, in my opinion).

It is set in the period of the Warring States (shortly before Qinshihuang's ascent) though, so it is a bit closer to Hero than it is to Journey to the West.

Tangent: One thing I thought was interesting about Journey to the West is that it had a couple of acknowledgements to corrupt monks in Buddhist temples around China. It was written clearly with a very strong pro-Buddhist stance, including the casting of India as the land of spiritual source, and Tang Taizong (Lishimin) as the benevolent virtuous Buddhist ruler. But in a few episodes, there are implied instances of embezzling monks (one abbot dashing his head against a pillar when he knows his crimes have caught up with him) as well as physical appetites despite monastic repression (a shapeshifter disguises itself as a beautiful woman and lures one of the monks outside to fool around).

There's also one single episode, about halfway through the story, where all four main bipedal heroes have been captured or isolated, and then the only thing left is the white horse that Xuanzang rode. And the horse turns into a dragon and saves the day! And after that it stays as a horse. (Granted, the origin story does refer to its status as a transformed horse, but it was a one-off performance in the limelight...)

I did some research on QIN: THE WARRING STATES and have bad news to report.

It seems that Cubicle 7 lost the publishing rights or let them lapse or what have you. As best as I can tell thus far, you can't purchase copies of the PDF at this point in time. :(

I thought it was odd that I couldn't find it for sale from RPGNOW.COM even though I purchased my copies through them. I just went on Ebay just now to see what they're charging for copies of the book that way, and thought "sheesh!".

That largely means that the only way we may ever see new PDF's available is if the original author(s) find a new publisher/seller to sell the game through. I believe it was originally a French game. All I can say is that now I feel a sort of sadness that I'd not have thought to experience.

[SolemnGolem]

For what it's worth, I own the four hard copy books (one hardcover, the other three softcover) and they're well worth getting - if you can find the normal price, that is.

Aside from a few inside-cover maps that still bear the French spellings, the rest of the books are superbly edited and the artwork is among the best I've ever seen in Asian setting books.

I bought these on Amazon at more or less MSRP roundabout 2015.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

For what it's worth, I own the four hard copy books (one hardcover, the other three softcover) and they're well worth getting - if you can find the normal price, that is.

The translation of Water Margin that I recommended in GURPS Adaptations is also very readable, but not cheap.