hi anon, you're totally fine but i appreciate your consideration!! 🩵 i speak about 6 languages at varying degrees of fluency: english, malay, cantonese, japanese, korean, and mandarin chinese (+ bonus: a little bit of indonesian) ;v;

i am neither mixed nor move around a lot! i owe it all to growing up in a multicultural country where it's very common for most of us to speak at least 2-3 languages, and having so many hyperfixations throughout my youth. english and malay are part of our schooling curriculum by default, so these are the two i learnt formally and am most comfortable in (plus i was raised on copious amounts of western media!!). malay and indonesian are fairly similar so i can usually understand indonesian through linguistic similarities + context clues but can't speak much of it back.

i am conversational in cantonese by osmosis because my family speaks it + it's the common dialect among the chinese diaspora in my hometown + my parents always had tvb on in the background lol

and i wish i had a Cool Scholarly Reason™ for this but i learnt japanese and korean solely for fandom 😭 i came from an era where eng subs for anime/kpop were hard to come by, and i didn't want to keep waiting around or hunting for them in seedy forums... my learning process for these two are a bit difficult to describe; foreign language classes were ridiculously inaccessible where i'm from, so i didn't have a systematic way of learning them even if i wanted to. i just bought textbooks that i used really inconsistently, and learned the languages through constant daily exposure and osmosis and willpower shfjdsfjsf 😭 this is why i am conversationally proficient in both (i learnt through audiovisual stuff mostly), but i still struggle to read japanese kanji and my foundation in grammar is decent but not as strong as it should be

mandarin..... is a fun one..... i briefly took classes from a teacher in my neighbourhood but she told me i was better suited to abacus and calligraphy (read as: YOU SUCK, TRY SOMETHING ELSE) so i switched to those and never went back. then i moved cities for college and university, where some friends spoke mandarin, so i learnt enough to be baseline conversational over the years. then i got into c-ent where i am now repeating the jp/kr osmosis process and force-feeding it into my brain through constant exposure HSJDSJHDJSDS

i took french as a uni elective for one semester but i've forgotten everything except the bare basics so i won't count that!!!!

tldr: osmosis is really the word of the day :')

because i have no formal training in most of these languages, i am a much better speaker/listener than i am a reader/writer (except for english and malay, and specifically korean for reading only because hangeul is super easy to learn). it's a great conversation starter and has made it much easier to travel through east asian cities, which are all places i've loved ♡ nothing can ever replace the results of holistic structured learning, but it's true that you just need a hyperfixation to learn a language. you're constantly exposed to it so consistency is taken care of!

hihi anon!! i had a lovely mid-autumn festival, thank you so much for asking 🥺🧡 if you celebrate too, i hope you had a wonderful time and got to eat all the mooncakes!

eeeeee it is my greatest honour to be thought about when it comes to the two xzs quote ;v; it remains one of the most... i don't even know how to condense it into a few words. self-aware? fourth-wall-meta-breaking? deeply introspective, almost surprisingly so? quotes i've ever heard a star say. and the fact that different media in the industry continue to come back to it even after so many years speaks for how profound it still is.

i wrote down some thoughts in this mini thread, but one thing i realise i didn't mention is how much i loved the opening of the feature! i appreciated that it observed how the passage of time took shape on xz, because besides the physical marks it has left on him, we also get a glimpse of how it coils around his demeanour, how it rests easy on his skin.

as he matures into his mid-30s, he radiates this more assured sort of confidence? the kind that feels like it comes from a place of stability, like a tree that knows its roots have extended comfortably deep into the earth. it's fascinating because it's almost contradictory to say this, but this stability has given him the freedom to be more fluid: just like how he did in his portrait interview last year, he isn't afraid to verbalise how time has changed him + his perception of himself and the world around him. he "updates" his answers as he goes along (e.g. his changed response re: the two xzs quote and the separation of the self); his emphasis has shifted from result to process. and i suppose in hindsight that's super on brand for xz, who is always evolving as a tapestry of experiences and characters :')

it probably has a part to play, however small, in why he thinks it's so important to know what a character has lived through → how these experiences shape their thinking → how he expresses their way of thinking. he worldbuilds in his head and it's like. the dreamers from inception, you know? spinning a web so intricate and personal that it's hard to detach himself from it

(related reading: this tweet)

+++ i mentioned this in the thread too but i really, really admire that even though xz will always be a worrywart — not in the panicked concern sense but in the "overprepare for every scenario" sense — he's also come to a point in his life where he feels comfortable letting life take the reins a little, whether it's in a singular scene he's filming with a colleague or in his life in general.

i walk away from every longform xz interview more in awe of him than when i first started reading, and it's crazy that it still happens so many years in!!!!! his answers are thoughtful and eloquent and earnest and i just. really!!! can't wait to see more of his work ;; he's really shaping up to be one of the greats of our generation ♡

hi anon! if you don't mind, i'll answer your "what do you think about rpf" question together with this rps one, since i think my opinion on both are too closely intertwined to separate them into different responses c:

to me, rpf/rps are just things that you do in fandom, and there is no great distinction between rpf and rps... rpf is really just a form of rps output; rps thoughts strung together in pretty words, a story format, and occasionally a fictional or alternate setting. you can probably tell from my account, but i have zero issues with either! 💗 one of my main fandoms right now is rps, and i'm a writer who has written plenty of rpf over the years.

of course, rps/rpf isn't for everyone, and i understand that! people are entitled to dislike it, just like they are anything else on the internet.

but it makes me sad to see that they've become subject to so much thought policing in fandom, where people view you as lesser or "disrespectful" or "a bad fan" for engaging in rps/rpf. the thing is: rps and rpf are not inherently the problem!! they have never been!!!!

my take is instead of asking "is rps/rpf good/bad/ethical/etc.?", we should change the question to "am i engaging in rps/rpf responsibly?".

rps and rpf have existed since the beginning of time — when people were thinking up fantasies watching onscreen couples in old hollywood, or when people were writing What Used To Be Called Lemon (!!!) on fanfiction dot net. it's not a new development by any means, and people have never really had an issue with that until recently.

imo the discourse that has come out of it in recent years can be attributed to how social media — the constant sharing; the omnipresence; the entitlement into every aspect of someone's life, whether you are on the giving or receiving end — has changed how people engage in fandom. (i wrote about this in more detail here!) social media collapsing distance between people and information means that it's now also easier to dismantle the boundaries between idol and fan. it's easier for people to misjudge distance in interpersonal relationships and feel like someone is closer to you than they are, or to feel some entitlement to having a say in an idol's life, like you would a friend. that's why you encounter things like interviewers straight up showing fanfiction to celebrities, or fans being disrespectful to real-life partners because they "ruin the fantasy" of the rps.

and herein lies the real problem: that rpf/rps have bled out of the fandom spaces where they belong, sometimes into something that has real effects on the real people involved.

by all means: ship your ships! make them kiss! write your fics! draw your art! scream with your group chat of friends! analyse everything they do! think up your elaborate theses and fun ppts! go insane about it on twitter dot com or ao3 or quotev or wattpad! think about them having filthy sex!!! THIS ISN'T TOP SECRET GOVERNMENT INFORMATION, BE UNSERIOUS ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!! but i've always believed there is a place and time for everything, and as rpf/rps is a fandom activity, it should be kept within fandom spaces unless the people involved dip their toes into the water themselves :')

to be clear, i'm not saying that rps/rpf is something to be hidden away from the people involved, like it's something to be ashamed of. all i'm saying is that we should engage in it more responsibly; we should all try to mind boundaries a little more, and not let something that is meant to be fun and enjoyable and, at its core, a celebration of love cause real-life consequences/discomfort for the stars we claim to support ♡

(("but we still shouldn't do it! what if they still find out and are disgusted by it?"

you know that tweet that says "if i was an idol searching up stories about me having nasty sex with my bandmate then that's on me"? yeah. that.))

oh!! welcome to the fandom and i hope you're enjoying your stay so far 💛

tbh this is true for all fandoms and not just yz (and everything we consume these days, really!!!), but the best thing to do is always to double-check with established update accounts or just do a quick search c: if no one's even mentioned it, it's likely just an edit; word travels pretty fast in fandom so you can always count on someone picking it up. there are plenty of dedicated archives too!

being in this fandom is definitely about coming to your own conclusions about what you believe, so i'm glad you're setting those boundaries for yourself early! i hope you have fun here c:

ahh i appreciate the kind words; i'm glad to hear you enjoyed the read! 🥹

it's interesting that you mentioned reaching a point of success because i think it's the converse ;v; the nature of investment is that it compounds over time, so to me, the only way people would stop caring or feeling like they have a stake in a celebrity's personal life is if they are no longer incentivised to invest: i.e. the star has fallen to a point of lesser success in their careers. and by "lesser success", i don't mean that their brand as a star is necessarily failing or has flopped! more like they're just no longer in what people consider Their Prime™, or their share of the spotlight has become smaller than it used to be.

i know no two industries are the same, but drawing from examples in kpop, a common thread in traditional fan comments is sentiments along the lines of "[star] is already in their 30s, just leave them alone and let them date" or "they've already been so successful for 10 years, they're not rising stars anymore". the underlying perception here is that age makes someone less desirable as public property, and that rising through the ranks as a more senior act means that they now share the spotlight with younger, hungrier, and shinier new stars that people turn their attention to.

so imo it's not that a star has to completely retire or fade into complete obscurity for them to be able to live their lives more freely; it's just that they have to reach a point where people are no longer AS invested, if that makes sense?

going off on a small tanget, re: the life of a celebrity being carefully lived, and the question of "at what point does a celebrity feel like they could be so big they become untouchable" — i really recommend this read from potteresque-ire on tumblr, which i have bookmarked to this day! it explores andy lau's career, how it unfolded under the eyes of the chinese state, and how, even for a star of his stature at the very height of his career in hk, he could never actually publicly reveal he was married. (the news broke because he was spotted at his father-in-law's funeral...)

i'm not sure if you're from the yz fandom, but if you are, then this piece is double the treat because it also discusses yz through the lens of this particular legacy!! but even if you aren't, i think the piece is great to read on its own because it explores the extra layers to this issue that cn/hk/tw stars have to deal with, by virtue of the countries they live and work in.

hi anon!! thank you for your kind words about the scenery pics; i love having postcard-like shots and try my best 🥹 i spent about a week+ recovering from a particularly bad bout of laryngitis (it's pretty hazy where i live rn!) but other than that i've felt really healed from touching grass and i've also been catching up on infinite 10 days hehe. i hope you've been keeping well too, and that every day brings with it little joys that keep you going ♥️

I FULLY DID A [RUBS HANDS TOGETHER] READING THIS ASK. the question 100% makes sense, and i totally agree with you that personality can really shine through in the way someone speaks. i've never thought about it before in the context of yz so it was fun to kind of sit down and really think through some speaking samples.

(mandatory intermission to say that i only speak and understand intermediate mandarin at best, so any analysis from me will be an amateur one and i've probably missed details that a native or fluent speaker could probably pick up easily!)

for what it's worth, i feel fandom translators do a pretty good job of conveying the way they speak, especially in longer-form interviews (editorial, sit-downs) or documentaries like ETU. so i wouldn't worry about missing very much!

the way they speak publicly aligns pretty closely with — or, i guess, has given shape to — the usual and/or general understanding of their personalities: yb is short and snappy, honest, absolutely no beating around the bush. he'll use as few words as he possibly can LOL and tends to speak about things through the way it relates to him (e.g. what he felt, how a product or procedure or process has worked for him, lived experience, etc). there is a reticence to the way he speaks? i think this started more as something he did unconsciously or reactively, because of a) his kpop training, where idols are generally taught not to say very much; and b) his generally tumultuous relationship with the media/public/industry, who were incredibly invasive when he was a rising traffic star. but i feel like over the years, the same reticence has morphed into a deliberate reflection of how he approaches life: simply, head-on, and walking the talk without fluff or fanfare. why talk when he can just do, and do it well? i like to say he talks like little bursts of fire — not just because he says things in little bursts, but also because he feels quite untouchable and very private i.e. you will burn flying too close to the sun :')

xz, on the other hand, like many other things he does in life, talks like water... mandarin is big on phrases and metaphors, and xz uses them generously along with a lot of descriptive language. but not to the point of sounding like purple prose? i think he's just a very visual person and the descriptives not only help him picture the depth/breadth of the response he's giving or the product he's promoting, but also helps him be more specific because it's like sketching a picture for the audience to receive it more effectively instead of just describing it in text form. he sounds earnest, well-read, super put together. he has great flow and connects his points very cleanly (i have on more than one occasion thought he would be a wonderful debater), and frequently quotes or draws on other media (usually classical) to supplement his thoughts, like movies or books or songs.

THE INTERESTING THING IS xz, in certain instances, can also be quite deliberately reticent? it does depend on the media outlet or what he's talking about, but on these occasions, he has somehow mastered the art of word choices that somehow give you everything (i.e. truly satisfactorily answers a tricky question) but also nothing at the same time (i.e. nothing genuinely scoop-worthy or has no hook/point to report on). like he slips through your fingers just like water. as someone who works in PR, this is so fascinating to me lmao this is a skill many public figures would die to have

i realise this is turning into a rather unbalanced answer, and for that i am sorry 😭 i've consumed more xz interviews than yb so i have more notes on him, but also yb — by virtue of being someone who doesn't say much and hasn't given many interviews over the past few years/has mostly unvoiced vlogs from his studio — doesn't have a lot for me to go off of hshshsh i hope this doesn't make me seem like i'm deliberately studying one harder than the other!!!

other random observations i have about xz is that he has impeccable standard mandarin enunciation when he's doing serious interviews, but in more casual interviews or situations, he switches into a more slurred and condensed enunciation (v common for native speakers in all languages). this more casual variation includes 儿化 (erhua) or the beijing r sound, a language quirk where you add the -r sound to random words HAHA. there is no rhyme or rhythm to it! but i thought this was really interesting because xz is from the literal other end of china + yb and xz have spent about as much time in beijing (10-ish years) as each other, but yb doesn't really do this nearly as much as xz does.

vlog-wise, i think it's hard to give an opinion that isn't dated! ybo doesn't do very many voiced vlogs, and xzs hasn't done many with studio staff in recent years (there were quite a few in 2021-2023). xz speaks quite casually to his staff though, and in the vlogs where they play games it just feels like a bunch of grad students goofing around!!! i suppose because it's a hella small ship and technically his staff are also his friends and are probably around the same age-ish as he is. there is a bit of natural cuteness that slips through the cracks when he's speaking to people he's familiar with, especially if they're older than him. see: na-jie

lastly, because i have yapped long enough: i wouldn't call it stiff, but they are 1823% more put together in brand events than anywhere else LOL especially xz! yb gives a lot of straight, not-cookie-cutter answers, but xz has product placement answers that he softens with his usual disarming pleasantness and little anecdotes that make the responses sound more personal than they are. not said in a bad way! just a "i remain fascinated by this man and his mastery of public speech" way shjfhjsfhs

it's so funny because the first preview was mega cunty and then the actual cover itself was almost the greatest showman-coded and he looked like a playful gentleman 😭

no you would be right tbh!! he has been a lot more revealing in his fashion choices this year 👀✨ we previously only saw that kind of Diva Cunt Behaviour maybe once a year, during fashion week gucci? but his poor buttons have had the hardest time trying to keep up with him.... or he keeps forgetting them entirely. no wonder yb wants to gift him buttons!!!!!!!

ah "silver october" refers to october being an important month for fashion publications c: september is actually the main month (it's called, predictably, "golden september" HAHA) because that's when the last major fashion weeks of the year are held, and the fashion "season" officially changes from spring/summer to autumn/winter. since october is the month immediately after that, it's the key month for fashion magazines to (re)set their creative direction going into the new season. they need to sell their new ideas, which is why the stars who front the cover this month are usually top stars with strong commercial selling power c:

hello anon and welcome to the fandom!! 🐢✨ i hope you've been enjoying your stay so far c: this is a great question and 100% warranted confusion because i experienced the same thing back when i was a new fan!

the truth is there is no real way to verify that lrlg rumours are legitimate, because like many other such rumour houses on weibo/the internet, the poster is anonymous. but lrlg's posts hold a lot more weight to many turtles because they have (on multiple occasions!) recounted something that made absolutely zero sense at the time of posting, but turned out to be true or reflected in some way in a future public schedule some weeks or months later. that's why a lot of people think yz are aware lrlg exists, and/or they are someone who is working with them or in their inner circle. (i can't find the post anymore — maybe someone who comes across this ask will be able to supplement it — but if i remember correctly, lrlg also posted a picture of a red packet once for chinese new year, and people commented that the handwriting on the red packet greeting was pretty similar to xz's.)

they also don't really sensationalise things? the common belief is that if someone is cooking these up, chances are they'd try to slip in something that's particularly juicy or salacious, but lrlg's posts are really just incredibly mundane daily conversations that serve no real purpose to be made up, if that makes sense...?

something else that people also talk about but is far more subjective: they really do capture yz's black cat-golden retriever quarrel dynamics really well in their conversations!!! like it is very similar to the kind of banter we see in the reams of behind the scenes footage from cql

this tumblr post sums up all the speculation pretty well imo c:

tbvvvvh i believe that even among cpfs, everyone has (and is entitled to!!!) different levels of belief in lrlg! some people treat it like the gospel. some treat it like a fun surprise and sweet stories they get to read. some believe it's basically "two truths, one lie" i.e. there are true stories in there, but also some false ones in order to ensure the entire post has plausible deniability. some just straight up don't buy them at all. like most everything else in turtledom, you should come to your own conclusions about them, and not feel pressured to think the same as everyone else if you're personally not comfortable with it ♡

(i'm in the two truths one lie camp personally! hehe)