Chapter Text
So this was originally meant as a set of resources you could use if you were writing a childe/zhongli fic that was set either in liyue harbor or an earlier time, but it would also be applicable for writing about any character whose story mostly takes place in liyue or who was born in liyue.
as a video game made by a chinese team in china, it seemed like it would be useful to have a ready list of resources for genshin fic writers here. Resources listed here include blog posts, videos, and news articles. look at all these cool posts written by cool people!! it would be a shame if there's already resources posted out there that people didn't know how to find :p
i also added some side opinions/commentary in some of the links.
Suggested reading order would go from the preliminary readings--> basic --> middle --> advanced resources, but you can also feel free to jump around depending on what you need to look at. the resources here aren't necessarily meant to be all-comprehensive, so if there's something you read about that's interesting, it would be best to look at additional sources.
Just as an added note, here's a set of random examples which may have popped up in passing in fics I've seen which these resources may help with:
"And then Zhongli turned around and asked Childe how many sugar cubes he wanted in his tea---" (°ロ°) no.
and then the liyuen kid ran up to Ninguang and called her 'Miss Ning' hmmm, no they would not
and then the grown liyuen adult saw their aunt, waved to them, and called their aunt by her first name-- :'')) this likely would not happen
Preliminary Readings
(best to read before looking at the resources, in terms of discussions on culture/respectfulness/thoughtfulness about racism etc.)
Fan language: the victorian imaginary and cnovel
Race and Culture in Fandom - Foz Meadows
Also a relevant post from hunxi-guilai
Discussion on tropes between Chinese media and Western media
Basic Readings
(good to read before starting a draft or while writing, for a good feel of how the characters/setting in liyue work together)
Pronouncing Liyue Character Names
Pronouncing Liyue Locations
Character Trailers in Chinese
(useful for understanding the vibe of the characterization)
Zhongli Trailer 1
Zhongli Voicelines
Childe Trailer 1
Childe Trailer 2
Yun Jin Trailer 1
The Genshin Chinese VAs and their Voices
On clothing and design elements of Liyue Characters
Chinese Dragons vs. Western Dragons + Other Mythical Beasts - Off the Great Wall (leads to video)
Brewing Tea (leads to video)
(i feel like in liyue tea would be given with Every meal, in each household, restaurant, and food stall. giving cold water and glasses for water to people isn't really a thing, except in fancy western-style restaurants maybe? even the smallest food stall would have tea available with a teapot and cups probably. the only exception to having tea would be if there's wine ordered with a meal instead. poorer households probably would have lower-quality tea leaves or just serve hot water, in my impression)*
(*adding a second caveat here that iced dessert soups (liked iced sour plum soup) is also a known thing to drink during the summer, but outside of that, most of the drinks would more often than not be hot water or hot tea)
My twitter mini-rant thread on tea
Why Do Chinese People Drink Hot Water?
(if it is a hot day, and childe comes indoors and zhongli offers him a glass of ice water..... ; w ; i'm 99% pretty sure he Would Not do that unless it was an imposter character)
General tea info
Tea Post 1
Tea Post 2
Chopsticks
(the etiquette and taboos section is esp useful)
Chinese Dining Etiquette (some of these may be region specific, and fighting for the bill between friends/family is a show of affection at least if u r close since it implies that you want to see the person who hasn't paid another time when they would be the ones who would need to treat you)
Brush and Ink for Writing
Relevant Calligraphy Post
(you have the ink stick, the inkstone, and brush. all writing is done on paper. paper paper paper. Not parchment :'')
maybe the waiters in restaurants could use pen and paper, but in all other locations like Ningguang's office or Baizhu's pharmacy you'll see the writing brush and ink stone in the surroundings)
Quick guide to family terms of address
(*rule of thumb, children and adults would likely never ever ever refer to their parents or elders by first name. if they are the same generation as you, like a sibling or close older cousins or something, using names would be more permissible, maybe with a familial moniker attached.if they are a respected elder but more friendly, you can still call them with a name but with the term auntie or uncle attached, like 'Auntie Ningguang' in her story quest with the orphan kids if im remembering that correctly)
Detailed guides on family terms of address
(but lady peony, what if i get confused on which term to use for an uncle or aunt? hahaha idk. a kid usually asks their parents on that)
A Writer's Unofficial Guide to Chinese Naming on AO3 (Chapter 4 especially)
Childe ( 公子 Gongzi) posts
Gongzi terminology
More on gongzi
Difference between 'Gongzi' and 'Shaoye'
(i think?? there's a couple times xingqiu has been referred to with the term 'shaoye' in-game, but it's been a while)
Zhongli-xiansheng
(sir, Mr. [Name] etc) check out the example sentences here)
'Xiansheng' can alternately be used to refer to your husband, if you specifically use '我的先生'
Xiansheng alternately, has also been used as a gender-neutral term of address in-game, when referring to someone who is a master of their craft regardless of their gender, or to show great respect (like a couple times Yun Jin-xiansheng might be something you hear in the CN version. I believe Yun Jin-laoban was also another term of address that showed up in a story quest.)
How many people are in Childe's family?
Quick Dialogue Punctuation Reminder
(know when to use commas and all 'he said/they said/she whispered' would be in lowercase after a line of dialogue,
it's still part of the line of dialogue and not it's own separate sentence so don't capitalize it there.)
A Longer, Detailed Dialogue Punctuation Post
On translating and interpreting Chinese
Middle-Level Readings
(for when you've finished reading the basic links)
The Concept of Mianzi (Face) - Asians Represent Podcast (leads to video, to the part where they begin discussing the concept)
So You Want to Name a Sino
(naming characters is pretty difficult, so if in doubt, it would be better to go through the list of actual named npcs in liyue to get a sense of what sorts of names work in the setting)
Tips for Choosing a Chinese Name for Your OC
How to Name Your Chinese Characters
Using Chinese Names
*Another note on names:
"One more thing. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! It is TABOO to NAME YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOUR PARENTS or elders. You will call your children by their given name but you should never even UTTER your elders’ given names. It’s a sign of great disrespect. So naming someone the same as someone else shows great disrespect! This idea (避讳 , bihui) is so a part of culture, that once an emperor came into power, when a book had the same character as their given name in a passage, the character would be marked in a way to not be identical to their given name." (via this post started from baoshan-sanren)
More tips on family titles ft MDZS
The meaning of 'jianghu'
(usually a setting for a lot of martial sects adventures/wuxia genre/not mentioned as much in modern times)
Courting etiquette in historical-type cdramas
(spoilers: no dating until marriage holds true here mostly xDD)
On use of terms of endearment ft 'baobei'
(this post mostly focuses on a xianxia setting; if i feel like if the character would not ever say 'hey babe' in English based on their character, i probably wouldn't use it. but /shrug emoji, it's a ymmv thing for your writing)
Post 2 on terms of endearment
(opinion stated here is pretty strong, though i feel like it does check out with some of my experiences. it does mention things would be different after 20th-century ish tho)
'Gege' and use of other terms that could have a platonic or romantic connotation
More on 'gege'
Even more on using -gege or -jiejie
A spouse's name Does Not change after marriage in Chinese
*a helpful note from an anon commenter added: "this is the case for most people, but from my knowledge (not sure if a thing across the whole of china or just the south), some wives might take their husband's surname alongside their own. say if my name was "Wong XiaoMei" and my husband's name was "Chan XiaoMing" (very creative i know), I could change my name to "Chan Wong XiaoMei."
Using the 'A-[name]' or '[Name]-er' as a term of familiarity
(as an additional note, how the nickname can be broken down and constructed also sort of depends on playing it by ear for the characters in the name itself and what sounds good with the characters. like if someone tried to use an affectionate nickname for zhongli and broke it down as 'zhong-er' i would do a double-take because that sounds vaguely clunky and awkward, and doesn't roll off the tongue. similarly, if someone tried to nickname xiangling's name with 'a-xiang' i might blink at that because the term might not sound not smooth; a different nickname breakdown, like 'ling-er' or 'lingling' could sound more natural. there are some names where it wouldn't matter either way for how the affectionate nickname is constructed because it can work either way; for xingqiu for example, i could see either 'xing'er' or 'a-qiu' as both viable nicknames. doubling up on a character part of the name, like the previous 'lingling' example is also an additional third option to create an affectionate nickname. if in doubt, this part is where you might consider consulting a beta.)
What to call your in-laws?
(definitely Not by their first names for sure)
Calligraphy post ft Nirvana in Fire
Chinese Food 101 (leads to video)
(rice, noodles, or steamed buns can be expected as staple foods, along with whatever side dishes of vegetables or meat that go with it. while it might be possible, it would be Very unlikely imo to have a family in liyue eating roast sweet madames with roasted potatoes and bread rolls for dinner)
How Sweet Rice Wine is Made (leads to video)
A Collection of Chinese Songs Playlist
Evolution of the Chinese Period Theme Song
Glossary of Chinese Idioms
(honestly zhongli would Know so many of these; a lot of them might be things that people could naturally pepper into their conversation, but you definitely want to pay close attention to the setting; like some of the more xianxia related idioms would probably not be used in current-day liyue)
Good post on moral views, Western hegemony, and MDZS
Communists, Nationalists, and China's Revolutions: Crash Course (leads to video)
New Culture Movement
Politics of Men's Hair in Chinese History
The Lens of Filial Piety ft. Jin Guangyao
On Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism Intro
Advanced Readings & Misc
(you read most of all the other stuff before; additional interesting deep dives which would be great for really adding those touches that make the setting come alive, or for possible AUs that you would want to write, like Archon Wars AU or emperor!zhongli AUs)
Terms for Telling Time
(whether you want to include this in your fic is a matter of taste; the terms for time and the chinese calendar can definitely be confusing to go thru, so this part is just a matter of taste)
Reading a Chinese Calendar
Cultural Connotations on Kneeling
(this part may Not be as relevant to the canon time period of Liyue, but there is definitely still like. cultural meanings carried with the action and Can be used to evoke those meanings even in modern times, either as a show of respect, apology, protest, a serious plea for someone to do something, regret, or punishment (the punishment can be considered very light, like a timeout for a kid who misbehaved, or very severe if a character mentions kneeling for six hours outside in the freezing rain because they made the emperor angry. if u ever wonder why in the Guardian drama they had that one scene of shen wei kneeling in the snow to beg for a doctor's help, this is why!!)
Four Gentleman and Three Friends of Winter
References and Allusions to Male Same-sex Relations in Chinese Literature
Made-up terms of address for two husbands
Referring to yourself in third person in cdramas
Chinese Characters (Writing) Explanation
Book of Rites- Early Education
(probably only applicable to xianxia or imperial court time settings)
Concept of 'nine familial exterminations'
(mostly only seen/referenced in imperial-type cdramas)
Red Isn't Always Auspicious
Brief meta on Parenting style ft. MDZS
Very Detailed Post on Possible Wedding Rituals
Clothing
Good clothing resource in general
Recommended clothing posts
Two videos on 20th century european and chinese fashion
Another good post (ask on 'official clothing' for chinese people)
Another good post (history on qipao/cheongsam)
'Hanfu' is a modern word
Left-over-right cross collar rule of hanfu
Difference between men's fans and women's fans
Chinese Instruments
Chinese Poetry ft discussion of forms & MDZS
Main Types of Roles in Peking Opera
Opera example in Winter Begonia Ep 14
Opera example in Song of Youth (set during Ming Dynasty)
(note that for both drama protagonists, a male can play a female character role, and a female can play the scholarly male role; your gender is generally irrelevant, other than the role you trained for)
The concept of sajiao
(this idea absolutely sort of bleeds into the way i've previously written childe and zhongli flirting sometimes)
Titles for emperors and princes
Harem terms of address for official mother and actual mother
More on terms of address in a harem
A Short History of Shanghai - NYT
Article on Shanghai's Coffee Culture
changan-moon audiovideo tag (for arts, crafts etc)
The Chen Dynasty YouTube Channel
guzhuangheaven.tumblr 'lost in translation' tag
bigbadredpanda.tumblr meta list
(look over 'language and cultural notes' esp)
Essays from Met Museum
(hint: go to the right and click on 'Related Essays' for lots more stuff)
Lots of accessible pdf books from the Met Museum
Sleuth Resources for Writers
(meant for Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty fandom, but has some really good stuff)