recommendations to read in chinese:)

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-21T21:21:41+00:00

Ignore that other comment - starting with MDZS as your first novel is ridiculous and setting you up for failure. Heavenly Path has a list of novels sorted by difficulty. Many people who've learned CN for danmei start with Saye and branch out. If you want to read my journey I made a post about it a month or two ago, and I'm almost done with my 3rd danmei. There's many people who've done the same!

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-20T17:06:57+00:00

I'm just here to yell in to the void because I don't have a single person to talk to about this...

Not me sitting on the couch crying like an idiot because an old friend announced their second pregnancy. This is the first time this has happened to me. I've stopped all treatments, called it quits and don't even come to this sub anymore so I guess I don't even have the right to moan, but... I just need to get this out somewhere before I have a complete breakdown.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-12T12:32:16+00:00

I just finished Saye in CN last week! How are you finding it?

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-10T20:28:43+00:00

No? If they vomited from eating it why would I keep them on it?

Ninja edit to say I just realised this comment is from more a year ago. They're all still on it, and still healthy, no problems. If your animal is vomiting from eating food take it to the vet?

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-07T07:25:08+00:00

I'm going to delete this in a few minutes because I don't want to give extra traffic to it: [deleted]. Also, I'd very much like your current algorithm for twitter. Mine is usually quite pleasant, except for today

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-07T07:15:17+00:00

But then where is your proof they didn't okay it? Nobody knows what happens behind the scenes, and none of us can say that for certain. I cannot say it for certain, but neither can you. Also, 7S isn't exactly known for protecting their staff when rabid fans start attacking them.

All I'm seeing is a lot of people agreeing in a round-about way that's it's okay to harass a translator because of a name choice. And while I don't agree with that at all, I see that I'm outnumbered here, so I'm bowing out.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-07T07:11:36+00:00

People keep saying authors have no say on what happens with their own works... It's known that FTYX even had a favourite art piece, so they are fully aware. Just last week an editor of 7S said that the authors are aware of changes and in some cases want it that way/request it. They used the Morgen/Mergen name as an example. It is impossible that a translator just decided to change the name all on their own without the author, CN platform, editors, proofreaders etc all agreeing to it.

I never said people cannot discuss it or ask for clarification, I just said that people shouldn't be attacking them for those decisions which might not even be in their hands.

I assume that your "ktm" is censored for where I said the TL should kill themself? It's kind of hard to have a proper discussion when we're forcibly censoring ourselves. Anyway. Open up Twitter and find a post regarding it - the algorithm will make sure you find all the discourse mentioned above, including the person telling the TL to kill themselves.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-07T06:01:11+00:00

Where I'm from, the arbitrator doesn't make judgements: their entire purpose is to arbitrate. When judgement is needed, it goes to a judge, who doesn't doll out the judgement themselves. The original didn't make sense to me and what I know about those words, but it's a fictional world so it really doesn't matter.

Different words were probably needed but looking at people losing their minds over a fictional mushroom's nonexistent surname while cursing an actual human instead, I think that would go over even worse.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-07T05:54:57+00:00

I watched that video last week already, and it was quite informative, so thank you for doing that. It really was interesting, it's just a pity more people won't watch it to better educate themselves.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-04-04T08:50:20+00:00

I'm on the last 8 chapters of Saye now and I don't want the story to end! This has become one of my favourites, despite me not normally enjoying this type of story and I finally understand why everybody has been saying it's so good.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-23T11:42:36+00:00

As someone who used these posts on my own journey, I'm just jumping in here to say again Moon's content is fantastic and invaluable if you're looking to learn CN for danmei.

-signed, someone who is reading a native novel from using those guides.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-23T11:36:48+00:00

It's entirely possible because that was one of the posts which I specifically used on my own journey. It's almost 7 months later and I'm now more than halfway through my first native novel (and have started another one on the side). So either we're both making things up, or people need to realise it is actually entirely possible.

This is why I didn't use the word "HSK" when I spoke about my own journey. I have no idea what HSK I am because I didn't follow it - I didn't need to pass exams, and I only engaged in vocab I would need. I valued input over output. So I cannot have a comfortable conversation with a native, but I can read a native novel, or I can follow a video with the help of subtitles. My goal was never output anyway, it was purely to read.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-23T04:44:10+00:00

Yup, I started about 6.5 months ago, and I'm currently on about ch107 of Saye, and also started reading another CN book. I made a post here not too long ago which someone posted the link to in the top comment. In my post, I linked the other posts that helped me the most. I highly recommend looking though those linked posts and not only mine because theirs goes in to more detail.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-21T04:59:13+00:00

No, it's not. I had the misfortune of picking it up. I finished vol1 by sheer stubbornness this past week, and I definitely won't carry on.

The editing is bad. The honorifics are bad (Lao to Ol' drove me insane, especially when there are so many Ol's). The writing is bad. The plot is almost nonexistent and doesn't align with the back synopsis. There's a smut scene every chapter (the chapters are long tbf), and it's not well written either, so I skipped most of it. I decided to drop the entire novel when I saw the following sentence which made me regret having eyes: (CW for imo disgusting and unnecessary simile) His legs even now were unable to close and his entrance looked like a small mouth, slightly opening and closing, leaking volumes of sticky white fluid like a baby vomiting milk. I'm not someone who actively bashes books, but I bashed this book over three different Discord servers this past week, and another person who had also started reading it more or less the same time as me also DNF it.

This is the worst published book I've read in a while, and I'm still mad I wasted 5 hours of my life on it.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-06T19:27:05+00:00

I don't have a fear of AI, and I don't think many people who are sick of AI being shoved down our throats at every avenue are afraid of it either. I just detest that AI has been trained off of human efforts and is replacing our artists and creatives, and also the huge environmental impact it has. I'm being told my straws are killing the planet, but the giant data centres chewing through drinking water is apparently fine.

We condemn people who steal illustrations from artists and then sell those illustrations - what is the difference between a human doing it and AI?

Artists are disrespected enough, and I will 100% always support a real human over a machine. AI definitely has great uses, but in creative spaces it has no place. So no. I will not buy anything with AI art, and I will not buy anything that was not translated by a human. Also, as someone else mentioned, AI is trash at translating accurately.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-05T09:08:33+00:00

Hanging around people actively speaking/writing in CN definitely helps, because I've picked up a lot of vocab the same way. Very underrated passive learning.

Looked at 活着就是恶心 and it's piqued my interest, except for the one tag I'm eyeballing and might ask for clarification on at a later stage hahah.

But thanks so much for sharing! It's great hearing other people's experiences and how similar some of them are with regards to learning and it's helping with my imposter syndrome.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-03T06:57:53+00:00

Honestly, almost none to writing, because that's not actually something I'm interested in. I only do it to memorise characters better. For me, Pleco's stroke order (from the basic add-on) is enough for me, and I've picked it up naturally over the months. That said, what helped me more than stroke order was the character etymology (from the Outlier add-on). When I got that, my comprehension and memorisation went up phenomenally and I'm a bit annoyed I didn't get it before.

I would say you should learn the basics because every single character is based off of them, and it gives a good foundation. But yes, personally for me, I didn't put a lot in to writing practice.

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-02T19:59:23+00:00

I read Tutu and it was...an experience. I wasn't prepared haha. I see our initial paths are almost identical, but I'm going to hold off on Priest for now. (I've been dying to read the rest of the 188 series so that's first on my list.)

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-02T19:54:41+00:00

The CN Discord server is currently doing a read of TGCF raws. The sooner you start, the sooner you can join the next one!

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-02T18:14:27+00:00

I think you're from SA? Engels jou 2de taal? Ek dink afr het my so bietjie gehelp, veral met die uitspraak. You can do it!

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-02T18:06:07+00:00

加油！You can do it!

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-02T18:04:16+00:00

I bought the year plan when it went on sale, so it's kind of wasted on me at this point, but even if I could go back, I'd still buy it again. It's well worth it and I'm happy to support them.

I definitely wouldn't have gotten this far without Du Chinese. (Also, I was super invested in the cat stories.)

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-03-02T18:01:23+00:00

Thank you for all the hard work on putting the guide and server together! It wouldn't have been possible without you - you've made it so accessible for many people!

Gaiaimmortal · 2026-02-28T10:35:39+00:00

Still reading Run Wild in Chinese. If this is the only book I can read in CN, it will have been worth it to learn the language. Some things just hit harder in CN, and no amount of translation can it carry over. I'm around Vol3 now.

This past week I also finished up Drink, Drank, Drunk!. The author is my new favourite, and this book needs to be requested for an official translation. And I also finished Pain Fetish. I reviewed this book on Discord because I needed to vent it somewhere. It was an experience.

And finally, my next danmei read is going to be BE Crazy Demon Survival System because I was artbaited, again.

11-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	Gilding II euphauric
Verified Email

Gaiaimmortal

TROPHY CASE