Cold_Sun
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2019
- Messages
- 51
- Points
- 58
This might be kind of a hot take. So apologies in advance.
I see a lot of OEL webseries that are based in a chinese or japanese setting. There are cultivation realms, names, pysical features, honorifics and a lot of other tell-tale signs to signify that. Now I can understand if the author is from one of those countries or have resided in the place or researched their culture or society extensively. (Let me preface this by saying that watching anime and reading translations in not research) But otherwise why do this?
I know the lure is that you were first introduced to webseries through the translations and you see JP and CN stories do well in this medium. But the two do not necessarily have the same readership. And more importantly many readers are actually turned off by inadequately researched use of a foreign culture. It just feels off putting. Another thing that we should ask is why a world where characters speak in English use the chinese chinese cultivation realms or japanese honorifics. These things work for the audience they were made for.
I am not saying we should set all stories in Europe. That's another cringe-fest all together. What I am saying is this : stick to the culture that we are familiar with. Develop our own world instead of making a frankenstein monster of all CN novels we have read in our lifetime.
I see a lot of OEL webseries that are based in a chinese or japanese setting. There are cultivation realms, names, pysical features, honorifics and a lot of other tell-tale signs to signify that. Now I can understand if the author is from one of those countries or have resided in the place or researched their culture or society extensively. (Let me preface this by saying that watching anime and reading translations in not research) But otherwise why do this?
I know the lure is that you were first introduced to webseries through the translations and you see JP and CN stories do well in this medium. But the two do not necessarily have the same readership. And more importantly many readers are actually turned off by inadequately researched use of a foreign culture. It just feels off putting. Another thing that we should ask is why a world where characters speak in English use the chinese chinese cultivation realms or japanese honorifics. These things work for the audience they were made for.
I am not saying we should set all stories in Europe. That's another cringe-fest all together. What I am saying is this : stick to the culture that we are familiar with. Develop our own world instead of making a frankenstein monster of all CN novels we have read in our lifetime.