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So, ok, I had to admit I was a little nervous going into this fic. I’m still nervous about posting it. This is a big and argumentative fandom and that’s not my typical scene.
Anyhow, since this fic hits some sensitive topics, I wanted to explain some of where my decisions came from. I’m not prepared to disclose which bits came from personal experience and which didn’t, and I don’t think I should have to. But I will say that I’m not Chinese. That said, I think I got over my “exoticizing foreign cultures is cool and not harmful at all” phase a while ago. I’ve been in anime fandom; I’ve danced this dance before. It's a big part of why I avoided Chinese kinship terms that had easy English equivalents. Don’t get me wrong, Chinese is a beautiful language and there are things it conveys that English just doesn’t, but it gets real easy to fall into the trap of overusing another language as a way of exoticizing a setting, and I’d like to avoid doing that if possible.
Okay, as far as names go, I went with two words with initial capital letters, regardless of how many characters are involved.I know that this issue has some politics attached to it, but I’ve mostly concerned myself with being consistent and readable, since while I’ve tried to do research, I haven’t found enough people sounding off on one side of the issue or another to know what’s actually going on.
On the topic of how I wrote Lan Zhan as autistic, I’m sure some people may not prefer my approach, but I hope you’ll give it a chance. The word autism was invented by a Swiss psychologist in the 20th century, and a lot of the (upsettingly bad) early research on it also happened in Europe, so I wanted to envision what diagnostics for neurological disorders might look like in this fantasy setting which is both like and unlike ancient China. I took some liberties because that cultivation probably means that medicine advanced in different ways than Chinese medicine would have in a vaguely analogous historical setting (though, as many people have pointed out, The Untamed isn’t really...set in any specific period, it’s set in Chinese Amorphous Fantasy Medieval Times).
As far as how Lan Zhan is portrayed, I was very aware that there are some….misunderstandings built into people’s headcanons about him being autistic, notably people taking the brevity of his speech to mean that he doesn’t talk much. I’ve seen the complaints about “Lan Zhan talking like a caveman” (which I blame the ExiledRebels translation of the novel for, ok).I want to make it very clear that what I’m trying to convey here is not that Lan Zhan is autistic because he speaks briefly, but because he just...doesn’t talk, especially in tense situations or when he seems upset.
Also, on the topic of chapter two: In this fic (and any others I write, though I don’t know if that’s happening), Wen Ning is written as what the autistic community used to refer to as an “autistic cousin”-- a person who isn’t autistic but has a neurological disorder that gives them traits in common with autistic people. If you’re not familiar with this concept, you can read about it here or here. Yes, I know “having part of your soul snatched by a statue as a small child” isn’t a neurological disorder but this fic is set in high fantasy ancient China, let me bend some rules.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed the fic! I’m not here for discourse but if you want to offer helpful cultural criticism, or have a nice discussion about how Lan Zhan is def autistic, you can say hi here, on tumblr, or in the comments of the fic.
