reading danmei and its troubles
Nov. 5th, 2018 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soundofwonderRecently I got into reading danmei - m/m fiction in chinese. It's been a wild ride, and it's not because of the stories.
First off, there are pirated physical books. In 2018.
Trying to buy the physical novels legally requires longer than expected research since there's like 30 versions of the same book being sold online, and only one of them is legit. Some of these sellers even include unauthorized fanart prints as goodies, which is just scummy.
The danmei novel usually goes: published as web novel -> gain popularity -> novel website signs on the author -> physical books, audio drama etc. So the pirated versions are just copies of the web novel in hardcopy form, which is most likely not the final version since the author usually revises it before publishing it as a book.
And there's also the censorship part, where some words are replaced by boxes or have lines inserted between them (eg. s|ex, dr|ugs) to circumvent the censors. Entire scenes are gone because the website will lock the chapters if there's "objectionable" content. Usually these are just sex scenes, but it's still quite irritating to pay for something and not get the complete version.
Then it comes to finding the legitimate version of the book. The search results will show the web novel first, but the books don't tend to promoted there. The physical books, and the links to buying it, are usually promoted on the author's own weibo (a microblog).
And here comes the second issue - china's walled off tech ecosystem. I have never encountered such a frustrating time trying to just read someone's online posts. 90% of the time, clicking on any weibo link will automatically divert you to the login page, preventing you from accessing anything else.
Which leads to the third issue - privacy. Creating an account is fine and all, but websites from china tend to demand people to sign up using phone numbers. Usually I have to search high and low to find a tiny link that says "sign up using email" and that link usually doesn't matter anyway, since they ask for your phone number after you put in your email address for "verification purposes". In some cases there isn't even an option to sign up using email - phone numbers are the only way. I'm generally not that trusting of security of websites from china, so it's often a struggle where I spend hours looking for the link to sign up via email, then trying to sign up using that. (I don't usually succeed).
I did manage to create a weibo account without using my phone number, but the last time I tried logging in it asked for my phone number due to "suspicious actions" so that account's gone. Oh well. So I have almost no way of verifying if the book I'm looking at is legit or not. So I end up having spend time to research on how the legit books look like just so I can buy with a peace of mind.
Frankly speaking, it's tiring and I was going to just search for text/epub versions of the novels online and buy the web novels if I like it, but guess what. The epub versions of the books are usually uploaded by individuals on a cloud service which is, of course, a walled off website like many other websites from china. Downloads aren't allowed without an account, and while the document can be viewed online, there's a limit of 100 pages. Danmei novels tend to be 100+ chapters so it's not enough honestly. And this website only allows for signing up using phone numbers.
.........
Can't believe that trying to read novels online can cost me so much energy in this day and age.
Some of the stories are genuinely good and I really want to read the complete versions, so I may finally cave in and use my phone number. Or maybe I can get a prepaid number...
Sidenote: also, websites from china tend to have an early 2000s feel, which is yet another headache. Almost every link opens a new window, so I have to constantly close tabs. (Seriously?!) And adblocks don't work.
First off, there are pirated physical books. In 2018.
Trying to buy the physical novels legally requires longer than expected research since there's like 30 versions of the same book being sold online, and only one of them is legit. Some of these sellers even include unauthorized fanart prints as goodies, which is just scummy.
The danmei novel usually goes: published as web novel -> gain popularity -> novel website signs on the author -> physical books, audio drama etc. So the pirated versions are just copies of the web novel in hardcopy form, which is most likely not the final version since the author usually revises it before publishing it as a book.
And there's also the censorship part, where some words are replaced by boxes or have lines inserted between them (eg. s|ex, dr|ugs) to circumvent the censors. Entire scenes are gone because the website will lock the chapters if there's "objectionable" content. Usually these are just sex scenes, but it's still quite irritating to pay for something and not get the complete version.
Then it comes to finding the legitimate version of the book. The search results will show the web novel first, but the books don't tend to promoted there. The physical books, and the links to buying it, are usually promoted on the author's own weibo (a microblog).
And here comes the second issue - china's walled off tech ecosystem. I have never encountered such a frustrating time trying to just read someone's online posts. 90% of the time, clicking on any weibo link will automatically divert you to the login page, preventing you from accessing anything else.
Which leads to the third issue - privacy. Creating an account is fine and all, but websites from china tend to demand people to sign up using phone numbers. Usually I have to search high and low to find a tiny link that says "sign up using email" and that link usually doesn't matter anyway, since they ask for your phone number after you put in your email address for "verification purposes". In some cases there isn't even an option to sign up using email - phone numbers are the only way. I'm generally not that trusting of security of websites from china, so it's often a struggle where I spend hours looking for the link to sign up via email, then trying to sign up using that. (I don't usually succeed).
I did manage to create a weibo account without using my phone number, but the last time I tried logging in it asked for my phone number due to "suspicious actions" so that account's gone. Oh well. So I have almost no way of verifying if the book I'm looking at is legit or not. So I end up having spend time to research on how the legit books look like just so I can buy with a peace of mind.
Frankly speaking, it's tiring and I was going to just search for text/epub versions of the novels online and buy the web novels if I like it, but guess what. The epub versions of the books are usually uploaded by individuals on a cloud service which is, of course, a walled off website like many other websites from china. Downloads aren't allowed without an account, and while the document can be viewed online, there's a limit of 100 pages. Danmei novels tend to be 100+ chapters so it's not enough honestly. And this website only allows for signing up using phone numbers.
.........
Can't believe that trying to read novels online can cost me so much energy in this day and age.
Some of the stories are genuinely good and I really want to read the complete versions, so I may finally cave in and use my phone number. Or maybe I can get a prepaid number...
Sidenote: also, websites from china tend to have an early 2000s feel, which is yet another headache. Almost every link opens a new window, so I have to constantly close tabs. (Seriously?!) And adblocks don't work.
