(I'd really love to know how much all that "obey, love and stand in unity" language is used in China and how much it's fiction.)
Something about the way it was written struck me as a bit of deliberately overdone wink-wink-nudge-nudge (including the "very official Communist-red print"), like the author was having some fun at the authorities' expense. (It kinda reminded me of the #socialistbrotherhood hashtag that Chinese fangirls reportedly used for discussing WeiLan's relationship.)
I also LOVED the bit where Shen Wei dodged the question about following the requisite state atheism (especially given what I've gleaned about his background in the novel from the many references in fanfic) ... which also leads to another interesting way in which the novel is transgressive, aside from the gay-romance aspect, namely the matter-of-fact existence of the supernatural.
Which also reminds me - apologies for the stream-of-consciousness writing and punctuation - this eerily delightful line by the time any given case was closed, the culprits were all dead made me wonder if that wasn't partly because most of the culprits were dead to begin with!
no subject
Something about the way it was written struck me as a bit of deliberately overdone wink-wink-nudge-nudge (including the "very official Communist-red print"), like the author was having some fun at the authorities' expense. (It kinda reminded me of the #socialistbrotherhood hashtag that Chinese fangirls reportedly used for discussing WeiLan's relationship.)
I also LOVED the bit where Shen Wei dodged the question about following the requisite state atheism (especially given what I've gleaned about his background in the novel from the many references in fanfic) ... which also leads to another interesting way in which the novel is transgressive, aside from the gay-romance aspect, namely the matter-of-fact existence of the supernatural.
Which also reminds me - apologies for the stream-of-consciousness writing and punctuation - this eerily delightful line by the time any given case was closed, the culprits were all dead made me wonder if that wasn't partly because most of the culprits were dead to begin with!