kate: Lan Wangji in a boat with Wei Wuxian in his lap (CQL: WangXian in a boat)
[personal profile] kate
In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom.

Let me talk about BJYX for a while, here.
Oh man, well. I only have two main pairings right now, and they're both actual OTPs, which is a new experience for me? One is Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji, known as WangXian. It's a canon pairing, which is also relatively new for me. What's not new is that it is a juggernaut ship, and there is just so much content for it. I'm not going to do that one because honestly, there is so much content in the WangXian tag that literally anyone could get into it by starting with Modern AUs.

So the pairing I'm going to write about instead is Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, who are the actors that play Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

I'll start with the individual actors, who are both amazing in their own right. They're both idols. Wang Yibo started in a Korean training program as a young teenager. (I think 13? I'm doing this from memory, so definitely a grain of salt here). He is part of the idol group UNIQ who has a ton of amazing stuff for the very small amount of time they were together and performing before Wang Yibo went off and became a superstar.

Xiao Zhan was actually just a normal guy, a graphic designer! Who worked in an office! And then he went on an idol show (XFIRE, I think?) and... I don't honestly think he won. I haven't watched it all yet, but he definitely at least got some opportunities, which eventually lead to Chen Qing Ling (The Untamed), which is what really blew up his career. I think it probably blew up Wang Yibo's, too, though he has had a much more steady trajectory - Xiao Zhan's looks like a stock market graph.

Wang Yibo is known for his dancing (though he sings too) and Xiao Zhan is known for his singing (though he dances too) and both of them are working very hard at shifting their careers toward more serious work. Because of their huge fanbase, they both have a huge number of ads because anything they put their name to sells like hotcakes.

So then onto The Untamed, which is a gay romance novel made into a Chinese drama with many episodes. 40? 41? 50? I can't remember. MANY. There are certainly many flaws with it, but the story is amazing, the show is pretty darn close to the story, especially considering censorship in China, and Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo are both amazing (as are many of the other lovely people involved in this show) with unbelievable chemistry.

But the thing that sold me on this ship is the behind the scenes footage of the two leads. They're so cute and flirty and I just. I just see it, okay? After production, the cast did a tour and fanmeets and there's so much amazing interview content from this time period. Honestly, you could spend weeks down this rabbit hole.

This is an amazing little fandom on tumblr - my main blogs for this information are [tumblr.com profile] rainbowsky and [tumblr.com profile] accio-victuuri. They post candies (theories about social media hints the two actors give) and all of the actors' ads and performances and photo shoots and interviews and it's a really positive environment. I hear the twitter environment is incredibly toxic, so I stay in the fandom through tumblr.

I will leave you with one last thing about these two. There's some top/bottom stuff around their ship name, which I absolutely hate - how does that matter, or is any of our business? - but they actually CALLED themselves YiZhan in an interview, so that is the neutral one. However, I still call them BJYX (Bo Jun Yi Xiao) colloquially, because it is SUCH a cute acronym. It includes characters from both of their names and the phrase stands for "everything I do is to make you smile". [tumblr.com profile] rainbowsky has a post about it (with links to other useful info) that says a little more, but honestly, they DO make each other smile and laugh and they're adorable together, whether they're a ship or just good friends, I don't care. They both make me happy, they clearly make each other happy, so all I want in the world is for the two of them to get everything they want, including each other, if that's on the list. >:)

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring feet in snuggly socks, a mug of hot chocolate, a notebook with 'dreams' written on the cover, and a guitar. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

on 1/3/23 06:26 pm (UTC)
sparrow2000: (Snowflake 2023)
Posted by [personal profile] sparrow2000
Wow, thank you for sharing your passion. I don't know the fandom, but I love your love for it. And the phrase 'everything I do is to make you smile' could be a manifesto as to why we love our respective fandoms - because they make us happy.

Thank you for posting this, I loved reading it.

on 1/3/23 08:09 pm (UTC)
clavally: (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] clavally
You make a compelling case for trying out the fandom again. I forget how many episodes I watched before I fell away from it, but I was wondering if the novel might be more my speed?

on 1/3/23 10:38 pm (UTC)
tribble_of_tarth: (Untamed - Heart Bubbles Wangxian)
Posted by [personal profile] tribble_of_tarth
I generally don't look into RPF ships, but these two are so cute it was basically impossible not to! I love watching the two of them interact. You can tell they care about each other so much and make each other laugh soooooo much. Two cuties for sure!

on 1/4/23 12:20 am (UTC)
goss: Wang Yibo & Xiao Zhan gif (The Untamed - Wang Yibo & Xiao Zhan)
Posted by [personal profile] goss
BJYX (Bo Jun Yi Xiao) colloquially, because it is SUCH a cute acronym. It includes characters from both of their names and the phrase stands for "everything I do is to make you smile"

Oh! I've seen BJYX used, but didn't know the reason - thanks for sharing that.

They are indeed the cutest! <3
Edited on 1/4/23 12:21 am (UTC)

on 1/4/23 01:38 am (UTC)
goss: Wang Yibo & Xiao Zhan gif (The Untamed - Wang Yibo & Xiao Zhan)
Posted by [personal profile] goss
Aww, thanks! Their smiles are pure sunshine. ♥__♥

on 1/4/23 01:48 pm (UTC)
shipperslist: nasa landsat image of a river looking like the letter S (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] shipperslist
I'm generally not into RPF but these two are an exception. I've lost count of how many hours of BTS videos I've watched--it doesn't matter if I've seen them before, I'll happily watch them again! And yet, sometimes I find new content like this Weibo post that has gifs of the post-Lotus Pier boat scene I hadn't seen before! They're so cute!

they actually CALLED themselves YiZhan in an interview
That was a variety show team name Yibo come up with, right?

on 1/4/23 05:41 pm (UTC)
dragongirlg: A stylized graphic of a Chinese dragon, shaded magenta, with the letter "G" in its coils, flying in a light blue sky amidst three white clouds. (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] dragongirlg
(sorry to jump in) but yes YiZhan was part of the team name that Yibo and Xiao Zhan decided on when Yibo invited Xiao Zhan onto Day Day Up (TTXS), which Yibo was a regular host on until recently! The entire episode is very much "introducing my partner to the family", including showing embarrassing pictures of young Yibo and young XZ.

ETA here's the full DDU ep, no English subs on this one, though I think there's a subbed version floating around somewhere:

https://youtu.be/eP80bg89sPU (the name is at timestamp 3:44)

I don't get into RPF often but these two...from the BTS scenes to interviews, it's catnip.
Edited on 1/4/23 05:47 pm (UTC)

on 1/4/23 06:08 pm (UTC)
dragongirlg: A stylized graphic of a Chinese dragon, shaded magenta, with the letter "G" in its coils, flying in a light blue sky amidst three white clouds. (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] dragongirlg
Definitely in the didi role here :D

on 1/4/23 05:48 pm (UTC)
dragongirlg: A stylized graphic of a Chinese dragon, shaded magenta, with the letter "G" in its coils, flying in a light blue sky amidst three white clouds. (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] dragongirlg
:D sorry to jump in on the post but yes!!! I go on an yizhan fic binge about once a quarter and I just love watching the footage

on 1/4/23 08:39 pm (UTC)
mekare: Gilmore Girls: Lorelai Gilmore in a woolly hat in the snow (Lorelai snow)
Posted by [personal profile] mekare
Awww that is lovely. Thank you for sharing the love and their cute ship name!

on 1/6/23 06:20 pm (UTC)
sunshine304: (CQL - WangXian Battle owl)
Posted by [personal profile] sunshine304
I wasn’t into RPF before CQL but tbh those two make it quite easy. XD There had been RPF in Sherlock and Teen Wolf, but I never checked them out because I didn’t really see it (or not enough to want to get into it, you know?).

But watching Wang Yibo make smiley heart eyes at Xiao Zhan at every opportunity when he is actually famously reserved with people and doesn’t seem to be the smiley type in general was just too much to resist. XD

With c-ent, there’s of course always a certain fanservice to be expected because that sells so well. But these two have such amazing chemistry and even if one doesn’t subscribe to the theory that “they’re in love, your honor!” it’s very obvious that they at least had a strong friendship going.

That’s why I’m so bummed out about the fans being so toxic about it, be it the antis or the solos or the shippers, and how they were so shitty about it that it almost completely derailed Xiao Zhan’s entire career. :( I never get that kind of behaviour. Just let them be? And let people who ship other stuff than you be? I’m really sad that the fans’ actions led to YiZhan basically not being allowed to be seen together, like, ever out of concern that it would be detrimental to their careers if the fans went crazy again. No matter whether they’re actually romantically involved or if it’s “just” friendship – there was such a hard cut for them that I really feel sorry for them.

I’m not a “truther” who obsessively follows their every step or checks the kadian for the Weibo posts or whatever. I like their chemistry and I enjoy the fic written about them. It’s all fantasy anyway as we can’t know the actual real people – we only get the carefully curated glimpses of their personal lives that they allow the public to see. And that’s fine, I feel like they’re already under scrutiny enough as is. The fiction of it is fun and I enjoy it a lot!

The acronym is really cute but I still tend to just keep to YiZhan because it’s the easiest to remember for me (and the other acronyms at times seem to indicate top/bottom things which IDGAF about sooo…. XD).

 

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