Chang Ge Xing (长歌行, Changge's Journey)
Dec. 23rd, 2013 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ein_myria
(Above, L-R): Li Changge, Mimi
I was reading Chang Ge Xing last night and started having some femslash feels for the tragic Li Changge / Mimi pairing. (T^T) Does anyone know of any good fanfics (in English) regarding this pairing?
_______________________________
Background to the pairing
This manhua is set during the second emperor's reign of the Tang dynasty. In the story, Changge is a Tang princess whose family was killed by her uncle, Emperor Taizhong, in order to secure his position to the throne. Changge's father was the crown prince and the uncle's main rival. Changge managed to escape by disguising herself as a man and has vowed to seek revenge. Through a strange series of circumstances, she became an indentured servant to Sun Ashina, a Turk leader who distracted and sieged the Shou province while the Great Khan attacked Chang'An, the capital of Tang.
Mimi, on the other hand, is an Uighur woman whose tribe lost to the Turks. She was among a group of beautiful women who was given by the Great Khan to Sun Ashina's clan as part of the spoils of war for having gone to battle for them. The group of women were about to be 'used' by the men a single time before being killed when Mimi managed to escape from the pack and happened to run into Changge's tent. Changge, being a newcomer, saw something in Mimi that reminded her of her own Uighur mother, and decided to protect Mimi from Sun's men. Changge even begged a special favor to Sun Ashina to let Mimi be "his" woman.
"If you give your dog a treat, he will work that much harder."
Sun finally relented with a warning about women from that region being dangerous to "his" health. From then on, Mimi and Changge were seen by the Turks to be man and wife. Mimi found out about Changge's gender while caring for her during a fever and promised to keep it secret, as they would both lose out if it were ever known.
As Changge rose to a more prominent position in Sun Ashina's clan as his strategist, she suspected that she was being poisoned. It took her a while to narrow down the list of suspects as the Sun Ashina clan was in a precarious rivalry with the Lesser Khan's faction. When Mimi took the bait Changge had set to test her, Changge confronted Mimi immediately and asked her why she would work with the Lesser Khan to sabotage Sun's tribe when the Lesser Khan himself had done nothing for her (Mimi would have died had Changge not intervened). Mimi refused to say anything, though as readers of the manga we find out that it's to protect the life of her younger brother. Furthermore, as Mimi knew what her fate would be if her position as a spy for the Lesser Khan were to be known to Sun Ashina's clan (likely, torture and a gruesome prolonged death), she took her own life with a knife.
Changge was greatly shocked by this betrayal and abandoned her quest to help Sun Ashina battle the Lesser Khan. Instead she went on a bender when she was initially rescued by a group of female Taoist temple devotees. IMHO, given that she wasn't as shell-shocked when her own family was murdered I kind of wanted to read more into the pairing! The author does try to give the relationship a more sisterly vibe, but I find that it doesn't quite work if those two need to constantly convince the rest of the clan that they are indeed, man and wife! :P
___________________
Story Links
English Scanslation by EGScans | Chinese raws
I find that the English scanslation tends to lose a lot of the subtleties and nuances of the dialogue that can be found in the work. If you understand Chinese, try the Chinese link. The raw site has the added benefit of having voice overs so that if you press 'play' on a particular page, the dialogue bubbles and/or sound effects play like an ebook (this usually works except for the most recent chapter). Sometimes it's a little bit disconcerting if there are multiple voice actors, but overall I find it useful as my reading comprehension is nowhere near my listening comprehension.
Chang ge xing fanfic
Date: 2014-12-07 05:58 pm (UTC)And this voice acted manga site is amazing, whose idea was that? O_O
My name on fanfiction.net is Alliriyan, if you want to reply to me there. :)
Re: Chang ge xing fanfic
Date: 2015-02-12 02:33 am (UTC)I did manage to find one or two Chang ge xing fanfics but nothing really noteworthy; I'll keep looking nonetheless.
As for the voice acted manga site, I'm sure it's some enterprising Chinese person--really love the community feel for it too; I'm sure some of the successful ones will be plucked to do some real voice acting for a game or animation.
On that note, I feel like if some of the cellphone manga were also translated from the Chinese/Japanese/Korean they would also be a big hit and generate decent revenue. I'd certainly pay for it for Fluttering Feelings!
chang ge / mimi
Date: 2015-07-29 01:24 am (UTC)Here's one though:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/
Re: chang ge / mimi
Date: 2017-01-11 04:30 pm (UTC)I am quite sure that you will not see my answer, we're already in 2017... But for others who might view this website...
If you can read Chinese, I advise you go on http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kw=长歌行 and look for 同人文 （fanfictiontext)
However, I think the main pairing of the Changgexing fandom has moved to Chnagge x Ashina Sun, so most fanfics will be on them (I personally also love this pairing much more ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡
Otherwise, I think I saw a fanfic on fanfiction.net called the sword and the dagger, several short chapters on the Chang ge. X Ashina Sun ship.
Hope this can help people in the future.
Re: chang ge / mimi
Date: 2017-01-17 01:47 am (UTC)There's been a couple of fanfics with the Changge and Mimi pairing that I had the fortune to read that have been a pretty good read as well which I'll leave below:
Romance in the Plains (2766 words) by sook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 長歌行 - 夏達 | Cháng Gē Xíng - Xià Tá
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Additional Tags: Romance, Historical, Fiction, Fluff and Smut
Series: Part 1 of Chang Ge and Mimi.
Summary:
Chang Ge and Mimi work together to cement their image as a couple.
Wolf-hunt (3750 words) by Umbralpilot
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 長歌行 - 夏達 | Cháng Gē Xíng - Xià Tá
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Li Chang Ge (長歌行 - 夏達 | Cháng Gē Xíng - Xià Tá), Mimi (長歌行 - 夏達 | Cháng Gē Xíng - Xià Tá)
Additional Tags: Gender Roles, Female Friendship, Pre-Slash
Summary:
One morning, when winter has barely ended, Chang Ge tells Mimi, "we are going hunting."
Women don't hunt, Mimi knows.