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I TAKE IT BACK, GO BACK TO FUCKING THE HOUSE!

(https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/2511.html?thread=3560655#cmt3560655)

Welcome back! Chat fandom, weird internet stuff, creative work, games, books, anything! Meme listens, and sometimes even replies!

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From: (Anonymous)

Okay, some cultural background here - if English fiction has Sherlock Holmes, then Chinese fiction has Di Renjie (狄仁杰). He was a real historical figure who served as a magistrate under Empress Wu Zetian, but nowadays, he's better known for spawning a whole genre of action-mystery films where our titular detective investigates supernatural happenings and reveals them to be not-so-supernatural after all.

Strange Tales is the Boruto of Di Renjie stories. The Bi Benjie, if you will.

The series follows Su Wuming (苏无名), one of Di Renjie's students, as he investigates a genderfluid cultist selling vape juice made from kidnapped brides. In the process, he repeatedly bumps heads with Lu Lingfeng (卢凌风), an arrogant young general and detective otaku who is still salty about being rejected by Di Renjie years ago. Our intrepid cast is rounded out by Chicken Guy, who likes to eat chicken.

From: (Anonymous)

I saw Strange Tales and am disappointed it's not actually Liaozhai >_>

From: (Anonymous)

Given how bad all the recent (re-)adaptations of old classics have been, it's probably for the best it's not Liaozhai.

From: (Anonymous)

Also was surprised when I looked into the background of all these Di Renjie adaptations. There's a long history of detective fiction in China - it dates back to the Song Dynasty, at least, and the earliest surviving works that directly feature Di Renjie are from the Ming Dynasty.

But a lot of the 'modern canon' of Di Renjie stories actually comes from a Dutch author, Robert van Gulik. Back in the '50s, he translated a collection of Di Renjie stories by an unknown author from the Ming Dynasty, and he was so enamored with the style and substance that he decided to write more of them for a modern audience. These stories then got translated back into Chinese in the '80s, where they got popular, got adapted, inspired more works, got re-adapted, and so on. A new adaptation actually came out last February. It sucked.

Anyways, my personal Di Renjie story is just that I watched the cartoon version when I was a kid and then proceeded to forget everything. 陆小凤 is still my Chinese detective story of choice.