Cellar Door

maid-en-china:

EPIC RANT TIME

It’s actually funny that this person is telling me to learn more about something before trying to educate others when she/he doesn’t know anything about me.

It’s pretty clear that I spent 2 weeks in China? Um, I was born and raised there for 9 years. I return to visit my relatives in the summer, and I always travel alone, not with my parents (but I do visit my dad) because the family issue presented in Knite isn’t just shit I made up, it’s shit I had to deal with (murderous psycho stepmom? Check).

Japanese school uniform? China is HUGE, I highly doubt there are no schools, especially a high end school like the ones Sen and Kai go to, that has those navy colored uniforms. Sure, a lot of schools these days only have track suites, but it’s not like the other version doesn’t exist. How do I know? I wore that kind of uniform for 2 years while growing up in Chengdu.

I never said the kite designs were traditional so I don’t know where you got that from. This is a modern day story, Sen makes his own kites (as seen in Ch3). It’s his simplified design, not a traditional one. I thought it was extremely obvious that the designs are a mix of the old an new (I mean, even the picture you wrote this rant on is specifically about the divide between globalization and tradition). If I were doing a historical story, then you can bitch about the designs.

I lack understanding in the educational system? Please tell me about how the school you went to is representative of every school in China. If you know anything about China, you’ll know that corruption is worse in some areas than others, and the “free” education in some areas are seen as for those with no future.

As for the nursery rhymes, please elaborate on how they are wrong because if a few words aren’t translated to your exact liking, that’s just you being anal. 

And since we’re on the topic, let me tell you a bit more about my inspiration for Knite. Sheltered girl in America? My parents grew up with nothing. My mom got to eat an egg once a year on her birthday. My dad had to eat rats caught by his dog, but the communist government see dogs as luxury items so it was banned to have dogs. His family had to kill his dog and eat it to avoid prosecution. 

Because my father grew up with so little, money meant survival and everything to him. He and his older siblings got into the pesticide industry and became rich due to the corruption and bribery shown in Knite. He told me how you can just take a politician out for dinner and slip a red pocket of money under the table and they’ll forget all about the inspection. He has left that industry for many years now and is into stocks instead. He regrets the things his family company has done, and I, like Kai, inevitably benefited from the money they made at the cost of the environment’s expense.

That’s where I got the money to move to America at the age of 9. Like Sen, my mom left China when I was 5 because she was fed up with China. Unlike Sen’s mom, she didn’t abandon me, and I was able to join her later on but my father stayed behind. I won’t get into the rest of my family drama but know that the life I’ve lived is far from being sheltered. Even the money my father made from the pesticide company barely afforded a lower class life style in America back in the days (8 RMB was 1 USD), but it was enough.

I was able to live a balanced life, between China and America, poverty and wealth. Everything in Knite has been inspired by things I’ve witness myself, not through news clips. I’ve been advocating environmentalism for almost 8 years but I wasn’t born with the knowledge, it was a slow path of discovery. That’s what I want to show in Knite. Sen starts out as a dreamer with a grand goal, but as he matures, he will slowly learn about all the complexities of the world, and the path to his dreams is not as simple as attaching lights to kites.

Knite is inspired by my life experiences, and I’ll be damned if you expect me have lived the exact same life as you. You’ve seen parts of China that I haven’t, but I have seen parts that you haven’t. Don’t compare the Bible Belt to San Francisco, and don’t compare my life to yours.

And just to insult you some more, I will repeat:

I, Wenqing Yan (颜温情), dedicate Knite to the land of my birth, where many happy and sad memories were had, for all the laughs, all the tears, everything: China.

 

Knite has been on my mind the past few months. I was quite strucked by the way Yuumei tells and protrays her histories, and I truly admire her, as an artist and now as a person.

(Source: artist-confessions)