Character Sketch - Taiwanese Superhero WIP by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
Character Sketch - Taiwanese Superhero WIP
I've noticed a distinct lack of Taiwanese superheroes in Western media, so I've decided to make my own. Below is a rough character outline, a work-in-progress. I'm open to suggestions. I'd like this to be as authentic as possible.
Name: Tsê-thian (齊天) – “Great Sage”
Real name: Lin Yixian (林宜憲) (a mix of my wife's surname and my male friend's given name)
Nationality: Taiwanese
Home: Tainan
Gender: Male
Age: 20s / 30s?
Language(s): Mandarin / Tâi-gí (Taiwanese Hokkien)
Powers / abilities: Tâng-ki (童乩) spirit-medium vessel of Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equ
Sun Wukong's Secret Weapon by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
Sun Wukong's Secret Weapon
Some readers may remember that Monkey is capable of a cosmic transformation in which he grows 100,000 feet tall. I've always wanted to see a movie or cartoon where heaven is fighting a particularly powerful demon and Sun Wukong, possibly as the Victorious Fighting Buddha, is called in to help. The two battle for some time and the demon boasts that not even a Buddha can stop him. And just as the demon is about to win, Sun shows that he's been playing with the monster this whole time. At the last second, while flying on a cloud, he changes into his cosmic form and performs a flying elbow drop. The camera pans to the demon's view looking upward
Story Idea: Journey to the East by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
Story Idea: Journey to the East
The great Chinese classic Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) (The Journey, hereafter) can be summarized thus: The Buddha feels that China has become an immoral nation and therefore sends the Bodhisattva Guanyin to seek out a pilgrim from the East who will make the quest to India in order to retrieve salvation-bestowing scriptures. A young Buddhist monk of the Chinese Tang Empire is chosen, and along the way he takes on four monstrous disciples, including a monkey spirit, a pig spirit, a river spirit, and a dragon-turned-horse, who protect him along the journey. These disciples defend their master against leagues of
Story Idea - 'The Lonely Man' Wuxia Drama by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
Story Idea - 'The Lonely Man' Wuxia Drama
I've always wanted to write a Wuxia novel based around something I read several years ago. Some ancient Chinese emperors referred to themselves as the "lonely man" or "lonely one" (guaren, 寡人; sometimes rendered as gu jia guaren, 孤家寡人), i.e. "it's lonely at the top". This would be a great title for an undefeated martial artist, one who reigns supreme over a fighting competition for so long he is bestowed the title. The story would revolve around other martial artists competing in order to move up the ranks and finally face him in the hopes of taking the title for themselves.
Such a setting would nece
For ten years I have been polishing this sword;
Its frosty edge has never been put to the test.
Now I am holding it and showing it to you, sir:
Is there anyone suffering from injustice?
"The Swordsman" (劍客) by Jia Dao (779—843 CE)
An elderly man leaned back into his saddle as the gaunt horse clumsily navigated the rocky terrain of a hill. He grimaced in pain with every misstep his mount took. His padded robe offered him little protection from the nighttime winter cold.
"Damn you, you bastard," he screamed at his horse. "Can't you walk a little smoother? You'll be the death of me yet!"
"Maybe I can hel
Story Idea - The Ape Immortals (Sun Wukong origin) by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
Story Idea - The Ape Immortals (Sun Wukong origin)
The following story sketch was originally posted on my external blog on the Historum website. The site recently switched to a new server but the blogs have yet to be migrated. I’m posting it here for posterity. Regular articles will resume after this entry.
As a lover of Chinese mythology and a former primatology major, I've always wanted to create my own primate-based character similar to Sun Wukong. I originally wanted him to be the son of Monkey or the son of one of his advisers or allies during his days as a demon. Either way, I thought he could train under Sun and gain similar powers. But then I decided that I wanted him to be a mo
Story Idea - The origin of Sun Wukong's staff by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
Story Idea - The origin of Sun Wukong's staff
The Chinese novel Xiyouji (西游记, Journey to the West) does not mention how Sun's weapon, the "The Compliant Golden-Hooped Cudgel" (如意金箍棒), was made, only that it was used by "Great Yu [to fix] the depths of rivers and oceans when he conquered the Flood." [1] Great Yu, a.k.a. Yu the Great, was the legendary first Emperor of the Xia Dynasty (c. 2070-ca. 1600 BC), China's first semi-historical imperial dynasty. Apart from the flood myth, a well-known legend describes Yu creating the famous Nine Tripod Cauldrons ( 九鼎) from bronze that he collected from the nine states of
The Wandering Christian by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
The Wandering Christian
I thought of a story that would be a neat mix of biology and history and religious and political commentary. Let's say, in the not too distant future, there is a physicist who is about to perform a groundbreaking experimentsomething similar to the large hadron collider in Geneva, Switzerlandthat would allow scientists to fully understand the beginning of the universe. Now let's say there is a fundamentalist Christian group that sees this experiment as being an affront to God since only he should have such knowledge. One of their faithful is sent to infiltrate the project facility in order to sabotage the experiment (a la the film
Super soldiers-turned-cannibals by Ghostexorcist, literature
Literature
Super soldiers-turned-cannibals
I took a 400-level biology course on Herpetology in early 2010. The neatest thing I learned is that Amphibians (frogs and salamanders) can chose to become cannibals and change their bodies to accommodate larger prey. This change includes a restructuring of the jaw, a widening of the mouth, enlarging of the head, and, in frogs especially, the lengthening and increase of Vomerine teeth. Above is a drawing that compares three different Salamanders' normal states (top) with their cannibal forms (bottom). Notice how different the mouth looks, and they look a lot meaner too. It is believed that cannibalism is caused by environments with low food so