New Times, New Hell
Apr. 20th, 2021 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrNew Times, New Hell: This is a very fun Chinese m/m modern fantasy rom-com novel.
The premise is that Chinese government policies discouraging supernatural belief led to the collapse of Heaven and Hell, and now reincarnation is run out of a little office using Excel spreadsheets of everyone's karma. The protagonist is a new IT graduate who's been hired to update their system by the surprisingly hot King of Hell, who keeps spending company bonuses on gacha games.
There's a lot of cute shippy moments and surreal humour about ghosts dealing with modern life. The surrealness was only added to for me by the cultural differences, eg "communism" was used to mean something pretty different to any definition of communism I'm familiar with. It looks a lot like capitalism to me, but the book is clear that capitalism is bad, so I guess not! I have no idea how much of this is deliberate social commentary, a lot went over my head and I'm sure a Chinese reader would have a very different experience of the book. But the emotions of the characters were always clear and I got enough of the jokes to have fun.
I lost momentum once the main couple got together and never finished the book, but had a lot of fun getting to that point.
I've put some interesting quotes I saved about communism/socialism under the cut for anyone who's curious. No major spoilers.
[The protagonist, on finding out that ghosts are real]
Yu Zhengdu continued looking dull. “Do you know I got full marks in my Marxism class?”
“Marxist Philosophy?” Shang Que nodded and displayed a great deal of admiration. “Lingxi showed me your academic transcript. It’s very outstanding.”
Yu Zhengdu let out a prolonged breath and rejoiced, “Fortunately, I’m graduating soon. If I were to take the exam now, there’s an eighty percent chance I’d fail.”
Judging by how his materialistic beliefs had just been shattered into pieces alone, it was likely that he would never be able to confront examination papers regarding the scientific outlook on development with a normal mindset again.
---
That night, after completing the ceremony, Daoist priest Kou logged into his Weibo:
Danyang Temple’s Daoist Priest Kou Buzhi: After discussing with two householders from Luofeng Life Management(*) today, I have learned quite a lot. I have specially found some high school physics and Marxist philosophy textbooks to read. From now on, I will seek to guide my cultivation path through the use of advanced technology, and thus have decided to share these findings with you all.
Netizens: ??????????"
(*)what Hell calls itself
--
Recently, I have been thinking about how we could effectively push for a Daoist revolution. Like the industrial revolution. This way, the cultivation results of Daoism could more conveniently, rapidly, and productively enter thousands, even millions, of households.
--
Underworld spirits who had once only needed to receive the sacrifices from mortals now also had to work for their own survival, using their hands to make a living.
The socialist revolution was coming at them full speed. Even though they were ghosts, they still had to use their brains and roll up their sleeves to work in order to not be left in the dust!
---
Now, there were rumors that Zheng Yan had already completely fallen into the embrace of socialism and was now working at an Internet startup company.
--
“I won’t talk about the historic ghosts. I’m just going to talk about us good, socialist ghosts."
--
“That’s nothing. These days, as long you have money, you can even get someone to build a skyscraper for you overnight. Haven’t you heard of a speed known as ‘socialist speed’?”
--
Yu Zhengdu looked over too, faint amusement in his gaze. “Just like how the mortal realm will never stay in the past. No matter how strong or dazzling those dynasties recorded in history books were, we must still continue to walk forward. The Qin and Han were powerful, the Tang and Song were magnificent; these pieces of history are all impressive. For me though, I still like the current socialist society more, still like this era that has air conditioners, computers, and phones more……”
“I think that you’re very nice. The way things are right now is very nice.” Yu Zhengdu abruptly held up a fist and excitedly said, “Jiayou, Shang Xiaokui! Let’s work hard for the rise of a socialist Hell!”
--
“Aaaah, so many ghosts!” The female ghost tossed the apple away and held the apple-peeling knife in front of herself. She shrieked, “Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, lawful——”
Staff member: “……???”
Yu Zhengdu: “……”
This female ghost had a really good understanding of the core socialist values!
--
Once a capitalist, always a capitalist! Even turning into ghosts can’t change their exploitive natures!
The premise is that Chinese government policies discouraging supernatural belief led to the collapse of Heaven and Hell, and now reincarnation is run out of a little office using Excel spreadsheets of everyone's karma. The protagonist is a new IT graduate who's been hired to update their system by the surprisingly hot King of Hell, who keeps spending company bonuses on gacha games.
There's a lot of cute shippy moments and surreal humour about ghosts dealing with modern life. The surrealness was only added to for me by the cultural differences, eg "communism" was used to mean something pretty different to any definition of communism I'm familiar with. It looks a lot like capitalism to me, but the book is clear that capitalism is bad, so I guess not! I have no idea how much of this is deliberate social commentary, a lot went over my head and I'm sure a Chinese reader would have a very different experience of the book. But the emotions of the characters were always clear and I got enough of the jokes to have fun.
I lost momentum once the main couple got together and never finished the book, but had a lot of fun getting to that point.
I've put some interesting quotes I saved about communism/socialism under the cut for anyone who's curious. No major spoilers.
[The protagonist, on finding out that ghosts are real]
Yu Zhengdu continued looking dull. “Do you know I got full marks in my Marxism class?”
“Marxist Philosophy?” Shang Que nodded and displayed a great deal of admiration. “Lingxi showed me your academic transcript. It’s very outstanding.”
Yu Zhengdu let out a prolonged breath and rejoiced, “Fortunately, I’m graduating soon. If I were to take the exam now, there’s an eighty percent chance I’d fail.”
Judging by how his materialistic beliefs had just been shattered into pieces alone, it was likely that he would never be able to confront examination papers regarding the scientific outlook on development with a normal mindset again.
---
That night, after completing the ceremony, Daoist priest Kou logged into his Weibo:
Danyang Temple’s Daoist Priest Kou Buzhi: After discussing with two householders from Luofeng Life Management(*) today, I have learned quite a lot. I have specially found some high school physics and Marxist philosophy textbooks to read. From now on, I will seek to guide my cultivation path through the use of advanced technology, and thus have decided to share these findings with you all.
Netizens: ??????????"
(*)what Hell calls itself
--
Recently, I have been thinking about how we could effectively push for a Daoist revolution. Like the industrial revolution. This way, the cultivation results of Daoism could more conveniently, rapidly, and productively enter thousands, even millions, of households.
--
Underworld spirits who had once only needed to receive the sacrifices from mortals now also had to work for their own survival, using their hands to make a living.
The socialist revolution was coming at them full speed. Even though they were ghosts, they still had to use their brains and roll up their sleeves to work in order to not be left in the dust!
---
Now, there were rumors that Zheng Yan had already completely fallen into the embrace of socialism and was now working at an Internet startup company.
--
“I won’t talk about the historic ghosts. I’m just going to talk about us good, socialist ghosts."
--
“That’s nothing. These days, as long you have money, you can even get someone to build a skyscraper for you overnight. Haven’t you heard of a speed known as ‘socialist speed’?”
--
Yu Zhengdu looked over too, faint amusement in his gaze. “Just like how the mortal realm will never stay in the past. No matter how strong or dazzling those dynasties recorded in history books were, we must still continue to walk forward. The Qin and Han were powerful, the Tang and Song were magnificent; these pieces of history are all impressive. For me though, I still like the current socialist society more, still like this era that has air conditioners, computers, and phones more……”
“I think that you’re very nice. The way things are right now is very nice.” Yu Zhengdu abruptly held up a fist and excitedly said, “Jiayou, Shang Xiaokui! Let’s work hard for the rise of a socialist Hell!”
--
“Aaaah, so many ghosts!” The female ghost tossed the apple away and held the apple-peeling knife in front of herself. She shrieked, “Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, lawful——”
Staff member: “……???”
Yu Zhengdu: “……”
This female ghost had a really good understanding of the core socialist values!
--
Once a capitalist, always a capitalist! Even turning into ghosts can’t change their exploitive natures!
