JournalThe Kotoba Interactive journal.
Editorial features on the cultures, history and languages of Asia. Filter by culture, by topic, or search for what inspires you.
Discover 5 articles
ChinaPop Culture7 min
Guzhuang: why Chinese costume drama is booming
The genre has a name, and it does not mean historical drama. Regulation as the engine, online novels as the fuel, platforms as the arbiter.
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ChinaCulture6 min
Donghua: what really separates it from Japanese anime
The word, the source material, 3D, permitted themes, the markets: six concrete differences between Chinese and Japanese animation, and where to start.
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ChinaPop Culture8 min
C-drama fashion: from guzhuang to the Chinese street
Chinese series costumes, the mamianqun skirt, xiuhefu wedding outfits: how the c-drama wardrobe became a very real fashion industry.
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ChinaCulture8 min
Xianxia: the Chinese fantasy of immortals
Xianxia explained: Daoist roots, the founding 1932 serial, cultivation stages, Qidian web novels, dramas, and how it differs from wuxia and xuanhuan.
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ChinaCulture10 min
C-drama: the Chinese genres that exist nowhere else
Xianxia, guzhuang, modern romance, thrillers: what defines a c-drama, how it differs from a k-drama, and which series to start with.
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