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🎨🖊️ Lanlangba

#oc#art#illustration#writing#worldbuilding#fiction

I recently remade a Tumblr (again) to post illustrations on, mostly since I couldn't find a good microblog in the many indie web communities I explored that is good for my specific purposes. Since CYBERSODA doesn't support adding images to blog posts, sharing illustrations here will be challenging. Still, here is the Tumblr post for my most recent drawing: https://www.tumblr.com/rolypolyphonic/825724110917206016 It is an illustration for my horror novel, 'The Loveless and The Hateful' which you find here: https://breadavota.cafe/e/tlath/ The following is some worldbuilding/context for the illustration. Jacques and Anthony go on a date (who said that) to Lanlangba, the most commercialised Autonomous Municipality of Maldevara. The outfits here feature traditional Lanlangban motifs combined with a more contemporary alternative fashion style—they aren't 'actual' traditional Lanlangban clothing, and would be seen as costume-y by the Lang. More in a fantasy/cosplay way than an offencive way, though; the Lang are quite open about their culture, a distinction from the other autonomous municipalities they are in a coalition with, 'The Land of the Infants'. The Lanlangba chapter was one of the earliest interactions ever planned for Jacques and Anthony, so it was merely a lack of foresight that it actually happened in the final arc of the story at such an odd point. Because there is no more space in the novel to elaborate on it further (there are only four chapters left until the novel concludes), there were certain things that unfortunately did not get brought up: a more detailed look into Lang culture, and how Jacques's and Anthony's experience in the municipality relate to their larger views on culture and colonialism. I will likely write a post elaborating on this further at a different point (possibly as a bonus chapter of Anthony and Laucheng having a conversation after the conclusion of TLaTH). The Lang are not indigenous to Maldevara but have ancestors from a different country, and Lanlangba grew out of the divergent political and economic circumstances of the time pre-Marginalian. It is notable for being the only autonomous municipality in Maldevara that are not indigenous to the country, and that relates to how the two view it: Anthony, who was displaced from his home culture at a young age and has no way to access it, takes an interest in how the Lang are able to maintain their 'original' culture within Maldevara. Jacques, on the other hand, is far more cynical. Having been raised within The Land of the Infants as a scholar and 'ambassadrice', her relationship to her own home culture of Passryne, to Lanlangba, and to her larger identity as an indigenous person in Maldevara is complicated. Anthony has a deep resentment for Jacques who he sees as a 'traitor' to their collective ideals/experiences, because Jacques would choose to 'embrace' the Marginals and abandon her own dying culture, whereas Jacques thinks Anthony cares more about his abstract ideals while ignoring the actual reality of what it's like in autonomous municipalities. Also, I am uncertain how obvious this is to international/non-Filipino audiences, but Lanlangba is based on Binondo, Manila. The relationship between 'Chinese-Filipinos' and native Filipinos is complicated and contingent on certain sociocultural/political factors that simply don't exist or are different in Maldevara, so although there are similarities, the Lang are not fully 'representative' of actual 'Chinese-Filipinos'. Still, if/when I get to write more about the different areas of Maldevara in the future, I think highlighting the similarities can be a good way for me to (attempt to) portray certain aspects of Filipino culture in this regard. I think when it comes to mixed Chinese individuals, many people on the Internet are most familiar with the experiences of Chinese-Americans, who have different relationships to their cultural identities than Chinese-Filipinos do. I've highlighted it before in other postes, but since the majority of the website visitors are from the USA, these types of nuances seem important to explicitly point out to avoid misinterpretation/confusion.

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