Singing Spring Melody 咏春曲 Free Talk

Hell King Sect Series/Yan Wang Sect Series 阎王门系列

By: Jue Ming 决明

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Free Talk means speech without liability. As far as I’ve seen, this word is used almost exclusively in doujinshi^[1] works. But I’m borrowing it now to use in my novel, after all, a certain period of my life was devoted mainly to the doujinshi circle.

After hearing that my first book was being placed in the new series “Sweet Pocket,” I felt pretty excited looking forward to it, but I’m also scared. New year, new people, new book, and new series, everything’s new! (Upon thinking about this, Balloon Jue Ming^[2] starts to giggle stupidly ….) I’m scared because I’m writing novels without the knowledge of a lot of my good friends, and in the end, I published the book using the same pen name I’ve been using for doujinshis (I know it’s a reckless thing to do). As you can imagine, I’m gonna be dragged to the washroom by a bunch of my good friends for “re-education”! Ooh, please show mercy, Balloon might burst if you beat it ….

Having been in the doujinshi circle for several years, I’ve written a dozen Free Talks, but this is the first time I’ve been unsure as to what I should write …. Seeing your own writing being published in a book is a bizzar feeling, my part in the doujinshi circle had always been doing illustrations for other people’s stories, drawing other people’s characters.

For me, I’ve been doing illustrations for far longer than I’ve been writing. I replace the manhua^[3] storyboards that flash across my mind with clumsy words, trying to present these stories that are drowning in my laziness appear in front of everyone in a new form, as this book baby that you are holding in your hands. You can call it a romance novel, but I actually think it’s more like a manhua draft, haha, since it doesn’t have any eloquence of speech, and of course, there isn’t any so-called literary talent either (I’ll reflect on this).

Hopefully, while you are reading, you’ll experience the illusion of “words within pictures and pictures within words”….

And finally, I’ve got to thank a few people, otherwise, when they receive the book baby, they might get pretty pissed off. Qing, Ya Ling, Xu Hua, Zhu Zhu, Meng Yue, Xiao Lan Er, thank you guys for helping me edit my draft, telling me your thoughts on it, and listening to me complain … as well as calling me to “delay” me as I was keying the story into my computer (that person knows who I’m talking about, surrender yourself and you will be shown mercy, haha!).

My darling Zhu Zhu has asked me to be funny when I’m writing the preface …. Come on, at least in the preface of my first book baby let me maintain the illusion of being a proper lady, since my image in the doujinshi circle has been completely ruined.

At the end of the book I’ve included a few pages of manhua^[4], it’s how I’ve imagined the male and female main characters to be!

Ok, enough chit chat, onward to the next page!

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Translator’s Notes:

This is the preface Jue Ming 决明 had written for her book 咏春曲 Singing Spring Melody.

Jue Ming 决明 has a Facebook page, if you are interested in her work, please go and follow her on Facebook! Click here for the link—>LINK.

Here is a three-part interview with 决明 Jue Ming from her publisher—>LINK1—>LINK2—>LINK3. On the page, there are some examples of her illustrations as well as her self-portrait.

Update: Re-edited May. 14th, 2020 with adjustments to grammar, spelling and wording.

As always, please like, comment, and follow if you’ve enjoyed reading!~ Ciao! ❤

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1 The Japanese word for fan comic inspired by someone else’s work. A Sherlock doujinshi would be a fan-made comic about the adventures of Sherlock and Watson.^↩
2 Balloon is the nickname Jue Ming (the author) calls herself. Since she is an illustrator, they usually draw self-portraits for the author’s introduction column for doujinshis. For ease of drawing and probably out of laziness, she drew a round blob-like person for herself, therefore the name 气球 or balloon. She also has other nicknames like 皮鞠 meaning ball and 小明 which translates to Little Ming, a term of endearment. ^↩
3 Manhua is the Chinese name for comics, its Japanese counterpart is manga, in which a lot of us are familiar with.^↩
4 I used to have the scans of a book that’s a compilation of all the end of book manhuas Jue Ming had drawn, and now it’s gone forever. I had the foresight to scan the book when I took it out from the library, but not the foresight to keep it safe. A lot of her books are now sold out and no longer in print, oh well.^↩