[MDZS] On Lan Wangji
Jan. 1st, 2019 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chromemuffinThe first in a series of character analyses for the characters of Modao Zushi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation! My interpretations are informed by my readings of the text and personal experience (I am not a psychologist, but it was my major in college), so yours may differ.
Lan Wangji's major flaws are his communication and interpersonal skills, or lack thereof, and these flaws are exacerbated by his environment, namely the Gusu Lan Sect and their lifestyle. He is extremely reticent and introverted, never starting conversations even around Wei Wuxian unless there is a purpose that necessitates it. His answers are brief, reveal none of his thoughts, and when he does show emotion, it is either after his tolerance has maxed out or expressed in nonverbal, ambiguous, or unnoticeable ways. The longest stretches of dialogue he has are when he is explaining something, which is sometimes information he did not reveal voluntarily in the first place.
Lan Wangji's childhood and the environment the Gusu Lan Sect provided did him no favors. In a sect where speaking loudly is forbidden, as well as talking during meals and which values an extremely restrictive set of rules, Lan Wangji never had to move out of his comfort zone of speaking as little as possible and speaking concisely when he did. And in the times when he needed to express himself and had no words, Lan Xichen was able to read him perfectly without a word of input on Lan Wangji's side.
(As an anecdote: I know two instances in which the younger children in a family developed speech delays due to their siblings "translating" their thoughts to the parents. In one, the youngest child never learned Chinese and thus cannot speak to her mother, who only speaks Chinese, directly because her sisters translated for her. In the other, the youngest did not say his first word for years, because his sisters understood the babble and nonwords he used. These are somewhat extreme, but it explains why Lan Wangji is not good at expressing himself - he really had no practice.)
It is little wonder that Wei Wuxian never realized Lan Wangji was anything other than antagonistic towards him. During the Sunshot Campaign, he criticized Wei Wuxian's demonic cultivation as harmful and unorthodox, then, for once expressed a desire of his: to take Wei Wuxian back to Gusu. However, his attempts at communication fail in this instance, as he is either unable to see what his own words sound like from Wei Wuxian's perspective or he finds himself unable to articulate his own emotions. Instead of concern, his words sound like criticism, and instead of sounding helpful, he sounds domineering and self-righteous.
It befuddles me that people find this scene a sign of budding romance. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng do not appreciate it in the slightest, and if you read this in the context of Chinese culture and wuxia-inspired themes, Lan Wangji actually ends up sounding rude and self-righteous here. For context, Jiang Cheng reminds Lan Wangji that he has no right to punish people of other sects, which is what they assume he intends by taking Wei Wuxian back to Gusu (and Lan Wangji never refutes this despite it being the opposite of what he wants to do). After reading other xianxia and wuxia works, I realized that Jiang Cheng probably read this as a criticism that he is either not doing his job as a sect leader (in punishing Wei Wuxian for using demonic cultivation) or that he cannot be trusted to punish Wei Wuxian and so the Gusu Lan Sect must do it for him. Jiang Cheng's assumptions are not unreasonable given their culture.
A member's success is the group's success; likewise, a member's failure is the group's failure. No one else has a right to interfere, let alone punish, a sect's members. If an outside has to intervene, it means that the sect's leader has not done his or her duty. One example of this is Jin Yong's classic Legend of the Condor Heroes, the purveyor of all those wuxia tropes. In it, of Huang Yaoshi's two disciples who ran off, stealing an important manual and later becoming infamous killers and practitioners of 'unorthodox' martial arts (similar to demonic cultivation), one was killed by the main character and the other blinded. Despite this all, Huang Yaoshi has an obligation to avenge them because they were still his disciples and no other had the right to punish them, no matter what they had done.
Does it make sense to a western audience immediately? Probably not. I took it at face value at first, but Lan Wangji's lack of communication here really hurt him. I remember waiting for him to explain a little more, to make clear his intentions, but he never did.
It is this lack of communication skills and lack of desire to improve them that makes Lan Wangji frustrating to read about, from my point of view. He reminds me too much of myself before I went to college and decided to enter a profession where I have to push the limits of what I find comfortable in terms of human interaction. Lan Wangji is frustrating because the narrative never makes him confront this flaw. Even by the end of the story, Wei Wuxian is the one who does all the talking. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to mind carrying a conversation by himself. But I've also known people with similarly chatty personalities who wilt and become unhappy when their partners aren't the type to reciprocate by nature. They don't intentionally hurt each other, of course, but Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's dynamic hits a bit too close to home for me to form a strong attachment to their relationship.
Other people's opinions on this may differ, but I also had mixed feelings for Lan Wangji's thirteen years of waiting – or, perhaps, I merely have mixed feelings towards how these thirteen years are often portrayed. It isn't healthy to fixate so intensely on a person who is gone and, as far as he knew, would never return. Waiting for a loved one for a lifetime is portrayed as romantic in many stories, but like the story of the dog Hachiko who returned to the train station to wait for an owner who would never disembark is both a sign of devotion and incredibly sad, I can only feel pity if he really didn't move on after Wei Wuxian's death. To his credit, he does continue to live his life and doesn't let it interfere with his job. Like I said earlier, perhaps what I don't like about this situation is merely how it gets portrayed as romantic before anything else.
Lan Wangji's major flaws are his communication and interpersonal skills, or lack thereof, and these flaws are exacerbated by his environment, namely the Gusu Lan Sect and their lifestyle. He is extremely reticent and introverted, never starting conversations even around Wei Wuxian unless there is a purpose that necessitates it. His answers are brief, reveal none of his thoughts, and when he does show emotion, it is either after his tolerance has maxed out or expressed in nonverbal, ambiguous, or unnoticeable ways. The longest stretches of dialogue he has are when he is explaining something, which is sometimes information he did not reveal voluntarily in the first place.
Lan Wangji's childhood and the environment the Gusu Lan Sect provided did him no favors. In a sect where speaking loudly is forbidden, as well as talking during meals and which values an extremely restrictive set of rules, Lan Wangji never had to move out of his comfort zone of speaking as little as possible and speaking concisely when he did. And in the times when he needed to express himself and had no words, Lan Xichen was able to read him perfectly without a word of input on Lan Wangji's side.
(As an anecdote: I know two instances in which the younger children in a family developed speech delays due to their siblings "translating" their thoughts to the parents. In one, the youngest child never learned Chinese and thus cannot speak to her mother, who only speaks Chinese, directly because her sisters translated for her. In the other, the youngest did not say his first word for years, because his sisters understood the babble and nonwords he used. These are somewhat extreme, but it explains why Lan Wangji is not good at expressing himself - he really had no practice.)
It is little wonder that Wei Wuxian never realized Lan Wangji was anything other than antagonistic towards him. During the Sunshot Campaign, he criticized Wei Wuxian's demonic cultivation as harmful and unorthodox, then, for once expressed a desire of his: to take Wei Wuxian back to Gusu. However, his attempts at communication fail in this instance, as he is either unable to see what his own words sound like from Wei Wuxian's perspective or he finds himself unable to articulate his own emotions. Instead of concern, his words sound like criticism, and instead of sounding helpful, he sounds domineering and self-righteous.
It befuddles me that people find this scene a sign of budding romance. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng do not appreciate it in the slightest, and if you read this in the context of Chinese culture and wuxia-inspired themes, Lan Wangji actually ends up sounding rude and self-righteous here. For context, Jiang Cheng reminds Lan Wangji that he has no right to punish people of other sects, which is what they assume he intends by taking Wei Wuxian back to Gusu (and Lan Wangji never refutes this despite it being the opposite of what he wants to do). After reading other xianxia and wuxia works, I realized that Jiang Cheng probably read this as a criticism that he is either not doing his job as a sect leader (in punishing Wei Wuxian for using demonic cultivation) or that he cannot be trusted to punish Wei Wuxian and so the Gusu Lan Sect must do it for him. Jiang Cheng's assumptions are not unreasonable given their culture.
A member's success is the group's success; likewise, a member's failure is the group's failure. No one else has a right to interfere, let alone punish, a sect's members. If an outside has to intervene, it means that the sect's leader has not done his or her duty. One example of this is Jin Yong's classic Legend of the Condor Heroes, the purveyor of all those wuxia tropes. In it, of Huang Yaoshi's two disciples who ran off, stealing an important manual and later becoming infamous killers and practitioners of 'unorthodox' martial arts (similar to demonic cultivation), one was killed by the main character and the other blinded. Despite this all, Huang Yaoshi has an obligation to avenge them because they were still his disciples and no other had the right to punish them, no matter what they had done.
Does it make sense to a western audience immediately? Probably not. I took it at face value at first, but Lan Wangji's lack of communication here really hurt him. I remember waiting for him to explain a little more, to make clear his intentions, but he never did.
It is this lack of communication skills and lack of desire to improve them that makes Lan Wangji frustrating to read about, from my point of view. He reminds me too much of myself before I went to college and decided to enter a profession where I have to push the limits of what I find comfortable in terms of human interaction. Lan Wangji is frustrating because the narrative never makes him confront this flaw. Even by the end of the story, Wei Wuxian is the one who does all the talking. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to mind carrying a conversation by himself. But I've also known people with similarly chatty personalities who wilt and become unhappy when their partners aren't the type to reciprocate by nature. They don't intentionally hurt each other, of course, but Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's dynamic hits a bit too close to home for me to form a strong attachment to their relationship.
Other people's opinions on this may differ, but I also had mixed feelings for Lan Wangji's thirteen years of waiting – or, perhaps, I merely have mixed feelings towards how these thirteen years are often portrayed. It isn't healthy to fixate so intensely on a person who is gone and, as far as he knew, would never return. Waiting for a loved one for a lifetime is portrayed as romantic in many stories, but like the story of the dog Hachiko who returned to the train station to wait for an owner who would never disembark is both a sign of devotion and incredibly sad, I can only feel pity if he really didn't move on after Wei Wuxian's death. To his credit, he does continue to live his life and doesn't let it interfere with his job. Like I said earlier, perhaps what I don't like about this situation is merely how it gets portrayed as romantic before anything else.
