A Light on You

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Zine
Title: A Light on You: A Qi Ye & Tian Ya Ke Zine
Publisher:
Editor(s):
Type:
Date(s):
Medium: print, digital
Fandom: Qi Ye, Tian Ya Ke
Language: English
External Links: tumblr; twitter; carrd
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

A Light on You was a planned charity zine for the Chinese webnovel Qi Ye and its sequel Tian Ya Ke by Priest that was abandoned after facing backlash from fans of Tian Ya Ke's drama adaptation, Word of Honor, on social media in July 2023. The zine mods were accused of not believing that actor Zhang Zhehan's Instagram account was controlled by an impostor.

The Zine

From the project's carrd:

The goal of this project is to consider the concepts of identity and perception of the self and others which weave themselves in various ways through the text of Qi Ye and Tian Ya Ke. We aim to explore the multifaceted and complex selves that are concealed and revealed throughout these novels, to examine the way relationships develop and change as a consequence of the masks the characters wear either by choice or by necessity, and to illustrate the various ways that light will find to shine through even the most opaque facade.[1]

The zine mods were not listed by name on the carrd, but tumblr user glittercracker posted about organizing the project[2]. The twitter account followed four people (zappychild, glittercracker, OrchisAilsa, AJfanfic), all of whom had modded or contributed to Word of Honor zines in the past, and other fans seem to have decided these were the zine mods[3], though there does not appear to be any public confirmation. It is also common practice for zine projects to advertise for mods to join the team later. The identities of the mods were relevant to the ensuing controversy.

Rules

According to the carrd FAQ, the zine was to include fanfiction and fanart. Fanworks could "include violent, sensual, or otherwise mature themes but nothing graphic or explicit beyond the level of the novels themselves." The zine was not specifically ship-related, but would allow any ship except for "ships that would be illegal—mainly, no adults paired with underage partners or children". Fanworks were required to be "plausibly canon-compliant, and set within the canon universe".

The zine was intended to include a digital and print version.

The zine was intended as a charity zine, with charities to be voted on by contributors.

The zine's theme was "masks".

Schedule

The zine was announced in late July 2023 and was scheduled to be published in 2024.

  • August 25: Applications close
  • September 9: Concept check-in
  • October 8: Check-in 1
  • November 5: Check-in 2
  • December 10: Check-in 3
  • January 15, 2024: Pieces submitted

Cancellation

On August 14, 2023, less than a month after the zine was first announced, the tumblr and twitter accounts announced that the project was cancelled.[4][5]

The carrd was updated to explain that the mods were harassed, that misinformation was spread about them, and that would-be contributors were worried about also becoming targets. The mods decided to cancel the zine because "we cannot assure contributors that they would be spared the kind of online hostility we’ve experienced in the past three weeks".[6]

We respect everyone’s right to participate in a project or not for any reason, and the right to share their reasons with whomever they choose, however the reactions our announcement elicited went far beyond that – an extremely public rallying cry against anyone supporting the zine at all. We have experienced disproportionate anger, sensationalized and slanderous outbursts, and – on a few notable occasions – outright lies and wild speculation. A flood of accusations circulated around Twitter and Tumblr like a smear campaign. Allegations about our mods were posted and reposted online by people we’ve never even spoken to before, with no firsthand knowledge of the situations they were referencing....

We are saddened to set this project aside. It has meant a lot to each of us personally, and we were looking forward to creating something wonderful to share with you. We appreciate the enthusiasm of everyone who applied, and the candor of everyone who expressed interest but felt that the landscape was too inhospitable to get involved. Thank you, your support means the world to us.[6]

Controversy

Background: Zines, Money, and Zhang Zhehan Fandom

The Tian Ya Ke novel fandom is small compared to the Word of Honor drama fandom, and the fandom for Qi Ye, which doesn't have a drama adaptation, is even smaller. The fandoms overlap, but there are novel fans who don't like or care about the drama, and there are novel fans (and drama fans) who like the drama but don't care about actors. There are some drama fans who also like the novels, but plenty more who are not interested.

Fans had already published four English-language Word of Honor zines, and Priest fans had published a few anthologies of fanworks for all of her novels, but no one had published a zine specifically focused on Qi Ye. Some fans had been wishing for a Qi Ye zine since at least 2021.[7][8][9] A Light on You would not be a Qi Ye only zine, but as it excluded the drama, there was likely to be more Qi Ye related content.

The drama came out in early 2021; the first zine for the drama fandom, published in late 2021, was also modded by glittercracker. The "head mods" for the four Word of Honor zines were all different fans, but there was a lot of overlap in mods and contributors between the different projects. One allowed Qi Ye content, but the others were drama-only. The digital-only zine was free, but the others were print zines and cost money. All of the zines appear to have been completed successfully, print zines and merch were shipped, nobody ran off with the funds, and twitter discussion about the end products seemed very positive. However, the fandom environment changed between 2021 and 2023.

In August 2021, an astroturfing campaign destroyed the career of the lead actor in Word of Honor, Zhang Zhehan (ZZH). This incident upset the fandom and fueled fan speculation about who was behind the smear campaign and what their motives were. Rival fan factions with competing conspiracy theories emerged. More RPF fans who shipped him with his male costar Gong Jun (Junzhe) starting believing that they were a couple in real life. In April 2022 Zhang Zhehan resurfaced on Instagram, and his comments (among other things, denying that he was even friends with Gong Jun) further divided the fandom, with some choosing to believe that the real Zhang Zhehan would never say that and that he must be an impostor. Fans who believe the Instagram impostor theory refer to the new, fake Zhehan as "Zhang Sanjian" or "ZSJ". They call Zhang Zhehan fans who continue to support him and who don't believe the Instagram impostor theory "whalers". The theorists believe that whalers are doing damage to the "real" Zhang Zhehan by financially supporting the faker. They believe that "ZSJ" is trying to defraud the actor's loyal fanbase and that some of the so-called whaler fans are in the know and paid to pretend that he is the real Zhang Zhehan in order to convince more fans to spend money on merchandise, albums, and concert tickets.

Instagram-impostor theorists view fan projects run by "whalers" that cost money as dishonest attempts to enrich themselves off the fandom. For example, in May 2023, some international fans were outraged when a popular fanartist on weibo announced that they no longer believed Junzhe was real or the Instagram was fake.[10][11] This artist had recently published an artbook of their Junzhe and Word of Honor fanart[12], and people on twitter posted pictures of themselves throwing the zine they had bought into the trash.[13][14]

Backlash

Shortly after writer/artist applications for A Light on You were opened on twitter, July 24[15], Zhang Zhehan fans who believed the Instagram impostor theory started spreading warnings about the people running the zine. dillylene may have been the first to tweet: "FYI, the new qy/tyk light on you zine is created by whalers and anti-cpfs."[16] flora_38657's tweet may have gained the most traction: "Heads up that this zine is being organized by whalers. Spread the word, don't be fooled."[17]

bizarrequazar, also known for tumblr posts collecting evidence that a video on Zhang Zhehan's Instagram account and another video of a fanmeet were deepfakes[18][19], tweeted,

I'm hesitant to say anything about this publicly, but I've been talking to a number of people for most of the evening concerning the mods of this zine and have learned of some behaviour aside from zsj stuff that makes me very unwilling to engage with it positively.

I'm not at liberty to say what exactly I've learned because the people affected have asked me not to disclose it. I know this is just me going "trust me" without giving you reason, but I wanted to give a heads up at least.[20]

Other fans on twitter spread the news:

  • "please watch out and do not participate in any activities that will enable whalers to make money off our fandom."[21]
  • "Antis across fandoms use Zines to collect informations of fans. Be careful."[22]
  • "I see that some of my moots are following this acc. Just please know who organize this and be very careful with your personal data."[23]
  • "As Flora noted, this is being organized by whalers; as others have noted, this is the kind of thing antis use to get information about fans."[24]

zhongwans, a well-known Junzhe shipper who believes they are romantically involved in real life, posted on tumblr,

This zine is for Qi Ye and Tian Ya Ke (the novels) so technically they have nothing to do with WOH or the actors, but it's ran by people who came from WOH fandom. They believe in ZSJ and are very hostile towards CPF. So do take that into consideration before supporting this zine. There are different types of fans: those who only like TYK, those who only like WOH, those who like both but don't care about the actors, those who like both and also love the actors, etc, etc. This message is specifically for those who are interested in the zine but also care for ZZH's situation, just so you guys are aware of what kind of people are managing this zine so you can decide for yourself whether to support or not. I know Flora is probably just using "whalers" as a blanket term for everyone who believes that ZSJ is legit, but the people who run this zine are not part of the usual whaler crowd and they're probably not even fans of ZZH at all. You know those types of fans who believe they're better than everyone else because they 'only like the drama/book and don't care about the actors'? That's pretty much what these people are.[25]

July 2022 Bullying of Amethystfiend

Most of the public accusations against the mods were extremely vague, and the public discussion on social media was not very illuminating. It's also not clear which zine mods were accused. Apparently some of the more specific accusations or rumors were spread via private messages.

However, there were a few references on twitter and tumblr that indicate people thought that one, some, or all of the zine mods were involved in the July 2022 incident where philologicalbat bullied amethystfiend off twitter[26] (see Disciples of Zhou Zishu). For example, twitter user nie_yinniang said,

There are groups of people who dislike this zine because of certain opinions but there is also a huge part of the fandom who are aware that the mods of this zine are friends of and/or took part in the very public cyberbullying/doxxing of a member of this fandom just one year ago.[27]

Brilcrist, a popular fanartist with 34K twitter followers, tweeted "And i didnt know they bullied Amethystfiend and forced them out from the fandom...".[28]

Because the specifics were not shared publicly, it's difficult to confirm or deny whether the accusations were accurate or exaggerated or false or if it was a case of mistaken identity. philologicalbat was not involved in organizing A Light on You.

Backlash against the Backlash

Not everyone who believed in the Instagram impostor theory was impressed by the rumors about A Light on You mods:

[Sebyth]
If the mods of the zine are doing bad shit, that should be addressed (with fucking evidence maybe at least). But "friends with someone who liked a whaler's post one time" is not evidence of wrongdoing. And being said by a person whose words carry weight should have proof.

Especially in the damn fandom where a man's life was destroyed by "he's near a evil place he's secretly evil I heard he had a girlfriend when he wasn't supposed to have one omg look his hand is up in this photo"...

I was fine with just blocking the people who were excited about "new ZZH" so I don't have to see it. But this whole "rooting out secret whalers" and "everyone is a whaler if they looked at a whaler once and didn't immediately renounce zsj or whatever" bullshit Is really getting out of hand.[29]

"liked a whaler's post one time" may refer to glittercracker; twitter user Quichie6 went through glittercracker's twitter likes and found tweets from someone else about Zhang Zhehan's May 2023 Bangkok concert.[30]

(Note that Sebyth is a Zhang Zhehan fan, but not an RPF fan or Junzhe shipper.[31])

And fans who didn't believe the theory were likewise unimpressed by the behavior of the zine's critics:

[sanlanglovemail]
man, for what? information about fans... to do what? do you think every person who doesn't believe "zhang zhehan is stuck in a dog crate with deepfakes being made of his dog and mom" is in the pocket of the ccp?

is ao3 user glittercracker collecting your email and internet name so that she can hand them over to the nefarious forces keeping zhang zhehan down? are you going to wake up one day in, like, columbus ohio to find an envelope filled with anthrax has been shoved under your door?

i am obviously being mean here but to be very, very kind to grown adults who shd know better: you are in a cult. you are manipulating each other into believing obviously outrageous shit along party lines. not even party lines, DISCORD SERVER lines[32]

[dcyiyou (lianzi)]
in my time in shl fandom i have seen exactly one group of people engaging in stalking activities, and it was not--of all people!!--novel-only fans.

i largely moved into tyk fandom because it became impossible to stay in the broader fandom without stepping on the wrong eggshell and setting off a storm. I've seen people lose their entire social group in a day for accidentally saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

it's just unbelievable that we let things get so bad for so long. I feel guilty for not speaking up earlier. I wonder, if I did that, if many of my friends who left would still be here.[33]

northofallmusic, a book fan who was not interested in sharing an opinion on the Instagram theory, said:

all I want, and I already know what you think of this as a Moral Stance, is to be in my own fandom, enjoying time with my own friends. are you going to tell fans of other priest novels that they're also immoral for not actively taking your side? fans of other shows?

I am not in your fandom; I am not obliged to fall in line with your priorities. If I am hostile to you, it is because you reserve your empathy for people you have an unhealthy parasocial relationship with, and appear to have none for the people around you....

It's just that I'm absolutely sick of this behaviour, and I'm sick of you acting like we need to be the ones to make space, to shut up & to toe the line. You haven't directly harassed me personally in the past, but you have created a miserable climate of fear. thanks for that[34]

ybyqlo, another book fan, voiced a similar frustration in their complaints about Instagram-impostor theorists quote-tweeting the zine announcement[35]:

I don’t care what do people think is ethically right or wron. Me, as a fan of the novels who wants nothing to do with the side of the actors for how toxic the environment has been made, don’t want to see any opinion coming from that side. The hashtags that are exclusive to the novels are filled with actor fans, the fandom is literally impossible to navigate without stepping into that discourse. All we want is to be left out of that whole mess, just don’t come into a space where that discussion is not welcome.[36]

Zhang Zhehan fans who believe the Instagram-impostor theory objected to book fans characterizing their behavior as harassing. They argued that they had a right to curate their own experience to avoid content and people whose views conflicted with theirs and share information to help their fellow believers do the same. In turn, others disagreed with the believers' representation of the situation, saying that the posts being public were resulting in harassment, despite whatever the believers claimed about their intent.[37] bizarrequazar expressed doubt that book fans had been harassed at all, said that they were using it as "an excuse to openly mock a subset of the fandom that you find cringey" and also suggested that "if you're that upset just organize a zine yourselves".[38]

silks, a DZZS mod who had been away from the Internet, came back to address some general comments to Junzhe (LLD) shippers:

i think in this fight/drama or whatever, it's difficult on our little side bc tyk/shl can separate themselves from actors/lld, but lld cannot separate from shl (and tyk, in some cases) and genuinely doesn't want to. it's uneven playing ground. we feel backed into a corner. the more you care, the more you feel like you have to lose. and lld fandom has really been through the wringer, and really, it's not of our own making. (i guess we're just special that way 😉)[39]

After the zine was cancelled, tothedeaths (yiqie) commented,

i have so much repressed rage about what s//hl and ty//k fandom became lol. cannot tell you how much anger i've swallowed to be Cordial and not rock some stupid arbitrary boat but watching that zine get bullied out of existence makes me want to scream....

i've seen zines get canceled because mods ran off with the funds but rarely do i see them get canceled because a couple of wackos have fully become charlie day screaming in front of red yarn bulletin board. "wuh wuh you don't know shit" and i don't want to. lmfao[40]

dcyiyou spoke up again:

what happened here is absolutely disgusting. i've seen firsthand the people conducting a public slander campaign against this whole mod team. everyone who made claimed that this zine was for stealing personal information--based on no evidence--should be ashamed of themselves.

everyone knows who has made this whole fandom a desolate wasteland since 2021. i can't even scroll through the "word of honor" topic without running into hysterical posts about "whalers". but sure, the real problem is the handful of people who didn't toe the arbitrary party line.[41]

The next day, dcyiyou was called out on twitter as a "full time whaler".[42][43] Other fans called out the call-outs:

[crabsnaks]
please stop. this is turning into a vicious cycle and we just need to stop and move on. block and unfollow who you want or need but please don’t do this.[44]
[butleronduty]
It matters because this little telephone game yall are playing making all sorts of assumptions add up and twist facts even more. Someone even said lianzi was part of the zine team which she never was. How are you not seeing this? Is like you never came from 813 is2g. Blocking and not interacting with lianzi is your prerogative but you put her name out there and let people run around spreading baseless rumours making things sound worse than it is. Suddenly listening to a song makes you a paid fan? Being angry about the turn of events means You're part of the zine?[45]

In the notes of the zine's cancellation announcement on tumblr, a number of fans expressed disappointment about the cancellation and anger over the harassment.[46]

Someone on fail_fandomanon commented,

It boggles the mind, how the tinhat vibes have managed to ruin things so thoroughly that now apparently you can't make a zine about a book related to the book that the show the actors these people tinhat without being an anti. Somehow. (Anti RPF I guess? I honestly can't tell anymore.)

The show, the books, and the people who just want to enjoy either deserve better.[47]

Aftermath?

glittercracker deleted her twitter account.

Another Qi Ye fan project started around the same time as the zine was abruptly cancelled for unstated reasons. The Qi Ye Doodles & Drabbles Exchange (AO3 collection owned by owlpockets and nerdyjellyfish) was announced on August 1[48] and "postponed indefinitely" on August 5[49]. One of the mods has "ZSJ fans DNI" in their twitter bio.[50] The other deleted their twitter account.[51]

In early 2024 the Qi Ye Doodles & Drabbles Exchange resurfaced, apparently under new management, with a new schedule.[52]

References

  1. ^ Wayback Machine copy of the carrd, 2 August 2023.
  2. ^ tumblr post by glittercracker, reblogged by lightonyouzine, Archived version, 24 July 2023.
  3. ^ tweet by Zfan51129, Archived version, 25 July 2023.
  4. ^ tumblr post by lightonyouzine, Archived version, 14 August 2023.
  5. ^ tweet by LightOnYouZine, Archived version, 14 August 2023.
  6. ^ a b A Light on You, Archived version, carrd. (Accessed 23 August 2023.)
  7. ^ (touched surface of pool) qi ye zine when, Archived version, tweet by tyunadium, 21 November 2021.
  8. ^ fellow qi ye lovers I guess we need a qi ye zine, Archived version, tweet by sennenarts, 21 February 2023.
  9. ^ I need artists to make a qiye zine NOW immediately ASAP this instant pls im begging u on my knees down to the floor crying dying shouting screaming, Archived version, tweet by eorochy, 12 May 2023.
  10. ^ weibo post by 6_6号, Archived version, 12 May 2023.
  11. ^ This big cpf fanart acct 6_6号 turned zsj believer but saying she will continue to draw the “cp” becoz she likes “both of them” 🤡 I know a lot of ppl like her works. Be careful with ur 💰 from now on., Archived version, tweet by chocoholic3104, 12 May 2023.
  12. ^ tweet by miyazaizai, Archived version, 24 February 2023. archive.ph.
  13. ^ English speaker example: Man... i just bought her artbook last month... why whalers fanartist these days has a pattern to releasing fanmerch then run with JZP money?, Archived version, tweet by Brilcrist, 12 May 2023. archive.ph. follow-up tweet with photo of zine in trash. archive.ph.
  14. ^ Korean speaker example: 일러북 괜히 샀잖아 돈 아깝게 진작에 준삼러 선언하지 그랬어, Archived version, tweet by soymilk__jj, 12 May 2023.
  15. ^ tweet by LightOnYouZine, Archived version, 24 July 2023.
  16. ^ tweet by dillylene, Archived version, 25 July 2023.
  17. ^ tweet by flora_38657, Archived version, 25 July 2023. archive.ph
  18. ^ Collected information and sources about the 05-04 Instagram video, Archived version, 5 May 2022. (last edited 2023-01-05.)
  19. ^ Collected Information About the 07-17 Video, Archived version, 17 July 2022. (last edited 2022-07-18.).
  20. ^ Tweet thread by bizarrequazar: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, 25 July 2023.
  21. ^ tweet by zuokanyunshu, Archived version, 25 July 2023.
  22. ^ tweet by JuZiPeel, Archived version, 25 July 2023.
  23. ^ tweet by naltariel_ld, Archived version, 25 July 2023.
  24. ^ tweet by JDFinally, Archived version, 26 July 2023.
  25. ^ tumblr post by zhongwans, Archived version, 26 July 2023.
  26. ^ tumblr post by zhongwans, reblogged by edgeoflight, Archived version, 26 July 2023.
  27. ^ tweet by nie_yinniang, Archived version, Jul 30, 2023.
  28. ^ tweet by agikun, Archived version, 26 July 2023.
  29. ^ Tweet thread by Sebyth: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, third tweet, Archived version, fourth tweet, Archived version, 26 July 2023.
  30. ^ tweet by Quichie6 containing a whale emoji (🐋) and screencap, Archived version, 25 July 2023.
  31. ^ And I guess I should state clearly my stance for when the hounds inevitably come for me for being a bad person AGAIN. I don't believe the instagram/zsj. I am not a cpf. I have nothing against cpfs or GJ, he just doesn't spark joy for me like ZZH does and I'm not into RPF/RPS., Archived version, tweet by Sebyth, 26 July 2023.
  32. ^ tweets by sanlanglovemail: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, third tweet, Archived version, 29 July 2023.
  33. ^ Tweet thread by dcyiyou: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, third tweet, Archived version, 29 July 2023.
  34. ^ Tweet thread by northofallmusic: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, third tweet, Archived version, 29 July 2023.
  35. ^ Would be nice if features like muted words worked in suggested content but alas. It sure would be nice not to see unwelcome discourse if I click on the quote rts of a zine I’m interested in, Archived version, tweet by ybyqlo, 29 July 2023.
  36. ^ tweet by ybyqlo, Archived version, second tweet by ybyqlo, Archived version, 29 July 2023.
  37. ^ For example: twitter thread between ybyqlo and ZellyfishShoes, Archived version, more of the thread, Archived version, 30 July 2023. (Note that "ybyqlo" is probably a reference to the character Ye Baiyi and "ZellyfishShoes" is probably a reference to Zhang Zhehan fans' nickname of Jellyfish.)
  38. ^ Tweet thread by bizarrequazar: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, 16 August 2023.
  39. ^ Tweet thread by 275boxes: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, 30 July 2023.
  40. ^ first tweet by tothedeaths, Archived version, second tweet by tothedeaths, Archived version, 15 August 2023.
  41. ^ Tweet thread by dcyiyou: first tweet, Archived version, second tweet, Archived version, 14 August 2023.
  42. ^ tweet by mk_chronos, Archived version, 15 August 2023.
  43. ^ tweet by naltariel_ld, Archived version, 15 August 2023.
  44. ^ tweet by crabsnaks, Archived version, 15 August 2023.
  45. ^ tweet by butleronduty, Archived version, 16 August 2023.
  46. ^ tumblr post by lightonyouzine, Archived version, 14 August 2023.
  47. ^ fail_fandomanon comment, Archived version, 2023-08-15.
  48. ^ tweet by qiyeddexchange, Archived version, 1 August 2023.
  49. ^ tweet by qiyeddexchange, Archived version, 5 August 2023.
  50. ^ nerdyje11yfish twitter bio, Archived version (Accessed 7 September 2023.)
  51. ^ Guidelines & Schedule, Archived version (Accessed 7 September 2023.)
  52. ^ Qi Ye Doodles & Drabbles Exchange AO3 profile, Archived version (Accessed 25 March 2024.)
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