Faraway Wanderers

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Name: 天涯客, Tian Ya Ke, Faraway Wanderers
Abbreviation(s): TYK
Creator: Priest
Date(s): 2010-2011
Medium: cnovel
Country of Origin: China
External Links:
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Faraway Wanderers is a Chinese danmei webnovel by Priest. It was adapted into a live-action dangai drama, Word of Honor, that developed a larger fandom than the original novel.

Faraway Wanderers is a sequel to another danmei Priest novel, 七爷 (Qi Ye, Lord Seventh). The main character in Faraway Wanderers appears as a minor character in Qi Ye and vice versa. (Qi Ye is often described as a "prequel", but was written first.[1]) Many fans agree that they can be read independently of one another.

Availability

The novel consists of 77 chapters and 4 "extras". It was originally serialized online at Jinjiang Literature City in 2010-2011, but has been locked since September 30, 2021. Clicking on the novel link leads to an error page that when machine-translated reads, "We are very sorry that the relevant content has been locked or deleted by the website administrator due to publication, modification, or pornographic, harmful, or original violations."[2] On October 1, a fan on twitter shared priest's social media post and explained that "she was required to lock and edit a few of her novels (tyk, zhenhun, spl) that became very influential due to their aired and to-air drama adaptations"[3]. Fans speculated that homophobia was a factor in the danmei novels being censored because the novel Legend of Fei was adapted from (featuring an m/f couple) did not receive the same treatment.

A print version was published in traditional Chinese in Taiwan, and a translation into Thai was also published.[4] As of 2023, no official translation into English exists.

Canon Background

Faraway Wanderers is a wuxia novel, set in a fictional martial arts world in ancient China with low key fantasy elements. The main characters, Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing, meet by chance and eventually become a romantic couple. Zhou Zishu is the leader of Tian Chuang ("Window of Heaven"), a royal assassin/spy organization; in order to leave, he elects to have seven nails embedded in his meridians that will kill him after three years. Wen Kexing is secretly the evil Ghost Valley Master (Ghost Valley is where all the criminals escape to), but his true motives and origin are revealed late in the novel. After rescuing a teenage boy, Zhang Chengling, they become involved in the martial arts world (jianghu), where a number of mysterious murders occur and everyone is trying to gain control of the Lapis Armor, which will supposedly unlock a fabled storehouse said to contain knowledge of an unbeatable martial arts technique.

Characters

  • Zhou Zishu 周子舒 - main character, goes by the alias Zhou Xu 周絮
  • Wen Kexing 温客行 - love interest, Ghost Valley Master
  • Gu Xiang 顾湘 - Wen Kexing's ward aka Purple Danger
  • Zhang Chengling 张成岭 - Zhou Zishu's disciple
  • Cao Weining 曹蔚宁 - Gu Xiang's love interest[5]
  • Ye Baiyi 叶白衣 - Sword Immortal

Fandom

Chinese Fandom

English Fandom

Fan Translations

All chapters and extras of the novel have English fan translations, and epubs in circulation typically combine the Sparkling Water, wenbuxing, and Chichi-translated chapters. Novel Updates has a record of the long and winding translation history.[6] sparklingwatertrans started translating the novel in November 2018[7], but abandoned it due to real life issues after posting chapter 30 in September 2019.[8][9] In November 2019, a fan posted a plea on Novel Updates Forum, stating their case for why another translator should pick up the novel:

Without the opportunity to read a truly delightful work, I dry out like a fish without water, painfully looking with empty eyes into the sky. I am aware that all Priest`s novels are not easy to translate. She has a rich literary language, colorful metaphors and comparisons, sometimes even poetry is found. But I swear to you, this thing deserves attention. More than deserving.[10]

Chichi offered to pick up the novel and then translated chapters 31-32 in January 2020, but those chapters appear to have been removed; wenbuxing continued the translation for chapters 31-67, between February 22, 2020 and January 8, 2021. An anonymous person then commissioned Chichi to translate the remaining chapters and extras between March 2 and March 18, 2021, to the delight and relief of cnovel fans.[11] Rumor has it wenbuxing was still planning to translate more chapters until Chichi started posting, so fans who liked wenbuxing's tranlation better were annoyed with Chichi. Chichi is a fast translator, but some fans say their translations are too literal.

By March 2021 everything had at least one translation, but other fan translators were still interested in trying it. In May 2021, xuxunette started translating it from the beginning; this translation reached chapter 67 in January 2022, but then stopped updating.[12] kexingzishu completed a translation of the extras in early October 2021.[13] Chichi also started translating from the beginning, posting chapters 1-5 on February 19, 2022[14] and completing their translation by January 2023.[15] lianzi started translating from the beginning in April 2022[16], reaching chapter 29 in April 2023[17]. Glittercracker, a podficcer, then started recording an audiobook version of lianzi's translation.[18]

Fanfiction, etc.

English-language AO3 fanworks

The first English-language fanfic on the AO3 was posted in April 2020[19], but before the translation was complete and the live-action show started, very few fanfics were written for the novel. After the show started, activity in the fandom tags for both book and show increased greatly, but book fans have complained that many/most of the cross-tagged fics were actually show-canon and not book-canon.[20] As of September 2023, the book fandom tag has 1,744 fanworks (1,237 in English), but excluding the Word of Honor tag yields only 572 results (473 in English).[21] The Qi Ye fandom tag is even smaller: 425 fanworks overall (320 in English) and 314 fanworks excluding Word of Honor (254 in English).[22]

Faraway Wanderers and Qi Ye were eligible for Yuletide in 2021 and 2022. In 2021 participants wrote 4 Qi Ye and 3 Faraway Wanderers fanfics. In 2022, participants wrote 2 Qi Ye and 1 Faraway Wanderers fic.

On AO3 at least, fandom-specific fests and exchanges tend to allow both show-canon and book-canon fanworks; there are no book-only AO3 exchanges for Faraway Wanderers. A book-only fan week was hosted on Twitter in April 2022, with a carrd and an AO3 collection: Tian Ya Ke Week 2022. In 2023, a book-only zine was planned, but got cancelled after backlash from drama fans.

Shipping

As of April 2023, the top ships on AO3 for the novel fandom are:[23]

  • Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu (414)
  • Jing Beiyuan/Wu Xi (19)
  • Cao Weining/Gu Xiang (10)
  • Rong Changqing/Ye Baiyi (6)
  • Helian Yi/Jing Beiyuan (5)

These are all canon ships or ships where one person canonically was in unrequited love with the other.

Similarly, the few gen relationships tagged are also canon: Gu Xiang & Wen Kexing, Jing Beiyuan & Zhou Zishu, Wen Kexing & Zhang Chengling & Zhou Zishu.

Example Fanworks

Fanart

Fanfiction

Video

Meta

Resources

Reference

  1. ^ Was Qi Ye / Lord Seventh written/published earlier than Faraway Wanderers, or is it only set earlier in-universe?, Archived version, post in DanmeiNovels subreddit, 27 June 2021.
  2. ^ "非常抱歉，相关内容因出版、修改或者存在色情、有害、原创违规等原因而网站管理员锁定或删除。" http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=912073 Accessed 26 February 2022.
  3. ^ tweet by noodesoup, Archived version, Oct 1, 2021.
  4. ^ Faraway Wanderers wiki, Archived version (Accessed 24 September 2023.)
  5. ^ Faraway Wanderers – Character Name List, Archived version, sparklingwatertrans.wordpress.com. Accessed 6 March 2022.
  6. ^ Faraway Wanderers, Archived version, novelupdates.com. Accessed 26 February 2022.
  7. ^ Faraway Wanderers – Chapter 1, Archived version, sparklingwatertrans.wordpress.com, 23 November 2018. Accessed 26 February 2022.
  8. ^ Faraway Wanderers – Chapter 30, Archived version, sparklingwatertrans.wordpress.com, 16 September 2019. Accessed 26 February 2022.
  9. ^ An Update, Archived version, sparklingwatertrans.wordpress.com, 4 May 2020. Accessed 26 February 2022.
  10. ^ Faraway Wanderers (天涯客 \ Tiān Yá Kè), Archived version, discussion thread started by Chuyin, 23 November 2019. Accessed 26 February 2022.
  11. ^ FW 68: Letting Go, 2 March 2021. Accessed 26 February 2022. See comments in reply to the post from grateful fans thanking the anonymous commissioner and Chichi.
  12. ^ xuxunette's translations - Faraway Wanderers, Archived version (Accessed 15 August 2023.)
  13. ^ tweet by kexingzishu, Archived version, 8 October 2021.
  14. ^ Faraway Wanderers, Archived version, chichilations.home.blog. Accessed 26 February 2022.
  15. ^ FW 56-67, 2023-01-19. Accessed 24 September 2023.
  16. ^ tweet by tyklianzi, Archived version, 2 April 2022.
  17. ^ tweet by tyklianzi, Archived version, 19 April 2023.
  18. ^ tumblr post by tyklianzi, 30 August 2023.
  19. ^ Bacia, lecca, morde, picca e punge by ChaiMilky, Archived version, 2020-04-26. Accessed 27 February 2022.
  20. ^ "I'm also a little irked that people keep tagging fic for the show with the novel tag. I keep getting my hopes up for more novel fic only to be let down." Re: Cnovels - Faraway Wanderers/Word of Honor, Archived version, anonymous comment in fail_fandomanon, 2021-04-09. Accessed 27 February 2022.
  21. ^ 天涯客, Archived version. AO3 tag page accessed 24 September 2023.
  22. ^ 七爷, Archived version, AO3 fandom tag page accessed 24 September 2023.
  23. ^ Faraway Wanderers tag excluding Word of Honor, AO3 filter sidebar, 17 April 2023.


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