Merit Brush Recs

Title: The Singer (Chinese Opera AU)
Creator Link(s): mabyn asya_ana
Canon: Drama
Type: Fanfic
Category: M/M
Length/Size: 29,625 words
Characters/Ships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Themes: AU: No powers, Chinese Opera, Chinese Countryside, Factory workers, Bathhouses, Romance, Building family, Heteronormativity, HEA, Alternate Universe: Angst, Anonymous Sex, 1990s, Sneaking Around, References to the Cultural Revolution, Semi-canonical violent past deaths of parents, Chinese New Year
Summary: The one where Shen Wei is a Chinese opera performer and Zhao Yunlan is a smitten factory worker from the countryside.

Why I'm Reccing This: I've read The Singer almost two months ago (the series completed posting in mid-October) yet I keep thinking back on it almost daily. The language is deceptively simple and as powerful as poetry: it does an amazing job of building the world of this AU and creating a vivid and unforgettable sense of place. The style reminds me of God's Own Country - another tale of an isolating, wide open yet emotionally claustrophobic environment where life seems to consist of nothing but hard work, tough choices, and limitations - except both stories also end up blooming into joy thanks to the characters' discovery of love. For all the harshness of the rural living conditions described so deftly and matter-of-factly in The Singer, there is an underlying weave of kindness, warmth, and hope that truly moved me. The plot develops in small, tentative steps, quietly and gently and without blowouts, but many of those quiet steps are profoundly captivating - as Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan learn to trust each other, and as they navigate relationships with family and friends within their dense communities.

The rhythm of mabyn's language and the richness of her storytelling, both in and between the lines, are truly wonderful and bring to life some stunning visuals (with long-haired Shen Wei at its center, as is only right for a tale told from Zhao Yunlan's perspective). From the very beginning, I fell in love with the goodwill battling the bitterness in Zhao Yunlan's voice, his resolve to appreciate what he has, his awareness that there's so much still missing from his life, and his willingness to fight for it (both in work and in love). My heart hurt over the unspoken but clearly coded past pain made evident in Shen Wei's caution as they embark on an intimate relationship. Zhao Yunlan is sweetly open-hearted and somewhat naive, even as he see-saws through the emotional experience of realizing he's in love with a man. The way they navigate their attraction to each other, and can't help being honest and vulnerable because they're drawn to one another, is intoxicating. Through it all, there is an almost overwhelming presence of community which provides support and structure, but also binds them into social expectations and decisions made out of need rather than want.

This is a love story, but also a story of (re)creating family and community through gradual change, of healing old hurts, finding/offering forgiveness and grace, and welcoming joy. It's a quiet, understated, gorgeous tapestry about finding a path toward celebrating life and making it better on a very realistic scale. At its emotional core, this AU very much matches the drama itself.

Fanwork Link: The Singer