every once in a while, I finally make my peace with firefly again, only for some white person to say they'd reboot the franchise and my soul just starts scREAMING WITH HOW I, A CHINESE-AMERICAN, WOULD REIMAGINE FIREFLY AS A SINO DIASPORA NARRATIVE,

SPACE WESTERN? how about how chinese people once made up a quarter of idaho’s population because of the gold rush and subsequently railroad labor?? how about how we made the roads through yosemite?? how about an entirely different concept unreliant on manifest destiny???

AND SO, how would the sino peoples’ tendency to diaspore (I can make up words) inform a space diaspora?? perhaps less of a narrative of space colonization and more space expansion???? how would the governments intersect or not?????? also, u kno, MULTIPLE SINO DIASPORA GOVERNMENTS

AUUUUUGH *takes firefly fandom by the shoulders and pulls them close to make intense eye contact* WHY DO YOU ALL THINK SO SMALL

RIVER AND SIMON TAM! NOT JUST THE WESTERN SIBLING BOND, BUT THE CONCEPTS OF RESPONSIBILITY AND FILIAL PIETY IN CONFUCIANISM????? SIMON TAM PRACTICING CHINESE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN SPACE?????????

*clutches firefly fandom’s shoulders* SHEPHERD BOOK AS ONE WHO HAS DECIDED NOT TO EVANGELIZE CHRISTIANITY BUT LIVE IT; ALSO, SHEPHERD AS A QUAKER, simply because my grandparents were some of the only quakers in china who adopted the religion bc of contact w/ american coworkers

*climbs onto the hull of serenity and hollers* JAYNE IS A TRANS DUDE WHO GETS REAL FUCKIN MAD WHEN YOU SAY JAYNE IS A GIRL’S NAME

*HOLLERS INTO MEGAPHONE* INARA IS A COURTESAN AND MAL ISN’T A SLUT-SHAMING ANTI-SEX WORK ASSHOLE BUT A MAN WHO UNDERSTANDS THE VALUE OF A COURTESAN *cough* and employ her dominatrix services behind closed doors *cough*

*plugs in ten speakers and hollers into mic* REAVERS ARE NOT A GENOCIDE-APOLOGIST SYMBOL OF MONSTROSITY BUT RATHER THE SOULLESS POPULATION OF EXTINCTION-STAGE CAPITALISM, DRAINED TO DESPERATION, MOSTLY FROM THE GODDAMN US

NOT JUST ACCURATE MANDARIN, BUT AT LEAST FOUR OTHER DIALECTS OF CHINESE REPRESENTED

CHINESE PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT ORIGINS AS MAIN CHARACTERS

A LINGUIST’S TAKE ON CREOLIZATION OF ENGLISH AND MANDARIN

AND

MOST IMPORTANTLY

WHEN I write for this IP and make that cash off of it

I will offer it up

as

JOSS PAPER

but, on a more serious note: sure, I could write this as my own riff. but there’s far more power in taking the actual name of firefly to subvert it. also, I will laugh forever at firefly fans who complain about the ~diversity~ and hand each of them a joss stick