Frequently Asked Questions:
Please read this carefully before posting your question or request. Questions which have not been covered below are welcome.
THE BAR
1. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SHU SHENG BAR (SSB)?
SSB is a place for you to comment on and discuss books. For example, you can ask further questions on the plot which you don’t understand after you have read them or ask further questions about the novel before deciding whether to read it, including requests for spoilers. As well, discussions of dramas adapted from the novels are welcome. The bar is here to facilitate your reading experience by providing useful information to you. Thus, please refrain from posting comment that has no informational value (eg. “I want to read this novel. This seems like a good novel.”). This is to provide a user friendly environment for all users of SSB, that allows you to glean your information without having to feel like you are wading and searching through miscellaneous information.
2. WHY IS MY COMMENT NOT SHOWING UP ON SSB?
Comments on SSB go through an approval process, and our moderators will get to them as soon as possible. If you do not see your comment, it is either awaiting approval or is considered spam by the (machine and human) filters. This process is to facilitate maximum useful discussion for all users. Any requests for information that can be found on this FAQ page or within SSB will likely be deleted.
Irrelevant and inappropriate comments will also be deleted.
3. WHY IS MY COMMENT GONE FROM THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION PAGE?
To prevent the comments in the English Translation page from getting too long, comments with new novel links will be deleted after the new links are added to the list.
4. WHAT IF A LINK IS BROKEN OR MISSING?
- Before you report a link as broken or ask for a new link, please carefully check there really is NONE. Then check multiple browsers on your phone, tablet, PC, etc. that the issue is not with your devices.
- Do a Google (or Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, we don’t discriminate) search with the title and kindly let us know the new link you found.
- Still can’t find a link, try as you might? Leave a comment on SSB and we’ll do our best to fix it.
- If the link is still not fixed after a certain amount of time, it means no good link can be found.
THE BOOKS
1. WHERE CAN I BUY THE NOVELS IN CHINESE?
Dangdang, YesAsia, or Amazon China are all trustworthy sources and will ship internationally. Be mindful that you will need to know some Chinese to navigate those sites and the shipping costs are often more expensive than the books.
2. ARE THERE ENGLISH AUDIO BOOKS OR RADIO DRAMAS?
No. They are all in Mandarin with some audio books in Cantonese or Vietnamese which will be specified. (Silent Separation has English audio book base on the English translation).
3. WHAT’S THE VIETNAMESE TITLE FOR X OR Y BOOK?
We try our best to provide the title if we know it. Sometimes the book simply does not have a Vietnamese translation yet. If you know something we don’t know, then please share.
4. WHAT DO THE ACRONYMS HE, BE AND OE MEAN?
HE means Happy Ending; BE means Bad or Sad Ending; OE means Open Ending. These are only general qualifiers and may be subject to personal interpretations.
5. WHAT DO THE ACRONYMS BG AND BL MEAN?
BG means Boy Girl and BL means Boy Love.
THE (ENGLISH) TRANSLATIONS
1. WHERE CAN I BUY TRANSLATIONS OF CHINESE ROMANCE NOVELS OR MANHUA (MANGA) FEATURED ON SSB?
We do not know of any published translations of the novels featured on SSB except for the Grave Robbers’ Chronicles series and 3 Lives 3 Worlds, 10 Miles of Peach Blossoms which can be purchased from Amazon. All other English translations of Chinese romance novels are purely fan translations.
2. WHERE CAN I READ ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF CHINESE ROMANCE NOVELS FEATURED ON SSB?
Please check the English Translation page for fan translations. You are encouraged to purchase published translations (e.g. Grave Robbers’ Chronicles and 3 Lives 3 Worlds, 10 Miles of Peach Blossoms) from Amazon to respect copyrights.
3. WHY CAN’T I FIND ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS FOR SOME FEATURED NOVELS?
Because nobody has translated them, or we don’t know about it. Not every novel featured in SSB will have English translation !!!
4. WHY IS AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION MISSING FROM THE TRANSLATION LIST?
• Our list mostly covers Chinese romance novels so other genres may not be listed.
• English translations which have only one (1) translated chapter and with no intention of continuing will not be included on the list.
• The list is helped made possible by everyone that shares links, so if you know about something that we don’t, share it~
5. WHERE CAN I FIND A TRANSLATION THAT A TRANSLATOR HAS TAKEN OFFLINE?
Please respect the translator and DO NOT request for or distribute a translation that has been taken down. (Hamster is personally resigned to underground circulation but anyone hosting stolen material on scribd shall receive 3 lifetimes of bad karma <_<)
6. WHERE CAN I FIND ALTERNATIVE TRANSLATIONS OF HIATUS PROJECTS?
Some projects may be picked up, some may not. If we know about it, we’ll tell you. If you know about it, please tell us.
7. WHERE CAN I FIND ALTERNATIVE TRANSLATIONS OF SLOW MOVING PROJECTS?
It is highly unlikely that there will be an alternative translation. So you should just wait patiently and do not leave any complain in SSB.
8. CAN I REQUEST FOR TRANSLATIONS ON SSB?
NO, we do not take any request. It is best you request individual translators at their own blogs to translate the book you want. Please refrain from asking at SSB for a book to be translated.
9. HOW SHOULD I THANK A TRANSLATOR OR CHAT WITH HER/HIM?
Please leave your comment on the translator’s personal blog.
10. WHY IS THERE A SUB-HEADING CALLED VIETNAMESE SOURCE & MACHINE TRANSLATED AND EDITED?
Many of the various translators have disclosed when their source novel is a Vietnamese translation of the original Chinese text or they do not know Chinese at all so they are using machine translation. This disclosure is a FYI to all readers so that you are aware what you are reading is a translation of a translation or a machine translation, and just to ensure that you know that potentially, more things are being lost in translation.