i don't actually read hanahaki fics, but

[presumenothing]

*sees a hanahaki au prompt over at 3SF*

*proceeds to have An Idea*

*but first: embarks on a half-hour mental digression of what my preferred Chinese term for hanahaki would be*

Obviously a completely expected and normal chain of events.

Anyway. In a very-direct translation of 花吐き病, the accepted terms appear to be 花吐病 or 花吐症 (per Fanlore and Baidu respectively) and a cursory search also turns up the pinyin in occasional English usage.

Which is… fine, I guess, except the word order makes no intuitive sense in Chinese and also where's the poetry of it? Even literal VD gets the more graceful-sounding 花柳病, never mind that I'm not gonna look up why that is because medical conditions are PG content for me.

So have my non-rigorously-considered proposals for alternatives:

• 花疾 as a slightly-archaic parallel to 心疾 (which appropriately enough covers both worry-induced ailments and actual heart disease). 花炎 would be an option except I don't think there's inflammation involved?
• 落花病 as the more-modern term – "fallen flower" at least sounds better to me than flower vomit while also being appropriately evocative. Also used as 落花症, because vocab-wise 病 generally refers to the illness itself while 症 is more symptoms/presentation, but both seem applicable in this case. Doubly appropriate because I just got reminded while searching that 落花有意，流水无情 is essentially poetic imagery for unrequited love. So yeah.
• 花痴 already exists as a term for someone easily infatuated with attractive people, but it'd be wasted if you didn't borrow it as slang for people with hanahaki (cue in-universe discourse™️ about how this term is #problematic and oversimplifes the condition, etc).

…and that's all so maybe now my hamster brain will allow me to write the remaining 1.8 sentences of that fic. Roundabout much?

ETA: Here is the fic! All three sentences of it. Also fun: come discuss the horrors of Dixing-esque hanahaki in the comments of this post.

Comments

[scytale]

I adore the fact that this post exists, and also for the sake of the 3 sentence ficathon. :D

(cue in-universe discourse™️ about how this term is #problematic and oversimplifes the condition, etc).

I like it!

[presumenothing]

Literally I reached the point in planning my second sentence where I needed to put whatever term I was gonna use and preemptively went "oh no". Rabbit hole of distraction commences.

Discourse: fun mostly when it's imaginary!

[scytale]

Yes to imaginary discourse!

And now I want hanahaki worldbuilding and in-universe literature (and of course, discourse :D)!

[presumenothing]

I see this and raise you the question of what hanahaki would even look like in Dixing – it sure doesn't seem like they have much in the way of greenery so would they even have hanahaki? Would it be something other than flowers?

(Or conversely: is the only time you see flowers in Dixing when people are dying of it? Which would be morbid in the most excellent way.)

[scytale]

YES, I love the idea that flowers in Dixing only happen when people are dying of grief! And then the Dixing people come to Haixing and just see the flowers everywhere -- the sun is pretty but also this is a horrifying nightmare world in which flowers have an entirely different and bloodless significance, insert Zhu Jiu or Ye Zun speech here.

I guess the alternative is coughing stones? Which just sounds like a horrifying fairy tale.

[presumenothing]

Now that's a rendition of the nightmare world speech I'd 10/10 listen to. (Meanwhile, some poor Dixingren invader, about to discover their latest case of Massive Pollen Allergy…)

I guess the alternative is coughing stones? Which just sounds like a horrifying fairy tale.

We've done it – we found the one kind of stone more horrifying than gallstones!

[nnozomi]

I feel like this also gives the whole Sha Ya/Hua Yuzhu arc an entirely new (and kind of horrifying) slant, depending. Hua Yuzhu is the one who's desperate to get to Haixing so that people don't think of her power as a kind of harbinger of doom...?

[starandrea]

*but first: embarks on a half-hour mental digression of what my preferred Chinese term for hanahaki would be*

I'm curious what your preferred English term for hanahaki would be :)

[presumenothing]

I haven't been able to think of a passable name, honestly! Probably doesn't help that there's no general format for disease names in English, and you can't exactly stick on common suffixes like "floweritis" without sounding silly… though maybe you could make a plausible-sounding nice-ish name out of Latin/Greek roots, based on the etymology of lycanthropy or similar words.

[trobadora]

I don't read hanahaki fics either, but this is fascinating!

[presumenothing]

Hee, I'm just glad there are people interested to see my unnecessarily-intense thoughts about a not super consequential thing XD

[corvidology]

This is scarily familiar as I disappear down research black holes...

[presumenothing]

Oh good I am not the only one XD

[nnozomi]

I love this post, oh my goodness.
Even literal VD gets the more graceful-sounding 花柳病, never mind that I'm not gonna look up why that is
You may know it anyway, but as far as I can tell it's basically, um, could we say "red-light disease" as in the red-light districts? 花街柳港 in China, per Wiki, shortened to 花柳界 in Japan and then pasted onto the relevant diseases, oh dear.

[presumenothing]

I figured it might be relevant to the interests of people here XD

And oh yeah that explanation does make sense! Naming by association, get 2 for the price of 1 lmao.

[elenothar]

Fascinating! I do so love discussions about niche (or made-up, as the case may be) language usage.

... I'm not having thoughts about Dixingren coughing up lava rather than flowers, never mind that that's even less physically likely

[presumenothing]

Dixingren coughing up lava rather than flowers

Literal burn LOL. Then again their noble hero already has the noble tradition of coughing up blood so is lava that much worse (it is)