From 1ad40505a494f66c51c3ca20d860ee3ffebaadcc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Helen Chong <119173961+helenclx@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2023 20:57:06 +0800 Subject: [PATCH] Remove new section and add sequel info --- shrines/asummersend/index.html | 16 ++-------------- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-) diff --git a/shrines/asummersend/index.html b/shrines/asummersend/index.html index e6b78673..6756babd 100644 --- a/shrines/asummersend/index.html +++ b/shrines/asummersend/index.html @@ -47,6 +47,8 @@

Initially released in English on 23 Apr, 2020, A Summer’s End has also been translated into Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Cantonese. The Chinese translations were released on July 9, 2021.

A Summer’s End is available on Steam and itch.io. It also has an official website.

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On April 22, 2023, a day before A Summer's End's third year anniversary, Oracle and Bone announced a spiritual sequel: In the Ocean I Learned to Float, which takes place in the winter of 1988, two years after the events of A Summer's End.

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I seriously cannot recommend A Summer’s End enough, especially for Asian sapphic women.

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The Importance of LGBTQ+ Adult Coming Out Story

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In addition to the Hong Kong representation, another huge factor that makes A Summer's End — Hong Kong 1986 special on a personal level is the fact that A Summer's End is also a queer adult coming out story.

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Coming out stories are a staple in a lot of LGBTQ+ media, but the majority of the coming out stories in fiction involve teenagers. To be clear, teenage coming out stories are important because LGBTQ+ teenagers deserve to see themselves in the media, and teenage coming out stories can help teenagers realise they can be queer. However, some of us did not realise we are queer until our adulthood for a variety of reasons: societal cisnormativity and heteronormativity, lack of awareness of LGBTQ+ people and issues, lack of LGBTQ+ representation in media when growing up, among others. In my case, I did not realise I am non-binary until I was around 21, and I did not realise I am a lesbian until I was almost 23. Coming out in adulthood has its own benefits and obstacles different from teenhood. Unfortunately, LGBTQ+ adult coming out stories are underrepresented in fiction.

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The protagonist of A Summer's End, Michelle, is an office lady with a conservative mother in the 1980s, so she never thought of the possibility of her being a lesbian until she meets Sam, a lesbian who already knew she was gay since her teenage years. Michelle's story and character arc in the visual novel is about her struggle in figuring out her lesbian identity, and how to reconcile her gayness with her relationship with her mother. Despite the increased acceptance and awareness of LGBTQ+ people in various parts of the world throughout the years, there are still queer people who are living in homophobic and transphobic environments, so even though Michelle is a fictional character from a 1980s setting, her story is still reflected in the lives of many LGBTQ+ people today.

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Queer adult coming out stories mean there is no right or wrong age to come out and figure yourself out. I love real-life stories about LGBTQ+ adults coming out later in life, and I would like to see more of it in fictional stories as well.

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