Jade Seduction (玉指情挑) is a Chinese GL manhua whose Chinese title borrows 情挑 from 指匠情挑, the Chinese title of Sarah Waters’s 2002 novel Fingersmith, a classic of lesbian fiction. The comic’s producers call it a homage. Like Fingersmith and Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, it hands a sheltered woman erotica meant for men and lets her read her own desire in it.
情挑
One phrase, two titles
To stir desire, to tease it out. Both Chinese titles end on it.
The Chinese title of Sarah Waters’s novel. “Fingersmith” is old slang for a thief, or a midwife: clever hands either way.
Jade fingers in place of a thief’s. The hands here belong to two imperial consorts.
Scenes from Jade Seduction
Park Chan-wook moved Fingersmith to 1930s Korea for The Handmaiden, and Waters said the film keeps the heart of her novel: women “appropriating a very male pornographic tradition.” Jade Seduction takes up that idea in a Chinese imperial palace, with a story of its own. Four threads run through all three.
| Compare by | 指匠情挑FingersmithNovel · Sarah Waters, 2002 | 아가씨The HandmaidenFilm · Park Chan-wook, 2016 | 玉指情挑Jade SeductionGL manhua · ongoing |
|---|---|---|---|
| London, 1862A thieves’ kitchen in the city and Briar, a gloomy country house.Little, Brown · O’Callaghan 2017, p. 75 | Korea, 1930sUnder Japanese colonial rule.Shin 2019, p. 1 | An imperial palaceTwo consorts in one court, with flashbacks to the spring they met four years earlier.Chapters 1 and 3 | |
| Her uncle’s libraryHe makes Maud the secretary to his collection of erotica. Waters read the real Victorian books for it.Waters 2022 | Read aloud to buyersLady Hideko is trained to read the collection aloud to invited men.Bradshaw 2017 | An album for the emperorHer maid brings albums of women so Qingshuang can win the emperor’s favor.Chapter 1 | |
| A wedding-night lessonMaud asks Sue to show her “what a wife must do on her wedding night.”O’Callaghan 2015, p. 567 | Their own escapeThe men at the readings fan their red faces; between the two women, sex is the way out.Kermode 2017; Bradshaw 2017 | Letters to a stranger“It is normal for women to feel desire. You do, as do I”Chapter 8 | |
| Gloves offSue peels off Maud’s gloves; her uncle’s first lesson opens with the same order.Dove 2019, p. 234 | A silver thimbleSook-hee files down Hideko’s sore tooth with a thimble, the scene Park says drew him to the book.Barnes 2016 | Jade fingersA cut hand at her lips, and a technique she learned from a book.Chapter 7 |
Chapter 3Jade Seduction
Two rival consorts, one court: “A decree from the Queen Mother!”
Chapter 3Jade Seduction
“I can only suspect you have something to hide.”
Chapter 6Jade Seduction
“The warmth of her embrace…”
Maud Lilly learns about sex from her uncle’s erotica, then asks Sue to teach her what a bride should know. In Jade Seduction, Qingshuang is handed an album of women to prepare her for the emperor. Neither lesson goes where it was meant to.
Chapters 1 to 7 · From the album to her lips
Maud’s lesson ends in Sue’s arms. Qingshuang’s ends at Yunzhao’s hand.
“The virtue of utmost importance is purity.”
“Though it involves two women, these acts all share the same essence.”
“…awakened all the hidden sensations within me.”
“Even the proper Lady Xian hides things under her bed, I see.”
“Did I unknowingly apply the technique I learned from before?!”
“Surely she… did not notice…”
Qingshuang leaves letters under a stone bridge for a stranger, about a desire she cannot confess. The stranger writes back. Neither knows the other is the rival consort she sees every day. Maud ends Fingersmith writing erotica of her own, playing the men at their own game, as Waters puts it; these two start with letters.
| Qingshuang | Moment | Yunzhao |
|---|---|---|
| “No woman will claim to be virtuous after defiling herself as I have.” | “The desires of women are no sin, but they’re treated as the most shameful of them all!” | |
| “But it brings me relief nonetheless.” | “It is normal for women to feel desire. You do, as do I” | |
| “If you insist on staying inside, you would have to share my bed!” | “…the wall you put between us!” |
A fingersmith is a thief with clever hands. 玉指, jade fingers, gives those hands to a consort.
In Fingersmith, desire starts when Sue peels off Maud’s gloves, and the uncle’s first lesson begins “Take off your gloves.” Jade Seduction keeps coming back to hands: on her face, on the reins, on the strings, over hers on a brush.
Watch the hands and you can read the story before anyone admits to it.
No. It is a homage, not an adaptation. Its Chinese producers say the 情挑 in its title comes from 指匠情挑, the Chinese title of Fingersmith, but the story is its own: two imperial consorts, no con, no lady and maid. Jade Seduction is free to start on Baiheverse.
If you loved Maud and Sue, try Jade Seduction. The story is a different one, set in a Chinese imperial palace, but its makers wrote it as a homage to Fingersmith, and it is a pleasure to see a lesbian classic honored in Chinese GL. Waters has said her novel celebrates “story-pinching”: it began with a twist borrowed from Wilkie Collins. For more historical GL, see Ancient & Historical Baihe to Read in English.
Yes. Park Chan-wook’s 2016 film moves Sarah Waters’s novel to Korea under Japanese rule, and Waters told The Guardian it stays true to her book. She later called it “deliriously good.” Jade Seduction is a Chinese GL story in the same tradition.
Rivals to lovers, with a past. A kiss that ends in a slap, four years apart, two consorts in the same palace, letters to a stranger who is no stranger at all, and an inner room with only one bed. Jade Seduction is free to start.
Yes, they name the same stories. Yuri is the Japanese word for girls’ love, baihe (百合) the Chinese one, and GL the English shorthand. Jade Seduction is Chinese baihe, published in English as GL manhua. More in What Does Baihe Mean?.
It is free to start. Jade Seduction is ongoing on Baiheverse, with 7 sections so far.
