Hu Zhen

Photo
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Information
Registered Name: Hu Zhen Resides: Oak Spring Status: Active Joined SCA: Late 2019
Order of Precedence
Hu Zhen
Heraldry
Per fess wavy azure and argent, a swan counterchanged maintaining in its beak a sun Or.

Chu Fu Hu Zhen

Previously Known As:
Nickname(s): Hu, Zhen, "hey you"
Pronouns: She/her

Note: I sometimes miss social cues or say things in an impolite way. With very, VERY few exceptions, these are unintentional and are not a sign that I am upset or displeased. If I do something like that, PLEASE let me know so I can apologize and clear up what I mean in a better way.

Offices:

• Local Offices Held
  • Deputy Herald - Barony of Namron, 2021 - Current

• Regional Offices Held

• Principality Offices Held
  • Current Principality Herald ER deputy

• Kingdom Offices Held
  • Sigillarius Herald - May 2022 - Jan 17th 2023

Interests:

• Tang Dynasty China
  
• Lacquerworking
  
• Kingfisher feather jewelry, except without the Kingfisher part because that's illegal now
  
• Helping my group and the SCA grow
  
• Attempting to find things I can do that won't result in me failing horribly.
  
• Heavy Combat, to a degree! I want to learn to use a Partizan >:)
  
• Heraldry of several kinds
  
• Illumination
  

Timeline of Activity:

2019 - 2020

Fall 2019: Began going to Namron populace meetings and some rapier practices, considered a good move by me and several friends.

Spring 2020: Started participating more, went to lots of (online) events, won Namron's teen Iron Artisan competition by being the only person to enter.

2021 - 2022

June 2021: Attended first in person event - Myrgenfeld Collegium. It was a nice, slow event, to my memory. It was good meeting some friends. Note to self: frozen grapes are amazing, BUT only bring as many as you'll eat. Do not freeze the entire huge bag of grapes.

Fall 2021: Attended more populace meetings with the Barony of Namron.

December 11th, 2021: Attended the first Vindheim Coronet Tourney, hosted by the Province of Mooneschadowe. It was SO GREAT getting to see everyone! Over 500 people, it was so big! We had Royals and Baronage from out of Kingdom (the King (maybe Prince, then?) of Gleann Abhann, the Baron and Baroness of Vatavia, in Calontir, and a Queen, who I *think* was from the Outlands). Áshildr hosted an impromptu bardic circle, near the end, and we sang for a little while. Several of my friends got their AoAs, which was AWESOME to see.

December 18th, 2021: Attended the Primere Princess' Rapier Tourney, hosted by... either Wiesenfeuer or Mooneschadowe. Had a good time, Her Excellency Zubeydah made some tasty soup to share with people. I brought more food this time. The cookies were good.

February 26th 2022: Went to Provincial Games, hosted by Mooneschadowe! I was a chess piece in the human chess game (fought and died well. My team won!). Got to speak to Mistress Margherita, before she was inducted into the Order of the Pelican. Was a very long drive home, but I had a lovely time.

April 9th, 2022: Oh boy... I thought Mooneschadowe was a long drive. I was very, very wrong. I went with my boyfriend and another friend. Turns out Bjornsborg is a grand total of over 7 HOURS AWAY FROM NAMRON! My back was spasming by the time we got to San Antonio. We dropped my friend Malkyn Hawke off at their crash space, and trundled on to our own. Lord Robin is a wonderful host, by the way. Seriously, he's great. Highly reccomend him as a friend; he's a hoot and a half.

We got to see Her Excellency Caterina be announced for the Order of the Pelican! In my opinion, such an honor is VERY well deserved. It was good fighting. Shame a couple people went down on the field (I don't remember who or why), though I think both ended up alright, in the end. As always, my dear friend Áshildr inn Hárfagri did a STELLAR job at heralding. At one point she did a whole song and dance! I carried a banner in Her Excellency Caterinas' procession into Crown Tourney, which was quite nice. Baroness Dominique played her drum, and another good gentle did some belly dance as we processed in! Very fitting.

I attempted to teach (did more learning than teaching, lol) a dance class at the evening revel. We had a few newcomers dance with us! There's a lot more Bransles than I was aware of.

The whole thing was a lovely time. Thank you all so much for making it so enjoyable.

April 30th, 2022: Namron Beltane was great! So much to do. Lots of tasty food, good music, and little lemonade water flavor packets that I had to hunt down a waterbottle to use. I threw a hammer right about 15 feet during Celtic Games! That's about 15 feet further than I was expecting! I was the lead Site Herald for Beltane this year, which was actually pretty fun. I had a wonderful team, and we got all the announcements made, as needed. And there were so many newcomers! They were all so great. And then there was Court. Where I gOT MY AOA! THAT I HAD EARNED ABOUT 2 WEEKS PRIOR BUT I WASN'T AT THAT EVENT DUE TO LAST MINUTE MUNDANE ISSUES! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! (Very happy, thank you all so much)

2022 summer Coronet: It was HOT! Also, 5 newcomers is too many newcomers to manage at one event, for me. I think I'll stick to one or two at a time... Congrats to Their Sanguine Highnesses, and thank you to Their Excellencies!

Pennsic 49: OMG WHERE TO START?!? I screamed when I first saw the flags, rounding the corner of Curie road. I relished the 'Welcome Home' of the people working at Gate. I was slightly confused on what to do next and it took me 10 minutes to find my camp (the map is hard to read at first!). One of my lovely, wonderful, AMAZING camp mates had already set up my tent before I got there (thank you to HL Kel Sorenson of Rosenfeld!). I crashed quickly. And that's just day one!

Skorragardr Axeman 2022: I had a great time! I was given the Torsade of Namron for service, a bunch of my friends got awards, I was the Herald in Charge, I got to be pleasantly surprised by the presence of Their Royal Highnesses (I knew about Their Sanguine Highnesses, but was surprised by having ALL of the Highnesses!)... I love my friends :)

Populace Provided Information:

Zubeydah

Rarely have I seen someone immerse themselves into our Society with the excitement and passion of Hu Zhen. When she learned about the wiki, she immediately reached out to me to find out how she could help. I told her that I had a number of "really big, really boring" projects. Her response was that such a thing was perfect for her. Since that time, she has completed several (really big, really boring, REALLY important) tasks for the Wiki, such as bringing all of the pages to a more cohesive format, fixing OP links, and searching out grammatical and spelling errors. I deeply appreciate her help and her contributions.

Ivo Blackhawk

I don't know too many people who have embraced the world of heraldry quite as frenetically as Hu Zhen, or as passionately.

At first, she was tracking down all of the group heraldry and badges so that she could help create digital versions of them. Then she was asking about voice heraldry, and the next thing I know she was coordinating site heraldry at Beltane. She still does heraldic art on request, and is my go-to person for color and line drawings for heraldic submissions. Right now, she is the first to offer help, and the last to quit on most projects, and I've seen her pull up to an event with her car full, including offering rides to not only new players, but long time ones as well.

She is a credit to the society, the kingdom, Namron, and the heraldic community.

Notable Contributions or Accomplishments:

• I GOT MY AOA AT NAMRON BELTANE 2022 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (very happy)
  
• Was awarded a position in the first Pennsic Young Adult Internship - Cultural Affairs Department. I was one of the 4 people chosen for the first year (Pennsic 50), and the only from outside the 3 primary 'Pennsic Kingdoms' (Middle, East, Æthelmearc).
  
• Site Herald at... a couple events now. I know one was some Namron Beltane or another. Do I remember which events exactly? Absolutely not.
• Site Maintenance Manager at Namron Protectorate 2023
• I've done a tiny bit of Court Heraldry, too, and am hoping to learn more about it soon. Please don't make me do paperwork, but I can do the shouty!

Non-Armigerous Awards and Recognitions:

• Baronova Uliana sent me a necklace that Baroness Kyna Terricsdottir said should go to a deserving newcomer, and I think I'll be happy about that forever!
  
• I've gotten Largesse from a few friends, and I treasure each piece.
  
• Received the Torsade of Namron for Service from the hands of Their Excellencies, Kolfinna Egilsdóttir and Yancy at Skorragarðr Axeman, November 2022.
  
• Recieved the Flint and Steel of Wiesenfeuer at... Wiesenfeuer Baronial 2023? I think?

Mundane Information:

I'm a full time college student; History major. My schedule is, despite being extremely regular, also somehow extremely unpredictable. If you need me to be somewhere or do something for an event, please tell me WAY in advance.

That said... if you'd like digital art made of your heraldry or achievement, toss me an email at chufuhuzhen@gmail.com. Sketches, previous examples, or some such thing are much preferred as an example of the device, as my blazonspeak is rudimentary at best. This is free of charge, I do it for fun. For devices, the usual turn around time is about an hour or so, DEPENDING ON what else I may have to do (if I'm at work it has to wait), since I have homework and a job to do. Achievements will take considerably longer due to the complexity of many of them.

Special Needs:

• I can't have much caffeine. It makes my anxiety worse and causes some heart issues.
• I have anxiety and panic issues. If a serious conversation (pertaining to me in a negative way) needs to be had, please try to have it in private. This is because I often start crying during such conversations due to ingrained responses. I am working on it.

In Case of Court:

PLEASE tell me in advance that I'll need to be at a particular event. How you say it is entirely up to you; make up some sort of job you 'need me to do' or something. I have a chronic case of helium hand, so unless I seriously can't attend the event, I'll probably be there. That said, southern region events are HORRIBLY far for me, and the chances of me going south of the DFW area are basically none, for the vast majority of events.

If I am going to, miracle of miracles, be given a scroll of original design (or really awesome penmanship)... please DO NOT USE A 'HACKHAND' SCRIPT. Any effort put towards using a hackhand would be MUCH better used finding someone who speaks the language and can translate. They exist. If a scroll in another language is deemed too much effort, please use a STANDARD, NON-HACKHAND English script. It doesn't have to match the scroll art; feel free to use a fun Gothic hand with a Chinese scroll design.

Additionally, my full name and title are pronounced (by me; this is not necessarily correct!) as follows: 'Choo-Fu Who Zhen', Choo being like the train sound, fu as in 'Kung fu', Who as in 'Who's there', and Zhen sounds similar to 'shin', but with a Zh sound instead of a Sh sound. These pronunciations do not take into account the Chinese Tones System, because I don't know how to speak Chinese, and as such these pronunciations may be inaccurate.

Chu fu is my title (it's equivilant to Lady), Zhen is my personas' personal name. Hu is the family name. However, I answer to either part of it, or both parts together.