I Could a Tale Unfold: the fanfiction that nobody wants

I thought I'd tell you a bit about the stories I could write if anyone displayed even the slightest inclination to write New Practical Chinese Reader fanfic. I've been teaching these illustrated tales (disguised as language teaching material) for a year, and the fanfiction instinct now being deeply ingrained, I've been speculating about the inhabitants.

Wait! Don't go! At least give it a try. I promise to be reasonably brief.

Actually, this book has backstory, that goes all the way back to the predecessor of this book, the original Practical Chinese Reader. Produced in China in the early 80s, it chronicles the adventures of the appallingly goody-goody Gubo and Palanka, a Caucasian boyfriend and girlfriend of uncertain origin, as they study in China. They have a Chinese friend, a drippy young woman called Ding Yun.

It's hard to like Gubo and Palanka. Gubo has a bowl cut and is Always Right. Palanka has long flowing locks and is Nearly Always Right (being a girl, that should be good enough, and the rare cases when she is Wrong are set up as jokes). They pay attention to exactly the sort of things the Chinese government wants them to, always study hard, never lose their temper and start shouting in the street, and they stand up for old people on the bus in an irritatingly smug way.

Once you get past a certain stage in these textbooks, the text moves away from Gubo and Palanka to more literary topics, and the happy student never expects to hear anything from them again. In the majority of cases this is true. But I went back to Chinese as a teacher, and what did I find but...

New Practical Chinese Reader: the next generation!

( Contains spoilers for New Practical Chinese Reader )

So - tell me - would you read fanfiction about these characters? The potential is enormous, as you can see - heartbreaking angst, low comedy, detection, espionage, possibly even romance and definitely slash...