Frost_edelweiss

Not strange, he is not cosplaying for the tourist crowd and the character being part Han lives up to his main ethnicity.
Perhaps he would dress as Qiang for a formal wedding if He Ran decided to embrace the minority customs that she only toyed with, not having been informed and studying them beforehand. Although she did have Xiao Han's "hometown address" on the edge of Tibetan plateau before. Dressing as locals do would not be felt as "cultural appropriation", a recent Western concept that is not embraced by Chinese people in the PRC, where dress-code only applies in certain circumstances.

The "Tibetan village" in this episode 12 s is also shown in one/some of A-Lan's songs like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyrlvXQfe4w
It is nicknamed Beauty Valley and it is located north-west of Kangding (you may know the famous Kangding love song? If not, here's a recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTqfXtqgRCI + a clip about its composition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3f1ASIMIZo)

Digression about the singer I mentioned above:
A-Lan is the stage name of alan dawa dolma, a Qiang-Tibetan ethnic singer and entertainer who promotes Tibetan culture as a participant in local Tibetan TV channels. She was educated in the music academy of Chengdu, before graduating from the University of Minorities in Beijing, once performing the song Heaven's Road together with famous Tibetan-Han singer Han Hong. (ref. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwst9gQ9Xgw). Next, she was under contract to sing in Japan for a few years (and learned quite some Japanese and Japanese songs) and to sing on the OST of the Red Cliff movie, before returning to China. The Chinese version of this song is one of my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc7Mr2oseP8 🥰-- it's long to wait till next episodes of Xia Hua, so I am listening to some favorite song playlists... Sharing with whoever might be interested 😎

She did bring a tote bag in which was her letter of admission to university.
We may suppose that she had a comfortable bank account, usable through Wechat or other payment apps on her phone, enabling her to pay fares, snacks, or mail-order with next-day urgent delivery service , to get the needed outfits. But.... she seemed to have left her phone idle for days before she switched it on again, to find the long list of text messages that her mother had left. Still, she did have access to a computer (she checked the amazing "double barreled" love life of flatworms there -have fun with that if you're curious like a cat, like her!). So, online shopping transactions were probably done this way. As for the outfits, her mother threw them in the trash when He Ran did not wear them, so she did not need to carry more home than what covered her body?
She did carry the tote bag with the important letter, when she returned home, didn't she?

The QQ link has MVs but it was tricky to watch them for me too, as my spaceship was not postioned "in" the right region... Fwiw, here's what was listed (I have just added the names the singers go by in "English")

• 1 我的你 (片中版)《夏花》电视剧主题曲 糖妹 (Kandy Wong) 03:36
• 2 我的你《夏花》电视剧主题曲 My You 糖妹 (Kandy Wong) 03:36
• 3 Baby Come Through《夏花》电视剧插曲 卢苑仪 (Vivien Loh) - 04:27
• 4 One More Chance《夏花》电视剧插曲 陈宇祥 (Shawn Chen) 04:16
• 5 Summer Flower《夏花》电视剧片头曲 卢苑仪 (Vivien Loh) 01:31
• 6 The One《夏花》电视剧插曲 卢苑仪 (Vivien Loh) 03:26
• 7 Heartbeat《夏花》电视剧插曲 Angela Zhang 03:38
• 8 Take The Chance《夏花》电视剧插曲 侯丞睿 (Hou Chengrui) 03:34
• 9 If You《夏花》电视剧插曲 王敏淳 (Chanel Wang) 03:02
• 10 Summer Flower (哼唱版)《夏花 》电视剧配乐 天空之城音乐 00.53
You can listen to them on this Youtube link to the album audio recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSojJ-D1Iag

yes, JY's got impressive abs too 😁 I was secretly musing about what Dai Gaozheng could do in comparison -you know, the yummy hunk from Maid's Revenge. But the role of Xiao Han clearly required a more experienced actor for sensual subtlety.

That young miss whose hormones warn that she can't wait (may die too early) is quite justified in her choice of an experienced and considerate semi-secret lover, instead of a fumbling greenhorn wannabee rocker, even if the latter is presented as more socially compatible (=agreeable to her mom). The story is interesting & music, cinematography, acting are top-notch.

Okay... My feeling from acting and drama pictures of Xiao Han was also that he was likely to be in his "late 30s".
I also object to guys (F or M) being branded "middle aged" when over 30 and below 50. If people take care of themselves, their expected life span is over 85 in modern societies.

I'm on episode 7, and despite he having had a surprise birthday in episode 3, no age was given. So we have to rely on our eyes and feelings or on the synopsis, which states that Xiao Han is forty or so.

Jerry Yan was born in 1977, so he is 46, but like many health conscious, athletic types, even rockers like Chris Martin (Coldplay), he could pass for 10-15 years younger. In our era, it is quite commonplace. One only looks as old as one feels and decides to be, before 50-60.

Looking forward to the unfolding story, too. It is indeed, very good, maybe better than good.

That would not be surprising. The clash between parents and children can be a cause of anorexia. But there's more to it, since she seems to have already been struck by more serious illness, for which she is still being treated. Leukemia, it's been said. Which explains why the mom wants to keep her as insulated as possible from influences that would destroy the careful "rare plant in a hothouse" balance she has opted for, to her daughter.

So, it's 2 episodes a day for this new take on the sad and tragic Love Story? It will end as we'd rather it wouldn't, but on the way there, will be sweet moments. 24 episodes by March 3. "The taste of love is bitter-sweet"....

Her eyes remind me of those of ... Xiao Zhan!! 😂😂😂

Perhaps there's a clue on the package in episode1. The address was Qiongzhou City. Although I am not aware about one such actual city name, there is a Qiongzhou strait separating Leizhou peninsula in Guangdong and Hainan island, which maybe has another clue from the "Welcome to Love Island" flowered boat standing before RanRan as she is waiting for the blue taxi (btw I was wondering how she paid the fare since she'd left her phone at Xiao Han's dilapidated hair salon: maybe there was an agreement to serve her family on some monthly basis? But since she was "not supposed to go out and roam about" and the mere going to have a hair wash made her mom so jittery, it looked mysterious to me.).

MK916: I'll be looking forward to your next edit!
I clicked on this drama on a whim after perusing some images from the WeTV romance special "free" offer for Valentines Day. (It's still on until Feb17; there's LLTG as first choice, plus a few short sweet ones -but I had already watched them all in past "sugar fixes").
Jerry Yan's name caught my attention, since I had been going back to re-watch some of the old Meteor Garden/F4/BOF story last month, notably the TW one that featured Jerry Yan as Daoming Si...
This Forbidden Flower drama does look very attractive. I was also impressed by the colors and music, wondering where the story is supposed to be set: Hainan? islands off Fujian or Zhejiang? Taiwan?

I am confident this Chinese version will be good . For the reasons you state. Let's be optimistic!

It would have been perfect to make it eligible for nomination to a drama version Hugo award at the Chengdu Worldcon in August 2023 (first time China hosts a Worldcon, when Japan and New Zealand and many other countries already had). I was rooting for that Worldcon and the possibility that among items to be nominated there would be 3BP Chinese drama version, since it was possible that international audience including the SFF fandom could view it in time. But the rules for the award are that the work must have been published or been aired in the calendar year before Worldcon, i.e. 2022... Now, it might be eligible for the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon (I'll do so, then). I am looking forward to this version, nonetheless.
Many things got annoyingly delayed in China, so the international SFF community is dubious on several counts about the Chengdu Worldcon, which only recently published news when progress reports had been annoyingly absent. There are still 7-8 months ahead, but time runs fast,and nomination period should not be too short. It's very soon that it must be launched now, and what was nominatable feels to me somewhat frustratingly all the same, Disney, Marvel stuff...
Of course, there were strikingly good and surprising shows,such as the movie Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (although I am not sure it could be viewed by the Chinese fans: some parts are a bit extreme, although the movie as a whole, tickled my absurdist bone 😂).
And then there was RESET (Kaiduan), which I kept mentioning everywhere I could (it is still my number one 2022 drama, from the onset). Love in Time could also go on my nomination slip (but it may not have enough mentions to make it). LBFAD also could go there, as a fantasy item.
But Avatar: The Way of Water the 2022 American epic science fiction film directed and produced by James Cameron will likely be the most nominated movie despite it hitting theaters late. With no mention this time of the debt to impressions of Huangshan or Zhangjiajie landscapes, since inspiration this time was more from New Zealand.
And House of The Dragon could likely lead the drama nominations, if GRRM having become anathema for some anglospheric fans doesn't torpedo it, like Xiao Zhan had once become unmentionable for a part of the volatile Chinese fandom (for different reasons of course).
Racking my brains and memories of 2022 genre readings and watching, to propose a viable list that would not only include anglospheric items: it does not matter much, of course, since there's already Chinese SF awards (which usually don't extend much to fantasy, whereas the anglosphere awards have in my view very much strayed from looking at SF, and tilted towards superheroes and outright fantasy.)
btw if you have suggestions about good 2022 shows or readings that I may have overlooked, you can drop me a line. (I did watch quite extensively in 2022, as you know, I think, but just in case. You know my bias for cdrama, but perhaps I also should have looked beyond to SK or J too after all, in the SFF related works.)

hmm. no. rather avoid the donghua.

Yes, I was fortunate to first visit Yunnan province in the early 1990s, on a self-designed family tour and visits to acquaintances, before the Lijiang earthquake, but already after the pollution of the Kunming Dianchi Lake, caused by misguided industrialization and the surge of paper mill industry at the time, with the 1985-1991 economic boom. The paper mills became heavy-handedly curbed and regulated, a few days before we came, but our CPC hosts worriedly told us that it would take at least twenty years before damage could be repaired. (It was bad, as witness this news from 2019: https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674d33456a4e32457a6333566d54/index.html and in fact, the water there is still not pristine today...)
So instead of going to the inland "seaside" they first took us to the impressive Shilin Stone Forest, managed by the local Yi minority, and to the Kunming ethnic minorities park, to have a glimpse of living ethnic customs and cultures of the 26 minorities who make this province the most kaleidoscopically diverse in China. And to whet our appetite to come visit again on our travels throughout China. To watch a more recent travel vlog, check this 5-minute introduction: rhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ktCyewG-b4 and this 6-minute one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AQCDxbTIPM As answer to the question raised at the end of this video, the identification of ethnic minorities had to do with the preservation of cultures, through political measures such as allowing bilingual education while sending teachers, bonus points for minority students applications to universities, setting up a special and prestigious University of Minorities in Beijing (which also does research on minority cultures), quota for representing each minority at the National Assembly, exempting most ethnic minorities from one child policy when it was in force, etc,.. the initial number was bigger because those groups became incorporated as sub groups of other minorities,such as the Red Miao, White Miao (Striped Miao), Cowery Shell Miao, Flowery Miao, Black Miao, Green Miao (Blue Miao) who are all "Miao" (no cat-talk: it's just the name of the minority, who are related to Myanmar hmong).

Dali (which was a kingdom) is mostly inhabited by Bai minority people. The drama showcases the traditional costume and some customs,such as the delicious and fragrant flower cakes.
"The most well known Bai tradition is the san dao cha 三道茶, or three course tea ceremony. The courses in the ceremony consist of a bitter tea, a sweet tea, and a third tea that is both bitter, sweet, and a bit spicy. This ceremony is often presented to honored guests ."

Yes, the small touches and back scratching were endearing.

Yunnan flower cakes 鲜花饼 (xiān huā bǐng) are indeed delicious! I hope to taste them again if I have time to visit Yunnan once more this year, aside from planned trip to China centering on a Chengdu event, and family & friends & partners meeting again. It's still some months away but then, the flower cakes are a seasonal delicacy, from April to May.
"According to historical records, flower cakes were invented more than 300 years ago by a cake maker in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). They have gained wide reputation for their flowery flavor, agreeable sweetness and beneficial beauty effects.
The shelf life of flower cake varies from seven days to 45 days depending on the ingredients, and there are more than a dozen varieties of pastries on sale now. Some cakes even use other ingredients such as pine nuts and Yunnan's famous ham." (China Daily)
Well, if I miss the best months on the spot, I'll ask for some to be sent to me 😋

"The Erhai Lake covers an area of 250 square kilometers (96 square miles) and is located about two kilometers (1.2 miles) east of Dali. It is like a crescent lying between Cangshan and Dali city as seen from Cangshan Mountain." (Travelchinaguide.com) Many big lakes in China look like seas.