a great example of what girls love stories can strive to achieve
be her resilience is, no doubt, one of the best shows of the year.
towards the end, it becomes clearer that the entire premise of the show is these women’s liberation from patriarchal oppression and it starts with the deceased mother’s last wish for her lost daughter being for her to never return home, as this home was where the women in the family faced abuse and humiliation. this is huoran and jiayu's journey as they navigate a male-dominated world and turn it (within their ability) into one where they no longer have to lie, manipulate, and scheme against each other to survive. the narrative not only treats these women as intelligent characters with depth, but it also respects our intelligence as viewers through all the nuances and the logic in the storytelling.
the show offers us a narrative that is truly empowering for women. women’s empowerment is depicted not through power as wealth and domination and being Just Like men, not like the ones we see in western and /westernized/ narratives, but through power as it can be redistributed and help uplift others. at the end of the show, these women haven’t just taken down their oppressors but they also used the freedoms provided by their newly-found power to transform their own community. change didn’t just happen individually but it was applied to the collective because we knew all along that these two women aren’t the exception and many others were also suffering under different men's rule in their society.
establishing a women’s college, prioritizing people’s wellbeing over profit in their pharmaceutical business, being involved members in their community instead of just being “philanthropists” merely donating money; all of these things showed us their /empowerment/ wasn’t symbolic or an attempt to co-opt progressive (gender/economic/etc.) politics. it was intentionally made nuanced through the writing.
there is also a lot of care imbued in the writing when it comes to depicting the intimate bond that developed between these women. we see the show bring up and reject certain gender scripts we have come to normalize in our society. for example, we see huoran hide her abilities and intelligence just to be able to survive in the huo family as a woman. women are socialized to make themselves smaller in personal relationships and remain supportive (“passive”) so as not to threaten men’s sense of superiority and the show parallels and addresses this gender script through the intimate relationship between huoran and jiayu, where when jiayu attempts to downplay her skills to make huoran happy, she rejects this saying you do not have to perform with me or consider my ego as i can tolerate you being intelligent the same way i can tolerate losing. this pushes for a non-hierarchical possibility of love and intimacy between them as neither party has to shrink themselves for the other’s social and personal benefit. then, care in this relationship becomes about respecting the other as an equal and trusting that they can handle conflict.
the show has many instances such as above where they showcase consistent and intentional writing, which makes the complete work feel very fulfilling. one piece of dialogue i particularly loved was a conversation between wen liyan and his subordinate where he presses him to reveal his feelings for jiayu, citing, "if a man and a woman want to protect each other, what else can they be besides becoming partners?", to which wen liyan says, "companions." this dialogue exists in juxtaposition with huoran and jiayu sacrificing themselves over and over again throughout the show just to protect each other. in the end, despite harbouring feelings for jiayu, it’s not wen liyan who becomes her /companion/; it’s huoran! they are companions, which is, as wen liyan says, a longer-lasting bond. so, this is how the show guides our understanding of the intimate bond between the two women and this is how the writers do a lot of work under censorship to expand our understanding of (queer) intimacy.
in the end, huoran & jiayu were able to transform their reality into one where they can rely on each other. they saved each other from patriarchal oppression; they imagined for each other a better life; they gave each other a chance to live with dignity.
so thankful for caring writers/directors such as chen wei qun!
towards the end, it becomes clearer that the entire premise of the show is these women’s liberation from patriarchal oppression and it starts with the deceased mother’s last wish for her lost daughter being for her to never return home, as this home was where the women in the family faced abuse and humiliation. this is huoran and jiayu's journey as they navigate a male-dominated world and turn it (within their ability) into one where they no longer have to lie, manipulate, and scheme against each other to survive. the narrative not only treats these women as intelligent characters with depth, but it also respects our intelligence as viewers through all the nuances and the logic in the storytelling.
the show offers us a narrative that is truly empowering for women. women’s empowerment is depicted not through power as wealth and domination and being Just Like men, not like the ones we see in western and /westernized/ narratives, but through power as it can be redistributed and help uplift others. at the end of the show, these women haven’t just taken down their oppressors but they also used the freedoms provided by their newly-found power to transform their own community. change didn’t just happen individually but it was applied to the collective because we knew all along that these two women aren’t the exception and many others were also suffering under different men's rule in their society.
establishing a women’s college, prioritizing people’s wellbeing over profit in their pharmaceutical business, being involved members in their community instead of just being “philanthropists” merely donating money; all of these things showed us their /empowerment/ wasn’t symbolic or an attempt to co-opt progressive (gender/economic/etc.) politics. it was intentionally made nuanced through the writing.
there is also a lot of care imbued in the writing when it comes to depicting the intimate bond that developed between these women. we see the show bring up and reject certain gender scripts we have come to normalize in our society. for example, we see huoran hide her abilities and intelligence just to be able to survive in the huo family as a woman. women are socialized to make themselves smaller in personal relationships and remain supportive (“passive”) so as not to threaten men’s sense of superiority and the show parallels and addresses this gender script through the intimate relationship between huoran and jiayu, where when jiayu attempts to downplay her skills to make huoran happy, she rejects this saying you do not have to perform with me or consider my ego as i can tolerate you being intelligent the same way i can tolerate losing. this pushes for a non-hierarchical possibility of love and intimacy between them as neither party has to shrink themselves for the other’s social and personal benefit. then, care in this relationship becomes about respecting the other as an equal and trusting that they can handle conflict.
the show has many instances such as above where they showcase consistent and intentional writing, which makes the complete work feel very fulfilling. one piece of dialogue i particularly loved was a conversation between wen liyan and his subordinate where he presses him to reveal his feelings for jiayu, citing, "if a man and a woman want to protect each other, what else can they be besides becoming partners?", to which wen liyan says, "companions." this dialogue exists in juxtaposition with huoran and jiayu sacrificing themselves over and over again throughout the show just to protect each other. in the end, despite harbouring feelings for jiayu, it’s not wen liyan who becomes her /companion/; it’s huoran! they are companions, which is, as wen liyan says, a longer-lasting bond. so, this is how the show guides our understanding of the intimate bond between the two women and this is how the writers do a lot of work under censorship to expand our understanding of (queer) intimacy.
in the end, huoran & jiayu were able to transform their reality into one where they can rely on each other. they saved each other from patriarchal oppression; they imagined for each other a better life; they gave each other a chance to live with dignity.
so thankful for caring writers/directors such as chen wei qun!
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