PeachBlossomGoddess

I don't think he is. He just has stuff he needs closure on before he can settle down. Like figure out what happened to his dad and who sabotaged him and make sure his village's livelihood is restored after being ravaged by civil war.

He walks and talks like a hero... now if only he was actually fighting for something worthwhile.

Yeah I agree. The plot to send him to all the way to Ningguta to get him killed seemed rather excessive and not really necessary. It was for all intents and purposes the long winded c-drama equivalent of shoving him off a cliff to not die. I mean someone like Ms Su who dares to poison the Empress Dowager in the capital should have no qualms killing a Gu Pingyuan while he is walking home at night. Someone that bold and of that caliber should have been able to do it cleanly with higher degree certainty without going to all that trouble.But then of course the ML would be dead dead and then there is no story left to tell. His rescue takes it to yet another face palming level of ridiculousness. How Ms. Chang managed to human GPS triangulate to his exact location in the nick of time in that vast desolate wilderness pre iPhone era is the next level of ludicrous. But fine, it was about time to throw romance lovers a big juicy "beauty rescues the hero" bone after all that business and political scheming. In short, this latest return to Ningguta arc made me roll my eyes quite a bit. Glad its over.

Is he the one that was executed by slow slicing by the Qing? Omg... I hope not... Poor Yimei...

Well... as it turns out his dumbness can be quite fortuitous at times.

Thanks for this. Seems like while they changed a few things, substantively the drama has so far quite faithfully followed the novel.

Exactly. I don't understand why audiences nowadays insist when it comes to period dramas that main characters are only allowed to have one true or one best love in their lives. In reality it is never that clear cut. I have no problem with Yimei and Pingyuan loving each other in the beginning but then moving on to love other people later on. Audiences these days seem to glorify these terrible, ridiculous stories like Pearl Girl where the FL mourns one dude her whole life and never moves on. Why??? The Little Nyonya was a huge hit decades ago and it was about a woman born in chaotic times who loved 4 different men in different ways. Bad shit happens in troubling times. People should be allowed to move on and try to live full and happy lives regardless.

Why do you think the censors would have a problem with portraying this period? It is well known official history in China. The current Chinese government had nothing to do with this massive loss of life - indeed it highlights the shortcomings of imperial China. That is definitely not a taboo subject as far as the CPC is concerned. Even the Cultural Revolution can be portrayed, the CPC/official history has acknowledged that it was a mistake. It was portrayed the way it was written in the recent drama adaptation of 3 Body Problem.

Ah me bad - I didn't see the second one.😅

From her styling I am going to guess a noble lady, maybe even a princess.

Actually as long as it is historically accurate, it can be adapted. Most Chinese viewers are very knowledgeable about this period in history as it is part of their core education curriculum. Many recent Chinese dramas about the path towards being a republic are very open about the democracy movement and why it didn't succeed in China.

That's a great video. And yes it was a horrible time, which is why we should brace ourselves for bad things to happen. Poor Yimei hitched herself to a doomed cause... but luckily she didn't end up in the cult leader's harem.

Yes the anti-Manchu movement prevailed throughout most of the Qing dynasty. They were actually good administrators, far better than Ming dynasty, which is probably why they lasted so long. And they were quite Sinicized their rulers adopted Chinese names and Chinese language as the official language of the court. But I think the queue or the Manchu hair cut was the ultimate indignity and a constant reminder that they were still essentially a foreign power. When the empire weakened towards the end with the interference of other foreign powers, they finally overthrew the Manchus to become a republic.

I agree with you - she was actually prepared to wait 10 years for Gu, she had no idea he was going to escape and return. I was told that in the novel Pingyuan and Yimei were each other's first loves - she never loved the general, she just had no other realistically viable choice. But that kind of storyline is not palatable to audiences nowadays so they conveniently made Yimei fall in love with the general. There were many old HK TVB dramas set in this time. My grandma used to binge them they were all mostly tragic. In chaotic times, survival is the most important thing. As for love, it is a good enough outcome to end up with someone you are contented with or grew to love. But nowadays you can't tell stories like that, audiences don't want to watch them.

I don't know if they still pan fry it nowadays but you can look through their tea library I think they talk about how the different varieties are made. Lots of different tea varieties on here. Maybe they ship to where you are:
https://www.tenren.com/

I found out about it when I stayed in Boston for almost 2 months.
Here you go:
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/tea-blog/colonial-green-teas-roots-china

You are probably correct. The cast list on MDL is not always that reliable.

Hope you enjoy!

As I said, to me TDHR ending was perfect and respected the genre. I wouldn't have changed a thing. The ending the screenwriter tried to sneak it would have ruined it utterly for me.

No idea - I just went with what was on the cast list. That was a long case I don’t have time to look for it.