do we know why iqiyi is charging $7 usd for eps 27, 28, and 29? is this a permanent thing where we won’t be able to watch the end of dramas without paying or upgrading now?
just in case anyone’s anxious like me, ji bozai figures out ming yi is ming xian in episode 25 lol. i was stressed out of my mind after he caught her stealing it in like episode 23 or 24. but fear not, as he doesn’t stay away for long and figures out her identity quickly lolllll
just finished episode 11 and wow......i'm so shocked and confused and discombobulated. li qingyue REALLY IS divine lord siling???? i'm so confused. i was completely falling for the li qingyue act and was mad at bai jiusi for not believing her. i'm so shook i can't even process rn.....and the fact that jinyuan sect is like, HER SECT???? and that Ling'er is actually on li qingyue/divine lord siling's side??????? i'm absolutely shook!!!! I can't believe this, idek how to begin to process this.
When do they finally admit that they like each other? I just finished episode 15 and I can't wait anymore, I just want to know what episode they get together in ;-;
I think the biggest problem is that Xie Zhiyao tries to think and act for her. I know her cares about Xu Hongdou a lot, but he still is thinking in an overly traditional way. He doesn't see a relationship between girlfriend and boyfriend as two partners in life helping each other mutually. He just sees it as Xu Hongdou is his girlfriend and he should protect her. But this kind of "protection" can also be insulting. Because he doesn't see her as a person capable of dealing with life's disappointments and hardships. In a way, he doesn't see her as an equal. He sees her as fragile, as a girl, so he needs to protect her. This dynamic in a relationship would infuriate me. He means well, but he completely needs to change his thinking. A romantic relationship is not where a man just protects the girl and that's it. Hongdou is just as capable as Xie Zhiyao is of holding a professional job or starting a business, and the way he is treating her completely discredits her and undermines her abilities.
Episode 6 was just insane.... everything about it. It was so sad to see how playboys can completely and totally mess up a girl's mental health to the point that she develops an eating disorder and gets obsessive surgeries. It's the perfect epitome of what beauty standards in society do to women, and how it alienates us from our own bodies. The whole episode was just so completely heartbreaking
I’m about to finish watching this drama but I’m holding myself back because I don’t want it to end ;-; does anyone have any recommendations for chinese dramas with similar feelings and vibes?
i loved this movie, it felt a bit like "Your Name Engraved Herein" only lesbian version and more focused on the politics/political organizing. i thought this was a great movie, so much queer pining. the looks that pass between the two of them and their body language is so good. yeh hsiao fei did an AMAZING job of acting out the feelings she clearly had, yet not wanting to give into them. also the chemistry between the two main leads was AMAZINGGG. absolutely loved, loved, LOVED this movie!!! the political organizing aspect reminds me of the kdrama "Youth in May" as well.
This drama is one of the best ones I’ve ever seen. It takes a while to pick up, but once Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao start working at Peking University, it’s amazing!! It’s so interesting to see a drama highlighting what it was like during this time period. It’s so inspiring to see so many young people and intellectuals who were trying to look for the best way to save their country. The May Fourth Movement part starts at around episode 30, and that’s really interesting to see too!! This, along with my Modern Chinese Literature translated class at university where we read some of Hu Shih, Lu Xun, Chen Duxiu, and Mao Zedong’s work and learned about the New Culture Movement made me really interested in this period. If anyone wants to watch a fictional account of the roots of the revolution, watch this. I highly recommend!! 9.5/10!!!
Episode 15 absolutely destroyed me, crying so much rn. it sucks because Zhuang Jie's insecurities and personal…
CRYING AND COMBUSTING AT EPISODE 16 OMGGGG ;-; It was so sweet ahhhh like Zhuang Jie stopping him like 3 times when he was on his way out after lighting a candle and setting a bath for her and stuff and Chen Maidong taking her hands in his and saying "Zhuang Jie, you're not ready yet. I can wait" and leaving IM CRYINGGG AHHHHH. this is how it should be, so tender ;-;
Episode 15 absolutely destroyed me, crying so much rn. it sucks because Zhuang Jie's insecurities and personal things are affecting her relationship with Chen Maidong. It's hard because like he said when they should just quit seeing each other and like Zhuang Jie could clearly see , Chen Maidong really isn't someone who can be casual with someone. Having a time limit that will expire on his relationship is the last thing that he wants. You can tell that from the beginning. It took him so long to agree to be with Zhuang Jie in the first place because he didn't want to get hurt. He didn't want to get into a relationship that had an expiration date. And yet, he couldn't help himself. He cared for Zhuang Jie so much that he tried being with her despite the fact that he's the type that would want the relationship to be forever. He's definitely the settling down, getting married, buying a house, and having kids type. I don't blame Zhuang Jie at all though. Me and Zhuang Jie are really similar in terms of what we want for romantic relationships. I like how she's a strong female lead that doesn't sacrifice her dreams or herself for love. I like that neither of them sacrifice their lives for the other or change themselves. Especially when Zhuang Jie said that she doesn't want to marry him and then 5 years, 10 years down the line, hate herself or hate him and wonder what her life could have been like. I resonate with that heavily. I also feel like Zhuang Jie because of her disability has always tried extra hard to prove herself and be tough and independent. She's always had to look out for herself because of the societal judgement against her for being disabled. I think perhaps she deep down feels like she isn't enough, which is why she feels like she has to overcompensate. Her mother too, Lord. Her mom saying all of those comments the night of New Year really was too much. And obviously because of what her mother keeps saying about her and "women always being victims," on the one hand her making moves on Chen Maidong was because she kept being told over and over that she was that kind of frivolous person, so eventually she just wanted to stop fighting it, feeling condemned to being that sort of person, as no one would believe that she wasn't that type of person anyways. The other reason I believe led her to make moves on him that night was in a way, to assert her agency. Her mother is full of feudal thinking and only sees women as helpless victims, which is added even more because Zhuang Jie is her daughter and disabled. In a way, this was Zhuang Jie taking back that agency. I think overall I feel really bad for Chen Maidong because he continually asked her what was wrong and offered to listen that night, but she wouldn't tell him and instead made moves on him. But of course for Zhuang Jie to tell him what her mother said and why it bothered her would be a whole different level of intimacy and personal things that she would not tell him because of her pride and insecurities. I also think that Zhuang Jie is scared of love. She's scared of love because she doesn't feel like she's good enough because of her leg, and her mother basically directly spoke to and confirmed those fears that night. I also think because of her trauma with the accident and her dad and Mr. He, she has a somewhat nihilistic view on life. She sees life as fleeting, because trusting people to stay in her life and be there is terrifying. For Chen Maidong, he's also afraid of love because of his parents. But even so, this whole short-term relationship with an expiration date with Zhuang Jie is also veryyyyy out of his comfort zone. It's all incredibly complicated and honestly, no one is to blame. I also think that when they were kissing and Chen Maidong asked if he could take off her prosthetic leg, that triggered all of her trauma and insecurities about her disability, as well as the feelings of not being good enough and everything that her mother had said that night. I think it was really messed up of her to say that he forced her all of the sudden though. If you regret it, then you regret it. But take ownership of it, instead of making a loaded statement like that that could have huge ramifications on someone's psyche if that were true. Zhuang Jie is the one who came onto him, not the other way around. But, I also think that Chen Maidong should've not let it go any further. At the beginning, he could clearly tell that she wasn't in her right mind when he asked her if she drank too much. He should've stopped everything because he could tell she wasn't in a normal state of mind or emotions. All in all, I love this drama a lot. The drama is very realistic, the most realistic depiction of romantic relationships that I've seen in a cdrama thus far. The characters have real problems, motivations, and value themselves and careers enough to not just drop everything because of love. It's one of the best cdramas I've ever seen thus far.
I suppose I should read the article which this is from. The classic of mountain and sea. Any link?
There's quite a few English translations! The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing 山海经) is contested of when exactly this text appeared, but perhaps it was composed in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). I wouldn't really compare it to the Grimm's fairytales because the Grimm's fairytales were written in the early 1800s, while these were compiled thousands and thousands of years ago. I personally have a fantastic newly illustrated copy, with both Chinese and English text, called “Fantastic Creatures of the Mountains and Seas: A Chinese Classic" by Sun Jiankun, Chen Siyu, and Howard Goldblatt. There is also a Penguin Classics translated version into English, and if you want a Chinese version, that can easily be bought online by searching "山海经“.
Some information about The Classic of Mountains and Seas and its history:
I think the biggest problem is that Xie Zhiyao tries to think and act for her. I know her cares about Xu Hongdou a lot, but he still is thinking in an overly traditional way. He doesn't see a relationship between girlfriend and boyfriend as two partners in life helping each other mutually. He just sees it as Xu Hongdou is his girlfriend and he should protect her. But this kind of "protection" can also be insulting. Because he doesn't see her as a person capable of dealing with life's disappointments and hardships. In a way, he doesn't see her as an equal. He sees her as fragile, as a girl, so he needs to protect her. This dynamic in a relationship would infuriate me. He means well, but he completely needs to change his thinking. A romantic relationship is not where a man just protects the girl and that's it. Hongdou is just as capable as Xie Zhiyao is of holding a professional job or starting a business, and the way he is treating her completely discredits her and undermines her abilities.
It was so sweet ahhhh
like Zhuang Jie stopping him like 3 times when he was on his way out after lighting a candle and setting a bath for her and stuff and Chen Maidong taking her hands in his and saying "Zhuang Jie, you're not ready yet. I can wait" and leaving IM CRYINGGG AHHHHH. this is how it should be, so tender ;-;
Some information about The Classic of Mountains and Seas and its history:
http://chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/shanhaijing.html
Amazon Link to the version with both Chinese and English text with beautiful illustrations - “Fantastic Creatures of the Mountains and Seas: A Chinese Classic" by Sun Jiankun, Chen Siyu, and Howard Goldblatt
https://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Creatures-Mountains-Seas-Chinese/dp/1950691381/ref=sr_1_12?crid=3R2912WA6XE8O&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.U8eEdZjbrf3C6tyFi7NaAZAmoRRHb1hz2_TOc275v4HjUMEgqotiNINeKAU-x4xF-O1kA-521REppPYJYfnELkh9Khho94QwGTPp8nuwGkIUCxTmO6fFcXR11DBI6zuyZ98fnup2ZZlTZKnwo7SPFtiR76mVvqALC45Pe9g4JcNdfNtgPV6v2ezKmOJdyHEvQwUTKhITJwBN4HQeEvWnm-lc3jHBRkggolLOaes-P2A.YxJCiNJnmFcNqHiPA7tm2Y_aUoQ2nkmNlruVd318MKE&dib_tag=se&keywords=%E5%B1%B1%E6%B5%B7%E7%BB%8F&qid=1708635013&sprefix=shan%27hai%27jing%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-12
Penguin Classics' English Translation:
https://archive.org/details/classicofmountai0000unse/mode/2up
https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Mountains-Seas-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447199