Shrimpy

Horrible. It is anything but a pleasant read. Ironically, most historians today say that thanks to that terrible period the explosion of development that followed after, happened precisely because it was so awful. Life's ironies.

It was a horrible period. Even in China it is acknowledged as a deeply problematic time.

They will never outright state these things because of censorship but they can point to it enough that the audience will go aha, I know what this is. The timings all fit for XCS's father because the drama starts in 1975 so the whole case is around 4 years long and on going.

Another classic thing was actually mentioned when Qi Tian says his father graduated from University but committed suicide. Highly educated people were often purged, killed or most often exiled. He probably committed suicide to avoid this and his wife followed because she too would have been caught up. This way they saved their son.

Actually the current president was caught up in one of these purges because his father was exiled to the country and it took a lot of effort for him to claw his way back. History is very interesting.

Yes, very different times from those in the west. The college entrance examinations were stopped for a full ten years, some people call it China's lost generation.

This drama is full of little things that are difficult to catch the meaning of unless you know in advance. For example, XCS's father state is more than likely connected to the famous person from that time, Lin Biao. He was Vice Premier, Vice Chairman and the Minister for Defense (longest standing ever) at that time. He was also Mao's successor. That should explain his huge importance.

Everything went normally until suddenly in 1971 he was killed in an accident. This is called the "Lin Biao incident". The official explanation was that he tried to stage a coup against Mao and was attempting to defect to then Soviet Union when the accident happened. Though USSR confirmed this, nobody really knows for sure what happened (it could be he and his family were set to be purged and he was running). After his death, the Party officially called him a traitor.

Now there is always a cascade od events after something like this and many people suffered. Going by military units XCS father was involved with, and his status as commander, he seems to be one of these who got caught up in the purge that followed. So his case is nothing small and this is why it is dragging for so long. Well, I hope that was a bit interesting 😂

Don't worry about it, we got introduced to a lot of characters in a very short time 😂

That is not XCS sister, that is ML2's sister and yes, she marries CHJ.

XCS's sister is the short-haired woman who had dinner with XCS at their house. She will marry Qi Tian.

They are talking about Qi Tian marrying XCS's sister.

This is a male lead drama. You are never going to get an equal screen time for the FL because the main character is Chunsheng and we see the changes of the times through him.

While FL fell first, there is, to me of course, a special kind of sweetness, and strength, being shown this way. She isn't stopping her life and is going after her own goal. She is not the typical irrational cdrama woman who is going after him. She is just there for him, without any expectations. If you look at the set up for ML2 and FL2, it is a stark difference. It also shows how she and ML are similar, they are fighting for themselves, by themselves.

This show is very clever in how they are slowly showing us her character. It will be all the sweeter when this type of persevering, steadfast and strong character gets to a good point.

Absolutely. I wrote it above but as a character Xiao Mei is slowly forming in front of our eyes.

I actually love that the progression is like this because it is a very good parallel to her character. She is quiet, soft in appearance but underneath she is very steadfast and strong. She quietly loves XCS and steps aside for the FL2 but will be there for him even if she is not his choice (at the moment).

While the focus is on FL2 the triangle is actually showing us quite clearly what good people ML and FL are and why they will fit in the future.

I am just slightly worried that while ML2 and FL 2 are off to the army, XCS is still not there even in episode 10. That is a lot of time for a show that needs to cover 30 years. Especially as the Heizi situation is still active at the time. That is too long. Hopefully it will wrap up at that point.

After episodes 5 and 6 I have to say this show is quite cleverly written.

I am in no hurry when it comes to the situation with the FL2. I'm fact, I am very pleased that there is no forced drama and nobody is a bad person. It is just a realistic depiction of these things. The show is actually very clearly and cleverly pointing out why the ML is special character. Both he and ML2 are doing things for the FL2 but their sources of strength are completely different.

Everything XCS does is coming from him. His source of strength is his character and his own individual skills. He relies on himself. ML2's source of strength is his family and everything he can do is connected to that. It is a very clear delineation between internal and external. I just hope that when the time comes, FL2 remembers what Qi Tian told her. If you choose bread (over love), there is a price to pay.

I didn't expect to like QT so much so I am looking forward to seeing him later on. In fact I like him and ML3 way more than the weak ML2. I hope the show keeps on giving us both of them in a nice quantity. FL3 is also great. The FL is also slowly forming and I really like her character set up.

Finally XCS is really settling nicely in my heart. XZ really knows how to pick a good character because XCS is so well written. It is so clear already that he has major inner strength and when needed, he will step up. Excellent character set up. I watched the previews so this is my one worry under spoilers below.

She is not evil. It is just that some posters don't like that the current focus is on both MLs and FL2 when it comes to romance. As a character she is a good young woman with a difficult family situation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her (so far).

That is great, I think the drama is excellent but unfortunately that is not the majority. It will get better as we get further into show but we are missing this opening window.

Xiao Mei is the FL. It will take a while for it all to develop.

The name change but also they are keeping the bare minimum of episodes free. This is not good because we need views on the Web to be as high as possible too and they are limiting it as much as possible. Non fans aren't going to buy VIP after 1 episode, it is not enough to judge a show so they are really stifling it.

No problem! This period was very specific, it must be so confusing to international audiences. For example, I don't know if you caught it but when FL2 asks her violin teacher about entering the army, she says no, they are recruiting again only from farmers, etc. That is how it was, it was especially unfriendly towards city folks, not to mention educated people. Once Mao died in 1976 everything changed. It was such an exciting time of reform, a real explosion. I am glad all of this will be covered because it is not that well known outside of China.

Tencent really is working against this drama 😑

She didn't know before he told that story.

They were. Especially prior to Mao's death but even after, a private car owner was a rare thing. Government officials and military officials had official cars but private ownership took off much later.

Because these were forbidden books during Mao. All of this is happening before the reforms. You couldn't find any of those books in a normal library so this is why they are sealed there. At this time there are no college entrance examinations for example, they are yet to be reinstated. Overall, these were really difficult times.