Nepeta 22

Got nothing to do with the west. The fact that it trended and he had to post something shows his comments are problematic in China and not in line with what a public figure of his age & background should be saying. What kind of person immediately blurts out a nationality based on a cartoon style drawing? That is stereotyping in an ignorant way. There are a hundred comments you can remark on but to go for a country is plain rude and racist.

Do yourself a favour and quit what you are writing because just your post alone has helped further tarnish ZLH's reputation.

Those that are desperately trying to defend a clear ignorant comment with zero EQ skills show exactly what an ignorant and racist stereotyping persona looks like. Congratulations you managed to drag his squeaky clean image down to gutter level.

Sorry to hear this. Apart from using VPN, I don't know any other sites that will show this. There is just no demand on these dramas. It's a shame as it's a gem to watch.

That's what I don't understand, and one of the reasons I avoid all these court intrigued dramas and there's too many of them made. I don't think they're very inventive either.

It's just licence to bring every day Weibo into a historic style setting. But the audience must love this stuff because they keep making more and more of the samey set up usually with the stock female bitches that borders onto jealousy, or is it survival in a male dominated surrounding? It doesn't question their behaviour but enforces it by claiming many end up that way because they're just bitches rather than ask why or why use it as constant entertainment.

You can watch it on Youtube. This channel usually does most of the MangoTV stuff. Just set it onto English subtitles or any subtitles from the list. It usually is set on Chinese first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTy_lNLbWrA&t=2s

It's already up to episode 10.

I'm watching this on you tube with auto translate and it's good as far as I'm concerned. Don't know about Mango.

OK, I can see you are very invested and I hope the adaptation will work out fine. As for Keira Knightly and Darcy's dance, I can't remember this, it seemed a long time ago to me...😉

I was more saying the story is no longer that unique so if they don't adapt it with more twists it may just look run-of-the-mill stuff. Court stuff, revenge plots and rebirth are very popular themes in the last year or so. Even if this had a big original following, the format today, may be regarded dated and unoriginal. It would need some updating.

If you look at The Legend of the Female General. The adaptation was changed but causing plot hole issues and changing her family dynamics. The FL's character was all over the place because they were trying to make her appeal to the new audience but that alienated the novel readers because they dumbed her down in front of the ML.

No problem. I am not really concerned on how they adapt it. I was just pointing out it's not as simple as women hating by another poster. Those are a bit extreme to be honest. It was more about them getting worried it would shift away from FL's story and instead flesh out the ML's story instead.

I feel the drama has been left on the shelf for too long and since then so many revenge variations have come and gone in that time and this story could even be stale if they don't handle it properly. Some stories are best left in its original form for their original target audience. Adapting to a wider audience can be a double edge sword. The passerbys will pick apart the flaws that fandom are sometimes blind to. I have seen that a lot.

The female lead roles are sometimes watered down ironically because the production feels they are trying to accommodate the largely female audience. If you choose money/profit first, it ends up finding its level.

You have to remember, it is largely hormonal driven, so being more simplistic and shallow, the fandom want to see their "men" perform (the fantasy) for them. I don't think it's because the male stars are fantasising about the adulation and prefer to keep quiet. Very often, the people and management around them control the narrative.

Yes, the odd few have been more vocal and speaking up, but I think you see more males stars stay silent because there's simply a higher portion of male idol stars in ratio to female equivalent. Again. This is market driven. Higher female audience & fandom.

I think a section of potential viewers are concerned that editing the story can turn scenes more on ML and centre the story more around him. Now I don't know if this will happen here. I did see some accuse Yin Tao's past works such as Destined do that to focus on male character over FL.

I guess what I'm saying is shift the core focus onto ML, being overly hero-like, giving him more grander highlights, special music and slo- mo intro. Then in later episodes over-flesh out more scenes and storylines that were not inside the novel. That sort of thing. The story is more about him, but keep the title of drama the same.

And there lies the problem. The production and film industry too as you noticed are secretly fine because it cuts both ways and this is where I see the main issue of the market will find its level.

Money as usual is the driver and the priority which if sustained this way for so long will create a system where dramas and films are no longer generally created by creators that want to expose their work and vision to a wider audience, but an industry that was traditionally rooted in creativity, now dominated by content rooted in visuals and stardom over story. Dramas are churned out monotonously for quick spikes and then quickly forgotten. More a tribute/fan service.

Personally, I feel you have got it wrong. It is not the male stars that are diva-rish, it is their "mainy female fandom" doing the bullying, rallying of trying to demand a change in scripts and screentime. I have seen very disrespectful comments made to the director and production team. Claims that they are the ones propping up the drama and without them, the drama cannot even get off on the road!

Sometimes the star has to come out every now and then to say "trust me", "trust my choices" like what we saw with Zhang Ling He. I believe it is the embarrassing and problematic fandom that often crosses the line. I have heard certain support actors had been taken off due to pressures from the star's fandom. It's just another day in the world of idol dramas. Full of drama than the actual drama itself!

Regarding your last paragraph, why is that? Are these mainly female fans?

It's as if these boys are their sons. They behave like their embarrassing mothers at the school gates. Not very sisterly at all if you ask me. And also that social hierarchy based rank is so dated & ignorant.

Research on this era is sometimes problematic because many of the literature that's written in English have their political slant, especially during that period. You will most likely read it from those that have a political agenda. You will need to get it from all sources and speaking to those that lived through it.

For a gentle touch into the 1960s, I do recommend you watch the second arc of Footprints of Change (Chinese dramas). There you will see laid bare, the paranoia, suspicion and the big shift from old traditions into the early days of what new China was supposed to be. In the 1970s, the families had strict rationing and often shops can go days to weeks with no supplies due to the demands for certain food items.

I meant a large portion of the Chinese population were still living in rural areas where higher education is out of reach. Perhaps the term well-to-do makes it seem like they're rich. In China standards, they would be the luckier ones. That's what I meant. And they would still be scrimping to get by.

There is also an element of luck because for many families. Those who were born into an area that had fast development reaped the benefits quickly whilst others not from those areas, they needed to uproot from rural or underdeveloped areas which were traditionally from farming villages into the bigger cities for work & better education options. That's what I meant.

I'm not following this drama but can see from the blurb it would be focussing on the more well-to-do groups which make up a very small portion of the population at the time in the drama.

Most were still on outskirts in a rural/farming community. Those that move into cities for work or were lucky enough to live amongst a regeneration area would be a focus for these sorts of dramas. So as you say, the drama is following the more privileged few.

Good to hear. I'm sure as more watch it, especially in the last arc, the scores may climb. Such a beautiful yet tragic story.

Clearly not risky when they decided on adapting Three Body. If you've watched the second era of Footprints of Change, you will start to see change. Time has passed and some writers are incorporating the 1960s and the subject you raised into the story. This is not really a niche drama but a mainstream drama with some idol actors.