To train my listening skills in Mandarin because they are the worst, I decided to watch a Chinese drama entitled The Rational Life. I was delighted by the series at first. For one, a lot of my Mandarin vocabulary words came in handy. Secondly, I thought I found a drama about a woman who was virtuous despite her great drive, ambition, and physical beauty. Much to my dismay, she turned out to be a mild variant of the Sex and the City lie that a woman can have everything that she wants even when she makes bad relationship choices.
A C-Drama Hero
I was itching to switch to SKY Castle because the main love story in The Rational Life was so toxic. But the supporting character Su Yang said something that made me love his character and compelled me to see this C-Drama through. Even before that particular scene, I already found him to be better written than the male and female protagonists. The primary reason why I rooted for Su Yang from the start is that he has a big goal, which is to succeed as a visual artist in Shanghai, a highly competitive city in China. Initially, the audience is led to believe that he wants to stay in Shanghai only because he wants to court a girl who lives there. As the drama unfolds, it is slightly revealed that Su Yang’s timid temperament is his psychological weakness. This has caused him to shy away from threatening situations in the past, thus pushing away the woman that he likes, which is a moral weakness.
After a long, frustrating search, Su Yang gets a job as an artist at a small marketing company. He gets overwhelmed by the unreasonable demands, yet he puts up with it all. Furious at the slow progress of his career, Su Yang’s parents demand that he return to their town where he can take up a government job. On the surface, what his parents want for him seems rational. Being a civil servant will guarantee regular decent pay and the promise of promotions for relatively low-risk work. He won’t have to shell out much for his rental fee and daily expenses because he’ll be living with his parents. How on earth can you pass up on that opportunity?
What Su Yang says to his parents is what makes me like this character a lot. He tells them, “I respect public servants because they’re doing a noble task. But what do I want for myself? Is it more money or promotions? Yes and no. My goal is to become a better version of myself, to become someone who can face difficulties. I’m staying in Shanghai to be an artist because I don’t want to run away from problems.”
Hitting the Right Love Story Beats
Because Su Yang’s character was written with more depth, the subplot about his romantic life is also more wholesome and more plausible than the main love story. In the drama, Su Yang is in love with You Sijia. Sijia is progressing a lot further in her career than Su Yang is. Fortunately, theirs is not a love story wherein the guy is forced to play second fiddle to the girl because she’s such a femme fatale. In the drama, Sijia has always been a fan of the web comics that Su Yang creates in his spare time. She believes in his talent and integrity so much that she does what she can to help him find a job, encourage him when he feels down, and contribute to his startup. Being a genuinely strong woman, she doesn’t neglect herself in the process of supporting Su Yang. Instead, she excels at work and takes up additional classes to become better at it.
In other words, theirs is an endearing love story because Su Yang and You Sijia have different journeys that are hampered by their personal weaknesses. Each of them holds the key to overcoming the other person’s flaws, so they end up coming together to support their complementary goals (although Su Yang’s weaknesses were more emphasized in the series).
Should We All Become Starving Artists?
I will definitely make Su Yang and You Sijia the main characters if I will get to rewrite The Rational Life. After all, their love story is very much in line with the series’ theme about making cerebral decisions that override one’s emotions. In fact, Su Yang’s journey best illustrates it because he had to overcome the feelings of fear and doubt to pursue his goals. His choice to be a struggling artist in Shanghai may not have made financial sense at first, but he needed to experience that to become a better person.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we can be reckless in our career decisions to pursue our ideals. For example, enrolling in a gender studies degree at the the Babuyan Island State University is unlikely to help you land a stable job in a Fortune 500 company. You can also put up a business without that. Most of all, you can fight against injustices even if you’re not a gender studies graduate. So it’s wiser to take up more in-demand vocational or undergraduate courses that are in line with your abilities and passions, and then pursue hobbies on the side. Su Yang’s main point though is that our decisions shouldn’t be driven by fear. Many of the things that are worthwhile will be so difficult that they will make us feel afraid. That’s why surpassing them is what makes a person a true hero.
(The writing tips in this article are from John Truby.)
Photo by Federico Rizarrelli
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