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August 24, 2012 by Sara K. 7 Comments

Fated to Love You (Special Post)

Cunxi draws a family in a sandbox.

So, on Tuesday I made the case for why people should watch Fated to Love You. In this post, I assume you are already in bed … er … on board with the idea that this show is worth watching, so instead I am going to explain things which would not be apparent to viewers who are not familiar with the Chinese language and/or Taiwan.

Let’s start with that pun, in bed vs. on board.

Fun with Language

Fated to Love You is very playful with its language. The most commonly used pun on the show is shàng chuán (board a boat / on a boat) vs. shàng chuáng (get in bed / in bed). Some of the significant events in the story happens on boats (and in beds). I don’t think you need to know anything about Taiwanese culture to appreciate the comedic value.

There’s also a pun on Paris vs. Bali. In Mandarin, “Paris” is pronounced as “Bālí,” and “Bālǐ” is a district of New Taipei City (I talk more about “Bālǐ” below).

Fun with language can be difficult to translate. Take this scene for example:

A picture of Anson

Pinyin:

Anson: Wǒ dǒng le.
Cunxi: Dǒng shénme a!
Anson: Zhè jiù shì jiānghú shàng liúchuán yĭjiŭ de “mŭzhū sài Diāo Chán.”
Cunxi: “Mŭzhū sài Diāo Chán?”
Anson: Hĕn jiăndān de luóji, jiăndān de dàolĭ ma.

Translation:

Anson: I understand.
Cunxi: Understand what?
Anson: This is [a saying] that has been passed down for a long time in jianghu “the female pig overtakes Diao Chan.”
Cunxi: “The female pig overtakes Diao Chan”?
Anson: The logic is simple, the reasoning is quite simple.

Anson then goes on to explain that “the female pig overtakes Diao Chan” means that when a man hasn’t been around beautiful women for a long time, but he is around a plain-looking woman, he will start finding the plain-looking woman more attractive than the beautiful women he saw a long time ago.

First of all, what is jianghu? It is usually used to refer to the world where wuxia stories take place, but it also sometimes used to refer to the gangster underworld (for example, The Outsiders 1 & 2 are set in “jianghu”). It is a bit like the concept of “the wild west” in American culture—a place of adventure where laws aren’t exactly obeyed and people must struggle for their personal honor.

Now, who is Diao Chan? She’s is one of the Four Great Beauties of ancient China (yes, there is an official list of the great beauties of ancient China).

Now, for those who are not familiar with Chinese, the language is full of chengyu—sayings (usually of four characters) often based on allusions to classical Chinese literature. If you’ve ever seen the Star Trek: Next Generation episode “Darmok,” think of Chinese as being a bit like that language. Good and frequent usage of chengyu demonstrates that one is well-educated, so some Chinese-speakers (both native and non-native) put a lot of effort into mastering them. What Anson is doing is that he is making up his own chengyu (at least I think it’s made up—I was not able to find it in any of my references), and since Cunxi doesn’t know it, he’s asking for an explanation.

So yes, this show has lots of fun with words. But so far I have been dealing with pure Mandarin (or Mandarin peppered with Classical Chinese). This show also uses quite a bit of Taiwanese, as well as a little English, and even a teensy bit of Cantonese.

Mandarin vs. Taiwanese

I think it would be fair to call Taiwan the “island of Babel.” Nonetheless, there are two dominant languages: Mandarin and Taiwanese. While there is a significant portion of the population that is not fluent in Mandarin and there is a significant portion of the population that is not fluent in Taiwanese, the vast majority of Taiwanese are fluent in at least one of those two languages. The choice of which language is used has serious social and political implications (high-profile Taiwanese politicians generally have to know both languages lest they offend voters) which I cannot explain here.

Most characters in Fated to Love You speak Mandarin. The most significant Taiwanese-speaking character is Chen-Lin Xishi.

Chen-Lin Xishi and one of her daughters.

The fact that most of her dialogue is in Taiwanese communicates that she is an older, rural woman. In Taiwan, Taiwanese tends to be the language of older people, and Mandarin tends to be the language of younger people. Furthermore, Mandarin tends to be an urban language, whereas Taiwanese tends to be a rural language. Mandarin is also associated with the elite, whereas Taiwanese is associated with the working class. There are significant exceptions, of course.

Chen-Lin Xishi also occasionally speaks in Mandarin. She speaks Mandarin with a heavy accent (coming from me, that’s the lump of coal calling the kettle black), but doesn’t seem to have any problem with conversational Mandarin. However, there’s one scene where she tries to speak in very formal Mandarin, and she trips over words so much that she needs her daughter’s help to complete sentences. It’s quite funny.

And then there’s Ji-Wang Zhenzhu, who happens to be one of my favorite characters.

A picture of Ji-Wang Zhenzhu

It’s obvious from the way Ji-Wang Zhenzhu speaks that she grew up in China, not Taiwan. The biggest giveaway is that she speaks with an “erhua.” “Erhua” is a certain style of speaking Mandarin in which it seems that every other word ends with an “r” sound. “Erhua” is strongly associated with the Beijing area. In Taiwan, if someone speaks with an “erhua” it’s generally assumed that they came from China.

Now, as someone who grew up in a region of China where people speak with an “erhua,” Ji-Wang Zhenzhu would not be expected to speak Taiwanese (Taiwanese is actually a dialect of Hokkien, and Hokkien is spoken in Fujian province, but Fujianese people generally do not speak with an “erhua”). However, when talking to Chen-Lin Xishi, who was failing at formal Mandarin, Ji-Wang Zhenzhu does sometimes use some Taiwanese. I know very little Taiwanese … but the way Ji-Wang Zhenzhu uses Taiwanese seems a bit awkward to me. It was clearly a move to save Chen-Lin Xishi’s face, as well as to show respect to her.

In a later scene, Chen-Lin Xishi tries to show her respect for Ji-Wang Zhenzhu … by speaking with an “erhua.” Even to me, Chen-Lin Xishi’s “erhua” sounds really artificial (Ji-Wang Zhenzhu’s “erhua,” on the other hand, sounds quite natural). And it’s funny because Chen-Lin Xishi is the last person in the drama who would have a genuine “erhua.”

Indeed, one of the many wonderful things about the drama is subtle development of the relationship between Chen-Lin Xishi and Ji-Wang Zhenzhu, two older women who come from very different walks of life. I’m afraid there’s no way to prevent a little of that from being lost in translation.

Music

The characters will occasionally burst into song spontaneously. No, Fated to Love You is not a musical. Instead, the characters burst into song the same way that people might start singing the George Harrison song “Something” if someone said “I don’t know why I like her, there’s something about her.”

I admit, I don’t recognize all of the songs. But I recognize some. For example, one song that gets referenced a couple times is “Ní Wáwa” (“Clay Baby”), which is a traditional children’s song that has been covered by many artists. It’s basically a child singing about their own clay doll, saying that since it’s not a real baby and doesn’t have a mommy or daddy, the child will have to be the mommy and daddy. Here is a really slow version of the song on YouTube.

Does Jiangmu Dao (Ginger Island) Exist?

Much of this drama is set in a place called Jiangmu Dao (Ginger Island). Does Jiangmu Dao exist?

The answer is: yes and no.

A view of Zhentoushan from the drama

Some of the Jiangmu Dao scenes were filmed at Zhentoushan. Zhentoushan is a peninsula (not an island) in Shimen resevoir in … Taoyuan county. I live in Taoyuan county, and my tap water comes from Shimen resevoir.

Cunxi swims in Shimen resevoir.

Hey dude, get out of my drinking water!

Even though it is technically a peninsula, there is no road to Zhentoushan, so the only way to get there is by boat (in other words, it practically is an island). About 50 households live in Zhentoushan.

Zhentoushan has an interesting place in Taiwanese history. If I remember correctly, it was a site of Atayal resistance against the Japanese (actually, that might have been Jiaobanshan, but Jiaobanshan is really close to Zhentoushan). Later, Chiang Kai-Shek (who was at the time the de-facto dictator of Taiwan) decided to build a villa in the area with views over Zhentoushan. The villa no longer exists, but I have visited the site and have verified that the view of Zhentoushan is indeed spectacular.

After the success of the drama, the residents of Zhentoushan have even gone so far as to rename their home “Jiangmu Dao” in order to draw in tourists. And the drama has increased tourism in this specific area a lot. There are tours from Amuping (another settlement next to Shimen resevoir) to Zhentoushan which have the name of the drama written on the boats. While riding the boat, they even show clips from the drama.

However, the thing is, most of the scenes supposedly set on “Jiangmu Dao” were not filmed in Zhentoushan.

First of all, some of the scenes which were supposed to be “Jiangmu Dao” were actually filmed in Amuping. If you actually know the area, the drama can sometimes be confusing, because the characters will say that they are leaving Jiangmu Dao, when in fact they are clearly leaving Amuping and going towards Zhentoushan.

Also, I don’t know where this boat terminal is, but it’s not in Amuping or Zhentoushan.

The mysterious boat terminal

This is the dock at Amuping.

The dock at Amuping

And there is no factory in Zhentoushan (the place has no road access, no one would put a factory there).

A warehouse shown in the drama.

This temple is not in Zhentoushan (there is only one temple in Zhentoushan, which is really a shrine and not a temple, and it’s much smaller).

A picture of a temple from the drama

There is no school in Zhentoushan (I’ve been told that the children have to take the boat to get to school).

a picture of a classroom from the drama

There are no rice fields in Zhentoushan (Zhentoushan doesn’t have much flat ground, though there are some rice fields on a terrace on the other side of Shimen resevoir.

Zhentoushan does have running water and electricity (the electric wires cross the water), but it’s not much more developed than that (again, there is no road access). It’s certainly not as developed at the Jiangmu Dao depicted in Fated to Love You.

In fact, most of the Jiangmu Dao scenes look like they were filmed in a lowland town (albeit spiffed up—this is an idol drama after all). It seems they used Amuping / Zhentoushan mainly because a) so they should show the characters travelling by boat to and from an “island” and b) because the scenery is nice. Otherwise, they are depicting a lowland town, not the backwaters of Taoyuan county.

It’s worth noting that this is not the only idol drama filmed in the rural areas of Taoyuan county. In fact Ethan Ruan, who is the male lead in Fated to Love You, also acted in an idol drama Green Forest, My Home which it set even deeper in the backwoods of Taoyuan County.

Environmental Injustice for Profit

One of the themes in Fated to Love You is a greedy businessperson trying to take over a rural area against the inhabitants’ will so his company can poison the environment with impunity. This is also a theme in Autumn’s Concerto. In fact, it’s a common theme in idol dramas.

Unfortunately, this is a reflection of reality. There are many examples of this kind of thing happening in Taiwan. Some examples: the naphtha cracker plant in Yunlin (that naphtha cracker plant was originally supposed to be built in a small town in Yilan—I know someone from that small town, and she says she’s very grateful that the government in Yilan rejected the plant), the destruction of the Alangyi trail, and the nuclear waste in Lanyu.

Then again, considering how much water is being poisoned by fracking, not to mention countless other examples, this is an issue in the United States too…

Star Cruises

A picture of a star cruises boat from the drama.

Star Cruises, which is featured in the first episode, is *the* cruise line in East Asia. In addition to their Taiwan-Hong Kong cruises, they also offer cruises from Taiwan to the Yaeyama islands. Even though the Yaeyama islands are governed by Japan, they are closer to Taipei than Tokyo. If it weren’t so astronomically expensive, I might be interested in taking a trip to the Yaeyama islands. Why? Among other reasons, part of Basara, one of my favorite manga, is set in the Yaeyama islands.

Museums!

Inside the Yingge Ceramics Museum

One of the museums featured in this drama is the Yingge Ceramics Museum. Some of Mars was also shot in the Yingge Ceramics Museum, but it makes much more sense in Fated to Love You. Yingge is one of the three or so centers of ceramics production in Taiwan, and is the most famous. After visiting the museum, my brain was crammed with more facts about pottery and ceramics than I thought I would ever know in my lifetime. Yingge is very close to Taoyuan city, where I live.

A shot filmed at the Shihsanhang museum.

There is also a scene set at the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology in Bali (I told you I would mention Bali again). It is next to the Shihsanhang site, where archaeologists have found some of the earliest evidence of human habitation in Taiwan.

This shot gives a nice view of the hills of Bali.

Shanghai

Chen Xinyi and Dylan in Shanghai

I have never been to Shanghai, and quite frankly I know very little about the city. I do know there is an exhibit at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum of paintings and sculptures from Shanghai artists, so there are certainly attempts to cross the strait with fine art.

The Thirteen Levels

A picture of the Thirteen Levels

The Thirteen Levels, in Shuinandong, is one of the most iconic buildings on Taiwan’s north coast. There is another idol drama I plan to discuss which features Shuinandong, so for now I will just say that Shuinandong is just below Jinguashi, which is next to Jiufen, an important town in Taiwanese culture which I have mentioned previously.

Conclusion

The point of this post is not to point out every clever use of language, explain every cultural reference, and to discuss every location. First of all, I did not catch every clever use of language, understand every cultural reference, or recognize every location. And I did not discuss everything I did recognize because this post is already long enough as it is.

What I want to do is give readers the sense that, behind this drama, there stands an entire culture and society. I think it’s entirely possible to enjoy Fated to Love You without understanding any of this. I also think that being aware of these extra layers deepens one’s experience of the drama.


Sara K. likes see how various things connect together. It is one of the finest pleasures in her life. She is also happy to squeeze a Basara reference into a post about a Taiwanese idol drama.

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Filed Under: It Came From the Sinosphere Tagged With: Fated to Love You, Mandarin, Shanghai, taiwan, Taiwanese, Taoyuan

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Estara says

    August 25, 2012 at 6:38 am

    I really am fascinated – because I basically have no previous knowledge about the Chinese language – with the details you explain here. Because you explained it so carefully I can see where the impact comes from. And the illustration of the various social judgements about dialects used (and the way they work) makes me connect it to the different views Germans have about Bavarian, Plattdeutsch or High German dialects – Although the thought of a Bavarian older woman attempting to speak Platt would be hilarious – but it would be very likely that she’d attempt High German, which is sort of the German version of British RP or Standard English – the version you get trained in at school, you use at university, the most neutral one but also probably the dialect with the highest social implication.

    Also thanks for those glimpses at what is and isn’t there in the setting, and even the short historical overview – the detail was never so exhausting it got boring, but on the other hand I wasn’t left feeling completely clueless (even as my comparisons to Germany’s languages probably don’t work in reality at all).

    It makes me finally want to finish viewing The Rose ^^ (based on the manga Bara no Tameni) – I saw up to episode 17 and then it took three years until the subs were finished and I lost interest. I really need to watch from the start (like you adore Joe Chen, I adore Joe Cheng as Kui and Ella as Bai He).

    Reply
    • Sara K. says

      August 25, 2012 at 10:11 am

      Glad to know that my post was comprehensible and interesting.

      I’m not British, but my understanding is that RP is not the highest-ranked variety of British English. Supposedly, there are ‘upper-class’ accents which differ from British English … but when it comes to language intended for common use (i.e. television broadcasts) RP dominates.

      There is no truly dominant American accent … there is ‘American Standard’, but it’s an artificial form of American English which was designed to be understandable over primitive radio equipment (nobody uses American Standard for non-professional purposes). While I wouldn’t say that all forms of American English have equal status, I cannot think of a single form of American English that could be pointed to as a ‘high-status’ accent/dialect (maybe there’s some kind of WASP accent … but I don’t even know what that would sound like).

      IIRC, the Rose is almost entirely in Mandarin (though they probably occasionally drop a Taiwanese word here and there). I also quite like Ella, and liked her performance in Hana-Kimi even more. Ella is actually better known as a singer than as an actress, and is a member of the very popular girl band S.H.E. (the other band members also appear in The Rose – one of them plays the dead girlfriend, and the other is the girl sweet on Joe Cheng’s character). You should take a look at one of their most popular songs, Zhongguo Hua (The Chinese Language) – I’ve found a version with English subs – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy8PktMIBuI

      Reply
      • Estara says

        August 26, 2012 at 9:16 am

        I heard about Ella in Hana Kimi and I know about her in S.H.E – even got some mp3s and youtube videos, mostly the ones having to do with the Rose soundtrack though. D-addicts.com is the only way I could get at any of the taiwanese dorama (I did buy some English subtitled kdrama from yesasia.com but they don’t have all that large a selection – I mostly like comedy romance dorama. I bought Sweet 18 ^^) at the time.
        Hana Kimi is a shoujo manga I quite liked (although it should have been 10 less volumes to keep the impact), I didn’t like the guy they cast opposite Ella as Sano (whatever the the Chinese character name is, I don’t know), so I never watched it. I only watch anime regularly these days, admittedly (I saw the first episode of Itazura na Kiss because it had Joe Cheng in it, but I didn’t like the heroine). The only dorama I’ve finished watching was the Chinese Mars one, with that guy from Meteor Garden/Hana Yori Dango (a lot of manga are turned into idol dramas aren’t they).

        Reply
        • Sara K. says

          August 26, 2012 at 9:26 am

          I liked the cast of Hana-Kimi, though the highlights were definitely Ella and Jiro Wang, not the guy who played Sano. Ariel Lin (the star of the Taiwanese Itazura) seems to have a love-her-or-hate-her effect on people (except for me – I think she’s OK, but she’s not one of my favs).

          And yes, Mars is another of my favorites. The guy you’re talking about is Vic Chou (by the way, his mother happens to be Atayal, the same people who were resisting Japanese in the vicinity of Zhentoushan). The next drama I’m going to talk about also stars Vic Chou.

          Reply
          • Estara says

            August 26, 2012 at 3:00 pm

            Who did Jiro Wang play? Nakatsu? – I’m not surprised about the effect of Ariel Lin ^^ then again the heroine of Itazura na Kiss really is a hopeless airhead at the start.
            Cool fact about Vic Chou (that was the name, right!). Looking forward to reading about that, too, after you’ve finished your exploration of Fated to Love you.

            Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Manga Bookshelf | It Came from the Sinosphere: North City, Book of a Hundred Drawings says:
    November 27, 2012 at 9:27 am

    […] the ghost of an Atayal girl (the Atayal are one of the indigenous peoples of northern Taiwan). I’ve mentioned the Atayal before, and Vic Chou, one of the stars of Black & White, has Atayal […]

    Reply
  2. Manga Bookshelf | It Came From the Sinosphere: Fated to Love You says:
    January 31, 2013 at 9:08 am

    […] Once again, I realized there is so much I want to say about this that it’s better off in a separate post. (Read Fated to Love You -Special Post.) […]

    Reply


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