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Love in the Rain

It Came from the Sinosphere: Yanyu Mengmeng (TV Drama) Part 2

April 23, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

yymm27

Pouring Sugar on Stakes Thrust through the Heart, or TV Drama vs. Novel

The plot between the novel and this TV adaptation is mostly the same, aside from the addition of new characters (the Li family, Keyun, Du Fei, Ji Yao), and expanded roles for Erhao, Mengping, and Fangyu.

However, the feeling is significantly different. The TV drama does a lot of sugar-coating. For example…

[HUGE SPOILER WARNING + TRIGGER WARNING FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE / SUICIDE, skip to “End Trigger/Spoiler Warning” if you want to avoid spoilers and/or triggers]

In the novel, Mengping is gang-raped and gets pregnant. When she can’t identify the father, her father stop treating her as his daughter, or even as a human being. After a back-alley abortion gone wrong, Mengping spends most of the novel in the hospital, out of sight. By the time she gets out of the hospital, her mother is in prison, her father and sister are dead, her younger brother is in an orphanage, and she has to live with her older brother, who is penniless.

She is also gang-raped, emotionally discarded by her father, and gets injured in an abortion in the TV Drama. But in the TV drama, her loving sister cares for her after the rape, and her boyfriend agrees to marry her even after he knows what happened. Furthermore, her boyfriend tracks down the rapist and personally punishes them, with some help from Mengping’s father, who starts treating her as his daughter again once a man (her boyfriend) agreed to marry her. Mengping and her boyfriend (later, husband) live happily ever after.

Then there is Ruping.

Mengping and Ruping

Mengping and Ruping

In the TV drama, Ruping commits suicide. After the suicide, all of the characters are heartbroken, blame each other for her suicide, blame themselves, and pour out all of the love they felt for Ruping but didn’t express properly while she was alive.

In the novel, when Ruping commits suicide, the characters either a) hardly notice or b) are upset because her death inconveniences them. None of the characters are depicted being sincerely sad that she is dead (well, maybe He Shuhuan is sincerely sad … to some extent).

In the TV drama, Ruping is mistaken to think that nobody loves and cares about her. In the novel … she is mostly correct.

[END TRIGGER/SPOILER WARNING]

Though the plot is mostly the same, these little differences add up to a very different message. In the novel, the message is “What goes around, comes around.” Since what goes around is pain and abuse, what comes around is not pretty. By contrast, the message in the TV drama is that, deep down, everybody loves each other, they just don’t know it, and that love can get you through everything. That is a VERY different message.

Why Was the Message Changed

So … why does the TV Drama sugar-coat the story?

I have some ideas.

First, the novel was written in the 1960s. Many people in Taiwan, including most of the characters and Chiung Yao herself, had been in China during the Chinese Civil War, and were still recovering from the aftermath. The rest of the population had experienced WWII under Japanese rule and the 2/28 Incident, which was also very traumatic. The novel was also published during the height of the “White Terror,” when Taiwan’s authoritarian government practised strict censorship and imprisoned anybody who was inconvenient to the people in power.

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By contrast, the 1980s was a much more forgiving era. The economy was booming and standards of living had risen. Taiwan was already moving towards democracy, and in 1987, just a year after this drama aired, martial law was lifted. things didn’t seem so bad.

Then there is Chiung Yao’s own personal circumstances. At the time she wrote the novel, she was a young mother, and had either just ended her first marriage or was about to end it (I couldn’t find a timeline to double-check the order of events), but in any case, ending a marriage while caring for a young child is stressful. She relied on the money she made by writing to make ends meet, so if she had stopped writing, or if her writing hadn’t sold well, she would have been in trouble.

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By contrast, in the 1980s, she was financially secure and independent, had well-established and extremely successful writing career, and had been happily married to her second husband for years. Chiung Yao herself says that she couldn’t have written the novels she wrote as a young woman at a later age because she had stopped experiencing such sharp, forceful feelings.

It’s entirely possible that a TV drama faithful to the spirit of the novel would not have been allowed to air in the 1980s. I think that Taiwanese TV nowadays wouldn’t produce a TV show with even the 80s drama adaptation’s level of emotional harshness. Audiences would not receive it well.

In fact, based on the reviews I’ve read, the 2000 adaptation of Yanyu Mengmeng is even sappier than the 80s version.

Why I Hate This Story

For starters, I hate most of the characters … Yiping, Ruping, He Shuhuan, Lu Zhenhua, Xueqin, etc. In the novel, just about the only significant characters I didn’t hate were Fu Wenpei (Yiping’s mother) and Fang Yu. I don’t hate any of the new characters (Keyun, Du Fei, etc.) who were added to the story in the TV adaptation.

Yiping has ulterior motives for going out with Erjie.

Yiping has ulterior motives for going out with Erjie.

Okay, I did feel more sympathetic to Yiping in the TV drama, so I suppose I don’t hate TV!Yiping, but that’s mainly because I felt everybody else was treating her unfairly. Everybody was telling her that she should set aside her hatred for the Lu family, that she was their daughter, and that she should learn to love them. I, on the other hand, felt that not only was Yiping entitled to resent the Lu Family, but I was advising her to cut off contact with them as soon as feasible. Her father abused and neglected her for more than ten years, and her siblings either contributed to the abuse/neglect, or refused to offer any help to Yiping … and never ONCE in the entire drama do they apologize to Yiping and admit to her that they were wrong (his father quasi-apologizes to her mother). If any reconciliation is to happen, I think the Lu family (particularly his father) is responsible for the first move, and before there is a clear and sincere apology, nobody should tell Yiping to let go of her bad feelings about the family.

That’s not to say that I approve of Yiping’s actions – on the contrary, I advised her (in my head) to forget revenge so she can get the Lu family as much out of her life as possible. I also advised her to dump He Shuhuan, particularly considering how inclined he is to use physical force to control her in the drama (at least in the novel he’s not physically abusive). Yiping needs a sassy gay-friend, not a self-centered borderline-abusive boyfriend like He Shuhuan (I personally think Yiping was doing Ruping a favor when she ‘stole’ He Shuhuan, but I know Ruping disagrees with me).

When Yiping wants to get away from Shuhuan, he grabs her, carries her as she's kicking and screaming, and pins her to a fence.  What a charming boyfriend.

When Yiping wants to get away from Shuhuan, he grabs her, carries her as she’s kicking and screaming, and pins her to a fence. What a charming boyfriend.

And how could I hate Ruping? Mainly because she seems very passive-aggressive to me. She repeatedly claims that she loves Yiping like a sister but … well, it never translates into her actions. When Yiping needs help, Ruping does nothing (and I don’t buy that Ruping doesn’t have enough courage, because she certainly has enough courage when her other siblings get in trouble). And when Yiping is going through some really terrible things, Ruping is caught up in her own selfish concerns. Yiping, at least, is honest about the fact that she is not looking out for Ruping, and even tells Ruping so.

Ruping needs a cool-old-lady friend.

What’s worse, Yiping, Shuhuan, and Ruping are all bookworms. To Yiping, novels are like water, and reading is one of her main mechanisms for getting through the day. Shuhuan has a large library. Yiping loves 19th century European novels – Tolstoy, Bronte sisters, etc., while Shuhuan enjoys contemporary foreign literature. Ruping is a fan of popular Chinese-language literature, particularly romance and wuxia (I find it intriguing that she is an wuxia fan, considering that she’s a total doormat who wouldn’t hurt a fly). I also identify as a bookworm, and I suspect most people who read the novel are bookworms to some extent, so this makes the characters more like the readers.

In Shuhuan's library.

In Shuhuan’s library.

And that brings me to the crux of why I hate the story – I can see myself in the characters, and it’s an awful part of myself. My family is much more functional than the Lu family – but even I know something about the resentment which builds up between family members, and how it can drive people (myself included) to do terrible things. You could say that I am Yiping’s daughter (my mother as a young woman had some things in common with Yiping). In the TV show, and especially in the novel, I could feel that a) what the characters were doing was wrong and b) understand why they were doing it because, under similar circumstances, I would have the same impulses.

I hate being shown that I can be an awful person.

I seriously considered not watching the TV drama because I hate the novel that much.

My Reaction to the Drama

This is hands down the most addictive TV drama I’ve seen in Chinese, and one of the most addictive things I’ve watched in my life. Even though I already knew the story, I simply had to keep going. As soon as one train-wreck has happened, it’s possible to see the next train coming to pile on the damage.

yymm30

In some ways, the TV drama is much better written than the novel – many supporting characters are much more fully realized, and the suspenseful elements are more deftly crafted.

And the tears. Oh the tears. In my mind, I’ve re-titled the drama “River of Tears” because of the effect it had on me.

But towards the end of the TV drama, I stopped engaging with it because it started to seem a little false to me. The story wants to go to awful places, but somebody puts on the brakes, assuring the audience, ‘no, it’s not really that awful’.

The ending of novel feels profoundly sad because it feels true. The more optimistic ending of the TV drama does not feel true to me.

Availability in English

Currently, this is not available in English, and since it’s a Taiwanese drama from the 1980s, I am not going to hold my breath. Still, if any Taiwanese drama from the 1980s has a chance of being licensed by a streaming service with English subtitles, it’s this one, or another one of the 80s Chiung Yao dramas.

Conclusion

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Nowadays, before I pick up a Chiung Yao novel, I have to ask myself whether I am ready to tear out my heart and put it through the washing machine for cycle. I’ve read that Yanyu Mengmeng is the rawest of them all, but based on some of the summaries I’ve seen, I suspect some of Chiung Yao’s other novels might wrench me even more. She is a genius of pressing emotional buttons.

For a heart-warming Chiung Yao story, read Princess Pearl. Otherwise, beware!

Next Time: Datang Shuanglong Zhuan (novel)


Why is it that Sara K. only found out that the Takarazuka Revue was coming to Taiwan AFTER the tour was over????? Now she’ll actually have to go to Japan to see them perform live. Oh well, if she ever has the chance to see them in Japan, it will probably be better than seeing them in Taiwan.

Filed Under: Dramas, It Came From the Sinosphere Tagged With: chiung yao, Love in the Rain, taiwan, TV, Yangyu Mengmeng

It Came From the Sinosphere: Yanyu Mengmeng (TV Drama) Part 1

April 16, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

The English title of this drama is “Love in the Rain,” but I will henceforth use the Mandarin title, Yanyu Mengmeng, which roughly means “The Misty Rain is Hazy.” It’s more poetic.

Example Scene

In this scene, Erhao brings his girlfriend, Fang Yu, to meet his “warm and loving” family for the first time. I have translated the dialogue to the best of my ability, but I think some of liveliness has been lost.

[Erhao and Fang Yu enter the house]

yymm01

Erhao: This is … hey, Mengping! Could you shut off the record player? Show a little respect for your brother.

Mengping: Hey, you sure have guts to hang out with a guy like my brother. Don’t you know how many girlfriends he’s had? The last one…

Erhao: What are you saying [grabs Mengping’s ear]

yymm02

Mengping: That hurts!

Erhao: Pay no attention to my sister. She loves to make up rumors and stir things up.

Mengping: Erhao, you don’t care about anything other than chasing girls! Erhao!

[Erhao covers Mengping’s mouth]

yymm03

Mengping: Even before you’ve married her, you’re already bullying your little sister!

Erhao: What are you saying!

Mengping: Ma, save me!

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Xueqin (the mother): Aya, you’re all going to be the death of me. It’s always yelling all the time.

Erhao: Ma, this my girlfriend, Fang Yu. I’ve mentioned her before.

yymm05

Fang Yu: (using very polite language) Erhao has said a lot about you. I should have met you earlier.

Xueqin: So you’re Fang Yu. You look very nice. No wonder my son fell in love. How old are you?

yymm06

Fang Yu: 20 years old.

Xueqin: Ah, so you’re the same age as our Ruping. Ruping, come here! Look at Fang Yu.

Ruping: I’m Ruping, Erhao’s younger sister. Fang Yu, welcome to our home. Please sit down. Father is upstairs, he’ll come down soon.

Xueqin: Ruping! I want you to take a good look at Fang Yu.

Ruping: Ma, I’m looking at her.

yymm07

Xueqin: Look at her … her eyebrows … her eyes … she’s dressed herself up very nicely. Her waist, her figure, she doesn’t look at all like your sloppy appearance. So she has a boyfriend. Ruping, you’re also 20 years old. Why do you spend all day alone in your room? You really are stupid.

Ruping: Ma.

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Erhao: Fang Yu, my mother is praising you.

Fang Yu: So, we’re the same age! Erhao often says that he has a sweet and warm-hearted sister. He certainly means you. Ruping, we’ll surely become good friends.

Xueqin: Ayo, this little mouth knows its sweet talk. No wonder she’s won little Erhao’s heart. Ruping, you should learn how to be like her.

Ruping: Ma, I know I’m useless. I’m plain. I don’t know how to dress up. I can’t speak. I especially can’t keep a boyfriend. I’m damaged goods, damaged goods, damaged goods. I’m sorry that you had to bear a daughter like me, who only embarasses you.

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Ruping: But if you want to reprimand me, please reprimand me behind closed doors. This is Fangyu’s first time visiting our home. Please let me have the tiniest bit of dignity, and show Fangyu a little respect, and show Erhao a little respect. Criticizing me in such a heartless way, letting other people see it … why! Why! [Ruping runs up the stairs in tears]

Mengping: Wow, Ruping has a spine after all. I want to call out “Long Live Ruping” three times. She’s finally grown up.

yymm10

Mengping and Erjie: Long Live Ruping! Long Live Ruping! Long Live Ruping!

Xueqin: What kind of world is this? Do you children have the slightest regard for your mother? Even Ruping is talking back to me. I’ve lived in vain. I’m going to drag that girl down here and get a straight answer about what the hell is going on!

Erjie: Long Live Ruping! Long Live Ruping! Long Live Ruping!

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Xueqin: You backstabber [hits Erjie]

Erjie: Papa, Mama hit me. I was just saying “Long Live Ruping!” I’m not allowed to say “Long Live Ruping”? Papa! Papa!

yymm12

Xueqin: Don’t call for Papa. If you continue…

Erjie: Papa, save me!

Zhenhua (Father): What is everybody fighting over! You don’t even let me have a few minutes of peace! What nonsense.

yymm13

Erhao: Papa, this is Fangyu.

Zhenhua: Erjie, come here. [Erjie comes over]. Sit down. Where were you hit?

yymm14

Erjie: Here.

Fangyu: Bo… bo… bofu [in Mandarin, ‘bofu’ is a polite way to address an older man with whom one has a personal relationship, for example, your boyfriend’s father]

Erjie: What “bo-bo-bo”? It’s “bo-po-mo-fo” [this is a reference to how Taiwanese children learn how to read].

Erhao: [grabs Erjie’s ear] What are you saying!

Erjie: Papa, Erhao is hitting me!

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Zhenhua: Erhao, how dare you! You bring your girlfriend how, and then turn this house upside down! Erhao! Let go!

[Erhao lets go, and Erjie hits him]

Zhenhua: What nonsense! [Notices Fang Yu] Ah, so you’re Erhao’s girlfriend? What’s your name?

Fang Yu: My name is Fang… fang… fang…

Erjie: Then there’s yuan, yuan, yuan [this is a reference to the word “fangyuan,” which means “circumference”]

yymm16

[Mengping giggles]

Zhenhua: Ah, how did you meet Erhao.

Fang Yu: I’m Yiping’s classmate, and met him at Yiping’s place.

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Zhenhua: So you’re Yiping’s classmate? Excellent! Of all of my children, Yiping has the strongest personality and temper. She’s resilient and stubborn, proud and sharp. Every word she says is just like a razor blade. What a pity she was born in these times, and born as a girl. After that fight, I don’t know when she’ll ever come back. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have hit her.

***

So, that’s the Lu family. Now it’s time for a song! Notice how much grabbing/hitting/pushing there is (even some of the kissing looks violent):

Background

This TV series is adapted from the novel by Chiung Yao, who I’ve discussed before, first published in 1964. Chiung Yao also wrote the script for the TV show, had some say in the casting of the actors, and even wrote the lyrics for the songs, so I also consider the TV Drama to be one of her direct artistic works. Between the writing of the novel and the production of this TV drama, Chiung Yao had more than 20 years to grow and change as a writer, and I consider this drama to be a re-write of the story reflecting that change.

It’s one of the most popular Taiwanese dramas of the 1980s, and these Chiung Yao dramas have a strong influence on Taiwanese idol dramas.

Can you stare down Leanne Liu?

Can you stare down Leanne Liu?

This TV drama, like many other 80s Chiung Yao dramas, stars Leanne Liu, who is famous for her expressive eyes. The co-star is Chin Han, who has appeared in tons of Chiung Yao adaptations, and is one of the “Two Chins, Two Lins” who repeatedly starred in Chiung Yao adaptations through the 70s and 80s.

Maybe it’s time to meet the characters whom Leanne Liu and Chin Hao play…

The Leads

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He Shuhuan. He is a close friend of Lu Erhao and, at the beginning of the story, Lu Ruping’s potential new boyfriend. One day, when he was going to visit the Lu family, he sees a young woman outside in the pouring rain, with visible injuries and no umbrella. She refuses to report anything to the police, but agrees to let He Shuhuan take her to his apartment so she can clean herself up. When she finds out that she is a “friend” of the Lu family, she refuses to have anything more to do with him, and runs out.

Shuhuan is incredibly curious about this young woman. Erhao at first says he knows nothing, but then they encounter this young woman at a dance club, where it’s clear that she and Erhao have some kind of personal relationship, though Erhao insists that she is not his girlfriend. Eventually, Shuhuan finds out that the mysterious, proud young woman is none other than…

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Lu Yiping. The heroine (or anti-heroine). The novel is written in first person from her perspective. She is the half-sister of Erhao / Ruping / Mengping et al. Her father had driven her mother and herself out ten years ago, and since then they had been living from hand to mouth on what little money he would deign to give them. Yiping would personally have to go to “that place” to beg her father for money.

When they are several months behind on rent, there isn’t enough money for food, her mother needs to see a doctor, and Yiping needs new shoes, she once again goes to “that place.” While Ruping has a nice dog and an expensive new ring, Mengping dances to a fancy record player, and Erjie has a shiny new bicycle, their father, Lu Zhenhua, only agrees to give Yiping a fraction of the money they need to make ends me. Yiping says because he refuses to support his own daughter, he is not a real man. This makes him furious, so he whips her. Everybody else watches silently.

After the whipping, Yiping says she will get revenge on ALL of them. Her father finally decides to give her the money, but she throws it in his face, saying that they are no longer father and daughter. She runs out in the rain … and that’s when Shuhuan first sees her.

When she finds out that Ruping is in love with Shuhuan and he might become her new boyfriend, Yiping sees her first opportunity for revenge. But can Yiping break other people’s hearts without breaking her own?

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The 60s and the 80s

The novel was written in and is set in 1960s Taiwan. The TV drama, likewise, is set in 1960s Taiwan. Occasionally, the TV drama shows distinctly 1960s culture—for example, the references to Huangmei opera, which were not in the novel.

However, if you look at this drama, it looks totally 80s. In fact, it feels so thoroughly 80s that the occasional throwbacks to the 60s feel jarring to me, even though I know the story is technically set in the 1960s.

This shows that the makers of the drama were oblivious to just how much they were infusing contemporary style into the show, assuming that the 80s were not terribly different from the 60s. And since this was made in the 80s, they probably were able to notice the 80s style about as well as fish can see water.

Pouring Sugar on Stakes Thrust through the Heart, or TV Drama vs. Novel

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This is the title of the first section of Part 2. If you want to know what I’m talking about, or why I hate this story, be sure to come back next week!


Sara K. is hosting April’s Carnival of Aces over at her personal blog. If you’re inclined, you’re welcome to submit something of your own.

Filed Under: Dramas Tagged With: chiung yao, Leanne Liu, Love in the Rain, TV drama, Yanyu Mengmeng

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