Everlasting summer guide to harem series#
Everlasting summer guide to harem tv#

But to survive and succeed, the women also need to be skilled readers of their husband’s mood, feelings, and whims.įantasies about the lives of courtesans are old tales in China, but they remain relevant today. Looks, obedience, manners, and fertility-particularly the ability to produce boys-are key to thriving in the emperor’s harem. The only major male character is the emperor, but he is the man with absolute power over the fate of all other characters, whether it’s the Yongzheng Emperor (r.

Everlasting summer guide to harem tv#

(The Qing, China’s last imperial dynasty, is hugely popular for TV dramas, not least because the sets and costumes are easily available.) Innocent and good-natured at first, she gradually turns into the most calculating schemer after being repeatedly pushed to the breaking point by other concubines-her evil, aggressive yet stupid and short-lived rivals, who are always ready to do anything, including murder, to achieve power. All these shows tell basically the same story: A poor girl rises to power in the Qing court.

Everlasting summer guide to harem series#

Since Empresses in the Palace, a massive 2011 series that eventually made it to Netflix in the United States, a wave of concubine dramas has hit Chinese TV. That’s typical for concubine dramas, which are mostly about the desires and competition of women. The show’s popularity was driven by women, according to statistics from a Chinese data company, which showed that more than 80 percent of the audience was female and mostly under 30. The hottest show last year was undisputedly Story of Yanxi Palace, a 70-episode Qing dynasty drama that was released last summer on iQiyi, China’s equivalent of Netflix, and has since been exported to more than 70 countries, streamed a stunning 20 billion times with over half a billion tuning in on one day alone, and became the most Googled TV show worldwide in 2018, even with Google blocked in China. They all shared one thing in common: They centered on the palace intrigues of courtesans. But this year, several of the record-breaking popular dramas were noticeably absent. Normally, the biggest shows of the year are rebroadcast during the holiday season. She wants to sleep on it.The Lunar New Year is peak TV time in China, as families gather to watch the latest hits and advertisers compete for a spot. He also says that instead of acting like a passive heroine in one of her games, she should start acting more like a protagonist - and that she has at least one 'path available' in him. Sensei disagrees, and says that she should try for the real thing. She says that wanting a romance with Rin was a mistake, and that she should just have stayed in her fictional worlds. Molly gets dressed and they go for a walk. They talk about placing yourself in the position of fictional characters and seeing things from their perspective. She says that she has given up on forming a relationship with a real person.

Molly's computer screen is showing a graphic example of her desire to romance fictional characters, which she doesn't bother hiding from Sensei.