one of the most subtly misogynistic drama of recent times

Wont go much into the story as everyone has already commented a lot on it. Yes its main purpose is to promote TCM but what surprised me the most is how women are portrayed in this drama. Professor Ren's wife also known as Ling Lan is the biggest saint in the world. Her husband quit his job as a principal to start an apprentice school where students can learn for free without discussing with her. Then asks her to go and pack his stuff from his office when he finally informs her of him quitting on his last day at work when he had handed in his resignation one year prior.

Ren Xin Zheng is portrayed to have god level talent and obviously he would because he does nothing but work and study while his wife runs around earning for the family, picking up his slack, parenting and doing household work even though both of them are TCM practitioners . She gives up her saving to her husband so he can run charity apprentice school and entire time you will see her parents and him telling her in different ways shes narrow minded if she doesn't support his work for the greater cause. The first time her husband decides to do the cleaning in their 29 years of marriage, he displays that he doesn't even know how to mop the floor and as if his incompetence in household duties wasn't clear enough from that he had apparently mixed the 2 different types of filling his mother in law made into single container so that he can wash all the other dirty plates. His mother in law berates him and her daughter saying it is the women's duty to look after the household and men aren't capable of it.

If you think it stops here nope. Ren Xin Zheng proposes to sell their house because he needs fund and Ling Lan is again portrayed as narrow minded because she refuses in the beginning. So in show of support to his son in law, her dad offers to sell the house all of them are living in instead of the house Ling Lan and the professor owns, morally forcing her to sell their house because how can she let her parents be homeless at their age ( they later got money donated by someone else so neither of the house was sold). What was even more frustrating in this episode is where Ling Lan's mother says " Small matters in the house are decided by me but I listen to my husband on the big matters" when she question's her mom's opinion on her dad wanting to sell their house to fund her husband's dream.

Later on Ren Xin Zheng claims to have an illegitimate child and when Ling Lan is with her parents devastated by the news, her dad tells her a good lady should obey and whats wrong with having a second child. He later tells his son in law he trusts him but my God telling his daughter to accept her husband's infidelity and illegitimate child without even trying to comfort her is crazy. The mother adds insult to the injury saying if Ling Lan's dad bought an illegitimate child she would accept the child into the family implying she should just accept the child into the family and live like nothing is wrong.

Promoting TCM is fine but did this drama really need to reiterate multiple time that women should just accept whatever the husband says? The only time a woman stands up for her own rights and gets a divorce due to her husband's infidelity , she's later shown as filial to her ex in laws by taking care of them when her ex father in law was hospitalized and she says she's just doing the filial duty her son has to their grandparents.

I think in the entire show there's too much "education" on how women should behave and deal with situations and most of it is to be subservient to men and elders around them. The story would have been fine if they just promoted TCM and all the other side stories but this constant portrayal on how women should behave and portraying them as petty for being concerned about financial situation or wanting their husbands to actually care about them is crazy, especially the sentence a good lady should obey. The misogyny is subtle but high throughout the series. The most visible ones are from Ling Lan and Professor Ren's story but throughout the story there are too many instances to not really realize it. High time that drama's start showing both working husband and working wife sharing chores equally and preparing the future husbands on how to coexist with their wives than telling women to mother their counterparts.

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