themarchioness

7 hours ago, ktcjdrama said:

I do agree that developing the village is the way to go, for various reasons mentioned in the drama as well as in your post above. I guess I was hoping not to see such crowd at the end, like maybe tone it down a bit... haha... I can relate well with Grandpa Yang who didn't want the crowd. Tbh, the (any) village loses its appeal if there are so many people I have to weave my way through. 

I totally agree and I get it, I do.  That's the hardest part about wanting to bring development to any area.  It's a good thing, but it also brings with it the negatives: traffic, crowds, crime, the list goes on.  I think about that on a daily basis regarding a shopping area near where I live... I used to enjoy dining at restaurants there, but now it's so built up, parking is a pain, too many pedestrians and cars battling against each other, it's kind of a nightmare and so I mostly stay away until I have to go these days.  It would definitely be sad to think about Yu Miao Village becoming like that, but I have faith in people like XZY and Huang Xin Xin who have vision, but also know what matters in the heart.  If you think about it, Yu Miao Village couldn't have two better hands to place its future in.  Imagine if it was some big-city developer who came, only saw potential, but not the history, the culture and traditions, or the community, and just wanted to tear everything down in that process.  That truly would be tragic!  

But anyway, to bring my rambles back to a point, I wanted to say that I really appreciate how "Meet Yourself" is constantly teaching us that to do anything, and be successful at it, one must have a firm and steady base.  It's like Xia Xia at the beginning of the drama.  All he was focused on was spreading his wings to fly, earning money, and though his heart was mostly in the right place about that, he was so focused on the ten steps away from him that he couldn't see the ones directly in front of him -- the ones that still needed to be crossed before he could get to the other end of his path.  That reminder that he needed to instead focus on learning and honing his craft and skills was a hard, but necessary lesson -- and if you think about it, a recurring theme throughout the drama.  

Even Nana and her sad story is, if you think about it, akin to the village opening itself to outsiders.  As an online singing host, she started out small and then her popularity grew, and whenever that happens, we all know that just invites antis, attacks, and whatnot.  The base, I would argue, that she needed to grow in order to succeed in that career is courage and a thick skin.  

And, of course, there's the village and the villagers themselves.  I loved XZY's one comment after that weekend where all the tourists visited in one drove.  It was something along the lines of how it'd been the weekend they'd all hoped for -- one filled with a lot of visitors and paying customers -- but once it happened, it also served as a good reminder that before they went big-time, they had to make sure they had infrastructure in place to handle that kind of traffic.  After all, XZY knows that the worst thing that could happen to them is the visitors come, but then they receive poor service due to the village being understaffed/underdeveloped, and then people don't want to return and/or leave poor reviews, impacting other people's decisions to visit.  

That's why XZY has worked so hard these past few years to invest in the village and to grow that base.  I thought it was interesting how for the first 3/4 of the drama his contributions to the village were acknowledged and praised by all, but the minute the village had some visitors and the villagers started to get a taste for what life could be, in the last 1/4 of the drama, we saw all those residents visiting HXX and telling her about all the businesses they wanted to start -- example: that one woman who wanted to turn her home into a B&B and when HXX pointed out her home was old and rundown, the woman responded, "I'll use my earnings from the visitors to improve it!" and HXX was like, "No... that's not how any of this works, you're doing things in reverse order."  Worse, you also had that small group of people who, towards the end of the drama, started to accuse XZY of stealing all the business opportunities and preventing others from starting businesses -- which, of course, couldn't have been farther from the truth.  But for all those people, I would describe them as Xia Xia had been at the beginning of the drama.  They're already focused on the end goal, without thinking of all the steps that would need to be taken in between.  XZY, by contrast, and all along, has been taking things one step at a time.

Ahh... so many great lessons in this drama!  This is just one of them.  

But anyway, to your point, @ktcjdrama, while I understand and share your concerns, I don't think we have to worry about Yu Miao Village given those who are leading the way!  

3 hours ago, ktcjdrama said:

I am not sure I like how crowded the village has become one year later. I know the whole point of Yao’s effort is to attract people, but we all know when a place is full of visitors, often times the site will be “damaged”. It’s almost impossible to preserve the natural condition. It’s good to portray their success with lots of visitors, but I think the crowd is a bit too overflowing.

 

Then I am also disappointed with the reveal of Dou’s guesthouse. It’s too modern, too high-class, too 5-star for a 民宿 (literally means local lodging). Wonder what will be the room rate then, you know what I mean? I guess I was expecting something like Youfeng Yard, but an improved/professional version.

Regarding the downside of bringing visitors to the village, I actually thought the drama did a good job of addressing this in small, subtle ways.  The reality is, any time you open one place up, you invite questionable elements in, but staying closed off isn't a viable option either because all you're doing then is limiting yourself -- really, if you think about it, this is true of just about anything.  Think macro level, globally, with countries.  And then think micro level, like our village here in Yunnan.  Whether it's a country or the village, it's all the same concerns and requires the same careful weighing and balancing, just to scale.  So, I think your personal rant is valid, but it must also be recognized that this is the price to be paid if you want to bring progress to that area.  And as was emphasized over and over again, not bring progress to Yu Miao Village wasn't a good way forward for the community either.

But like I said, I do think the drama addressed that concern in little ways... like when the bookstore raised questions about whether the existing roads would be wide enough for traffic they anticipated.  And IIRC, when the one grandfather objected, much of his concern was over how things would change by bringing tourism/more traffic to the village.  Probably the biggest one for me where this rant of yours was highlighted was when they had that weekend where all those tourists descended upon them all at once -- first, there was all that trash that Xin Xin kept having to dump out.  And then after all the tourists left, the villagers had to get to work scrubbing down the cobble roads and scraping off the gum!!!  I tell you, that image of the gum scraping really brought to mind the same thing you were ranting about.  I also thought then, "Ugh, the downside of bringing in outside visitors."

And yet, it's those outside visitors who bring money to the area and allow a tourism industry to grow and thrive in that village.... Ultimately, it's a necessary evil, so I think their best way forward is to figure out how to create a symbiotic relationship so that each side can experience the best out of each other -- if that makes sense.

As for Hong Dou's minsu (which can also mean B&B, and those can sometimes be high-end), I actually really liked it!  Haha.  It's classy like her.  I was just telling a friend tonight... Liu Yi Fei wears all this LV, high fashion brand, etc., in this simple, very basic village (where even their rice isn't served in ceramic bowls or plastic tubs, but wooden containers!), but somehow, she makes it all work.  It never looks out of place at all.  I was especially struck by that thought in that one scene where she was hanging out with Xie Zhi Yao in his family's courtyard while he was handing out wages from that weekend of tourism...  Did you notice what she was wearing in that scene?  Go back and look, if not.  She's squatted on a wooden stool, at a well-loved family table, and when she gets up she's wearing a pink, silk wrap-around dress that's ruffled around the edges... and yet, she looks right at home.  Like she totally belongs.  

And that's kind of how I think her guesthouse will be.  She brings her Beijing, high-class experience to this area.... and in that way, she is also helping to grow the tourism industry.  After all, to travel, you have to have the funds to do so.  Remember her sister's experiences when she visited and stayed at the best the village had to offer at that time.  Apparently the best was not comfortable for someone used to a certain level of quality.  Therefore, while I can't speak to how much Hong Dou will be able to charge, I can say that she's at least created a space that will make people want to visit and stay there when they're researching accomodations for their trip.  At least, that's how I'd like to think of how things will be!  

I think you had great observations about the drama, though, so don't think of them as complaints.  I think you're being thoughtful about the drama, which is exactly what "Meet Yourself" would want, as it is a thought-provoking piece in many ways.

Actually, I also have an observation to make about this drama.  And it's definitely not a complaint as it is, more than anything, a source of amusement for me... but one of the things I really enjoyed about this drama was how it portrayed life and made things real, because the characters and their experiences felt so genuine... and yet there's one thing that did not escape my notice!  Hahaha.  Yu Miao Village is supposed to be in this remote place.  But in the second half, did you notice how easy it was for people to fly in and out of that area???  I mean, we won't even talk about Mr. Ma who kept dropping by in and around his tea travels.  But think about when Da Mai returned in a rush to be by Nana's side when she was going through that thing.  Or how quickly Hong Dou was able to catch a flight to Beijing when the pipes in her apartment burst.  My usual experience is, the father away you live from an urban area, the longer one will have to travel to find an airport.  And even then, depending on where your airport is, if it's not a big, well-traveled city, you might also have to have connecting flights!  Yet, in the drama, it all seemed very easy, flying in and out of that area.  Haha.  

- SYZ.  She drove us all nuts with her immaturity throughout the drama, and especially after she ran way a second time with Shen Ru Zuo, but if there was one person who grew the most in this drama, it was probably her.  By the end of the drama, she was no longer that weak, meek little girl that people could take advantage of.  She took care of the restaurant in ZPE's absence, came up with new ideas on her own, and even stood up to the restaurant guild when framed.  But what stood out to me the most was when the king offered her one wish, instead of asking for her pariah status to be removed, she asked that the common people be guaranteed a path to air their grievances and seek justice.  Such a selfless act, and so huge!

- SN.  I really wanted a wedding at the end of this drama.  I really wanted ZPE and GQF's wedding.  But it's hard to begrudge the fact that though we got a wedding, it was SN's because there is no one who deserves happiness more than her.  From start to end, she was a wonderful character.  Honest, supportive, and always so understanding.  I'll never forget the one scene where she saw ZPE and GQF being so in love together.  You could see how happy she was for her friend, but you could also see how she wanted that for herself too and she was envious.  But that envy, it wasn't that evil, malicious sort of envy where it make a person take a turn for the worse.  Rather, it was just that honest raw emotion that all of us feel at one time or another because we're human.  I give kudos to the actress for delivering those multi-layered emotions in such an empathetic way.

- ZPE.  Sometimes fate intervenes for a reason and while it was really rough having to watch her suffer one setback after another, I have to say, maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world that she missed out on GQF's check.  After all if she hadn't, she never would have partnered with Chi Ya Nei and built this wonderful and successful restaurant.  In terms of the romance, I also liked one line that she said towards the end.... something about having learned that when you love someone, it's not about what you will receive from the other person, but what you can do to help the other person.  Don't remember the words exactly, just the sentiment.  :)

- GQF.  Someone commented that he needed to look less mopey, but up until meeting ZPE, he really didn't have a lot of happiness in his life.  His maternal grandfather sounded like a tyrant.  And his own father didn't sound much better, given that he only came around whenever he needed something from his son.  It's no wonder that GQF tried to disavow that familiar bond, and yet, we know from his admission to the empress, there's a part of him that still loves his father whether that love is deserved or not.  It's a terrible life he's had to live.  All along I've wanted us (and him) to be wrong about his father because by the end of this drama, I really wanted him to have something of his own (beyond ZPE).  Now that I've watched all the eps, what I can say is, it made me really happy to see him get his swing.  Just feels symbolic somehow!  

I could keep going down the list, but in the interest of time, I'll just say that for Zhao Di, Chen Lian, and Chi Ya Nei, they were wonderful side characters.  And maybe one day Chi Ya Nei and his Pipa Siren will make a pairing after all.  ;)