Tang Dynasty Drama Flourished Peony with Yang Zi and Li Xian Confirm January 7th Premiere on the Same Day as Moonlight Mystique
Talk about going big or going home in terms of drama scheduling. On the heels of xianxia C-drama Moonlight Mystique first announcing its premiere on January 7th, this weekend Tang dynasty female empowerment in the flower trade drama Flourished Peony also confirmed the same release date. It’s going to be a busy Tuesday for sure and should be as entertaining as last November when The Story of Pearl Girl and Love Game in Eastern Fantasy went toe-to-toe with a same day premiere. The drama released a new trailer with lots of sparring between the leads Yang Zi and Li Xian and both are also using own voice here. It looks great and the very traditional and visually accurate Tang outfits, hair, and makeup is growing on me.
Trailer for Flourished Peony:
idk 🤣 but Lady Luck seems having fun playing tricks on this drama bec whenever this drama will release important announcement or promotion it always get upstaged by something else, making this drama get pushed back in the background.
When the first poster for this drama was released it got upstaged by the released of CNY movie teasers.
When this drama announced their premiere date on NYE, it got drowned by ZLS health concerns issue
Now netizens are joking that something big might happen again on Jan 7 🤣
That’s the problem of the most of the historic dramas. No matter how visualy accurate they are the story is not historically accurate IMO. Most of them are modern dramas produced in historic sets. I personally liked decades ago period dramas way better.
*I meant costume dramas not period dramas
*historical not historic.
That’s the problem with nowaday’s political correctness craze.
People want to watch “historical” dramas but they can no longer accept historically correct plots, where 99% of women were subdued creatures not allowed out of the house.
While I like strong female characters, which no doubt have existed in all historical periods, I find this current “empowerment obsession” where every second drama heroine has to be a businesswoman, rather dull and unappealing.
It does depend in area…There are areas of China in the past where women do trade and run business. Not all stay indoors. Often it could be because males of the area have to serve military or some class do not follow this strict culture. The scholar and aristocrat classes are where females stays indoors.
Farmers and merchant class have females that works outdoors as there is a need for it. I believe even in the West, such practise applies.
Historically in China, Japan, Korea etc also have famous female businesswomen..
I do not know just how much of history this drama follows, maybe not much. But it will be a misunderstanding that 99% of women in old China stays home. Only the privilege can afford to do so.
You brought up a great point.
The thing is too, that if they want to go that “female strong businesswoman trope,” they have to REALLY commit to it. In many areas around the world before modernity, women who had to work AND take care of the home were in dire straits, because the man or men in their life couldn’t fully provide. Those women who were running businesses etc. had either gone through marital misfortune, were of the lower classes, had many mouths to feed, and were extra cautious to not get into any troubles or faction wars etc.
BUT NOOOOOOOO in cdramas they have to be uber intelligent/uber pretty, dress in extravagant clothing/jewelry, and interact with royal plots/very powerful men all the time. It gets ridiculous, almost as if they are afraid of ACTUALLY playing strong businesswomen who were REGULAR people just trying to get by in society and feed their households.
I ate this trope up like a fish out of water before, but it needs to die out. I’ll take the palace harem fiascos over this now
Very well said. These dramas are more like fashion shows rather than tv series. Everything is way to exaggerated. If a fictional-historical drama is to be produced why not why not invest on projects like “Nirvana in fire” with intriguing story and believable strong characters.
Me too, especially when all these empowerment turns out to be fake. Yes, historical Chinese women who are powerful and independent exist, yet drama adaptations tend to make them into kind Mary Sues who succeeded with the help of her handsome lovers, which is something I absolutely disdains. I’m going to bring up The Legend of Miyue again and the great disappointment I had with its drama adaptation.
There’s many historical Chinese women which dramas can adapt, Chinese poet Li Qingzhao and Princess Qinghe of Jin Dynasty are some examples.
I don’t know if this is a mistake or intentional but Flourished Peony announced their airing date on the 1st of January while moonlight mystique announced theirs like 2 days ago or so
Anyways wishing well for both dramas
Ahhhh Tang Dynasty era. The clothing is really good and as authentic as possible! Beautiful.
I was not very interested in this drama based on the synopsis but OH MY GOSH. YANG ZI LOOKS ETHEREAL HERE. I may watch
The one drama about flowers but doesn’t have blossom in the title 😅. Li Xian has had a pretty decent record of picking scripts, so I will at least check out the first few episodes.
Me too… Hope it will be enjoyable till the end.
Never been a fan of LX. I actually don’t like his acting in ALL his prior dramas as ML. My positive impression of YZ started with Ashes of Love and stopped at Go Go Squid. But this trailer looks intriguing. I’ll check it out. Thanks for keeping us posted.
keeping my expectation very low bec all the recent yz dramas were all just disappointment imo. her acting is still the same acting from AOL. no evolution or transformation at all. as a drama viewer, i am of course expecting that her acting will have more depth as years passed but looks like she’s stuck with the same acting and the same type of role. maybe she can try to accept antagonist characters or characters that are out of her comfort zone to test and expand her acting skills and challenge herself because imo she can do more.
Go Go Squid couple is back!
I’m not a fan of LX, he’s too skinny lol. He used to look better when he had some weight on or muscles(?), but nowadays I feel like he’s just jarring to look at. Like a haggard uncle. Not my cup of tea. But I like Yang Zi, so will still check it out. Hoping it comes out a little more like Love like the Galaxy and a lot less like A Story of Pearl Girl.
I agree with PM comments about Yang Zi. I’ve only seen her playing the naive little girl type. I don’t know whether the producers used her own voice, but it was so squeaky and annoying. I managed to finish the drama, because I love the male lead Ren Jia Lung. I love historical dramas, but absolutely despise fantasy. I enjoy all aspects of the production, it’s both entertaining and didactic. However these unrealistic little girl characters drive me insane.
For someone who’s in their sixties, and very interested in Chinese culture, I wish more adult dramas were broadcast in the USA. I wish they would challenge my intellect a bit more.