Like A Flowing River 3 (2024)

close to the edge, just by a river

The final season of the premier, and possibly original, development drama: a genre I regard as a guilty pleasure. Development provides a constant sense of moving forward, a progression fantasy run at societal scale. Unlike webnovels like Release the Witch (another guilty pleasure, but for the different reason that it's unrealistic) or the Greatest Estate Developer (never got into it, but it seems popular), the TV Drama versions such as Minning Town and this one cover the rescue of modern China by Deng Xiaoping, leading into it's implied glorious future. The fact that it covers a real historical period makes it more enjoyable because webnovel writers don't actually understand technology, and so can't write convincing development. But these dramas are inevitably filled with propaganda, and how enjoyable the drama is depends on how well it can straddle the line, allowing you to ignore, or at least tolerate, it's various saccharine winks and nudges. The first season was the best at this, both because it was a simpler and purer time, at least in the eyes of the young shounen protagonists, with real villains, real opportunities, and real improvements. Now the show has to end, and the Bureau demands that the moral of the story be shown.

The Song dynasty was horrified by the consequences of elevating the military in the Tang and so started the trend that military families should always be seen as lesser to literary ones. Even before then, the officially accepted model of society held that farmers were second only to the aristocracy in importance, while merchants occupied the lowest stratum of society. In terms of personality, a more realistic history would have Yang Xun working for a state-owned enterprise, where his calculative nature and ass-kissing ways can be put to best use, while Song Yunhui and his intelligence would probably be misdirected into either politics or academia. Finally, Lei Dongbao as a brash risk-taker might continue to lead a TVE, or could become an free-market entrepreneur, where projection of confidence is of utmost importance. Unfortunately, it has been decided that this series produces three stratagems, one low, one middle, and one high. The best path is one of conformity to the party, operating within the system and with faithful execution of their plans. You are rewarded by being the one who is always right, respected by all, literary, handsome, and cultured. The second, acceptable path, is the role of the merchant, doing what has been permitted but not necessarily promoted: you end with wealth although only through the erosion of your dignity. Not to mention that straddling the line means you are constantly in danger of overstepping, and a single mistake could lead to drastic consequences, like losing your girl, or sister, or mall. Finally, the lowest is the path of the uneducated rural boor, who breaks the rules and does what he wants. The story acknowledges that it is true that the party and collectivization was wrong, but unfortunately the same personality which rights this wrong is the one which causes you to cheat on your wife, become an alcoholic, and gamble everything away, until you turn into a clown.

I understand there's a lot of pushback around the character of Liang Shishen, but I think it's mostly because the writers don't understand things from a Western perspective, and so cannot write her as a seemingly authentic character, either American or Chinese. But there does seem to be a fundamental flaw with her character in that she insists on being uncontaminated by the unsavory aspects of the world but is entirely willing to be a beneficiary of others who play dirty (such as her cousin and father), while also feeling free to scorn and dismiss anyone else without her advantages who is not similarly pure (Perhaps this question is intended to be addressed, given that this is 33 rather than 40 episodes, and it's rather suspicious that some of the cliffhangers don't seem to match the beginnings of the subsequent episodes). Unlike Song Yunhui, who achieves all his goals, Shishen doesn't seem to be very competent, continually failing in her aspirations and constantly having to rely on familial connections to bail herself out. There is one scene, where she feels herself marginalized at Donghai Chemical because the engineers will not consult with her, and the idea is we should be aggrieved on her behalf because she is the manager, and so rightfully should be deferred to and allowed to make the decisions. But when she is told that she doesn't have the technical background to understand anything anyways, the claim is self-evidently true because she is unable to make any response. A manager who wants to insert herself into the process despite knowing nothing and so becoming a hinderance, filled with feelings of entitlement and self-importance. She can't stand Dongbao, looks down on Yang Xun, and ends up with Song Yunhui. Riddle me this: Who is Liang Shishen? She is the watchful eye - not the audience - but someone else, the same entity who molded the choice of which personalities should be assigned to each main character role in this cheap morality play.

7/10.

PS. There are also a few very ham-fisted propoganda entries which make this season rather hard to take seriously. These sorts of things were more or less absent in the first season, except perhaps in the inexplicable time skip of the year 1989 (unfortunately, I don't remember the second season at all). The first is that otherwise apolitical elders have to comment that how tragic it is that Deng Xiaoping died before Hong Kong could be recovered, which seems like a strange thing for some retired peasants to care about. Instead of taking the opportunity to stand-in one island nation to agitate for the modern annexation of another one, wouldn't it be more relevant to comment that Deng died before China could become a first-world country? Then there's everything involving foreigners (or finance), like Luoda and Grandpa Wang, who feel like children playing dress-up with the overriding intention of constantly reminding everyone that China is number one. Of course, you must return to China, these foreign companies are political and will never respect you because you are Chinese. China is your motherland and your true highest allegiance (don't forget to have some children while you are at it). What is forced technology transfer? You must mean actions which we had to take because of Western economic bullying, accomplished purely through our own research merits, and which we leverage into win-win cooperation? Lol.

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