My Fair Princess
It would probably be fair to say that this series showed up “right in time”, not just in terms of its resonance with the general emotions of the time, but also in terms of the help it got from its technological carrier – televisions, especially considering the fact that the original novel series never gained the national popularity of its TV adaptation. 1990s was just after televisions become less of a luxury item for most Chinese families, and for the fresh audience of the time in mainland China who was trying to get the best enjoyment out of this new entertainment, to see a limitlessly energetic, funny, blunt, brave, cutely reckless and immediately friendly young girl coming to life on the screen, and the scene at the end of the first season of the two pairs of lovers riding the horses, singing, and “luxuriating together in the exuberance of life” (as a line in the opening song goes), must have been such a refreshingly and impressively new experience – and for numerous children at that time in China (including this viewer), probably not just a memorable new experience, but also and more importantly, an impressive early inspiration for what it means to live.
Mini Review: Collective childhood memory of Chinese born in the 90s. The writer of the drama series (as well as the original novel), Chiung Yao, was famous for producing "syrupy, fantasy romantic drama" - a comment which, though probably right, might have missed the point that the young, carefree, passionate, optimistic, luxurious flavour of life flowing from the story and the leading heroine was what truly caught the eyes of millions of Chinese as well as the general vibes of late 1990s and early 2000s.