Why I Love Asian Period/Historical Dramas

Photo: Sheng Family (Story of Minglan)

If you know me well, you must know that I love watching Asian dramas, particularly the historical/period genre. Most of people would find period dramas boring, as each line of the characters is being delivered slowly and full of poetry-like words. They are very subtle in meaning and the plot is always vicious. Period dramas start with tragedy, and usually it is the lowest point of the beginning of the entire plot to develop. So, if you can't stand the first few episodes, most likely you will not be able to handle the rest. Lol. But trust me, it gets better later on! Well, maybe. Depends on which dramas.

The sole reason why I love period dramas, is because I love the past customs. No, not the slavery, child marriage or the society status back then, I love the culture. Put the fact that I love history aside, I like the way that society in the past put propriety in the same level, anywhere in the world. Men and women are not to be engaged in any activity at the same room, unless in some specific area where the interactions are needed. More layers of clothing defined more regal status. If the men and women have a private meeting when they are not of the same family, nor arranged for marriage, they will need a dividers/covers.

This is the elegance that I still embrace, loved, and admire until today. Growing in a muslim family and society (a very healthy one, don't worry) taught me to maintain the social interactions up to this level. We are in modern society, so of course it is adjusted to the situation and conditions, but this is what hijab truly means. Hijab is not a piece of clothing to wrap my hair and head only, hijab is the space, the dividers between interactions.

Poetry, embroidery, music, sewing, the culture and customs are put into importance, something that is lacking in the present. Of course, in this day and age we have freedoms to choose more, to choose any field that we wish to study, but our traditional culture is dying. We believe in equality, condemning the past that "women only exist in the kitchen", that we think to be equal is to be able to do the same thing as a man. Now, the popular fields only lay on some handful of career choice, leaving the original traditions into cold.

More and more people enrolled to economy and business, politics, engineering, or medical school. But languages are start to extinct, traditional musical instruments are rare, embroidery (in my culture, it's batik and tenun) is getting very little approach.

I have seen plenty of memes, belittling things like cooking, or any "mediocre" work woman should be "capable" of. Is cooking not important? Is learning how to sew, wash, clean, and manage household not important?

That is why period dramas sometimes remind me of my footings as a woman; learning the household affairs and how to handle oneself when entering a new family. I don't know how you people handle this kind of stuff, but as a girl growing up in Asian family, I could totally relate to these dramas regarding the things happening at home. But of course, less hectic and less... big. At least we don't have concubines to deal with (but my grandmother did and she's only 2 generations above me, how crazy is that), a big courtyard to manage, tons of servants, legitimate and illegitimate children, but the big picture is kind of the same.

The mean in-laws are true, though. Similar, but of course not to the level that they will kill you. The family-in-laws is very subtle in their hatred. Hinting this and that during the big family meeting, beating around the bush without being very direct. But one big thing could happened, and then suddenly the daughter-in-law is actually being hated by everyone in the family. Mother-in-law is the kind of person who will never ever satisfied with their daughter-in-law, in ANY family. Well, unless your marriage is the arranged-kind so that the mother-in-law actually likes you.

But things are messy in Asian families. Even if your main family don't have any problems, your maternal second aunt might, or your fifth maternal uncle loves gambling and wasting his mother's money, or your paternal eight aunt might the bombshell of the family, ruining every last inch of the family's reputation, take every inheritance and run away somewhere. Don't forget the cousins and their spouses. You have both from maternal and paternal side. Like this cousin is still unemployed for years and asking for "help" to your family.

I honestly jealous of western family, because Asian family's branch is just very BIG. If your grandfather has siblings, their family is your family too. You have the distant aunts, uncles, and cousins. People then will gossiping about each other, measuring the success. "Look at the second family. None of the children finish their education to university. None of them succeed. Even this aunt is divorced because her husband was unemployed for years and only a secondary school graduate."

This actually happens! Not only in period dramas!

So that being said, period dramas actually help me learning on household stuff. How to handle people and avoid nepotism. People are actually asking you for favors, especially when you have the prestige and good career.

1. The Fashion.

I loveeeeeeee the traditional clothes. These are my favorites;

This is Han Hyo Joo, from the film Masquerade, as the Queen. 

We know Koreans have the hanbok as their traditional clothes, but I couldn't help but awe at the various types of hanbok they try to show in many movies and dramas. Korea was divided into three kingdoms before being the past-known dynasty of Joseon. There were Goryeo, Shilla, and Baekje. In the Joseon Dynasty, the hanbok styled as this;

Lee Se Young as Queen Yoo So Woon in The Crowned Clown, remake of Masquerade.

Park Jeong Sook as Queen Munjeong from Dae Jang Geum

As you can see, there are two kinds of hairstyle. The first one, is the more modernized hairstyle in the later Joseon period, and the second one is a classic from the early Joseon period. Both are pretty and dignified as Queen's status.

From Goryeo, you can see the difference;

Queen Yoo from Scarlet Heart Ryeo

Fom Shilla:

Queen Dowager Ji Soo from Hwarang

This one is pretty similar to chinese traditional clothes; Han Fu. It is maybe because Silla was such an older kingdom, as their fashion transcend closer to chinese style.

Then, of course, we have the Han Fu;

Zhang Jianing as Sheng Rulan from The Story of Minglan

I love this as well;

Zhao Liying as Sheng Minglan from The Story of Minglan

Look at how gorgeous that headdress is! Minglan was set in the Song Dynasty, and woman wear green and red during their wedding, according to the history. The Story of Minglan is quite historically correct and I am very pleased with the vibrant color of red and green actually go together really well.

I love Asian weddings. So rich in colors with pretty headdresses. 

Tiffany Tang as Princess Li Wei Young

Most chinese period dramas have stunning costumes haha.

Zhao Lu Si as Luo Fei Fei from Oh! My Emperor

I cannot leave Kimono too, so here is my favorite;

Shibasaki Kou as Princess Mika from 47 Ronin

You should check out 47 Ronin just to see how wonderful the costumes they made there! Shibasaki Kou was just pretty and dazzling with her kimonos.

And of course, Thai traditional clothes also one of my favorites!

Bella Ranee Campen as Mae Karakade from Buppesanniwat/Love Destiny

Extra: My traditional outfit called kebaya. It looks like this;

This is the wedding outfit. The headdress distinguished the traditional mark of the past Sunda Kingdom, as I am belong to the ethnic group of Sunda in Indonesia. Back in my great-grandfather's era, some of the lady is still wearing kebaya with a scarf.

2. The art of language!

One of the epic example is this one;

This is a youtube video from AvenueX. She's mostly do some review on Chinese dramas and make a very good knowledge-discussion videos about insight to Chinese cultures; tea, poems, han fu, etc. You can check her out, she's really good at discussion and a very opiniated person that you can rely on to make the decision on choosing the right Chinese drama to watch! Don't forget to subscribe! 

I love how subtle the conversation between the characters can be. Like you can be mean without being rude. If you know how to stuff another's person mouth with the right words, don't you think it is such a saver? 

For me, I don't like using rude languages. It's just feel unsettled in my mouth, but I do admit I can hurt people more by not using them. Because foul language is just a bunch of trash words and talks. People get your message without thinking if there's any other meaning, they take it literal. But if you twist your brain to produce the right words, you can hurt people deeper than you think. 

Language is scary. It can be a weapon if you know how to use it properly. 

That's all, I think, for my reasons. I hope you can share what you think too! Next, I will review about an drama I've been infatuated with these days; The Story of Minglan. I'm putting a lot of picture reference in this post, so of course I will put my effort to do the best review I can write on them. It's not the best drama by general, but The Story of Minglan is just my cup of tea and I like it very much. Now, I even switch to read the translated novel, and when I rewatch again, I feel like I become more and more understand to the insight of the story. 

So, it will be pretty interesting and I hope I can actually get it done quickly.

See you on the next post!