“Young and Beautiful” Explores Social Issues, Friendship, and Love

Told from a female perspective, the drama struck a chord with its take on hot-button social issues.

A novel-to-screen adaptation, Young and Beautiful <我的漂亮朋友> stars actress Crystal Zhang Tianai (张天爱) as lead character Liu Wenjing, a country girl who boldly moves to cutting-edge Shanghai where she attempts to build her life. With the support of Xing Tianming (Xu Kaicheng 徐开骋) and a few close friends, she realizes her dreams of success while finding friendship and romance.

First stepping into the financial capital, Wenjing found herself like a fish out of water, but never lost sight of her goals. Determined to change her fate, she took on sales jobs while dreaming of entering university and faced a steep learning curve of fitting in with the locals by adjusting her personality.

Thought-Provoking Look at Social Ills

Notably, social issues explored in the series struck a chord with viewers and evoked heated discussion from netizens, such as when Wenjing rejects an arranged marriage by her family and boldly expresses her own opinions. These issues reflected the decisions modern women deal with every day, and her refusal to be curtailed by family pressures echoed with today’s young women.

The drama also brings out the helplessness of victims of workplace sexual harassment, which is often swept under the rug. In the drama, Hua Hua (Daisy Li) is knocked by a child, but a one-sided viral video of the incident causes her to be targeted by vicious keyboard warriors – reflecting the dangers of Internet mob justice.

Young and Beautiful, and Then?

The story’s female-centric perspective showcases what being “beautiful” really means for millennials and Generation Y. Growing along with Wenjing’s transformation, Young and Beautiful seeks to inspire with its underlying theme of fighting for one’s goals with heart and drive, and being empowered by one’s past setbacks to shape a better future.

The 42-episode drama is currently streaming on Tencent.

“Young and Beautiful” Trailer

Source: Tom

This article is written by JoyceK for JayneStars.com.