THE LONG BALLAD PROMOTION: WE NEED THE WHOLE STORY, NOT JUST ONE SIDE
So I found myself posting on a what I thought was a general drama FB page today because of this ZLS fan page making the record straight post about TLB era apparently all fans are required to share. Before realizing it was a share from a ZLS fan page I had written this and I truly believe it to be true. We need to look more to the corporation and machinery behind the artist. That machinery is feeding the fans/anti-fans and profiting off their conflict.
As someone in the Leidi nest, I've seen a few things that raised my eyebrows and I might have smirked at but overall disagreed with. I do not love Dil because of her looks alone - I happen to believe she is fine, growing actress as seen by the matched acting with her senior in experience partner WL. Overall, however, the majority of the cpf engaged in self-promotion within their circle of their CP and I appreciate that about them. I am sure the fans of your favorite don't always make you happy either or represent your ethical boundaries every time. I was very much an outsider during this period when The Long Ballad was coming out. I had to go to Chinese sites to find out what the drama was about because all I could see was cute little LY and imposing HD - great characters for sure; however, what about Dilraba and the other guy flinging arrows at people who apparently was a controversial choice for the male lead? See how biased I had already been by the little media provided about TLB.
I posted this and I stand by it:
Why do we only talk about one person in that fantastic ensemble- that is marketing my friends, not just good acting or styling. I'm not a hater. I loved LLtG, but TLB had a beautiful message of peace that stayed with me. I am also a huge supporter of the main lead of TLB. It also stayed with the main leads. WL and Dil said good bye to ChangGe and Ashile Sun at least three times on Weibo. Imagine putting so much time, dedication, and passion into a project that your company barely markets and is ready inexplicably to completely move on to the next show before its even over. Stop the hate or single glorification of Lusi or Dilraba. That is what they want to create fan wars and press for the next project. They don't care about the human. Just take a look at what they did to Crossfire promotions - taking someone face off of posters and canceling live shows for a certain actor we all love. Our job as international supporters should be to raise attention to their work for the work itself, not play into the fan wars.
Do I believe that ZLS was the only stand-out actress in the whole drama? Well no. Do I think that one scene with WL and ZLS was packed with chemistry? Not at all, but if you did that's cool. I though Changge had better chemistry with her honestly because Ashile only has one person in his mind and that was Changge. The entire cast was brilliant and did what they could with what they were given, which was a pretty epic script that was shot in the middle of the pandemic. The fact that one actress rose at the expense of the other. I hate to say it, but that is marketing my friends, not just good acting or styling. I'm not a hater. I loved LLtG, but TLB is still my favorite because it had a beautiful message of peace that stayed with me.
Let's not give them even more of a fan war. I've been diving deeply into CPfandom/"pure" fan pop culture for a month now, so I'm still new to all of this. I was an international supporter of Dilraba at the time who engaged heavily in social media without really understanding Chinese fan culture. At the time I did not have the knowledge of Mandarin to access Chinese Social Media and I can still only observe as I am located in a country that won't allow WeChat or QQ Chat. I am okay with people being a little petty now and then - we all have our favorites and opinions about acting - but spreading false information is something I cannot support. There is also that grey area of what something looks like from their perspective and for that you have to dig and keep digging in every camp to see get an idea of what actually happened. For the most part, I see a tale of big money and corporate greed not caring about flesh and blood artists and feeding fan wars. It has only gotten worse recently. All of our favorites are vulnerable in the face of big capital, and some are much more at risk than others.
One thing I have seen: Although the part was not written for ZLS, I have heard that scenes were taken out to give more air time to the imperial CP because of the popularity of the couple - which, again was aided by marketing the couple for the most part and I was there to witness this as truth since I only saw the trailer or bits on ZLS/LYN -, including the wedding between the main leads. UPDATE: It was not a wedding. There was a scene of the two returning to Chang'an that was deleted apparently. I have no idea if this is true, but it's the same feeling we who love LLtG get about not getting our wedding. We have now lost TWO weddings whattt! I don't have a DVD player, but I demand a full DVD with Director's Cut and al deleted scenes!
If you were there during the time of the TLB promotions, please feel free to comment from your perspective. I too liked Love Like the Galaxy, but the taoist message of TLB left a lasting impact. At the end of LLtG all I was left with was a feeling that all was for nothing - everything could have been resolved without breaking any laws and he could have kept his goal and his girl without giving in. Someone on Twitter made a comment of how cathartic it was. Perhaps that is what it felt like at the time, but the long-term effects of his actions made him a hollow shell of his once pretty hollow shell. I don't see this as a healthy catharsis. Buyi sunk himself deeper into the mire and proved himself a hypocrite with his supposed lover. I have to question that love in the end. Ashile's Sun also had issues - his thought of sacrificing himself for love in a different sense was somehow more noble feeling, but no less selfish as it would have resulted in Li Changge yet again losing someone she deeply loves and being alone on the path to protect the Great Tang Dynasty. I never doubted the love between Li Changge and Ashile Sun; however, between SS and L/H B I do not know how much of that was misplaced affection or obsession especially if you look at the events of the book. The Long Ballad will remain my favorite between the two. The evenly matched partners working together for love of country and the people actually is far more touching to me personally. I will write a full comparison at some point if i can ever get myself to watch LLtG again.
