Illustration: Liu Rui

Bubu jingxin (Thrill At Every Step), one of China’s hottest TV series, attracts a colossal female audience. In this story, a white-collar woman travels back 300 years, and falls in love with the sons of the Kangxi Emperor (1654-1722) during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Such time-travel soap operas are quite popular at the moment, though the plots are largely the same. Just a few months ago, another popular TV series called Gong (Palace) told the same love story between a modern girl and Kangxi’s princely sons.

It is very interesting to interpret these time-travel soaps from a feminist perspective. At the very beginning, the heroine is just an ordinary modern woman, like the female viewers. But once going back in time, her charm expands exponentially overnight. Thanks to all kinds of coincidences, the heroine enters the imperial palace. Her unique personality attracts all the princes. Even the emperor admires her wisdom.

It’s a subtle hint to white-collar girls nowadays, who suffer from all kinds of disillusionment in real life. Do not underestimate yourself, girls! Your job may be boring, and your boyfriend may cheat on you, just as those female leads once experienced before they travelled back in time. But no worries! In ancient times, you can be a unique princess attracting the richest, smartest and most graceful princes from the imperial family.

The audience surely understands that this is just a daydream. But I bet many of them would cheerfully travel back, if given a chance. According to those soaps, modern girls, living in ancient times with a modern mind, could enjoy not only the infatuation of handsome princes, but also the power of foresight and even the ability to change history.

With historical knowledge, the heroine foresees significant historical events, including the end of the princes’ fight for the imperial throne. She is like a prophet who knows the fate of everyone around her. She seems able to change history through her strong connections with the imperial family.

These time-travel soaps also describe the female leads as torchbearers, who bring the great accomplishments of modern thinkers to ancient China. In the latest Bubu jingxin, the female lead keeps indoctrinating princes with thoughts of freedom and equality, and enlightening the concubines in the palace about monogamy.

People seem to easily accept these ideas. On TV screen, gnashing their teeth in anger, those princes decide to get rid of their father’s control, and grasp fate in their own hands.

In Palace and Bubu Jingxin, both female leads win the emperor’s praise with modern knowledge, and the plots are very amusing. In the former series, the girl makes Kangxi a wheelchair, and the emperor gives up his sedan chair and prefers to travel in his new vehicle. In the later drama, when asked in imperial court about her view of Kangxi, the girl recites a poem written by Mao Zedong that compared China’s emperors. The emperor seems very impressed.

These time-travel soaps perfectly cater to their female audience. Women lack power in real society – many easily become victims in family, careers and relationship. These dramas just drive all these annoyances away. Each night, they spend 90 minutes in front of TV, and enjoy the sense of being unprecedentedly strong and powerful. This, I think, partly explains the strikingly high ratings of such programs.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. chenchenchen@globaltimes.com.cn