Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall Fraser and Jou Ying — both are audacious heroines of current blockbuster TV series: “Outlander” in the English-speaking world and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” in the Chinese-speaking world.
Perhaps I am the ONLY person in the world currently watching BOTH series. So far I’ve seen all of Outlander Seasons 1 through 3 showing once a week since 2015 and 15 of 74 episodes of “Nothing Gold Can Stay” showing daily since August 2017. If there are any other bilingual addicts out there to these shows, please comment!
The parallels are so striking that I extrapolated from the works to get an idea of what people want to see!
We fans are loving Claire and JouYing for their toughness, courage, and independence in spite of very narrow social definitions of what women should and should not be doing. They both push the limits of their 18th and 19th century environments, respectively. Claire is in Scotland and the American colonies from about 1744 on; JouYing is in China near the time of the very clever Empress Cixi (1835-1908). Although society would confine them both to traditionally “feminine” roles, they both engage their prodigious skills in “a man’s world”: Claire is a talented healer and JouYing is a very street smart entrepreneur.
In both cases, they marry for unusual reasons but true and abiding love develops between them and their strong capable husbands.
Both series add imaginative detail and complexity to historical facts. Although time travel does not exist (as far as can be proved 🙂 “Outlander” book author Diana Gabaldon’s historical research is detailed, rich and accurate. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is loosely based on the true story of Widow An Wu. In addition, cinematography and costuming are appropriate to the eras, lush and gorgeous.
What do the fans want? These heroines! Even though I secretly doubt that these two could actually be as brilliantly successful as they are portrayed within their social confines, I am very willing “to suspend my disbelief” (S.T. Coleridge) and enter into the stories enthusiastically. As an English professor, I have been a “literature snob” and so I am extra fascinated by my own interest in the two series. Perhaps I can finally just “plain enjoy” the story instead of having to professionally analyze everything to death!
The Chinese series title is literally “Na Nian Hua Kai Yue Zheng Yuan” — see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6659882/mediaviewer/rm3355717888
The English name is taken (unattributed!) from “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost, 1874 – 1963
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Susan Olmstead Wang 