CDrama Review: Identity, Intimacy, and Balance in Pursuit of Jade (3 of 3)

What makes the rendition of identity, intimacy and balance even deeper is its extension to community. After some challenges and intrigue from neighbors, newfound friends and the law, Yan Zheng and Changyu celebrate the lunar new year by writing couplets. This is another episode where I found my folklorist role activated.

The couplet scene is where intimacy becomes public because married life is part of community. And in this particular scene, Yan Zheng teaches Ning, Changyu's little sister, how to read and showing her how to write. The Marquis is not only a military elite. He is also a scholar and a poet. When the neighbors read Yan Zheng's couplet, they asked him to write for them especially at the time when the lone scholar left Lin'an for the capital.

I’m already smitten at Yan Zheng at this point. Seeing him interact with the village elders, men and women who cannot write well or express their beliefs and dreams found a scribe who can help them articulate their desired grace. Changyu is the luckiest girl in the world. Yan Zheng, aka Xie Zheng, the Marquis of Wu’an was inscribing himself into her world.

As our one true pair assimilates in community, we see a temporary equilibrium built on asymmetrical truths: she holds social legitimacy. He holds hidden power. And the romantic and moral tension thickens. That’s why when Lin'an was plundered, violated and destroyed it was a necessary rupture. Episode 17 was difficult to watch. Seeing Lin'an fall was tragic because it challenges the intimacy, identity and balance in an enclosure that allowed these themes and elements to grow.

Next post: Act 2 - Revelation in Love and Alignment in War

CDrama Review: Identity, Intimacy, and Balance in Pursuit of Jade (2 of 3)

As the episodes roll along, we get to know that Yan Zheng is a person of power and authority. He has a falcon that brings him letters. He can read and write. His gait, attitude and mannerisms are indicative of nobility. And, he was quiet and observant all along. We also see the exposition of Changyu's character. Spunky. Outspoken. Strong in spirit. She loves Lin'an like her own family despite the gossip, the prejudice and the dangers of war looming closer to home.

From the beginning, it was love at first sight. However, and this is beautiful to note, neither of them knows or recognize it as love. There is affection and it is strong. It is the couple Zhao who names the affection because they see it in the everyday ordinary routines between Changyu and Yan Zheng. This tension is wonderful to behold.

In the scene where Yan Zheng and Changyu assert their couple-hood, they stand at the doorway proclaiming themselves as man and wife sealing it with a kiss on the cheek from him to her and her to him. And then, they stand tall looking at each other. The tenderness leaps out of the screen. Yan Zheng looks at Changyu with wonder and reverence. She looks back holding his gaze unafraid and in all sincerity. The snow is thick in Lin'an but it is warm in their home and in the depths of my heart. This is when I told myself that I will root for this pair until the end of the world.

This screenshot of a scene in Act 1 is for me a formidable depiction of both intimacy and balance. In this episode, they were asserting their arranged marriage. They have not said I love you and are still coy with each other but there are scenes that show closeness, affection and intimacy.

In this moment, Yan Zheng is still limping. He holds a staff. He is weak. And Changyu is his strength. What a foreshadowing. The Marquis who hides derives strength from the village girl.

And isn’t this balance, too? Not just equality of power, but reciprocity. Not sameness, but complementarity. Dependence, too, is a form of balance.

They stand at the doorway. A liminal space between inside and outside, private and public, while holding each other in shared understanding. He leans; she steadies. He conceals, she grounds.

This is how their love begins. Not in declaration, but in the gentle, everyday act of holding each other where the other is lacking.

CDrama Review: Identity, Intimacy, and Balance in Pursuit of Jad (1 of 3)

Pursuit of Jade (PoJ) is not perfect. The storytelling has loopholes and the editing could have been tighter, more cohesive. But it does have big wins. The cast is amazing. The cinematography is breathtaking. The camera work and lighting are impeccable. We know these things already. Lest we forget, the chemistry between ZLH and Tian Xiwei as the main leads is one of the most potent I have seen since Hyun Bin and Son Ye-Jin. Needless to say, PoJ is worth binging, worth a rewatch and recommendation because of so much more.

PoJ is based on a novel (which I have yet to read). I watched the drama and it is dense. So, I will chunk my review in three acts: 1. Life in Lin'an; 2. Revelation in Love and Alignment in War; and 3. Restoration of the Yin and Yang. All through the three acts, the themes that figure the most for me are: Identity, Intimacy and Balance.

My review will center on the rendition of these themes in key images, dialogues, scenes and settings in all three acts. If you're up for my brain farts, you can stay as I unpack them from Acts 1, 2 and 3. Are you ready? Here we go!

Xie Zheng's introduction to idyllic life in the village of Lin'an. As the Marquis of Wu’an investigating a war crime that happened 17 years ago, he fell injured from a battle, into a river, and was washed ashore near a ferry port where he was discovered in the snow by Changyu, the butcher's daughter. He was nearly dead and was taken care of by Changyu and her neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao, who stood in as her parents. They did not know Yan Zheng is the Marquis. He became a live-in husband because Changyu’s uncle wanted the house her father left her. Without a man in the house, the uncle takes possession. With Yan Zheng recuperating, he was offered marriage by Changyu, and he said yes because he was there for an investigation. Besides, he needed to recuperate and recover.

But they fall in love while the audience or the viewers know Yan Zheng’s true identity. Imagine the tension! Delicious!

5th BTS Global Interdisciplinary Conference: From Role to Responsibility: Intergenerational Mutuality in the Glocal Infrastructure of BTS Fandom

My paper, “From Role to Responsibility: Intergenerational Mutuality in the Glocal Infrastructure of BTS Fandom,” has been accepted for oral presentation at the 5th BTS Global Interdisciplinary Conference in Jeonju, South Korea this July 2026.

This one is personal.

It comes from our lived experiences as ARMY mother and daughter walking the streets of Seoul during Festa 2025, carrying questions, holding hands, learning how love moves across generations and borders.

It asks what it means to grow together inside a fandom that is not just community, but infrastructure. Where participation and responsibility are the core of fandom culture.

Bangtan taught us that we do not stand alone. We arrive because someone held the door open. And so this paper is my way of saying: we see each other, we carry each other, we become better for each other. 

From role to responsibility. From fan to citizen. From here to there, and back again.

We are ARMY, always. 💜