Welcome to my mini series: The Butcher’s Shelf where I unpack all the awesome things about this show and speculate wildly in public about why they work.

What is Pursuit of Jade?

It’s a Cinderella story about a young woman who goes from being a pig butcher to female general in fantasy China. It started out as a webnovel, Chasing Jade by Tuan Zi Lai Xi and is inspired by Ming dynasty heroine Qin Liang Yu. It was adapted to a 40 episode idol cdrama Pursuit of Jade by Iquiyi and licensed by Netflix.

Pursuit of Jade is the first cdrama to crack the Netflix Global Top 10 Non-English shows. It stayed there for a few weeks in March but it’s streaming on multiple platforms and has racked up billions of views worldwide. BILLIONS.

For context, the highest rated shows on Netflix:

• Squid Game: Season 1: An estimated 265.2 million equivalent viewings

• Wednesday: Season 1: 252.1 million views

• Stranger Things: Season 4: 140.7 million views

• Bridgerton: Season 1: 113.3 million views.

So if my math is mathing correctly, Pursuit of Jade has 4-5x the number of views as the most popular shows we can name here in the US. Why is this show resonating with so many people around the world? I can think of a lot of reasons, and one of them is the sheer number of tropes they fit into this show. Not to be reductive, but I think as a creative, it’s helpful to peel back the curtain and see what is happening.

Here’s a list of some of the tropes, microtropes, and elements I’ve spotted in the show:

• Marriage of convenience

• There’s only one quilt

• Hurt comfort

• Fake dating

• Secret royal

• Competence

• Animal companion

• Eldest Daughter POV

• Slow burn romance in a small town

• Fish out of water

• Found family

• Touch her and die

• He falls first/He’s a simp for her/He’s down bad

• Female gaze

• Morally gray MLI

• Banter

• Female friendship

• Knife to the throat

• Calligraphy

• Yearning (so much yearning!)

That’s 20! When you look at your own WIPs, can you count how many tropes/microtropes are in there? If you’re a fan of Theodora Taylor then you’ll understand me when I say Pursuit of Jade is filled with BUTTER. The lesson from PoJ? Layer on that butter!

(apparently this animatronic pig weighs like 40 lbs! Our girl TXW is strong IRL)

This is already a huge list and doesn’t even cover my additional list of things I love about the show. For now, I’ll break down what I think are the three biggest things Pursuit of Jade is showcasing:

• Acts of Service

• Female Gaze

• Beauty and Craftsmanship

Why Acts of Service Is Our Love Language Right Now:

Friends, we are tired. The world and the news cycle are exhausting. While there are some very grand gestures in this show, the 40 episodes are built on a series of small, caring acts. These acts of service are quiet, in the background even. Watching these characters do thoughtful things for each other throughout every episode is soothing that constant anxiety in the backdrop of our modern lives. (Warning, spoilers ahead) Examples:

1. Yan Zheng composing new year couplets for all her neighbors until his wrist cramps

2. Frugal heroine Changyu buying expensive tangerine peel candy for him to cut the bitterness of his medicinal herbs

3. Yan Zheng staying up late to prepare her for her hearing before the magistrate

4. Yan Zheng carrying her little sister Ning when he sees other children at the festival are being carried by their fathers or brothers.

5. Yan Zheng buying a special salve for her hands and then making sure she keeps it when she frets it’s too expensive

6. Yan Zheng carrying her coat to her when she’s worked very late at the restaurant, and coming to walk her home in the dark

7. The seamstress making wedding robes for Changyu in addition to the groom’s robes

8. Gongsun stitching the princess’s slipper

9. Yan Zheng annotating archaic texts for her to simply them so she can understand the lessons

10. Yan Zheng salvaging her butcher cleaver from the battle with General Shi and reforging them into twin blades for her

Female Gaze, Agency, Friendships

Part of the recurring theme of both the webnovel and the cdrama is that the male love interest Yan Zheng is very beautiful. It’s handled with light comedic moments in both the drama and webnovel like when she cleans his face after she rescues him and there is a moment of stunned awe when his handsome face is revealed. Or when he goes to help her at the pork shop and the ladies line up and clamor to be his customers.

This character is portrayed in the cdrama by Zhang Ling He who radiates an unearthly beauty in every scene. It’s clear the director understands his job is to highlight the face cards of this absolutely gorgeous cast as the lighting and camera linger lovingly on the faces.

The only bare shoulders or chests revealed in this drama are those of Zhang Ling He or other male cast members.

But the female gaze is not about objectification, but for female characters to have agency. Changyu is a heroine that has been thrust into a role of family head very young (she is 15 in the webnovel but they aged her up to 18 in the drama thankfully) and her compassion and sense of duty drive her to take charge in many situations (even if her schemes are bananapants kidnapping plots).

Her friendship with Yu Qian Qian pass the Bechtel test with flying colors as their friendship is built on mutual respect and growing their respective business empires.

Beauty and Craftsmanship

I’m a huge fan of the Jennifer Lynn Barnes talk on Writing For Your Id. Sadly I don’t think there’s a way to purchase the audio of that lecture anymore, but she discusses her giant Id list here.

In her iconic talk, she talks about how humans are hard-wired to seek pleasure and that some of these universal pleasures are Beauty and Competition. This means we love beautiful things and games. I would say that battle scenes fall into this Competition category as well. When you watch a show like Bridgerton, they are hitting the beauty button in every scene. The cast is gorgeous, the scenery is stunning, the music is fresh and evocative, the costumes are sumptuous and your brain is just flooded with pleasure.

Pursuit of Jade does this on the same level. Even when the show opens in the bucolic, but simple country village setting of Ling’an, the snowy setting is beautiful. Though the villagers do not wear fancy clothing, their robes have amazing texture and layers, giving visual appeal and depth. Every set is crafted to showcase the historical details of the buildings, the interiors, and the furnishings.

And now for some book recommendations from your Book Auntie:

If you like the court palace intrigue, the beautiful cast and the resilient heroine, try Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan.

If you like Calligraphy and Painting:

Poet Empress by Shen Tao

Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim