DRAGON COVE OF MYTHS, LEGENDS, AND STORIES: The Ghost King’s Tether, Love or Obsession?🌹
Digital illustration of Ghost king, Hua Cheng, praying to immortal prince, Xie Lian.
"If you don't know how to live on, then live for me." Chillingly grandiose, right? Just imagine someone being your sole reason to live, to exist even. This is the reality for the ghost king, Hua Cheng, in regards to his lover, the once highly revered immortal prince that had fallen from grace, Xie Lian, in the massively popular gay romance wuxia series (magical sword-fighting fantasy genre set in the backdrop of ancient China filled with beautiful people with long flowy hair).
As a ghost king, Hua Cheng’s mortal life has ended; so something must tether him to the world for him to keep existing. The other ghost kings are sustained by grudges and revenge. For Hua Cheng, it is revealed to be his love for Xie Lian, as well as his revenge on everyone that he perceives has wronged the prince. Sounds grandiose and incredibly romantic right? The epitome of true unconditional love?
To dedicate your entire being to one person, on paper may sound romantic but in practice could potentially be problematic. At times, Hua Cheng’s character seems overly protective and obsessive: refusing to let Xie Lian do simple tasks on his own, glaring jealousy at anyone that comes close to or receives any form of affection from Xie Lian. These moments are played off as comedic but in real life are potentially telltale signs of a controlling partner. If someone has been stalking me for several years (in this case, centuries), knows all of my deep dark secrets without me telling them, worships me, is hostile to everyone (else other than me) including my friends and drives people away so he has no friends of his own except for me… at that point, is that love or idolization?
On the other hand, don’t we live for our loved ones? My mom has devoted her life to me and my brother, we are a driving reason for her to stay strong and persevere in the face of adversity. Beyond the simple pleasures of life, my friends and family drive my actions. Isn’t my goal of pursuing science to better people’s lives through better therapeutics and drugs? Our relationships, our love is what sustains us and brings meaning to our lives, or at least enriches it does it not?
The author has stated that the story is based on the concept of a dedicated believer meeting their God, an intersection between religious worship and romantic love. Perhaps this unique dynamic is why Xie Lian, a god used to having followers, didn’t freak out and run away like I would have. In that sense, the author has done a fascinating job with this dichotomy, but what irks me is that Hua Cheng as a character does not exist for himself. Every single action of his mortal life and afterlife as a ghost king is solely for Xie Lian. Xie Lian has persisted through hardships over 800 years thinking he was all alone and gets to have the wonderful surprise that someone else has stuck with him through it all. Hua Cheng on the other hand, without Xie Lian, is nothing. He’d cease to exist.
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I wish their relationship pushed each other to grow more, with Hua Cheng finding additional purpose in his existence besides protecting and furthering Xie Lian’s goals, and Xie Lian for gaining the self-worth and self-respect to stand up for himself (rather than relying on Hua Cheng to act as a scary guard dog). Unfortunately the story chooses to frame their personal idealogy and their love as forever unchanging in the grand flow of time.
