Hua Qian

One of my most favourite genres is historical. And I get really excited especially when it's Chinese as I love the beauty and elegance of the Han period. Sadly, entertainment of such a genre is hard to come by. Even harder to find is a good one. After incredible shows like Saiunkoku Monogatari, I've always been on the search for similar works. I thought I had finally found it in Flower Ring.

I thought wrong.

Where shall I begin to describe my disappointment?

Everything from the characters to the plot is shallow. The antagonist literally pops up of nowhere, and the ending came so suddenly that it felt like the mangaka was forced to end it. There was some attempt to add dimension to Yun Qie's character, but it was done in such a cliche manner that it failed terribly.

As for plot, it seemed like the mangaka just thought of a couple of major events and just went straight from Event 1 to Event 2 and then event 3. The transitions are either horrid or nonexistent.

It's saving grace was the art, but even then it wasn't enough to actually "save" the series. At times the art is beautiful, at others it's just crummy. The technicality of the visuals is bad as well. 2 characters could be facing each other, but were placed in a panel as if they were standing side by side.

From the first few pages, I knew the manga would be bad. Yet I thought I would continue for the sake of the moments of beauty in the art. It wasn't enough. I was utterly bored.

And thus the search goes on for something to come to par with Saiunkoku Monogatari.

What does it mean to belong to someone?

Hua Qian starts off rather light-heartedly in detailing the sheltered life of Yu Pan, a young girl of marked intelligence and capability. Although there is a touch of romance with a clearly marked out main couple, this relationship comes into conflict with the hierarchy of social standing and familial obligations. What makes this story stand out however, are the characters of Yu Pan primarily, and Yun Qie, secondly. Yu Pan is a heroine you can get behind and feel good about rooting for. She's a strong and intelligent character that far surpasses the boys she studies with, and never once questions her own worth or doubts her feelings like other female leads.

Moreover, the story toys with the idea of what it means to belong to someone, which I found interesting. What binds you to someone? What does an engagement really mean? What does it mean to be betrothed? Is it an exchange of promises? Of hearts? Of future happiness? Is it symbolic? Is it real? Is it either, or both? Is it reliable and steadfast? Or delicate and fleeting? Hua Qian subtly asks all these questions in a rather simple storyline, but really explores them with an attention that sets this manga apart.

Although it hasn't been fully scanned/translated, I highly recommend giving it a read!

This manga is very mediocre in it's story and character development. While some things are explained, they are done so in a poor manner (such as in the mother's reason for her actions towards her daughter).

The romance is a case of "instant" love with almost little to no development between the engaged parties. The love rival part of the story is also horribly short and could have easily been left out of the story without really changing much of anything, it just added that the drama that was missing from earlier on in the manga.