“Legend of Awakening” Garners Good Ratings

Currently rocking an average of 7.2 points in ratings on video streaming website Douban, Mainland Chinese wuxia drama Legend of Awakening <天醒之路> is living up to its expectations. So far, the acting, storyline, and costumes have completely blown viewers away. The audience is also impressed by the fact that double male leads Arthur Chen (陈飞宇) and Dylan Xiong (熊梓淇) have not taken the spotlight away from lead actress Cheng Xiao (程瀟), who plays a strong female protagonist.

Such praises for a strong female character is an unexpected response since the drama, My Roommate is a Detective <民國奇探>, which also had two male and one female protagonist, received constant criticisms. However, the positive feedback for the Legend of Awakening is perhaps because Cheng Xiao’s character Qin Sang was originally a supporting character in the novel, so the focus on her character development in the show has piqued great interest. On top of that, viewers have taken an affinity to Qin Sang’s cute personality and her heart-fluttering interactions with Lu Ping, who is played by Arthur.

Although reviews for the drama are mainly about Arthur and Cheng Xiao, actors Dylan and Ancy Deng (邓恩熙) are also gaining attention for their looks and performances. With Legend of Awakening being Dylan’s first period drama, many were initially anticipating his historical look. However, they disappointingly commented that his historical looks are not charismatic enough, and reasoned that it is because he was too focused on the distinctive gazes of his character Yan Xi Fan, so he neglected his appearance. The audience also took notice of Dylan and Arthur’s many shared scenes, which consists of relatively intimate interactions such as Dylan personally feeding Arthur congee and one conducting CPR on the other.

Viewers are also paying close to attention to Ancy’s performance as Su Tang, who was originally supposed to be paired with Lu Ping like in the novel. However, Lu Ping is now coupled with Qin Sang instead since Ancy is just 15 years old. Despite the change, Su Tang is still an important character in the story. The audience is enjoying Ancy’s portrayal of Su Tang as a young lady with a pure soul, and they are looking forward to how her relationship with Lu Ping will unfold.