‘My Fair Princess’ remake
On Monday, Chiung Yao, the Taiwan writer who wrote the much-loved TV drama My Fair Princess, announced that she had reached an agreement with Tencent Pictures to remake the classic work once again.
The news quickly became the center of discussion on Chinese social media.
“Please just leave the classic version alone, it was the best,” Chinese netizen Baquanhuangshu noted on Sina Weibo.
“It’s better to make a new classic instead of remaking an old one again and again,” Lianouyule noted.
Despite netizens’ doubts, Chiung Yao seemed confident about the remake.
“If the scriptwriter can grasp the core of the original version and add something new, I don’t think it will fail,” Chiung Yao told the Global Times.
“We are still working on the roles and scripts, I will act as a consultant this time,” Chiung Yao noted.
The 1998-99 Chinese period drama told the story of Xiaoyanzi, a tomboyish orphan who accidentally becomes a princess after making friends with the emperor’s illegitimate daughter Xia Ziwei.
Chiung Yao is well-known for creating a series of Cinderella-like stories. My Fair Princess, one of her representative works, received a high 54 percent audience share when it aired on Beijing Cable Television in 1998. The following year, the second season of My Fair Princess received a 65 audience share on Hunan Broadcasting System, a record that has yet to be broken.
Over the past two decades, My Fair Princess has been aired 16 times, mostly during summers, which has allowed the show to become an indelible memory for many high schoolers over the years. “My youth is tied to this drama and the unforgettable Xiaoyanzi,” netizen Pingfanjianjingcai wrote on Sina Weibo.
This will not be the show’s first remake. The show was remade once in 2011, but debuted to extremely poor reviews. The 2011 version currently has a 3.5/10 on Chinese media review site Douban.
Considering the poor reception of the previous remake, it comes as no surprise that Chinese audiences are skeptical about the new remake.
“The two versions are not that much different to me. The second one was more exquisite, while the first one was full of imagination,” Chiung Yao told the Global Times.
“If this remake is successful, then I may consider remaking more of my work, but if this one fails, I don’t think I will be interested in another remake,” she added.