Interesting Female Characters in C-Dramas

As a show centred around a tight group of four female friends, this is a must on this list. One woman, Qiao Xi Chen, specifically stood out to me (however, all of the main women are greatly written): she is clever, witty, funny, friendly, hard-working & ambitious but can also be (too) competitive, paranoid, sometimes insensitive and slightly self-righteous. She knows how to stand up for herself and knows her boundaries. She has her struggles and tries to cope with them as best she can; she is incredibly relatable.

Wu Li Zi, the female lead of The Justice, is one of the most imperfect and morally grey female characters I've ever come across and it is exactly for all her imperfections that I love her a lot. The story follows her from her early twenties to the end of her thirties; the Li Zi at the beginning of the story is a much different one than that at the end.

Li Zi is an exemplary case of someone who has the right ideals but not necessarily the morally acceptable executions. She can be very emotional, stubborn and selfish; is good at manipulating people (tends to have no qualms about it too) and bad at admitting her faults and weaknesses. She is brave and confident, but often (though less so with age) too reckless. However, she can also be very persistent and determined (she doesn't do things halfway), is ambitious and hardworking, clever and independent, and dominant but not domineering.

Cai Wenjing played her with the perfect blend of cunning and clever, sultry and mature, yet also vulnerable and cute. Her Li Zi is in my eyes, very fascinating and also very endearing.

Before I started Tientsin Mystic I read quite a few comments about an annoying FL. Maybe that lowered my expectations, but I fully believe that I would have loved our female lead Gu Ying anyway, those comments notwithstanding. Though she is pure and innocent-like, she is not a typical damsel in distress. Gu Ying is in fact, incredibly quick thinking on her feet, and saved our male leads not only once from tricky situations. She is also brave, loyal and kind-hearted (always happy to help). Sure, she can be a bit clingy and might not be super independent, but that is made up by the way she loves so wholeheartedly and openly. She is not afraid of her emotions. If she likes you, her affection is on full display and I find that so refreshing: it takes courage to love openly! CiCi Wang portrayed her perfectly: she didn't seem pathetic, but instead simply sincere and loveable for constantly sending heart eyes towards our male lead. (I just wish the writer gave her more to do, I felt like she was severely underused.)

A female lead crossdressing is about as cliché as it gets in dramaland but Feng Zhiwei is probably my favourite of all of them and it has mostly to do with how Ni Ni portrayed her. Observing Zhiwei feels strangely like something is constantly slipping through your fingers; I found her enchanting but also wonderfully elusive and at times even hard to read. I like her for her (naive) idealism, her righteousness, her intelligence, her kindness, her independence and her courage. She is stubborn and opinionated but can also be fierce and vicious; she can read people extremely well and her sense of diplomacy (or that of manipulation, whichever way you see it) is most fascinating. 

Stealth Walker is a show to watch for the female characters, no doubt about that. In fact, most of the time I felt that the plot was driven and made interesting by the women's actions rather than the men. One would think that as a crime drama we'd only encounter stereotypical "badass" women; but instead Stealth Walker has a variety of women to offer. They are all smart and resourceful (they do live in the underground scene) and "strong" – but all in different ways: some because they are kind and generous, some because they are ambitious and cunning, some because they are charming and manipulative, some because they are witty and perceptive.

Our female lead Lin Qiang for one is clever (street smarts), observant, courageous, loyal, driven & determined. She can be very protective yet also sly and manipulative and overall has her fair share of fears and doubts, and loneliness and anxiety.

However, what makes this show memorable is not Lin Qiang alone; it's truly the collective of all women and the relationships (of jealousy or envy, of friendship or mentorship etc.) between them.

What I like about Young Blood is that despite the majorly male cast, they deliver two equally loveable, but totally different women as part of its heart: Zhao Jian and Pei Jing, the first being closer to the "badass", the latter closer to the "cutesy" end of the female stereotype spectrum.

My personal favourite is Zhao Jian. She is righteous, ambitious, proud, brave and intelligent, but can also be slightly prejudiced and uptight at times. She's capable to save herself (without any male help!) from difficult situations and is everything I would want in an older sister (it's also the role she takes on in the main friendship group). 

The Long Ballad lets us follow Li Chang Ge's journey from a wide-eyed, revenge-driven teenager to a more mature commander and diplomat. Her story of maturity relies on quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, but that aside, watching her growth was fun to watch. I like Chang Ge not only for her big heart, her playfulness (when she had the luxury to be so) and her loyalty; but also for being bold, determined and brash, as well as often impatient and reckless. 

As a female lead she was given the space to make many mistakes and misjudgements; but she was also given the space to learn and grow wiser from them. On this list so far, Chang Ge might be the most controversial pick because some may think that her character growth wasn't that much to begin with (as in, her character seemed to be marketed as too awesome already) but I really appreciated the wide space for fallibility given to her as a female lead.

Though I find the female lead Xie Xiang to be intriguing enough, Qu Manting (played by Wu Jiayi) is the one that captured my heart. An upper-class daughter who's trying to carve her way into showbiz in the 1930s, she is sassy, flirty, brave, imaginative and proud with a strong streak of independence. She is a loyal friend but can also be spoiled, stubborn, whiny, insecure and vulnerable. She needs much love despite her tough demeanour; but once she loves, she loves wholeheartedly and generously.

Among all the military school dudes, I found her to be a charming breath of fresh air, a girl who knows her boundaries and doesn't take crap from others. She knows her own worth and what she deserves and doesn't settle for less. (Just too bad that she kinda disappeared off the screen in the last third.)

I started watching this show for the romance - as can be expected - but what I stayed for was our heroine Chu Li and the other female characters at Yuan Yue Publishing as well as the second female lead Gu Bai Zhi. Chu Li's talent in editing books remains unexplained til the end (we just have to make do with the fact that her passion can get her anywhere) but what I like about her is that she - unlike many rookie employee in workplace dramas - from the beginning stood up for herself, didn't take unfair crap from her supervisors and fought for her chances. She is also cheerful, optimistic as well as self-confident in her relationship and not one to get jealous; the latter two traits being very refreshing!

As we follow Chu Li's career, I was positively surprised by the lack of female rivalry in this drama. In fact, the women only ever were rivals because that's how their companies or positions were set up (and not because they are women who are inherently bitchy and jealous). When it wasn't about inevitable competition, the women (with one exception) were always there to support and help each other in all their endeavours and career crises. Women for women; that's what I'm looking for!