Shine on Me

Presentation

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Overview

Synopsis

In college, Nie Xi Guang falls head over heels for her classmate Zhuang Xu. But the latter doesn’t seem to reciprocate her feelings. After graduation, Xi Guang losses contact with Zhuang Xu and starts working in Suzhou. There, she meets her boss, Lin Yu Sen. He used to be a doctor but turned to business after an accident. They start developing romantic feelings for each other.

My Opinion (No Spoiler)

AMAZING!! What a gem! If you like feel-good comfort dramas with green flags (like The Best Thing), then I highly recommend you give it a go! Characters are very well written for starters. Nie Xi Guang is a bit passive and lost in her life at first, but she’s brilliant and can achieve wonders once she puts her mind to it. Gradually, you see her grow and develop a passion for her job. Lin Yu Sen is a green forest. His determination and patience to court and conquer Nie Xi Guang are simply extraordinary. He falls hard for her and lets her come at her own pace. He’s also so forgiving and tolerant, especially when you see everything he goes through. Their slow-paced romance was a breath of fresh air. They made me giggle so much. I also need to talk about the way they used themes like light and forest/wood in characters’ name, company’s names, the title, but also the overall context. There’s a whole symbolism around their love story that is just fantastic. As for the ending, I felt moved to see them evolve from 2012 to 2028. For once, we have a real ending that is not rushed. They really took their time to develop their lives in the present and that really made me so happy. Shine on Me is a must-watch!

Analysis

The light imagery
Nie Xi Guang, the light
Lin Yu Sen, the wood
From Shuangyuan to Guangyu
Shine on Me

The healing romance
2011, the first encounter
2012, the re-encounter
The lies
The families
2015-2028, the happy ending

The light imagery: The drama built the whole plot around a symbolic imagery where light is at the core of the story. Names actually mean something and are perfectly linked with all the symbols that pop up here and there.

Nie Xi Guang, the light: ‘Xi’ means ‘morning sunlight‘ or ‘sunrise glow‘ and ‘Guang‘ means ‘radiance‘, ‘light‘, ‘brightness‘. Combined it can be read as ‘light of the morning sun‘. Personality-wise, we can link it to warmth and comfort. That’s exactly how Nie Xi Guang (Zhao Jin Mai) is. She’s a ray of sunshine who brings light to Yu Sen’s (Song Wei Long) dark world after his accident. She’s the only reason that keeps him going after he’s lost his chance to practice surgery (even if he resents her at first), and Xi Guang is also the person who pushes him to try his chance in the medical field again. Xi Guang brings solace, healing and happiness to Lin Yu Sen.

Lin Yu Sen, the wood: Nie Xi Guang often jokes that Lin Yu Sen has a lot of wood in his name and she couldn’t be truer. ‘Lin‘ means ‘forest‘ and is associated with stability, just like ‘Sen‘ that means ‘dense forest‘ and suggests strength. As for ‘Yu‘, it has to do with light and means ‘to shine‘. This syllable implies talent and intelligence. Put together, Lin Yu Sen means ‘a brightly shining forest’ and can be associated with protection, steadiness, stability, strength, resilience and underlying warmth (under the leaves and the trees, there’s a light that shines brightly). Not to mention that the light is positioned between the two wooden elements in the name to highlight that warmth is at the core of the character. Lin Yu Sen couldn’t have a better name to describe him. He looks cold, fierce and terrorizes Xi Guang at the beginning of the drama. She’s convinced he hates her for no reason. However, she slowly melts his heart and discovers a gentle, devoted, kind, resilient and forgiving man who’d would do anything for her.

From Shuangyuan to Guangyu: The company in which the leads work also has its importance in the show. The common field of the drama is light, so it’s only natural that they both work at a photovoltaic company. Shuangyuan belongs to both their families, and implicitly marks the connection/partnership that already exists between the two. Nie Xi Guang develops a passion for PV and shines brightly, first as an employee, and then as a boss. Lin Yu Sen and Nie Xi Guang share the same vision for the future, they want to make renewable energy valuable to people and work hard to navigate the hardships within the industry. Though they start with a small domestic company, the drama shows how big it becomes by installing solar panels in the Middle East as well as in Northern China. As for the transition from Shuangyuan to Guangyu, this makes sense as ‘Guang‘ refers to Xi Guang’s name and ‘Yu‘ to Yu Sen’s. Both syllables mean light, which is totally fit for a PV company.

Shine on Me: The title concludes the light imagery. To me, it suggests warmth, healing, change and a hopeful future. I think it’s also valid for both characters: Yu Sen brought his love to Xi Guang when she was going through a rough time emotionally, and Xi Guang lit up Yu Sen’s present and future. They both had a positive influence on the other.

The healing romance: Shine on Me focuses on the romance between two people who heal their wounds and grow stronger together. The love story spans over more than a decade, though most of the show focuses on their encounter and first steps as a couple.

2011, the first encounter: In 2011, Xi Guang attends college. She’s good at studying, but is a bit lost and passive in life. She has no idea what she wants to do in the future and says herself that she’s always followed what life put on her way without making an actual choice for herself. This changes when she decides to apply for the PV company in Suzhou. That’s the first choice she makes for her own career. Love-wise, the female lead is in love with Zhuang Xu (Lai Wei Ming). However, the latter doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. It also seems as if he’s already in a relationship with his childhood friend, which confuses Xi Guang even more. Lin Yu Sen studied medicine for 10 years and is practicing as a doctor in 2011. He’s a brilliant neurosurgeon, promised to a very bright future. Unfortunately, he gets into a car accident on his way to Xi Guang – or so he thinks. This event leaves him unable to practice surgeries and turns his world upside down. He has to renounce his passion, darkens, and resents Xi Guang. He was on his way to meet her when he got into the accident. She’d asked to see him, yet she never visited him once at the hospital. Lin Yu Sen is physically scarred, but also emotionally wounded. Nevertheless, he finds another path for himself by becoming a businessman. He joins his grandfather’s company and proves his worth by surpassing everyone.

2012, the re-encounter: In 2012, Xi Guang and Yu Sen meet again in Suzhou. Xi Guang starts working at the PV company and Lin Yu Sen is transferred as her boss. Still resentful, he first starts by assigning a lot of work to her as a way to get his revenge. She never reached out to him after the accident and didn’t seem to care. So, he plans on making her life difficult now. Xi Guang obviously doesn’t understand why Yu Sen is so mean to her. Though Yu Sen tries hard to hate her, he succumbs to her charm again. He confesses, but Xi Guang is in no place to accept because she’s lovesick. She can’t let go of Zhuang Xu. Nevertheless, Lin Yu Sen doesn’t give up and patiently waits for Xi Guang to come to him. He pursues her, never pushes her, but remains as a steady pillar in her life. Being with him makes Xi Guang realize that she loves him. So, she lets go of her past and chooses to focus on her present and future with Yu Sen. Once they decide to be together, nothing can break them apart.

The lies: By the end of the drama, you understand why Xi Guang never seemed to care about Yu Sen’s accident. That’s because she didn’t know about it. Her father got divorced because he had renewed with a childhood friend. That greedy woman already had a child who pretended to be the CEO’s daughter to elevate her status. She met Lin Yu Sen and got interested, so she called on him the day of his accident. Lin Yu Sen was convinced he was meeting the CEO’s daughter Nie Xi Guang, when in reality he was on his way to an unknown woman who pretended to be his child. After the accident, she got scared and didn’t even visit, giving way to the misunderstanding. This is proof that she and her mother are parasites and a toxic presence for the Nie family, but also that Xi Guang never wronged Yu Sen.

The families: The drama shows how families can impact a relationship in a positive or negative way. Nie Xi Guang’s father is annoying throughout most of the drama. He’s arrogant and proud, always thinking he knows better. Not to mention that he’s got an inferiority complex towards his ex-wife. They built the company together, yet she’s always been the most brilliant one. On top of that, he’s friends with Lin Yu Sen’s uncle. The latter sees his nephew as a rival and does whatever he can to discredit him. Nie Xi Guang’s father is the ‘villain’ of the family, who’s in total opposition with the other adorable members. He never takes his daughter’s side, nor does he believe her when she says something. He doubts her choices and distrusts her. Yet, Nie Xi Guang confronts him at the end. She refuses to let him dictate her feelings towards Lin Yu Sen. She loves him and will fight for him. As for Lin Yu Sen, he’s at the heart of a power war in his grandfather’s company. His father was brilliant but sent away and died abroad. His mother resented her father and cut ties with him. Then her brother became the new ‘heir’ to the company. The problem is that they are corrupt, incompetent and envious of Yu Sen’s talent. They always try to humiliate him like at the banquet for the grandfather’s birthday. Thankfully that day, Yu Sen could count on Xi Guang’s support. She literally came to the rescue as his girlfriend and shielded him from rumors and mean whispers.

2015-2028, the happy ending: The ending is perfect and shows how beautifully their romance blooms. You also get to see the wedding, the family (daughter) and their thriving careers as Xi Guang becomes the CEO of the PV company and expands it globally, while Lin Yu Sen renews with his medical career and leads the neuroscience evolution. They found each other and remained happy and in love, still shining on one another.