Are You The One (2024) Talking Tropes

Short C dramas on the web are replete with hidden identity stories. The local mainland audience seem to lap it up voraciously because they keep pumping them out in ridiculous numbers. Talk about a sausage factory. In my recent conversation with absoluteM regarding Are You The One, I mentioned in passing that every other douyin drama that I’ve watched is a hidden identity story. I lied. After thinking it through I conclude that hidden identity dramas make up at least 70-80 percent of the short dramas that show up on my feed. I can account for some of the mass appeal because deception is a common enough plot device across genres. It’s certainly resonates universally mainly because deception opens up convenient avenues for protracted conflict. Moreover, human beings lie for all kinds of reasons and easily rationalize their way to more deception if it suits. That tends to complicate matters even more.

In addition, hidden identity trope are often combined with some version of what’s often described as “fake marriage” tropes. Fake marriage 假 婚姻 can cover anything from a flash or “spur-of-the-moment” marriage, a marriage of convenience, a contract relationship, marriage for the sake of children, arranged marriages or just a spontaneous lie blurted out in a tight jam with no official/legal sanction behind it. In a transactional marriage of convenience, one or both of the leads lie about their actual status. Usually it’s a CEO who is allergic to gold diggers potentially leeching off him for life. But an elderly relative or his motherless children are chafing him to find himself a wife so he grudgingly obliges on the condition that no one tells this new wife that he is the richest man in town or the head of a prominent family. The deception starts of well-meant — it’s to protect him, his family and the family fortune from opportunists — but when he inevitably falls for the female lead, he can’t utter (or is prevented from telling) the truth to save his bacon.

Marrying a stranger in a hurry make no sense but for a country in a demographic free fall, the notion is harmless fluff concealing a bit of propaganda. There’s nothing new about contract marriage as a trope but its recent mutations among the web dramas often leave me scratching my head or pulling my hair out over the competition to see which ones can outdo themselves in the bad plot stakes.

After 5 episodes I am fascinated by Are You The One. I experience these stabs of deja vu as I watch the relationship of the leads play out in familiar ways. Often I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry but I usually end up laughing because Zhang Wanyi gets to show off his comedic chops and Wang Churan is so conscientious about being the wife of a ne’er do well husband. Her can-do spirit is commendable but it ends up frustrating the fake husband who has hatched this elaborate fantasy just to lure an infamous head bandit out of hiding. Those of us who have seen more than our fair share of contract marriage shows know where this is bound for. It’s true love in its fledgling stages because he is already becoming conflicted about the amnesia stricken Liu Miantang.

Cui Xingzhou or the Prince of Huaiyang (Zhang Wanyi) is a curious character. He’s a feudal lord undoubtedly because he has his own army and territory to protect. His mother from what I gather, is a consort of the previous emperor so he’s royalty of sorts. He doesn’t trust people as a rule least of all the Green Tea cousin that he’s engaged to. Plenty rests on his capable shoulders but there’s no rest for the rich and powerful because he not only has to flush out the chief bandit, his greatest rival, the general of Qingzhou is nipping at his heels about his army as he’s being prodded by the Dowager Empress Wu. (Who might be styled after Wu Zhetian)

On the other hand Liu Miantang knows Cui Xingzhou not as the Prince of Huaiyang but as Cui Jiu, her idle rich chess playing husband. He’s happy to keep up the charade until it becomes evident that what’s bogus can become dangerously real.

So why the lengthy preamble about fake marriage tropes? And what does that have to do with the price of tea in Are You the One?

A lot actually.

Like many fake marriages that dominate the douyin wilderness, Are You the One is essentially a contract marriage at its core. Or at the very least it contains similar themes and elements of a contract marriage. In every contract relationship story what is undertaken under false pretences or for show eventually becomes reality. In effect the trajectory of the trope puts to lie the notion that you need the right emotions to establish a marriage. I’ve written about this before but it bears repeating. The contract relationship trope demonstrates that you don’t need to be “in love” before marriage. In fact, it usually begins as a straightforward calculated transaction. What it often shows is that goodwill, commitment and diligence is what makes love blossom and eventually, a successful marriage. Emotions are transient but effort over time earns currency that converts into trust. And trust is at the root of everything.

It becomes immediately apparent that Are You the One with all the crazy set-up is about marriage. Particularly because Liu Miantang, though deceived, believes the marriage to be real and behaves as if it is real. In her amnesia haze she plays the devoted wife unconditionally. Despite himself, Cui Xingzhou is moved by her efforts and starts to play along with her because her earnestness is infectious. So what’s really delightful is that the piece of theatre not only takes on a life of its own and inches into the realm of reality but it changes the entire dynamic of that deception. Xingzhou thinks he is in the driver’s seat and steering things along but in truth, things are going in a direction that’s gradually out of his control. He is presented with few options if he wants to achieve his most pressing goals. Agency here is redirected. To accommodate Miantang’s resolutions, he can’t insist on doing things his way. As he chooses to respect her agency to some degree, he has to change tack and keep up with her movements. This is illustrative of what marriage is like. Two people with different agendas and expectations have to change in order for the relationship to have any kind of longevity.

I am reminded of Queen of Tears in that regard. After finding out about Hae-in’s incurable disease Hyun-soo sets aside his desire for divorce and starts acting the dedicated husband only to see them both rediscover their love for each other. When he begins acting like a caring husband, she responds in kind. Good things follow until the deception comes to light.

Cui Xingzhou on some level has been forced into a place of incredulity. Even while he pretends to be an unproductive husband as his wife is out there single-mindedly building a business, he can’t help but be impressed. Especially because he is used to being the one in charge and having to navigate the people around with a strong sense of mistrust. The language of expediency is the only one he knows. He is the equivalent of the domineering CEO of the web dramas with trust issues. He can’t trust anyone fully so when a woman comes along who is unconditional in her support of him, it’s very attractive. Like water to a man whose been wandering in the desert for the better part of his life. So he responds to that involuntarily with these acts of unexpected kindness which in turn… ironically… causes her to want to work harder for their marriage. As she does that, he can’t help himself but “fall” for her.

All of this speaks to the core of what it means to be human. We are naturally relational. We want to trust and connect although caution is warranted. My late father used to say to us that we don’t do the right things because we feel like it but we do them because they are right… then more often than not, the right kind of feelings emerge.

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