镇魂：好名字， 一辈子
An analysis of Guardian (TV 2018)
Y'ALL *deep breath* I posted this on my original fandom blog, but I'm 99% certain I deleted that account when I made this one RIP. HOWEVER, I wanted to share this analysis I wrote at the time because it and these two men so desperately in love haunt me to this day. This was written circa 2020 when I was about HSK 1 in my 中文的水平， and I'm not even that much better at HSK 3, so if there are any glaring errors--不好意思！！！<3
If it wasn't enough for me to be convinced that Zhao Yunlan proposed to Shen Wei just by going off of the English translation of the dialogue in episode 13 of the Chinese drama called Guardian, I just investigated the actual Mandarn script and analyzed each character in the dialogue--as one does to practice their Mandarin skills. My analyses are below. Please send healing thoughts because I have never been more emo.
When Shen Wei asks Zhao Yunlan, "Did I bring you trouble?" with his doting, blinking eyes, dazed and longing for reassurance, Zhao Yunlan says,
"你要算是麻烦的话，那最好多给我来几打，好好地烦烦我这一辈子”。
-- Instead of saying "你要是," Zhao says "你要算是." This added character changes the verb meaning of "to be" to an adverbial phrase that means "at last," meaning if Shen Wei is giving Zhao the opportunity to call him trouble, Zhao is suggesting that there's more to their friendship than they actually communicate. At last, Zhao has the chance to declare his feelings.
--ALSO!!!! To me, it the way the character "话" is used makes me feel like it's a play on words. As if Zhao says, "if you say you're the trouble," implying Shen Wei is not that. Furthermore!!! It's like he's stating a dare, as if challenging Shen Wei, "you speak of trouble? if it's you, then bring it on."
--AND the use of 最 (and after looking at arch chinese) within 那最好多. He's BASICALLY IMPLYING: "if you're the trouble (the aforementioned part before the first comma already discussed), then it is only best if you give me more/give me dozens (给我来几打).
--I suppose the most literal translation of "好好地烦烦我这一辈子" is to bother me for the rest of my life. But the implication, to me, a novice mandarin learner who longs for queer subtext and probably reads too much in to things (I blame my English degree), when he says “好好地烦烦” is INSANE BECAUSE:
好好: propery, well, good
地烦烦：annoying, inconvenient
HE'S LITERALLY SAYING (my loose, poor, queer subtextual, and chaotic interpretation): if you are trouble (bring it on), and properly (as is all I ask of you) inconvenience with me any trouble (which you are not one at all) for the rest of my life.
-- Finally, he doesn't just say, that he would ask for the troubled/troubling/troublesome Shen Wei to bother is whole life, he says "我这一辈子." "这“ means "now," as in this very moment. Shen Wei and Zhao are ironically at a WEDDING VENUE when Zhao says this. He might as well have said 正在.
-- In conclusion, "辈子“ doesn't just mean one's whole life, rather it means "their entire lifetime." With the intriguing suggestion of an inevitable intertwining of Shen Wei and Zhao's "red threads" aka their fated connection throughout the show, no one can tell me Zhao Yunlan didn't propose to Shen Wei in this scene.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I'm here for the girls, gays, and theys only.
