Bai Fengjiu (白凤九) – Strong Character?

Despite her undying love toward her one-and-only Donghua and an adorable personality, Bai Fengjiu in Eternal Love is constantly criticized for her clinginess and stubbornness to a hopeless romantic.

Putting that aside, in this post, we will examine her character with ten questions that cover flaws, consistency, development, etc. To each question, the answer would be either Yes (1 point), No (0 point), or Kind of (0.5 point).

*Our analysis is based strictly on the character Bai Fengjiu as seen in the drama Eternal Love, not her counterpart in the novel The Pillow Book.

WARNING: this analysis 1) contains spoilers 2) is humor-free

1. Does she have a story to tell besides romance? No (+0)

No, it’s quite obvious that Fengjiu does not have a storyline beside her love story with Donghua.

2. Does she fall into the Damsel-in-Distress trope? (Does she make things happen or do things happen to her?) Yes (+1)

Throughout the drama, Fengjiu requires saving from Donghua a few times, but these incidents have no real effect on the main plot or her own story. It’s what she DOES that drives the plot forward. E.g. stealing the lamp and indirectly ending Yehua’s mourning phase or storming into the sky palace to demand justice for Bai Qian. Yes, these are reckless actions, but they are naturally actions that advance the story. For a minor character, we say that’s good enough.

3. Does she take action to accomplish her goals? Kind of (+0.5)

Fengjiu has no goals before she encounters Donghua. After she does, however, she is very determined toward her ultimate goal, which is to repay the life debt to Donghua, and yes, she works hard toward it. At least for the first half of the drama. But her goal later becomes more about getting a date with Donghua than repaying the debt.

4. Does she have an interest? Yes (+1)

Fengjiu is said to be a good cook and yes, we see her do some cooking for Bai Qian once at the sea palace. Most other times, however, it is spoken about rather than shown. She earns 0.5 point here.

5. Does she act in accordance with her belief? Yes (+1)

Fengjiu’s strongest belief is that she doesn’t think anyone should submit to fate. She thinks people should fight for what they want. It’s also been shown that Fengjiu believes in kindness and justice in general. And example of this is when she refuses to tell lies about the emperor’s concubine to get the latter in trouble (during Donghua’s mortal trial) despite the pressure from drama writer Si Ming.

It is also established that she was taught to believe that a debt must always be paid.

Throughout the drama, Fengjiu makes many bad decisions, some of which are alarmingly inappropriate. Like…

But that doesn’t change the fact that she has clear beliefs which she acts upon.

6. Does she develop throughout the story? No (+0)

Sadly, Fengjiu does not have development. She is mischievous and outspoken in the beginning and towards the end, she’s pretty much in the same place. She doesn’t learn much from her experience. There is a brief instant in the end where we see that Fengjiu lets go of her stubbornness and seems to focus on her life more than on Donghua, we acknowledge this, but it isn’t enough to earn her a point.

7. Does she have a flaw? Yes (+1)

Fengjiu’s flaw is her stubbornness and her absolute refusal to give up on something even when it’s obviously hopeless. This flaw does create a number of problems, making her father mad by bringing disgrace upon the family through her endless pursuit of Donghua, causing her to hurt herself in the end.

Along the way, Fengjiu gets punished by her father a lot of times. Not enough times, but it happens.

8. Does she have meaningful relationships with other characters besides her love interest? Kind of (+0.5)

Fengjiu’s relationship with their father is the most notable one. Not that it’s able to stop her from doing ridiculous things but still, she reveres him and at least considers his opinion before doing something.

Fengjiu also maintains a relationship with Chengyu, her fairy friend in the heaven. However, This relationship is not explored in depth and is most of the time about dating tips.

9. Is she consistent? Kind of (+0.5)

Fengjiu is consistent. She’s proud, stubborn, mischievous, but nice in general. Her skills and abilities are fairly consistent too until the very end when she just randomly says she is able to perform the spell to check on the Ghost Lord’s soul inside the bell. That’s never been discussed before and seems to be thrown in to move the plot along.

10. Can you define her character by her personality? Yes (+1)

Fengjiu is mischievous, naive, impulsive when it comes to what she wants (the mushroom lamp, for example), but at the same time compassionate and kind-hearted because of her upbringing.

SO HOW WELL-WRITTEN IS FENGJIU?

5.5/10

BOTTOM LINE

Fengjiu is a character with potentials in the beginning, her personality, beliefs, interests are very well defined. Sadly, her narrative isn’t that well thought out. Both she and Donghua are reduced to being each other’s love interests toward the end while they could have been a lot more.