A TV series “Soldiers Sortie” has become a well-known and popular show in China and among the Chinese communities in other countries like America. Why?

China is in the age of “Fickleness”. All day long, personal luxury item ads are prominent every where, government soaked in corruption, the young generation broadcast their sex liberation online, news paper are filled with either regulated political articles or celebrity anecdote and affairs. Underneath all that, people see other people get rich all the time while everything getting more and more expensive and their paycheck not budging. Nothing is guaranteed: medical, housing, child education, retirement. People are not willing to, and flat out not able to, sit back, take a moment to examine themselves and ask questions like what I really want for my life, what I really want to do, what makes me feel not empty. Or a bigger question, “who am I?” All day long, people walk around worried and frustrated. They are defensive, suspicious and angry. They look at strangers, thinking, “Are you going to take advantage of me today?” They look at co-workers, thinking, “How can I out smart you, get paid more than you and still make you think I am your friend?”

Then there enters the TV show Soldiers Sortie. The main character Xu SanDuo can be called a Chinese Forest Gump. He is not smart. He is not pretty. He is not romantic. He is not sleek or sophisticated. Actually, he is quiet slow. Every one cannot help but knock on his head and ask “Why did you do that?”or “Why didn’t you do that?” But he insists on being honest, truthful, hardworking and being himself.

Xu brought out the suppressed desire of lots of people, the desire to live in a time when life was still simple, the age when we still believe in good things and good people.

Ane’s comment on this show was, “It is a fairytale.” I tend to agree with her. But adults still need fairytale sometimes and “Soldiers Sortie” is a special kind of fairytale that is different from other shows.