DISCLAIMER: This discussion is absolutely not intended to judge or bash. I'm hoping it will be used solely as an opportunity to learn about different cultures around the world. It's something I've always loved learning about in school and I'd love the opportunity to continue to learn more now.
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The FL's divorced parents in this drama are something else. However, I've seen this situation a whole lot in Chinese (and Korean) dramas where neither parent wants the child from their first marriages and move on and have whole new lives leaving those children completely neglected and displaced.
How realistic is this scenario? Can someone tell me? I've also gotten the impression that step children are often seen as faux pas in general, which often results in these situations. Is that true too?
I acknowledge that a lot of these tropes are thrown in and exaggerated for dramatic purposes but I genuinely wonder how accurate of a a portrayal some situations might be. Pure curiosity. No judgement.
For example, I remember reading a comment for another drama recently, where someone said there was no way arranged marriages between wealthy families for the sake of business considerations could still be happening. I remember thinking, they'd be surprised.
Back in my college days one of my classmates was a rich Korean 'heiress'. Her family situation was like those in dramas down to a T. Her parents made every decision for her - what her major would be, who she could date, even what classes to take. They hated her associating too much non-Koreans and even then they could only be of equal or higher status. She was miserable (gorgeous, but miserable) but explained that that's just how their culture was. She was a really, really good girl but had to sneak around a lot just to occasionally have fun (even just playing cards in the dorms or something simple).
That was my first introduction to the culture, long before I started watching Asian dramas.
I remember another classmate who was Chinese and already married as a college sophomore and hers had been an arranged marriage. She met her husband the week before they got married at the family meeting. I remember we had an English class together in our sophomore year and she told me then about her husband and how they'd been married just as they started college. She said she was lucky because they had a really wonderful relationship and she loved him a lot now but the fact was they never even dated.
I've lived my entire adult life in the US and obviously those were both situations involving extremely wealthy families so I'm not saying this stuff is normal for average Chinese and Korean families. I'm also not saying that I know it to be prevalent in wealthy families either; just that it DOES happen.
Because of that I often wonder how much else that's portrayed in these dramas is legit too. Like if divorce is still highly stigmatized and step kids (and blended families) severely frowned upon, and if kids from first marriages are often left behind as well. In most Korean dramas they end up being raised by a grandparent.
Can anyone shed some light?
