The Rational Life is a Chinese drama that came out in March of 2021. It follows the life of a thirty-three year old woman, Shen Ruo Xin, who is working in the legal department of an automobile manufacturer called ZenPro. She becomes involved with her assistant, who is twelve years her junior. The series is both a workplace drama and a romance.
The Rational Life is set in glamourous and glitzy Shanghai, and it features other minor characters who pursue their own dreams, rather than conforming to society’s expectation for them. There is an aspiring comic book artist who refuses to take a civil service exam in order to have a sheltered life as a government worker. There is Ruo Xin’s best friend, a woman her own age, who is married, but is floundering in search of a career, and who does not wish to have children.
The series seems to espouse western values of business success, competition in the marketplace and the pursuit of happiness in one’s personal life. It is unclear why the Communist Party and its values and goals are never even hinted at in this thirty-five episode long series. Since The Rational Life aired on Netflix, perhaps it is only intended for external consumption. But if it is also viewed in China, something seems a bit off. This is not the propaganda we expected!
