By Tang Wenjie

What sort of drama reaches 50 percent in the ratings when it airs in South Korea?
Like most people, I was curious about the show.
When I finally got the chance to see it, I totally absorbed myself in the story. To this day, it still haunts me.
Kim Sam-Soon (the name of the drama is "My Name is Kim Sam-Soon)," is the lead character. She is a chubby and fanciful pastry chef in her late 20s who desperately wants to get married.
However, on Christmas Eve she loses her job and finds out her boyfriend slept with another woman.
Later, an Italian restaurant owner named Hyun Jin-Heon provides an offer she can't refuse because she is in a financial jam.
The story is similar to "Cinderella" although Kim is no Cinderella.
She is from a poor family and not particularly attractive in any way.
Even her kindness, along with her many merits, is sometimes obliterated by her ill manner.
Nevertheless, I am overwhelmed by her virtues. Kim never allows herself to be offended and always speaks her mind.
In one scene, Kim meets a consultant in a matchmaker agency to look for a partner. As the consultant explains it may be difficult to find a match due to her age and unemployment, Kim says, "Yes, I am jobless. But am I jobless because I want to be? Bring me all those people who destroyed Korea's economy!"
These days I share Kim's happiness and sadness.
But what I hang on to most is the doctrine of the story.
In most TV series, 30 years old is always portrayed as a watershed.
Unmarried women in their 30s with modest earnings and poor looks are unanimously regarded as disadvantaged.
But Kim inspires this group to see the world through a rosy window.
Youth, beauty or money, none of these guarantee a happy marriage.
To ensure the favor of destiny, it is qualities like self-esteem, dedication, loyalty, tolerance, insistence and bravery that women require.
How will viewers react towards an average woman in the leading role? The popularity of the drama speaks for itself.

(The author is an English teacher at Shanghai High School.)