Dian Jiao Zhangwang
In China in the 1990s, the young Lin Xiaolu moves with her mother to the western Chinese city of Chengdu, a place where the sun rarely shines due to its location. The girl's parents are already divorced at this time. As a child of divorce and because of her cool way of dealing with this situation, she had previously been bullied and systematically marginalized in elementary school.
With the move, Xiaolu transfers to the secondary school. Due to her academic achievements, she only attends a secondary school with a focus on art and design. Her father despises this weakness. He also considers his daughter's preference for drawing and painting as a waste of time. Hearing the parental pressure, however, Xiaolu's grad...
Description
In China in the 1990s, the young Lin Xiaolu moves with her mother to the western Chinese city of Chengdu, a place where the sun rarely shines due to its location. The girl's parents are already divorced at this time. As a child of divorce and because of her cool way of dealing with this situation, she had previously been bullied and systematically marginalized in elementary school.
With the move, Xiaolu transfers to the secondary school. Due to her academic achievements, she only attends a secondary school with a focus on art and design. Her father despises this weakness. He also considers his daughter's preference for drawing and painting as a waste of time. Hearing the parental pressure, however, Xiaolu's grades do not increase.
The comparison with her cousin Ruirui, an exemplary student at a renowned school with excellent future prospects, does not stop either. After entering a new class community in Chengdu, she decides to enter a kind of self-isolation based on these past experiences. Thus she continuously ponders within her own fantastic and colorful world of thoughts. She also loves to dive into her comics regularly.
At the new school, Xiaolu spots an older student, one grade above her. Soon many thoughts turn to the boy named Han Che, who frequents a small store. As the story unfolds, the store becomes a recurring scene - filled with books, figures, and other curious antiques reminiscent of the owner's journeys. The middle-aged man called Hu Xu lives in a complicated relationship with the beautiful and successful Xiaoman, another important member of the ensemble.
By entering the sphere of this store, the young protagonist opens her center to other people in her life - her peers. While Xiaolu continues to observe the older Han Che from a distance, her circle of friends begins to grow. Together with Xie Siyao and Su Yan and their friends, she is part of an accepted clique. Her loneliness fades away and yet she remains insecure. A long way lies before the young girl.
In particular, the readers of this manhua are invited to accompany Xiaolu's youth and her personal environment in their ups and downs in six volumes, but also to think back to their own time of maturity. Reflecting on the contents of this series, philosophizing about it is another aspect that gives this series a special flair.
(Source: Manga Passion, translated)
Note: Contains chapter 30.5