Question: Shen Wei's car

[china_shop]

I'm reading the Guardian novel for the first time (still only a few chapters in), and of course, I'm fascinated by the differences, and by how many aspects transferred over despite the demands of censorship.

I'm sure this has been much discussed before, but one obvious thing is that novel!Shen Wei has a cellphone and a car.

Why do you think they changed the cellphone thing for the drama? Just as an interesting character note? To make him more odd and old-fashioned (so Zhao Yunlan could deliver that line about Shen Wei being "pretty much a living fossil", ep 12: 我之前就觉得沈教授滴酒不沾又和一切的现代设备绝缘 简直就是个活化石)? So that the Black-Cloaked Envoy would have some limitations and need to work with the SID (ie, complementarity)? Some other reason?

And what about the car?

Poll #31944 Drama!Shen Wei's driving skills

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

View Respondents

Does drama!Shen Wei own a car?

View Answers

yes
0 (0.0%)

no
10 (47.6%)

he can drive, and he does sometimes
5 (23.8%)

he has a driver's licence but doesn't drive
5 (23.8%)

no car, no licence, no driving
10 (47.6%)

other
0 (0.0%)

I love how the drama adapted the Li Qian storyline, making it resonate thematically with the Ye Zun storyline
7 (33.3%)

wow, novel!Guo Changcheng is even more hapless than his drama counterpart
5 (23.8%)

but Daqing is hilarious :D
5 (23.8%)

ETA: How about a bicycle?

Comments

[china_shop]

I seem to remember that the mobile phone he owns in the novel is an older model

Oh, I must have skimmed over that. I should read more carefully! /o\ I do remember Zhao Yunlan asking to see Shen Wei's phone purely for the purpose of putting his own number in (under "a-Lan", lol) and dialling himself so he'd have Shen Wei's number too. I don't think Zhao Yunlan commented on his phone being old-fashioned then (but that might have been because he was busy flirting). And Shen Wei must have been carrying it around with him. But like I said, I'm not very far into the novel, and maybe that's not typical. :-)

Here's the scene

Shen Wei was embarrassed, but Zhao Yunlan only smiled, revealing two dimples, as he added, “Oh, right. Can I borrow your phone for a sec?”

He got his phone out, but Zhao Yunlan didn’t take it. Instead, he lifted Shen Wei’s hand and gently held the back of it while he casually entered his own name and number into Shen Wei’s contacts. He saved it, dialed the number, and then hung up after one ring.

“Just making sure you have my contact information,” he said, pretending to be serious. “If anything else comes up related to the case, feel free to harass me.”

[...]

When he looked through his phone’s contacts, he found a flirtatious “a-Lan” innocently displayed on the screen.

[tinypinkmouse]

Okay yeah, you're right he does have his phone on him! I can't for the life of me shake out a memory of why I think he doesn't always. Possibly there's some point when he does leave it in his desk, like for classes or something.

And I was starting to think I pulled this whole thing out of my ass, but I found what I'm pretty sure made me think Shen Wei does not like owning a phone and why I think it's an older model (but now that I re-read this bit it might also just be that it's newer and Shen Wei just doesn't use it much):

in chapter 47 (of the not official translation)

His phone has merely three functions: phone calls, messaging, and telling the time. He’s never played the games that came with it.

Shen Wei doesn't like this gadget, he finds writing a letter more convenient. If it's urgent, you can write a quick note; if it's not, you can take your time and write a little longer, unlike phone calls, which are charged by the hour. Whenever he thinks of that, he feels like someone is watching him talk on the phone, and it makes him very uncomfortable.

[china_shop]

Ah, thanks for that excerpt! ♥ I totally see how you got there. Yeah, that could go either way, couldn't it? And the official translation is even more ambiguous wrt the phone itself, because there's no mention of any games:

On the way, he couldn’t help repeatedly looking at his phone, even though the device had only three functions: calling, texting, and displaying the time.

Shen Wei wasn’t a fan of technology. He was a slow-tempered, antiquated man who still found writing letters more convenient. If something was urgent, he could write a quick note. If not, he could take his time writing, and so what if it ran a little long? And as for phone calls, well, you paid for those by the minute, which gave him the horribly uncomfortable sense that someone was scrutinizing him as he spoke.