Best Mom in the 60s Chapter 60 Discussion

Rating: 4/5 so far. I'm rating higher because of the lack of ratings.

Translation: I want to give a special shoutout to the translator, Inky Dragon Translations! The translation quality is great and very clear. The translator updates frequently and consistently and includes relevant background information and pictures with every post! They really make the reading experience enjoyable!

Summary: The posted summary is fairly accurate but here we go! Xie Yi Lan (MC) was raised by her loving grandmother after her scumbag father skipped out on her. Right after she graduates from university, she's given the chance to go back in time as her own great-great-grandmother to give their family a new direction. Now situated as her deceased grandmother's own grandmother, MC must lead her relatives to live better, more fulfilling lives, and avoid the pitfalls that plagued her grandmother's life. This is complicated by the fact that the original Qian Shu Lan, whose body MC takes over, was a very problematic person who raised a horde of problematic children. MC will cram literacy, respect for elders, feminism, wisdom, and kindness down her relatives' throats if it's the last thing she does! Adding to the richness of the narrative's challenge and unique positioning is the backdrop of late 1950s China on the cusp of "The Great Leap Forward" and a corresponding famine and political tension.

Warnings:

• • Because the time period that MC travels to is plagued by famine and food scarcity, they eat some things that may be odd or off-putting to a modern day reader. More so if you are from a culture where such foods aren't eaten. While you are free to skip it, the translator will also include images of these foods at times, so beware and be respectful!
• • MC is an old woman. Not an attractive, rich, middle-aged woman, but a rural old woman. There's no romance and there's no consideration for beauty in this novel. The author is making a sincere attempt to be realistic.

• • Most of MC's relatives are problematic for their era's standards and even more for ours. They have a lot of personality issues that don't get solved quickly and easily. MC isn't a miracle worker, it takes time to reform someone. Sometimes things are solved in ways that are likely unacceptable by modern standards.

• • MC is also flawed. MC is frankly internally irritated or apathetic towards her relatives most of the time. She tends to treat everyone as if they're less capable and intelligent than she is, and the narrative plays along.

• • Very convenient Deus ex Machina golden finger for MC.
    • • Golden Finger-->Spoiler

        MC's time travel is aided by a system. This system's main purpose is to let her purchase things and communicate with other taskers. Other taskers come from various worlds including fantasy settings. MC is able to sell ordinary mundane objects to cultivators in exchange for food and pills. Very convenient in a time period dominated by communism and famine.

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    • • About the Golden Finger -->Spoiler

        Furthermore, MC's great-great grandmother, the original Qian Shu Lan is somewhat still around. She is the one who made a deal with the system to reform her family but many male descendants have tried and failed. MC was the first female descendant and was chosen by the system, not QSL. Unknown why system made a deal with QSL in the first place.

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MC:

As I said before, she's a flawed character. She is a young woman taking on the burden of an old woman and struggles accordingly. I like that the author is really trying to commit to realism. I would say that MC focuses a lot more on her female descendants and seems to think that all the men in her family, and their wives, are s*upid. She's a little mean.

No Romance:

Not even a HINT. This novel is very practical in that sense. MC has sooo much more going on to have to deal with romance, hers or otherwise, on top of that.

Characters:

I like that we get a fairly rounded view of the characters. No one is plainly evil or awful, but has their own reasoning. At the same time, the narrative does not excuse their actions even with their own reasoning.

Setting:

Amazing! Besides the irritatingly convenient yet not convenient system, the setting feels very real. This feels like it could be turned into a show very easily. Descriptions of daily life and struggles are vivid and feel, to a non-Chinese person in the modern day, realistic.

Regarding my frustration with the system:

I typically see systems as either unhelpful on purpose or very much OP. Most stories with systems could classify as one of the two.

In some stories, the MC is limited by and/or punished by the system. In these stories, MC is actively fighting against the system for a good portion of the plot. It's a real obstacle imposed upon MC that justifiably nerfs MC at times.

In other stories, the system is MC's best friend and superpower. MC uses the system fairly freely and it helps MC conquer the plot with ease. For this kind of story, part of MC's coolness factor is the system and its function is to skip past the boring parts for the reader in a way.

This story is in-between. The system is too convenient and not challenging enough to be an obstacle for MC, but also not helpful enough or used enough to sufficiently skip the boring parts. It makes me feel like there was no need to have this system in the first place. Its function is just to bring MC to QSL's body and let her buy food. With this in mind, the author could just get rid of the system entirely and write some other reason to help MC get food.

It's not a huge detractor for me but it's a little irritating.