Meiling is Shaolan's fiancée from Hong Kong. They are actually cousins, but their families had arranged their marriage for them already. Not that Meiling really minds, that is. She loves Shaolan to pieces, and is always hanging onto him wherever they go. There is a lot of angst against Meiling with the fans. It seems that no one really likes her, especially the Sakura + Shaolan lovers. Everyone always makes her out to be a lot meaner and evil than she really is. I personally think Meiling is cute. Sure, she might not be very likeable in the first few episodes, but later on, she becomes friends with Sakura and co. and shows her much kinder and vulnerable side.

Meiling appears in episode 20 ("Sakura and the Fighting Exchange Student") and she doesn't get off on the right foot with Sakura, or the fans for that matter. Well, the first time she appears is actually in episode 19, where Sakura and Tomoyo are over at Shaolan's house because Sakura and Shaolan both fell into a river and got soaked. Shaolan was letting Sakura borrow some clothes, when all of a sudden, Meiling bursts into the apartment and hugs Shaolan, asking him if he missed her. She then notices Sakura and Tomoyo, and has a fit because Shaolan was letting Sakura borrow the shirt that Meiling once gave him as a gift. Meiling felt that Sakura threatened the relationship between her and Shaolan from the very beginning.

In the first few episodes that Meiling appears in, she is constantly trying to be better than Sakura at everything she does. Whether it's grades, gymnastics, catching Clow Cards, whatever. She makes everything out to be a kind of competition, but Sakura really doesn't get it, of course. ^^ She doesn't understand why Meiling keeps giving her deadly glances out of the corner of her eye, nor does she understand why Meiling seems so obsessed with being better than her. Unfortunately, even though Meiling tries her most hardest to be better than Sakura, Sakura always seems to beat her. She doesn't beat her on purpose... she's just better than Meiling at gymnastics and stuff like that. Besides, she's got a lot of friends and people who support her, and she's extremely kind to top it all off. People just adore Sakura. This causes Meiling to be even more jealous.

Keep in mind that Meiling does not possess any magical powers. She cannot catch the Clow Cards. This is really odd, because she is a direct descendant from Clow himself, just like Shaolan is. She's probably one of the only ones in her family that does not have some level of magical power. This causes Meiling to have even more fits of jealousy, because she can't help Shaolan by catching the Clow Cards for him, and Sakura has a lot of magical power. Not to mention Kero-chan is always teasing her about it. Meiling and Kero-chan didn't really start their relationship on the right foot either, just like Shaolan. Kero-chan is always teasing Meiling mercilessly, calling her a brat and a little girl, and pointing out the fact that she has no magical power. However, even though Meiling doesn't have any magical power, she can still hold her own with fighting. She is an amazing martial arts fighter, and once she beat up the Fight card with her fighting ability when no one else was able to do it.

Meiling is hot headed, short tempered, possessive, and very insecure. She usually jumps into situations without thinking, and sometimes ends up getting herself into trouble. She gets angered very easily and turns a lot of situations into competitions. Meiling and Kero-chan get into a lot of petty fights concerning the Clow Cards; Meiling always backing up Shaolan, while Kero-chan always defending Sakura. Meiling is a rival in everything for Sakura, from Catching Clow cards to love.

Now, when it comes to love, there is only one person for Meiling... or so she says. That person is, of course, Shaolan. Meiling is very insecure and possessive, as I mentioned earlier, and these two qualities really show through when it comes to Shaolan. Meiling always needs proof that Shaolan cares about her, and she is always worried that Shaolan likes another girl, or that he doesn't love her, or that he thinks she's just an annoyance. In one episode, Meiling bought a love charm so she could make sure that Shaolan loved her. Actually, she is always looking for some kind of charm to make sure that Shaolan loves her. ^^;; She is so worried that he might not like her that she gets angry whenever there's a hint of him having interest in another person. She flaunts the fact that Shaolan is her fiancé, probably to steer away competition. However, she would never ever let anyone know that she is insecure of this. When she was buying the love charm, Sakura and Tomoyo ran into her. Meiling immediately got nervous and hid the love charm, pretending like she wasn't doing anything (Meiling's not a very good actress. :P). She tried to make herself look confident, and laughed loudly, saying, "Ah hah hah hah! This is not what you think it is! It's just that I don't need a love charm because I *know* that Shaolan's and my love is true! Oh ho ho ho ho!" and she fled the area at the speed of light, leaving Sakura and Tomoyo behind, befuddled.

Again, one other time, when the girls in Sakura's class were talking about the love charms, Meiling looked really interested for a second, and when everyone noticed how interested she was in the love charms, she immediately put on the act that she didn't care about them, laughed confidently ("Oh ho ho ho ho!") and said that because her and Shaolan's love was "pure and true," she had no need for love charms. Of course, we all know that she's just faking it, because she is actually very insecure when it comes to love and friendship.

As the series goes on, and especially in the second season, Meiling starts to become great friends with Sakura and Tomoyo. The four are almost inseparable, and even though Meiling still keeps up her competitions, they all enjoy each other's company. They go shopping together, eat lunch together, and in the first CCS movie, when Sakura and Tomoyo go to Hong Kong, Meiling and Shaolan tour them around and let them stay at their huge mansion. Meiling and Sakura especially become really good friends. One scene that I really like between Meiling and Sakura is during the second season... the four are going sight-seeing again, as usual, and Sakura and Tomoyo are going to show the Tokyo Tower to Meiling and Shaolan. However, on the way there, Kero-chan notices some arcade games... one of them is a game where you stand in a round circle kind of thing and little creatures pop out of the ground, and you try to smack them with a giant mallet.

Kero-chan really really wants to play the game, but he can't because somebody would see him. So Kero-chan asks Sakura to play for him, just so he could watch. Sakura isn't doing too well, as she is missing a lot of the little creatures, when Meiling decides to help. She jumps on the circle, grabs another mallet, and helps Sakura bop all the creatures. I just *love* this scene so much, because they all are having so much fun, with Tomoyo video taping the scene, Shaolan and Kero-chan watching, and Sakura and Meiling being a great team together. It's one of those scenes where you know that they all are really good friends, and they're just interacting so well with each other. I think that it's one of the first times that Meiling actually feels like she has good friends, and she feels accepted, because she isn't being insecure at all.

I think that the reason Meiling is so insecure a lot of the time (especially when it comes to love and friendship) is because she's never really had any good friends, and while they were growing up, it's almost as if Shaolan was her only really good friend, and that's why she's afraid of losing him. When they were little kids, Meiling declared that she loved Shaolan, and asked him to promise that he will marry her. Meiling said that unless he loves another girl more than her, he will keep his promise to marry her when they grow up. But if he feels like he loves another girl more, then she will give him up. Shaolan, not wanting to hurt her feelings, and practically being forced into it, complied with her offer.

So even though a lot of fans of CCS may say that Meiling is really self-centered and egotistic, it's not true. Meiling is actually rather self-sacrificial, in a different, Meiling kind of way. For example, Meiling didn't make Shaolan promise himself to her forever. She only asked him to marry her if he doesn't like any other girls more than her. So, if he decides that he likes someone else, she said that she would give him up. Think about it... she's got a lot of guts to say that... first off, asking him to marry her, and then setting herself up so that if Shaolan doesn't want to marry her, he can reject her anytime he wants, takes a lot of guts. Not to mention... Meiling is always doing stuff for Shaolan's sake. She wants to catch the Clow Cards for him, she wants to make lunch for him, she wants to be able to cook well for him... she wants to make the best cake for him. She is always doing her best for Shaolan, not for herself. However, Shaolan never really sees her as anything more than a really good friend, perhaps a little sister.

In the second season of CCS, Meiling's aunt calls her back to Hong Kong, and she is no longer able to stay in Tokyo with everyone else. Shaolan knows that he can't do anything about it, and Meiling is disappointed because he's not showing a lot of care of her departure. Sakura asks Meiling to spend the night with her, so they could get closer and be better friends, and so that she can comfort Meiling. Meiling then gets the idea that perhaps all this time, she has been nothing but an annoyance for Shaolan, and has always gotten in his way. That idea is dismissed from her head after she and Shaolan work together to catch the Twin card, and Meiling goes home in high spirits. I don't know if she comes back later in the series, because I haven't seen that far, however, it is true that Meiling never existed in the manga. Meiling is not an original creation of CLAMP, but she was just added in the anime. I'm glad that Meiling was made into the anime, though. She's really cute, and I just love her reactions when she gets insecure, because she's just so funny.

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