Even though I don’t even really like watching dramas anymore, because tv is a draggy medium, I wanted to spend some time recapping the series coming out this summer. I’m doing this because I feel like non-wuxia Chinese dramas need more love. More than mainland music or mainland movies. Chinese television has been a well established industry much earlier than either of those mediums, and there are some really great series, that for the life of me I don’t understand how they are so unknown. I also just like being snarky and recapping is a nice chance to do that.
And luckily this is summer, which means slightly more free time for me, there are plenty of exciting releases with a variety of subjects . You can vote more than once, but please limit your choice to two. I have more information for these series below the cut.
Disclaimer, the poll is for my reference only and may not actually influence me to recap, depending on when the series airs, in conjunction with my schedule.
Also this is only a small sampling of what will actually be airing in China this summer. I cut out all wuxia dramas and dramas that I don’t think fit the demographic of visitors to this site. If you had a series you liked that’s not on this list, then sorry.
In the order I believe they are appearing:
An Xiang – Wang Luodan, Huang Xiaoming
Mystery and romance are intertwined in this series about a family with demons and secrets.
A Tribute to Stephen Chow - Jing Boran (BOBO), Yang Zi
Parody of Stephen Chow movies; very tongue in cheek
Chinese Paladin 3 – Hu Ge, Yang Mi
Fantasy series based on a Chinese RPG
Nonstop – BOBO
Sitcom about teenagers produced by SMG and Korea’s MBC.
Nv Lang Zhi Nv – Ady An Yixuan and Tian Liang
Ancient drama based on ancient Chinese folklore
Always Smile! – Ming Dao, Zhang Jiani
Modern day Hunan TV romance series revolving around a hotel
Infernal Lovers – Deng Jiajia, Mike He, Jing Dong
Idol/ serious mainland drama mix, produced by bigshots across the strait. Period drama.
Meteor Shower - Zhang Han, Zheng Shuang, Yu Haoming
Idol drama.
June 5, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Huh? I voted for 2 but it only the poll shows only one vote?!?!?!
June 5, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Thanks for telling me Julie, let me fix it.
June 5, 2009 at 4:31 pm
i was gonna vote for meteor shower, but then i was like many people are gonna recap this, so i might as well vote for the one’s that seem interesting but not that known
June 5, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Ah, Chinese Paladin 3 is pretty much going to be a wuxia-type series, isn’t it?
I feel like Meteor Shower is going to get covered elsewhere, so I don’t know how productive to your stated cause it’d be to cover that one. Will there eventually be reviews or synopses of the ones you don’t choose?
June 5, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Chinese Paladin 3 is more fantasy in my opinion, and the storyline hasn’t been covered to death like Jin Yong. I must be the only person who likes Chinese dramas but hates wuxia. I think it’s because my understanding of Chinese culture isn’t really that good yet. I mean the real everlasting culture that’s been there for millennia. Not the shallow current trends that I talk about on this site.
Do you really think Meteor Shower is going to be that covered? Even if it is “maybe” based off HYD, it is still a mainland Chinese series that is full of unknowns. I’m not even sure if it will be subbed. I have never seen a mainland non-Wuxia drama get fully subbed.
It’s success or lack of it will however I think influence lots and lots of future dramas in China, and so it falls into the “trends in Chinese entertainment” category that I find so interesting, and I’ll probably be looking at it from that perspective too.
*coughs* I also am thinking of recapping Meteor Shower because I think that will give me more site visitors.
As for your last question…it really will depend on the timing of the releases as they fit my schedule, and if people show interest or not. If people have no interest in the recaps, then I don’t know if I’ll continue with it.
June 5, 2009 at 6:37 pm
cfensi: completely irrevelant to the post but, what was the name of the site where you could watch Hunan TV online for free?
thanks
June 5, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I voted for Meteor Shower. I’m so afraid it won’t be subbed. Mainland dramas really do need more love. Thanks for giving them some! Really if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even know about Meteor Shower.
viikii.net has a few mainland dramas now. Maybe they’ll catch on and more people will starting subbing them.
June 5, 2009 at 8:55 pm
If no one subs, I will =)
Don’t worry
June 5, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I really want to see Ady An as weaver girl, she is such a great actress. The trailer for the drama looks amazing. I’m only watching Meteor Rain to see the guys and how they can make it into anything other then a romance story. Infernal Lover’s plot sounds interesting and Mike He is the star so kinda excited to watch that too.
June 5, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Do you know what channels these shows are being broadcasted on? Also, what times they are broadcasted? I’m going to China in a couple of days…I’ll probably need something to watch when I’m not doing anything.
Thanks!
June 5, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I actually want to watch the new Hong Lou Meng and The Three Kingdoms, the old versions are too old to interest me but these are Chinese classics so I really want to experience it.
June 5, 2009 at 11:33 pm
@Nepheliad – Now that I think about it, Chinese Paladin was fully subbed, which may happen again here, but that was a mainland – TW – SG collaboration, whereas CP3 is I believe only mainland. I’ll have to see if someone picks it up. I didn’t like the first one very much, except for Hu Ge and Ady An interactions, but I hope this one will be better.
@suzy Wow, I didn’t expect you to be waiting for Meteor Shower.
@julie You’re going to sub it by yourself??
@chinkirox – Yeah, I feel like it’s been forever since Ady’s been in something, and all at once she’s the lead in two series, probably because she’s with Hua Yi now. Can’t wait to see her again.
@JZ Well An Xiang is on Guang Dong TV right now. Nonstop will be on Dragon (Dong Fang) TV. Always Smile and Meteor Shower will be on Hunan TV. I forget the rest and I have no idea about the times.
@anon – I would love to recap those two, since those are massive, epic productions, but since they are so big, they wouldn’t be shown in summer and summer is the only time I have time for this.
June 6, 2009 at 12:50 am
i’m really excited too but if i somehow could watch it online in the US then i can maybe help with recaps too.
June 6, 2009 at 1:28 am
@JZ
CP3 will be on landbased channels only, which means that it all depends on where you live. Same with An Xiang, which you can currently only watch in Guangdong. Stephen Chow is on Harbin TV, I believe.
@anon
but recapping the classics is so hard…especially since most people can just google the plotlines (in English) online.
@chinkirox
CCTV isn’t consist in similar dramas, though. Its version of Dong Yong-7th fairy (think Fairy in Wonderland) w Huang Yisheng bombed.
June 6, 2009 at 2:04 am
I’m iffy about Niu Lang Zhi Nv since it won’t bring too much love into the other categories of Chinese dramas. An Yixuan mainly does Wuxia that gets covered anyways, and Tian Liang’s only other project is Lei Feng, a topic that not many non-native Chinese would be interested in.
@cfensi
you can count Princess of Returning Pearl and Romance in the Rain as being non-wuxia, I guess.
That’s why I really liked what that guy selling dramas said. Even if they sold for less, they’re opening a new arena. They’re so necessary because they show people that China isn’t just a country with history, but also a thriving present.
@Nepheliad
I sort of want cfensi to cover Meteor Shower because most of the other people who might do it won’t know anything about the people and company behind it. Like with the news reports on it…most people would take whatever the news sites gave them and use the ugliest picture possible. Or like how whenever I put up Cotton Candy, I would add a note that Ma Xueyang wrote it. Others might not. And cfensi was the first one to report on it, way back when we all thought it was fake. That feels like so long ago…
June 6, 2009 at 4:33 am
Well, if Chinese Paladin 3 ends up being good, I might join whatever sub team forms for it or even try subbing myself, but CP3’s storyline was weaker than CP1’s, and considering how they messed up quite a few things about 1 with their over-exaggeration (the death scenes and the characterizations of the main characters in particular – I cringe every time I think about the show’s versions of Ling’er and Xiaoyao), I can’t say I’m expecting much. The reason I said that it might be like a wuxia drama is because they tried too hard to make CP1 into something like one when it was a far more subtly told story with far less exaggerated characters.
I dunno. There are a lot of people sick of HYD in general, but there are also quite a number who want to make comparisons. In that sense, it’s probably the most important series this summer, and not just in China, but with regards to the reputation of Chinese dramas overseas. If it fails, a lot of foreigners will simply point to it and say that Chinese dramas, outside of wuxia, aren’t up to par. And that’s true, idarklight – I think there’s a bit of bias against this version of HYD already (mostly due to overexposure to HYD), and I’d hate to see it being covered negatively or shoddily from the start. Cfensi, at least, would give it a pretty high quality recap.
BTW, are there any notable non-drama, non-comedy shows airing this summer? I’m not really a fan of dramas, and I’m pretty tired of historical/wuxia shows. All I ever see in the way of Chinese TV (at least, covered overseas) are dramas, wuxia, and reality TV/game shows, which disengages me, ’cause I’m much more drawn to sci-fi, thriller, crime, paranormal – even cartoons, really… It’s part of why even though I’ve really gotten into Chinese music and want to get into the wider spectrum of entertainment, I just haven’t been able to. With so much programming available, is the Chinese television industry really that focused on just three genres?
June 6, 2009 at 4:58 am
@everyone
Jianghu fansubs is subbing CP3 if anyone’s interested.
@Nepheliad
I really like Hunan TV’s Ling Dian Feng Sheng. It pairs up big names in various industries for unmoderated chats. The last one I watched had Zhang Jizhong, Zhang Tielin(sp? he’s the actor of the king in Princess Returning Pearl and the worst Yang Xiao ever for Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber), and two scriptwriters (including meteor shower writer) to talk about the scriptwriters’ idea that scriptwriters, not directors or producers, should be in charge of the production of the film. Most of the episodes aren’t about entertainment, though. And they’re quite fascinating.
CCTV has really great documentary series and I would definitely recommend them. It’s quite easy to be glued to them. The Tan Suo series is probably the most famous of them, but any of them are interesting enough to finish.
There’s a Lei Feng series coming out with Tian Liang, but that’s a big Red drama that I’m not sure you’ll be interested in. On the other hand, Qia Tong Xue Shao Nian was amazing. If you haven’t watched it yet, big recommendation. I loved everything about it.
China has really nice crime dramas, too. I remember six years ago, my parents and I stayed up until 7am the next morning finishing a crime drama called “Red Carnation.”
on a sidenote, An Xiang is more of a crime drama than anything else. I continued to watch it not for the love scenes, but to find out who’s the mastermind.
June 6, 2009 at 6:19 am
I just saw the promo for CP3, and I don’t know if I could stand watching anything more. I mean, I’m all for keeping things faithful to the game, but there’re limits to that, and game mechanics should never translate to bad CGI sequences. Unfortunately, in China, that happens too often. That, plus the ever hammy wuxia-style performances… well, now I’m wishing fervently for some eventual CP cartoon adaptation or something.
Ah, I’m looking more for storied, plot-driven fictitious shows, because when it comes to factual/talk shows, I’ve got a backlog of History/Discovery Channel and BBC Network shows to work through. Are the documentaries presented in a cut-and-dry manner, or a quirky sort of way?
I checked out a bit of QTXSN earlier at your recommendation, and it IS good, and I will eventually finish it; I’m just curious as to what’s around in China that isn’t a historical/period, wuxia, drama, or game show (and now that you mention it, documentaries and talk shows – I just forgot about those, but do remember seeing a lot of them in China). And I guess by crime, I meant more on the law and order side than the crime drama side, but I’ll try An Xiang and attempt to ignore the romance, haha. Always do appreciate a good mystery.
Out of curiosity, is there not an audience for sci-fi/thriller TV shows in China? I hear about the latter in movies, but not TV, and the former not at all…
June 6, 2009 at 7:30 am
I don’t think it’s audience, but the lack of scriptwriters who are willing to tackle it. Scifi books are also very rare in China. I feel like this is deja vu, but I see that changing as the younger generation grows up. Half of the children dramas I can think of are sci-fi now. CCTV’s Magic Cellphone, Shu Chang’s drama about a humanoid cellphone that time travels, was the most searched for mainland drama on Baidu in 2008.
What else is there to have other than dramas, documentaries, entertainment shows and talks shows? That covers fake stories, real stories, stranger than fiction stories, and scripted real stories…I’m guessing that you’re looking for variety in TV series rather than other programs. Have you ever watched the Bao Qing Tian or Di Wenjie dramas? Both are popular detective dramas. On the law and order side, China has a lot of pretty good anti-corruption dramas if you’re into that sort of things.
And CCTV has a nice series of dramas on successful businessmen. They’re semi-historic, but the focus isn’t on that aspect. There are some romance and drama, but they’re part of the bigger story. Da Zhai Men and Da Ran Fang were both great. I prefer the latter because it was more clever and less dramatic. All in all, as much as how I hate CCTV is stifling new variety, it’s still to be trusted to make those great, big dramas that have more meaning and more care to them. I think these simply aren’t talked about outside of mainland because although more people like them, they don’t appeal to teen fanatics who’re more likely to spread them.
Oh, and China has a lot of big galas. XD
June 6, 2009 at 9:05 am
@Nepheliad For some reason I feel like there’s a lot of cop/espionage dramas in China. I just never talk about them because I don’t care. A lot of stuff gets filtered out of this site, because I don’t think most people that visit this site care either. Like what idarklight said, the teen fanatics. You’re one of the exceptions.
The first Chinese drama that I ever got hooked on was “Fu Hua Bei Hou” which involves a guy played by Lu Yi whose mother falsely goes to jail for drug trafficking, and he discovers this trail of corruption in police that leads up to his best friend’s dad. I enjoyed it a lot, but I think the fact that my parents kept watching that kind of drama daily for like, years turned me off. Oh they watched Red Carnation too.
The Hai Yan dramas are all about something corporate like that.
Two of the biggest hits in China in recent years were about espionage, “An Suan” and “Lurk”. You may have only hard about those thriller movies, but this is why those movies are being made…
An upcoming one of the big-budgeted thriller genre is Nei Xian/Insider starring Wallace Chung/Sun Feifei. I think it airs this summer but I’m not sure. Could be early fall.
As for sci-fi, it’s not big now, but it probably will be soon because like idarklight said, the children shows are sci-fi based. My cousin actually wrote sci-fi stories. There’s interest there, but the audience just needs to grow into the age where they can pay for stuff.
Someone once asked me on this site why there weren’t many modern Chinese dramas. That’s when I decided, hey I should post more on dramas since people seem to have no clue that there is stuff beyond the ancient wuxias. But I draw the line at posting too much about espionage/thriller/cop dramas because I feel it will drive away the readership that I already have, which already doesn’t seem to like the non-pop music posts. If I talked about every single drama that comes out in China, then this site would be flooded with drama posts.
June 6, 2009 at 9:20 am
No one’s said this, but I am really, really, really, looking forward to the Bobo drama. I’m sort of anticipating Meteor Shower too, but a lot of people will be recapping this one, I think.
June 6, 2009 at 9:22 am
@julie: I’ll help you sub ;p
June 6, 2009 at 10:18 am
@idarklight
That post on Meteor Shower was such a long time ago wasn’t it? That’s when I starting pming you like crazy.
I am afraid to watch Princess Returning Pearl. I am afraid I will be forever in love with Zhao Wei, Ruby Lin, and Alec Su afterwards.
@megan
Well, BOBO’s drama is more of a sitcom, and thus, I don’t know how good it will be.
June 6, 2009 at 10:34 am
@cfensi
Princess Returning Pearl is the best drama ever. It was like the first drama I ever watched…and sure enough I am in love Vicky, Ruby and Alec even now.
Anyway, so the Bobo one is a sitcom? Ok then…just don’t mind me…c:
June 6, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Meteor Shower if possible but I wouldn’t mine Nonstop either
June 6, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Ah, I pretty much figured as much about the sci-fi stuff – figured I’d just have to wait on it, haha. Didn’t know it was popular among the kids, though – hearing that makes me plenty happy.
And I remember seeing the espionage stuff while in China, and I’m just lukewarm towards that genre. You cover it well enough, anyhow, by just mentioning it every now and then. As for what else there is, I guess I simply meant to see more variety (or quality/notablity therein, and in the industry, not your blog), and shows more tilted towards their own genres than in the drama genre (because as noted, that can encompass a lot). I’ll be looking deeper and playing a waiting game, it seems.
Haha, I know I’m kinda the odd one out when it comes to the demographics of these sites covering Chinese media. Makes me feel kinda isolated when looking around on them, but they keep me interested in Chinese entertainment. And yeah, I know you couldn’t possibly cover so much; the trend of comments on the site made that pretty clear what people are usually interested in, and besides, no point in covering what you’re not interested in, anyway. ^^;
I love the big galas – so lavish!
June 6, 2009 at 3:09 pm
@cfensi: Megan and i are subbing it =) If anyone wants to help, that’ll be great!
June 6, 2009 at 11:30 pm
@megan – You may be confusing Nonstop with Young Gods of Cookery? Which is a movie? Nonstop has 100 episodes, so no way am I recapping all of it, but I’ll recap ones I like for sure since quite a few seem interested in it.
And yeah, lol, that’s why I’m afraid of watching Princess Returning Pearl.
@nepheliad – What other Chinese websites are you speaking of? This is really the only one I know…except for the ones on my blogroll which are more topical.
I feel like foreign-run websites on Asian cinema, like twitchfilms.net for example cover more of the stuff you’re looking for.
The galas are…. a tradition I guess? They really need to start getting younger artists on there.
June 7, 2009 at 12:44 am
LOL, I was talking about a few forums, actually – there aren’t any others like this one, far as I know, which is why I come here. And no, they don’t – those cover mostly T/HK stuff, which gets covered plenty without ‘em. I mean, I frequent twitchfilm since it does cater more to my tastes (ONEDREAMRUSH, my god), and it’s pretty much J/K/HK/T… It’s like I want to like mainland Chinese entertainment while I like the genres that I do, but the two don’t overlap. There are plenty of sites covering those regions, but what coverage there is of mainland entertainment gravitates to wuxia, dramas, and movies.
And agreed, they do. I just like the galas because they’re something that I don’t see on US television aside from ones from the capital on PBS – an organized performance and festivities without an annoying awards show in between.
June 7, 2009 at 2:02 pm
@nepheliad? Really? Twitch covers Tw movies? Which ones?
I always went to Twitch even though I didn’t really like most of the things they covered, but it was still a source of Asian news. But then I started arguing with one of their posters for posting too much tv news and stopped visiting. Ahem.
I guess if we’re talking weird blood and guts type stuff then yeah, China doesn’t have that, mostly due to the lack of a rating system which I despair at. They better get one in the next year or two years or it will be ridiculous for country with their market to not have one.
Not that I was thinking about this when I started Cfensi (I had no concrete plans then) but I think I want cater to fangirls now. Why? Because they are they best at being active for their fandom. They will be the ones subbing, the ones promoting artists the most, etc. I do not plan on running Cfensi forever, and I really want more people to be active.
There are lots of people who know Chinese, but they’ve never had anywhere to channel their efforts (except for subbing Korean vids from Chinese subs -_-) because like you they didn’t think there was anything. I blame this in part because of the diversity of Chinese-language entertainment…HK, TW, SG …etc.
June 7, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Hmm, well, I remember seeing something about a Taiwanese horror movie recently, but I could be remembering wrong. It’s definitely not covered nearly as much as J/K/HK, though.
I wasn’t talking about blood and guts, specifically (do I come off that way? ^^;) – and there’s more of that than I’d really want in some of the period/wuxia shows, really. I was wondering about the ratings system (or lack thereof), since some of those shows seem to be airing during the prime-time hours…
I think fangirls will be the first thrust of overseas promotion, but I can’t say I’m happy about it, haha… It’d be kind of distressing to me if the effect ends up being that Chinese entertainment coverage gets a kinda pigeonholed reputation like Korean entertainment, rather than somewhat more diversely covered like Japanese entertainment, and one of the reasons for the difference, far as I can tell, is that Japanese entertainment’s first thrust was through anime/gaming, drawing in fanboys at least as much as fangirls. Certainly, fanboys can be just as active, if in different ways.
I dunno. I suppose it all evens out in the end, and maybe the difference between the two is just a function of time. Any coverage, certainly, is better than no coverage. Or else, like you said, without sites like yours, people like me who have a spark of interest would just lose it.
June 8, 2009 at 2:15 am
Well, twitch is very much blood and guts when it comes to Asian dramas, I think, which is what I feel a lot of western (guys) zone in on when it comes to Asian entertainment.
For supposedly being so liberal, the US really does self-censor its movies. I remember it being Kill-bill being called bloody, but I mean the Asian movies are way more disgusting. I watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and I was like 0_0. I really did not need to see the revolting prison lesbian rape in such graphic detail. That kind of stuff would never fly in the US.
And so it seems those in the US like to get their fix elsewhere, namely Asia, and Asia gets kind of built up as some sort of quirky-film factory, rather than a normal functioning movie industry with a lot of variety.
I’d rather take the fangirls tbh.
And I think South Korea pigeonholed themselves, which was what in turn made it easier for fans to get into kpop, because it was so commercial and about idols.
June 8, 2009 at 2:24 am
I wish Chinese entertainment can get a lot of the more sophisicated fangirl/boys… like wuxia. The wuxia translators I’ve seen seem to be have more of those really knowledgable ones that knows all the little nuances of the Chinese language and culture, and knows how to express them in English. It was so refreshing compared to fangirls who knows neither language well enough to be able to display the true beauty of the script.
A lot of Asian movies do go out even more than American ones. And Japanese horror films are a lot scarier than American ones.
June 8, 2009 at 5:46 am
I’m sorry for carrying this discussion so long… If you’re tired of seeing me babble, tell me to shut up.
I dunno; have you been keeping up with the overseas J-sector in recent years? Initially, Japanese entertainment was marginalized to anime/manga and the bizarre, but now, it’s expanded – from J-horror to J-drama to J-comedy to J-sci fi to J-game shows, and with J-rock, J-indie, J-pop, J-electronica, etc. I don’t prefer either fangirls or fanboys; I guess I’d just rather have both.
Aside from K-horror, Korea entertainment’s range in global eyes seems to be pretty limited to the pop/drama stuff. I think it’s that which distresses me with the fangirls concerning Chinese media – it might be off-putting to non-fangirls of both genders and non-Chinese people in general. A crude example – in the early days, there were fangirls of Sailor Moon and fanboys of DBZ. The former go on to J-drama and J-pop; the latter go on to J-games and J-rock, leaving room for a wide spectra of influence. Korean media aborad, however, seems so saturated with K-drama and pop that the guys and non-fangirl types just ignore it.
As for the quirky – well, that kinda goes for every nation regardless; as the Japanese are known for their type of quirky (which has its own range overseas, from weird humor to giant mecha to animation to horror), the French have their “mindscrew art” flicks, India has its Bollywood style, and Britain has its “Brit-humor”. I’m sure the US has its own overseas. However, I feel like Korea is especially pigeonholed, because coverage seems focused on drama, without much sign of expansion, at least as far as I can tell.
And the problem with the wuxia community is that they’re too focused on wuxia. I’d love for some of those folks to diversify, because they do their research and are well-versed. Thing is, a lot of ‘em seem only interested in that particular aspect of Chinese culture. Their existence does make me hopeful that there will be a broader range of Chinese media/culture flowing outwards, though.
As for the gory stuff, I mean, I’ve got a strong stomach for it (though I’m on Twitch for its artsy stuff more than its horror), and even I was shocked by how gory some of Asian media is… It’s not even rated in China? That’s a little disturbing…
June 8, 2009 at 11:08 pm
@nepheliad – Yeah, I think my first exposure to Japanese entertainment was Sailor Moon. Tuxedo Mask <3
I just wish Asian entertainment could be looked at as good when it's just normal, rather than something you can't get from America.
The wuxia people can be pretty elitist, and that's the problem.