The Story Shen Jia Lan, the eldest granddaughter of Grand Secretary Shen, is betrothed to Lin Jin Qi, the eldest grandson of the Minister of Personnel. But when turmoil strikes the imperial court, her grandfather is accused of treason and her entire family is massacred. Jia Lan is secretly saved by Xu Wan Quan and...

The “Southern hero” Zhan Zhao is carrying vital evidence from an old friend about an unsolved case, intent on delivering it safely to the capital. But his foes are equally driven to stop him. Fortunately, he meets Huo Ling Long, the daughter of Linglong Villa, and Bai Yu Tang, an eccentric wandering hero nicknamed...

After 15 years of training by the mysterious Yun Tai sect, Yun Xiang leaves to seek revenge for his massacred family. What he lacks in martial arts skills, he compensates by his huge intellect and ability to manipulate people to fulfill his plans. On his journey, he meets several people who would become his friends:...

Ye Li, the granddaughter of the venerable Lingshan academy’s headmaster, descends from the mountain. The mountain has been sealed off by the order of the Dowager Empress, and she has only been allowed to leave after almost a decade because she was going to be engaged to the Prince of Ding, Mo Xiuyao. The prince,...

I admit it—I didn’t watch this drama because it had a compelling storyline or deep themes. The primary reason was that I wanted to support Zheng Yecheng, who I think does good work and need more publicity. Still, I was curious why he agreed to star in a short drama. I was initially pretty amused by how Show didn’t...

The last few months have been intense, so I haven’t updated the newsletter, but here I am. I also haven’t been watching as many Chinese dramas as usual. I tried to finish Zhan Zhao Adventures (emphasis on try). The drama had everything going for it except, for some reason, tension and urgency. It’s not a terrible...

Someone reminds Yang Zhenghui, who runs an online channel about true crime, about his ex-girlfriend Vivian, so he decides to look her up to see what she’s been doing. To his surprise, he realises that she has disappeared. His amateur detective work leads him to ceramic artist Zeng Jie. And one thing leads to another...

Bi Zhi is a time traveler from the future on a mission to retrieve artifacts tied to the death of his close friend Ziyi, from ancient China. After the time traveller Bi Zhi gets drunk, he accidentally drags a hapless young man, Beilu, through time. Both wake up thinking it was a wild dream. But Bi Zhi meets Beilu...

Currently watching Zhan Zhao Adventures but at turtle speed. It’s a wuxia, and that’s catnip for me but for some reason I am not binging it or watching it intently the way I did dramas like Fated Hearts or Ingenious One, which I just completed. The fights are stellar, the story solid, but it isn’t addictive like I...

Down and out 41-year-old Zhao Zuo You travels back to the past to create a better life for himself. As “Xun Weilai” (Ma Tianyu), his goal is to persuade his 16-year-old self to take on a career path that would make him wealthier. He deeply regrets caving in to his dad’s demands to study Computer Science and believes...

Miyu was once the picture-perfect rich man’s ewife—devoted, loyal and utterly consumed by her marriage. Then, she finds out about her husband’s affair. But the betrayal didn’t stop there. She divorces him after finding out the mistress, Lu Zhen Zhen, is pregnant, but Nie Yucheng hid his money from her so that she...

Let me start by saying this: I do not like transmigration dramas. It’s one genre I avoid like the plague. Alongside youth dramas, they sit firmly on my personal “I can’t watch this” list. That said, I did give another transmigration drama by Wang Yilu a try once: Yummy, Yummy, Yummy. It had potential because the...