Chinese TV Show Recommendations!

Yes, yes, my essay on Han Dynasty is still coming—but it just taking me longer than I thought. To tide you guys over, I thought I’d do another recommendations post, this time for TV shows. TV is honestly an even better way to get a sense of a country’s culture, not just because of the little daily details portrayed in the character’s lives, but because half of China’s memes come from some TV show or another. There is a lot to Chinese TV. There are probably dozens and dozens of fantastic TV shows out there that I’ve never watched. Once again, I’ll only be recommending shows I actually saw myself though. And the big barrier to Chinese TV shows—the language—has become less of an issue in recent years, because a shocking number of these shows are available in their entirety on youtube, with English subtitles.

I’m gonna talk a bit about Chinese TV production too here, since it’s a good opportunity.

You might notice that none of these TV shows have seasons. That’s because, due to Chinese censor ships, Chinese TV show production is totally different. What if you insert some innocuous looking thing into Season 1, Episode 3, but combined with some plot element that comes up in Season 8, Episode 12, it turns into a commentary on something the CCP doesn’t allow? To prevent this sort of thing, they require that all TV shows be completely filmed in its entirety, so that a censor can watch the whole thing in one go, and decide whether it passes or not.

This means that Chinese TV shows are uniquely not subject to seasonal decay. By necessity, it has to be a complete story, with a beginning, middle, and definitive end, before it ever sees a public audience. That’s not to say there aren’t incredibly shitty TV shows in China, but in my experience, something is either incredibly shitty from the beginning and remains shitty throughout, or it’s good right off the bat and remains good throughout.

It also means that, as far as I can tell, Chinese TV shows are filmed as though they’re a 50-hour-long continuous movie, and then afterwards, some editor goes in and chops it up into 45-minute episode chunks. And depending on the skill of the editor involved, episodes sometimes just end in the middle of a scene, sometimes in the middle of someone’s sentence, with no warning whatsoever.

Alright, that’s really all I know of TV production. Lemme finish up by saying that obviously, this is also not a sponsored post. I wasn’t paid by any…um…TV producers? to recommend any of these.

Nirvana In Fire:

Genre: Political Intrigue

This TV show is considered the absolute top-tier of Dynastic Chinese political dramas. It’s the story of a young military general, whose entire army and whose family was killed. After many years, he returns to the capital, seeking revenge and justice. The schemes and political moves in this are absolutely genius on everyone’s part. It’s truly a show where the whole cast makes reasonable, smart decisions at every step, and every arc holds multiple twists and turns and surprises that consistently outsmart me. There’s great acting from everyone involved, great costuming, great cinematography, great character writing. It’s been five years since it finished, and to this day, there are still Chinese youtubers who make a living covering nothing but theories and interesting details based on this show, and analysing whether these political moves would work in real life.

The Legend of Zhen Huan:

Genre: Political Intrigue

Technically, this belongs to a genre called Harem Intrigue in China, covering specifically the topic of how to go about seducing an Emperor and climbing the ranks in his harem to secure yourself a more prestigious and well-paid position. But honestly, the story beats and tropes are not that different from Nirvana-in-Fire above, except the whole cast is predominantly female, and you swap out military assets for babies and policy changes for fucking. Every praise I’ve said above can be applied here too—the schemes and moves in this are absolutely genius on everyone’s part. The cast is, for the most part, filled with smart people who never hold the idiot ball, and the show consistently outsmarts me. The show came out in 2012, and to this day, there are bloggers whose entire living is writing analyses on why exactly certain characters in this show make the decisions that they do, and what that indicates about them as human beings.

The Qin Empire:

Genre: History

This is practically a history documentary, telling the story of, well, the Qin Empire. But not the Qin Empire that you might be familiar with. This covers the generations of Kings who came before Qin Shi Huang, who built the foundation that allowed him to unite China. It goes into extremely fine detail of all the economic policies and diplomatic negotiations and internal reforms that the Qin Empire went through a century before Qin Shi Huang was even born. It is a super detailed look at the end days of the Warring States Period. The only downside is, well, compared to a fictional narrative which has a tightly-paced plot and regular points of catharsis, this is a very dense and heavy show that takes a lot of attention to follow along, and doesn’t necessary map to standard story beats very well. But it’s been very praised for its accurate depiction of history.

And also, it has hilariously bad CGI. Like, worse than Playstation 1 era CGI.

There are technically three “Seasons” to this show, by which I mean three entire TV shows, covering the different periods in Qin history. I’ve linked to a playlist that contains all three—that’s why it’s so long.

My Own Swordsman:

Genre: SitCom

This is the absolute best Sitcom in China, bar none, of all time, without doubt, everyone agrees. I’m not sure how well humour translates—obviously, I didn’t watch the version with subtitles. But every single episode contains multiple lines that are still repeated today. It’s not just funny, it contains a cast of incredibly well-rounded, fleshed out, realistic characters. And their life running a small inn in a small town reflects the average person’s life so truthfully, that people can’t help but resonate with the show. It’s well-known for being filmed in the budget of a ham sandwich, but that doesn’t prevent it from an absolute classic which represents at least 15% of the reaction images and gifs I see on the Chinese internet.

Towards the Republic:

Genre: History

Much like the Qin Empire show before, this one is an accurate telling of what happened at the very end of Qing Dynasty, with western powers pressuring the Qing government to abandon monarchy and become a republic. I have to be honest—I haven’t actually watched this show. It’s just…too painful and raw for me to watch. But I have watched a detailed review of the show that praised it for its accuracy and honesty and the breathtaking acting from everyone involved. For people who said they don’t really understand China’s trauma from its century of shame, I don’t know if this would help, but this show covers in exhaustive detail at least a tenth of that trauma.

Ming Dynasty 1566:

Genre: History

Yeah, I know, I watch a lot of history shows. I’m sorry. It’s just my area of interest. I’m sure there are great Chinese romances out there. I just haven’t seen them. As you might have already figured out from the name, it’s all about what happened in Ming Dynasty in 1566, just 21 years before 1587, a Year of No Significance. It covers the beginning of the decline of Ming Dynasty excellently, and is mostly about famously moral minister Hai Rui and his battle against corruption in Ming government. It might not be too interesting to people who don’t already know Dynastic Chinese history in detail, and don’t care about the fall of Ming Dynasty. But if you’re a history nut like me, maybe it’s your cup of tea?

My Fair Princess:

Genre: Romantic Comedy

This may or may not have been the only romantic comedy I’ve watched in its entirety in my life? This is mostly because this TV show came out in the early, early days of TV, where you had all of three things you could choose to watch. Thanks to that, it’s absolutely the cornerstone of the childhoods of everyone in my generation. This is a show filmed in the late 90s, and to this day, every summer, Hunan TV still airs it like clockwork. You can play the very first note of this TV show, and every Chinese man, woman, and child can sing the rest in its entirety. It’s the story of how Emperor Qianlong had an affair with a peasant woman and produced a daughter. That daughter grows up and asks her best friend to go seek the Emperor and ask him if he still remembered his promises to her mother. Due to various misunderstandings, the best friend becomes mistaken for the Emperor’s long-lost daughter, and becomes the titular Princess. And a romance between her and the Crown Prince (yes, I know) ensues.

For the most part, it’s known for its hilarious overdrama and being full of cliches (though, to be fair, it literally originated most of those cliches in the realm of Chinese TV), but is a super entertaining watch if you want a break from all the dense history stuff.

Judge of Song Dynasty:

Genre: Crime

The latest show I’m watching, a Dynastic Chinese murder mystery TV series set during Song Dynasty, about Song Ci—the man who invented half of Dynastic Chinese forensic science. He’s an actual historical figure who actually existed, who wrote about things like comparing soil types, matching wounds to weapons, identifying injuries on a dead body (using a UV light filter if necessary), matching blood types, etc. And at least the first couple of cases in the show are taken from the textbook that he actually wrote of his own experience solving crimes. It’s not just a pure history show though. It’s got plenty of drama and tropes and twists and turns, and eventually their own original murder mystery cases. If you like this sort of thing, check out Justice Bao too! I’d recommend Detective Di Renjie too, but apparently, that’s not available with English subtitles. Sigh.

Reset:

Genre: Sci-fi?

What do you classify time-loop stories as? Sci-fi, right? Or is it fantasy? Well, either way, it’s the story of guy and girl on a bus, trapped in a time loop where as their bus crosses a bridge, it explodes. Through the iterations, they try to figure out a way to prevent the explosion and find a way out of the time loop. Their repeated attempts to convince the cops what’s going on is absolutely hilarious to watch. And this is a genuinely sweet time-loop romance that I really buy. It’s not quite as much of a classic as all the other shows I’ve recommended. It’s the most recent TV show by far on this list, but I personally really genuinely enjoyed it. It’s also only 15 episodes, so it’s great for a super quick binge if you’re short on time.

Ordinary Greatness:

Genre: ….Crime? Police Drama?

It’s a TV show praised for its accurate depiction of the daily lives of policemen in China—all the random trivial little things they deal with, the relationship drama and family drama that they see every day, and their office drama. It’s not quite a crime, murder mystery show at all, because the reality is, murder just doesn’t come up that often for an ordinary police officer. This is honestly the best example (among the TV shows I’ve watched) at looking into the daily lives of Chinese people in modern China. There’s a reality TV show that actually follows around ordinary cops as they go about their ordinary patrols that I’d like to recommend more, but alas, that one also doesn’t have English subs.

In the Name of the People:

Genre: Political Intrigue

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m really showing my tastes here. But this is a modern Chinese version of political intrigue. Due to censorship laws, they have to set the show in a non-existent state, but aside from that, I find this a very realistic show, and a good look at how corruption works in the modern CCP. The big mystery of the show is, who’s corrupt? And I’m pretty sure the answer is, everyone. It’s everyone. It’s a bit hard to follow along, as without the colourful costuming of period dramas, I find it very easy to forget who’s who sometimes when they’re all wearing more or less the same polo shirts and black slacks. This is why I like to stick to period pieces more. But I feel bad if I don’t include at least some modern stuff in here.

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To be honest, that’s about all I’ve watched. I’m not actually that much into TV shows myself. But I’ll finish up with a round of documentary recommendations:

A Bite of China:

Genre: Food

If your interest was piqued by my Chinese snacks recommendation, you’ve got to watch this show—the definitive documentary on Chinese food. There’s a season 3 and 4 to this show too, but I can’t find an English translation of season four. :(

National Treasure:

Genre: History

A reality TV show almost? Where the curators of all Eight Great Museums of China are invited, and are each asked to present 3 National Treasures from their collection to go into detail on TV and introduce them to people, including actors recreating important moments of history that these treasures witnessed. It might be a little contextless, if you’re not familiar with Chinese history, but I, at least, am just absolutely fascinated by all of it. If you’re interested in more national treasures of China, check out the Every Treasure Tells a Story series too. I’ll also take this opportunity to remind people that some of China’s greatest national treasures are not actually in China. For example, the absolute best two examples of Song Dynasty porcelain, the ones with a rainbow black petroleum-like colour to them, are both in Japan. It’d be nice if those were returned soon.

A History of China:

Genre: History

So, here’s a little context for you, if you’d like. This series is straight up just dubbed in English, with subtitles when historians are interviewed. It tells the story of China’s history, starting with the creation of the universe, up to the fall of Qing Dynasty. I’ve gotta warn you that there’s quite a bit of propaganda in the very first couple of episodes, where they insist that Chinese people did not come out of Africa. They totally came out of China, thank you very much. And that’s pretty full of horseshit. But once you get past that point, it’s a really excellent super detailed series.

“But what if I don’t have 100 hours of my life to spend on Chinese history?” you ask.

Well, my husband’s actually working on a short and sweet summary of Chinese history for white people that I’m going to post as soon as he’s finished with it. So look forward to that.

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And finally, to finish out, I’ll point out that the original TV adaptation of the Four Great Works are all, universally beloved. And they’re worth a watch if you’ve always wanted to read the Four Great Works, but can’t slog through the English translations. Unfortunately, only two are available in their entirety with English subs on youtube.

Journey to the West:

Definitively the most beloved out of all of these, a childhood classic even more well known than My Fair Princess, and an absolutely astounding accomplishment in special effects considering how behind and poor China was when this show was made.

Water Margins:

Probably the least known of the Four Great Works? It’s a true pity that for both Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dream of the Red Chamber, only the first two episodes are subbed. But hey, there are more and more of an effort to translate Chinese TV for a western audience. So keep an eye out! I’m sure they’ll be available one day soon!