Nothing But Thirty: Three Women, One City, and the Pressure of Turning 30

A guide to the 2020 Shanghai drama about three women in their thirties, with the cultural context overseas viewers may be missing.

Why this one

Most overseas viewers meet Chinese television through palaces, swordsmen and immortals. Nothing But Thirty (三十而已, 2020) is a useful correction. It is a 43-episode urban drama set in contemporary Shanghai, about three women in their thirties and the pressures of work, money, marriage and family that arrive with that age. It premiered on 17 July 2020 and is often discussed as a reference point for the "urban women" genre, the category of modern dramas built around female friendship and career-and-marriage dilemmas.

The three leads of Nothing But Thirty (2020), Gu Jia (Tong Yao), Wang Manni (Jiang Shuying) and Zhong Xiaoqin (Mao Xiaotong), each holding a black umbrella against a red background in the series' key art. Poster art: Nothing But Thirty (Linmon Pictures / Tencent Video) via TMDB

The three leads of Nothing But Thirty (2020) eating crayfish together at home and looking in the same direction, in a still from the series. Still: Nothing But Thirty (Linmon Pictures / Tencent Video) via TMDB

As an entry point to what Chinese viewers watch when they want to see their own cities, it is hard to beat, and it has a measurable afterlife abroad: a South Korean remake followed in 2022, discussed below.

The setup

The story follows three women whose lives barely overlap at first and whose circumstances differ sharply.

Gu Jia (顾佳, played by Tong Yao) is a full-time homemaker, or quanzhi taitai (全职太太, "full-time wife"). She has spent years helping her husband, Xu Huanshan (许幻山), grow from a fireworks designer into the head of his own company. She manages the household and her son's schooling, and moves through a circle of wealthy Shanghai families. Her marriage comes under strain when another woman enters the picture.

Tong Yao as Gu Jia, carrying her sleeping son along a night street, in Nothing But Thirty (2020). Still: Nothing But Thirty via Douban

Wang Manni (王漫妮, played by Jiang Shuying) is a guijie (柜姐, "counter sister"), the colloquial term for a sales assistant at a luxury-goods counter. Per Chinese Wikipedia, she has spent eight years in Shanghai and is later promoted to sales supervisor. Her story is about a single woman's career, her relationships and the question of what the city has actually given her.

Jiang Shuying as Wang Manni, in a striped sweater, smelling a rose at a supermarket flower stand, in Nothing But Thirty (2020). Still: Nothing But Thirty via Douban

Zhong Xiaoqin (钟晓芹, played by Mao Xiaotong) works in the marketing department of a property-management company and is married to Chen Yu (陈屿), a news editor at a television station. She is the most conventional of the three, and her story tests what happens when a stable, ordinary marriage turns out to be less settled than it looked.

Mao Xiaotong as Zhong Xiaoqin, in a short haircut and a beige work jacket, smiling into the distance in the sun, in Nothing But Thirty (2020). Still: Nothing But Thirty via Douban

The series is built on contrast: a wealthy homemaker, an independent professional and a middle-income wife. That is my reading of its structure, but it explains why the drama can speak to viewers in very different positions. The plot description here is kept to the opening situation, as later developments are best left to the viewer.

Background: what "thirty" means here

The Chinese title carries a pun that is lost in translation. San shi er yi (三十而已, "only thirty") is how the title reads in pinyin, and it plays on a famous line of the Lunyu (论语, "Analects"), the collection of sayings attributed to Confucius, in which he describes himself as a person who "stood firm" at thirty: san shi er li (三十而立, "at thirty, stand firm"). Changing one character turns a statement of moral maturity into a shrug: thirty is only thirty, and it need not mean having everything settled.

That matters because of the social weight attached to the age. In China, thirty is commonly treated as the point by which a person is expected to be married, financially secure and on a clear career path. Unmarried women in their late twenties and beyond have long been labelled shengnu (剩女, "leftover women") in the Chinese press, a term widely criticised as demeaning. A drama about women of that age is therefore also a drama about those expectations, and about whether the three leads have met them or only appear to have.

On the production side, the series was made by Linmon Pictures (柠萌影视), a Shanghai-based company. Chinese Wikipedia records that filming began in Shanghai on 22 July 2019 and wrapped on 2 December 2019, and the city is visible throughout, from the skyline to the shopping districts. It aired on Dragon TV (known in Chinese as Dongfang Weishi, 东方卫视, "Oriental Satellite TV"), Shanghai's main satellite channel, and simultaneously on the streaming platform Tencent Video (腾讯视频).

Cast and crew

The three leads, with roles confirmed against English Wikipedia and Chinese-language sources:

Jiang Shuying (江疏影), known in English as Maggie Jiang, as Wang Manni (王漫妮).
Tong Yao (童瑶) as Gu Jia (顾佳).
Mao Xiaotong (毛晓彤) as Zhong Xiaoqin (钟晓芹).

Key supporting roles include Li Zefeng (李泽锋) as Xu Huanshan, Gu Jia's husband; Yang Le (杨玏) as Chen Yu, Zhong Xiaoqin's husband; Zhang Yue (张月) as Lin Youyou (林有有), the woman at the centre of Gu Jia's marital crisis; and Edward Ma (马志威) as Liang Zhengxian (梁正贤), a businessman who becomes involved with Wang Manni.

The series was directed by Zhang Xiaobo (张晓波) and written by Zhang Yingji (张英姬). Chinese Wikipedia lists Xu Xiao'ou (徐晓鸥) as producer.

On recognition: Chinese Wikipedia reports that Tong Yao won best actress for the role at the 27th Shanghai Television Festival's Magnolia Awards (白玉兰奖) in 2021, and that the series received the festival's International Communication Award. The same source says China's broadcast regulator named it an outstanding work for overseas distribution for 2020. Treat these as reported, not independently confirmed here.

Where to watch

Availability depends heavily on your country, and licences change, so check a tracker such as JustWatch before planning an evening.

United States: current JustWatch listings show Rakuten Viki carrying the series, with several other services also listed.
Taiwan and South Korea: English Wikipedia says it is available on Netflix in both. Chinese Wikipedia also lists WeTV, Tencent's international app, among Taiwan platforms.
Elsewhere: availability varies.

One practical note: the original broadcast run was 43 episodes, according to both English and Chinese Wikipedia, but at least one streaming-guide listing shows 45. Different platforms can split or recut episodes, so do not be alarmed if the count differs from what you expected.

Overseas impact

The strongest evidence of overseas influence is the remake. Thirty-Nine (三十九), a South Korean series starring Son Ye-jin (孙艺珍), Jeon Mi-do (田美都) and Kim Ji-hyun (金智贤), premiered on JTBC on 16 February 2022 and ran for 12 episodes. English Wikipedia describes it as a remake of Nothing But Thirty. It follows three friends approaching forty rather than thirty, so the age is shifted, and it is available on Netflix. Comparing the two is an easy way to see how the same premise is reshaped for a different country.

A Thai remake has also been reported. A 2024 report from China's National Intellectual Property Administration says a trailer for the Thai version was shown at the 28th Hong Kong International Film and TV Market, and that the series is based on rights held by Linmon Pictures. No release date or platform could be confirmed.

On domestic scale, a trade-press report from August 2020, citing Maoyan (猫眼), a Chinese entertainment-data platform, said the series had passed 5.6 billion online views by 13 August and had topped a daily streaming chart for Chinese dramas for 23 consecutive days. Platform view counts are not audited and are counted differently from site to site, and other published tallies differ, so read the figure as an indication of popularity and nothing more. For television ratings, figures compiled on English Wikipedia put the average at 1.535% and the peak at 1.921%, recorded on 4 August 2020.

Nothing But Thirty rewards patient viewing: it is long, sometimes melodramatic, and its idea of an ordinary life is notably affluent. Even so, it is a clear, readable portrait of what many Chinese viewers see as the anxieties of a particular decade of life, and a good place to begin with modern Chinese television.

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