Sunshine by My Side: An Older-Woman, Younger-Man Romance That Has to Go to Work

Why this one

Sunshine by My Side (骄阳伴我) is an older-woman, younger-man romance in which the workplace does as much of the talking as the couple. Jian Bing (简冰), played by Bai Baihe (白百何), is an established advertising director whose marriage has just failed. Sheng Yang (盛阳), played by Xiao Zhan (肖战), is a designer in his early twenties, new to the industry. They meet by chance, and what keeps pulling them together is that each is at a different point of the same working life: she is finding her footing again, he is trying to find his first.

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The drama is a 36-episode remake of a Taiwanese series, directed by Song Xiaofei (宋晓飞) and written by Li Xiao (李潇) and Jiang Wuji (姜无及). It premiered on the CCTV-8 channel on 1 September 2023, with iQiyi (爱奇艺) and Tencent Video (腾讯视频) carrying it online at the same time, and its first day set a ratings mark for the channel. Chinese urban drama regularly takes its material from jobs, family pressure and the cost of living in a big city. This one belongs to that habit, and the question it asks is how an older-woman, younger-man romance holds up when work, family and the city all push back.

The setup

Sheng Yang's dream has an origin. As a teenager he was once, without either of them intending it, encouraged by "Director Sister" Jian Bing, and that planted the idea of becoming a designer in advertising. The story then brings them together as adults, on very unequal footing. She is established, and newly divorced after her husband's betrayal. He is at the very start.

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China Daily's Chinese-language report on the premiere calls the show a story that runs from meeting and understanding to mutual support, encouragement and growing together. Its English-language feature of 13 September calls them "isolated souls" who find comfort in each other. The details it picks out are small and recognisable: the newcomer who stays up all night to finish an urgent job, and the director humiliated by an arrogant client. The Chinese report adds that the creators did not use the attractive younger suitor as a hook for female viewers, and instead portray the real difficulties of women in midlife, among them gender bias at work and a failing marriage. It also says the two leads stand as equals in personality and feeling. Around the leads are her ex-husband, Xue Yiming (薛易明), played by Tian Yu (田雨); and her close friend Liang Shanshan (梁珊珊), played by Zhu Zhu (朱珠).

Rooted in the city

Chinese television has other urban dramas built from the same materials. Ode to Joy (欢乐颂, 2016) is a well-known example: five women in the same Shanghai building, with storylines about work, an office romance, a blind date arranged by parents, and what it means to be a "leftover woman." One fan, a 24-year-old office worker, told Sixth Tone in 2016 that the characters' daily lives resembled her own.

Sunshine by My Side sits in that company. It is a romance, but the romance has to share space with an office, a family and a street. The setting matters here. The drama was shot in Chongqing (重庆), from 27 September 2022 to 7 February 2023, and China Daily's English feature names the Qiansimen Bridge, Nanbin Road and the Yangtze River Cableway among the places on screen. The hilly, river-crossed city is also Xiao Zhan's hometown, and the Chinese report on the premiere quotes him saying that most people think first of Chongqing hotpot when the city comes up. It also mentions a steaming bowl of the city's noodles eaten after ducking into an alley.

The Taiwanese original

The series is adapted from My Dear Boy (我的男孩, also released as My Boy), a 20-episode Taiwanese drama written by Mag Hsu (徐誉庭) and directed by Hsu Fu-chun (徐辅军). It was produced by and starred Ruby Lin (林心如) as Luo Xiaofei, a director of television commercials, with Derek Chang (张轩睿) as An Qinghui, a design student. It aired on Taiwan's TTV and GTV from 22 December 2017 to 11 May 2018.

In the original, Luo Xiaofei starts as a mentor, then becomes a friend and finally a love interest, and the story shows the difficulties of a romance in which the woman is older. The mainland version keeps the pairing of a commercial director and a young designer and sets it in Chongqing.

Xiao Zhan's ordinary young man

In the China Daily report on the premiere, Xiao Zhan says Sheng Yang differs from his earlier roles because he is closer to everyday life, "like you and like me."

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There is a practical reason the role fits. Xiao worked in the design industry before he became an actor, and the China Daily report says that experience adds to the character's credibility. The report also notes that this was Xiao's third work of 2023, after the 1970s Beijing drama The Youth Memories (梦中的那片海) and the fantasy series The Longest Promise (玉骨遥), and that the three characters are very different from one another.

We look at Xiao Zhan's career in Rough Edges: What Xiao Zhan Learned in Ten Years.

Cast and crew

• Xiao Zhan (肖战) as Sheng Yang, a newcomer designer

• Bai Baihe (白百何) as Jian Bing, an advertising director

• Tian Yu (田雨) as Xue Yiming, Jian Bing's ex-husband

• Zhu Zhu (朱珠) as Liang Shanshan, her friend

• Yang Haoyu (杨皓宇) as Sheng Xiangqian (盛向前) and Wang Lin (王琳) as Luo Meijuan (罗美娟)

• Yuan Wenkang (袁文康), Liu Xun (刘迅), Xiang Hanzhi (向涵之) and Wu Xingjian (吴幸键) in supporting roles

Song Xiaofei directed. Li Xiao and Jiang Wuji wrote the screenplay. CCTV and iQiyi produced it, with Tencent Video and New Classics Media (新丽影视) as co-producers. At 45 minutes an episode, the 36 episodes had originally been planned as 40.

Where to watch

In China the drama streams on iQiyi and Tencent Video. On CCTV-8 it ran in the 19:30 prime-time slot with two episodes a day, and the platforms released episodes alongside the broadcast, with five on the first evening and two a day after that for paying members. Outside China, iQiyi's international service, iQ.com, has an official page for the series with episodes and English-language options. In Taiwan it was shown on the channel GTV Drama (八大戏剧台) from 5 July to 23 August 2024. Availability elsewhere varies by region and changes over time, so check what is offered where you are.

Reception

The premiere is the clearest data point. According to China Daily, the first day on CCTV-8 reached a Kuyun (酷云) peak rating of 1.5977 and an average of 1.4707, the highest same-day premiere rating on the channel in five years. The report adds that it did this against two rivals the same day, the programme The First Lesson of the School Year (开学第一课) and a Jackie Chan action film, and that it outrated the finale of the channel's previous drama, Yilu Chaoyang (一路朝阳).

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China Daily's Chinese report credits the series with avoiding melodramatic plot twists, keeping events within what viewers find plausible, and with treating the age gap as a relationship of equals rather than one-sided taking. Its English feature, published on 13 September, noted that the series had been streamed overseas and held an 8.8 out of 10 rating on IMDb at that point.