GRAIN & GENERATIONS
Period drama
Family sagas and revolutionary-era stories — guides to C-drama set across 20th-century China, from the Republic era through the reform years.
Dream of Golden Years
A 36-episode iQIYI period drama in which a 36-year-old executive wakes up as an eighteen-year-old village girl in 1983 and builds a new life from a street stall.
Rosefinch
A 30-episode Republican-era murder mystery on iQIYI and Tencent Video, made in the short-drama format, about a forensic doctor, a detective and a dance-hall owner in 1929 Shanghai.
Northwest Years
A 39-episode CCTV historical drama following Xi Zhongxun (习仲勋) from the 1927 purge to 1952 as the Shaanxi-Gansu base grows from a handful of guerrillas into a government.
Dead of Winter
A 26-episode iQIYI police procedural set in a snowbound northeastern industrial city in the late 1990s, where two detectives chase a murder, a robbery gang and an old kidnapping.
Justice Is Mine
A 20-episode Youku crime drama from Hong Kong and mainland China, in which an incorruptible judge covers up his son's hit-and-run while a determined inspector pursues the truth.
This Thriving Land
A 36-episode CCTV and iQIYI rural epic in which a landowner's daughter, cut off from her family, builds a new life as a farmer's wife in Shandong during the years of war.
War of Faith
A 38-episode 1930s spy and finance drama on CCTV-8 and iQIYI, following a village math prodigy who joins the Nationalist Central Bank and is pulled between two sides.
Blossoms Shanghai
A 30-episode CCTV and Tencent Video period drama directed by Wong Kar-wai, following a young Shanghai trader who becomes a business figure in the early 1990s.
Ren Yu
A 22-episode Tencent Video crime mystery set in a 1990s small city, where a schoolgirl's disappearance exposes bullying, neglectful families and a body found in the underground waterways.
Romance in the Alley
A 40-episode family drama on Hunan TV and Mango TV, adapted from Da Mi's novel, following two neighboring households in a Suzhou cotton-mill alley from the late 1970s onward.
Live up to Your Youth
A 32-episode CCTV-8 and iQIYI period drama about young artists sharing a small Beijing guesthouse from the 1990s, chasing careers in writing, music, painting and acting.
Always on the Move
A 39-episode iQIYI and CCTV-8 period drama that follows two generations of railway police on China's trains, from a steam engine in 1978 to the high-speed era.
The Hunt
A 16-episode iQIYI suspense drama about a delivery driver who opens a wooden box on a mountain and finds his friend's body, then watches a decade of lies come apart.
A Lonely Hero's Journey
A 36-episode wartime espionage drama set in Japanese-occupied Suzhou, about an architect from a prominent family who is branded a traitor and goes undercover among the collaborators.
The VI Group of Fatal Case
A 26-episode iQIYI police procedural, a prequel to the long-running Major Crimes Group Six franchise, following a young detective team formed after a veteran officer's death.
Grain & GenerationsDream: The Brewery Murder Mystery Where a Reporter's Old Footage Is the Evidence
A guide to Tencent Video's 16-episode crime mystery Dream: Liu Shishi as a documentary reporter, a state brewery at the turn of the millennium, and a story told through old tapes.
Grain & GenerationsLight the Dark: Two Siblings, One Pipeline Explosion and a 12-Episode Mystery from China's 1990s Oil Country
A guide to the iQIYI period mystery Light the Dark as it airs: the siblings played by Chen Zheyuan and Jiang Xin, the late-1990s oil town behind the case, and why a 12-episode air-drop is worth a look.
Grain & GenerationsThe Lament of Autumn: A Republican-Era Romance Whose Heroine Talks Back
A spoiler-free guide to the Hunan TV and Mango TV romance The Lament of Autumn, now complete: the title, the heroine, the young marshal, the look and what the source novel does.
The Lament of Autumn
A 40-episode Republican-era romance and mystery on Hunan TV and Mango TV, in which a schoolgirl bets a warlord's son she can find his would-be killer in ten days.
Grain & GenerationsShe's Wild Fire: The Rebirth Drama That Treats 1991 Shenzhen as a Business Plan
A guide to the iQIYI short-form drama She's Wild Fire: a murdered businesswoman reborn in 1991 Shenzhen, 24 episodes of about twelve minutes, and what the show does with the city's boom years.
The Old Story of Yu Hong
A 34-episode crime drama set in a declining Northeast China town in the 1990s, adapted from a story by Ban Yu and starring Ma Yili.
Grain & GenerationsThe Old Story of Yu Hong: A Northeast Crime Drama Cut Down to Mid-Length
A 1990s industrial-town crime drama from iQIYI's Mist Theater, adapted from a short story by Ban Yu and led by Ma Yili, whose 34 short episodes drew better word of mouth than commercial return.
Grain & GenerationsA Prophet: The Republican-Era Con Drama Where Every Trick Has a Trick Behind It
A guide to the 24-episode Republican-era swindler drama A Prophet, which ended its run in October: a hero who poses as a master to take revenge on a fraud ring, the folk-superstition cons at its core, Li Xian and Li Yitong's second pairing, its rename, and the overseas viewers who found it by word of mouth.
A Prophet
A 24-episode Republican-era con-artist revenge drama on Tencent Video and iQIYI, in which a ruined heir poses as a fortune-teller to bring down the swindlers who destroyed his family.
Grain & GenerationsMystic Nine: The Republic-Era Changsha Prequel to The Lost Tomb
A guide to Youku's 2026 Republican-era tomb adventure Mystic Nine: the nine families of Changsha, William Chan's return as Zhang Qishan, where the series sits in the Daomu Biji timeline, and how viewers reacted to its mix of horror, comedy and ensemble drama.
Overdo
A 33-episode Republican-era romance built on one actress and two names, adapted from a novel by Fei Wo Si Cun and met with a split reception.
Grain & GenerationsOverdo: A Republican-Era Romance Built on a Faked Death and a Second Name
A guide to the Tencent Video and iQIYI Republican-era romance Overdo: one actress playing a woman who returns under a new name, Zhang Linghe's place in the story, the two endings, and why viewers split.
A Love Never Lost
A 40-episode iQIYI period drama about five young Chinese at a Japanese military academy as the Qing dynasty falls, with the background overseas viewers need.
Grain & GenerationsA Love Never Lost: Five Students in Tokyo as the Qing Dynasty Falls
A 40-episode iQIYI drama about five young Chinese at a Japanese military academy as the Qing dynasty falls, with the background overseas viewers need.
A Lifelong Journey
A 58-episode family saga from 2022, on CCTV-1 and iQiyi, following one working-class household in a northeastern city from 1969 to the present; a patient, character-led story of ordinary life.
Grain & GenerationsA Lifelong Journey: A Viewer's Guide to China's Fifty-Year Family Saga
A 58-episode family saga following one working-class household in northeast China from 1969 into the present era, with the background an overseas viewer needs.
Grain & GenerationsTientsin Mystic: Li Xian's 2017 River-Salvage Mystery in Republican-Era Tianjin
A guide to the 2017 iQIYI mystery Tientsin Mystic: a river-police captain in 1920s Tianjin, Tianxia Bachang's novel, the series that lifted Li Xian, how it compares with A Prophet, and what happened to the second season.