INK & IMMORTALS
Xianxia & fantasy
Deep, annotated guides to Chinese xianxia and fantasy dramas — the context a Chinese viewer already has walking in.
Love in the Clouds
A 36-episode Youku xianxia romance in which a disguised warrior goddess poses as a dancer to get close to the man who beat her at a tournament, and each hides the truth from the other.
A Moment But Forever
A 36-episode xianxia romance on iQIYI and Youku in which a goddess sent to take a priest's divine relic by force ends up protecting him instead.
My Journey To You
A 24-episode iQIYI martial-world spy romance: an assassin slips into the Gong clan's fortress as a bride candidate and finds that its new, unwanted leader is the person she must get close to.
Till the End of the Moon
A 40-episode Youku fantasy romance in which a cultivator travels back 500 years to stop a hostage prince from becoming the Devil God, adapted from a web novel.
FEUD
A 32-episode iQIYI xianxia romance in which a weak sect disciple marries a Heavenly Lord who suspects she is his reincarnated rival and first wife.
Love in Pavilion
A 36-episode iQIYI fantasy-romance in which two clan leaders try to hold together a fragile alliance in a world split between humans and demons, adapted from the Fox Spirit Matchmaker comic.
Fangs of Fortune
A 34-episode iQIYI fantasy mystery in which the chief of all demons joins a demon-hunting bureau and the team investigates creatures from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
The Legend of Shen Li
A 39-episode Hunan TV, Mango TV and Tencent Video fantasy romance in which a warrior queen flees an arranged marriage and falls to the human world.
Lost You Forever
A fantasy romance on Tencent Video, 39 episodes in its first season, about a displaced princess who lives as a small-town doctor in a land shared by humans, gods and demons.
Heroes
A 38-episode Tencent Video wuxia drama from Wen Ruian's novels, in which a kind-hearted youth leaves his mountain and is drawn into a feud between two powers in the capital.
Snowy Night Timeless Love
A 32-episode iQIYI wuxia romance adapted from Cang Yue's novel, about a wandering swordsman and the physician who keeps the healing valley where he comes for help.
Love of Nirvana
A 40-episode Tencent Video martial-arts costume romance in which a lord hiding in a rival kingdom has his plan broken by a stranger, and three people are drawn together.
The Starry Love
A 40-episode fantasy romantic comedy on Youku in which twin princesses of the human realm are sent to the wrong husbands, one in the Heavenly Realm and one in the Void Realm.
When Destiny Brings the Demon
A 33-episode Youku xianxia romantic comedy in which an office worker wakes up as a disciple in a cultivation sect and is assigned to serve a furious immortal sealed inside a mountain for 500 years.
Guardians of the Dafeng
A 40-episode fantasy mystery from CCTV and Tencent Video: a modern police-academy graduate wakes up in a prison cell in the Dafeng dynasty and joins its night-watch investigators.
Love on the Turquoise Land
A 32-episode Tencent Video fantasy mystery in which a sculptor who hunts monsters for a secret clan and a man living among her enemies are forced into an uneasy partnership.
Blood River
A 38-episode Youku martial-arts drama about an assassin guild whose leader is poisoned, and the scramble among its three clans that follows.
Mysterious Lotus Casebook
A 40-episode martial-arts mystery on CCTV and iQIYI in which a retired swordsman lives as a wandering country doctor and solves strange cases with a young hothead and an old rival.
The Longest Promise
A 40-episode Tencent Video fantasy romance about a disgraced crown prince in hiding and the young princess who becomes his student, adapted from a novel by Cang Yue.
The Later Journey to the West
A Journey to the West sequel with no human actors: characters, sets and performances are AI-generated, and it aired on Hunan Satellite TV.
Ink & ImmortalsThe Later Journey to the West: A Mythological Series With No Human Actors on Chinese Prime-Time TV
A guide to Mango TV and Hunan Satellite TV's AI-generated series The Later Journey to the West: what Chinese reports say about how it was made, how it reworks the Journey to the West story, and how viewers have reacted to the images and the pacing.
Ink & ImmortalsLove Beyond the Grave: The Costume Fantasy Where a Ghost Lord and a General Share One Set of Senses
A guide to the Tencent Video costume fantasy Love Beyond the Grave: a ghost lord born without senses, a young general who shares them with her, the Jinjiang novel behind it, and why a record-setting sign-up count was followed by a more modest run.
Ink & ImmortalsThe Legend of Shen Li: Zhao Liying's first turn as producer, and a runaway phoenix
A ruler who flees an arranged marriage, falls out of the sky as a phoenix, and lands in the care of the last ancient god — 2024's prime-time xianxia (immortal-fantasy) romance, and Zhao Liying's first credit as supervising producer.
Ink & ImmortalsThe Longest Promise: a faked death, a disciple, and a two-year wait on the shelf
Shot in 2021 and released in July 2023, Xiao Zhan and Ren Min's xianxia (immortal-fantasy) romance is a master-disciple story about a framed crown prince and a princess who is fated to hurt him.
Ink & ImmortalsTill the End of the Moon: a time-travel rescue mission aimed at the man who becomes the Devil God
She travels five hundred years back to stop a prince from becoming the Devil God, and falls for him instead — the 2023 Youku hit that reportedly became the most-watched period drama since 2020.
Ink & ImmortalsLove Between Fairy and Devil: the mid-budget xianxia that went viral on word of mouth
A mid-budget 2022 xianxia that turned into a global short-video phenomenon before most Western viewers had heard of either lead.
Ink & ImmortalsImmortal Samsara: the 2022 hit that rewrote its own novel's ending
A four-leaf lotus spirit, a heavenly lord who loves her against the law, and a two-part release that changed which man she ends up with compared with the source novel.
Word of Honor
A 36-episode 2021 wuxia on Youku: a former secret-organization chief with about three years to live meets the lord of Ghost Valley, who has a revenge plan of his own.
Ink & ImmortalsWord of Honor: A Wuxia Road Story About a Man Who Left His Organization With Three Years to Live
A guide to the 2021 Youku wuxia series Word of Honor: a secret-organization chief who leaves at a deadly price, the Ghost Valley lord he meets on the road, and how a Priest novel's jianghu became the first two-male-lead drama of 2021.
Sword Dynasty
A 2019 iQIYI sword-and-cultivation revenge drama, and the first pairing of Li Xian and Li Yitong.
Ink & ImmortalsSword Dynasty: The Sword-Realm Revenge Drama That First Paired Li Xian and Li Yitong
A guide to the 2019 iQIYI wuxia series Sword Dynasty: a chronically ill wine-shop youth who sets himself against a royal house, a world organised around the sword and levels of cultivation, Li Xian and Li Yitong's first pairing, and a divided reception.
The Untamed
A wrongly vilified hero, a loyal love interest and a sixteen-year mystery, set among the great cultivation clans of a fantasy ancient China.
The Untamed: a beginner's map to the drama that broke the internet twice
Before you watch fifty episodes of sword-wielding immortals solving a decade-old murder, here's what a Chinese viewer already knows walking in — and why the show became a global phenomenon anyway.
Ink & ImmortalsAshes of Love: the grape sprite, the loveless elixir, and 15 billion views
A carefree grape sprite is secretly the daughter of two deities, and has been fed an elixir so she can't fall in love. Jiangsu TV's 2018 hit turned that premise into a love triangle among brothers and a court conspiracy.
Ink & ImmortalsEternal Love: the 50-billion-view xianxia romance that came before The Untamed
50 billion views and counting — the xianxia romance that a lot of overseas fans still call their gateway drama, years before The Untamed existed.
The Legend of the Condor Heroes
A 52-episode wuxia remake from 2017 of Jin Yong's novel, following a slow but steadfast boy and a quick-witted girl through a Song-dynasty world at war; a reasonable first wuxia drama.
Ink & ImmortalsThe Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017): An Easy First Door into Jin Yong's Wuxia
The 2017 series of Jin Yong's much-adapted novel: a slow, honest boy and a quick-witted girl in a country at war, how this version compares with the classics, and why it reads differently at home and abroad.
Ink & ImmortalsNoble Aspirations: How a Famous Web Novel Became a Two-Part Xianxia Drama in 2016
A guide to the 2016 xianxia drama Noble Aspirations: the web novel Zhu Xian behind it, a cast led by Li Yifeng, Zhao Liying and Yang Zi, a release split between Hunan TV and Tencent Video, and the argument over its special effects.
The Journey of Flower
A 2015 Hunan TV xianxia about an orphan, her immortal master and a forbidden love, and the drama that made the genre mainstream.
Ink & ImmortalsThe Journey of Flower: the 2015 hit that turned a xianxia novel into a 20-billion-view franchise
Master-disciple forbidden love, a demon god, and a heroine who ends up carrying the world's power in her own body — the 2015 Hunan TV drama that became the first Chinese series past 20 billion online views.
