China’s hottest tv drama
I’ve never really watched much Chinese tv because, apart from some internet comedy series, I never found anything that could keep my attention for more than 5 minutes. Singing contests? Please. Reality shows with celebrities I’ve never heard of? No thank you. Dramas with a thousand episodes, ridiculous plots and dialogues and the worst actors I’ve ever seen? Pass. Dramas about the Sino-Japanese war and the Communist liberation? Kill me, please. And that was mostly what I could find when I turned on the tv.
Until… a few weeks ago. Some friends came home for dinner and, while the men were cooking, my friend showed me some new dynasty drama that had just been released: The Story of Yanxi Palace. There have been many dynasty dramas in Chinese television before, but for some reason this one has been a huge success: according to this article, 530 million people (that’s almost half of China’s population!!) watched it on August 12, and the series has had a total of 5.6 billion views in a month!!
As you can guess, some of those views came from our house!
The Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略) is set in the Qing Dynasty, during the reign of emperor Qianlong (1735-1796). Wei Yingluo is a very clever girl who starts working in the Forbidden City (a.k.a. Imperial Palace) as a seamstress, but her real goal is to investigate the mysterious death of her sister, who used to work in the palace too. She is later promoted to be the empress’ maid and she finds herself in the middle of the plots and schemes of the emperor’s concubines, who really are a nasty piece of work. So how is this palace drama different to the previous zillion ones? I’m not very sure as I never managed to watch one! Maybe this one is slightly better written, characters have more depth and the actors have more than one facial expression. Also, the costumes, sets and photography are quite good. Or maybe I am just bored out of my wits waiting for this baby and I would have watched anything!
One of the evil concubines… she’s the queen of eye rolling and fake sweet voice, haha.
If you are interested in watching, I just found out it’s in Youtube! Only with Chinese subtitles, though. Language is a bit complicated sometimes as my imperial Chinese is the worst, but I learned a lot of expressions. My favourite is that, when talking about themselves, the empress and concubines don’t say “I”, but 本宫, which literally means “this palace”. Each one of them lived and was the head of a palace inside the Forbidden City, but what a strange way of referring to oneself!
Have you ever watched a Chinese tv drama?
I finally know what the name of this drama is! It’s crazily popular here in Hong Kong as well – people are watching it left and right. I might just… try it for myself, lol!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Haha! Is it dubbed in Cantonese? I read that one of the actresses is from HK and pretty famous.
说来你可能不信，据故宫工作人员所说，延禧楼其实在那时候是一座烂尾楼…….
我本来不知道这个延禧到底什么意思，刚查了！
I guess I will have to wait for English subtitles. Bummer.
I read they sold the rights to many countries so it shouldn’t be long before it’s available with English subtitles!
I love these kind of shows. There are a lot of good historical dramas on http://www.dramafever.com.
Hope that website gets it so you can watch it, hehe. It’s the first Chinese historical drama I’m watching.
Right now, I am watching this one. HEY, looks like you are a few days late on your delivery.
https://www.dramafever.com/drama/5226/ruyis-royal-love-in-the-palace-/
The love of watching shows with brimming with evil scheming back-stabbing characters is universal.
Of course! If all the characters are good and there’s no conflict at all, what’s the point? xD In this drama, characters are changing from good to evil at an alarming rate though!!
Going from good to evil is a requirement of surviving in the Qing court? Wouldn’t be surprised. :)
Sounds quite interesting Marta.
And very useful to learn imperial style Chinese, haha!
I watched a while ago on Netflix a few Chinese movies. One was about women soldiers and lots of magic. I prefer as you know Korean dramas. Thankfully Netflix has moved on from showing those with scream over the top acting mother in laws. I’m currently watching Mr Sunshine a period drama too. Set around when Japan starting showing interest in Korea and the American’s too. It’s a romantic drama albeit with some fighting scenes. Another 2 great Korean dramas I finished before this one: Something in the Rain and Korean Odyssey. Hello My Twenties is good too!
I’ve never watched a Korean drama hehe. Are all romantic? I am currently watching Crazy Ex-girlfriend.
Not all are romantic! I haven’t watched Crazy Ex Girlfriend yet. Is it good?
It’s hilarious haha, totally recommended!
“A Korean Odyssey” is terrible, but I still finished it because I have a major crush on the lead actress.
I enjoyed it! The guy who played the devil King made me laugh. Way better than Mr Sunshine that’s the new show Korean show on Spanish Netflix. I gave up on that one.
Well, not intentionally. But as you imagine, old Chinese, Indian and Japanese TV shows are dubbed with bad Thai (or Khmer) and replayed ad nausea. But with the popularity of Korean dramas, and probably even the massive influence of American TV (Hello Netflix) and movies, I’m not surprised that the quality of Chinese TV has bumped up a notch.
I’ll have to wait for English subs! I’ve enjoyed several epic Chinese movies with subs. Enjoy. It’s great to get lost in a good series. I like the premise!
Sounds really interesting. My grandfather is a chinese but I don’t get to know the language. Chinese is in my blood. I hope I can watch this somewhere with subtitles. :)
Yayyyy!!! I’ve heard about this show!!! Thanks for finding it on youtube for me :) Totally gonna check it out.
I’m usually not into the historical dramas either (for the same reasons you listed), but if that many people watched this drama it must be good!
In chinese there are 尊称 and 谦称，尊称 is a respectful form of address，and 本宫 is a kind of respect for himself，The source of 本宫 is mainly because of the ancient powerful concubines are a one-person palace. There’s 本宫。Modesty is also found in court rituals. For example, the Queen calls herself 寡人。
No, I rarely watch Chinese drama on tv..but then I haven’t had a tv at home in 8 yrs. :)
Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t wait to check it out :)
Have you watched The King’s Woman? Is this better? The King’s Woman I’d really the first historical drama I’ve watched. I wrote a review on my blog.
Sorry, I haven’t watched that one!