Uncontested Irrefutable Examples

It's no secret that the various genres currently being kept dry by the "Cdrama Umbrella" can cause a lot of debate.

I labelled Love Between Fairy & Devil as Xianxia once and I definitely wasn't accosted but it didn't go unnoticed. (MDL Tags be damned).

If someone wanted to start a conversation regarding these genres. What foolproof examples would you use?

I'm talking about "ain't no question" that this is what [insert Cdrama Label] looks like"

Important Note

My question is not without purpose, I have a project I'm working on and for all intents and purposes, this project is aimed at new watchers.

If possible, would you guys mind sticking to " new" Cdramas?

Don't ask me to define new because no matter what age, we are all gonna feel old.

Just think "would new watchers hear about this drama within their first year of discovery".

Also, costume dramas get divided like a pizza, but modern dramas stay... Modern? Help!

Edit

I would like to emphasize that I do have my own examples, but I'd rather you guys touch this topic as my ten-foot pole isn't strong enough to keep the monster from pouncing.

Edit 2

Thanks for trying to define them, guys, but all I'm looking for are examples that will spark the least amount of debate. 💕

Like, Ancient Love Poetry & The Last Immortal are clearly Xianxia while Mysterious Lotus Casebook is clearly Wuxia, you get what I mean?

I really appreciate all the help!

"What was your first Chinese Drama?"

That is a question I find very intriguing and fun.

It's always nice to see where someone picked up and which dramas you can nudge them towards based on that first taste of escapism.

My first drama was Love You Seven Times 七时吉祥, it aired late 2023 and I found it in early 2024 after a particularly amazing YouTube short ended up on repeat for at least ten minutes while I was casually scrolling. (Yes, that 10-minute cycle was on purpose).

To say that it made a big impression is an understatement.

My first recommendations obviously included the beloved Love Between Fairy and Devil 苍兰诀.

Since my plunge into Chinese dramas I have learnt that quite a few people have found Cdramas through one of these three dramas:

• Love Between Fairy and Devil 苍兰诀

• Hidden Love 偷偷藏不住

• The Untamed 陈情令

Since then, I've heard this rhetoric change, I've heard people mention The Double 墨雨云间 as their first drama. One or two people have mentioned Love in the Clouds 入青云 and recently one or two* people have mentioned that Pursuit of Jade 逐玉 has been their gateway drug.

*Or ten or twenty

With so many dramas being released every year, and the fact that a 2023 drama is now considered "not new" (quarter life crisis over here), I was wondering...

To the newbies, the oldies, and the inbetweeners, what is your C-Story?

Dramas in order are:

1. Nirvana in Fire 琅琊榜

2. Love O2O 微微一笑很倾城

3. Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (Eternal Love) 三生三世十里桃花

4. Story of Yanxi Palace 延禧攻略

5. The Untamed 陈情令

6. Go Ahead 以家人之名

7. You are my Glory 你是我的荣耀

8. Love Between Fairy and Devil 苍兰诀

9. Hidden Love 偷偷藏不住

10. The Double 墨雨云间

11. Love in the Clouds 入青云

12. Pursuit of Jade 逐玉

Back in the olden days, the "before-times", if you will. I once made a post about a little extraordinary mini-drama named Dominion & Devotion.

In the comment section of that post, you will find one of the coolest people ever, u/Odd_Drag1817, telling us about how they were told by another coolest person ever, u/AdFrosty0997 about an extra clip from the ending of the drama*.*

This clip is quite hard to track down. Every time I get someone new to watch D&D, I always go looking for this clip to alleviate the devastation of their broken hearts.

Long story short: I could never find the whole thing so, I scoured the interwebs and crawled my way through the Weibo-fences (thanks, Baidu) to find the original clip.

Of course, it was unsubbed, so I roped in the ever-awesome u/Navchaa and she graciously translated the text for me.

Since context is everything, please allow me to share the whole translation: (It's hilarious)

0.13 彩蛋 Easter egg

0.15 Emp:

早说放你出宫 (early say release you out palace)

I did say before that you can leave the palace

寻个好人家 (look -measure word- good person family)

To look for a good (marriage) candidate

你偏不听 (you side not listen)

You just didn't listen

现在倒看起朕的热闹了(now -indicating unexpected- look -imperial pronoun- hot noise)

But now you're looking at my excitement

Consort:

别啰嗦 (don't longwinded)

Don't be naggy

我要是想嫁人 (I want is think marry)

If I want to marry

还不会张嘴 (still no able open mouth)

I know how to ask

今天是你选秀 (today is you choose merit)

Today you're choosing (men for your harem)

赶快开始吧 (quickly start)

Let's start!

Sketchy dude:

我一胎能生八个 (I one litter can birth 8)

I can give birth to 8 at a go

八个呢 (8 -measure word-)

Eight!

ML:

草民苏木之 (grass citizen name: Su Mu (wood) Zhi (of))

This humble citizen's name is Su Mu Zhi

拜见陛下 (bow see bixia-emperor)

Greets the emperor

Emp:

我说怎么都是歪瓜裂枣 (I say how come it is all crooked melon split date)

I say, I wondered why it was all ugly folks

原来所有人做黑幕呢 (origin come everyone do black curtain)

Turns out that they were doing a behind the scenes thing

There are so many reasons why markdown is great and if I made a "case for markdown" then this would be a longer post but I'm not sure that "powers that be" will change a decision once it's been made.

No shade, that's literally just now big companies work.

Here is the thing, in the "way before times" (last year) markup could solve the following problem: if you wanted to post a video and you want some extensive text underneath but you want the post to show the video thumbnail when it shows up in feeds, you would have to use the app. (I'm on android).

If you use the website then the video gets absorbed into the post itself.

Meaning the solution was, type your stuff on your laptop, send the markup to yourself, and post on your phone.

If Markup is going away, it would be great if videos posted from the desktop website would just show the thumbnail, then we can just post there.

Otherwise, we need to manually format everything on the app.

An example:

Please, just keep the video thumbnail when posting via the website. Or keep markup.

I'm feeling very reflective tonight and I came across this post on Reddit.

It asked the question:

> What is your greatest C-Drama.

I saw some great options, Nirvana in Fire obviously came out as one of the top ones, but my somewhat sentimental mood made me consider this question a bit deeper.

My first ever Chinese drama is called Love You Seven Times.

And I'm going to be honest with you, this OST still brings tears to my eyes. It takes my heart away into a world that I simply cannot describe.

I watched this drama before I knew that "OST" can mean something other than "On Screen Text" (work stuff).

I watched it before I knew Ding Yu Xi and Yang Chao Yue's names.

Before I knew what MDL was, before I knew about phrases like "Netizens" and "Melons". When Weibo and Douban meant nothing to me.

Literally, I didn't know what they were, or that they even existed.

When I think of the drama that hit me the hardest, it's this one.

And it hits me in a way that makes me happy, sad, sentimental, wistful, and excited.

If you have seen this drama before, this is one of my first ever proper edits. I would have loved to share it here but BIG SPOILERS.

In the post I linked above, I commented after selecting the "other" option, about how Love You Seven Times was my pre-drama, drama.

Back when it wasn't a drama, it was a story. A world I could fall into and have everything around me disappear completely.

I don't know, man. I know usually a post is supposed to have a question at the end, a "hook" to get people talking.

But tonight, I just wanted to share this. I don't have a snappy hook. Just a story, the tale of my first story.

Disclaimer: This isn't a spoiler it's episode 1.

​

Okay, I pulled out the laptop for this, now you know it's getting serious.

F.L.U.F.F.

Fluff stands for:

Foolhardy Love; Upbeat Flirting; Feels

I actually pulled out my (closest) dictionary for this. Who would have thought that the 1991 Oxford Concise English Dictionary doesn't have an entry for the (totally legit) word "feels"?

*Disclaimer: Please assume for the rest of this post that the phrase "everyone" refers to people who enjoy the "fluffy romance" genre.

There are some "modern-fluff" dramas that you will find on most everyone's "you-have-to-watch-this" list.

One of these dramas being 2023's When I Fly Towards You.

The drama is based on the very aptly named novel "She’s a Little Crazy" (她病得不轻) by Zhu Yi (竹已).

If that author sounds familiar, I'll tell you why later.

When I Fly Towards You

I'm going to skip any more pretence at academic literacy:

• Every episode made me happy.

• It turns out, there doesn't need to be a heartbreaking internal conflict to keep a story engaging.

• It made me smile all the time.

• If a single tear was shed, it was out of happiness and general "sweetness-overload"

I loved the dynamic between these characters.

If you feel like it's unrealistic, fair enough. It doesn't fit my experience of high school, but it does fit my experience of university.

Basically, just pretend that these characters have reached that point in their lives where ego isn't the be-all and end-all. That stage in life where you can be friends with someone who has an obvious crush on you, without thinking that she "must be below" you. That stage in life where it's the group of friends that forms first, and the individual relationships follow later.

I know it doesn't matter too much, but I do want to point out that this drama is rated 9 out of 10 with 54,409 ratings on MDL and 8 out of 10 with 155,708 ratings on Douban

Zhu Yi (竹已)

I told you I would get back to her. Zhu Yi is also the author of a little-known drama, Hidden Love. You can find the author's history and backlist here.

I was surprised to see that Hidden Love and When I Fly Towards You aired at almost exactly the same time. Both dramas aired their first episodes in June of 2023.

I'm rather content with the fact that I watched Hidden Love so long ago, because I do not want to compare these two dramas. To say one is better than the other feels redundant since they both make me happy.

What I will say is that (as someone who doesn't actually rewatch dramas) (shocker, but trust me), I suspect I will be putting on an episode or two of WIFTY every now and then when our non-fluff world gets a bit too much for me.

The Rejected F.L.U.F.F. Dictionary

Fond, Frilly... I thought there was more.

Fun fact, did you know pages 1325 to 1349 of the 1991 Oxford Concise English Dictionary are occupied by exclusively words starting with "un"?

Understandable, I guess....