My New Obsession with Chinese Dramas

For a long time, I've carried shame about not being able to speak or understand any kind of Chinese dialect, especially because my mom is a Mandarin bilingual teacher, and my grandparents speak Cantonese. It has made me feel like a bad Asian. (Among other things like not being able to play the piano or violin.) So now, with all this time on my hands, I'm finally trying to learn Mandarin. I've been using apps and watching a lot of Chinese dramas with English subtitles. I love them. (I've also watched a few variety shows because of the Meteor Garden boys etc.) The dramas are different from the typical English content I absorb and it's refreshing. And of course, because I have a nerdy brain and almost went into sociology, I love seeing how Chinese and Taiwanese media tell stories in these formats and how they differ from Western media, and what kind of stories they even decide to tell in the first place. Of course they have their own tropes and their own styles so I found myself watching certain scenes and thinking "this would never happen in an American show".

The first show I picked up, and what got me hooked on all this, is the 2018 Meteor Garden remake. It's the China version. It's on Netflix. It's 49 episodes. I love it. I don't know where I heard about it, probably online or from some Asian YouTubers or something, but I remember hearing it was good so somehow it ended up in "My List" on Netflix. It's a remake of the 2001 Taiwanese series by the same name, which is based on a Japanese manga. For some people, this remake is major nostalgia, for me, not at all. I did not grow up watching any Asian content at all. Anyway, turns out, there are a bunch of different versions of this same story: like a Korean drama (that's also on Netflix) called Boys Over Flowers. But for me, this 49 episode first season was enough of this one story. (Yes, 49 episodes. Each about 45 minutes long.) Especially with that ending. Not to spoil anything for anyone that wishes to watch it in the future, but if you know, you know. Reddit, and various Chinese drama bloggers, have my same feelings about it. (Yes, I did Google what people thought of the finale to see if I was totally off or if we all felt the same way.) The plot is a cross- social class love story with lots of drama and some angst. A super rich, business heir bad boy falls in love with regular girl who, at first, really does not like him at all. In the first episode, the female lead literally fly kicks the male lead in the face. It's great. At first, the show seems kind of goofy but then I fell in love with it. The point is, Meteor Garden was my gateway drug into Mandarin language dramas.

Then of course my Netflix "recommended" list became more Asian content, which led me to Twogether. A reality show of 2 Asian male celebrities travelling around Asia and doing exciting tasks to eventually go meet a fan. One is Korean singer and actor Lee Seung-Gi, the other is Taiwanese actor Jasper Liu (Liu Yihao). They don't speak the same language so they actually alternate between Korean, Mandarin, and English (but it is a Korean produced show so a lot of the onscreen words are Korean but there are English subtitles). I started watching it to see how they would communicate, since I had no idea who either of these people were. Twogether fed my travel desires in the era of coronavirus, as well as my desire to learn Mandarin. It's also just a fun show that made me laugh, which is a change of pace from my normal intense American TV watching. (I had just binge watched the final season of 13 Reasons Why before I started these Mandarin language shows.) So then from there, I started watching some of Jasper Liu's shows. Which are also on Netflix. Easy!

I started with Netflix's Triad Princess. A 2019 Taiwanese show featuring Jasper Liu. It's 6 episodes, each about an hour long. Some of it is super goofy, some is super cute, there is also fighting, so how could you not love it? Oh! Also some gay romance in there, which I love because it's progressive and in 2019 Taiwan was the first Asian country to make same sex marriage legal! A super simplified description of this show is that it follows the daughter of a crime boss and a superstar actor.

Then I watched When I See You Again, another Taiwanese drama featuring Jasper Liu. It's from 2015 but is also on Netflix. It is 32 episodes long, about 45 minutes each episode. I loved that one too. Again, a super simplified description of this show is that there are 2 people that reunite 10 years after a big misunderstanding and the nerd that was bullied in high school is now a handsome rich man who stumbles across the girl he liked 10 years ago. We get some good romantic, family, and work/business drama in here.

I don't know what I was expecting from these Asian shows but I keep thinking to myself that these characters are so complex. I've been feeling like they have such fleshed out family lives and drama and secrets and emotional trauma/baggage. I love it. So that's how I have been spending my summer so far. I also found https://www3.dramacool.movie/ which has tons of English subbed Asian content. So if you're ever interested in any of this, check it out! I'm currently obsessed with it.