Over in drama land, we suspect that networks must be hoping right now that the Olympics will keep everyone distracted from the fact that a lot of their currently airing dramas haven’t exploded in popularity…
- 👀 Joseph Zeng and Chen Duling’s Republican-era drama A Lonely Hero’s Journey dropped this Tuesday. Chen Duling has been stuck being the bridesmaid, never the bride (aka playing the supporting role) for a long time prior to this, so we’re personally invested in seeing how viewers will react to her in her first main role in a while.
- 😶 Love’s Rebellion (Jing Tian, Zhang Linghe) just managed to squeak past 7k on iQIYI’s heat index after it aired nearly two weeks ago. Its thunder has constantly been stolen by…
- 🥉 Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 2 may have finished airing, but it’s still busy topping iQIYI’s heat indices (and debuting with a spectacular 8.4 rating on Douban). Needless to say, iQIYI wasted no time in greenlighting Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 3: To Chang An.
Meanwhile, some drama couples can’t seem to get enough of each other, because…
- 👫 Zhao Jinmai and Zhang Linghe (who just starred together in The Princess Royal) have been announced as the leads in youth drama Our Generation, produced by Daylight Entertainment! Is this a fashion glow-up or glow-down for Zhang Linghe, who will go from imperial regalia in Princess Royal to ‘90s sweatshirts in Our Generation? You decide.
- 🍉 Zhou Ye and Lin Yi, the leads of Everyone Loves Me, are rumored to reunite again in Red Dance Shoes. We’re a little dubious of this melon since Lin Yi is set to film the movie Our Destiny in August, but let’s see.
And a quick check-in on Chinese entertainment news…
- 🤵🏻 Xiao Zhan continues to seal his dingliu status by landing the cover of ELLE China’s September issue, decked out in Gucci and Boucheron. He’s the only male star on one of the Big Five’s all-important September covers this year (on the girls’ side, Dilreba is rumored to be on Harper’s Bazaar).
- 💃 Bai Lu unlocked the cover of L’Officiel China for the first time in the July issue (delayed to feature the new Michael Kors line, where she is Greater China spokesperson). Personally, we’re hoping this might signal the imminent drop of her next drama, Northward.
- 🏆 The 37th Hundred Flower Awards, China’s oldest film awards, were last week. Nothing groundbreaking appeared to emerge from it, but Yu Shi won Best Newcomer for Creation of The Gods: Kingdom of Storms and Zhao Liying also won Best Supporting Actress for Article 20.
- 🥖 Divas Hit The Road 6 live tracker: the cast popped up in France! Here they are cheering on the Chinese team at the Olympics before making their way to southeastern France.
In some birthday news…
- 🏍️ Happy birthday to Wang Yibo, who is now 27 years old (no longer the 弟弟 of the industry, but a 哥哥 now)!
- 🐱 Ni Ni turned 36 — and gifted her fans not only with her existence, but also with the magazine spread (and cover) of Shang Cheng Shi.
And as always, we made some updates to the C-Drama Airing Schedule this week. Here are a few notes on some of the changes…
- ⌛ Quite a few big-hitters wrapped filming this week, including Bai Lu and Joseph Zeng’s Lin Jiang Xian, Dilraba and Chen Xingxu’s Love on the Turquoise Land, and Yang Mi and Ou Hao’s This Thriving Land. We’ve updated their statues to reflect that.
- 🔜 Are You The One, starring Zhang Wanyi and Wang Churan, has been announced to air on August 12 (check out the trailer here). This will be Wang Churan’s first time back on our screens as female lead since her much critiqued turn in Fireworks of my Heart…
- 🌸 Meng Ziyi and Li Yunrui’s drama Blossom just received its distribution license. All we can say is that it’s got a name to live up to. Literally. All of the Blossoms titles so far this year (Blossoms Shanghai, In Blossom, and Blossoms in Adversity) have varied from being wildly successful to pretty successful.
