Chinese dramas have been entertaining viewers for over 50 years, and that’s a lot of good, bad, and okay C-dramas through the years. While new C-dramas are great, sometimes you just want to watch the shows from simpler times.
These are some of the ones we wish would get remakes or picked up for new seasons. (We won’t include Meteor Garden since that one already got a remake, and we gotta say, we’re pretty happy with it.)
Journey to the West (1986)
Released in 1986, this all-time favorite TV series in China brought one of the most important classical works in Chinese literature to the small screens. It tells the journey of obtaining Buddhist sutras. The adventure is led by Tang Monk Xuanzang as he is accompanied by his disciples: Zhu Bajie the pig demon, Sha Wujing the river demon, and Sun Wukong, who is more commonly known as the Monk King. There have been a couple of remakes of this for both television and the big screen, but nothing compares to the original.
I Love My Family (1993)
Source: IMDb
This is one of China’s most popular sitcoms. It revolves around a family, their relatives, neighbors, and friends, highlighting the way of life in Mainland China. It’s also one of the very first Mandarin language, multi-camera sitcoms to be shot. Reruns of this show are still on some TV channels in China, but we would like to see a comeback.
Shanghai Bund (1980)
Source: IMDb
Chow Yun Fat. Do we have to say much more than that? It’s become known as the Chinese version of The Godfather. Set in the underworld society of 1920s Shanghai, it revolves around a tumultuous love story. Must we say more about why we want this to come back?
Dwelling Narrowness (2009)
Source: IMDb
Let’s bring it forward a bit with an urban drama that aired in 2009. The series focused on the crazy housing market in urban China and the ordinary citizens struggling to survive in cramped living spaces. The story is based on a novel of the same name. It focuses on two sisters who have different lifestyles and are trying to improve their quality of life in their own ways.
The Red (2014)
Source: IMDb
An ordinary worker in Shanghai gets entangled in underground circles at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war — that unexpectedly becomes part of a decisive moment in Chinese modern history. The series highlights patriotism, but the drama and intrigue of the series is something we miss.
