Latest Chinese Drama Reviews
In depth reviews for the latest popular Chinese dramas.
Chinese Drama Updates
The Chinese dramas currently airing
New Podcast Episodes Weekly
Available wherever you listen to podcasts: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, iHeartRadio, Google
Chinese Pop Culture News and Drama Updates
Full series podcast episodes are available anywhere podcasts are available. Just search Chasing Dramas.
In The Know – Chinese Pop Culture News
Karen and Cathy explain cultural and historical references episode by episode in popular Chinese historical dramas as well as Chinese pop culture news. The podcast is in English with proper nouns and phrases spoken in Mandarin Chinese. Currently, they are discussing The Story of Yanxi Palace. Completed dramas/movies include: The Story of Ming Lan, Empresses in the Palace, Royal Nirvana, Palace (2013 film), and Mulan (2020 Disney movie) among others.
Former k-pop boy band EXO member, Huang Zi Tao, publicly announced his relationship to Xu Yi Yang on social media on July 13. Normally, these types of announcement garners a lot of discussion but this time, there's been more mockery/ridicule. We explain who they are and why this relationship announcement missed the mark.
Chinese Drama Updates!
Karen and Cathy explain cultural and historical references episode by episode in popular Chinese historical dramas as well as Chinese pop culture news. The podcast is in English with proper nouns and phrases spoken in Mandarin Chinese. Currently, they are discussing The Story of Yanxi Palace. Completed dramas/movies include: The Story of Ming Lan, Empresses in the Palace, Royal Nirvana, Palace (2013 film), and Mulan (2020 Disney movie) among others.
A full new slate of dramas have geared up for the summer season. New Wu Xia Drama Legend of Heroes is another adaptation of Legend of the Condor Heroes. Luo Yun Xi and Song Yi star in an original period romance drama Follow Your Heart. Meanwhile, Zhang Ling He has found his groove in The Princess Royal with Zhao Jin Mai. The hotly anticipated season 2 of Lost You Forever is slated to air on July 8th! Listen to our thoughts on these recent dramas in our latest podcast episode
Chinese History Through Chinese Dramas
In depth podcast series analyzing a specific Chinese historical drama
Currently Discussing: Joy of Life (庆余年）
The drama is the live adaptation of an essay that a modern day student is writing in order to enter a competition. The student wants to create a story that revolves around a modern day young man who is very ill but wakes up in the body of a young baby in a historical time period. The baby keeps all of his modern day knowledge as he lives in this new world that is entirely fictional.
The modern day young man is given the opportunity to live another life without his ailments and starts his journey as a child. The story begins with one of his mother’s servants, Wu Zhu, taking the baby to Dan Zhou, specifically the Fan family. The baby’s name? Fan Xian.
Fan Xian grows up in Dan Zhou as a ‘bastard” child of Fan Jian but has his “uncle” Wu Zhu and teacher Fei Jie as well as Grandma Fan that help raise him. When he grows up, he heads to the Capital city of the Qing kingdom. There, he experiences various aspects of life and we see how the modern way of thinking contrasts with the feudalistic society. This drama involves romance, friendship, family connections, political intrigue as well as martial arts. The first season had a grand cast and the second season is even bigger.
