You know that feeling when you stumble upon a show that feels less like a TV production and more like a dusty box of old family photos? That is exactly what happens when you sit down with the Our Days Chinese drama (also known as Our Times or Qing Chun Zhi Cheng). It is messy. It is loud. It is heartbreakingly slow in a way that modern high-speed thrillers just aren't. Honestly, if you grew up in a neighborhood where everyone knew your business—and your business was usually their dinner conversation—this show is going to hurt a little. But in a good way.
The series isn't just another period piece trying to capitalize on retro filters. It follows the lives of three families—the Wangs, the Xians, and the Yangs—across several decades, starting in the 1980s. It’s a massive undertaking. We are talking about thirty years of history crammed into 38 episodes. But it works because it focuses on the "smallness" of life. It’s about the struggle to buy a first television, the shame of a failing grade, and the quiet dignity of factory workers trying to navigate a China that was changing faster than they could keep up with.
What Sets the Our Days Chinese Drama Apart from Typical C-Dramas?
Most people go into C-dramas expecting either high-flying wuxia immortals or cold CEOs who fall in love with quirky interns. This isn't that. The Our Days Chinese drama belongs to the shidian or "realist" genre. Think of it as the spiritual cousin to the Reply series from Korea, but with a distinctly mainland Chinese grit.
Li Xiaoran and Li Naiwen lead the cast as Liu Shuxia and Wang Xian'an. Their chemistry is basically the gold standard for "old married couple energy." They fight about money. They fight about their kids. They fight about nothing at all. But when things get real, the support is unshakable. It's refreshing. You don't see many shows that actually respect the grind of long-term marriage without romanticizing it into some fairy tale.
One thing you'll notice immediately is the production design. The 1980s setting isn't just "big hair and bright colors." It’s the specific shade of green paint on the lower half of the walls. It’s the clinking of metal lunch boxes. It’s the way the snow looks in a Northeast Chinese industrial town. The director, Liu Junjie, who previously worked on Because of Meeting You, clearly wanted the environment to be a character itself.
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The Generational Gap and Why It Stings
The show really hits its stride when it pivots to the younger generation, specifically Wang Xuehua. Watching her grow from a tomboyish troublemaker into a woman trying to find her identity in a shifting economy is a journey.
Many viewers actually found the transition from the child actors to the adult actors a bit jarring. It’s a common complaint in long-spanning dramas. You get so attached to the kids that when the "adults" take over, you feel like you’ve lost a friend. However, Zhou Yiran brings a specific kind of stubbornness to the adult Xuehua that bridges that gap eventually. The conflict between her desire for independence and her father's rigid, old-school expectations is the heartbeat of the middle section of the series.
The Realism of the "Small Community" Trope
Living in a dayuan (a large compound or courtyard) meant you had no privacy. In the Our Days Chinese drama, this is depicted with brutal honesty. If someone’s kid gets sick, the whole block knows. If a husband loses his job, the neighbors are already whispering about it by sunset.
This leads to some of the most emotionally charged scenes in the show.
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- The shared meals where tensions simmer under the surface.
- The way neighbors chip in when a family hits rock bottom.
- The inevitable falling out when life paths diverge.
It shows that while the community was a safety net, it was also a cage. You see this clearly with the character of Dongyang. He's the "smart kid" who represents the pressure of an entire neighborhood's expectations. When he succeeds, they all feel like they won. When he struggles, the collective disappointment is suffocating. It’s a nuanced take on the "village raising a child" concept that doesn't shy away from the darker side of communal living.
Navigating the Historical Context Without a History Degree
You don't need to be an expert on Chinese economic reforms to enjoy this. The show explains the "Iron Rice Bowl" (guaranteed lifetime employment) perfectly just by showing the terror on characters' faces when talk of factory layoffs starts.
The shift from a planned economy to a market economy isn't explained through boring lectures. Instead, we see it through the lens of a family deciding whether to quit a stable state-owned job to start a risky private business. It’s about the fear of the unknown. The Our Days Chinese drama captures that specific 90s anxiety—the feeling that the world you were trained for no longer exists, and you have to reinvent yourself at forty years old or get left in the dust.
Why the Ending Divided the Fanbase
Without spoiling the specifics, the final arc of the show took some risks. Life isn't a neat bow. Some characters don't get the "happily ever after" the audience thinks they deserve.
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Critics of the show felt the pacing slowed down too much in the final third. Others argued that the "drama" became a bit too melodramatic toward the end. Honestly? That’s life. Real stories get messy and sometimes people make frustrating choices. The beauty of this series is that it refuses to give you the easy out. It demands that you sit with the characters through their mistakes, just like family would.
How to Watch and What to Look For
If you are planning to binge the Our Days Chinese drama, keep an eye on the background details. The transition of technology—from radios to black-and-white TVs, to color TVs, to the first clunky computers—is handled with incredible attention to detail.
- Platform: Most international viewers find it on iQIYI or YouTube with subtitles.
- Vibe: High-quality cinematography, heavy on dialogue, emotional payoff is slow but deep.
- Key Themes: Loyalty, the cost of progress, the weight of parental expectations, and the resilience of the working class.
Final Practical Takeaways for New Viewers
If you’re ready to dive in, don't rush it. This isn't a show you watch for the "plot twists." You watch it for the atmosphere.
- Give it five episodes. The first few episodes focus heavily on the parents and the childhood of the main cast. You need this foundation to care about what happens twenty years later.
- Pay attention to the food. Food in this drama is a love language. Pay attention to who is cooking for whom; it tells you more about the relationships than the dialogue ever could.
- Expect tears. Not the "tragic accident" kind of tears, but the "wow, life is just really hard and beautiful at the same time" kind of tears.
The Our Days Chinese drama serves as a reminder that while the world changes—phones get smaller, buildings get taller, and jobs disappear—the basic human need for belonging stays exactly the same. It’s a sprawling, imperfect, and deeply moving tribute to the generations that built modern China. If you want to understand the soul of the country beyond the skyscrapers of Shanghai, start here.
Actionable Next Steps:
Check the official iQIYI app for the 4K remastered version if available in your region, as the cinematography in the snowy Northeast scenes is stunning. If you find the middle-age transition difficult, stick with it for at least three episodes of the "adult" era to allow the new actors to settle into their roles. Once finished, look up the soundtrack; the nostalgic 80s-inspired score is one of the best in recent C-drama history.