China’s Unofficial Bromance Magazine

The Harper’s BAZAAR《时尚芭莎》magazine was initially released in China as Best China Fashion《中國時裝》in 2001 by Trends Media Group. Trends began it’s copyright collaboration with Hearst Communications (parent company of Harper’s BAZAAR) in 2002 and officially changed the name to Harper’s BAZAAR《时尚芭莎》in 2005. Harper’s BAZAAR China has since expanded into digital formats, vlogs and an annual celebrity charity gala.

Harper’s BAZAAR is commonly referred to as just BAZAAR《芭莎》and regularly features couples (CP) on their magazine cover, including Bromance CPs. This ongoing feature has earned BAZAAR the reputation of a “wedding photoshoot” magazine. There are also running jokes that the magazine is actually a side business with the wedding company it’s main business and that the owners/top execs are all “CP界親媽” (a term for female CP fans who are generally old enough to be the mother of the CP. I’m in this category for half of the CPs below! *face gasp emoji*).

Ultimate Note《終極筆記》: The OTP of PingXie “瓶邪”

Ultimate Note《終極筆記》is a low budget web C-drama that had started airing with little fanfare and then negative buzz due to the disappointment of the 4 previous drama adaptations of the Daomu Biji《盜墓筆記》Chinese IP series. But as the drama progressed, the ratings started climbing and the Daomi 稻米 (Daomu Biji fans) began to feel hopeful. By the time the finale aired, Daomi and non-fan television viewers were smitten with this little drama that could.

Trailer for C-Drama Ultimate Note《終極筆記》

Ultimate Note is like a Chinese Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft meets The Ring meets Jumanji meets The Untamed in a horror-mystery-adventure-action-comedy drama. You know you’re truly invested in a drama when you start screaming “OMG!” and “watch out!” at the characters on your TV. And just when you thought there wasn’t any romance in the drama, you realize there’s something even better… PingXie.

Douluo Continent 《斗罗大陆》: Drama vs. Donghua

Novel to drama adaptations have always been controversial with plot and character changes a common thing, especially in C-dramaland. The scriptwriter(s) is tasked with adapting the original novel (intellectual property, IP) for a television audience that may be unfamiliar with the story while dealing with censorship, budget and other restrictions. C-novel fans are seldom satisfied with the C-drama adaptations. Sometimes the changes are wonderful (such as The Untamed, Hikaru No Go and Ultimate Note), but mostly they are baffling and messy.

Douluo Continent is in a unique situation where the drama is compared to the novel, and donghua (Chinese animation) series. I did not read the Douluo Continent novel, but as a fan of Xiao Zhan and the Soul Land donghua series, I was very happy that the Douluo Continent drama finally aired on February 5, 2021. Plot and character changes happened as expected. What was unexpected (for me anyways) was all the complaints about the CGI for the soul powers with constant comparisons to the donghua. I think it’s safe to say that a low budget C-drama will have some cheesy CGI. It’s almost a prerequisite for a fantasy C-drama.

I didn’t have any expectations for how the soul (aka spirit) powers and beasts would be showcased in the drama. No expectations means no disappointments, right? Right! Majority are acceptable for me with a few that I laughed out loud when I saw them. There are a few in particular that have donghua fans upset and made me wonder why the drama chose to go that route.