Source: The China Project (5/12/23)
Hit Chinese drama shows audiences what a healthy relationship looks like
Written by Zhang Yingji, “Nothing But You” has won over audiences by depicting a romance between a young man and an older woman. But the show is about much more than age.
By Selena Guo
Nothing But You (爱情而已 àiqíng éryǐ), a popular TV drama that recently concluded its single-season run, has brought the topic of older women dating younger men — 姐弟恋 jiě dì liàn — to the center of discussion in China. But it’s about much more than that.
The original Chinese title can literally be translated as “It’s Just Love,” which might have put off some viewers accustomed to shallow TV romances full of melodrama and sap. But Nothing But You hit deeper, and achieved the rare feat of pleasing critics, ordinary people (it has a rating of 8.2 out of 10 on Douban), and authorities. The Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, ran a glowing review, saying that the show shines a light on many career and relationship anxieties faced by early- and mid-career young adults, and that the healthy romantic relationship between the two main characters was like a ray of “sunshine.”
Nothing But You follows the development of a romantic relationship between the 22-year-old badminton athlete Song Sanchuan (Leo Wu [吴磊 Wú Lěi]) and the 32-year-old executive assistant Liang Yongan (Zhōu Yǔtóng 周雨彤). In one scene, Song’s stepdad teases Song about Liang’s age, to which Song replies, “It’s not that I’m into people who are 10 years older than me, it’s that I am into Liang Yongan.” Continue reading