The summary is terrible so I refuse to post it here, but you can see the drama page here on MDL.The native title is 那年花开月正圆 (Nà nián huā kāi yuè zhèng yuán; That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full). 

It’s one of the best slice of life historical cdramas out there. I recently saw it on one of those “most watched dramas” lists, and I have no idea how accurate those things are, but wouldn’t be surprised about this one being on the list. The lead actor, Sun Li is an absolute queen and one of my favorite actors in the world.

I tried to find an official trailer – it’s been quite some time since it aired in 2017 – but there’s this which is low-key seems to be a summary of the series:


Or this:

And this which is in Chinese and subbed in Thai 😅

So I picked this as my “Road Trip” pick because even though it was a [triple] rewatch, it’s one where the characters travel all over China – and in fact to other countries as well, and it’s a series I want to talk about because more people should watch it!

Nothing Gold Can Stay is set in the very late Qing Dynasty. It’s historical fiction – our protagonist, Zhou Ying was a real person. However, the actual person differed from the character – she’s mentioned at the very end, and they say she was from a prominent family, basically the “ideal woman” and was incredibly impressive in running the business of her husband’s family – which she had to take control of when she was widowed and there was nobody else to step up. (Or willing to step up…)

Anyway, the series hints at it, but she never goes and looks into her background. (That actually disappointed  me, but alas. And there was enough other stuff going on.) So in the drama, she’s a purported orphan, raised by her foster father who is basically a trickster. He tells her about her “origin” using a different story each and every time. One of his common “quick money” schemes is selling Zhou Ying (often under a made up name) – and once he has the money, he has her stay for a few days, then they run away and move to a different place. They perform street performances and trick people out of their money with something of a crew.

Basically at the beginning, he sells her yet again, but then disappears. Her new “master” (Shen Xing Yi)  is a young asshole. You’ll hate him. He’s abusive, and she runs away by hiding in a visitor’s (Wu Ping) palanquin. In order to save her life, he lets her stay with him as a servant. He develops feelings for her, but knows nothing can happen between them. There’s a lot of drama, and the situation arises where he’s on the verge of death, and his family decides to rush a wedding to “bring joy” to heal him. (It was a whole thing, I can’t think of the term and am not sure if that was a practice in the western world.) Anyway, his fiancée – there’s been an arrangement since childhood – doesn’t show up, so Zhou Ying steps in basically on a whim. It works out! So since the Wu family has integrity, they decide “she married our son when it was unclear whether he would live or die, so we’ll let her stay as the legitimate wife.”

The Wu family is quite wealth, and is an imperial merchant (a family that provides goods to the palace or for the court). That means both status and money. There is a huge learning curve, as Zhou Ying was basically an unruly girl that lived on the streets. And now she has to act like a wealthy young miss, essentially noble-adjacent. This is also a time and society when women weren’t even supposed to show their faces much less be in the street. (Don’t yell at me, I don’t make these stupid fucking misogynistic rules.)

Having both watched a lot more costume cdramas and read a LOT more cnovels, I picked up a lot more cultural things and loved how great of a slice of live series this is. The acting is good, the costumes gorgeous, the settings fantastic. I really miss these big budget dramas that give the story time to cook. I have no idea where this was filmed but it really does show the vastness of a large established family – their “residence” was basically a neighborhood In and of itself.

We have Zhou Ying struggling to learn etiquette, (and in general – she’s barely literate, which impressive enough she can read anything), then running the business – both convincing the Wu family and the people she has to do business with. The jealousy of the other family branches, schemes, political upheaval … an extremely corrupt prince who makes everyone’s lives miserable … a magistrate who first dislikes her for being so “unwomanly” but then falls in love with her …

I’m not getting to the travel part, but Zhou Ying does have to go all over the place to establish connections and acquire goods. She goes far west and establishes relationships with foreign merchants. Later (much later), she goes to Shanghai for business. I believe she does business with both British and French merchants. I believe the equivalent period would be the Edwardian era, and it was so interesting seeing those dresses in a cdrama (a good amount of them were in Shanghai).

I watched it on YouTube here:

And I checked some random times – it seems the subs are pretty good. Yay!

Definitely an A.

… I realized I didn’t talk about the romance. Her puppy love with with her husband, but he dies quickly. I suppose some people would say the hero is Shen Xing Yi, but he’s such a brat for so much of It it. Also they’re a toxic awful mess, generally. And their ending, well … I don’t want to talk about that either. (Idiot. Him. Although I guess at the very end he does something … slightly noble.) Anyway, I had long liked Zhao Bai Shi for our girl, and I get why she wouldn’t marry him (she made this horrible vow basically like “may I be struck with lightning and never be able to reincarnate if I remarry in my life” – because her asshole uncle [in-laws] made her do it in order to be allowed to take over the family business… but anyway in my head they get together, whether with “formal status/legally” or not and fuck like rabbits and are quite happy, the end.