First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

Well, you know the rules. The more you want people to stop doing something, the more they want to do it. Not sure how this will turn out in the end for the production, whether they can air the series or not, but here we go. As you know, I don’t read novels so I was surprised to learn that there is a category specifically made for novels with the focus on male OTP called Dan Mei (耽美), which means a liking towards pretty things (Lol, the crime we suffer under!) Love Is More Than A Word (识汝不识丁[Shi Ru Bu Shi Ding]) is a novel written by Su You Bing and a skim of the synopsis suggests that humor (besides the pretty boys) is its strongest draw. It’s the first drama adaptation of a dan mei novel in ancient setting (what they say.)

Characters Stills:

Yan Zi Dong. He plays our male lead, Gu She; a cold, intelligent, and well-educated lawyer. He starts out with indifferent feelings towards the new magistrate in town but through solving many cases together, they gradually develop feelings. This kid is handsome! Me Like!

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Danny Jiang Zi Le. Our other male lead, Tao Mo. The new magistrate in town. He’s illiterate and an unlearned man, and his post was bought through money. Described as naive and well-meaning, he only likes to stare at pretty boys. Lol. On a serious note, he has a mystery behind his father’s death. A love triangle is formed when his old lover appears half-way into the story.

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Korn Kong Chui Nan. He plays Emperor Wen of Chen. Many emperors in the days were suspected of having male attendants/lovers. Don’t ask me about history because I don’t pay attention enough. XD

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Liao Jin Feng.

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Myron Liu Yi Chen.

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Lu Zhuo.

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Wang Xu Dong.

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Zhang Hao Ran.

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Jiang Long. This kid is really cute with modern hair. His ancient hairstyle isn’t so well-suited here.

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Veteran Li Tian Zhu. He’s our magistrate’s wise assistant, Lao Tao.

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Ma Yao.

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Handsome Lawyer. 🙂

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Intro Video: BTS, Poster Shooting:

In charge of writing and directing the series is rising young director, Chen Peng, who was the person behind popular internet movie Like Love, of the same genre, and has worked with a few of the above actors in the same movie. Booting ceremony is held today, May 1st! Singer Han Lei of Mongolian and Chinese descent will be lending his voice for the soundtrack.

Via: 01

  1. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    OMG. I’ll watch it!!!!!
    Sign me in! hehehe. They’re all soooo cute *-*

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      All signed up. Lol.

  2. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    Ooh boy I’m seeing a lot of bromance lately lol. The title remind me of Extreme song More Than Words.

    “More than words is all you have to do to make it real
    Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me ‘Cause I’d already know
    What would you do if my heart was torn in two
    More than words to show you feel
    That your love for me is real” ?

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      Dang it, Em, throwing out poems poetic lyrics around here. hehe.

      Sometimes, I just wish for a good sisterhood story too. Le sigh.

      • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

        It’s not poem, it’s song titled: More Than Word

        I don’t know who’s sang this for the first time, but Westlife sang this when I was in 15 y.o

        • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

          I read song into ‘poem’. Time to sleep. X)

      • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

        Yup a good sisterhood story would suit LiYing since she likes and not afraid to kiss girls ?? ???

  3. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    This is really cool! Totally up for a male OTP in ancient setting. Honestly though I hope they act well and the whole production is well done. I have to say, a minor quibble really, but when will people understand that homosexual production does NOT equal all-male-cast-with-no-female-in-sight. The point about being progressive isn’t to make “male OTP” its own category. It’s not a genre. Trying to be progressive means “normalizing” male OTP couples (God, I hate using “normalizing”, I mean what does normal even mean, but for the sake of clarity, yeah). Like making it reflect real life, where in a drama, there are both hetero and homo couples, both males and females etc.

    Anyways whatever. It’s getting there. Nonetheless it’s a great first step!
    In the last 3 stills of the lawyer, doesn’t he look like Yi Yang Qian Xi from TFBoys? (he’s the shortest and youngest one of the band)

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      I understand what you mean but “male OTP” is a genre on its own. Not just in China but in Japan, you have boys love or yaoi manga and in America it’s called slash fiction. I’m not sure how actual homosexual guys think about it since a lot of these stories are written by girls for girls lol.

      • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

        Haha yeah. Realistically it is a genre. But what I mean is it should just be a genre. It’s not like fantasy, romance, and then M/M. Like yes, realistically that’s exactly how it is. But it bothers me cuz those “genres” aren’t even equivalent — that’s how it is, but that’s not how it should be. Categories should be specified differently. I understand some people like male OTPs or female OTPs more than hetero OTP from an entertainment/media/novel perspective, so instead of contemporary/urban fantasy/historical and M/M (assuming all the others are M/F), it should be M/M and M/F each having their own “genres”: like it should be an assumption that everything BUT the M/M category is all M/F (that’s why despite loving goodreads, their organizational labeling is a serious peeve).

        • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

          If there is a mix of M/M and M/F in drama or novel ..I will just skip the M/F scenes and that will ruin it .so I am glad that they separate M/M and M/F.

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      China won’t be there for us to make anything normal. Lol.

      The TFBoys still look like little kids to me. Yan Zi Dong looks hot! XD (Your description cracks me up because it’s well-meaning for me to picture them, yet I still failed.)

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      Lol, i agree with u completely.

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      I agree with you. I mean, there doesn’t even have to be a M/F couple in this one, I’m happy with one or two main couples who are all-male. But women aren’t just there to be love interests. I mean, all these male characters can’t be just love interests and rivals, they are probably also friends and antagonists and I’m wondering why not a single one of them is female.

  4. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    Wow wow!! Definitely watching this in order to see how it turns out and I love 耽美文 so yes to this drama!!!!!! The clothing and set looks good and pretty! I just hope that their acting won’t end up being stiff and unnatural!
    Have a feeling that the whole drama might end up being non-耽美 because well they will cut out scenes here and there in order to pass SARFT rules and to air on TV..

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      Acting is definitely gonna be the worrying factor. Just hoping that they give it their all. 🙂

  5. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    Ok, now I’m getting confused.I thought SARFT explicitly forbade productions with homosexual relationships and you can’t air them on tv, nor show online. How do the producers hope to broadcast this drama?

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      That’s what I thought too.

      I find it interesting that SARFT can ban these types of dramas and movies, but they haven’t done anything to ban the radio dramas online. Their rules are too confusing.

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      i won’t be surprised if they found some loophole. lols. these are the people who knowingly defy the system so they must have something planned. or they are going in blind and hoping it will get aired in some other medium. lols.

      pretty boys though. can’t believe i don’t see a single female in here. LOL!!

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      SARFT never explicily ban it, it was industry’s self regulation that never really worked.

      “The document exists, and is against everything from reincarnation to sexual liberation. However, if CNN had bothered to look up the organizations (one of which they named in the article), they’ll see that the document is by two non-state-sponsored organization with no jurisdiction over TV production. Just because an organization has the word China in it doesn’t mean it’s official.

      ….

      And it’s not that homosexuality is not allowed to air in China. Only last year, blockbuster The Dead End featured the male lead (Deng Chao) in a pretty intense make-out scene with another man. In 2013, the state-owned CCTV aired a scene featuring a homosexual pair caught (clothed) in bed in New Detective Squad. The same team later produced made-for-TV film Diving Boys 激情跳水梦, and the production team stated the film was written as a BL without overt romances. The film also aired on CCTV.

      To me, the bigger story here is that because of the ambiguity of SARFT and general lack of acceptance, several major productions have recently chose to remove homosexual relationships and add heterosexual ones in the process of adaptation . While the changes were not fundamental in series like Nirvana in Fire, it’s a much bigger deal in dramas likely to be centered around the relationships, such as Rebirth and maybe Song of the Phoenix. This is especially disconcerting in light of the rise of slash ships, so there’s a dichotomy of both the commercialization of fake homosexual relationships and the suppression of real ones in the TV world. This act of self-censorship is just as problematic as actual censorship, and is actually something that’s going on instead of made up by the press.”

      https://cfensi.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/epic-post-4-did-censors-ban-homosexuality/

  6. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    Or they might rely on “flexible” editing to show us a “bromance” instead of a “romance”…
    Anyway, I wish them the best of luck and good investment returns regardless of how they manage to get this drama to its viewers !

  7. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    If it gets aired, it will be cut like hell anyway. Sometimes you wonder what’s the point in watching China’s dramas… lol. After reading the characters’ profiles, I know who is top and who’s bottom, LOL.

    • 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

      I did not know that China have such strict policy about BL theme. The directors and producers should move to America to film lots of BL series and movies. BL theme it seems like it is quit popular now. I think American T.V. have less restriction or should I say are more lenient and understanding. I don’t think they just cut the drama because of the same gender theme. They cut seasons if it is not popular or making money. They also make it age restricted if there is sex scenes for viewers to watch or just cut that scene. LOL at your comment of who’s top and who’s bottom.

  8. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    I’ve been waiting for a gay-leaning, Chinese period drama like this forever. Please don’t cut this Chinese censors!

    —Gwailo in America

  9. 25 thoughts on “First Gay Ancient Chinese Drama: Love Is More Than A Word

    When do they start to air it?

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