Heart Signal Season 8

Probably one of the worst seasons of Heart Signal China

Heart Signal China has long been one of the most popular dating shows in China, in part due to its innovative approach to selecting people who genuinely want to date and its legacy of advertising and producing lasting couples from previous seasons. On that note, this season feels completely foreign and different. Whether it is about picking participants, content, or editing, the show falls short of its prime in previous seasons, losing credibility.

To begin, this show has failed to pick the right people (In my opinion). Previously on the show, we had, to some extent, a broad distribution of personalities, where you could find extroverts and introverts in both gender groups. You would also feel that past seasons' participants (except a few) were genuinely here with a goal to find love. This would create an enjoyable atmosphere where you'd see both sides engaging in pursuing actions, which makes the participants' experience more interesting and valuable. This season, on the other hand, feels like the opposite. You have, on one side, all the extroverted girls, and on the other, all the introverted guys (except for one male: Zihan). This leads to the girls chasing the guys more, but on the other side, the guys are hesitating and not committing. Not to imply that introverted people are not welcome, but the show has picked introverts who seem not to have moved on from past situationships/relationships. Again, not to imply they don't want to find new people to date, but you can tell that there needs to be a certain mindset when it comes to how serious you are coming onto this show. If we wanted to see someone come onto a dating show, unsure or just seeking fame, we could absolutely watch some Western meme dating shows on Netflix. This show has been known in the past for genuine people who want to date, but I'm afraid it has changed now with this season.

Content-wise, it was not so refreshing, to say the least. Having watched all seasons, you will notice that the show builds on itself to provide more special and meaningful opportunities for potential couples to interact. However, in contrast to past seasons, the change in this edition is not visible. You would get interesting date themes here and there for "potential couples" like past seasons. However, the addition of the train ride is somewhat underwhelming in terms of significance. At least, the ride is a significant fall from what it was supposed to replace in last season's "Once Date". It is still a private time, but it is so short that nothing meaningful can be created from it. What it has done is essentially equal to discussing while walking in the park, but just private. No more, no less.

The bad editing can be said to suggest that the creators genuinely don't care about viewers' emotions. This statement ties into the previous two because it is probably the worst job they did this season. I'd say they took advantage of the participant's situation to incite more drama than needed. It is worth noting that the multiple love triangles at the beginning did make this show interesting at first, but it quickly grew beyond what people would consider appropriate. It may seem longer, but the time for one to choose between choices is actually not that long in real life. And if you look closely at this season, viewers can generally see how fast participants begin to orient themselves to the people they are interested in. However, the editing was adjusted to make it seem that the triangle lasted the entire show until the confession date. This is a misjudgment of what viewers want to see, and misleads people on opposite ships to virtually insult each other. This is just not healthy for the show.
On top of that, the panelist on this show (respectfully) seems quite clueless to some degree. This may align with what the show intends for them to do, but their overreactions to things that don't really matter mislead people into a completely wrong direction. Two notable examples are Jiao Zhiheng and Wang Yifan, again with all due respect to them, who want to chase the one they are interested in; unfortunately, their methodology is not the right way to make it happen. And most of the panelists portray them as brave individuals, without offering any advice on the consequences of their actions. This conveys the wrong message to many people who would do the same in real life, and could quite literally get ridiculed for it.

And finally, this show seemed not to have learned from the lessons of season 7. For those who didn't watch, Season 7 featured a very popular couple called Gaoya CP (Penggao - Weng Qingya). That couple became popular because of viewers being literally moved by the male's determination in pursuing the girl. However, Qingya didn't appear to feel the same way. However, the editing team continued to allocate screen time to them, advertising them as if they were the most successful couple of that particular season. It was all good until the couple announced their breakup before the show even finished airing. Inevitably, it made a fuss, and the girl got cyberbullied. And from then on, the show lost credibility, as it made people feel like they were being lied to. This season, with the Lechen situation, is no better. I will not delve into whether his motives were good or bad. Still, in addition to being indecisive in the show, people in China have been circulating rumors that he joined with different motives and broke up with Luyuan not long after the confession night. Regardless of whether it's true or not, it's the same thing as season 7. The most advertised couple in the season becomes questionable, and with that goes the credibility of the show again. On the other hand, the couples that do seem to have the potential to last longer are underrated and underadvertised.


To conclude, numerous factors contributed to making this show one of the most popular dating shows in China. Historically, it has produced some of the most enduring couples in the dating show circle, including some who are still together, even getting married. This is the result of inviting genuine people and engaging in interesting dating activities/rules that made them iconic. Unfortunately, this season feels like an outlier to some degree due to the poor selection of participants, the addition of useless activities, and the misleading editing & comments from the panelists. A simple fact is that viewers always want a Happy Ending (HE) for their supporting couple, so why not advertise the true ones? Successful stories have made this show what it is today, but now they intend to show unauthentic couples as the main deal over the true ones for drama, which takes a toll on the show's credibility.

Fun note: not on a ship, but May FangLan CP last

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