Historical CDrama sets are too fake

It's something that bothers me whenever I watch a historical cdrama, where the scene set/stage is a city, the city is very uniform in appearance and looks like brand new. There is nothing "bad" in the environment, like the streets are super clean, there is no filth or anything, no beggers, no horse poo, everybody dressed cleanly, etc. It looks too fake in my humble opinion. And when there's like a poor child, they sometimes smear a black coal smudge on the face, but even that looks fake.

Why do they do such a bad job at it? Is it propaganda? That historical china was all fine and dandy? And it did not have all the filth that every other civilization had? I mean, if you have horses in the street, everywhere else on the planet there is horse shit on the street and the street is dirty.

I'm not saying the environment has to be super realistic, but it shouldn't be this obviously faked, sanitized version of history.

With the rich history of china for thousands of years, it's a pity that it gets so heavily censored today and we don't get to see it in a more truthful manner.

 mjf314:

Does recent history count as historical?  If so, you might be interested in The Blue Kite, a realistic movie set in the 50s and 60s.

I am only thinking of dynasty dramas.

 ArniA:

It's something that bothers me whenever I watch a historical cdrama, where the scene set/stage is a city, the city is very uniform in appearance and looks like brand new. There is nothing "bad" in the environment, like the streets are super clean, there is no filth or anything, no beggers, no horse poo, everybody dressed cleanly, etc. It looks too fake in my humble opinion. And when there's like a poor child, they sometimes smear a black coal smudge on the face, but even that looks fake.

Errr... aint those also in other historical dramas - like kdramas and western dramas (eg. GOT)?

Maybe this will help explain why historical Cdrama settings look surreal. You can google more about  Hengdian World studios, a very interesting place which I plan to visit once China opens up.

https://www.hengdianworld.com/en/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7735569/The-mega-Chinese-film-studios-Hollywood-shame.html

I agree, especially with lower budget "idol" dramas which get produced in droves.

I found the historical sets/costumes more acceptable in dramas like Yanxi Palace or even One and Only.