Frost_edelweiss

桑稚 Sāng zhì as in 稚气 Zhìqì (innocence, naivety, simplicity, juvenile, childish) : appropriate name! Her nickname is 只只 ZhǐZhǐ ("one and only").

It's a while since I did that, but if you have a download of a drama or a movie without subs, you can try to add subtitles from Subscene, in srt format. It is not technically very arcane. here is the link for Hidden Love subtitles : https://subscene.com/subtitles/hidden-love-secretly-secretly-but-unable-to-hide-it-cant-be-concealed-tou-tou-cang-bu-zhu

Yihe Daxue 宜荷大学: It is the name of the university she planned to go to, in Yihe city, " 500 km away from Nanwu" but a short flight away from where she lived.
Yihe was also the home town of Duan Jiaxu, but after the airport breakup, she still wanted to go to Yihe university because it was the best fit for her studies : she liked to draw, and her grades were enough for her to be accepted there to study digital art, design and animation.
That was a skill that could get her work in commercial advertisement and other types of business requiring animation, but she had no interest in game design. - Had not you caught on to the names of the cities when you were watching?
If you want more details on star making and messages etc, you can visit the https://kisskh.at/discussions/hidden-love/109103-shooting-locations-and-dates-misc-other-links?page=last&p=2648907#p2648907 where you will perhaps find answers to questions you still had not thought about :D

Yes, thanks a lot for the Weibo awesome item and the answers to my questions :D

Lol ! l was teasing you, because I noticed you rated HL 9.5 and MG 10.... I did the reverse, uhm no, MG 9 for me : despite I liked the fleshing out of the other F4 characters, it became too sprawling and the desert island bit after the kidnapping on London bridge, hmmm. But everybody's different, perhaps you would find me stingy about MG? I still appreciated that 2018 version of the all-Asian adaptations of Hana Yori Dango, despite F4 Thailand BOF, the shortest take on the story, earned a 9.5 from me. (I was also amazed earlier this year, to find Jerry Yan Chengxu from the first TW version of MG playing as if unaging from Daoming Si times, in The Forbidden Flower, with its awesome OST and steamy story that also kept me glued to screen.)
We do come together about LLTG in its very different category though : 10 both! I know you still love LLTG : you wrote an answer to grapejuice and my post, in which I had recommended it. I do love it too: in the wake of my recom, I just had to re watch for umpteenth time the highlights till Zisheng swept Shaoshang off her feet, Superman like, dangling from tower, and next kept the broken part of her jewel to lure her into his dark palace where I could almost picture vampires lurking in the corners hhhhh...

Let's keep HL to its current high (if we can)! Some evil haters are still busy trying to bring the drama down, and what they do really made my skin crawl, it is vicious. I don't want to give those haters any leeway to continue their mayhem using what I noticed, so I am not going into details on this public forum. Well, maybe I ought to step away as I did today, and forget about it, attending to other things that have cropped up... Life.

Changing tracks : Now, I hope First Frost will feature Victor Ma and not some other actor we might not like in the role... There's clearly a call from many places for that casting which had been considering the likes of poor Cai Xukun (whose career is probably on the rocks now that his likeness has been erased, using (imperfect) AI picture editing, in the show Keep Running!

Are you watching something else of interest? Me, I have put on hold some of the heavier items to have a (somewhat) different experience with a thriller: "Imperfect Victim" on iQiyi, that stars Zhou Xun. Just a couple episodes in now, so still not sure how far I will go with that one. It is not boring. A workplace harassment case. I am also tempted to try "Be Your Own Light" which starts with an awesome song by Liu Yuning who also plays in that one... There's way too much to watch, in this season! Some of the heavier items don't enthrall me as I thought they would : blame Hidden Love perfection! lol

Wishing you continued nice times drama watching !

Sure! As an addition to that heartbreak scene at the airport and aftermath, here is a song that could illustrate what Zhi felt, and I was so touched to see how many high school students were singing along in the second part "Graduation" of the video.
The song is among the ones I like a lot : Houlai, original by Rene Liu, sung here in bilingual Chinese and Japanese by Mai Mizuhashi Maria, posted this July 19 by China Hunan TV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cii0LlYNayk

Just watched this fun BTS : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owOoUROMP4o So cute!
The BTS is that of one of the "before end credits" that I called "puzzle pieces" in my entries for Episode guide.
Warning for new audience : Don't forget NOT to fast forward when you reach the place in the episode where there is a sort of photo catalogue. The puzzle piece comes just after, and it is also a game to see where in fits in the episode (at one time, in another episode), and what additional information it brings for the story.

Just saw some interesting Hidden Love ratings reported by a commenter.
Douban - 6. 7🎉
📍Weibo rating 8.2 🎉
📍MDL 9.2 🎉
📍 IMDB 8.8 🎉

Not too high. Just right imo :D
Hoping you'll enjoy it as much as many of us did. Me to the tune of 10/10.
Even going out of my way to contribute a sprawling Discussion to pin info about it (box above on this MDL page) and hunting up the music, additional to the OST... So loved it !

Can't because I am not signing up on Twitter.. . But the fact they are there and reposted to Weibo is fine and heart warming! ( Do you have the Weibo link btw? )
I don't do much social media....
Admiring you guys who have time to keep track of it.
Maybe I got to wrapped up in Hidden Love and some other dramas.
Spend too much time here and thinking about it, but that's me, when I like something I don't hesitate to rave about it to friends and acquaintances.

MikaM : I posted a question that's been in my head about where Yihe and Nanwu are modelled from. Got the answer that shooting location was Xiamen, but was Xiamen intended to be the model of Yihe and if so, where was Nanwu 500km away, university city with flight connection. Checking on a map from Xiamen, I found Shenzhen and vicinity to the south (even HK but I think that does not look likely) and Wenzhou to the north. But since some people say the story is based on true memories from the author, I wonder if they modeled it on the city/cities they came from and/or studied in, so I'm also curious about that. - Perhaps you have clues about that?

yes

I have some questions about book/drama setting and possibly additional shooting location.

We know the drama was shot August 2022 -Nov 14th, 2022 in Xiamen, Fujian, and that knowing about this has boosted tourism to the pleasant city, special island, and even to the Xiamen Science and Technology Museum (not sure if that was also the case for the Hao Jiu Bu Jian bar after the livestream ;-) perhaps too... Many must have at least gone listening to the Eason Chan mandopop song, I think.)

So, Yihe is modelled on Xiamen, but then, Nanwu "500 km away" university town, with direct flight links to Yihe would be where : Shenzhen in the south ? Wenzhou north of Xiamen ?

Given that some who read the story say that it is based on true memories, where was the author from and where did they study?

oooh! these are nice testimonials from the non c-drama habitual audience ! 🤞🥰
(even if I don't use Twitter myself, I was pleased to watch that from your links)

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Jiaxu is unique. But there are nice 愛人 out there to be found too, I'm sure, just don't go expecting everyone of them to be that good !

From what I heard and read, it is better not to focus on Douban scores which can be wildly off, esp when water armies of paid haters are at work, and we know for a fact that ZLS dramas often are targeted by such.
Gen Z was fine for me although I'd term it as non-romance; the "ML" Luo Yizhou filled in for an actor who could not make it, and he is primarily a young idol rapper dancer (hence the very good song he did for GenZ) but this was his first acting drama experience, and I think he was overwhelmed by the stars he featured together with (Wu Gang, ZLS...) and somewhat unprepared to pull off a role where he was supposed to be 1/pissed and jealous of the stranger who suddenly was brought into his home to take his expected place as heir of a sect ; 2/ protecting a mental basket case; 3/somewhere along the line "falling in love" with FL (to satisfy the part of audience that can't do without love and kisses?) and having a long distance (but can we even really call it that) relationship : it is more a hiatus away, in plague times. That was a tall proposition even for seasoned actors, so I will not hold it against young Luo Yizhou that he did not manage to shine like most of ZLS other "leading men" did in her romance dramas. Some have harshly criticized him for lack of "emotional milk", but to my mind it is unfair to double down on him that harshly. He was playing an unsure young man full of prejudices and self-doubt, with a proud front, and did that OK.
But Wu Gang, ZLS and a few others made the story very interesting for me, and I looked at this drama from the point of view of an engaging introduction to Daoist thinking, with lots of small touches of traditional culture (solar terms, amulets and superstitions, symbols), Qigong, DDJ culture, and TCM, and how they fit in the modern world. It was very unusual, not at all like mainstream c-dramas. But tailored to people interested in culture more than romance, and perhaps better appreciated by those who have some previous knowledge about the arcane stuff of Daoism, or at least of practicing Qigong and Taiji, and using TCM, herbal remedies, and acupuncture, even if the drama does not take place in a martial arts school but in a traditional pharmacy and TCM school with ties to a modern university and hospital.
I have been treated successfully by the TCM specialist in a modern hospital for some complaints, so I did watch this in light of my memories.
The GenZ drama felt rather realistic despite the sect angle which goes beyond what I know about (although I am not a healing practitioner myself, and only did a relatively short stint practicing in a Wudang shan martial arts school, way back) ; the persuasion angle I can relate to, so the "witch doctor" remedies can have value, just like elsewhere placebo effect has been proved sometimes valuable. Of course, they should be taken as more humorous than serious (but I was amused to find a reference to a similar "remedy" in the beginning of My Fireworks on Earth!! those who watch/watched both will know what it is :D )
Also, as Emmaline Zhang put it, it can be considered as an "educational family drama", where the real (non romantic) ML Wu Gang is a teacher and leader in education who applies unusual methods but knows how to assess interest and gain respect even from the apparently catnapping student. Such teachers are rare and admirable.

Now about Hidden Love, to me there is no doubt that it is the best c-drama youth/coming of age romance that I saw. No clingy FL, no overbearing ML, no whining except from the obsessive one (thankfully not there much), whose presence also showed the contrast and the difference between wholesome and genuine care vs mental case obsession.

Oops sorry I offended you. And I ought to have remembered to put my thoughts in spoiler since they were not for everyone.
But you don't know me either to target me ad hominem as a "Karen" and that's where I would be unhappy with you for using that line. Me a "blonde racist soccer mom"??? Not at all, and I would never call other people names anyway: basic respect.
I'm happy you liked the drama, even if it was less than I did.
Of course you are entitled to rate as you feel like. And 8 is not anything to be ashamed about.
I noticed you rated some other c dramas as high or higher than I did, so thought you were appreciating some things more or less like I did, but truth is that everyone indeed is different, and if it was not so, the world would be boring wouldn't' it ?
I'm deleting my previous answer to you, since you took it personally so bad, although I never attacked you as if you were a hater.
Case closed for me. Have a a nice end of day.

I am very happy to have guessed you'd like it !!

To me that one felt like climbing ever higher peaks from episode to episode and I was glued to screen, raving about it, throughout its airing... Despite I started lukewarm because of the triggering family and apparently abusive mom. But since you are at ep8, you have overcome the most difficult entry gate point. I had needed help from the esteemed MDL stalwarts to not fly away in horror. I took their suggestion, started a few episodes in, got hooked and went back to start to admire General Ling Buyi (Wu Lei) perusing the slender hand pointing to the haystack, and following the carriage while pronouncing in a wondering and appreciative tone the name of the young lady Cheng (ZLS) whom he still had not seen the face of.


About Hidden Love, I pinned and contributed some infos on my now sprawling Discussion piece which you might find interesting, as a goodbye to the drama : https://kisskh.at/discussions/hidden-love/109103-shooting-locations-and-dates-misc-other-links
(Readers of Discussions are welcome to react there too and/or add information related to it, btw)

Chen Zheyuan has been a somewhat underrated actor dismissed as "idol" since he started in a boy group and despite he himself does not like singing or rapping that much and clearly prefers acting. He knows how to portray conflicted characters with swift and smooth body and eye movements. (Remember ZLS asking "where is he?" in the livestream after she taunted him with the Hao Jiu Bu Jian song of Eason Chan?)
I like him since Handsome Siblings. But now at last, he gains international fame.
He is now firmly in my long list of preferred Chinese actors of the GenY Digital natives or GenZ Zoomers 1990s generation.

He sure is a walking advertisement for nice prescription glasses!
But I was also laughing my head off at Sang Yan's asymmetric sunglasses. Found similar ones on etsy, but it is a little complicated to picture them in the wardrobe items listed in the link for that on my https://kisskh.at/discussions/hidden-love/109103-shooting-locations-and-dates-misc-other-links
If I do find pictures that can be added there for both those glasses, with their brands, I sure will ! Or, if anyone finds them, they are welcome to add them in answer on the Discussion! :)

If you are curious about some infos about characters names meaning, ages CZY, film set, location, dates of filming, wardrobe, car, songs featured in the drama, recipes and handicraft related to Hidden Love drama, try looking up the Discussion item I started : https://kisskh.at/discussions/hidden-love/109103-shooting-locations-and-dates-misc-other-links
I've added some more there today and in a few related pinned discussion items, so they can be found more easily for those who know how to navigate the Discussions board

(Navigating Discussions can be done either through clicking on the name of latest Discussion in the box above, when such name appears, or, when it doesn't and states "be the first" etc, just click on that and that takes you to the drama Discussions menu that was kept hidden. Or, quite simply use the gateway through the direct link I gave you).