The Beijing News Entertainment Group just handed out its annual citations for best dramas, variety shows, and acting performances in 2023.
They sorted out the popular Chinese series (web and television) aired between December 23, 2022, and December 22, 2023, and selected winners based on dimensions such as quality, popularity, aesthetics, innovation, media evaluation, and comprehensive voting from fans.
What set these citations apart is that the group gave reasons why they chose the winners. Here's the list of awardees and the reason behind their selection:
Drama Category:
1. Best Annual Variety Show:Â
- Farm It (iQiyi). This drama is influential in the sense that the participants showcase the whole process of rice planting, rearing, and harvesting. It convinces people to appreciate the life and hard work of farmers. What made this reality show different is that this was not starred by popular stars, all the 10 young men underwent an audition to participate. So Farm It is more like a farming life documentary rather than a celebrity reality show.
2. Annual Topic Variety Show:Â
- Divas Hit the Road season 5 (Hunan TV/Mango TV). The Silk Road season starring Dilraba Dilmurat, Qin Lan, Xin Zhi Lei, Qin Hai Lu, Wang Anyu, and Hu Xianxu. The cast went overseas and experienced beautiful scenery, meeting different people from other cultures. They also worked out how to overcome difficulties when meeting people from other cultures. So it was more of a cultural discovery rather than an ordinary travel documentary show.
3. Annual Heartwarming Drama:Â
- Sunshine by My Side (Tencent, iQIYI, CCTV). This drama focuses on the emotional confusion of people living in urban areas, showing different emotional states at different stages in life. At the same time, the play depicts the life in the workplace that city people are constantly experiencing - the struggle to find a job and the discrimination in the workplace.
4. Annual Ingenious Drama:Â
- A Date With The Future (Tencent/WeTV). The love story between a firefighter and a journalist. After the devastation of earthquakes, they went in both directions of healing and redemption. It depicts different perspectives of the youths, showcasing the kind of responsibilities that the new generation of young people must have.
5. Annual Popular Drama:Â
- The Youth Memories (Tencent/CCTV). The depiction of the lives of young people full of hope during the era when China was opening up to the world (after Mao Zedong's cultural revolution), stirred up memories of the past generation, and also conveyed their youthful passion and ideals, arousing deep resonance among those who have experienced the era.
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| The Heart |
6. Annual Breakthrough Drama:Â
- The Heart (Tencent/CCTV). This drama breaks through traditional medical dramas through the presentation of real-life presentation of doctor-patient relationships and the ingenious character setting. It found a subtle balance between professionalism and idealism. The two male protagonists, Lin Yi (played by Jin Shijia) and Zhou Xiaofeng (played by Mark Chao) showcase the doctor's dilemma between emotion and reason.Â
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| An Ancient Love Song |
7. Annual Best New Drama:Â
- An Ancient Love Song (Bilibili web drama). This very unique story of a parallel love that happened in reverse time is so rare in a drama. He did not know when she was in love and she did not know when he was in love (because the timeline of their meeting is different). Domestic fans are impressed with the drama's cutting-edge narrative method and touching emotional interpretation.Â
- Our comment: Yes, indeed! This is also our top drama in 2023. This is the first C-drama ever that was based on a fan-made video on Bilibili, the director and screenwriters are relatively new. The main leads - Zhang Yaqin and Guo Jianan are not very popular, but somehow this drama managed to get attention from domestic fans and even went on to become the highest-rated costume drama in Douban in 2023.Â
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| The Long Season |
8. Annual Quality Drama:Â
- The Long Season (Tencent). Uniquely different from the chilling and cold style of previous suspense dramas set in the Northeast. The Long Season brings a poetic language with lyrical and romantic audio-visual language. Through touching details, the quality of life full of the fireworks of the time is created, thus, broadening the new dimension of a suspense drama.
9. Annual Influential Drama:Â
- The Knockout (iQIYI). This drama not only depicts the real problems but also explores the root cause of the problems. It has the flesh and blood and realism and the roots of idealism. Its creation of group portraits is particularly wonderful It's not a complete opposition between black and white, but has a more complex social nature, making the audience believe that these people and things are entirely possible to happen in real life.
PERFORMANCES:
1. Annual Popular Actress:Â
- Charmaine Sheh for The Queen of News, a Hong Kong TV series. Beijing News comment: Hong Kong actress Charmaine Sheh delivered a strong performance with so much firepower as Wen Huixin, the female anchor of SNK-News. She generated so much discussion in mainland China for portraying such a role. With her convincing performance, Wen Huixin became her most impressive character after Concubine Xian in Story of Yanxi Palace (2018).Â
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| Cheng Yi |
2. Annual Popular Actor:Â
- Cheng Yi for Mysterious Lotus Casebook. Beijing News comment: Cheng Yi plays two contrasting characters, Li Xiangyi and Li Lianhua, and he delivered both roles very well, putting a distinct identity to each character. convincingly and admirably. He broke the label of "traffic niche" through his strong acting performance.Â
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| Liu Shishi |
3. Annual Breakthrough Actress:Â
- Liu Shishi for A Journey To Love. Beijing News comment: Liu Shishi plays a person who is getting weaker inside but getting stronger outside. She delivered a clean acting performance as a martial artist.
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| Xiao Zhan |
4. Annual Breakthrough Actor:
- Xiao Zhan for The Youth Memories. Beijing News comment: Xiao Zhan breaks through his own limitations and past acting styles and brilliantly portrays Xiao Chunseng, as an idealistic character, cheerful, upright, and loyal, a good representative of the youth during the period when China was opening up to the world.Â
Congratulations to all the winners! Looking forward to more high-quality works this year.
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