{ "id": "epx9125ztn", "slug": "so-young", "title": "So Young (致我们终将逝去的青春)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "label": "Coming-of-age films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "label": "Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "So Young (致我们终将逝去的青春) is Zhao Wei's 2013 directorial debut, adapted from Xin Yiwu's novel, starring Yang Zishan and Mark Chao; it earned about 720 million yuan in mainland China and set the template for Chinese campus youth films.", "snippet": "So Young (致我们终将逝去的青春) is Zhao Wei's 2013 directorial debut, adapted from Xin Yiwu's novel, starring Yang Zishan and Mark Chao; it earned about 720 million yuan in mainland China and set the template for Chinese campus youth films.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "markdown": "# So Young (致我们终将逝去的青春)\n\n**So Young** (致我们终将逝去的青春, literally \"To Our Youth That Is Fading Away\"; often shortened to 致青春) is a 2013 Chinese youth romance drama directed by [Zhao Wei](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhao-wei) in her directorial debut, adapted from Xin Yiwu's (辛夷坞) best-selling novel of the same title, with a screenplay by [Li Qiang](https://www.edgepedia.org/li-qiang) (李樯) and Stanley Kwan (关锦鹏) as producer[1](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2014/0213/c375598-24347624.html). It was also Zhao Wei's graduation work for the directing program of the Beijing Film Academy[2](https://news.sciencenet.cn/dz/upload/201312681347683.pdf). Released in mainland China on April 26, 2013, it earned 46.5 million yuan on its first day, a record opening for a 2D Chinese-language film, and finished with a mainland total of about 720 million yuan[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1432233). The film is widely credited with setting the template for the wave of Chinese campus youth films that followed[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3153938).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / debut | Zhao Wei's first feature and her Beijing Film Academy directing-program graduation work[2](https://news.sciencenet.cn/dz/upload/201312681347683.pdf) |\n| Source | Adapted from Xin Yiwu's novel of the same title; screenplay by Li Qiang; produced by Stanley Kwan[1](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2014/0213/c375598-24347624.html) |\n| Release | April 26, 2013, mainland China; 131 minutes; Mandarin[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2765340/) |\n| Box office | Opening day 46.5 million yuan (then a 2D Chinese-language record); mainland total about 720 million yuan; worldwide gross $114.9 million[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1432233) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2765340/) |\n| Principal cast | Yang Zishan (Zheng Wei), Mark Chao (Chen Xiaozheng), Han Geng (Lin Jing), Jiang Shuying (Ruan Guan)[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2765340/credits/) |\n| Awards | Golden Rooster Award for Best Directorial Debut (2013); Shanghai Film Critics Award for Best New Director; three Golden Horse Award nominations[7](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/so-young/2000017056/) • [8](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/834) |\n| Novel sales | Over 1.5 million copies before the film; roughly 300,000 to 400,000 more sold during the film's theatrical run[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1432233) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and setting\n\nThe film follows Zheng Wei (杨子姗), an 18-year-old freshman who arrives at university expecting friendship and love, pursues the serious engineering student Chen Xiaozheng (赵又廷), and after graduation is forced to choose when her former lovers Lin Jing (韩庚) and Chen both return to her life a decade later[13](https://www.filmdoo.com/films/so-young/). The story is set against campus life in the late 1990s and early 2000s: a Douban review describes the setting as university life from 1998 to 2003, before the information explosion, with pagers, portable cassette players, and the employment pressures introduced by the expansion of university enrollment[14](https://movie.douban.com/review/5902456/). A pager mentioned by a professor on screen serves as a period marker, placing the student characters among those born in the late 1970s and early 1980s[15](https://m.fx361.com/news/2013/1121/11315238.html).\n\nCritics read the film as a narrative of youth already lost rather than youth lived. The critic Zhou Xuehua described its theme as a collective memory and mourning of youth, and noted Zhao Wei's own phrase for youth, a \"shining wound\"[16](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/2013/2013-05-10/162225.html). The same review highlights the contrast between the bold, headstrong Zheng Wei and the gentle, classical beauty Ruan Guan, whose death in a traffic accident on the way to meet a former boyfriend marks, in that reading, the end of the older feminine ideal[16](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/2013/2013-05-10/162225.html). The film ends without resolution, with Zheng Wei and Chen Xiaozheng seated side by side at the aquarium where they once met[16](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/2013/2013-05-10/162225.html).\n\n## From novel to film\n\nThe novel's author Xin Yiwu, whose real name is Jiang Chunling (蒋春玲), was born in 1981 in Nanning, Guangxi[9](https://www.11665.com/legalscience/civillaw/162483.shtml). In 2010 her agent recommended the book to the screenwriter Li Qiang, who passed it to Zhao Wei, then preparing her graduation project at the Beijing Film Academy's directing program. Li Qiang adapted it into a screenplay; after more than two years of preparation, filming began in 2012 and the film opened a year later[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1432233). Zhao Wei has said she and Li Qiang had been looking for a suitable subject for her first film until she read the novel[10](https://culture.people.com.cn/n/2013/0502/c87423-21337278.html).\n\nProduction took visible care with period detail. Zhao Wei said many locations from a decade or more earlier could no longer be found intact, so sets including the dormitory, the graduation farewell dinner, and a supermarket scene were built from her team's own design drawings, and she covered budget overruns herself[11](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/page/2013-05/10/07/hwbwhwx510b.pdf). The Osaka Asian Film Festival program notes that the film is also informed by the director's own experience as a college student in the 1990s[12](https://www.oaff.jp/2014/en/program/lineup/s12.html).\n\n## Box office and commercial impact\n\nThe release was a commercial event. The opening day's 46.5 million yuan surpassed the 35 million yuan first day of *Lost in Thailand* and set a new first-day record for a 2D Chinese-language film; three days passed 140 million yuan[17](https://www.yicai.com/news/2684007.html). Enlight Pictures, the investor and distributor, announced on May 8, 2013 that after 12 days the mainland gross had exceeded 520 million yuan, more than half the company's audited revenue for the previous fiscal year[18](https://companies.caixin.com/m/2013-05-08/100525141.html). Sixteen days in, the total passed 600 million yuan, briefly placing the film 14th in mainland box-office history at that time[1](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2014/0213/c375598-24347624.html). The final mainland total was about 720 million yuan, third highest of 2013[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3153938), and [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) records a worldwide gross of $114.9 million against a budget IMDb lists as an estimated CN¥20,000,000[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2765340/). (The Paper describes the production as a 60-million-yuan small-budget film; the two budget figures differ and no reconciled figure is available[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3153938).)\n\nThe film's success lifted its producers' share prices and, together with *American Dreams in China* and the *Tiny Times* films, ignited the 2013 youth-film boom in the domestic market[19](https://finance.people.com.cn/money/n/2013/0506/c218900-21375517.html) • [2](https://news.sciencenet.cn/dz/upload/201312681347683.pdf). It also drove book sales: the novel, already past 1.5 million copies, sold an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 additional copies during the film's run[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1432233).\n\n## Publication dispute\n\nOn May 1, 2013, two print versions of the story appeared on the same day: the novel reissued by Baihuazhou Literature and Art Publishing House as a film commemorative edition, and a separate book of Li Qiang's screenplay published by Beijing United Publishing under the slogan of \"rebuilding 'So Young'\". Media reports said the screenplay's publication had not been authorized by Xin Yiwu; her agent stated that she had licensed only the film-adaptation rights of the novel and that the contract said nothing about whether an adapted screenplay could be published[20](https://www.ciplawyer.cn/articles/114677.html).\n\n## Reception and honors\n\nThe film screened in the World Focus section of the 26th Tokyo International Film Festival, the Love section of the 57th [BFI London Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/bfi-london-film-festival), and festivals in Leiden and Stockholm[21](https://gs.weather.com.cn/zt/tqzt/2196839.shtml). Zhao Wei won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Directorial Debut and the Shanghai Film Critics Award for Best New Director in 2013, and the film was nominated for the Golden Horse Awards for Best New Director, Best Art Design, and Best Original Film Song[7](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/so-young/2000017056/) • [8](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/834). On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 61% Tomatometer from a small number of reviews, with an audience rating of 3.3 out of 5[22](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/so_young).\n\nCommentary was not uniformly positive. Reviewers noted a shift in pacing and visual texture after the campus section, attributing the difference to the move from collective campus life to individual lives after graduation[16](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/2013/2013-05-10/162225.html). The same review criticized the predominantly gray, dim lighting and color palette chosen for the nostalgic tone[16](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/2013/2013-05-10/162225.html).\n\n## Other adaptations and legacy\n\nThe property extended beyond the film. A stage play adaptation, directed by He Nian with a script by Guan Bo and Gan Lu as Zheng Wei, entered rehearsal in December 2013 for performance at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing[23](https://www.chncpa.org/zxdt_331/zxdtlm/mtsj_334/201608/t20160823_127937.shtml). A television series version began production in 2015, expanding the roughly 200,000-character novel into a script of more than 600,000 characters, with about 15 episodes on campus life and 25 on the characters' working lives afterward[24](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/tashuo/browse/content?id=b7a9e6fb3847cabb99f1fe2e). A second film drawn from Xin Yiwu's related novel, *So Young: Never Gone* (致青春·原来你还在这里), starring [Liu Yifei](https://www.edgepedia.org/liu-yifei) and Wu Yifan, was released in 2016 and grossed 336 million yuan[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1432233) • [25](https://file.iyanbao.com/pdf/59556-1c5054bd-033f-41bc-a258-d9c6a516a1ff.pdf).\n\nAs a cultural marker, the film is treated in Chinese film studies as the work that established the commercial campus-youth formula for the following three years[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3153938). A comparative study of Chinese and Korean nostalgia cinema places it, alongside the Korean *Architecture 101*, among works that fix youth in the everyday campus life of the 1990s city rather than in stories tying youth to larger social change[26](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002535122).\n\n## References\n\n1. [传播学视野下的《致青春》, 今传媒 via 人民网](https://media.people.com.cn/n/2014/0213/c375598-24347624.html)\n2. [2013年国产电影市场综述, 文化报 via 科学网](https://news.sciencenet.cn/dz/upload/201312681347683.pdf)\n3. [《致青春》原著作者辛夷坞：码字十年，遇到了网络文学好时机, 澎湃新闻](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1432233)\n4. [数说｜青春片浪潮十年记, 澎湃新闻](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3153938)\n5. [So Young (2013), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2765340/)\n6. [So Young (2013) credits, Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2765340/credits/)\n7. [So Young, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/so-young/2000017056/)\n8. [致我們終將逝去的青春, 台北金馬影展](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/834)\n9. [《致青春》原著作者与出版商的法律鏖战, 中国论文网](https://www.11665.com/legalscience/civillaw/162483.shtml)\n10. [人民网文化频道：赵薇谈《致青春》(2013-05-02)](https://culture.people.com.cn/n/2013/0502/c87423-21337278.html)\n11. [人民日报海外版 (2013-05-10)](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/page/2013-05/10/07/hwbwhwx510b.pdf)\n12. [So Young, Osaka Asian Film Festival 2014](https://www.oaff.jp/2014/en/program/lineup/s12.html)\n13. [So Young, FilmDoo](https://www.filmdoo.com/films/so-young/)\n14. [《致青春》影评, 豆瓣](https://movie.douban.com/review/5902456/)\n15. [憧憬·伤痛·认同：影片《致我们终将逝去的青春》的文化解读, 电影评介](https://m.fx361.com/news/2013/1121/11315238.html)\n16. [一次有关青春的集体记忆——评电影《致我们终将逝去的青春》, 中国作家网](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/2013/2013-05-10/162225.html)\n17. [《致青春》票房不让《钢铁侠》, 新华网 via 第一财经](https://www.yicai.com/news/2684007.html)\n18. [光线传媒：电影《致我们终将逝去的青春》票房, 财新网](https://companies.caixin.com/m/2013-05-08/100525141.html)\n19. [《致青春》票房火爆的背后, 人民网财经](https://finance.people.com.cn/money/n/2013/0506/c218900-21375517.html)\n20. [小说改编成剧本出版惹争议, 知识产权律师网](https://www.ciplawyer.cn/articles/114677.html)\n21. [《致我们终将逝去的青春》专题, 中国天气网](https://gs.weather.com.cn/zt/tqzt/2196839.shtml)\n22. [So Young, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/so_young)\n23. [话剧\"致青春\"更落寞, 新京报 via 国家大剧院](https://www.chncpa.org/zxdt_331/zxdtlm/mtsj_334/201608/t20160823_127937.shtml)\n24. [剧版《致青春》, 百科TA说](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/tashuo/browse/content?id=b7a9e6fb3847cabb99f1fe2e)\n25. [光线传媒（300251）深度研究](https://file.iyanbao.com/pdf/59556-1c5054bd-033f-41bc-a258-d9c6a516a1ff.pdf)\n26. [中·韩当代影视作品\"青春怀旧\"现象比较研究, 인문사회 21](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002535122)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/so-young", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/so-young.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"So Young (致我们终将逝去的青春)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/so-young. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[So Young (致我们终将逝去的青春)](https://www.edgepedia.org/so-young)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/so-young](https://www.edgepedia.org/so-young). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"So Young (致我们终将逝去的青春)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/so-young. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "So Young is Zhao Wei's 2013 directorial debut, adapted from Xin Yiwu's novel, starring Yang Zishan and Mark Chao; it earned about 720 million yuan in mainland China and set the template for Chinese campus youth films." }