{ "id": "ep38vvz36r", "slug": "women-in-shang-hai", "title": "Women in Shang Hai (上海女子图鉴)", "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.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia", "label": "East Asian drama series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials", "label": "East Asian web and streaming serials", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-sp-to-z", "label": "Titles Sp to Z", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-sp-to-z" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020: East Asian web and streaming serials", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials", "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.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials", "label": "East Asian web and streaming serials", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Women in Shang Hai (上海女子图鉴, Women in Shanghai) is a 2018 Youku web drama, 20 episodes, adapted from Tokyo Girl, starring Wang Zhen'er as Luo Haiyan, an Anhui graduate climbing Shanghai's workplace, directed by Cheng Liang.", "snippet": "Women in Shang Hai (上海女子图鉴, Women in Shanghai) is a 2018 Youku web drama, 20 episodes, adapted from Tokyo Girl, starring Wang Zhen'er as Luo Haiyan, an Anhui graduate climbing Shanghai's workplace, directed by Cheng Liang.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-sp-to-z", "markdown": "# Women in Shang Hai (上海女子图鉴)\n\n**Women in Shang Hai** (上海女子图鉴, also rendered 上海女子図鑑; English title *Women in Shanghai*) is a 2018 Chinese web drama broadcast on Youku, adapted under official license from the Japanese series *Tokyo Girl* (东京女子图鉴). It follows Luo Haiyan, played by [Wang Zhen](https://www.edgepedia.org/wang-zhen)'er, a graduate from Anhui who stays in Shanghai after university and works her way up through the city's advertising and fashion industries over roughly ten years.[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Women_in_Shanghai) • [2](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c40606-30023316.html) It is the Shanghai companion piece to *Women in Beijing* (北京女子图鉴), which aired just before it, and the two were developed together as licensed Chinese versions of the Japanese original.[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2181267.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / English title | 上海女子图鉴 (Shang Hai Nv Zi Tu Jian); *Women in Shanghai*[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Women_in_Shanghai) |\n| Broadcast | Youku, from 8 May 2018; 20 episodes[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Women_in_Shanghai) |\n| Premise | Luo Haiyan, a small-town graduate, stays in Shanghai after college and aims to reach the top tier of the city's population; sources state this goal as the upper 10%[4](https://watch.plex.tv/en-GB/show/women-in-shanghai/season/1) or the top 1%[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Women_in_Shanghai) |\n| Lead cast | Wang Zhen'er as Luo Haiyan, with Li Chengbin, Li Xian, Sheng Yilun, and Yuan Wenkang[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Women_in_Shanghai) |\n| Production | Producer Jin Yifei, screenwriter Wang Danqing, and director Cheng Liang, all Shanghai natives; produced by Xingge Media[5](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/155152864914473.html) • [3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2181267.html) |\n| Structure | A ten-year career arc told with an \"AB episode\" device showing the heroine's rejected alternative choices at key turning points[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html) |\n| Reception | Douban score 0.4 points above the Beijing version, but far lower viewership: 310 million views in its first 21 days against 1.61 billion for *Women in Beijing* in 49 days[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and structure\n\nThe drama opens as Luo Haiyan finishes university and chooses to remain in Shanghai rather than return home. Her story runs on two parallel lines, romance and career, like the Beijing version, but with more detailed workplace writing and stronger professional conflicts.[2](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c40606-30023316.html) Over a ten-year span she rises from a graduate with nothing to a successful woman standing at the center of the city, advancing through her own work rather than through relationships with influential men.[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html)\n\n**The AB format.** Director Cheng Liang structured the series as a \"choice drama\": at key plot points the show first presents an alternative path, the character's bolder or more ruthless \"A side\", before revealing that the more cautious \"B side\" is what Luo Haiyan actually chose. Cheng said the device was adapted from the Japanese original's direct-to-camera confessions and was meant to deepen the heroine's dilemmas and make her growth more convincing, not to generate per-episode social topics.[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html) As the story progresses the AB structure fades, signifying that she becomes more decisive and better able to refuse temptation.[7](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2018-06/04/content_1858998.htm)\n\nThe heroine's characterization drew a deliberate contrast with the Beijing version's Chen Ke, played by Qi Wei, whose reliance on male patrons was questioned by viewers. Reviewers noted that Luo Haiyan keeps love and work strictly separate, and that comments and bullet-screen remarks rarely questioned her behavior.[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2181267.html) • [8](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2164681) The *People's Daily Overseas Edition* praised the show for not glamorizing career women or whitewashing housewives, and for a cast of secondary female characters that includes both ambitious professionals and women who choose family life.[7](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2018-06/04/content_1858998.htm)\n\n## Production and Shanghai character\n\nThe \"Women's Guide\" (女子图鉴) series was produced under a dual-team model: the Beijing version by Xiong Haizi Media and the Shanghai version by Xingge Media, with each team based in its own city. The series supervisor Ma Xiaonan, general manager of Youku's drama center, said the two versions were conceived from the start as sister works to the Tokyo original, taking the two most representative Chinese cities as their settings.[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2181267.html) • [9](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0513/c40606-29984740.html)\n\n**Japanese collaboration.** The Shanghai version involved Japanese crew members to a greater degree than the Beijing one. Art director Ozawa Hideaka, lighting chief Akatsu Junichi, and makeup director Igawa Shigeko, all established figures in Japanese film, joined the production, and reviewers credited this with helping the series retain something of the original's tone.[10](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2179764) • [11](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2169898.html)\n\nCheng Liang, a Shanghai-born director trained at Beijing Film Academy, said he wanted to capture the city's lived texture rather than its postcard skyline. The crew, from director to screenwriter to cinematographer, were Shanghai natives, and the location choices reflect it: no [Oriental Pearl Tower](https://www.edgepedia.org/oriental-pearl-tower), no [Shanghai Tower](https://www.edgepedia.org/shanghai-tower) or Jin Mao, with the heroine's Bund SOHO office shot with its river view blurred, and landmarks instead including Shanghai University, the haipai townhouses of Middle Fuxing Road, and the marriage market in People's Park.[2](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c40606-30023316.html) Cheng added lines such as \"only places under plane trees count as Shanghai\" and filled early scenes with Shanghainese-speaking aunties, tailor shops, and longtang alleys.[8](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2164681)\n\n## Comparison with the Tokyo and Beijing versions\n\nAll three series share the same basic frame: a girl from elsewhere arrives in a metropolis, endures workplace and romantic trials, and becomes an urbanite.[12](https://www.whb.cn/zhuzhan/wybj/20180711/203430.html) Commentators generally judged the Shanghai version closer in temperament to *Tokyo Girl* than the Beijing one, describing Shanghai and Tokyo as alike in their cool, market-driven social distance, where advancement depends on individual effort rather than connections.[13](https://m.ikanchai.com/pcarticle/215618) • [14](https://m.ikanchai.com/pcarticle/215636) Cheng Liang himself said his first reaction to the two-city plan was surprise, since a Chinese successor to the Tokyo series would naturally belong in Shanghai.[8](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2164681)\n\nThe adaptation was nonetheless softened for domestic expectations. The series keeps some of the original's dialogue and its consumer-upgrade arc, in which the men around the heroine change social status as her career rises, but it omits the original's marriage-and-divorce thread and assigns the age-gap romance to supporting characters; as a line in the show puts it, the heroine has had relationships but remains \"clean\".[10](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2179764)\n\n## Reception\n\nWithin two weeks of its debut the Shanghai version held a Douban score 0.4 points higher than the Beijing version, with reviewers rating its cinematography, art direction, story, and acting above its predecessor. Its reach was much smaller: per Guduo Media monitoring, it accumulated 310 million views in 21 days with a peak single-episode count of 81 million, against 1.61 billion views in 49 days and a 240-million-episode peak for *Women in Beijing*, which ended its run at 1.2 billion views by Jiemian's count.[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html) • [3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2181267.html) Reviewers attributed the gap partly to the Beijing version airing first and absorbing the discussion, and partly to the Shanghai version's lower-key approach: an unknown lead, less sensational plotting, and character-driven rather than topic-driven episodes.[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html) • [8](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2164681)\n\nCritical opinion divided on the result. The *People's Daily Overseas Edition* treated the series as a focused portrait of independent women pursuing economic, choice, and spiritual freedom.[7](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2018-06/04/content_1858998.htm) A People's Daily Online media review, by contrast, called it a flat, uneventful \"copy\" whose unknown lead gave the character approachability but whose thin drama made it mediocre.[15](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0607/c40606-30042287.html) The Beijing Daily critic framed the trade-off directly: a quality drama with modest heat, which she read as part of Chinese web dramas moving toward quality production.[6](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Women in Shanghai, DramaWiki](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Women_in_Shanghai)\n2. [《上海女子图鉴》：展现别致海派人情, 中国新闻出版广电报 via 人民网](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c40606-30023316.html)\n3. [〖专访〗《女子图鉴》系列监制马筱楠：我们希望治愈焦虑, 界面新闻](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2181267.html)\n4. [Women in Shanghai • 上海女子図鑑, Plex](https://watch.plex.tv/en-GB/show/women-in-shanghai/season/1)\n5. [《上海女子图鉴》女主不靠男人上位, 新京报](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/155152864914473.html)\n6. [职场女主立得住，遗憾缺热度, 北京日报 via 中国作家网](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2018/0530/c419388-30022685.html)\n7. [《上海女子图鉴》聚焦当代女性生活现状, 人民日报海外版](https://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2018-06/04/content_1858998.htm)\n8. [专访｜《上海女子图鉴》导演程亮：希望拍出都市的温度, 澎湃新闻](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2164681)\n9. [\"上海女子图鉴\"将播 在京沪打拼的女孩有什么不同, 人民网](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0513/c40606-29984740.html)\n10. [《上海女子图鉴》：对得起观众对上海这座城市的想象, 澎湃新闻](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2179764)\n11. [〖个人意见〗《女子图鉴》系列：日剧翻拍启示录, 界面新闻](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2169898.html)\n12. [各地\"女子图鉴\"说到底都是《小时代》的姐妹花, 文汇报](https://www.whb.cn/zhuzhan/wybj/20180711/203430.html)\n13. [撸串，靠人脉的《北京女子图鉴》与《东京女子图鉴》到底差在哪里？, 读娱](https://m.ikanchai.com/pcarticle/215618)\n14. [更接近原版的《上海女子图鉴》，能为25亿估值兴格传媒正名吗？, 刺猬公社](https://m.ikanchai.com/pcarticle/215636)\n15. [《上海女子图鉴》：浅尝辄止，波澜不惊, 人民网](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0607/c40606-30042287.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Sp to Z*\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/women-in-shang-hai", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/women-in-shang-hai.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": "\"Women in Shang Hai (上海女子图鉴)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/women-in-shang-hai. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Women in Shang Hai (上海女子图鉴)](https://www.edgepedia.org/women-in-shang-hai)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/women-in-shang-hai](https://www.edgepedia.org/women-in-shang-hai). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Women in Shang Hai (上海女子图鉴)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/women-in-shang-hai. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Women in Shang Hai is a 2018 Youku web drama, 20 episodes, adapted from Tokyo Girl, starring Wang Zhen'er as Luo Haiyan, an Anhui graduate climbing Shanghai's workplace, directed by Cheng Liang." }