General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Be Your Self (机智的上半场)

Be Your Self (机智的上半场, also translated Be Yourself; pinyin: Ji Zhi De Shang Ban Chang) is a 2021 Chinese female youth coming-of-age television series directed by Li Zhi (黎志) with Liu Bowen as co-director, starring Shen Yue, Zhang Ruonan, Liang Jingkang, Vivienne Tien, Zhang Xinyi, Zhai Zilu, and Zhang Zhihao, with Li Jiahang and Ding Guansen in special appearances¹^•². It follows four first-year female students who share a dormitory room at a fictional media university in Chongqing and traces their growth across four years of college³. The series premiered on August 18, 2021, streaming exclusively on Youku¹.

Key fact	Detail
Original title	机智的上半场 (Ji Zhi De Shang Ban Chang); English titles include Be Yourself and The Witty First Half⁴
Genre	Female youth coming-of-age topic drama; drama, comedy, romance¹
Run	24 episodes of about 45 minutes; Youku exclusive from August 18, 2021¹
Director and writers	Li Zhi (with Liu Bowen co-directing); screenplay by Yuan Yuan, Xiang Zi, Lv Chen, and Lu Lin¹
Production	Alibaba Pictures companies, with Tianjin Xiong Haizi Culture as co-producer; filmed in Chongqing from August to November 2020¹
Setting	Room 5438 of the journalism department at Southwest Communication University, starting September 1⁵
Music	Opening theme 《一无所有时的爱情》 performed by A-Lin; ending theme 《我的形状》 performed by the four lead actresses⁶

Spoilers

Premise and characters

On September 1, four 18-year-old girls from different parts of China report to the journalism department of Southwest Communication University and become roommates in dormitory 5438: the tomboyish top student Xia Langlang (Shen Yue), the spoiled "princess" Huangfu Shumin (Zhang Ruonan), the wealthy but estranged Fan Xiaoyu (Vivienne Tien), and the reserved Yang Jiaqian (Zhang Xinyi)³^•⁵. Their clashing personalities and living habits produce constant friction, but after growing and changing together they come to understand one another and become close friends³.

Each of the four carries a separate arc. Fan Xiaoyu, cut off financially by her father, tries to become self-reliant and grows close to her senior Fan Qingzhou (Liang Jingkang) while starting a business with him³. Huangfu Shumin develops a bickering romance with the Chongqing boy Zhou Yu (Zhai Zilu) and learns independence alongside love³. Yang Jiaqian, raised under a high-pressure family, decides to face herself and speak honestly to her mother after her identity is accidentally exposed³. Xia Langlang, encouraged by the counselor Mai Meng (Li Jiahang), sheds her self-doubt³. Among the male supporting cast, Ding Guansen plays Lei Dongqiang, Fan Qingzhou's talkative but loyal startup partner².

Narrative structure

The series combines a linear four-year timeline with unit (anthology) and topic-driven storytelling: each episode is built around one theme and told mainly through one character's perspective, with a relatively self-contained story arc inside the episode⁸. Director Li Zhi described the fusion of ensemble drama, topic drama, and unit drama as the production's main innovation and its main technical difficulty⁸.

The episode themes were chosen to go beyond romance and idol-drama conventions, touching on subjects such as personal boundaries and the authenticity of news reporting⁸. The writing team interviewed women of the post-95 generation, close in age to the characters, about their university experiences, family backgrounds, and values⁸. Episodes also carry post-credits scenes, which Li Zhi said serve either as hooks for later episodes or as an additional viewpoint on the story just told⁸.

Production and release

The series was created by the team behind Beijing Women's Manual (北京女子图鉴). Director Li Zhi said he set the story in college because the four university years are the best time of a person's "first half," and that he wanted to reflect the real experiences and psychology of young women just entering campus rather than directly preaching values². Filming began in Chongqing in August 2020 and the production officially wrapped in November of that year¹.

Scheduling. The series was first announced for July 22, 2021, but the premiere was postponed the day before it was due to begin; it was then rescheduled and began streaming on August 18, 2021, at 8 p.m. on Youku⁷. Screenwriter Yuan Yuan had previously written the films Go Away Mr. Tumor and Us and Them⁷.

Reception

The series ranked high on the trending drama charts of Weibo and Douyin after its premiere, and plots built around topics such as original families and intimate relationships repeatedly appeared on trending-search lists⁹. A review in Wenhui Daily credited the show with evocative dormitory scenes, such as late-night chats and secretly cooking hotpot behind the dorm supervisor's back, but criticized the rapid switching between hot-button topics and the stiff handling of detail and logic, saying the episodes fell short of everyday truth even as each ending aimed at a positive message⁹.

The producers reported a broadly positive audience response across plot, props, sets, acting, and on-screen chemistry, and said the audience included a substantial share of male viewers for a youth drama whose core audience was female⁸. At the first New Horn TV Drama Directors Night in February 2023, Zhang Ruonan received the Annual Breakthrough Actor award for the series¹.

Title

The "first half" of the Chinese title refers to the first half of life: the director framed the four university years as the best stretch of life's opening half, a period whose choices shape everything that follows². Some early commentary noted that the title invited comparison with the Korean Hospital Playlist series (机智的医生生活 in Chinese), whose Chinese titles share the same 机智的 construction¹⁰.

References

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 symbols to Co

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?