# Beijinger in New York

**Beijinger in New York** (北京人在纽约) is a 21-episode Chinese television drama directed by Zheng Xiaolong and Feng Xiaogang, adapted from Cao Guilin's 1991 novel of the same name, that follows Beijing musicians struggling to survive in New York during the early 1990s emigration wave.<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup> Produced by the China TV Drama Production Center and the Beijing Television Arts Centre, it premiered on September 26, 1993 in the prime-time slot of [China Central Television](https://www.edgepedia.org/china-central-television)'s second channel and was the first Chinese television series shot entirely outside China.<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://baike.sogou.com/v116705.htm)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | 21-episode serial, jointly written by Li Xiaoming, Zheng Xiaolong, Li Gongda, and Feng Xiaogang<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup> |
| Directors | Zheng Xiaolong and Feng Xiaogang<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup> |
| Lead cast | Jiang Wen (Wang Qiming), Wang Ji (Achun), Yan Xiaopin (Guo Yan), Ma Xiaoqing, Dai Bo (David)<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup> |
| Premiere | September 26, 1993, CCTV-2 prime time<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup> |
| Production cost | Estimated at US$1.5 million, financed by a Bank of China loan secured against US$3 million in fixed assets<sup>[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6/1247617?fromModule=lemma_inlink)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://g-city.sass.org.cn/_upload/article/files/71/03/0b5b3c054a7d93e789af69417ff2/17ecd0b0-42fa-4bbe-a45d-b383fcb621e9.pdf)</sup> |
| Filming | Three months, entirely in the United States<sup>[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6/1247617?fromModule=lemma_inlink)</sup> |
| 1994 awards | Five One Project TV drama award; 12th Golden Eagle Award for best long serial; 14th Flying Apsaras Award second prize for long serials<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup> |

## Spoilers

### Plot

The story is set against the "going abroad fever" (出国热) of the early 1990s. Wang Qiming, a cellist with a Beijing orchestra, and his wife Guo Yan arrive in New York and settle in a basement apartment in a poor neighborhood, where they quickly find themselves with nothing, unable even to solve the basic problem of eating.<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup> Through an aunt's introduction, Wang takes a job as a dishwasher at the Xiangyuanlou restaurant, run by the sharp-tongued proprietress Achun, who mistreats him at first but is drawn to his stubbornness and intelligence.<sup>[1](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)</sup>

The serial traces the couple's rise and the collapse of their family: Guo Yan enters an unsuccessful marriage with the American businessman David, their daughter Ningning becomes estranged from both parents after arriving in the United States, and Wang takes up with Achun.<sup>[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248983081_By_the_Way_FUCK_YOU_Feng_Xiaogang%27s_disturbing_television_dramas)</sup> Compared with Cao Guilin's novel, whose main line is the couple's hard struggle to build a business, the television version adds characters such as David and Carter and shifts the main line to the tangled emotional relationships among Wang Qiming, Guo Yan, Achun, and David; it also adds a courtroom plot in which Achun is sued by her ex-husband Carter for treating their sick son with traditional Chinese medicine.<sup>[4](https://g-city.sass.org.cn/_upload/article/files/71/03/0b5b3c054a7d93e789af69417ff2/17ecd0b0-42fa-4bbe-a45d-b383fcb621e9.pdf)</sup>

The series' famous opening line, spoken in voice-over, became one of the most quoted sentences in Chinese television: "If you love him, send him to New York, for it is heaven; if you hate him, send him to New York, for it is hell."<sup>[2](https://baike.sogou.com/v116705.htm)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2013-09-24/133128287477.shtml)</sup>

## The source novel

The drama adapts a novel that was itself a publishing phenomenon. Glen Cao (Cao Guilin, 曹桂林), a Beijing musician who left for the United States in 1980 and ran the C&J Knitwear Company in New York, wrote the book at night after work as a realistic portrait of immigrant life.<sup>[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/11/03/a-story-of-rags-to-riches-to-rags/6c17d13b-f51f-4211-9305-a12b3c0817d0/)</sup> Serialized in the Beijing Evening News and published in the summer of 1991, it follows a couple who rise from dishwashing and piecework to millionaires, then lose their daughter to drugs, the mother to madness, and the father's business to bankruptcy.<sup>[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/11/03/a-story-of-rags-to-riches-to-rags/6c17d13b-f51f-4211-9305-a12b3c0817d0/)</sup> The Washington Post reported that the serialized novel drew a rapt readership because its protagonists embodied the contemporary Chinese dream of living the American dream, and that a radio-drama adaptation began broadcasting on the state-run Central Broadcasting Station in the month before the article appeared.<sup>[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/11/03/a-story-of-rags-to-riches-to-rags/6c17d13b-f51f-4211-9305-a12b3c0817d0/)</sup> An English translation by Ted Wang was published by the Cypress Book Company of San Francisco in 1993.<sup>[8](https://ord.nycu.edu.tw/ord/ch/app/artwebsite/doc?detailNo=1237667505766404096&module=artwebsite&type=s)</sup>

## Production

**Financing.** In 1992 the Beijing Television Arts Centre acquired the television adaptation rights from Cao Guilin and filed the project with the Ministry of Radio, Film and [Television](https://www.edgepedia.org/television), the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, and the Chinese consulate in New York.<sup>[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6/1247617?fromModule=lemma_inlink)</sup> Because every shot had to be made in the United States, the cost was estimated at US$1.5 million, far above a comparable domestic production; Zheng Xiaolong's father secured a 500,000 yuan sponsorship from the Sanjiu Weitai pharmaceutical company as start-up money, and the center then borrowed US$1.5 million from the [Bank of China](https://www.edgepedia.org/bank-of-china) against fixed assets as collateral.<sup>[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6/1247617?fromModule=lemma_inlink)</sup> A scholarly account describes the arrangement as opening a market-oriented operating model for Chinese television drama, with the loan and interest to be repaid from advertising revenue after broadcast.<sup>[4](https://g-city.sass.org.cn/_upload/article/files/71/03/0b5b3c054a7d93e789af69417ff2/17ecd0b0-42fa-4bbe-a45d-b383fcb621e9.pdf)</sup> The scale of the gamble was considerable: the loan of US$1.5 million was worth roughly 12 million yuan at the time, while the Beijing Television Arts Centre's entire annual production budget was about 1.8 million yuan, and none of the center's previous dramas, including the hit *Yearning*, had made a profit.<sup>[9](https://k.sina.cn/article_7389638240_1b874ee6000100sr2y.html?from=ent&subch=tv&wm=3049_0032)</sup> When advisers suggested shooting exteriors in America and interiors on domestic sets, Zheng Xiaolong insisted on filming in the United States for authenticity.<sup>[9](https://k.sina.cn/article_7389638240_1b874ee6000100sr2y.html?from=ent&subch=tv&wm=3049_0032)</sup>

**Casting.** [Jiang Wen](https://www.edgepedia.org/jiang-wen), already a major film star through *Red Sorghum* and *[Hibiscus Town](https://www.edgepedia.org/hibiscus-town)*, was the directors' first choice for Wang Qiming, although Zheng Xiaolong was unsure he could persuade a film actor of that standing to take a television role.<sup>[9](https://k.sina.cn/article_7389638240_1b874ee6000100sr2y.html?from=ent&subch=tv&wm=3049_0032)</sup> The character David was originally written as Mei Weiping and was to be played by Chen Daoming, with Guo Yan originally assigned to Du Xian. Chen Daoming went to New York with the crew in September 1992 to absorb the setting, but a week into shooting he judged the script for his role unsatisfactory, disagreed with the directors, and withdrew; he and Du Xian returned to China at the end of November. Jiang Wen then recommended Dai Bo, an American fluent in Mandarin with acting experience, and the role was rewritten as the American David; Guo Yan went to Yan Xiaopin, a Beijing Film Academy graduate then working as a broadcaster at a Chinese-language radio station in the United States.<sup>[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6/1247617?fromModule=lemma_inlink)</sup>

**Music.** Liu Huan was chosen as composer only after the editing was more than half finished; a month and a half later he had completed seven songs and more than 90 music cues for the series.<sup>[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6/1247617?fromModule=lemma_inlink)</sup>

## Reception and impact

The serial achieved extraordinary ratings, particularly in northern China, and set a domestic ratings record.<sup>[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248983081_By_the_Way_FUCK_YOU_Feng_Xiaogang%27s_disturbing_television_dramas)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2013-09-24/133128287477.shtml)</sup> The scholar Michael Keane, a research fellow at Queensland University of Technology who studies East Asian media policy, describes it as a landmark production for the Chinese television industry whose success helped establish Feng Xiaogang's career, while noting that it drew derogatory comment from scholars for its overt nationalism, its clash-of-values framing, and the chauvinism of its protagonist.<sup>[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248983081_By_the_Way_FUCK_YOU_Feng_Xiaogang%27s_disturbing_television_dramas)</sup> Margaret Hillenbrand, writing in *MELUS*, calls both the novel and the series an enormous cultural event in China, "devoured by millions and pored over by critics for what it revealed about China's post-socialist rise," and highlights the notorious sixteenth episode in which Wang Qiming brandishes a fistful of dollars at a prostitute, a scene she reads as inverting the humiliation scene of Bai Xianyong's 1964 story "Death in Chicago."<sup>[10](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236777994_Soap_Opera_in_China_The_Transnational_Politics_of_Visuality_Sexuality_and_Masculinity)</sup> A later survey of Chinese immigrant writing treats *Beijinger in New York* as a paradigmatic text of New York writing for Chinese immigrants after the opening-up of China, one that almost all later writers responded to in some way.<sup>[8](https://ord.nycu.edu.tw/ord/ch/app/artwebsite/doc?detailNo=1237667505766404096&module=artwebsite&type=s)</sup>

The series also fed directly into the emigration wave it depicted: a 2021 retrospective notes that it caused a sensation, inspired countless Chinese "dreams of going to America," and made the term "Chinatown" widely known.<sup>[11](https://scdnews.com/images/paper/210301/210301B.pdf)</sup> Its commercial success mattered for the industry as well. The Beijing Television Arts Centre reaped the financial rewards, and Feng Xiaogang, who had shared directing credit with the senior Zheng Xiaolong, went on to sole responsibility for later serials.<sup>[5](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248983081_By_the_Way_FUCK_YOU_Feng_Xiaogang%27s_disturbing_television_dramas)</sup>

## Aftermath and attempted sequels

The basement apartment in Manhattan's East Village where the fictional couple first settled had earlier housed many now-famous Chinese artists, including Chen Kaige, Tan Dun, Ang Lee, Feng Xiaogang, Chen Yifei, and Gu Changwei; by 2013 it was being renovated for rental after years as a storage space.<sup>[6](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2013-09-24/133128287477.shtml)</sup> The "aunt" of the first episode was played by Shen Guanglan, who had lived in New York for decades and served as a vice president of the Wynn警钟 organization and president of the New York Chinese Import and Export Chamber of Commerce.<sup>[6](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2013-09-24/133128287477.shtml)</sup>

A sequel was discussed for years. Cao Guilin wrote follow-up works such as *Stowaway Journey* (偷渡之旅), and news reports through the 2000s tracked plans for a sequel or companion piece, at one point titled *New Yorker in Beijing*, with Jiang Wen repeatedly attached to reprise Wang Qiming; Cao's 2014 novel *New Yorker in Beijing* (纽约人在北京) eventually appeared in print, depicting Wang Qiming's return to a thoroughly capitalized Beijing.<sup>[12](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/f/bjrzny/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://ord.nycu.edu.tw/ord/ch/app/artwebsite/doc?detailNo=1237667505766404096&module=artwebsite&type=s)</sup> In a 2008 talk at Columbia University, Jiang Wen said of a new series in the same vein, "Give me a new script and I'll shoot it right away."<sup>[6](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2013-09-24/133128287477.shtml)</sup> The serial's standing as a reference point endured: when the Chinese-American co-production *Yang Jia* began shooting in Los Angeles in 2015, the Chinese-American press introduced it as the first long drama about Chinese in America since *Beijinger in New York* twenty-one years earlier, and a 2022 event at the [Center for Strategic and International Studies](https://www.edgepedia.org/center-for-strategic-and-international-studies) titled "A Beijinger in Washington" explicitly borrowed its name from Cao's 1991 novel.<sup>[13](https://sinoustimes.com/sinousweekly/paper.asp?Aid=1664&Fid=928)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[14](https://www.csis.org/analysis/beijinger-washington)</sup>

## References

1. [北京人在纽约, 快懂百科](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7221538577556324352)
2. [北京人在纽约, 搜狗百科](https://baike.sogou.com/v116705.htm)
3. [北京人在纽约, 百度百科](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E4%BA%BA%E5%9C%A8%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6/1247617?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
4. [《北京人在纽约》与市场化运作, 文艺评论 (2020)](https://g-city.sass.org.cn/_upload/article/files/71/03/0b5b3c054a7d93e789af69417ff2/17ecd0b0-42fa-4bbe-a45d-b383fcb621e9.pdf)
5. [Michael Keane, "By the Way, FUCK YOU! Feng Xiaogang's disturbing television dramas," Continuum 15(1)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248983081_By_the_Way_FUCK_YOU_Feng_Xiaogang%27s_disturbing_television_dramas)
6. [20年后故地重游《北京人在纽约》, 新浪新闻 (2013)](https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2013-09-24/133128287477.shtml)
7. [Lena H. Sun, "A Story of Rags to Riches to Rags," The Washington Post (November 2, 1991)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/11/03/a-story-of-rags-to-riches-to-rags/6c17d13b-f51f-4211-9305-a12b3c0817d0/)
8. [Academic survey citing Glen Guilin Cao, Beijinger in New York, trans. Ted Wang (Cypress Book Company, 1993)](https://ord.nycu.edu.tw/ord/ch/app/artwebsite/doc?detailNo=1237667505766404096&module=artwebsite&type=s)
9. [《北京人在纽约》幕后故事, 新浪娱乐 (2020)](https://k.sina.cn/article_7389638240_1b874ee6000100sr2y.html?from=ent&subch=tv&wm=3049_0032)
10. [Margaret Hillenbrand, "Soap Opera in China: The Transnational Politics of Visuality, Sexuality, and Masculinity," MELUS](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236777994_Soap_Opera_in_China_The_Transnational_Politics_of_Visuality_Sexuality_and_Masculinity)
11. [SCD News retrospective (2021)](https://scdnews.com/images/paper/210301/210301B.pdf)
12. [《北京人在纽约》资料页, 新浪影音娱乐](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/f/bjrzny/)
13. [美中时报: 王力军谈《洋嫁》(2015)](https://sinoustimes.com/sinousweekly/paper.asp?Aid=1664&Fid=928)
14. ["A Beijinger in Washington," CSIS (February 22, 2022)](https://www.csis.org/analysis/beijinger-washington)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Television films*

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

*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*

License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license