General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Fall in Love (一见倾心)

Fall in Love (一见倾心) is a 2021 Chinese television romance drama set in Republican-era Shanghai, starring Chen Xingxu as the young marshal Tan Xuanlin (谭玹霖) and Zhang Jingyi as the heiress Mu Wanqing (沐婉卿), which premiered on Youku on November 9, 2021.¹^•² It was produced by Wanda Media and Xinmei Chengpin and aired on Youku's female-oriented "Pet Love Theater" (宠爱剧场) channel.¹

Key fact	Detail
Original title	一见倾心 (Yi Jian Qing Xin)²
Premiere	November 9, 2021, on Youku¹
Episodes	36, about 45 minutes each²^•³
Main cast	Chen Xingxu (Tan Xuanlin), Zhang Jingyi (Mu Wanqing), Lin Yanjun (Xu Guangyao), Chen Xinyu (Gu Yueshuang)³
Directors and writer	Lin Jianlong and Chen Guohua; screenwriter Zhang Xuan³^•⁴
Production	Youku, Wanda Media Co. Ltd, Im-power Innovation Media Power, Yixin Media³
Setting	Shanghai in 1926, during the warlord era⁵

Spoilers

Premise

The story begins in 1926, when Mu Wanqing returns to China after ten years in Japan, officially to bury her mother's ashes and rejoin her father's household. Her real purpose is to investigate the truth behind her parents' separation and her brother's death.³^•⁵ In the turbulent Shanghai of the period she unexpectedly meets Tan Xuanlin, the young marshal of the Tan family army, and the two move from scheming against each other to forming an alliance and eventually falling in love.⁶ With the help of Tan Xuanlin and the third lead Xu Guangyao, Wanqing uncovers a web of family secrets and must weigh the answers she seeks against matters of the heart.⁵

According to the production synopsis, Tan Xuanlin and Xu Guangyao, guided by the communist Liao Xi, come to see the warlords as fighting only for their own interests, and both ultimately join the revolutionary current.³

Production and release

The drama was directed by Lin Jianlong and Chen Guohua, with Huang Song also credited as director by some listings, and written by Zhang Xuan.³^•⁴ Wanda's official announcement credits Wanda Media and Xinmei Chengpin as the producing companies.¹

Overseas launch. On its premiere day the series was released simultaneously in seven languages, including Chinese, English, Indonesian, and Vietnamese, and set the record for a Youku drama's overseas first-broadcast data in the first 24 hours; the first episode surpassed one million views on an overseas video site.⁷ Domestically it debuted at number two on Youku's drama heat chart and reached first place on the "Pet Love Theater" chart.¹ Internationally it streams on Rakuten Viki, where it carries a 9.4 user rating from more than 46,000 votes, and in the United States it is available free with ads on Viki.²^•⁸

Reception

Domestic reception divided along the line between the show's marketing and its actual genre. Pre-broadcast stills led viewers to expect a weighty Republican-era tragic romance comparable to Too Late to Say I Love You, starring Zhong Hanliang and Li Xiaoran; the aired series instead played as a light "sweet pet" (甜宠) romance, and commenters criticized its saturated color filter, clichéd plot, and dated dialogue.⁹ A commentary in Wenhui Bao placed the series within the broader rise of the sweet-pet drama category, noting that its overseas first-day performance exemplified the genre's growing export strength, while also observing that overseas audiences' tastes do not fully match domestic ones and that some works score much higher abroad than at home.¹⁰

Other titles called Fall in Love

The English title "Fall in Love" is shared by several unrelated Chinese series, which sources frequently conflate. A 2019 Youku series of that name, about a CEO with a dual personality and Jing Zhixia, ran 30 episodes.¹¹ A 2022 Youku series localized as Fall in Love carries the Chinese title 从零到一的爱情 (Cong Ling Dao Yi De Ai Qing) and ran 18 episodes.¹² The 2021 drama described in this article is the Republican-era production starring Chen Xingxu and Zhang Jingyi.²

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 Cr to In

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

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