# Lesson in Love (第9节课)
**Lesson in Love** (第9節課) is a 2022 Taiwanese romance drama series about a forbidden love affair between a female high-school Chinese-literature teacher and the male student who torments her, produced as an iQIYI original for the Chinese-language market[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015). It stars [Hsu Wei-ning](https://www.edgepedia.org/hsu-wei-ning) (許瑋甯) and Edward Chen (陳昊森), with Ivy Yin (尹馨) and Hsueh Shih-ling (薛仕凌) in supporting roles[2](https://www.netflix.com/tw-en/TITLE/81662482). The series ran 12 episodes and was developed over two years by the team of producer Liao Chien-hsing (廖健行), with a per-episode production budget of about NT$6 million[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / English title | 第9節課 / Lesson in Love[2](https://www.netflix.com/tw-en/TITLE/81662482) |
| Format | 12-episode Taiwanese drama, iQIYI original, first released 11 December 2022[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015) • [3](https://awwrated.com/zh-tw/netflix/81662482) |
| Budget | About NT$6 million per episode[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015) |
| Director | Wang Li-wen (王麗文), a Hong Kong director working across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China[4](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202212230055.aspx) |
| Lead roles | Hsu Wei-ning as teacher Chen Meng-yun; Edward Chen as student Chang Yi-hsiang; the characters differ in age by 12 years[2](https://www.netflix.com/tw-en/TITLE/81662482) • [5](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/1952182) |
| Supporting cast | Ivy Yin as Hsieh Shu-fen, the student's mother and parents' association chairwoman; Hsueh Shih-ling as student-affairs director Li Ta-wei[2](https://www.netflix.com/tw-en/TITLE/81662482) • [6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7neKhu5xGEU) |
| Audience rating | 7.2/10 aggregate from about 14,900 user ratings on the awwrated review aggregator[3](https://awwrated.com/zh-tw/netflix/81662482) |
## Spoilers
### Premise
The story follows Chen Meng-yun (陳孟筠), a Chinese-literature teacher who joins Nan-Yi High School (南一高中) and is immediately targeted by Chang Yi-hsiang (張一翔), a top-scoring student with a record of troublemaking[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015). The two move from antagonism to mutual attraction, and their relationship becomes a forbidden teacher-student romance that draws social condemnation, family conflict, and hostility from colleagues[7](https://tpe-pp.com.tw/index.php/tw/work-tw/tv-tw/item/47-2022/291-lesson-in-love).
Chang's mother, Hsieh Shu-fen (謝淑芬), is the school's powerful parents' association chairwoman, and her control over the school and her son drives much of the conflict[6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7neKhu5xGEU). The student-affairs director Li Ta-wei (李大為), played by Hsueh Shih-ling, initially helps the teacher, but the character later turns out to be a threatening, obsessive figure[8](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/2031811).
**Plot escalation.** What begins as a campus romance grows darker as the series progresses: the relationship gives way to revenge plots and a campus stabbing, and around the eighth episode the story introduces the possibility that the two leads are half-siblings, reframing the romance as an incest question[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015) • [9](https://168abc.net/special-report/won-lm/6224). In the finale, rumors of both the teacher-student and sibling relationships spread through the school and media; Chen Meng-yun resigns, telling the principal, "The only wrong thing we did was fall in love"[10](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/70602).
## Production
The series was produced by Jing Teng Entertainment (京騰娛樂), the company of film director Chen Yu-shan (陳玉珊, known for *[Our Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/our-times)*), from a script by Li Hsu-min (李旭敏), writer of *Before We Get Married*[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015). It was the debut work of Simple Thinking Entertainment (簡單想娛樂), founded by producer Liao Chien-hsing after his previous company ended operations; Liao had more than 25 years in the industry, with credits including *Rock Records in Love* and the *Q Series*[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015).
Liao said the team wanted to give youth romance new possibilities by developing a taboo romance rarely seen in the Chinese-language market, and that early discussions compared the premise to the Japanese drama *Majo no Jōken* (魔女的條件) from more than two decades earlier; the team concluded that changed attitudes toward love required adding human entanglement beyond pure romance[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015).
**Casting.** The team chose Edward Chen before the release of his film *[Your Name Engraved Herein](https://www.edgepedia.org/your-name-engraved-herein)*, valuing his changeable quality for a character described as kind-hearted but prone to trouble[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015). Hsu Wei-ning was Liao's first choice for the teacher, on the grounds that her image as an independent woman matched the role and was recognized by audiences and the platform[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015).
**Direction.** [Wang Li](https://www.edgepedia.org/wang-li)-wen, a Hong Kong director who graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University's mass communication department in Taiwan, had not directed a Taiwanese drama since *多桑の純萃年代* in 2016[4](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202212230055.aspx) • [1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015). She received the script while deciding whether to leave Taiwan during COVID-19 quarantine requirements, read all 12 episodes in two days, and accepted[4](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202212230055.aspx). After joining, she held two months of writers' meetings to add detail to plot and characters, reasoning that the teacher-student romance was only the packaging and the story needed multiple elements to hold modern viewers[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015).
## Approach to the subject
Wang said she took a deliberately non-judgmental stance toward the taboo premise. In her view, teacher-student romances are common in real life and rarely discussed openly, and the drama's purpose was to show the people involved as living human beings rather than to encourage or oppose such relationships[4](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202212230055.aspx). She described the core of the story as a human emotional relationship, with the difference lying only in status and role[4](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202212230055.aspx).
The script includes five intimate scenes between the leads, a level of explicitness that surprised Wang when she read it[4](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202212230055.aspx). The production paired her with an intimacy coordinator to stage the scenes[1](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015).
## Themes beyond the romance
Commentators and the broadcaster emphasized that the series embeds the romance in a set of social issues: school bullying, extreme parent-child control, workplace bullying of the teacher by colleagues and by privileged students, an abusive romantic partner, and power oppression rooted in the wealth gap[8](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/2031811). After rumors of the affair spread, teachers ostracize Chen Meng-yun and remove her club classroom, and students with powerful families bully teachers with words and actions, showing bullying running from the campus into the workplace[11](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/70441).
The first episode itself frames the topic through media coverage, with a news headline describing the teacher-student romance as "perverted love" (畸戀), reflecting how the term and labels such as "immoral" have been attached to such relationships in public discussion[12](https://www.beauty321.com/post/53633).
## Place in the genre and reception
Taiwanese screen treatments of teacher-student romance had previously centered on a female student and a male teacher, as in *Outside the Window* (窗外), *18歲的約定*, and *Detention* (返校); *Lesson in Love* reversed the pairing to a female teacher and a male high-school student[13](https://500times.udn.com/wtimes/story/120840/6909070). The critic Chueh Chueh (雀雀) noted that despite the leads' 12-year age gap, the two actors read as visually close in age, making the series look at first like a polished youth campus romance accessible to general audiences[13](https://500times.udn.com/wtimes/story/120840/6909070).
Viewer response was divided. On the awwrated aggregator the series held a 7.2/10 from about 14,900 ratings, with reviewers praising the suspense elements and pacing of the early episodes while criticizing the later plot as melodramatic[3](https://awwrated.com/zh-tw/netflix/81662482). Discussion of Ivy Yin's performance as the controlling chairwoman was also mixed, with Yin herself describing the role as a challenge because the character is loud and domineering while she is quiet by nature[14](https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/entertainment/lesson-in-love-highlights-zh-hant).
The series reached additional audiences after its iQIYI run: it appeared on Netflix[2](https://www.netflix.com/tw-en/TITLE/81662482), and TVBS rebroadcast it on its Happy Channel (channel 42) from 26 February 2023[8](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/2031811).
## References
1. [〖娛樂透視〗《第9節課》豐富元素拓收視 師生禁戀窺見愛情多樣性, Mirror Media](https://www.mirrormedia.mg/story/20221223insight015)
2. [Watch Lesson in Love, Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/tw-en/TITLE/81662482)
3. [第9節課, awwrated](https://awwrated.com/zh-tw/netflix/81662482)
4. [第9節課挑戰師生戀 導演：誠實刻畫人們的愛, Central News Agency](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/202212230055.aspx)
5. [台劇接力！《台灣犯罪故事》揭奇案 《第9節課》許瑋甯、陳昊森師生戀, TVBS News](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/1952182)
6. [《第9節課》首映片花：許瑋甯X陳昊森 禁忌師生愛戀, iQIYI on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7neKhu5xGEU)
7. [台北影業 - 第9節課](https://tpe-pp.com.tw/index.php/tw/work-tw/tv-tw/item/47-2022/291-lesson-in-love)
8. [許瑋甯、陳昊森大談禁忌戀 TVBS再推《第9節課》登歡樂台, TVBS News](https://news.tvbs.com.tw/entertainment/2031811)
9. [這些年錯過的影片 年假10天上網補課, 168周報](https://168abc.net/special-report/won-lm/6224)
10. [《第9節課》最終回大結局！陳昊森持刀、許瑋甯受傷真相是？, Marie Claire Taiwan](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/70602)
11. [《第9節課》劇情逆轉10大看點, Marie Claire Taiwan](https://www.marieclaire.com.tw/entertainment/tvshow/70441)
12. [Netflix台劇《第9節課》探討5大議題, Beauty321](https://www.beauty321.com/post/53633)
13. [雀雀／《第9節課》：選角各具特色、稜線分明, 500輯](https://500times.udn.com/wtimes/story/120840/6909070)
14. [Netflix《第9節課》好看嗎？6大看點總整理, Tatler Asia](https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/entertainment/lesson-in-love-highlights-zh-hant)
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*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 › Hong Kong and Taiwanese serial drama*
*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