General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Lovely Us (如此可爱的我们)

Lovely Us (如此可爱的我们) is a 2020 Chinese youth drama streamed on iQIYI, following five friends born in 1992 who grow up together in a faculty family compound and enter high school in the summer of 2007. It was directed by Cattree (猫的树), written by Yang Liu (羊六), and stars Li Mingde, Tian Xiwei, You Haoran, Li Yingying, and Li Mingyuan.¹ Despite a small budget, it became one of 2020's best-rated Chinese youth series, with a Douban score of 8.1 out of 10.²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	如此可爱的我们 (Lovely Us; also romanized Ru ci ke ai de wo men)³
Run	Premiered 31 July 2020; final two episodes 18 September 2020, on iQIYI⁴
Format	1 season, 16 episodes of about 45 minutes each¹
Setting	Summer 2007, the Shude faculty and staff family compound; five 16-year-olds form the self-styled "Number 1992" group⁵
Main cast	Li Mingde as Tan Song, Tian Xiwei as Huang Chengzi, You Haoran as He Jinzhao, Li Yingying as Zhu Jinxiao, Li Mingyuan as Chen Zui³
Ratings	Douban 8.1/10 (170,916 ratings, as of 28 April 2024); iQIYI 8.6/10 (121,000); IMDb 8.2/10 (131 votes)²^•⁶
Commercial result	Broke iQIYI's revenue-sharing drama heat record, with revenue sharing one industry report put above 30 million yuan, and returned more than 200% on investment¹^•⁷

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The story opens in the summer of 2007, one year before the Beijing Olympic Games, as residents of the Shude faculty and staff family compound prepare to move out of their old tube-shaped apartments into a new residential quarter. Huang Chengzi, Tan Song, Zhu Jinxiao, Chen Zui, and He Jinzhao, all born in 1992, start high school together and turn sixteen.⁵ They call their clique the "Number 1992" group, and the series follows their dreams, growth, and first stirrings of romance.¹

The five leads have distinct temperaments. Tan Song is brash and mischievous but caring, raised by his retired-teacher grandparents, and slowly recognizes his feelings for Huang Chengzi, a lively girl who loves writing and fancies herself a future romance novelist. Zhu Jinxiao is the compound's model top student, competitive with the equally gifted but reserved Chen Zui, who secretly likes her. He Jinzhao, Zhu Jinxiao's older brother, loves food, schemes with Huang Chengzi, and serves as the group's unreliable romance adviser. Tan Ouyang, Tan Song's older cousin, is a gentle, upright figure the girls briefly admire before he leaves to join the army.¹

Production and broadcast

The series was produced by Shanhe Wanwu Film and Media and Yefu Pictures, directed by Cattree, written by Yang Liu, and produced by Zeng Yongbo, with Cheng Xiaoyu as executive supervisor. It was filmed in Wuhan and Zhenjiang.¹ Both creators were young: the Singapore newspaper Lianhe Zaobao reported that Cattree was 29 and Yang Liu 26, and that the script was Yang Liu's first original work; Cattree's debut series Long For You had scored below 5 on Douban.⁸

Release schedule. iQIYI premiered the series on 31 July 2020 and released two episodes each Friday at noon, concluding with episodes 15 and 16 on 18 September 2020.¹^•⁴ The closing theme song is "Na Nian Chu Xia" (那年初夏).¹ Internationally, iQIYI distributes the series with subtitles in more than a dozen languages, including English, Korean, Spanish, and Thai, in up to 4K resolution.⁹

Reception

Audience scores. On Douban the series holds 8.1 out of 10 from 170,916 ratings as of 28 April 2024, and on iQIYI 8.6 from 121,000 users; IMDb users gave it 8.2 from 131 votes.²^•⁶ After broadcast, its revenue-sharing earnings broke iQIYI's heat record for revenue-sharing dramas and it became the highest Douban-rated revenue-sharing drama of 2020; its return on investment exceeded 200%, and one industry report put its revenue share above 30 million yuan.¹^•⁷ It was nominated for the 29th Huading Awards' 2019–2020 satisfaction survey list in November 2020 and named to the Global Film and TV Culture Communication Summit's 2020 outstanding series list.¹

Critical views. Wenhui Bao called it a typical neighborhood youth drama that pushes the childhood-friends premise to its extreme, giving the friendship, romance, and family storylines a lasting warmth.² A 2022 academic-style article in Shengping Shijie attributed its success to everyday realism, noting that despite cost-cutting on costumes and promotion, the 16 episodes were tightly paced and each episode carried both humor and emotion.¹⁰ Lianhe Zaobao judged it the year's best campus youth drama by viewership, discussion, and its Douban score above 8, and highlighted the comic episode in which the five friends scheme to raise money to attend the Beijing Olympics.⁸

Comparison with Reply 1988. Because Chinese youth dramas of the period were frequently measured against the Korean series Reply 1988, Lovely Us drew both praise and criticism on that comparison. Tianjin Online noted the two shows' similarities in warm tone and small domestic moments, while Qilu Evening News criticized the borrowed formula, pointing to the similar five-person youth ensemble and heavy use of nostalgia props such as a Jay Chou concert and Nokia phones.² Lianhe Zaobao argued the imitation was real but that the Chinese series had a lighter, more cheerful register than its Korean model.⁸

Style and themes

The series blends youth with nostalgia, anchoring its 2007–2008 setting in shared memories of the era: enthusiasm for the Super Girl singing competition, excitement over the new millennium, and celebration of the Beijing Olympics.¹¹ Each episode works as a largely self-contained unit organized around a single theme, sometimes depicting a relationship or a situation rather than a plot, and the show avoids melodrama in presenting its points.⁸ Critics also noted its anime-like story logic and performance style, such as Huang Chengzi and Tan Song imitating romance-film scenes for a debate competition, which keeps the tone light and suits younger viewers' tastes.¹¹

The drama's structure gives the five protagonists four families, and the parents' stories carry real weight: one praised episode follows Zhu Jinxiao's mother, whose fortieth-birthday dinner falls apart until her own mother arrives at night with her favorite soup, a sequence the director renders through close-ups tracking her shift from hope to disappointment to being moved.¹⁰

Legacy

Lovely Us is frequently cited as a high point of the small-budget revenue-sharing (fenzhang) drama model, in which producers rather than platforms bear the financial risk. A 2021 industry retrospective listed it alongside The Crime Scene as a revenue-sharing drama that combined strong earnings with a Douban score of 8.2.¹² Director Cattree went on to make further youth romance dramas including When I Fly Towards You and See You Tomorrow.¹³

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 Iv to My

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

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