# Rattan (司藤)
**Rattan** (司藤, also known by its alternative title *Ban Yao Si Teng* / 半妖司藤) is a 2021 Chinese fantasy romance-mystery streaming drama adapted from [Wei Yu](https://www.edgepedia.org/wei-yu)'s (尾鱼) novel *Ban Yao Si Teng* (半妖司藤, "Half-Demon Si Teng"), starring [Jing Tian](https://www.edgepedia.org/jing-tian) as the revived plant-spirit heroine Si Teng and Zhang Binbin as the designer Qin Fang who accidentally wakes her.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) The 30-episode series premiered on March 8, 2021 on Youku, Tencent Video, and iQIYI, and became one of the year's unexpected hits, winning the 8th Wenrong Award for Annual Platform Best Work and a 2021 annual outstanding online audiovisual work award from the National Radio and Television Administration.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / English title | 司藤 (Si Teng) / RATTAN; alternative name 半妖司藤[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Source | Novel *Ban Yao Si Teng* (半妖司藤) by Wei Yu, published on Jinjiang Literature City in 2014[2](https://dzb.whb.cn/imgPath/2021-08-27/150827.pdf) |
| Premiere | March 8, 2021, on Youku, Tencent Video, and iQIYI; 30 episodes of 45 minutes each[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Key creatives | Director Li Muge; screenwriters Wang Hong and Li Min; producers Jia Shikai (chief) and Wu Xingyan[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Central change from the novel | The heroine's "demon" (妖) identity became the "Yuzu" (苅族), a fusion of alien life genes and earth plants[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_11657473) |
| Production scale | 117 days of filming plus 10 months of post-production; IP signed with Youku in 2017[4](https://www.sohu.com/a/460791537_123843) |
| Reception | Douban 6.9 from 284,217 ratings as of March 2, 2024; the score peaked near 8.0 during broadcast[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) • [5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0421/c404023-32083493.html) |
| Awards | 8th Wenrong Award Annual Platform Best Work (October 23, 2021); 2021 annual outstanding online audiovisual work (May 2022); Weibo Vision Conference Glowing Glory Breakthrough Innovation Work (November 2022)[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
## Spoilers
### Premise
The story spans two eras. In 1946, [Bai Ying](https://www.edgepedia.org/bai-ying), Si Teng's split-off other half, kills Si Teng in Shanghai; as she dies, a strange, relieved smile crosses her face.[19](https://www.hxnews.com/news/yl/kdsj/202103/10/1970883.shtml) In 2013, the young designer Qin Fang (Zhang Binbin) travels to the western region of Nangqian to search for an ancestor's benefactor when his car crashes off a cliff and a wooden stake pierces his heart. His dripping blood revives the woman buried underground, who calls herself Si Teng and says she died in 1937. She compels Qin Fang to serve her as she sets a board of revenge, and as the mystery unravels he discovers that his own fate was arranged more than seventy years earlier.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
Si Teng's character is defined by the tension between power and vulnerability. She commands formidable abilities and treats the Xuanmen (悬门), the drama's replacement for the novel's demon-hunting Taoist sects, with calm superiority, yet she is afraid of insects, learns about modern life from television, and softens toward Qin Fang over the course of their travels.[6](https://www.jiemian.com/article/5789013.html) In the novel's backstory, Si Teng began as an innocent plant raised and manipulated by Qiu Shan, who used her as a tool for fame and the elimination of rivals before she escaped his control; she was later killed by her own split-off other half, Bai Ying (白英), and slept underground for decades until Qin Fang's blood woke her.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## From novel to screen
The source novel, serialized on Jinjiang Literature City in 2014, mixes the supernatural, the strange, romance, and suspense, and had a stable readership though not mass popularity.[2](https://dzb.whb.cn/imgPath/2021-08-27/150827.pdf) • [3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_11657473) Yuekai Entertainment signed the IP project with Youku in 2017 and began script development and team assembly. Producer Jia Shikai described the adaptation as the hardest problem: the original's half-demon heroine, raised by humans, forced to mutate and to fight her own kind, then abandoned by her lover and split into two personalities, combined with a timeline crossing the Republican era and the present, made narrative choices difficult. The team drafted both a Republican-era version and a modern version and abandoned the former; after several changes of screenwriter, producer Wu Xingyan recommended the new writers Li Min and Wang Hong, whose outline won over the production. The finished script was the product of roughly two years of revision.[4](https://www.sohu.com/a/460791537_123843)
**The demon became an alien hybrid.** The most consequential change was regulatory as much as artistic: the novel's ghost-and-demon material was reworked into science fiction, with the "yao" becoming the "Yuzu" (苅族), beings produced when alien life genes fused with earth plants and gradually developed self-awareness over long evolution, and the demon-hunting Taoist sects becoming the Xuanmen.[3](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_11657473) Screenwriter Li Min, herself a longtime reader of Wei Yu's web novels, said the aim was to respect the original's main storyline and spiritual core without forcing changes to the leads' relationship, while adding small interactions and motivations for supporting characters; the team also worked to strengthen the worldview so the story's logic held in a comparatively science-fictional frame.[7](https://k.sina.cn/article_7489582309_1be69f4e500100wx70.html?from=ent&subch=film) Commentators noted other changes as well: the drama altered the identities of the male lead and several major characters so that the characters' entanglements became deeper and more mysterious, and it reversed the novel's stance on Si Teng's attitude toward love.[2](https://dzb.whb.cn/imgPath/2021-08-27/150827.pdf)
Original fans were brought into the process. Wu Xingyan said the writers made some changes to the timeline but consulted readers' views, and that fans attended test screenings and gave feedback; because Wei Yu's works contain many famous scenes that fans would punish any excessive alteration of, the production restored the original as far as censorship allowed.[8](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/2021-06-08/doc-ikqciyzi8469808.shtml)
## Production
Filming began in 2019 and ran 117 days, followed by ten months of post-production before the March 8, 2021 release.[4](https://www.sohu.com/a/460791537_123843) Baidu's encyclopedia entry gives the shooting dates as September 25, 2019 to January 19, 2020, while DramaWiki lists the end date as January 9, 2020.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) • [9](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Rattan) The production shot across five locations: [Shangri-La](https://www.edgepedia.org/shangri-la), Dali, and Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, plus Wuxi and Hengdian; the crew spent nearly two months scouting Yunnan to match the story's settings.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) • [10](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/161854007215908.html)
**Casting and styling.** Wu Xingyan said the team was cautious about the lead because "if the female lead works, the drama works," and that Jing Tian was in the production's first tier of candidates; after receiving the script she read it overnight, gave feedback, and the role was written around her image.[8](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/2021-06-08/doc-ikqciyzi8469808.shtml) Stylist Li Meng designed Si Teng's looks around a "plant" theme in three phases matching the story's settings: qipao style for the Danai revival and Cangcheng Mountain arc, Chinese ethnic style for Yunxi Village, and modern retro style for Yuhang and Shenhai, mixing Eastern and Western vintage elements. The qipao looks started a fashion wave after broadcast.[11](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/56326059?fromModule=lemma_inlink) Ji Guanlin dubbed the character.[11](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/56326059?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## Reception
Expectations were low before release: fantasy is a weak genre in Chinese drama, and Wei Yu's previous adaptation, *Shi Ling Lu* (示铃录), had scored only 3.3 on Douban.[12](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_12063464) The series instead became a breakout. Within about three days of release it had taken 36 Weibo hot-search topics, and its Douban score, which opened around 7.6, rose to 7.9 and at one point reached 8.0, bucking the common pattern of Chinese dramas losing score after premiere.[5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0421/c404023-32083493.html) • [13](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0326/c404084-32061262.html) It led the Guduo web-drama chart, spent 18 days at the top of the overall drama chart, and reached average per-episode views above 100 million before the finale; over its first 22 days its Guduo heat index averaged 75.42.[12](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_12063464) Audience surveys during broadcast put positive evaluations of both leads above half and overall character approval above 80 percent.[14](https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404622763666309184)
The score later settled at 6.9 on Douban, based on 284,217 ratings as of March 2, 2024.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink) [Criticism](https://www.edgepedia.org/criticism) targeted the early episodes' pacing, unstable tonal shifts between suspense and sweet romance, weak supporting characters, Ji Guanlin's dubbing, and some effects work.[6](https://www.jiemian.com/article/5789013.html) The ending divided viewers, and a screenwriter interview in which Li Min described the story as one of "two strong people" rather than a strong woman and weak man angered some fans just as the episode aired in which a dying Si Teng crawls toward Qin Fang, which many felt broke her persona.[15](https://www.36kr.com/p/1169115751369984)
**Awards.** The drama won the 8th Wenrong Award for Annual Platform Best Work on October 23, 2021, was named to the 2021 annual outstanding online audiovisual works list by the NRTA office in May 2022, and received the Weibo Vision Conference Glowing Glory Breakthrough Innovation Work award in November 2022; it also won the Beijing News 2021 year-end list's Best Eastern Fantasy Drama and was nominated for best overseas-distributed Chinese drama at the 2nd Aotewu International TV Festival.[1](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## Themes and significance
At a post-broadcast seminar, director Li Muge described the drama's core as a woman's growth toward an independent personality and reconciliation with her own past: the twin-flower relationship between Si Teng and Bai Ying works as an expression of self-consciousness under a fantasy wrapper, and the relationship with Qiu Shan examines how a childhood shaped by an abusive mentor who instilled hatred leaves wounds healed over a lifetime.[10](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/161854007215908.html) Producer Wu Xingyan framed the character against the standard "big heroine" template: the point was a woman whose strength is her own, driven by free will to control her own life, rather than a [Mary Sue](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-sue) in a gender-swapped CEO romance.[10](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/161854007215908.html) Critics placed the drama in the "younger man, older woman" (年下恋) wave alongside *Perfect Relationship* and *Find Yourself*, noting that despite its female-strong framing it is structurally a romance of that type, with Qin Fang dependent on Si Teng's power to survive.[15](https://www.36kr.com/p/1169115751369984)
The drama's success also mattered for its genre and its author. Commentators credited its restrained budget, location shooting, and costume design as a template for fantasy dramas, and noted that follow-up fantasy titles such as *Twelve Tan* and *[Yu Zhao Ling](https://www.edgepedia.org/yu-zhao-ling)* failed to sustain the wave it started.[12](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_12063464) • [16](https://i.ifeng.com/c/85WBTHglv4D) For Wei Yu, whose novels were widely optioned, *Rattan* remained the adaptation that won recognition; later adaptations of her work, including *Seven Hearts* (《七根心简》), underperformed commercially and critically.[17](https://www.newworldtimes.us/newspaperfiles/20250627/441_NWTA_21_C.pdf) After broadcast, the producer said Si Teng's story was not yet finished.[11](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/56326059?fromModule=lemma_inlink) The novel itself was published in book form in two volumes by Sichuan Wenyi Publishing House in March 2021 (528 pages, ISBN 9787541159633) and holds an 8.3 rating on Douban.[18](https://book.douban.com/subject/35385404/)
## References
1. [司藤（2021年景甜、张彬彬主演的奇幻悬爱剧）, Baidu Baike](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/22558518?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
2. [文汇报影视文艺评论（2021年8月27日）](https://dzb.whb.cn/imgPath/2021-08-27/150827.pdf)
3. [《司藤》：人设带感，剧情还可以加把劲, 澎湃新闻](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_11657473)
4. [「IP顽主」专访贾士凯：《司藤》成功记, 搜狐](https://www.sohu.com/a/460791537_123843)
5. [奇幻剧如何打开想象力消费的广阔空间——评电视剧《司藤》, 中国作家网/文汇报](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0421/c404023-32083493.html)
6. [《司藤》首播好评度极高, 界面新闻](https://www.jiemian.com/article/5789013.html)
7. [淡化妖性，画出司藤的人性底色｜专访《司藤》编剧李旻、汪洪, 新浪](https://k.sina.cn/article_7489582309_1be69f4e500100wx70.html?from=ent&subch=film)
8. [监制说景甜是司藤第一梯队候选 原著粉有参与改编, 新浪娱乐](https://ent.sina.com.cn/v/m/2021-06-08/doc-ikqciyzi8469808.shtml)
9. [Rattan, DramaWiki](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Rattan)
10. [《司藤》让大女主"支棱"起来，制片人重新定义爽剧, 新京报](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/161854007215908.html)
11. [司藤（电视剧《司藤》中的女主角）, Baidu Baike](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%B8%E8%97%A4/56326059?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
12. [《司藤》实现数据领跑，奇幻剧终于有模板了, 澎湃新闻](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_12063464)
13. [创新外星人科幻题材 网剧《司藤》走红, 中国作家网/北京日报](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0326/c404084-32061262.html)
14. [《司藤》实现数据领跑丨舆情解读, 微博](https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404622763666309184)
15. [《司藤》的女强设定打开年下恋剧集新高度了吗？, 36氪/文化产业评论](https://www.36kr.com/p/1169115751369984)
16. [《司藤》重新带起的奇幻志怪风，这么快就散了？, 凤凰网](https://i.ifeng.com/c/85WBTHglv4D)
17. [New World Times (June 27, 2025)](https://www.newworldtimes.us/newspaperfiles/20250627/441_NWTA_21_C.pdf)
18. [司藤（全二册）, 豆瓣读书](https://book.douban.com/subject/35385404/)
19. [司藤白英最后结局是什么 司藤剧中各人物关系图一览](https://www.hxnews.com/news/yl/kdsj/202103/10/1970883.shtml)
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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 › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles My to So*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; 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