# Too Young to Grow Old (再见十八班 (2025年网络剧))
**Too Young to Grow Old** (*再见十八班*, Zai Jian Shi Ba Ban) is a 24-episode Chinese youth web drama directed by Yu Lanxin (禹岚馨) and Hu Qiaofeng (胡乔枫), which premiered on the streaming platform iQIYI on January 22, 2025 and concluded on January 26, 2025.[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/81914/too-young-to-grow-old) It is a sequel to the 2018 film of the same name, made largely by the same creative team, and follows a former rebellious student who returns to his old high school as a trainee teacher.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 再见十八班 (simplified) / 再见十八班 (traditional); also romanized Zai Jian Shi Ba Ban[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/81914/too-young-to-grow-old) |
| Format | 24 episodes, about 47 minutes each; scripted youth drama in Mandarin[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Broadcast | iQIYI, mainland China, January 22 to January 26, 2025; VIP members received the first 10 episodes at launch, then 4 new episodes daily at 12:00[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/81914/too-young-to-grow-old) • [2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Directors and writers | Directed by Yu Lanxin and Hu Qiaofeng; written by Yu Lanxin, Fang Yini, Li Yujie, and Zhang Zhuohui; producer Yang Cheng[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Lead cast | Yi Daqian (Song Chen), Deng Meng (Tan Shutong), Xiong Jingwen (Qin Miaomiao), Wu Chongxuan (Chen Jiawei), Chen Minghao (Lin Haoran)[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Production | Shenzhen Wutong Plan Pictures and Yingchuan Culture Media (Hangzhou); filmed entirely in Shenzhen[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Recognition | Named an excellent work in the National Radio and Television Administration's Q3 2025 selection of outstanding online audiovisual works, one of only 3 web dramas among 100 selected works[3](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/2026-01/16/content_31906052.htm) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story centers on Song Chen (宋宸), played by Yi Daqian, who was once the ringleader of Class 18, the notorious problem class of Wutong High School. Moved by his mentor, the teacher Tan Ruiming, he resolves to become a teacher himself and change the fortunes of struggling students. When he returns to his alma mater as an intern, however, he is assigned to the elite Class 1 as homeroom teacher, while Tan Shutong (谭舒同), the mentor's hot-tempered daughter, reluctantly takes over the bottom-ranked Class 18 after a failed job search. The two novice teachers and their unwilling students gradually wear down their mutual prejudice through daily conflict.[4](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_ke3cz298p9.html)
A parallel storyline follows Song Chen's former classmates, the previous generation of Class 18, now young "post-95" graduates sharing a rented apartment as they enter working life. The series interweaves these two generations of young people, high schoolers of the "post-05" generation and the young adults guiding them, asking whether they can become the adults they hope to be.[4](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_ke3cz298p9.html) The finale brings the two generations of Class 18 together in song at a graduation ceremony.[5](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_1mg9afoo09x.html)
## Origins
The series grew out of director Yu Lanxin's own high school years at Shenzhen Foreign Languages School. Her homeroom teacher, Tang Ruiguang (唐锐光), tolerated and cared for a class of bright but unruly teenagers; Yu has said Tang once sent her a long comforting text message after the only failing grade of her student career. Tang later developed a terminal illness and died in 2016, leaving her with a regret she could not let go, and she created both the 2018 film and this series with Tang and her high school class as their prototypes.[6](https://wyb.chinawriter.com.cn/attachment/202508/04/6c0f8d84-af83-4406-b8f4-438d907acf90.pdf)
After the 2018 film succeeded, Yu planned to continue the story as a web drama. In 2023 she assembled a team, largely the same core group as the film, and began writing a new story: the former "bad kids" of the film's generation step into the teacher's role and collide with a more individualistic generation of post-2000s students. Screenwriter Fang Yini drew additional inspiration from anonymous letters submitted by students.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began with a ceremony in Longgang District, Shenzhen on July 16, 2023, and the crew filmed for more than thirty days during the summer.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## Shenzhen setting and casting
The entire series was shot in Shenzhen, and its locations are deliberately local: the campus of Longgang District Experimental School, converted apartments and rooftops in He'ao New Village, the "Bay Area Dance" Universiade metro station, and the elevated Line 3 trains visible from the rooftops where characters talk at night. Details such as the blue-and-white Shenzhen school uniforms, blooming flame trees, and local foods including [fish balls](https://www.edgepedia.org/fish-ball), mung bean ice, cart noodles, and lemon tea anchor the story in the city.[3](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/2026-01/16/content_31906052.htm) • [2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
The production is a "Shenzhen second-generation" project: the director, writers, co-director, and music director all grew up in the city, and the student roles were played by non-professional high school students chosen through auditions at schools including Shenzhen Foreign Languages School, Shenzhen Senior High School, Shenzhen Experimental School, Xin'an Middle School, Shenzhen University Affiliated Middle School, Guangming District Senior High School, and Longgang District Experimental School.[7](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/2025-02/20/content_31470162.htm) The soundtrack was produced by Gao Fansheng, a Shenzhen-born musician, who performed at a January 19, 2025 roadshow held at his alma mater.[8](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/mb/2025-02/10/content_31462163.htm) The theme song is 《我要我》, performed by the main cast, and the ending song 《青春请回答》 features the drama troupe of Shenzhen Foreign Languages School.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## Release and reception
Promotion began with character posters on December 30, 2024 and a class-anthem music video on December 31; roadshows followed in Longgang on January 11, 2025 and at the Shenzhen Experimental School secondary campus on January 19, before the premiere on January 22.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) Within hours of release the series reached number 2 on iQIYI's "surge" ranking, and a year after broadcast it still topped the platform's youth chart.[9](https://www.sohu.com/a/983511130_122633974) On iQIYI's own rating system it held 7.5 points from 3,967 raters as of June 8, 2025, while the platform's title page displayed 8.7.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink) • [4](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_ke3cz298p9.html)
In January 2026 the National Radio and Television Administration announced the results of its Q3 2025 selection of outstanding online audiovisual works: 100 works were chosen nationwide, of which only 3 were web dramas, and *Too Young to Grow Old* was among them.[3](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/2026-01/16/content_31906052.htm) Guangdong's provincial review list records the copyright holder as Shenzhen Wutong Plan Pictures.[10](https://gbdsj.gd.gov.cn/attachment/0/595/595888/4783961.pdf)
Critics and commentators have focused on the show's treatment of educational bias. A commentary in Lianhe Zaobao described it as a campus drama about high school streaming in which Class 1 stands for good grades and discipline while Class 18 is labeled a "problem class," so that in any dispute the label, not the student, determines who is believed first.[11](https://www.zaochenbao.com/news/opinion/202604/1068951.html) The *Shenzhen Commercial Daily* praised its use of everyday school scenes and local details to evoke the city's youth culture.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## Relation to the 2018 film
The 2018 film *再见十八班*, also directed by Yu Lanxin, told a different story about the same class: the students of Class 28 at Wutong High School receive a collective letter claiming to come from one year in the future, saying their homeroom teacher Tan Ruiming will change the class but then leave, and they set out to complete the letter's tasks.[12](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/22487679?fromModule=lemma_inlink) The 2025 series is a continuation rather than a remake, moving from the students' story to the story of one of them becoming a teacher, and it shares the film's character names, including Song Chen and Qin Miaomiao, now played by a new cast.[2](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
## References
1. [Too Young to Grow Old, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/81914/too-young-to-grow-old)
2. [再见十八班（2025年禹岚馨、胡乔枫执导的青春剧）, Baidu Baike](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/65335565?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
3. [深圳青春网剧获国家级荣誉, 深圳新闻网/深圳晚报 (2026-01-16)](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/2026-01/16/content_31906052.htm)
4. [再见十八班-电视剧-全集高清正版视频在线观看, 爱奇艺](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_ke3cz298p9.html)
5. [再见十八班·核心剧情速看, 爱奇艺](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_1mg9afoo09x.html)
6. [查出绝症前我实现了自己的梦想！后来，这位清华才女又成了"1%的幸运儿", 扬子晚报·紫牛新闻 (2024-10-23)](https://wyb.chinawriter.com.cn/attachment/202508/04/6c0f8d84-af83-4406-b8f4-438d907acf90.pdf)
7. [属于深圳人的青春剧来了！, 深圳新闻网 (2025-02-20)](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/2025-02/20/content_31470162.htm)
8. [听！这是深圳的BGM "深二代"音乐创作人高梵胜用音符讲述青春故事, 深圳新闻网 (2025-02-10)](https://www.sznews.com/news/content/mb/2025-02/10/content_31462163.htm)
9. [《再见十八班》：以真实为刃，剖开青春与成长的双重命题, Sohu](https://www.sohu.com/a/983511130_122633974)
10. [广东省2025年第三季度优秀网络视听节目评审结果, 广东省广播电视局](https://gbdsj.gd.gov.cn/attachment/0/595/595888/4783961.pdf)
11. [范瑞杰：谁在学校里先被相信？——从《再见十八班》谈教育最深的偏见, 联合早报中文网 (2026-04-10)](https://www.zaochenbao.com/news/opinion/202604/1068951.html)
12. [再见十八班（2018年禹岚馨执导的剧情电影）, Baidu Baike](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E5%86%8D%E8%A7%81%E5%8D%81%E5%85%AB%E7%8F%AD/22487679?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
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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 Sp to Z*
*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