#乘风

[linghxr]

Why you should watch 乘风破浪 and 披荆斩棘 to learn Chinese

What are these shows?

Both 披荆斩棘 and 乘风破浪 follow the same basic format: 30+ celebrity contestants, mostly actors and singers ages 30+, form teams and compete in singing and dancing over several rounds. Viewers vote on their favorite performances and contestants, and 1-3 contestants are eliminated each round. The top contestants form a temporary "group" and appear on a follow-up reality show.

Why you should watch

1. Exposure to different accents

Contestants come from all over the Chinese-speaking world: Dongbei, Sichuan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and even Malaysia. I can personally say that watching these shows has vastly improved my ability to understand the Hong Kong Mandarin accent.

2. Pop culture knowledge

Because the contestants are celebrities, you'll be introduced to dozens of famous actors, singers, etc. Also, you'll hear the many iconic songs that they cover. I've impressed several native speakers with my with knowledge of pop culture and music.

3. Branch out to new media

These shows serve as a gateway to Chinese music, movies, and TV. if you really like the contestants who are actors, you can check out their shows and movies. If you enjoy a certain song or like a contestant who's a singer, you can explore more music.

4. Casual and formal registers

You’ll get to hear casual, unscripted speech while watching the behind-the-scenes and rehearsal clips. But you’ll also get to hear more formal speech when they’re announcing rules and also from the MC who hosts the actual live performances.

5. Incredible talent

Also, you should watch for the awesome performances and general fun. I love seeing the contestants' friendships, and I’m also obsessed with the amazing sets. There are some incredibly talented performers on these shows, and I love getting to see them shine.

Where to watch

All seasons are free to watch on YouTube! Sometimes clips may be muted or missing, probably due to YouTube's restrictions. But the vast, vast majority is available, and when a clip is missing, you can usually do a separate search and find it. I also pay for a Mango TV subscription, which is $1.99 USD/month.

乘风破浪 full episode playlist links:

乘风破浪的姐姐1

乘风破浪的姐姐2

乘风破浪3

乘风2023

乘风2024

披荆斩棘 full episode playlist links:

披荆斩棘的哥哥1

披荆斩棘2

披荆斩棘3

披荆斩棘4

To help you get started, below is a YouTube playlist of my some of my favorite performances (5 per season, except for the most recent season of each). Cause why not! Also, below the cut I'll put more details along with direct links to my favorite performances.

And if you're a fellow fan emotionally preparing for the 披荆斩棘4 finale 🥲, feel free to message me and commiserate!

See similar posts: I watched all the Chinese idol survival shows so you don’t have to (but you should anyway) Tips for finding Chinese-language media you like

Sisters Who Make Waves

Chinese title: 乘风破浪的姐姐 (S1-2) / 乘风破浪 (S3) / 乘风 (S4-5) English title: Sisters Who Make Waves (S1-3) / Ride the Wind (S4-5) *I call it Sisters for short

This series is the original, having started in 2020. The focus was on female empowerment, particularly of women 30+. A lot of the celebrities had slowed down in their careers, and the show served as their reintroduction to audiences. While female empowerment is still a theme today, I do feel it has lessened in prominence.

Season 1

The original, iconic season. You can tell they had a limited budget and not a ton of space, but it doesn't detract at all thanks to the incredible talent and energy of the contestants. And they had no idea what a phenomenon the show was going to be! Many of my most rewatched performances come from the season.

得不到的爱情

大碗宽面

相爱后动物感伤

FLOW

新物种

Season 2

This season has a special place in my heart as the first one I watched! It's the only one I've seen twice (when it originally aired and rewatched with friends). Compared to season 1, you can definitely tell they had a bigger budget and started to refine the format. Also, some of my all-time favorite contestants are from this season.

现在不跳舞要干嘛

归零

快乐宝贝

给自己的歌

我

Season 3

This season was the first with the show's "modern" and fully-developed format, which remains to this day. For example, they started to include more complex sets and recruited more diverse contestants, such as dancers, an athlete, etc. Also, my favorite performance of the entire series, 雾里, is from this season.

雾里

梦中人

山海

孤独颂歌

有吗炒面

Season 4

This season was the first time I felt there wasn’t improvement over the previous season. I think the stage design took a step backward, and I didn't love the international focus. It was hard to identify my favorite performances because I didn't feel strongly about many. That being said, my friends and I still enjoyed this season.

从头

千里万里

下个，路口，见

归途有风

I'm Not Yours

Season 5

Though this season has already ended, I'm not done yet. I watch with friends, so we move at a slower pace. So far, it seems largely in line with season 4. I'll update this post after we finish.

Call Me By Fire

Chinese title: 披荆斩棘的哥哥 (S1) / 披荆斩棘 (S2-3) English title: Call Me By Fire *I call it Brothers as a nickname

A show about female empowerment gets a male spin off? Out of skepticism, I did not plan to check out this show when it premiered in 2021 (after Sisters S2). But at some point I changed my mind, mostly because I had to run out of other shows. Little did I know I would arguably become a more devoted fan of this show than the original!

Season 1

This season had too many iconic performances to count, and in particular, the Hong Kong contestants really took the world by storm. Due to scandals, they edited out 2 contestants (Huo Zun and Li Yundi), which admittedly does make for an awkward viewing experience at times, but you should totally watch anyway.

凄美地

MMA

飞云之下

达拉崩吧

如果还有明天

Season 2

Looking back, season 2 did not have as many stand out performances as season 1, but it does boast my favorite performances of the entire series, 新地球. It also features a fantastic group of contestants, probably my favorite overall cohort of the show.

新地球

袖手旁观

私人生活

理想

凤毛麟角

Season 3

This was the first season to air after I started watching, though I didn't watch it live because I was still on season 2. While it's probably impossible to top the iconic status of season 1, I think season 3 was an improvement over season 2 in terms of memorable performances. We also got the iconic 0713 (2007快乐男声全国13强) contestants.

行走的鱼

爱人错过

Joker

走麦田

有没有一首歌会让你想起我

Season 4

This season is sadly coming to an end, although I have not started the finale yet. I'll start this weekend and update this post in the future after I've had some time to gather my thoughts.

Now I have to go finish 披荆斩棘4 episode 11 so I can watch the finale. Bye!!!

[bird-inacage]

【乘风】 Ride the Wind S5 | 陈丽君 Chen Lijun: Stage Performances

I didn't know Chen Lijun before watching this year, but I'm incredibly grateful I do now. She is insanely talented (and disciplined), and I adore everything about her.

Though she is known for her expertise in classical art forms through her Yue Opera training, she has shown the ability to also take on modern genres. Whenever she’s on stage, she exhibits an amazing amount of grace that is both strong and soft, handsome and elegant, masculine and feminine. It’s such a pleasure to watch.

Note: Ride the Wind (formerly known as Sisters who make Waves) is a Chinese competition show that invites 30+ established female artists from across the entertainment industry to perform as girl groups. CLJ is a Yue Opera artist: a traditional form of theatre that combines acting, singing, dancing and martial arts.

[brieforsomething]

How did china, a country that banned BLs and effeminate men create the most homoerotic reality TV show I've seen to date?

1. Ban survival shows

2. Expolit a loop hole and cast a bunch of hot MILFs instead

3. Profit

Meet the cast of Sisters Who Make Waves season 5:

Qi Wei - singer/actress (girl on the left in above gif)

Publicly stated she is bisexual, rumored to have dated fellow actress Phoebe Lin. Happily married to a man and has a 9 year old daughter with him. This only seems to mean no matter how gay she acts on this show she can still claim it's all for show

He Jie - singer

During an interview within the extras of this show was asked "if you were a man which of the contestants would you like most". Answered "why would I have to be a man to answer this question, I've always liked women" and "when I was little I only liked female celebrities". Had also married a man but since divorced him.

Liu xin - singer

She's 39 and to my knowledge unmarried. I'd like to believe I have a shot.

Chen lijun - Yue opera singer

Day job involves her playing male roles and romancing women. Large female audience.

This show has been unfathomably successful in the past few years with many a kpop idol competing (Fei and Jia former Miss A - s1, Jessica Jung former Girl's generation - s3, Amber Liu former f(x) - s4, and Nicole Jung former KARA - s5).

Anyways I think it counts as representation even if they're not totally out and also married with kids. Hilarious how the show runners can write all of it off as a really strong sisterhood tho lmao.

[clairedaring]

Fei performing '精卫' @ Sisters Who Make Waves S5

[chenlijuns]

This is me

[halcyon-girls]

my friend said kelly yu is hot, I agree

[liu-anhuaming]

went and watched all of the clips of 龚琳娜 and 美依礼芽 from the latest episode and i just

[wanghedi]

the way they edit eliminations on idol type survival shows need to be studied its like its own genre to me. They are editing this with the emotional gravitas of someone dying on air and the contestants are crying like it too. like ur friend is going back to their mansion why are u crying like they are about to execute them in front of u 😭 also u are all 30-50 year old women it cannot be that serious

[obstinaterixatrix]

oh that reminds me for sisters who make waves they’ve been covering the stage in water so I was like ‘huh they’re really leaning into the wave theming this time’ and mom was like ‘no they took out the waves. it’s just cheng feng’ ???? ???????? they took out the waves?????

[philosophermalcolmtucker]

AHHHHHH THIS SONG IS FREAKING BREATHTAKING. Thank you, 龚琳娜 and MARiA 美依礼芽, for such an amazing performance.

[deankarolina]

It's all technique

[notnotnobody]

I'M DYING THEY SOUND SO GOOD the harmonies!!!!

[bird-inacage]

【乘风】 Ride the Wind S5 | 陈丽君 Chen Lijun

Chen Lijun is proving to be an absolute powerhouse this year. As a traditional Chinese Opera artist, CLJ typically plays male roles on stage and has recently made a name for herself, due to her dignified and handsome aura that's both masculine and feminine.

Able to belt powerful vocals, adapt to many dance styles due to her years of gruelling training and discipline, and a master of stunning swordplay and strength - she's rightly everyone's ultimate girl crush.

Note: Ride the Wind (formerly known as Sisters who make Waves) is a Chinese competition show that invites 30+ established female artists from across the entertainment industry. They participate in a series of live shows as girl groups. The greater purpose is to allow for creative collaboration, and an insight into these artists/celebrities.

[la-muerta]

肖顺尧 Xiao Shunyao Studio weibo update, 22 July 2024 –

乘盛夏清风, 邂逅繁华秘境。 Rising with the summer breeze, serendipity with a lavish secret realm

[shijiujun]

Rosmei Newest Danmei EN Titles Licensed (Manhua & Novel)

Older news, but Rosmei has also updated their latest licenses, including several manhuas and novels, think it was December too that they announced.

Manhuas:

敖敖待捕 A Tale of Two Dragons

一骗丹心 To Love a Liar

小王子 My Little Prince

请与我同眠 Bedtime Fairy Tales

不健全关系 Pathological Lovers (Fave of mine!)

Novels:

吞海 Tunhai - Named as Hunt for the Leviathan (Poyun Breaking the Clouds is also licensed under Rosmei)

尾钩 Tailhook (Sequel to The Approach, which is licensed under Haitang)

君有疾否 JYJF

我乘风雪 Beyond the Snowstorm (A fave, smut filled too haha - and with gorgeous couple art for the cover)

紫金寺夜话 Tales of Zijin (JUST SMUT THRU AND THRU this is a really really rare one apparently the author doesn't even have a Weibo and she hasn't been in the public for a while. I have the CN print for this from 2-3 years back and it's one short and thin and beautifully coptic-stitch bound novel - pairing is a monk x demon)

望春冰 Love at First Thaw

[lesbiancarat]

[240209] XCSS Weibo Update

#JUN文俊辉[超话]#[送福]#文俊辉龙年拜年祝福# 奔走热爱，不惧将来；愿年年有风风吹年年，2024乘风直上。@/文俊辉 来给大家拜年啦～#文俊辉龙年拜年写真#