#i can mostly understand it but i do like to have subtitles for palace dramas/xianxia/that sort of thing

[prodigyprosecutor]

finished reading he who drowned the world and decided i need to get into palace dramas so i went to watch the next episode of story of yanxi palace (i watched like 3 episodes and then fell off) on viki where they played me the same jack daniels ad twice with the show's intro music blaring in the background before starting the episode without subtitles even though i had them turned on. god bless

[dangermousie]

I wanna get into cdrama but the thought of watching a show that's obviously undergone censorship bothers me. Can you rec me historical and/or fantasy dramas where there aren't any evident last minutes changes, cut content, suspicious inconsistencies etc.? I understand that to an extent all series have been influenced by censorship but I think I can manage if it's not super obvious

I totally get you, Anon! As someone who grew up in a (different) Communist dictatorship, I am so used to existence of censorship I just roll my eyes at it but I can see how it can be jarring.

This said, the vast majority of Chinese dramas are not particularly affected by it in any way that you can see cuts or changes (and for all I know, were approved as is.) Sure, if you are making a drama with a gay main couple or a serious political period show, you are more likely to get the snip, but the majority of them fall outside of that sort of thing (The Wolf is notable precisely because it is an exception to that general rule, being a harmless romantic period fantasy that sent censors into fits for reasons I can speculate over all day.) The vast majority of recently cut dramas are mostly cut for length not content since shows that are shown on TV cannot be longer than 40 episodes, and it’s a relatively recent cap so a bunch of shows that want the greater prestige and money from being on TV versus just streaming (majority of shows are streaming only) that were filmed pre 40 ep rule, try to cut down to 40. (And streaming-only shows cut for length too for a variety of reasons.)

And honestly, I think censorship was also a lot less heavy-handed prior to 2015-2016 or so.

Anyway, here are a wide variety of dramas, from long to short, from serious battle epics to fluffy romance, that I love and that do not look like any scissors were taken to them (I mean, they may have been, but you cannot tell either way.)

SERIOUS POLITICS AND WAR ARE YOUR JAM

Three Kingdoms 2010

The King’s War/Legend of Chu and Han

HIGH FANTASY ROMANCE

Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms/Eternal Love

Love and Redemption

Legend of Fuyao

Love and Destiny

TIME TRAVELERS IN PERIOD SETTING

Bu Bu Jing Xin/Startling Step by Step

Joy of Life

The Myth

Jade Palace Lock Heart/Gong (first drama, there are three with the same name, they have unconnected plots.)

Lost Love in Times (well, it’s sort of time travel)

SMART ROMANTIC PERIOD TRAGEDY

Goodbye My Princess

Siege in Fog

ROMANCE NOVEL IN PERIOD FORM

Prince of Lan Ling/Lan Ling Wang

General and I

Sound of the Desert

The Lady and the Liar

Too Late to Say I Love You

The Princess Weiyoung

WUXIA/XIANXIA WITH ROMANCE IS MY JAM

Legend of Condor Heroes 2008

Return of Condor Heroes 2006

Listening Snow Tower

Ever Night 1

Romance of Red Dust

PERIOD WOMEN-CENTRIC DRAMAS

The Story of Minglan (my favorite cdrama of all time)

The Imperial Doctoress

Singing All Along/Long Trip to The Beautiful Rivers and Mountains

SPIES SPIES SPIES

Sparrow

Rookie Agent Rouge

The Disguiser

YOU WANT TO USE YOUR BRAIN

The Longest Day in Chang’an

Nirvana in Fire

Tribes and Empires

The Battle of Changsha

Nirvana in Fire 2

NOT SURE WHAT CATEGORY BUT I LIKE IT

Young Warriors

Secret of the Three Kingdoms

I think that’s plenty. :) They all have English subtitles.

I’d add The Sword and the Brocade to the list but it’s still airing so I have no idea if it will keep being good the whole way through.

I’d also recommend Monarch Industry/Rebel Princess - it was somewhat cut but for length not censorship (from 80 eps to 68) so there are really no narrative gaps to me.

Thank you for this ask, I loved it!