#pijingzhanji

[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

���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!!!

[fangcaodi]

I love this show, but I really cannot deal with the 4+ hour finales. Mango TV, I’m trying to have some semblance of a life. Please, can we wrap it up in 3.5 hours?

[fangcaodi]

I nearly screeched when I realized what was happening! Over 6 years later, 韦礼安 asks 尤长靖 and 朱星杰 to dance to Ei Ei from Idol Producer 偶像练习生 with him! You can totally see a switch flip within 尤长靖!

[fangcaodi]

Congrats to 尤长靖 for becoming a father by adopting 庆怜 the 团宠.

[fangcaodi]

早安 learns to embrace his inner 胡夏

[fangcaodi]

So I watched the Chappell Roan VMAs performance after hearing how cool it was (it was pretty cool). But at some points I couldn't make out what she was singing, so I kept instinctually looking at the bottom left expecting to see the lyrics written there like on Chinese singing shows!

For the uninitiated, here is what I mean. Performances are often captioned with the lyrics in the corner.

The screenshot is from 披荆斩棘--I love the original version of 国王与乞丐, and this cover was great. I recommend you check out both performances!

[fangcaodi]

It literally looks like he has toilet paper stuck to his suit.

[fangcaodi]

Jing Long really showed up dressed as Nezha on rollerblades and proceeded to fall into the car 😅

[fangcaodi]

In all my time watching this show (and 乘风破浪), I don’t think I’ve EVER heard this level of screams from the audience. Honestly I couldn’t really follow the story (same can be said for pretty much all the S3-onward 唱演 stages), but I thought 夏夏 did a great job acting, and 包子 was phenomenal as always! Their friendship is a highlight of this season.

[fangcaodi]

WHAT is 林依轮 wearing!!

[fangcaodi]

Finally started!!! First hour thoughts: (no significant spoilers)

The way I gasped when I saw Bai Jugang. Miss season 1 <3

Umm what is You Zhangjing's outfit?!

Getting so emotional watching the clips from the start 😭 can I work for this show?

Caelan and Nine are living my dream: can sing and dance, working and living in China, meeting big celebs

CREEPY PUPPET STAGE—Fu Xinbo and Xu Haiqiao are truly so delightful

I always wonder why the 亲友团 is so small. I guess most of the people sit somewhere else?

I love this show, but I really cannot deal with the 4+ hour finales. Mango TV, I’m trying to have some semblance of a life. Please, can we wrap it up in 3.5 hours?

[fangcaodi]

Second hour thoughts:

Not me instantly recognizing some of the mouths but not the voices (I have poor voice recognition ability)

I love the old newsroom vibe. They are really pulling it off

Ok now I understand You Zhangjing’s outfit but I still don’t like it

Was it just me or did 斗牛 seem like a quasi-religious experience?

I NEED more guests from previous seasons. Glad to see 蔡国庆 but I need MORE

Omg 黄潇 and 徐海乔 that was adorable

I love their continuous commitment to having the ugliest, weirdest trophies

I love this show, but I really cannot deal with the 4+ hour finales. Mango TV, I’m trying to have some semblance of a life. Please, can we wrap it up in 3.5 hours?

[fangcaodi]

Final thoughts:

Getting emotional (but in a good way)

Overall I do think last season's songs for the finale were stronger overall choices. I think 3/4 had to do with alcohol lol. But I still got the kind of moments I wanted this year

送你一朵小红花 made me think of 浪姐3!

I feel like 李克勤's Mandarin has improved a lot since I saw him on 中国好声音

Pretty happy with who made X-Fire. I always think 17 spots is a lot but when they start filling it seems like not enough!

What am I gonna do with my life now? I need to find something new to watch

I love this show, but I really cannot deal with the 4+ hour finales. Mango TV, I’m trying to have some semblance of a life. Please, can we wrap it up in 3.5 hours?