Pursuit of Jade Wraps with Douban Ratings of 6.8, Accusations of Watering the Viewership, and Inverse Buzz to Screentime Ratio for Leads Zhang Ling He and Tian Xi Wei
So what was a great start for March 2026 iQiyi period C-drama Pursuit of Jade will see it suffer the same high to low trajectory as most dramas these days. With a hot start and strong reviews, the drama starring Zhang Ling He and Tian Xi Wei looked poised to deliver a much needed win for C-drama land after a series of mediocre to just good drama premieres in the first two months of the year. Alas the drama’s second half of its run has been marred by a series of bad news – allegations that the viewership was watered by fake data, complaints that the male lead had considerably less screentime and was basically a glorified extra at times, the collapse in logic of the plot in the second half, the villain dudes getting more buzz and breakout from the drama, and the female lead delivering a solid performance but not getting the commensurate buzz versus the less screen time male lead getting way more buzz compared to her. All in all, this won’t be the breakout hit that both leads wanted but still not being a flop is a relief. And to cap it off, the opening Douban ratings of 6.8 is on the weaker side for a drama that purported had really high views.
This drama is supposedly a bigger hit than Joy of life, Knockout or some other dramas that are still relevant years later. What a joke.
I really want to know what was the purpose of this from the two platforms? It’s now infamous for the tsunami of water and fake ratings. That isn’t going to go away and will taint their dramas further on.
Anyway, the only way ZLH got more attention was that people spoke how he was the worst actor on screen and overshadowed by others. She on the other hand got quite a few compliments.
Overall what a waste.
From what I’ve read it’s because the two platforms (tencent & iqiyi) wanted to compete with each other.
Yes, such a waste. I think I won’t be able to unsee those cockroach feelers whenever I see ZLH on screen now.
Whattttttt. As a fan of journey to the west, I loveee the two long feather look! Along with Zhang Ling He’s face card in this drama, it looks celestial(?)! 顏值巔峰～
You prob always hated him, no need for silly excuses
@ilikehim Nah it looks weird even on a monkey god lol.
@Merry Lmao why don’t you search up my comments in The Princess Royal articles here about liking him and Zhao Jinmai.
Despite everyone here including koala saying it is a waste and almost flop and despite poor douban rating, Pursuit of Jade has solidified its status as a historic global phenomenon by shattering domestic records with an all-time high 50.9% market share, dominating its “triple-platform” release with a 10,000 iQIYI index, a record-breaking 31,000+ Tencent score, and a landmark 3-week streak in the Netflix Global Top 10, all while fueling massive character buzz that has placed leads Zhang Linghe and Tian Xiwei at the pinnacle of international popularity across 191 countries.
I expected higher score because overall the acting and directing was good. Plot did give up at the last 10 episodes, but that is already way better than many hyped dramas that didn’t make it through the first 10 episodes.
Outside of this. I personally feel that somehow a lot of scenes seemed to be cut off or edited out which made the flow of the story towards the end seem off. Not sure if it was a censorship issue or maybe an episode restriction issue but it kind of was a let down. But I still feel the drama was good despite this. It is a shame but it makes you wonder with the last 10 episodes released illegally what the heck is going on with whoever is in charge of airing this drama sounds like there is a lot of fishy business more than watering the viewership ratings. I don’t think it is the casts fault at all and people should really not blame them but throw the shade on the broadcasting network.
I like this drama so much. No skip, no fast forward. It deserves 9.5/10. I specially like the beautiful fight scene between fl and goliath enemy
The Douban ratings are a joke. While not perfect artistry, POJ is a gem (300-plus dramas over 15 years). This is the first Asian drama I’ve looked forward to and thoroughly enjoyed in ages. With all the records it broke, I agree with the accusations of watered-down viewership numbers. It seemed the “powers that be” despised or were jealous of the recognition it received from the masses, then went into overdrive trying to destroy it. As far as ZLH is concerned, I think all his older and new global brand sponsors, with all their sell-outs and record-breaking numbers, would consider it a “Breakout hit”. Personally, I loved him in “Story of Kunning Palace”. Thanks for the article. “Suum cuique”, to each their own.
Sorry, it doubled when it took chrome and hour to update. No way to cancel this post.
Sorry for the double post. Chrome decided to be temperamental.
While not perfect, this drama is a gem (300-plus dramas over 15 years). The Douban rating is a joke, and with all the records POJ broke, I agree with the accusations of watered-down viewership numbers. The masses enjoyed it, the powers-that-be wanted to destroy it. I think all of ZLH’s older/new global brand sponsors with record-breaking numbers/sellouts would consider it a Breakout hit. Personally, I loved him in “Story of Kunning Palace”. Suum Cuique, to each their own.
Records! Do you enjoy showing the world you are a fool? Lol
I agree with strong start but so so ending. Plot is not impressive and sometimes I have difficulty understanding the plot.
The reviews are so bias. It’s a solid drama. Though I wish it was a 70 episode drama to flesh out each character. All actors did so well. The only issue is editing because they had to condense the drama. All the villains did so well here.
I could tell they either cut a lot of scenes or planned (expertly, in my opinion) how to fill in the blanks of the story with certain dialogue and character exchanges, like… HUH? ohhh okay, I see. It didn’t take away the story, but it did leave quite a lot to be desired. It’s C-dramas. The cap of 40 episodes is going to drive most storytelling to this fate. “A Journey to Love”s last stretch was even worse. It started off so strong just for me to raise my eyebrow like, WHAT?? What do people expect with all the boundaries of censorship? It was still a mostly complete story with heart because of all the high quality performances, and that’s all I can hope for from a C-drama. The Chinese fans might have created all the negative buzz—expected, as it’s their country’s production—but from the outside, seems it trended well internationally on Netflix. And I just have to say, netizens are weird as heck. This was a FEMALE LED story, so DUH, of course the male lead would take the backseat. ZLH was SUPER memorable in his performance though! This is the first time I couldn’t imagine anyone else in his role. It was a good, balanced story between the leads and had solid character development/arcs throughout the story, even with the limitations. Finally, TXW killed it as pig slaughtering beauty and general. She deserves all the praise for her performance.🥹🙌
The Douban rating is as expectedly…..LOW for all the popular Cdramas overseas. lol. On the other hand, many dramas with high Douban ratings are cure for insomnia like reading congressional reports lol. Funny that C netizens gave these snoozefests high regard but downgraded other more entertaining/popular dramas. Think about what Douban ratings the following hit dramas received vs. those so-called “mainstream” pieces that are as dull as dishwater. lol:
Hidden Love, Love Like the Galaxy, The Double, Blossoms, Legend of Zanghai, Fated Heart, Love’s Ambition, and now Pursuit of Jade.
Besides, there’s a tunnel vision that always considers actors in “serious” dramas superior to those working for idol dramas. This Blinkered mindset prevalent within the C communities is artistically baffling.
Do we even care about being entertained? Don’t we watch dramas to get entertained? Don’t lecture me with long-ass theater theories referencing constipating expressions from “serious” actors as a support for your outdated definitions of “good acting.”
This is an English forum outside China. I think a lot of international drama fans oftentimes have opposing views regarding dramas. Hidden Love did not get rave reviews, neither Legend of Zanghai. Now Pursuit of Jade joined the one club of globally hit Cdrama which is not glorified for commercial success domestically. Hidden Love had been the most viewed Chinese drama on Netflix until Pursuit of Jade taking the crown. Legend of Zanghai broke the record of Chinese shows across different countries on Disney+. Pursuit of Jade is the only C drama ever ranking weekly top 10 Netflix non-English shows, beating several active Kdramas. That is a breakthrough for Cdrama to break into the popular list of the global streaming titan.
International viewers in many countries love these three dramas! But look at the reception they got back home. Chinese fans are a different animal. lol.
Love like the Galaxy has a score of 7.7, pretty impressive for an idol drama. Also, Blossom 7.5. Even Zang Hai’s score is 7.1. So quite different from Love’s ambition, for example, at 6.5.
There have been other idol drama that are very well loved by international fans and still have a high douban score, like Love Between fairy and devil (8.2), Word of Honor (8.5) or The Untamed (7.7). And do you remember Someday or one day (9.3) or A dream of splendor (8)?
Meaning to say that the Douban scores of good shows are still high, no matter how popular they are. Now I think that Pursuit of Jade would have had a higher score if there hadn’t been all this controversy. So I think it may rise a bit (do you remember The Untamed opening at 4.8??😅). Not much higher than 7.2-7.3, though.
It is still highly enjoyable and of course full of eye-candy.
Those popular dramas couldn’t make it to 8/10. What good about those ratings?
Someday or One Day is a Taiwanese drama. I don’t consider Taiwanese drama part of C productions. lol.
I couldn’t finish LbFaD or WoH. I don’t think these two dramas as popular as the Untamed, Hidden Love, or Pursuit of Jade outside China.
A Dream of Splendor? That’s a snoozefest! lol
I have qualms about Douban Ratings mainly focused on those huge hits outside China. Yes, I mean HUGELY successful C dramas on global streaming sites such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Viki. So far, only Hidden Love, Legend of Zanghan, and Pursuit of Jade met that definition. Their Douban ratings are extremely low relative to how well received they are outside China.
This one is coroner diary on steroids. With 140M daoly views displayed on yunhe data it only gathered 80k raters on its DB ratings opening (they had to rise when they saw Cnetz mocking it). The people behind this drama had to purchase hot search topics to inform viewers that the last ten episodes of the show were leaked a couple of days prior otherwise nobody cared : a joke !
I dropped it since he’s been racist towards SEA. And he supposed to visit SEA as the BA but i dont think it’ll happen anytime soon. Iqiyi announced ChengLei for their new BA. I guess, Chenglei will be the one who visit SEA.
I tried couples episodes but apart of his handsome face, his performance was so so. He’s famous and his fans wont mind his acting skill.
I enjoyed this drama but it doesn’t deserve 6.8, I would give it a 6.4 at most. Some of the comments here amused me, lumping Legend of Zanghai with the rest of the idol romance dramas when LoZH is highly raved by C-netz for its subtle messages and had been nominated for several prestigious C-ent awards. It’s only Douban and its ratings that’s unreliable, and it’s something that C-netz often rant about too. But of course, somebody here only wants to sh.t on C-netz and Chinese fans because she thinks her aboriginal Taiwanese American self knows Chinese culture better than the native Chinese.
PoJ is not much different from other idol romance dramas, except that it was well-shot and well-executed save for the last 10 episodes. There’s hardly any substance to the drama other than a weak feminism call. It’s a great pity that the platforms watered the data so much that it turned C-netz against this drama, the drama should do decently well if it’s left to bubble organically.
Lmao at people claiming LOZH as nothing much different from idol dramas when it contains many subtle references to world politics. There’s a reason why the Chinese authorities like LOZH so much. Dramas and movies are always rated higher if they contain a mix of thematic resonance, social impact, and cinematic subtext. This applies to any sort of drama awards and movie awards including Oscars. Idol dramas are simply dramas that focus on actors looking pretty and the romance between the male and female leads, they don’t have much context beyond that, hence they can never hold up to the mainstream or serious dramas.
You can enjoy idol dramas, it’s not shameful to prefer visuals over context. But claiming idol dramas as being on the same pedestal as serious dramas is ridiculous.
As for Xiao Zhan, most drama fans already moved on to Zang Hai as his most iconic role now. Only shippers and disguised antis still cling on to Wei Wuxian because they don’t want to admit the guy has reached new heights in his acting career. Zang Hai gave him his first prestigious Best Actor award, a feat for a popular actor who isn’t under a powerful agency nor have strong background connections. So yes, LOZH and Zang Hai has the greatest impact on his acting career now.
Legend of Zanghai isn’t Ace Troops or The Youth Memories that was built upon reality and historical backdrops. Both LoZ and Joy of Life are nothing much different from idol dramas that have a lot of fantasy elements when comparing their contexts. Each hit drama is memorable to each their own regardless of whether simpletons regard it as a “mainstream” or an “idol” drama, a stupid way to divide genres. So, it’s ludicrous to rate LoZH or JoL more highly than other popular idol dramas like Hidden Love or Pursuit of Jade.
Simpletons’ logic is baffling to rate “mainstream” dramas superior to “idol” dramas, even it’s arguable whether LoZH and JoL are that much different from “idol” dramas in context. This kind of mentality is the BS that’s only good for a laugh. lol.
Take Xiao Zhan, for example; I believe most drama fans still consider Wei Wuxian the most iconic role for him on his acting resume. Among all XZ’s works, the Untamed, although an idol drama, still has the greatest impact both on his acting career and his fans. Only fools will deny that.
I actually started watching this bc of this post, I’m already on ep. 20 and already enjoying it a lot! Has been 1-2 years since I haven’t dropped a Chinese drama, so this is good
oh you are at episode 20, I am at 25 , and I am enjoying a lot too, I’m surprised why many people do not like it because I found it very entertaining.
They don’t like it cuz they’re insecure fans of other actors. They probably worry someone may become a threat to their favs. lol
PoJ is commercially more successful than my own fav’s hit drama last year. I’m also seeing a lot of rabid talifans of my fav come out running smear campaigns against ZLH. So insecure!
douban rating is not a fix number, it is influenced by fanwars. let review it again in the next few weeks. the most important is it is loved by international fans like me.
After hearing the sea comment I won’t even bother watching it. Such a hype.
netizen and media today focus more on negativity
People not looking for entertainment, but trying to find fault and then criticize
And media focus on this small amount of negative people
Really boring.
I stop looking at Koreaboo as the site become more2 about netizen critics
Who care about their view…they are not oscar jury lol….just ignore and enjoy the show