Cover Looking for a new show to commit to? These 2026 C-dramas are worth watching (Photo: Rakuten Viki)
Looking for a new show to commit to? These 2026 C-dramas are worth watching (Photo: Rakuten Viki)
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Move beyond ‘Pursuit of Jade’. Discover 2026 C-dramas you may have missed, from historical epics and period romances to crime thrillers and genre-bending dramas
Everyone was watching Pursuit of Jade. For weeks, Marquis Xie Zheng (Zhang Linghe) and the butcher’s daughter Fan Changyu (Tian Xiwei) seemed to be everywhere—from clipped scenes and costume edits to endless discussions about the drama’s central pairing.
But 2026 has had a much bigger C-drama field than the year’s biggest hit suggests.
Away from the dramas dominating streaming charts and Weibo hot searches, several series have been trying something different: crime stories built around long-buried cases, romances shaped by the realities of the 1970s, historical dramas concerned with surrender rather than conquest and genre experiments that move between the modern world and imagined ones.
In case you missed it: 5 sleeper C-dramas of 2026 that outshone blockbusters
If Pursuit of Jade was the Chinese show everyone was talking about, these are the 2026 C-dramas you may have missed.
1. ‘Love Between Lines’ (2026)
Above Two strangers meet in a murder-mystery game, only to find their fictional identities following them into real life
Hu Xiu (Lu Yuxiao) joins a Republic of China-themed murder-mystery game as an escape from the disappointments of her everyday life. In its snowbound world of spies and concealed motives, she meets Qin Xiaoyi, an enigmatic character whose identity is tied to the man she will later encounter outside the game.
In contemporary Shanghai, that man is Xiao Zhiyu (Chen Xingxu), the founder of an architecture design studio. Their connection becomes more complicated as the boundaries between their fictional roles and real-world relationship begin to shift.
Directed by Cattree, Love Between Lines moves between modern Shanghai and an imagined Republican-era setting, using the murder-mystery game as the bridge between the two. iQIYI lists the completed series at 28 episodes.
The conceit gives the romance considerably more room to play than a standard workplace drama. The characters are constantly moving between the people they are and the identities they have chosen to inhabit.
See more: 10 C-dramas to watch if you like ‘Love Between Lines’
2. ‘Born to Be Alive’ (2026)
Above On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a story of environmental protection unfolds amid poaching, illegal mining and the lives of the people who call the region home
There are few obvious ingredients for a conventional star vehicle that sound less familiar than illegal mining, wildlife protection and the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. That is where Born to Be Alive goes.
The 40-episode drama follows Bai Ju (Yang Zi), whose life on the plateau is shaped by a community confronting poverty, poaching and illegal mining. As she grows up, the example set by the people around her informs her own commitment to protecting the region. Li Guangjie is among the principal cast, while Hu Ge appears in a special role.
Directed by Li Xue, the series premiered in January 2026 and was released through iQIYI and CCTV-8. Rather than treating the plateau as a scenic backdrop for a romance, Born to Be Alive places environmental protection and the lives of the people doing that work at the centre of its story.
It is a markedly different proposition from the historical romances that often dominate international C-drama recommendations: a contemporary drama built around a landscape, a community and an occupation rarely given this much room in mainstream television.
3. ‘Our Dazzling Days’ (2026)
Above A factory town, a changing China and a generation trying to work out what comes next
Our Dazzling Days begins in 1990, following three young people—Zhang Xiaoman (Huang Jingyu), Xia Lei (Wang Tianchen) and Yan Xiaodan (Guan Xiaotong)—as they grow up in a north-eastern Chinese factory community. Their lives change as the industrial complex that sustained their families loses its former prominence, sending the friends away before circumstances draw them back home.
The factory is more than a backdrop: its fortunes shape the characters’ education, work and decisions about whether to leave or rebuild the place they came from.
4. ‘Love Story in the 1970s’ (2026)
Above They marry for a place to live, sleep in separate bunks and slowly discover that practicality has its limits
Fei Ni (Sun Qian) wants to go to university. Fang Muyang (Chen Feiyu) wants to become a painter. Neither plan looks particularly practical in the 1970s.
After Fang is injured while saving someone, Fei agrees to look after him, hoping the arrangement might help her own chances of being recommended for university. When her family needs housing, she proposes a marriage of convenience.
The arrangement gets them a place to live. It also means sharing a bunk bed before either is particularly interested in calling what they have a romance.
WeTV lists all 29 episodes of the completed series and describes Fei and Fang’s relationship as one that develops from the practical arrangement into genuine affection.
The drama is at its most interesting when the romance is allowed to develop alongside the characters’ separate ambitions. Fei’s education and Fang’s art career are not simply obstacles on the way to the happy ending; they are the lives the two are trying to build.
5. ‘Swords Into Plowshares’ (2026)
Above Not every historical drama is about winning a war. Sometimes the story is about knowing when not to fight one
The title gives away the central question.
Set during the transition from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to the Song dynasty, Swords Into Plowshares follows Bai Yu’s Qian Hongchu (alternatively known as Qian Chu), the ruler of Wuyue, as he weighs the fate of his kingdom against the costs of resisting the expanding Song state.
Zhu Yawen plays Zhao Kuangyin, founder of the Song dynasty, with Zhou Yutong also among the principal cast. The 48-episode historical drama premiered on CCTV-1 and was made available through iQIYI, Mango TV and Tencent Video. It aired in January, making it one of the year’s earlier major historical releases.
Rather than building its story around palace romance or martial-arts spectacle, the drama examines the political calculation behind peaceful submission: when resistance may cost more than yielding, and what happens to a kingdom after its ruler relinquishes power.
6. ‘Sunsets Secrets Regrets’ (2026)
Above A cold case, an undercover operation and five years of unfinished business converge in this crime thriller
Five years after the deaths of two police officers in the so-called 8/17 Case, new evidence brings the investigation back to life.
Police investigator Zhou Jin (Elvira Cai), whose brother was killed in the original incident, is drawn back into the case alongside her husband, criminal psychology professor Jiang Hansheng (Jing Boran). Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng (Qin Junjie)—her former partner who vanished years ago—has spent the intervening years operating deep undercover inside the criminal syndicate they are working to dismantle.
The 28-episode series, directed by Tianyi, combines the police investigation with an undercover operation that has been running in parallel for years. iQIYI classifies it as a crime, mystery and romance drama. If you are looking for 2026 C-dramas with an edge, you might want to add this to your watchlist.
The three central figures also share a fraught personal history from youth, giving the investigation an emotional weight that predates the crime itself.
7. ‘How Dare You!?’ (2026)
Above She knows how the historical novel is supposed to unfold. Unfortunately, its characters have other plans
Wang Cuihua (Wang Churan) is a modern workplace newcomer who unexpectedly finds herself inside the plot of a historical transmigration novel. There, she encounters Zhang San (Cheng Lei), another person who has entered the fictional world and knows more about its rules than its characters should.
Within the novel, they become Yu Wanyin and Xiahou Dan. He is an emperor who has spent years concealing his ambitions, while she must work out how to survive in a story whose original plot is no longer a reliable guide. Their shared knowledge gives them a chance to influence events, but it also complicates their attempts to control their own fates.
The iQIYI production combines time travel, political manoeuvring, costume comedy and romance. Its appeal lies in the gap between knowing how a fictional story is supposed to end and discovering that the characters inside it can change the script.
See more: 10 beginner C-dramas to watch if you miss ‘Pursuit of Jade’
8. ‘Dazzling’ (2026)
Above A return to her hometown brings Qing Ye back into the life of a boy she knew as a teenager—and a romance that takes years to find its way
Qing Ye (Guan Xiaotong) returns to her hometown after her family runs into trouble and she is sent to stay with her aunt. There, she meets Xing Wu (Li Yunrui), a young man from a less privileged background whose family has its own difficulties. What begins as an uneasy arrangement gradually develops into a close bond as they move through their school years and begin to imagine lives beyond their hometown.
Their relationship is tested by separation and the different paths they take as adults. Eight years later, they meet again and discover that their connection has survived the time apart. The 30-episode drama follows them as they pursue their careers and work out what they want from the lives they have built.
9. ‘The Early Spring’ (2026)
Above Jing Boran and Sun Qian lead a workplace romance that lets ambition and attraction develop at their own pace
Shang Zhitao (Sun Qian) is a newcomer trying to establish herself in a demanding workplace when she crosses paths with Luan Nian (Jing Boran), a talented and exacting senior colleague. Their relationship develops amid professional pressures, unresolved history and the choices each must make about the life they want.
Adapted from Gu Niang Bie Ku’s web novel Zao Chun Qing Lang (早春晴朗), the 24-episode drama premiered in August 2026 and received a global Netflix release.
Sasha Lim Uy Mariposa is a lifestyle journalist who is known for her food writing. Based in Manila and currently a marketing content specialist, she still dabbles in entertainment, beauty and dining coverage. She was the former managing editor of Esquire Philippines and was the food editor at SPOT.ph. She also edited several best-selling books about food.
She now writes for the different Tatler Asia markets as a contributing writer for T-Labs.
