I’ve watched a number of Asian youth dramas — coming of age stories set in high school, university campus, or usually both — but none left a bittersweet ache in my heart at the end the way Wait, My Youth (等等啊我的青春) did. Infused with a sense of nostalgia for the early 2000s where much of the story takes place, the drama centres around a group of five (later six) friends and their trials and tribulations from youth to adulthood over the course of a decade.

Peppered with references to the popularity of Jay Chou, Beyond, F4, S.H.E., and others during that era, the drama (also known as Salute To My Youth) used music to help drive the storytelling and themes about youth and the passage of time. Each episode opened with a brief instrumental arrangement and a line or two of lyrics from a popular song of the period, capturing the plot for that episode (I did not clue in to this until I recognized the melody for the 2001 Mandopop hit, Green Light (綠光), by Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿).)

The drama was not without its flaws or frustrations (the wigs and hair extensions were … not great), but a lot of it could arguably be attributed to its realistic portrayal of the stupidity of youth. The male lead, played by Zhao Yiqin (赵弈钦), starts off as a bit of a bully, especially towards Su Cancan, portrayed by Nicky Li Jia Qi (厉嘉琪), but he clearly demonstrates character growth and change over time. Some of it felt like the teenage imaturity of boys who do not know how to handle their feelings for a girl. Similarly, the lack of communication between certain characters was, at times, also incredibly frustrating, even as it conveyed some of the fear and vulnerability teenagers experience when it comes to revealing their innermost feelings. Even the classic “noble sacrifrice” trope (which my friends and I often call “noble stupidity” or some variation of that) did not feel stupid here — but instead, organic, unforced, and believable.

One of the weakest elements might arguably be in some of the acting. Even so, there was an earnestness and sincerity that nonetheless came through the screen, while the longing woven into so much of these characters’ emotional lives remained palpable.

I was not even close to being this moved by other more highly rated and popular school dramas from the last three years or so. For me, the story, the pacing, the music gelled together well, and they were able to do it without any villains (e.g. campus Mean Girls) or too much melodrama (like intrigue and backstabbing). Some of the storylines in Wait, My Youth also did not unfold the way I feared they would either, to the writer’s credit. Other shows in this genre left me a little bored, some had main characters I found too problematic (Professional Single, Sweet First Love) , and still others veered into melodrama two-thirds of the way, changing the tone and feel of the show. Some had confusing or poorly executed time jumps that became very distracting to the storytelling.

I don’t expect Wait, My Youth to work for everyone, but it did for me. I initially checked it out to escape a mini “show-hole” left after watching Word of Honor, but unexpectedly found myself falling into a much bigger one. I don’t know if I was particularly moved because a good chunk of the story overlapped with my own time in China, or because I adored the friendship between these characters who were only a few years younger than me at the time, or because of the lyrical instrumental piano soundtrack. But something about this coming-of-age drama sparked both a deep sense of joy and the ache of saudade.

Youth nostalgia, redux (A River Runs Through It)

(Updated March 20, 2022)

I watched A River Runs Through It (上游) back in October and thought about writing a separate post, but there is so much overlap between the two dramas in terms of what I wanted to say and how it made me feel that most of my original review could have been written for this show too. 

This one tells the story of Lu Shiyi and Xia Xiaoju and their tightknit group of friends over the course of about a decade, from high school to university and beyond. Despite its many issues and flaws (a rushed ending, for one), I loved it even more than Wait, My Youth. While the stories are different, there are nonetheless notable similarities, including the “enemies to friends” relationship between the two main characters (a common Asian drama trope), wonderfully portrayed by Wang Ruichang (王瑞昌) and Hu Yixuan (胡意旋) (the acting in A River Runs Through It is significantly better). The relationships here are more frustrating and more heartbreaking to be honest, especially for the secondary characters, but for the most part, they also feel more authentic than your typical youth drama.

Even more so than Wait, My Youth, A River Runs Through It evokes a deep sense of nostalgia and longing in part because it overlaps even more closely with my earliest travels and time living in China. From the start, I was captivated and transported back to my parents home country. The story opens on the last day of August in 1997 — I’d visited for the first time earlier that summer, travelling to Beijing, Wuhan, Chongqing, and cruising the Three Gorges with my family. I was in Hong Kong by the end of June, in time to witness the city’s handover from British rule. Years later, I took a job at Nankai University in Tianjin, teaching a journalism course and working in their foreign student exchange office. Those experiences were transformative and are among my most cherished memories.

Above: The opening credits for A River Runs Through It tries to capture that sense of nostalgia with its miniature models of scenes from the drama, preserved and protected forever behind glass. Credit: Youku, MyDramaList

One of the highlights in this drama is the soundtrack, specifically its use of the 1989/90 hit, 你知道我在等你吗 (Ni Zhi Dao Wo Zai Deng Ni Ma/Do you know that I am waiting for you?) by Taiwanese composer and singer Jeremy Chang (张洪亮). I was unfamiliar with the original, but fell in love with its beautiful simplicity, sung in the drama by Hu Yixuan.

We only get to hear Wang Ruichang sing a few seconds here and a full-length drama version of this song was never released unfortunately:

Because I heard Hu Yixuan’s accoustic rendition first, I could not get used to the faster speed of the original, even though I loved the violin solo in the beginning. I found this version by Zhong Ming Qiu (鐘明秋) that is perhaps my favourite version.