How 'Princess Shang' Became Weibo's Most-Anticipated Drama Before Airing a Single Episode
Days before Tencent Video's new palace romance premieres, its stars are announcing the date in character, a variety show has staged a secret six-task courtship between them, and fans have already named the pairing — a look at how China's biggest dramas are now sold before they exist.
Six days before Tencent Video premieres "Princess Shang" on October 23, the costume drama has already premiered somewhere else: on Weibo. Its two leads announced the date in character, a Hunan TV variety show staged an elaborately produced romance between them, and the fan base has already filed the pairing under a portmanteau woven from their given names. By Thursday morning, the male lead's announcement alone had been reposted more than 100,000 times.
The show itself is a palace-intrigue romance: Mu Wanyao, a princess with a mind of her own, and Yan Shang, a scholar from a poor family who climbs into the imperial court on his wits, played by Meng Ziyi and Li Yunrui in their third on-screen pairing, with a bench of veterans including TVB alumna Myolie Wu (Hu Xing'er) behind them. The title carries a double meaning that does heavy lifting. In imperial usage, 尚公主 meant for a man to marry a princess — and the hero here is literally named Yan Shang — so the two-character title reads at once as "Yan Shang's princess" and as the marriage the whole plot turns on.
Both stars sold it in character. Meng Ziyi's post gave her princess a threat worthy of the genre: "In my heart, a tiger; even a trapped beast is a hunter. I, Mu Wanyao, am the law in this story" (我暮晚摇，在这个故事里，就是王法). Li Yunrui answered from the other end of the social ladder: "I, Yan Shang: from a humble family to the court, and I will not go home empty-handed" (从寒门到朝堂，定然不会空手而归).
The day's most-discussed material, though, came off-script — or rather, carefully scripted and disguised as improvisation. According to a widely shared fan account of the taping, the "punishment" segment on Hello Saturday turned out to be six hidden missions Li Yunrui had secretly been assigned, including collecting Meng Ziyi "off work" and telling her, in character, that "being by Mu Wanyao's side feels really good." Meng Ziyi, who knew nothing of the tasks, was caught visibly surprised on camera; when the recorded package played in the studio, host He Jiong wiped away tears.
That is pre-sales fandom, and it is the mirror image of a playbook this site has seen before: when the cast of the CCTV hit 'Lan Xiang Ru Gu' kept posting in character after their finale, the actors were servicing the ship after the product shipped. "Princess Shang" runs the same machine in reverse — the chemistry is assembled, televised and archived before a single viewer has judged the drama itself.
Not everyone is charmed. "The marketing is everywhere before it has even aired; the two leads are selling it hard," one Weibo user wrote — "if the drama flops, that will be the funny part." That is the wager every big Chinese drama now makes: build the relationship first, let the plot catch up. On October 23, the plot starts catching up.