Michelle Topham 
The City Maker gets January 10th premiere on Tencent
I must be getting old as it does not seem any time since the Chinese drama The City Maker ended its filming but it is, apparently, eight months since the Zhao Li Ying and Huang Xiao Ming-led series started post-production and, now, just days before it premieres on January 10th on Tencent Video.
Right before its release, of course, we are starting to get various promo pieces dropping and, while these don’t have the visual sumptuousness of wuxia dramas, they do stick closely to the aesthetics of the drama – that of an early 1980s small town somewhere in China.
Today’s promo pieces also look similar, but in this case are a series of five The City Maker character posters of the lead actors and main supporting cast — Zhao Li Ying, Huang Xiao Ming, Geng Le, Chen Ming Hao and Ailei Yu.
A cast that plays a group of “cadres” as they help the local farmers found a new city on what was once farmland. All for the good of the economy of China and the people living in it.
The City Maker plot synopsis
Now, just like the currently ongoing series The Miracles (which is superb, by the way), The City Maker is likely to be somewhat of a propaganda piece as it appears to be very pro-China development and pro-CCP.
You’ll figure that likelihood out too when you read The City Maker‘s plot synopsis:
In the early 1980s, in order to accelerate development, Pingchuan County decides to establish “Yuehai Town.”
Li Qiuping and Zheng Decheng, two cadres distinguished by both their abilities and strong personalities, uphold the principle that “the people build the city for the people.”
Drawing on the policies of reform and opening up and the Central No. 1 Document, they find a path to reform and lead tens of thousands of farmers to build a modern city on tidal flats without using a single yuan of state funding.
Through the innovative approach of “collective fundraising and partnerships,” a city rises from nothing.
This becomes a miracle of city-building from scratch, a remarkable feat in the history of urban construction in China, transforming the destinies of hundreds of thousands of farmers.
Li Qiuping, Zheng Decheng, Jie Chunlai, Gao Xuemei, and other city builders dare to dream big, dare to act, and dare to lead the way, composing a brilliant chapter in the sunlit 1980s.
Then again, like I always say, the CCP has led astounding economic and social development in the last few decades, so you can’t blame China and Chinese drama production companies from wanting to celebrate it, can you?
And, at 40 episodes, that celebration is likely to be epic.
Meanwhile, we don’t have any reliable information as yet as to where The City Maker will be releasing internationally.
It could be WeTV (likely), could be somewhere on YouTube, we just don’t know.
Wherever it ends up being, though, if you like a good economic development plot that, after many trials and tribulations, is probably ultimately feelgood, The City Maker is definitely one to look at.
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