Michelle Topham 
C-drama Forever Young gets December 30th release
Now this is the best C-drama news all month as far as I am concerned, as Wallace Huo’s new drama Forever Young is finally being released after wrapping its filming over 18 months ago.
And in a surprise release as well, with no hint from iQIYI or Tencent Video about the drama’s planned premiere. Until this morning, that is.
The day before the C-drama’s first episodes will drop.
The Forever Young release date, by the way, is tomorrow, December 30th, 2025, with a release on both iQIYI and Tencent Video depending on your location.
And yep, with Wallace Huo’s recent Why Is He Still Single? being one of my Top 3 Chinese dramas of 2025, I am now especially psyched for this.
Especially as the wonderful Zhang Yao, who played the outspoken Lin Sa opposite Wallace Huo’s Yu Yu in Why Is He Still Single?, has a supporting role in his latest drama as well.
I wonder if she will be as willing to call out Ma Jin’s b.s. (Ma Jin played by Wallace Huo, by the way) as much as she called Yu Yu out in Why Is he Still Single?
8 Forever Young character visuals take us back to the 1990s
That premiere information today also came with 8 character visuals for the drama’s main cast.
They are – Wallace Huo, Tian Yu, Zhang Xue Ying, Qiao Zhen Yu, Liu Duan Duan, Xue Hao Jing, and the two actresses who are both named Zhang Yao. (The one who appeared in Why Is He Still Single? and the one who appeared in Return of the Queen. Both fine actresses in their own right, by the way).
Tencent also commented about the stylized Forever Young character visuals they released:
The scene in the visuals takes us back to the 1990s, with vintage stained-glass windows and hanging pendants, and sunlight streaming into the attic corridor. What happened here?
As the story of “Forever Young” unfolds, let’s uncover the mystery together!
That story, by the way, is an intriguing one as the Chinese drama follows businessman Ma Jin (played by Wallace Huo) after he is diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Baike Baidu describes it like this:
Ma Jin (played by Wallace Huo), the very successful vice president of a listed company, is suddenly diagnosed with a brain tumor. Alone and facing death, he prepares to accept his fate, but a lingering feeling of attachment remains – his bond with three close friends with whom he grew up in a Beijing hutong.
Just before graduating from high school, a dramatic event caused him and his three friends to drift apart.
That’s why, before his death, Ma Jin wants to resolve past grievances and rekindle their friendship, so he returns to China to restart the “Four Brothers of Leopard House Hutong” chapter of his life.
The lives of these “middle-aged” men reflect many real-life situations: Ma Jin, wealthy but without his health, faces the end of his life; Wang Chun Sheng (played by Tian Yu) is troubled by his son’s reluctance to go to college despite approaching the college entrance exam; Li Lian Bao (played by Qiao Zhen Yu), a high-ranking internet executive, faces a career crisis after being laid off; and Tong Qiu (played by Liu Duan Duan) is an ordinary man facing pressure from his parents to have children, while experiencing a strained relationship with his wife.
These experiences easily resonate with viewers, as the characters’ lives are realistic and vivid, resembling the lives of middle-aged people the audience might know.
Yep, this could be incredibly sad or wonderfully joyful, depending on where that plot leads, couldn’t it?
The 32-episode Forever Young is directed by Hua Qing (Breaking the Shadows), and will release its first episodes on Tencent and iQIYI at 6pm (Beijing Time) on December 30th.
In other words, it will likely be streaming by the time you wake up.
The Chinese drama will then drop new episodes daily after that. Look out for it. I know I will be.
Update, December 30th: In the U.S. the first four episodes of Forever Young are now live on WeTV for VIP subscribers, and folks who have watched it are already starting to rave about its lead actors and its plot.
A reminder, though, look at the comments of international viewers watching Forever Young and not the ratings on various sites as, nowadays, we sadly have a troll problem making so many ratings for Asian dramas ridiculously disreputable.
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