Since this is a new format that didn’t exist before, I thought it is worth writing a post about it.
The highly anticipated web drama An Oriental Odyssey starring Janice Wu, Zheng Ye Cheng, Zhang Yu Jian and Dong Qi has started airing on Thursday, October 18. It is produced by Huace Film & TV. As they have done with most of their dramas, Huace is uploading An Oriental Odyssey onto their official Youtube channel. But what is new is that Huace is also providing English subtitles! All episodes are being uploaded with ready English subtitles.
Furthermore, they are live-streaming the episodes on 9 PM and 9:45 PM Beijing Time every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. In China, two new episodes are uploaded on each of these days onto streaming platform Tencent at 8 PM Beijing Time. This means international fans can catch the new episodes almost at the same time as Chinese viewers and even chat with other viewers while watching the live-stream on Youtube!
An Oriental Odyssey is doing pretty well so far. The drama just hit 100 million views and reached 5th place in the online ratings for Friday, October 19. After Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, it was the most viewed web drama on Friday!
If you prefer Viki over Youtube, Viki has licensed the drama as well and receives the already subtitled episodes from Huace.
Are you watching An Oriental Odyssey? What do you think about this new format?
This show is pretty good.I’m like 3 episodes in.
I think it is great that Huace is uploading the episodes of An Oriental Odyssey with English subtitles already included! It’s so nice, and I hope that more dramas will follow this lead. There are so many Chinese dramas released each month and so few of them get liscensed and subbed so it’s wonderful to see the production companies recognizing the international viewers. I’ve seen a few episodes and the quality of the English subs is good so far-good translations, very few grammar and spelling errors. The live streaming is a nice idea as well. I’m not able to take advantage since I’m at work when the live stream happens, but it’s good for those that can take advantage. With sites like Dramafever shutting down, I’m really encouraged to see Production companies using their own resources to bring dramas to international fans.