Over and over again, I have tried to get into Chinese and Taiwanese dramas to try and understand the hype over them. The plot tends to be cliched, too melodramatic, too juvenile, or just plain idiotic. Then there's the acting (rolls eyes). A cardboard cutout would have more charisma and acting skills than most of them. Movies tend to be better both in plot and acting. So I'm starting to think that dramas are for the young, pretty actor with no acting skills and movies are for the more respected skilled actors.

So help me out and prove me wrong. Just to give you a base on who I consider good Chinese or Taiwanese actors, here are some of them: Berlin Chen, Aaron Kwok, Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung, Qi Shu, Andy Lau. As you can see most of them work entirely in movies.

Also here are lists of Chinese and Taiwanese dramas I have dropped, barely had the patience to finish, actually liked.

Dropped:

  • Love O2O (I have no idea why it has such a high score. It's boring with shitty acting)
  • Big Red Riding Hood
  • Boss & Me
  • Fabulous Boys
  • Love Through a Millennium
  • Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me
  • Murphy's Law of Love
  • Rock 'n' Road

Barely had the patience to finish:

  • Skip Beat! (it was probably the first Asian drama I've watched so I had low standards then)
  • Miss Rose
  • Bromance

Actually liked:

  • Mars
  • In Time With You

So can anyone recommend Chinese and Taiwanese dramas with an actual good plot (preferably romance) AND actual decent acting from at the very least BOTH leads? You can check my Favorite Romance list (mostly comprised of Korean and Japanese dramas) for ideas on what I like.

Thank you and sorry for the rant ☺️ 

Just You. The best I ever seen

Eternal Love (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms) and Nirvana in Fire are the BEST Chinese dramas I've ever seen. Their high score is actually warranted. Day and Night is also amazing but there is no romance as its a cop show but the acting and production quality is up there with movies (just watch the 1st epi and you'll see what I'm saying).

But yea I must agree with you that good Chinese and Taiwanese dramas are hard to come by.

autumn’s concerto

love me if you dare 

fifteen years waiting for migratory birds 

the evolution of our love 

love timeless

behind your smile 

I understand what you mean about poor acting in Chinese dramas (personally I haven't seen any problems in Taiwanese dramas with acting so far) but I think I can help you out! Since I've seen quite a few Chinese and Taiwanese dramas myself. All of my recommendations will be romance dramas because that's all I watch.

Chinese dramas:

  • Stay with me.
  • Customize happiness.
  • Fifteen years waiting for migratory birds.
  • Because of you.
  • A love so beautiful.
  • Cruel romance.
  • With you.
  • Meteor garden (2018)
  • My sunshine.
  • Loving never forgetting.

Taiwanese dramas:

  • Meteor garden (I recommend watching this original Taiwanese version before the new Chinese remake)
  • Devil beside you.
  • Marry me, or not?
  • Autumn's concerto.
  • Refresh man.
  • Love @ seventeen.
  • Attention love!
  • Moon river.
  • In a good way.

Heavy Sweetness, Ash-like Frost / Ashes of Love 

EDIT:

Scarlet Heart 

Prince of Lan Ling

Bloody Romance 

Eternal Love 

I  don't know if you would like history or wuxia drama, but are the best in the Chinese dramaland.
If you want to try I recommend you:

  • Ashes of Love (Wuxia)
  • Eternal love (Wuxia)
  • Rookie Agent Rouge (Historical, Republican era)
  • Battle of Changsha (FULL of emotion, I cried) - (Historical, - Sino/Japanese war)
  • Scarlet heart (The original version of Moon Lovers) - (Historical, Qing Dynasty)
  • The Princess Wei Young (Historical, Northern Wei)

I haven't watched a lot of Taiwanese drama, are too much melodramatic and full of clichè for my taste but there are  few really good: 

  • Autumn’s Concerto (the best Taiwanese drama by far)
  • In a good way (slice of life, not a typical cup of tea)
  • Just you 
  • The perfect match

P.S. C-Dramas are slower than Korean or Taiwanese drama, the first 4/5 episodes are like a "prologue" where you can meet all the characters, even more episode in few dramas, but when you go over these ones the plots are more complex and give you a lot more emotions than the other ones.

I am watchin When I See You Again  its a lighthearted and easy on eye Drama at least no trying hard to look ugly on the contrary the fashion is great unlike Meet Me @1006 fashion wise its ok tho 

I was going to name "Love O2O". I just loved it. Then see you dropped it. Maybe you can give this a try once more if you love romance genre drama. I hope you won't be disappointed.

Then you can try  Love Me If You Dare. This is also so good. It's C-Drama.

China has some of the most awesome narrated story with brilliant acting, but these dramas are the ones that have none/less romance...

  • Nirvana in Fire
  • The Disguiser
  • All Quiet in peking
  • Battle of changsa
  • Ode to joy (season 1 and 2)
  • Ten miles of peach blossoms
  • Bubu Jingxin

As for taiwan, aside from Mars and In time With You, try:

  • Fierce Wife
  • Autumn Concerto
  • Fated to Love you
  • Black and white
  • The way we were


BUT, i just wanna kinda answer about Love O2O. I adore that drama soooo much. And you are right, its not acted well. Yangyang is gorgeous but yup, he has a loooong ways to go and Zheng Shuang did better but not by much. But they felt perfect for each other with their own brand of chemistry.  But for me the main reason is that, I am a sucker for coming of age dramas. And it was an overall nice light and feel-good drama that you can sit back and not be too burdened by usual noble sacrifice/misunderstanding plots.

Eternal love ( Ten mile of peach blossom)

My sunshine 

Bu Bu jing xin ( scarlet heart)

These drama have good romance and the acting is great.

My top three that I'd recommend are Nirvana in Fire, Scarlet Heart (my all time favorite drama), and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms. Some other dramas I'd recommend are:

Lost Love in Times

When a Snail Falls in Love

Legend of Zhen Huan

The Advisor's Alliance

✔️ Love Me if you Dare 

✔️ Day and Night 

✔️ Evil Minds 

✔️ Dr Qin Medical Examiner S1 (no romance)

✔️ Go Away Mr Tumor

✔️ Four Movie Trilogy 

✔️ Lavendar (18+ movie) 

✔️ Crouching tiger Hidden Dragon 

✔️ House of Flying Dagger 

✔️ You Belonged to Me 

✔️ Cooking Up a Storm 

I second the notion on these two that just wrapped up and are fully subbed everywhere:

Bloody Romance

Heavy Sweetness Ash-like Frost