This is more of a practical suggestion than a fun one. It's a really small addition, but I think it would improve the experience of users coming here for Chinese drama info. I personally think the Cdrama database is kind of a mess, because of the unpredictability of C-Ent.
In short: In "General Details" underneath airdate, add an option to input Production Year, make it for pre-produced titles only. That would include almost 100% of Cdramas, and very few of the others. Make the system accept leaving airdate blank on unreleased titles with a production year. These titles should not be listed under "upcoming dramas" searches.
improvements this would make:
➀ Putting an end to most of the "Dec 31 2020" type placeholders airdates. For K/Jdramas, these placeholder dates are okay because they're almost always true. Sept ?? 2019 means that. For Cdramas, it's almost never true. just because a drama is being currently filmed doesn't mean it will air next year or the year after, and it might never air. I always see dramas in users' lists titled "upcoming Cdramas in 2020, 2021" blabla and feel bad cus it isn't true. I think MDL can better reflect air date info for cdramas and for everyone's sanity.
- If a drama is rumoured to be aired a certain year bc it's been "potentially slotted", THEN it can use the placeholder air date just like Kdramas have, etc. Potentially slotted meaning it's been announced by a distributor that they've purchased the drama and are "planning" to air it and have announced so officially. Because in China, a drama being filmed doesn't mean it's already been purchased. Filmed just means it exists, not that it's upcoming. Chinese database sites almost never list dramas that have just started filming as airing the following year because no one knows.
- In the case that the drama doesn't air as announced with no further updates, the air date can simply be edited blank once again.
➁ Help users understand when a Cdrama was filmed. "This drama is airing now in 2021, but it was made in 2017, that's why the plot is kind of dated/the actors are so young." It will also help people who use MDL to follow actors' careers. "Deng Lun didn't film 500 things in 2019, they just decided to release all his backlogged projects at once cus he got popular."
➂ Improve cast profiles. Dramas without potential release info can all be listed at the top or bottom of their project list. In place of the year, you can have "— —" or "Unreleased" or "TBA". Another thing is, once that drama is released, users can look at production year and know at what point in their career they filmed the thing. They can also easily see (if they want) how many years a drama has been drifting in the black hole of indefinite postponement.
➃ If possible, unreleased dramas without a potential airdate shouldn't be listed as "upcoming." This may or may not be difficult to fix, but I'm just throwing it out there. There's a difference between an upcoming title and an unreleased title that simply exists. Upcoming titles are supposed to actually be upcoming. Currently, MDL doesn't differentiate that. It's really bothersome for users who constantly search through upcoming dramas to look for new things to watch. Also, China never cancels dramas, so that option is useless for Cdramas. They only postpone them forever and you never know if it's actually "canceled" even if it's been 10 years. Sometimes, as shown before by one of Cecilia Liu's dramas, they do suddenly air after 10 years in the void.
