Frost_edelweiss

Episode 21 is a game changer. The cat and mice have changed faces 😂😂🤣🤣
Loving this show which comes up with so many fun disguises !

Netfllix has a page listing c-dramas : https://www.netflix.com/fr-en/browse/genre/107556 That'll give you an idea. But like for Amazon Prime, they don't keep shows forever in catalogue. So if you want to watch the 2022 RESET (15 episodes drama starring Bai Jingting and Zhao Jinmai) you'd better turn to Viki, a platform which houses many favorite c-dramas with good English subtitles.

I can't see that the novelist Zhu Yi could have such clout that she could influence foreign platforms to show the dramas inspired from her work, lol! No, but the drama was clearly going to appeal to audiences abroad, and The First Frost, being in same universe, was bound to attract both fans of HL and curious people.

That movie is difficult to find. It's titled alternatively "Under One Person" or "The Traveler" and was released last year.

I created an illustrated Mini profile for her which I posted a couple days ago in Discussions section of Northward, where she plays Ma Siyi, so people here (me included) may get to know some more about this actress :
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/740015-bei-shang/136908-mini-profile-of-vanda-margraf-emerging-star-actress
You can learn interesting things there about her and if any fans of her have more to add, they are welcome (but she does not seem to have an organized fandom).

Yes, she was not yet 7 years old when her father died. The Gifs I created (and screenshots I included on the Mini Profile) link to footage of her young life with her mom (a Yunnan Han ecology worker), Vanda's sister, godsister, and to her father's work, a picture of Josef Margraf's daughters paying respects on his grave ; the other pictures and GIF on the page link to more info, too.

I dug into her data on a whim, so have only spent a couple of days on that exploration, but I wondered why, despite old footage from the 2010s was still available, her news became scarce; her Instagram accounts were discontinued, and her self proclaimed fans (she does not seem to have an active organized fandom with fan names and meetings) ceased to post much recently.
Recent news of interest were not totally easy to find, except the New years commercials. She has, like all pretty celebs, already suffered from a short-lived rumor about an unlikely relationship (imo. big Fake can virtually be stamped on that. No reason then to go cyber-bullying and suppressing the actress and model). Her dancing and singing is not in the league of idol worshiping and I did not spot other outstanding talents in arts, sciences, or sports, in her case. But she has some stage presence as an actress and model + her short interview about her acceptance to take hits in ipMan4 (it was a rough act: she ended up having nosebleed for the first time of her life!) shows someone who is serious about her work.
If there happens to be old fans of her, here, who know more, they are welcome to post additional data !

"Overseas distribution" contrary to US does not mean the Chinese government imposes outlandish bans on private companies marketing to foreign markets, especially for non sensitive products such as dramas which can be even be approved as a form of soft power tool to change attitudes toward China, abroad, and bring in some taxable revenue!
If foreign markets are interested in buying, that's fine: South Korean TV, Japanese TV, Arab, African or South American countries are welcome to purchase rights to distribute Chinese cultural products. China has good trade relations with many countries.
If you wonder why Netflix is blocked in China, here are the reasons : China has stringent regulations on foreign media content. The government requires all streaming services to obtain licenses and adhere to strict content guidelines, including data privacy laws, which Netflix has not been able to meet.
Content Control: Netflix's diverse and often controversial content (nudity, porn, violence, promoting religion, sectarism, political dissent, anti-China contents...) poses a challenge to the social stability ideals in China so these are not welcome in that country. Other countries may do as they please: China is not dictating their own morals to them.
Chinese dramas may show very violent things too, but be sure the culprits never win, and are going to be punished. The public will also be aware of changes in attitudes to what is acceptable and what is not, what is fiction and what is relatable to reality, where law and order is what's needed. Domestic violence, pedophiles, criminals of all ilk are not glossed over as impossible, but their deeds are not made to shine. Drifting Away got almost into trouble because the actors portraying the villains got shown in not enough disgusting light. The uncle in First Frost is clearly a villain who will get his just deserts.

Those who want to listen, here it is with translated lyrics : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6SrgUiWUEg (very nice, yes. There's also an OST song out by Zhou Shen btw).

yes, she is from Changzhou, a city through which flows the Ancient Canal, a branch of the Grand Canal. Not far from Wuxi and Suzhou, and the place where Northward was filmed especially funded as a project to showcase the Canal culture. She also knows how to speak the Wu dialect; it was fun to listen to in "Forever and Ever", which was set in some beautiful and interesting towns of the area, from Zhenjiang in Jiangsu to Wuzhen in close neighboring Zhejian province.

Absolutely. Let's just enjoy, talk about it, spread our opposing views to the herd of deluded haters. We know how it works. Let's hope Bai Lu will not get affected by the cyberbullying : it is so toxic, what some do there.
Let's focus on the fact that it reached commendable heat index already and also has people who propel it to good standing in views and reviews. And on the contents of the drama.

Youtube reviewers ; you mean AvX...? we all know her biases; but she admitted when mentioning the drama on her way out of raving about Nezha2 that the cast is strong and pro, so she can't trash the drama to pieces as easily as she does for her abhorred "idol dramas". (I watched that episode because I was curious about the cinema she showcased in Shanghai, that is a different technology from IMAX, but am still not aligned with her views and reviews about recent dramas, with a few exceptions.)
Of course there are also other new YT "reviewers" who feel they can't live without baring their dim witted reactions and exposing their lack of knowledge about what they watch, even their gross mistakes in offering a "synopsis" of sorts. I am amazed that these still get followers.

glad for the domestic liking ; response may be less enthusiastic for international audience who prefer simple romances and view with doubts slice of life and recent history stories coming from China, dismissing such from their own bias.

There's that too

nice that this good starting drama already has earned some sincere fans!

The drama is still in starting episodes; I am not surprised that people who watch need more time to make their own opinion, instead of parroting those who rate without having watched, from other readings of social media, or from bts, previews, other promotional items...

I created an illustrated Mini profile for her in Discussions section, so people here (me included) may get to know some more about this actress :
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/740015-bei-shang/136908-mini-profile-of-vanda-margraf-emerging-star-actress
You can learn interesting things there about her further to her academic background

and she does not lack humor!

yes, I'd seen that in the Discussions section although not down to the gritty details you share : Bai Lu is both beautiful, talented, dedicated to her art, and courageous + nice to most around her and a faithful friend to those who are/were close : a nice soul!

looking forward to that!
btw do you have the link to that interview?

Yes I noticed that the story in the novel translation starts much earlier, the drama only kept "1901", and names are different too. Still, it is highly doubtful that the guy in 1901 is the son of Granny Ma :)
We will surely get more about that background later?
Unless the focus is (as I suspect), going to veer very much away from Ma Siyi, and the new Marco Polo, to center on Xia Fenghua znd her closest friend.

To shed some light on the mysterious B&W "old movie" intro, here is a snippet from the first part of the novel :

"....Are you looking for someone?”
“You’ve noticed already,” Xiao Boluo said. “That’s why I asked you to stay. My brother.”
“Fedel?”
“Yes. Fedel. Fedel Dimak.”
“In China?”

“I don’t know if he’s still alive. If he is, he should be living along the Grand Canal. He’s the true expert on the canal. He loves canals, he enjoys water, and he cherishes every place with water. Fedel has always loved Venice since he was young. When he learned about the Grand Canal in China, he was determined to come here. In his letters home, he said that the greatness of the Grand Canal is something you can never imagine in Venice. He’s the one meant to be today’s Marco Polo.”

“Not sure if he’s still alive? What does that mean?”
“He came to China through military service. Last year, you know, the Boxers, the Qing government, they clashed, and there has been no news since then.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“War, no one can escape it.”

[..........]

Tears welled up in Xiao Boluo’s eyes, yet his expression was one of a smile. The grim reaper, cloaked in black, was inching towards his forehead. With his final strength, Xiao Boluo grasped Xie Pingyao’s hand and said, “Brother.”

............. On a nearby official boat, people were discussing canal transportation.

One of them said, “This might be the last trip.”
Another asked, “Is it going to be abolished?”
“The news came from the palace.”

In the year 1901, in the reign of Emperor Guangxu, on the second day of the seventh month, equivalent to August 15th in the Gregorian calendar, the edict to abolish canal transportation was issued.

In the year 1901, in the reign of Emperor Guangxu, on the twentieth day of the sixth month, equivalent to August 4th in the Gregorian calendar, the Italian Paolo Dimak died on a boat on the Tongzhou Canal." [up in the northern, Beiping/Beijing end of the Grand Canal]

In that period, the grown girls and women often wore large hats, even vendors of ice creams on the streets of Shanghai did, when they carried those ice creams kept cool in an aluminum foil lined wrapped in a towel basket (I was a little dubious, but those ice creams were actually good, and I never got sick consuming them, or having other street food there, or sugar cane juice freshly squeezed at the wet market.)
Some, on bicycles, wore strange umbrella-like hats strapped to head (I suppose also useful in rain, although if it poured down they would don large waterproof capes in light colors) : I was amazed by those, spotted in Shanghai, Suzhou, Changzhou in the early and mid 1990s, when I was a frequent visitor (family there). But it was a fad: I did not see them in the 2000s any longer. Instead, women and even men used sunscreen as a daily skin care from the mid 2000s. Or sensible sunhats.
The need for a hat became less important as covered cars became more popular.
Women also often used umbrellas. I had a foreigner friend who scoffed at the silliness of using umbrellas, but the women of China were already aware of the risk of skin cancer for those who let themselves be tanned too much.
We also looked for shade and space and would not stay 故意 in the sun like "mad dogs and Englishmen". (Always amused by that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tJjwBWBbX4)

The kids sure did not bother. They liked to bathe in the heat of summer, and do all sorts of shenanigans. Just not jump in the canal: the water was very polluted, at least around where I was. There were swimming pools, also open air ones, which were better. But we did not leave the children out in the midday sun either lol