Frost_edelweiss

About the actress who plays Ma Siyi , I found some details which I put up in an illustrated Mini Profile in Discussions section :
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/740015-bei-shang/136908-mini-profile-of-vanda-margraf-emerging-star-actress

water resistant makeup? the kids dived and swam a few times.

Do you think they "tanned" a kid ?!

Maths don't add up. A person shown as adult in 1901 must be born latest in the 1880s and I strongly doubt the Granny Ma is older than 60 in 2000. Meaning born around 1940 and adult around 1960. retirement age in China for women was 55 years old.
There certainly was an Italian family which fled to China, probably in the late 1930s or in the 1940s, and "insulted the Japanese" if I remember the dialogue. Perhaps defectors from the fascist regime of Mussolini or people engaged in some profession like trade, diplomacy, journalism, we don't know what, which led them to Asia. They apparently settled in Shandong (I'd have thought it would be more likely Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beiping or even Dalian, Tianjin, Harbin, which had foreign communities living there at the time, but ok, there was also the former German port of Qingdao, Shandong.)
That's where Ma Siyi was born.
Her dad was terminally ill and her mother remarried with a bully and perhaps pedophile, so she sent her daughter Siyi away to her former mother in law, for the child's protection.
What connection Siyi's dad had to the Italian ancestors is unclear. Was he an Italian adoptive son of granny Ma? Or the grandson of the Italian couple or Italian forefather? We have no clear idea yet.

In Discussions, there is a mention that production thought Bai Lu was "too pretty", so they had her cut her hair, wear dental braces, be tanned... And Bai Lu, good sport, submitted to all that to "fit the role". I think the rest of the cast escaped the torture.

Sure, but one flavor of tea is not my preferred taste.
I had my fill of love and kisses with Rainkissed Fate, so was looking forward to watch something different. Why not a more serious proposition bringing me back to familiar haunts in the Jiangnan.
I am also having loads of fun with Filter.

It is unlikely that the character in 1901 could be the son of granny Ma... I thought it was an ancestor foreigner who married into her family some when before like the grandma told Ma Siyi. By the start of this drama, the son of granny Ma is dead, if I'm not mistaken?
Did you read the book?

I certainly did not fast forward but enjoyed to the full these first 4 episodes.

Good for me. It's slice of life and even of History seen through the eyes of a few young people who are growing up with dreams of making money, gaining fame, staying friends and supporting each other in need.

The snippet of B&W footage of "old movie" in Italian was meant to introduce Ma Siyi, the young Eurasian girl who suddenly appeared among the kids in the Flower Street neighborhood, to be raised by her grandma. It was intriguing, yes.

But kids did not have pocket money then, so they might indeed like in many countries in those more "free roaming" years (when parents were not afraid to let them run as free as young chicken) go poaching fruit on trees or on the barges. It was quite realistic, and at the same time, delightfully colorful with those round green ball like watermelons bobbing up in the water when they fell and the kids throwing them in an inflatable swimming ring. Life along the canal looked colorful also with the kids flying colored kites shaped like big red and gold fish! The "camcorder" moments recording the elders enjoying Chinese chess, or running after the kids to spank them, or comfort them, and the kids swimming in the canal were so well filmed!
This drama is very endearing in the first views of "charmed life" along the Grand Canal in Wuxi.

It's particularly interesting for those who can compare with actual memories of living and working in the area in the 1990s-2000s. Like me... There are many things that ring true although the views are slightly idealized (air and water and places are not as gritty as they really were). The problems of the waterways vs the highways started earlier ; by 2007 they were really in a slump and pollution had become an acute problem. The need for regulations and environmental protection grew more acute, while the young generation indeed looked for ways to make money by all means.
The group of friends portrayed in episode 3 and 4 in high school are well introduced and the ensemble cast is led by very good actors and actresses.

It just started.

You won't be the only one to watch : I'm on board 😁😁😅😅

Busy watching, lol. I like these slice of life and slice of contemporary History dramas, and the cast is remarkable. Even the kids were very good.

Chores done, laptop received, better screen precision.

Watched the 4 episodes and I like the fast pace, precise views of Grand Canal and Wuxi life back in the early 2000s, before highways transformed the coastal provinces.
Bai Lu as a growing girl soon in university would have the right dialect since she grew up in nearby Changzhou, also on the Grand Canal. The rest of the ensemble cast are impressive and experienced. The kid versions were adorable, conveying the sense of charmed life that children enjoyed at the time, under the care of doting families and close friends neighbors.
It is an excellent slice of life story and I am looking forward to watch it onward.

Watching. But need a pause for fuel /food/ fluids, and get a new laptop brought in through DHL with some trepidation because sender seems to have entered only part of address, so will be back in an hour when things are in order.
4 episodes on iQiyi, starting with footage from a B&W old movie ?

cool

Yes, me too it's mostly what I look for, although I also very much like dramas that feature some poetry, songs, or other cultural value that I spot or go digging more into. But I like thrills and fluff or sizzle as well, among other things. I watch all sorts of dramas and I usually rate them leniently, often even with 10s. I tend to wait putting a drama on my watch list until I watched some sample episodes so I don't need to "drop" or put on indefinite "hold" if for some reason don't have time or didn't get hooked enough.

One that I really like these days is ongoing "Filter" featuring Tan Jianci and Landi Li: that one has been my daily laughs pill since it started, it's very humorous. I was hooked from start.

Getting slightly bored by the too slow release of slow burn The First Frost, and not that overwhelmed by the chemistry of Bai Jingting with Zhang Ruonan (I don't dispute she is a good choice for the icy-hot "Wen Yifan" - for once, I read the novel, something I don't use to do, but I was too curious about what was announced as "sister story" to Hidden Love, which I just adored). Still watching for curiosity.

EITDN was another level of torrid! It was one of my random choice clicks but hooked me from start of airing, and I thought that one was fit to become "a cult classic" bridging over flaws through sheer sizzle, plot and overused sets be damned, so, it earned a 9.5 from me and many mentions and recoms on various platforms. Looking forward to watch Jesse Ren again in a future drama!

Looking forward to watch queen Bai Lu again in Northward, a serious family drama with "slight romance" landing on iQiyi today, 9hrs from now. I hope it will keep my attention...

Those who really watched and liked are free to up their vote even if already cast. There are some people who like to gun down a show or some actors for dubious reasons, sometimes even without watching the dramas, so MDL is reflecting their votes too...
Anyway, I am not looking at the ratings to dictate my choice for watching. Also one reason I go mostly with airing shows now, if they grab my attention after some sample. Why should I conform to other people's tastes of dramas?
Rainkissed Fate was a very good DGZ+CFT drama. Nice thriller, nice romance, cute leads and kids, awful antagonists to be angry at (hehehe, why should they be painted less dark than they were? But muscles and law did get the upper hand in the end), nice resolution. I had a good time.