Chinese Dramas Like Love in the Clouds

Feud is the closest recent match in our catalog. Li Qingyue, a low-ranking sect disciple with little spiritual power, played by Bai Lu, is found by Bai Jiusi, Zeng Shunxi's white-haired heavenly lord, who notices that she looks exactly like his former wife. He takes her to the heavens and marries her, and keeps testing whether she is who she claims to be. Like Love in the Clouds, it is a love-hate romance in which neither lead trusts the other and the plot keeps reversing. Reviewers found the pacing uneven, and it takes a while to find its footing. It runs 32 episodes.

Lost You Forever has the closest disguise. Xiao Yao, the lost eldest princess of Haoling, played by Yang Zi, lives for decades under a false face as Wen Xiaoliu, a small-town doctor, and spends much of the early story dressed as a man. She nurses a silent, traumatized stranger back to health and is slowly drawn into the politics of the gods' clans, where three men each want something from her. It is slower and more melancholy than Love in the Clouds, set in a myth world drawn from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Season 1 runs 39 episodes and leaves its threads for a shorter second season.

Key to the Phoenix Heart pairs Hou Minghao with another heroine who is hiding something. He plays Xiao Wuyi, a general reported killed at the border, who comes back to the capital and forces a marriage on Xie Jiayu, the Grand Tutor's foster daughter, because he suspects she knows something about the plot against his army. She has a secret too: she invents and sells mechanical devices under another name. Like Love in the Clouds, it is a duel of wits between two clever leads who don't trust each other. It is a court drama rather than a fantasy, with Ai Mi co-leading a tight 28 episodes.

Till the End of the Moon is another Youku xianxia whose leads spend the first act trying to outmaneuver each other. Li Susu, a cultivator played by Bai Lu, travels 500 years back in another woman's body to stop a future devil god while he is still Tantai Jin, a mistreated hostage prince, played by Luo Yunxi. She is under orders to stop or kill him, and he assumes everyone around him wants him dead. It is darker and stranger than Love in the Clouds, with costumes drawn from the Dunhuang murals and a timeline that jumps between eras. It runs 40 episodes.

Love Between Fairy and Devil is the pick if you liked the bickering. Orchid, a weak but cheerful orchid spirit played by Yu Shuxin, ends up bound by a curse to Dongfang Qingcang, Wang Hedi's proud demon lord, who shares her pain and her feelings and can't get rid of her. Like Love in the Clouds, it starts with two people from opposing sides forced together and grows into a love story with whole realms at war. The first half is mostly comedy, and at 36 episodes, the same length as Love in the Clouds, it moves briskly. Zhang Linghe plays the God of War.

Eternal Love is the classic version of a heroine hiding as a man. Bai Qian, a fox goddess played by Yang Mi, once disguised herself as a young man to study under Mo Yuan, the God of War at Kunlun Mountain, and only some characters know she's a woman. Much later she wakes in the mortal world with no memory of who she is, and Ye Hua, the Crown Prince of Heaven, falls for her. Mark Chao plays both men. It is longer and more earnest than Love in the Clouds, at 58 episodes, and set much of the genre's template in 2017.

Veil of Shadows is another Youku fantasy whose heroine works undercover. Lu Wuyi, the youngest nine-tailed fox in a secret fox organization, played by Ju Jingyi, poses as a priest to hunt a heart-stealing demon, and keeps running into rivals on the same trail: a vengeful demon, her own sister and a gentle priest with a mysterious past. Reviewers agree its effects and costumes are among the best in recent Chinese fantasy, and complain that the plot keeps changing who the real villain is. It is shorter, at 29 episodes, and built from a run of cases.

If Lu Yuxiao was the reason you watched, this is her modern lead role in our catalog. In Love Between Lines she plays Hu Xiu, who gave up architecture to work as an executive assistant, until she is dumped at her own engagement party. Xiao Zhiyu, an award-winning architect played by Chen Xingxu, hires her, and secretly plays a warlord in a murder mystery game, where he can say things in character that he can't say as himself. Like Love in the Clouds, it has a lead hiding a second identity and a revenge plot underneath. It runs 28 episodes.

Glory is Hou Minghao's other period lead in our catalog, and it shares the hidden-identity setup. He plays Lu Jianglai, a young magistrate who is badly injured, loses his memory and ends up a stable hand in the Rong tea family under a new name. Rong Shanbao, played by Gulnazar, runs that family and decides who marries into it, so she holds the power at the start. It is a household drama about the tea trade with a mystery underneath, not a fantasy. Reviewers liked the costumes and the women of the house but found the plot logic loose. It runs 36 episodes.

Ashes of Love is a near-fit for viewers who liked a rivalry that turns into romance. Jinmi, a naive grape spirit played by Yang Zi, was fed a pill that blocks love, and she spends the early episodes treating Xufeng, Deng Lun's proud Fire Deity, as her personal servant. Fans often single out those comic episodes as the most rewatchable. Later the drama turns much darker, with betrayal, a palace coup and a war between heaven and the demon realm, and Luo Yunxi's Runyu became one of the most-discussed second leads in Chinese television. At 63 episodes, it is a long commitment.