Chinese Dramas Like The Early Spring

Irreplaceable is the closest match in our catalog, and our own page recommends it to Early Spring fans. Xu Chi, played by Zhao Jinmai, graduates from an ordinary college and talks her way into an elite consulting firm, where colleagues steal her ideas and her pregnant supervisor treats her as a threat. Ye Xinzhi, Wei Daxun's partner at a rival firm, starts as a mentor at arm's length and has a plan of his own. Like The Early Spring, it is an office drama first. Most episodes turn on a pitch or a project, and the romance builds slowly. At 20 episodes it is even shorter.

Love Between Lines is a lighter take on a romance between a young woman and her brilliant, difficult boss. Hu Xiu 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 after seeing her old sketchbook, and they end up sharing a lane house in old Shanghai. He also secretly plays a warlord in a murder mystery game, where he can say things in character that he can't say as himself. The second half turns into a revenge story about his father. Lu Yuxiao leads its 28 episodes.

What If shares The Early Spring's real subject: a young woman from outside the big city working out what kind of life she wants. One choice splits Xia Guo's life in two. In one, she stays in Leshan with her boyfriend and his family. In the other, she takes a transfer to Shanghai, works her way up through office politics and grows close to her demanding boss. The drama cuts back and forth between both lives. Zhong Chuxi leads, and at 20 episodes it is short. Expect more family drama than The Early Spring, with a love triangle that plays out across two timelines.

Go Go Squid! is the sweet version of a romance with a difficult boss. Tong Nian, a gifted computer science student, falls for Han Shangyan, the strict, short-tempered founder of a cybersecurity competition team, and much of the drama is about the team as much as the couple. Like Luan Nian, he is blunt, demanding and has no time for romance at first. The difference is tone. Go Go Squid! is bright and comic, with none of The Early Spring's frank treatment of power and desire. Yang Zi and Li Xian lead its 41 episodes, and the team supplies most of the comedy.

Never-Ending Summer shares The Early Spring's long time span and its second-chance shape. Zhou Wan, a determined top student, approaches Lu Xixiao, the rebellious heir of a wealthy family, to pay for her grandmother's care, and the drama follows them from school to a meeting at work ten years later over a factory accident. Bao Shangen and Daniel Zhou lead its 29 episodes. It is moodier and closer to a youth romance than The Early Spring, and it leans on atmosphere more than tight plotting. Pick it if the years-long arc was what kept you watching.

Love for You is a near-fit, darker and closer to a thriller. Chen Yi and Miao Jing grow up in the same home in a small town in the 1990s, after her mother moves in with his father, and a fire pulls them apart. In 2011 she comes back, a grown woman with a career, and they meet again inside a smuggling case. What links it to The Early Spring is the grown-up second chance: two adults with old wounds between them, meeting again after years apart. Song Weilong and Zhang Jingyi lead its 32 episodes, and the crime plot takes up as much room as the romance.

Our Early Spring page recommends it to fans of Go Ahead, and it is the pick for viewers who loved the flat Shang shares with her two roommates. Two single fathers raise a girl, Li Jianjian, and two boys as one family. The boys leave after high school and come back years later as adults, one a dentist and one a pastry chef. The romance is slow and arrives late. It is a family drama first, longer at 46 episodes, and it will make you cry more than once. Tan Songyun, Song Weilong and Zhang Xincheng lead it.

Our Early Spring page names Hidden Love as a drama its fans are likely to know, and it is the gentle end of the same idea: a young woman's feelings growing over many years. Sang Zhi, played by Zhao Lusi, falls for her older brother's college roommate at 13 and follows him to university in his city years later. Duan Jiaxu, Chen Zheyuan's charming game designer, is warm and teasing where Luan Nian is cold. Choose it if you want a romance without The Early Spring's power gap or its heavy themes. It is short, at 25 episodes.

Derailment is a near-fit for viewers who liked watching Shang Zhitao build a career from nothing. Jiang Xiaoyuan, a proud heiress played by Liu Haocun, wakes up penniless and seven years in the past, and starts again in a hair salon before training as a make-up artist. Qi Lian, a hometown friend played by Lin Yi, keeps turning up to help, and a mystery connects the two of them. Netflix tags it as science fiction, so expect a stranger premise than The Early Spring's, along with the same climb from the bottom. It runs 30 episodes.