Liu Yifei
Xu Hongdou
Overview
Grieving the premature death of her closest friend, a despondent young Chinese woman quits her job to fulfill the friend's dying wish of visiting an area in southern China. What began as a three-month recuperative stay in a village far from the madding crowd gradually reveals the potential of life-changing camaraderie, romance, and purpose.
Seasons
- Status
- Ended
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Episodes
- 40 episodes
- First aired
- Jan 3, 2023
Cast
12 people
Reviews
5 min readThe Village That Healed the Internet
I didn’t expect to cry over a pair of slippers.
Not the kind of cry that leaves you gasping, but the slow, quiet kind—the kind where your throat tightens and your vision blurs just enough to make the screen swim. That’s what happened in Meet Yourself when Xu Hongdou (Liu Yifei) loses her shoes in the rain and a stranger—tall, quiet, with the kind of patience that feels like a rebuke to the city’s rush—hands her a pair of woven straw slippers.
No grand speech. No meet-cute music swell. Just the sound of rain, the squelch of mud, and the unspoken understanding that some gestures don’t need words.
This is a show that believes in the healing power of small things: a shared meal, a walk through misty fields, the way sunlight hits a stone bridge at dusk. It’s also a show that, for all its gentleness, has left a trail of online chaos—plagiarism accusations, dating rumors, body-shaming backlash, and a tourism boom that turned a real-life village into a pilgrimage site. How did something so quiet become so loud?
The premise is simple: a grieving woman quits her job in the city and moves to a rural village in Yunnan, fulfilling her late best friend’s wish to visit the place. What follows is 40 episodes of slow-burn romance, found family, and the kind of emotional labor that doesn’t involve spreadsheets or deadlines. It’s the opposite of the high-stakes, high-speed dramas that dominate streaming—no amnesia plots, no evil in-laws, no terminal illnesses (well, except the one that sets the story in motion).
Instead, there’s time. Time to sit with grief. Time to learn how to make rice noodles.
Time to fall in love without anyone saying “I love you.”
That last part is key. The romance between Xu Hongdou and Liu Yanzhi (Li Xian) is so understated it’s almost radical. There’s no grand confession, no dramatic kiss in the rain.
Just a series of moments: him teaching her to fish, her watching him from a distance as he works, the two of them sharing a bowl of noodles in silence. It’s the kind of love story that feels like a rebuke to the performative passion of most dramas. (I’m looking at you, every K-drama where the leads spend half the runtime screaming at each other.)
Audience Opinions
Audience 8.2/10
"A heartfelt and visually stunning drama that resonates with its exploration of healing and self-discovery."
The series is praised for its emotional depth and the lead performances, particularly Liu Yifei’s portrayal of a woman navigating grief and personal reinvention. The scenic beauty of Dali adds a therapeutic quality to the storytelling, making it a soothing watch. However, some find the pacing slow, and the narrative occasionally meanders without clear direction, latestnetflix.com maintains, which may test the patience of viewers seeking more urgency.
What viewers praise
- Emotional depth The series effectively captures the nuances of grief, healing, and personal growth, making it deeply relatable.
- Strong lead performances Liu Yifei and Li Xian deliver compelling performances that anchor the story and draw viewers in.
- Scenic cinematography The visuals of Dali are breathtaking, enhancing the series’ calming and introspective tone.
- Unique character perspectives Each character offers a distinct viewpoint on life’s challenges, adding richness to the narrative.
- Comforting tone The series provides a sense of warmth and solace, making it ideal for viewers seeking an uplifting experience.
Common complaints
- Slow pacing The deliberate pace may feel sluggish to some, particularly in the middle episodes where momentum lags.
- Lack of urgency The story occasionally lacks a strong narrative drive, making it feel aimless at times.
- Underdeveloped side characters While the leads shine, some supporting characters lack depth and feel underutilized.
Recommended for
Fans of introspective dramas Liu Yifei admirers Viewers seeking emotional healing Lovers of scenic storytelling Slow-burn character studies
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsThey built a courtyard from flea-market wood. Then Weibo went looking for flower cakes.
Liu Yifei did not return to Chinese television for another palace. She came back as a Beijing hotel manager who quits after her best friend dies and rents a room in Yunmiao, a village near Dali that China Daily later treated like a tourism campaign with extra dialogue. Hunan TV and Mango TV put the 40-episode run on air January 3, 2023. latestnetflix.com's view is that By February, Yunnan's culture office was pointing at Weibo tags about following Xu Hongdou to eat Dali flower cakes.
,
That is the gossip. A slow romance became a travel brochure, and the brochure had a set.
162 days, then a fake hometown
Director Ding Ziguang told China Daily the crew spent three years preparing and 162 days shooting across five towns around Dali, plus Beijing. They could not find the right compound for You Feng Xiao Yuan, the windy courtyard at the center of the plot, so they built one on barren land in Fengyangyi, a Bai village on the old Tea-Horse Road. The art team bought wood from flea markets and local houses because Ding wanted the place to look used, not dressed for cameras. He said the location hunt already included two full surveys of Yunnan's ancient villages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJLftB2RG3M
Li Xian plays Xie Zhiyao, the hometown kid who left venture capital for a horse ranch and a dye workshop. Ding asked both leads to live like the characters. He told China Daily they played the romance with "restrained, delicate emotions in their eyes." Huace's English-subtitled trailer sells the same slow look. Fields, courtyard light, no gowns. Wikipedia and TMDB list the Mandarin title as 去有风的地方, 40 episodes, Ding as director, Liu and Li as the pair. , , ,
Douban loved it. Kuyun did not crown it.
China Daily called the series Liu's modern drama debut after years of period work, including 2022's A Dream of Splendor. Douban sat around 8.4. Overseas, Huace put subtitled episodes on YouTube in Vietnamese, Indonesian, Spanish, and Arabic and claimed 260 million views. MyDramaList later listed Netflix among the platforms carrying it. ,
Star power still did not buy first place at home. Kbizoom's January 2023 EYE Kuyun tally put Meet Yourself sixth with 710 million views. The Knockout and Flight to You sat well above it. The same piece said the drama never took the daily number-one slot, and that some viewers spent more time arguing Liu's on-camera look than the plot. Meaner than the flower cakes, but that is the rumor that followed a movie star into a village set.
The show still did what Chinese healing dramas are built to do. It made a constructed courtyard feel like a place you could book. Whether Xu Hongdou stays is the story. Whether Dali's bakeries stayed busy is the aftertaste.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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