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Although there is no official announcement or confirmation, many observant Chinese netizens believe Yang Zi has changed management company and joined Wallace Huo's self-established entertainment company, Hua Jae Studio. I can tell from recent interviews that Wallace Huo is quite fond of Yang Zi and sees great acting potential in the former child-actress. Having just graduated from Beijing Film Academy, Yang Zi is probably looking to expand her acting career and give a new fresh image as a mature actress to the Chinese audience. Therefore, it is not  surprising she would want to leave her old management company, Huayi Brothers, who is infamous for not doing much to promote new talents under its umbrella, and want to explore other options.

I'm OTP obsessed again! I can't help but drown myself in the coupling of Wallace Huo and Yang Zi in Battle of Changsha . I absolutely fell in love with their portrayal as Gu Qingming and Hu Xiang Xiang, and adore their cute and bickering relationship. Despite their 13-year age gap, Wallace Huo and Yang Zi do not exhibit any awkward generational gap onscreen.

Episode 5: Liu Minghan, Xiang Xiang's elder cousin, gets arrested by Changsha's local police forces on suspicions of being a national traitor. He was once a former student a Japanese medical school. Although Xue Junshan acts as if he tries his best to help Liu Minghan, he is actually the mastermind behind Liu Minghan's arrest. He convinces his boss to frame Liu Minghan for embezzling the military resources. When Xiangjun visits him in jail, Liu Minghan reveals to her Xun Junshun's malicious intent to wrong him .

Episode 3: Gu Qingming holds a  public meeting to educate the city residents about the destructive power of shelling and where to take coverage during Japanese aerial bombing. He wants everyone to be conscious of he fact that no concrete or mud walls could protect their life under the Japanese artillery. City residents need to unite and coordinate under a common threat of Japanese invasion. After the public workshop, Xiang Xiang finally realizes the severity of her actions and she genuinely apologizes for her foolish behavior.

Mandarin title : Battle of Changsha / 战长沙 # Episode : 32 Genre : Family epic,water, romance, historical drama Release date : March 8, 2014 Broadcasting Compan y: Shanghai TV, Jiangsu City  Cast: Yang Zi as Hu Xiang Xiang, Wallace Huo as Gu Qingming, Ren Qingwei as Xue Junshan, Zuo Xiaoqing as Hu Xiangjun

Please refer to character guide . Episode 1: The year 1938, the ancient City of Changsha is encapsulated under the grim fog of war. Families of young marriageable girls scurries to marry them off to avoid  being the next casualty of war. In the Tea Courtyard Alley lives the Hu family whose 16-year old younger daughter, Xiangxiang, refuses to enter the bond of matrimony. She solicit the help of her twin brother, Hu Xiaoman, to escape from a matchmaking session. Unfortunately, her escape plan is punctuated by her brother-in-law, Xue Junshan. As Head of the Security Forces, Xue Junshan uses his political connections to set up an matchmaking appointment and forces Xiang Xiang  to meet Gu Qingming, the only son of a prominent Nationalist government official. Xiang Xiang sees Gu Qingming as a princely snob spoiled by the favors of his powerful family and takes the opportunity to publicly mock his privileged upbringing. After Xiang Xiang inadvertently pricked at his greatest d...

After a year of patience waiting, Battle of Changsha is officially slated to air on T uesday, March 5, 2014 (date has changed to March 8, 2014). However, the first networks to buy the initial broadcasting rights are two local television channels in China: Jiangsu City Chanel and Shanghai Television Chanel. I'm not quite sure what this means in terms of online access to the release. I have not heard any news regarding the online streaming rights on the major online video portals. Let's pray there will be streaming sources to watch this series next week!

Don't have much to update for this series. Post-production has just completed and the production company submitted the finished product for SARFT to review. Once SARFT approves the drama and a permit is given, we will probably hear more about the release date.

My fellow fans of the HuoZi (Wallace Huo + Yang Zi) collaboration, we finally get more screen time of them on the official episode of Very Quiet Distance. In this interview, Wallace Huo revealed many tidbits about his personal life, including his childhood, first love, his rumored relationship with Chen Qiao En, and etc. My favorite part of the interview is Yang Zi's personal disclosure of Wallace Huo's real life character on the Battle of Changsha film set. To my surprise, Yang Zi and Wallace Huo despite their 13-year age gap have become fast friends after their three-month collaboration. Wallace Huo uses the Chinese term 忘年之交 wang nian zhi jiao describe their personal friendship. This term usually applies to two people with a large generation gap becoming extremely good friends and sharing great rapport. I often associate this term with a young person forming a close-knitted friendship with someone from  his/her grandparent's generation. I guess Wallace Huo sees h...

In the original novel, Gu Qingming never officially proposes to Xiang Xiang with a bouquet of red roses. The drama series romanticizes the relationship a bit more.  They actually "married" in haste with no formal wedding ceremony. The "wedding" itself was just a simple dinner with Xiang Xiang's family. Below is a tough translation of a novel excerpt of the wedding night after the family dinner which "officializes" Gu Qingming as Xiang Xiang's husband.

Attention to Battle of Changsha aficionados, I would like to present one funny tidbit about the shooting if you haven't learned about it already on baidu forum. I had wanted to wait until the official episode of this talk show A Very Quiet Distance to air before writing about it, but I couldn't resist the temptation to talk about it now! I just want to share the laughter. A few days ago, Wallace Huo was invited to be interviewed by famed host Li Jing. Yang Zi was the "surprised" guest.

After watching the official trailer, I am now completely 100% enthralled with Battle of Changsha. I usually try to avoid drama series set during World War II because they are just loaded with tragedies and melancholy. But I'm just superficial and just like to watch pretty guys in pretty military uniforms. Then I decided to read the original novel and got hooked. Anyway, the critically-acclaimed director, Kong Sheng, for this drama series definitely did not disappoint in his storytelling. I'm loving all the changes they made to the novel. I think this TV adaptation will surpass the novel itself. They greatly expanded the role of Gu Qingming (Wallace Huo) and added a lot more details to the development of the OTP. I can also tell a lot of effort has been put into executing the action scenes. There are also no bad CGIs battle scenes nor any cheesy romantic lines. After the sour aftertaste from watching The Swordsman and bitter disappointment regarding the release of Legend o...

Gu Qingming shields his young pregnant wife, Xiang Xiang, from the impact of aerial bombing Today marks the end of shooting for the cast and crew of Battle of Changsha after three months of hard work. According to the main lead actress, Yang Zi, we should expect to see the release of this World War II family epic next year.

OMG! I just literally squealed in excitement after looking at these stills. Battle of Changsha is looking promising! Wallace Huo still manages to retain his dashing handsomeness despite his new war-torn look in this drama series.

Happy Saturday! Due to my current interest in Wallace Huo's new series adapted from an online novel, I decided to share with you a brief translated excerpt. This excerpt involves the very first scene where Wallace Huo's character, Gu Qingming, appears in the novel. I'm actually building up high expectations for this production because it's being directed by an acclaimed mainland TV series director. I want to see how this particular scene will play out onscreen and hope Wallace Huo will have sizzling chemistry with his female co-star, Yang Zi. Gu Qingming may seem like a total arrogant a$$ at certain times with his pompous attitude and condescension, but I still find his tempestuous relationship with Hu Xiang Xiang extremely entertaining. Since the scriptwriters will substantially expand the role of Gu Qingming in the TV series, I hope this expansion equates to more screen time to develop the OTP relationship. I always love to watch drama series where most of the sc...

I think I'm on a Wallace Huo-craze or something because I'm getting rather excited about his upcoming TV series set during the Second Sino-Japanese War (which eventually merged into World War II). Non-war drama fans, please don't shy away yet! This TV series isn't all about guns, bombs, and bayonets. It's actually based on an internet novel that chronicles the trials and tribulations of a prominent but not too wealthy literati family (surname Hu) living in the ancient city of Changsha, Hunan Province. Even though the novel was originally published on a internet novel website known more for romance, the story isn't exactly romantic but focuses more about wartime survival and the value of family. In fact, it doesn't even feel like a love story between two individuals but more like a story of family love. This story is definitely not going to be the typical modern family drama with constant bickering and infighting among relatives. And if you'r...