Source: https://www.jingdianlaoge.com/news/14_9421.htm
小欢喜 is a family driven story about preparing for the 高考, the infamous college entrance exam and a rite of passage for any Chinese student.
Over the course of forty-nine episodes, we follow three families as they support their children through the last year of exam preparation. 英子, a star student, is buffeted by two prevailing winds: her tiger mother and spoiling father, divorced. 王一凡 was a good student until the past year, when his scores have spiraled in free fall. 王一凡 lives with cousin, 磊儿, a prodigy who just moved in after his mother’s death. Finally, there’s 季杨杨, whose interests lie entirely beyond the college entrance exam. His parents moved in with him at the start of the school year. They were chronically absent in his childhood, pursuing careers that distanced themselves from their son. Instead, 季杨杨 was raised by his grandparents and uncle, who owns a race-track that 季杨杨 frequents instead of studying.
Each family responds to the stresses of the college entrance exam in different ways. There’s a wide range of ambition represented, which invites more nuanced consideration of the college entrance exam’s social implications. As diverse as the kids’ abilities and ambitions are, their family backgrounds are very similar. They all live in Beijing. From their modern two and three-bedroom apartments, it’s evident that the families are at least upper-middle class. The storyline depends on the families’ ability to throw themselves completely into preparations, something that follows only from financial comfort.
The greatest dramas, struggles, and pressures of the college entrance exam falls on children from outer provinces, poor villages or families, whose only way out of poverty hinges on them entering a first-rate college. In 小欢喜 we are privy to the lives of upper society. Their struggles are real and valid, but are far from the only variety, or the most representative one.
The narrative form, toggling between three families, works well to illustrate the inter and intra-family dramas. Each character’s distinct personality serves as a point of contrast for another character. Conflicts ensue from personality clashes. For every drama, though, there are moments of comedy.
My main gripe with Chinese dramas is their tendency towards the over-dramatic. 小欢喜 is not immune. It relies almost completely on coincidences to produce conflict. For a drama forty-nine episodes long, you might expect filler episodes to serve as breathing points and to offer a different context for the families to conduct themselves. Instead, the show is one long phrasing of drama, which can sometimes feel artificial or overbearing.
Overall, 小欢喜 is a poignant yet humorous look into Chinese society, providing a personal perspective to the college entrance exams. It packs a lot of emotional density. It can sometimes feels contrived, although there are certainly many moving bits. My opinion is that it’s show worth checking out. Even if you don’t make it through the entire school year, even a few episodes will impart a deeper understanding of family structures, pressures, and life for a Chinese high-schooler.