Fake It Till You Make It, the 2023 series that pairs a big-city lawyer with an investment banker, has taken first place in Storm Media's ranking of the best Chinese workplace romance dramas of recent years. It finished ahead of Wu Lei and Zhou Yutong's Nothing But You and Jing Boran and Sun Qian's The Early Spring, while Xiao Zhan and Bai Baihe's Sunshine by My Side placed fifth.
Office romance in Chinese television has moved well beyond the old formula of a domineering CEO falling for a junior employee. Recent series set their love stories in law firms, investment banks, advertising agencies, hospitals, and design studios, where the leads grow closer while coping with overtime, promotions, office politics, and major life decisions. The current run of The Early Spring has put the genre back in the spotlight.
Storm Media compiled the top 10 by weighing each show's Douban score, its word of mouth among viewers online, and how well it delivers on both its workplace storyline and its romance. Douban is a Chinese social platform widely used to rate and review films, TV series, and books. The list is an editorial ranking, not an audience poll.
Han Dongjun And Cai Wenjing Claim First Place
Three years after it aired, Fake It Till You Make It remains hard to leave out of any conversation about the genre. Cai Wenjing plays Tang Ying, a lawyer at one of the big city's "red circle" firms, the label Chinese media use for the country's elite law firms, who deals daily with overtime, demanding bosses and clients, and the pressure of class. Han Dongjun, known in English as Elvis Han, plays Xu Ziquan, an investment bank vice president who seems to have mastered the rules of urban elite life.
The two meet by chance on a plane and begin sizing each other up. What starts as a careful effort to keep up appearances gives way, over time, to glimpses of the exhaustion and honesty each hides behind a polished professional front. The show's reputation kept rising after its 2023 broadcast.
Its staying power comes from the way it genuinely blends office life with romantic tension. Some viewers said they were moved by the sincerity hidden beneath all the "pretense," and others saw Tang and Xu's dynamic as a rare, sophisticated push and pull in an adult romance. When The Early Spring premiered, many viewers went back to Fake It Till You Make It to compare the two, and social media users even discussed it climbing back to No. 1 on Mango TV's overall in-platform chart. That a series can be pulled back into the conversation by a new drama three years after its finale speaks to its long-tail appeal.
Wu Lei And Jing Boran Round Out Podium
Second place goes to Nothing But You. Zhou Yutong plays Liang You'an, who has spent years as the special assistant to a senior executive and handed almost her entire life over to the job before deciding to walk away and start again. Wu Lei, known as Leo Wu, plays Song Sanchuan, a badminton player stuck in a career slump who later switches to tennis. The two meet at a low point and end up at the same tennis club, where each searches for a new direction in work, sport, and life.
Viewers described it as a "very comfortable" urban drama, praising its workplace scenes as "very real and very grounded" while noting that the court sequences keep the energy of a sports drama. One said they had planned to watch only one or two episodes and ended up watching until the early hours. Another widely shared view was that the story "focused on people first" before turning to love: because Song and Liang each have their own struggles and goals, their romance plays out as two people growing together rather than one waiting to be rescued by the other.
The 2026 series The Early Spring lands third. Jing Boran plays Luan Nian, a star of the advertising world, and Sun Qian plays Shang Zhitao, a young woman who has moved to Beijing to build a career. They clash from her very first job interview and later become boss and subordinate. As Shang faces the pressures of promotion, work, and big-city life, Luan slowly steps down from his perch as an aloof, sharp-tongued manager and into her life. Netflix also lists the show under its workplace, romance, and web novel adaptation categories.
One viewer felt the series "captures the intense push and pull between adults quite well," and fans singled out the contrast between Luan's cutting remarks and his quiet concern for Shang, along with her growth from rookie to a professional who can stand on her own. Others found Jing's performance too deliberate and said the show lost its appeal the more they watched. That split in opinion has helped make it one of the most talked-about modern romance dramas of the moment.
Xiao Zhan Leads Two Advertising Agency Romances
Sunshine by My Side, in fifth place, stars Xiao Zhan as Sheng Yang, an advertising designer only a short time into his career, and Bai Baihe as Jian Bing, a director who has spent years working in advertising and film. They cross paths again years later: he is battling an exploitative boss and colleagues who take credit for his work, while she is preparing to end a failed marriage and rebuild her life. Their careers and feelings gradually intertwine, and the series currently holds a rating of about 7.2.
Many viewers appreciated that the show does not treat the age gap as its only source of conflict. Fans described the plot as grounded rather than far-fetched, and some called the storyline about Sheng being psychologically manipulated by his boss "painfully true to life," saying the scenes of stolen credit, empty promises, and bosses keeping subordinates down felt instantly familiar to office workers. On the romance, viewers liked how the two push each other forward at different stages of life, moving from distant senior and junior colleagues to people who can stand side by side.
Advertising also frames Hello, I'm At Your Service, which rounds out the list at 10th. Xu Lu plays Dong Dong'en, a client service executive at an ad agency, and Wei Zheming, known as Miles Wei, plays Lou Yuan, the man in charge on the client's side. The show turns the familiar tension between paying client and agency into a love story: Dong must satisfy every client demand while cleaning up messes for her own company, and her biggest client, Lou, happens to be someone she already has history with. Their professional sparring slowly turns into something else.
Unlike the clueless newcomers common in sweet romance dramas, Dong reads people well and knows how to handle clients. Some viewers said watching her deal with one difficult demand after another was even more entertaining than the romance itself, and many fans loved the reversal of Lou, who nitpicks everything she does, being the first to fall.
Hospital And Law Firm Bosses Fall For Staff
Fourth place goes to Hi Venus, starring Zeng Shunxi, known as Joseph Zeng, as new hospital director Lu Zhaoxi and Liang Jie as doctor Ye Shilan. A case of mistaken identity leaves both with a bad first impression, and back at the hospital they discover he is now her boss. Their feelings build gradually through everyday work, as they move from misjudging each other to solving problems together, and the series stands out among recent sweet modern romance dramas.
The compliment viewers repeat most is that the leads "know how to communicate." One described the show as "a record of how normal people fall in love," noting that Lu apologizes when he is wrong and respects Ye's work, while Ye has her own ambitions and judgment, so the story never drags itself out with repeated misunderstandings. Another review praised the romance for developing "slowly and steadily," as the two come to like each other over meals, shifts, and time spent together.
My Boss, at seventh, moves the office into a law firm. Zhang Ruonan plays rookie lawyer Cheng Yao, and Chen Xingxu plays Qian Heng, a leading family law attorney who founded the firm. Cheng only wants a job at the firm of her dreams, but her new boss also turns out to be her roommate, and their mentor and trainee relationship gradually becomes an office romance.
Reviews of My Boss are sharply divided. Some viewers complained that the setup of "aloof boss plus new subordinate plus accidental cohabitation" follows the old idol drama formula too closely, while others thought Chen played Qian's sharp tongue, self-regard, and gradual fall into love with real comic flair. Readers of the original novel have described its early chapters as "light and funny," and the pairing of a caustic star lawyer with a novice remains the show's easiest point of entry.
Age Gaps And Reunions Power Three More Picks
The Rational Life takes sixth. Qin Lan plays Shen Ruoxin, a working woman in her 30s who keeps her own rhythm amid office rivalry, promotion pressure, and family pressure to marry. Wang Hedi, known as Dylan Wang, plays Qi Xiao, a newcomer to the workforce who becomes her young subordinate. Despite the gaps in age and rank, they draw closer through working together.
When the series aired, many viewers liked Shen as a mature, composed, and highly capable lead, and some felt its workplace story in the first half was stronger than the romance that followed. Reviews at the time praised the first half for realistically depicting the career, relationship, and age pressures facing women over 30, and the contrast between Qin's seasoned professional and Wang's younger newcomer keeps the pairing memorable today.
In eighth place, Love Is Sweet moves the action to an investment bank. Bai Lu plays Jiang Jun, who joins MH investment bank only to find that her childhood friend Yuan Shuai, played by Luo Yunxi, is now a senior executive there. Two people who know each other well become boss and subordinate, competing at work while digging up feelings they never voiced years ago. Viewers called it a "sweet drama with a fast pace" and praised the natural acting and chemistry of the leads, especially the way Luo and Bai move from trading barbs to falling in love. Some noted that its portrayal of investment banking is far from reality, but as an idol romance with a workplace backdrop, its chemistry, costumes, and pacing still hold strong appeal.
Ninth place goes to Here We Meet Again, starring Zhang Binbin and Wu Qian. Wu plays Xiang Yuan, heiress to the Donghe Group, who travels to Xi'an to rescue a subsidiary on the verge of collapse and unexpectedly runs into Xu Yanshi, her high school crush. Zhang plays Xu, a navigation technology specialist who holds on to his professional ideals despite pressure at work.
Much of the show's popularity comes from the chemistry between its leads. Fans especially like that Xu looks calm on the surface while quietly fixing Xiang's problems behind the scenes, and the feelings left over from high school give their workplace reunion an added layer of romantic tension. One viewer gave their interactions "full marks for sweetness," and the mix of a long-awaited reunion and two adults cautiously testing each other again gives the romance more lasting impact than a typical love-at-first-sight sweet drama.
Across the 10 picks, the shows that resonate most are the ones that treat the job as more than a backdrop, letting deadlines, office hierarchies, and career setbacks shape how two people come to fall for each other.
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