For Chinese TV viewers, a host of new and engrossing drama series may help take their minds off the current heat wave.

Among the new programmes, TV drama series favoured by Chinese viewers is the screenplay entitled Spicy Mother-in-Law (Ma La Po Xi), now showing at primetime on CCTV-1.

In a humorous manner, it depicts the trivial, daily frictions between mother and daughter-in-law in an extended family in northern China.

By dramatizing tension between the two sides and depicting everyday life in a humorous way, director Li Shaohong says, "The series addresses common domestic problems that everyone is familiar with."

"I like this drama for its humorous and personal touch," said Yan Feng, a middle-aged company clerk and TV viewer.

However, for younger Chinese TV drama buffs, Smile Again (Zai Ci Wei Xiao), a soap opera imported from South Korea, is a favourite.

Starring pop idols such as Kim Hee-sun and Lee Dong-gun, it is a moving love story between a softball player and a perfume seller.

Through movies, TV dramas, comic books, clothes and music, South Korean pop culture has become very popular among Chinese young people.

Kim Hee-sun, one of the most well-known South Korean pop stars in China, will definitely add to the appeal of this series, critics say.

Meanwhile, viewers will be treated to a good number of new series. Following the success of Dae Jang Geum, South Korean director Byoung-hoon Lee is offering viewers a new historical drama, Seodongyo, King Moo of Baekje.

Adapted from an old Korean folk song, this 54-episode series recounts King Moo's accession to the throne. With his long background in shooting historical dramas, Lee has reportedly expressed his confidence in the new production.

Given its great popularity in South Korea, many Chinese critics believe that it is certain to be a hit with Chinese audiences.

Apart from South Korean TV series, Hong Kong dramas are also very popular.

For example, soap operas from Hong Kong's TVB have long been favourites among mainland audiences, especially younger viewers.

The Dance of Passion (Huo Wu Kuang Sha) is poised to capture viewers' attention with its drama and enmity between two households on the plateau of northern China. Though criticized by some people for its "banal scene of endless loess landscape," it is still credited with a truthful representation of the lifestyle and customs of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

With a star-studded cast that is the same as that of War and Beauty (Jin Zhi Yu Nie), this glamorous costume play will soon be released, according to sources close to TVB.

On the Chinese mainland, the adaptation of popular novels has produced various TV drama titles, such as Knightliness of a Group of Swordmen (She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan) and New Eagle Lover (xin Shen Diao Xia Lu), both drawing a huge number of loyal fans.

New Shanghai Bund (Xin Shanghai Tan), due to be aired in the coming weeks, may offer viewers some new delight, critics say.

The TV drama series tells the story of life in Shanghai in the turbulent 1930s.

It stars Huang Xiaoming and Sun Li, emerging stars among Chinese TV drama fans and moviegoers. The first "Shanghai Bund" TV drama series, which starred Chow Yun-fat and Lu Liangwei, proved to be a great hit among mainland viewers.

"What makes it distinctive from the previous version is its more detailed depiction of characters in the critical historical moment," popular TV drama series director Gao Xixi was quoted as saying by local media.

(China Daily July 25, 2006)