Real archaeologists inspire popular drama series

The Lost National Treasure, a popular TV series inspired by real archaeological discoveries, took three years to produce. One key step in preparing to film the series involved visiting 21 historic relic sites, revealed the producers during a recent seminar in Beijing.

Consisting of 36 episodes spanning two decades, the drama stars actors Bai Yufan and Xin Baiqing. It recounts an archaeologist and his former love interest, also an archaeologist, working with local police officers to fight a tomb-raiding gang, unearth an emperor's tomb built during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).

Directed by Hui Kaidong, the show concluded its first run on China Central Television's CCTV-1 and streaming platforms iQiyi and Tencent Video in late June.

The drama was viewed 290 million times, reaching 3.144 percent of all Chinese TV subscribers during its broadcast, said Ma Jun, deputy director of the TV program department affiliated with the film, television drama, and documentary center of China Media Group. Its popularity was highlighted by related Douyin videos being viewed over 1.49 billion times and Sina Weibo topics watched more than 100 million times, added Ma.

Wang Herun, the actress who plays the protagonist's romantic interest, revealed that her character was partly inspired by the real-life stories of Zhang Yun, an archaeologist at the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology. Leading a team of archaeologists, Zhang spent 13 years unearthing and researching the historic relics discovered in the Lyu family cemetery, constructed during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).