Pragmatic love story revives China's 1970s nostalgia

When TV producer Zhang Zetian came across the novel The Pragmatist's Love, she was immediately drawn in by its captivating storyline, finishing the book in just three days.

After three years of work, the novel has been adapted into Love Story in the 1970s, a popular 29-episode TV series starring actor Chen Feiyu, whose English name is Arthur Chen, and actress Sun Qian.

Set in the late 1970s, the romance follows Fei Ni, a hat factory worker determined to secure a recommendation letter from her company — once a crucial pathway to college admission during the period when China had suspended the gaokao (national college entrance examination) from 1966 to 1976.

After several failed attempts — from working harder to participating in group activities — Fei stumbles upon an unexpected opportunity. She volunteers to care for a young man who rescued the factory's employees from a roof collapse caused by heavy rain. Severely injured and suffering temporary memory loss, he turns out to be her childhood classmate.