The Dream Maker (2026) Review: Building a City, Slowly

Is The Dream Maker worth watching?

It depends. The Dream Maker is a handsomely made, sincere Chinese drama about building a city from a seaside town, and it works best for viewers already drawn to its stars or to stories of communal progress. Zhao Liying and Huang Xiaoming give it a solid centre, and there is real satisfaction in watching a place change over time. The reservation is that its 40 episodes favour uplift over friction, so the drama can feel more like a celebration than a story with genuine stakes.

What is The Dream Maker about?

The series follows Li Qiuping, Zheng Decheng and other grassroots officials in Donggang Town as they lead local farmers and residents in an effort to turn a stretch of beach into a prosperous, modern city. The focus is less on a single protagonist’s journey than on a collective project: persuading sceptical locals, balancing competing interests and keeping a long-term vision alive through setbacks.

The Dream Maker is a Mandarin-language production from China, created by Zhu Xiaojun and released on Tencent Video in 2026. It is led by Zhao Liying and Huang Xiaoming, with a broad ensemble that includes Qin Junjie, Chen Minghao, Zhu Yuanyuan and Geng Le. This review covers the complete series, a single season of 40 episodes; it has ended, so there is no cliffhanger waiting for a renewal.

Star power in a civic drama

Zhao Liying is one of the most bankable names in Chinese television, and her presence is the main reason many viewers will press play. Here she works within an ensemble rather than dominating it, and her grounded, unshowy style suits a story about patient, practical work. Huang Xiaoming brings a steadier, more authoritative screen presence, and the pairing of the two leads gives the series a centre of gravity across its long run.

The supporting cast is large, and the strongest episodes are those that let local residents push back. When farmers question what they stand to lose, or when officials disagree about the pace of change, the show finds a human texture that its grander speeches cannot supply.

Earnest by design

The Dream Maker belongs to a familiar strand of mainland television: dramas that dramatise development and collective effort with an openly optimistic spirit. Within that tradition it is polished. The production values are high, the coastal setting gives it a sense of space, and the gradual transformation of the town is the kind of long-form change that television is well suited to show.

The same optimism is also its ceiling. Obstacles tend to be resolved through persuasion and goodwill rather than lasting cost, and the officials at the heart of the story are drawn more as models than as flawed people. Viewers who come to drama for moral ambiguity or sharp conflict will find little of either here.

Where 40 episodes weigh heavy

Length is the other barrier. Forty episodes is standard for a Chinese prime-time drama, but it is a large commitment for a story whose overall direction is clear from the start. Subplots about the townspeople’s families and working lives add colour, yet some stretches repeat the same pattern of problem, debate and solution. Viewers new to the format may want to sample the first handful of episodes before committing to the full run.

Who should watch The Dream Maker?

It suits Zhao Liying’s fans, viewers who enjoy slow-building ensemble dramas about community and change, and anyone curious about how contemporary Chinese television tells stories of economic transformation. Its content is generally mild and suitable for a broad audience, but it asks for patience.

If it appeals, try these next from the drama shelf:

• Minning Town, a warmer, more rooted drama about villagers and officials building a new community from scratch.
• Blossoms Shanghai for a far more stylish take on ambition and economic change in 1990s China.
• More Chinese series on the Tencent Video hub.

The verdict

The Dream Maker is a sincere, well-produced drama with appealing leads and a genuinely interesting subject, the remaking of a place and the people in it. Its relentless optimism and 40-episode length will limit its appeal to viewers already invested in the genre or the cast, which makes it a qualified recommendation.

Rating: 3/5