The costume drama Lan Xiang Ru Gu, starring Tan Songyun and Liu Xueyi, has recently been airing on Disney+ and mainland Chinese platforms, but its title has sparked controversy alongside its rising popularity. On September 15, the topic "Audiences are confused by long drama titles" trended on Weibo, with many netizens arguing that the frequent use of similar four-character titles in recent costume dramas makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish between works based on their names alone.
Lan Xiang Ru Gu tells the story of a noble daughter who, after falling on hard times, poses as a maid to enter the Lin household, where she endures hardships within the deep mansion and imperial court while working with her former fiancé to break free from their predicament. Some netizens stated that upon first seeing the title, they mistook it for a rerun of Tan Songyun's previous work, while others joked that the name resembled promotional copy for a hanfu brand.
In response to this discussion, netizens have categorized the common naming conventions for recent costume dramas. Titles featuring the character "ru" (like/as) include One and Only, Immortal Samsara, Story of Kunning Palace, and Lan Xiang Ru Gu; titles featuring the character "jin" (brocade) include The Sword and the Brocade, The Princess Weiyoung, Under the Power, and Blooming Brocade.
Another category of titles employs more abstract four-character combinations or names derived from classical ci poetry patterns, such as Till The End of The Moon, Serenade of Peaceful Joy, Jade Tower Spring, The Story of Pearl Girl, and Love Like the Galaxy. While these titles each carry a classical connotation, some netizens argue that when similar vocabulary appears in clusters, it becomes difficult to determine from the title alone whether a work depicts family feuds, xianxia tales, or courtly power struggles.
Related discussions also attribute this phenomenon to the genre expression and project operations of costume dramas. The four-character structure has a regular rhythm that easily conveys the characteristics of classical themes; some adaptations of web novels also adjust the original titles to better align with the naming preferences of television stations and streaming platforms. The original novel for Lan Xiang Ru Gu was titled Lan Xiang Yuan.
Furthermore, as imagery such as "fragrance," "past," "brocade," and "dream" has appeared in the titles of similar works, subsequent projects may continue to select similar vocabulary. As these combinations proliferate, the ability of drama titles to serve as unique identifiers is being called into question, making Lan Xiang Ru Gu the focal point of discussions on the homogenization of costume drama naming.