Nothing Gold Can Stay

Zhou Ying starts as an outsider tossed into a world that doesn't want her, and she uses wit and grit to remake her life. After being sold by her foster father, she slips away by hiding in a merchant palanquin and is taken in by the Wu family. Her knack for business earns her a place in the household and eventually marriage to Wu Ping, but prosperity brings new pressures as she works to keep the family firm alive during the final years of the Qing Dynasty. Alongside her story runs Shen Xingyi, a carefree noble whose encounters with Zhou Ying push him toward responsibility and loyalty, while his affection for her remains complicated and largely unreturned.

Created by Ding Hei and Zhijie Han, Nothing Gold Can Stay premiered in 2017 with Sun Li starring as Zhou Ying. The cast includes Chen Xiao, Myolie Wu Hang-Yee, Yu Haoming, and Morning Chang. The series is a Chinese mainland production that blends historical setting with domestic drama and period detail.

The show did not dominate international award circuits, and there are no widely reported major prizes tied to it. That said, its performances and production values received attention in domestic media, and it found an audience among viewers who follow costume dramas and historical series.

Nothing Gold Can Stay helped draw attention to stories about women who managed commerce and household power in late imperial China. It contributed to a wave of female-led historical dramas that emphasize entrepreneurial skill and pragmatic leadership, and it prompted conversation about how popular television can highlight lesser-known social roles from history.

Critical and audience responses leaned positive, reflected in a user vote average of 8.1 out of 10 from a small sample. The series focuses on themes of ambition, social change, duty, and the tensions between personal desire and family obligation, while also depicting economic survival and shifting class relations as the Qing era neared its end.