The poster for A Lifelong Journey Photo: Courtesy of Tencent Pictures

A Lifelong Journey, the latest TV series adapted from writer Liang Xiaosheng's novel In the World is set to be aired on China's state TV channel, CCTV and streaming site iQIYI as from Friday. Starring actors Lei Jiayin, Song Jia, and Yin Tao, the epic series produced by Tencent Pictures follows a story spanning over 50 years of three siblings from a peasant family, and focuses on how their life changes amid social changes taken place in China through the decades. 

Painting a picture of ordinary Chinese people living in the changing times, the novel won the writer Liang, the 10th Mao Dun Literary Award, one of China's top literary awards. Millions of people have been touched by the family's story, revealing and reacquainting readers with what lies deep in their hearts.

Translating such a series of stories to the small screen had been a challenge for veteran script writer Wang Hailing, who has a string of popular TV series under her belt. "To be honest, it is very difficult as it needs far more enhanced dramatic settings," Wang told the Global Times in a phone interview. "The lives of the three brothers are akin to telling the story of a small family.? But when we consider the bigger picture, the country itself is made up of millions of such small families. I wanted to present it from both the macro and micro perspectives." 

According to Cheng Wu, producer of A Lifelong Journey, a deep sense of "responsibility" inspired him? to produce the best adaptation of the work interpreted from Liang's novel. "We hope to unite the best creative sources for a masterpiece incorporating the realistic theme with both ratings and social influence," he said.