Photo: Courtesy of Youku

Inspired by the real lives of high school teachers and students, The Hope, a TV series airing on China's Central TV and streaming site Youku, tells the story of high school students and teachers working together to pass the college entrance examinations. 

With Peng Li and Shang Na as chief producers, the series was directed by Ding Hei, written by Chen Shu and stars Zhang Ruoyun and Huang Yao. 

In the series, Zhang and Huang team up to help students regain their dreams and guide them to develop good study habits. Each student faces their own difficulties but maintains optimistic attitudes. In the end, these students work hard to get into their dream university and start a new journey in life.

Before the filming started, the production team spent nearly a year to interview more than 300 teachers, students and families, and visited more than 10 schools in search of inspiration. 

According to Chen Shu, the screenwriting team went to senior high school classes to understand the students' studies, the local conditions of the school, and interviewed a large number of people such as parents and teachers. In addition, everyone has read a lot of information and watched some related documentaries. The teaching methods and character settings in the play are all derived from materials collected from field investigations.