1980: My Cultural Era!

Shanghai, 1980. The first waves of reform and opening-up are stirring.

Lu Xingchen is a sharp and tenacious young cultural center employee who refuses to accept the stagnation and infighting within the system.

With exceptional courage and foresight, he starts by finding a way to turn around the planning of a Lantern Festival fair, then searches for opportunities in the gaps between the rules of the age.

He deftly navigates one obstruction after another from the conservatives, exploiting gray areas in policy. From producing props for a film studio and planning advertising shorts to running an underground supply network, he gradually builds up his initial capital and connections.

After being investigated and suppressed, and nearly suffering total ruin, he finally resigns from the enviable “iron rice bowl” job and hangs out a sign by the Pujiang River: “Xingchen Culture and Sports Services.”

This is the legend of an ordinary man fighting his way through the tides of history.

Using culture as his fulcrum, Lu Xingchen moves the lever of commerce. Amid the collision between planning and the market, and the struggle between ideals and reality, he uses his wits and hard work to build an ideal city of his own, step by step. He witnesses and helps shape a new age of extraordinary change.