Home with Kids (; pinyin: Jiā yǒu érnǚ, literally Home with Sons and Daughters), is a sitcom/drama from Mainland China. There are 4 seasons of Home with Kids, i.e. Home with Kids 1, Home with Kids 2, Home with Kids 3 and Home with Kids 4, which were released respectively in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. It is considered to be an equivalent to Growing Pains and Fresh Off The Boat, both US sitcoms. Unlike most Chinese multi-camera sitcoms, Home With Kids prominently uses child actors as main roles. As a spiritual successor of China's first multi-camera sitcom, I Love My Family, the series also reunites Song Dandan and Wen Xingyu. (Also one of Wen's final roles before his death)
The series has ended with 365 half-hour episodes.
Premise Xia Donghai, a director of children's drama who has divorced, returns from the U.S. with his young son Xia Yu (commonly known as "Xiǎo Yǔ") and daughter Xia Xue (also known as "Xiǎo Xuě") to start a family with a divorced woman Liu Mei, who has a son, Liu Xing, from her previous marriage. The five live happily in a flat in modern Beijing. The story is evolved around the family member's encounters to various issues in life and their attempts to cope/solve them, and most episodes involve the parents' attempts to act as a good example for their children and teach them to know right from wrong. This family arrangement is atypical for modern Chinese families because of the one child per family policy.
Characters Main characters The Xia Family Xia Donghai (夏东海), portrayed by Gao Yalin, is the bespectacled father of Xia Xue and Xia Yu and stepfather of Liu Xing. As a director of children's drama, he is portrayed with a child-friendly personality of being kind, generous, humorous, and easygoing. As someone who has witnessed American education, his ways with the children involves mainly tolerance, understanding and signs of equality. He can also be quite lazy and incompetent at housework or sports. In the second season, he is fired from the spot of director and is recruited as the editor of a children's magazine.
Liu Mei (刘梅), portrayed by Song Dandan, is the mother of Liu Xing and stepmother of Xia Yu and Xia Xue. She is a director of nurses at a hospital and is in charge of the household. Being an adopter of more "traditional" ways of education, she often demonstrates a strong preference to Xia Xue, due to her outstanding school marks and many talents; she often attempts to inflict corporal punishment on her misbehaving children (in particular her own son Liu Xing), but for the most part fails to do so. She is portrayed with a somewhat strong curiosity and slight overzealousness. Moreover, she constantly attempts to understand the three children and help them in any way possible.
Xia Xue (夏雪), portrayed by Andy Yang (in the first two seasons) and Ning Danlin (in the latter two seasons), is the elder daughter of Xia Donghai. She is a typical "smart girl" with excellent grades. She is confident, but also somewhat slightly arrogant, and is often the creator of the more "advanced" issues for her parents. In the first episodes, she distrusts her new stepmother and even tried to "scare her" by "developing" a trend for "puppy love" (which is strongly intolerated by the more "traditional" Chinese parents), but soon finds her very trustworthy. In the third season, she is depressed for not making the marks for Tsinghua University, but soon overcomes her depression.
Liu Xing (刘星), portrayed by Zhang Yishan, is the son of Liu Mei. He is a rather poor student (especially at chemistry), but is quite witty and tactful. The resident troublemaker of the home, he receives most of the blame from his parents. Apart from that, he is sporty (both athletic and acrobatic), chivalrous, and always filled with ideas and advice for others (both good and bad).
Xia Yu (夏雨), portrayed by You Haoran, is the younger son of Xia Donghai. Being raised in America, he is capable of speaking good English (but prefers not to when he moved to Beijing) and has knowledge of many American customs. However, this knowledge is often countered in the episodes by his cluelessness over the usage of some Chinese language features (in particular set phrases and idioms) and Chinese traditions. He follows his stepbrother Liu Xing in his exploits, and will often be the potential troublemaker after Liu Xing. As a running gag, he often proudly announces himself as "the handsome little oversea-Chinese" when meeting strangers.
Secondary characters Grandpa or Yeye, portrayed by Wen Xingyu (文兴宇), is Xia Donghai's father. He is interested in things that are for the common good, like saving electricity and saving water. He is a retired sports coach and is often very strict. Grandma calls him a fascist. Named Xia Xiang. As Wen died of lung cancer in 2007, the character ceases to appear in the series.
Grandma or Laolao, portrayed by Sun Guitian (孙桂田), is Liu Mei's mother. She pampers and spoils her grandchildren and spare them from any hardships and inconveniences. She dislikes Grandpa; she always seeks to quarrel with him.
Hu Yitong (胡一统), portrayed by Ma Shuliang (马书良), is Liu Xing's hapless biological father. He often drops by unannounced, to the consternation of his ex-wife Liu Mei.
Mary or Mǎlì (玛丽), portrayed by Hei Mei (戚慧) (seasons 1–2) and Fu Yujia (傅羽佳) (season 4), is the biological mother of Xia Xue and Xia Yu. She likes to spoil them and blames Xia Donghai and Liu Mei whenever the children are upset. It is implied that she is wealthy, as she owns a BMW and carries around expensive purses.
Feifei (菲菲), portrayed by Ran Qian (冉倩), is Xia Donghai's cousin.
Shubiao "Mouse" (鼠标), portrayed by Zhang Yiwen, is Liu Xing's good friend. His parents are especially strict. His real name is Lin Ning (林宁)
Jianpan "Keyboard" (键盘), portrayed by Sheng Shao, is Liu Xing's other good friend. Named Sheng Chao.
Duoduo (朵朵), portrayed by Duan Liyang (段丽阳), is Xia Yu's close friend.
"Erpang" (二胖), portrayed by Zhai Zhenjing, is Xia Yu's friend. His father is called in the screenplay Laogao (老高)
Other characters Character Actors Wild BoyKyle MaDuoduo's fatherHan TongshengLin NingZhang YiwenShang XishanJu YaojieDa JunYin HangJiaojiaoLu YuemengXue's mate in S1E10Zhang WenhaoPatient's relatives in S1E12Hu ShaYan JunTeacher WuWu XuChen XiaolanZhang HaiyanCameraman in S1E17Fei MingJournalist in S1E17, Leader of Jiannaole CorporationGao JianMi LanChen LuyaoChun HuaDu NinglinMiss MaHao YangWaihouSeptember ZhangOld WuMo QiLift girl in S1E21Zhou LuLittle LiuZhang XinhuaOld WangLuan ZuxunGuard in S1E22Chen FengLift girl's boyfriendXu YaohuiPolicemen in S1E22Zhang HaoZhang KeOld GaoZhang JinhaiLin DafeiTian XiaobingNing's motherLiu YanParty decorator in S1E29Lu DongchangCook in S1E29Wang PengLin FanGuo XuNiu's uncleLiu JinshanDonghai's colleague in S1E35Wang ZhimingPhysics teacherZhao YuchenMa LalaChen ChuangMa HoupaoZhao TierenBoss WangZhang ShaorongCousin of the farmer in S1E44Wang ShiyuanCousin in law of the farmer in S1E44Guo ShaoxiongFarmer in S1E44Wang QingyuanSong YangYang QingFang QianqianAlice ChanDeliverer in S1E45Yang FengningMaryQi HuiMary's assistantZhang BinJin GangCao XuefeiJin Gang's motherSun MengquanGong HaiLi XiaofanXing's victim's grandfather in S1E56Meng JunquanEmployees of Weicai Press in S1E57Yang YimingLi XiaofengLawyer in S1E58Chu JianViolin teacher in S1E60Xia XinUncle NingZhou MingshanWei ZhengSolo WangYalingNing BoyuanZhou ZhengLi YongguiStationer in S1E65Miao QiangXing's classmate in S1E66Chen QingxinMingyangYou MingyangOld Wu's sonNing WentongAunt DamingXia LixinHuanhuanBai-Xiao YingnanSu JieChen ChenTeacher FangLi YeTeacher YuanWang ZhuoAunt FeifeiRan QianFengJiang ChaoHuang FeihongHou XiangLingling's fatherBao DazhiLingling's motherJing FenglingLinglingLiu YuzheRongrongXin XinuoXing's classmate in S1E83Chen Yi'anXing's classmates in S1E85Wu XiaohuoEmployee of Jiannaole CorporationYang YiJournalist in S1E87Vivi WangRobbed man in S1E88Sun JinliangSun ZhiweiGu JinXing's construction teacher in S1E90Li ChunpengQianqian's fatherWang XinwuQianqian's motherHu NingfangQianqianEmily ChenBrother of Mute AngelPang HaiSister of Mute AngelHu XinYu's HeadmasterMa YuhongYu XiaohongLu XiaoLiu WeiweiZhou TiZhang NongZhenrXu DiCongcongCui BinbinZhang ChaoZhang Tu
Production PlanningMaster planningYang WeiguangZhang LinshuLiu MinLi HongYang PingLi JianhongPublishersWu WeiminHuang RulunPan ZhengpingXu ShenghengArtistic adviserLi ZhunScenario co-ordinationLi JianhongZang LiYuan ZhenjiangTheme songMusicLei LeiLyricsYang XuanjiaSingersTG4Music playingChina Symphony OrchestraMIDIJi-Ang HePost productionWang WeiLin HongjunArt designingZhang HuiArt designersLi BinAssistantXiang XiaobinProducersYin LianchuangMaster producersYang WeiguangZhang Xiao'aiProduction directorWang JiaFilm producerLi HongDirectorsLin CongAssistant directorChen YanpingLiang ShaohuaScreenwritersS1E1-4,7,8,12,15,18,25,27,28,31,33,34,49-51,53,56,67,75,76,79-81,83,89,91,95,96,99,100Zang XiS1E1-4,12,15,18,25,27,28,31,33,34,49,50,56,67,75,76,79-81,85,89,91,95,96,99Zang LiS1E3,19,20,32,47,54,57,69,70,78,92,97Li JianhongS1E9,16,29,44,46,52,60-62,71,78,86Xing YusenS1E17,59,73Qiu XiangdongS1E6,12-14,32,36,74,83,87,93Fei MingS1E24,48,52,58,88,94Huang GouS1E5,10,21,22,35,42,69,77,82,84,90Gao ChongS1E7,20,41,45,53,55,63,64,72,98Yang JinfengS1E11,30,37,43,47,68Huang KezhongS1E8,51Hu LuS1E15,23Yi DongS1E19,39,40Dong TaoS1E23Yi XuanS1E26,97Liu FeiS1E38,65Li ZongminS1E39,40Du WeiS1E41,55,72,98Qu ZiyangS1E63Luo JianwenS1E66Zhang PingxiS1E70,84,85Shao HaowenS1E100Li LinPortrait directorQi XiaohuiWu YongbaoLogLiang ShaohuaProduction producerChen YanpingSite producerLi BingyinStage managementChairmanYang PingAssistantLi ChengXiang XiaobinLu YunchaoTian FengYang YanhuiZhang HengYi LijunPan LinyiCameramenZhou HaiboYang DengfengTang YeZhang YanJi YuanFancyHu JunhongSetsenClothingWang JingAssistantGao TiantianSetsenSong Dandan'sGuangzhou Emao FashionPropCai BaojianXiang XiaobinAssistantMeng XianchunLightsZhang WeiAssistantsZhou HongluChen JunzhouRecordingZheng ZhiAssistantsHui ZiqiangLiu ShengTitle & tailBeijing TTV Jiahua cultural transmission Co., LtdSite co-ordinationWang JiaLi ChengSponsorsBeijing Blueweit advertisement Co., LtdTsinghua UnigroupRossini Watch industryTianjin Cola Coa food Co., LmtBeijing Sihai Tiandi digitalSina WirelessTianlang OrchestraJoint productionCTAA Film & Television CentreBeijing TVCTV Mstartv culture media Co., LtdEmpark Grand Group Co., LtdBeijing Jiadun investment Co., LtdBeijing Runsheng investmental management Co., Ltd
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