How a story about old letters became China's biggest surprise hit

A film built around old letters and remittances may not sound like a box office sensation, but Dear You has undoubtedly become one of China's biggest surprise hits of the year to date.

The film has topped China's daily box-office chart for nearly three consecutive weeks and has grossed more than 1.4 billion yuan (around $205 million). Its theatrical run has now been extended through June 30.

At the center of the story are "qiaopi" letters, a little-known system that once connected overseas Chinese communities with their families back home. Long before modern banking and international money transfers, Chinese migrants working across Southeast Asia would send letters and remittances through specialized agencies.

The film follows the journey of these messages and funds as they traveled across borders and eventually reached remote villages in southern China. Behind these letters lies the film’s central story: a decades-long deception carried out with good intentions.

Historical records cited by the film show that overseas Chinese sent a total of $10.8 billion back to China through the qiaopi network between 1864 and 1980. As China’s postal and financial systems developed, the industry gradually disappeared, leaving behind a unique chapter in the history of migration and family ties.

To bring that history to the screen, director Lan Hongchun and his team spent years researching the subject. Before filming began, Lan visited nearly 300 Chinese families across Southeast Asia, Europe and North America, collecting stories passed down through the generations.

The production team also traveled more than 80,000 kilometers in search of film locations and historical details that could help recreate the world of overseas Chinese communities in the early 20th century.

Although the qiaopi system has long faded into history, the letters it carried still speak to the universal themes of family, distance and belonging. For many viewers, that connection appears to have resonated far beyond the film’s historical setting.