Radio Drama · 2026-07-17 · updated: Aug 7
Six billion plays: a Chinese primary-school audio-drama series
Li Nezha Goes to School, an original series from China's Ximalaya audio platform, has passed six billion plays, and its first animated adaptation launched on 17 July.
Ximalaya is China's largest audio and podcast platform. Li Nezha Goes to School (李哪吒上学记, roughly 'Li Nezha's School Diary') has run on it since January 2023; its heroine is a schoolgirl, Li Nezha, whose name nods to Nezha, the rebellious child-hero of Chinese mythology (a figure from Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West) — but the story itself is a contemporary school comedy.
The series dramatises everyday lower-primary school life — discipline, friendships, emotions — and the makers visited schools together with practising teachers of Chinese language and literature to gather true-to-life situations. Since 2023 eight separate audio-drama series have appeared: the main line following grades 1 to 5, plus several stand-alone spin-offs with new characters.
These eight series' combined plays passed six billion by the end of April 2026. Building on that success, tie-in books followed the audio dramas — more than 555,000 copies sold — and on 17 July the first animated version (from Wuxian Media, Ximalaya and Puxin Culture) launched on China's major video platforms (Tencent Video, iQiyi, Youku, Mango TV, Bilibili), with ten episodes on the first day.
The publisher does not disclose the creators' names: according to the Baidu Baike entry, the series is credited to Ximalaya's children's content team, with the »radio station« of the story's fictional school listed as the creative team — meaning the staff publish under a collective pen name. The same encyclopaedia notes, in its entry on the character, that the creative team includes teachers, children's authors and presenters. Only one named executive appears in the press: Wang Jie, head of children's content at Ximalaya. Chinese reports say the animated version keeps the original audio drama's voice cast — but names no one.
Sources: 手机网易网 (163.com) (2026-07-17) · Sina News (新浪) (2026-05-19) · Baidu Baike — entry on 李哪吒上学记 (production team) (2026-05-17) · Baidu Baike — entry on the character 李哪吒 (creative background) (2026-07-17)
AI involvement — Research: partly · Writing: partly · Verification: partly. The article is based on machine translation of original texts in Chinese.