Wanmei Shijie

In the following stories, the main protagonist loses an important aspect of his cultivation ability and is introduced to be useless or disabled at the beginning of the show. Of course, this lost isn't permanent, and in fact in most instances they gain it back pretty quickly. But for these shows, the loss itself, and the protagonist coming back to prove himself despite the loss, would be one of the defining aspects of the plot.

Xianxia, directly translated to 'immortal heroes' comprises a number of popular genres including 'Cultivation', is a genre of Chinese fantasy heavily inspired by Taoism and influenced by Chinese mythology, Chan Buddhism, Chinese martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese folk religion, Chinese alchemy and other traditional Chinese elements.

Protagonists are usually "cultivators" who seek to become immortal beings called xian. Along the way, they attain eternal life, supernatural powers, and incredible levels of strength. The fictional cultivation practiced in xianxia is heavily based on the real-life meditation practice qigong.

The stories usually include elements such as gods, immortals, yaoguai, ghosts, monsters, magical treasures, immortal items, medicinal pills, and the like. They often take place in a "cultivation world" where cultivators engage in fierce and usually deadly struggles to acquire the resources they need to grow stronger. Oftentimes, the initial setting is reminiscent of ancient China, but the stories usually become cosmic in nature, with the protagonists attaining godlike abilities, sometimes creating their own planets, galaxies or universes. While the primary focus is action and adventure, there are also romance-heavy stories.

Description taken from the wikipedia page about Xianxia subgenre.

Final update: This list is old and outdated because of the recent amount of donghua and stacks available for those but I'll leave just the ones best representing the genre here. If you want cultivation donghua check the "Cultivation (Donghua)" stack.

Donghua, literally meaning "moving pictures," refers to animation produced in China

This is a stack comprised of Chinese animation mainly in the Xinxia / Wuxia genres

List of donghua I watched/follow, mostly CGI, that have gotten a rating of 7-9 from me.

I have watched all of them and even re-watched some several times, I vouch for these if you're interested in cultivation, fantasy, adventure, reincarnation.
There are 49 CGI donghua in this stack, and 48 are good quality CGI of decent length per episode, while Yao Shen Ji isn't exactly good quality, it's a decent story and in my opinion fun to watch. Da Wang Rao Ming is the only 2d animation in this list, I love the story and characters, it's also very fun to watch.

I've seen a few interest stacks about this genre but I wasn't satisfied with their list so I wanted to do my own.

Donghua refers to Chinese animated content, which can include TV series, films, and shorts. It's a term used to describe animation produced in China or by Chinese creators.Donghua is often compared to anime, which is Japanese animated content, but there are differences in style and storytelling. Donghua tends to have a realistic (3D) art style and often incorporates Chinese historical/cultural elements.

Some of the more popular Donghua titles include "Battle through the heavens," "Mo Dao Zu Shi," "Soul Land," etc.

bio credits: chat gpt

This list is not exhaustive but offers the titles I thought were relevant to include (and that I enjoyed the most). hope this helps ! enjoy :)

Some less known Chinese Anime I'm going to check out. Lesser known on MAL in terms of members.
Chinese anime is also known as Donghua.

Extended List:
> Tales of Demons and Gods (7 Seasons) [Bad Anime, Read the Manhua Instead]
> Apotheosis (2 Seasons)
> The Land of Miracles (3 Seasons)
> Shrouding Heaven (1 Season)
> World of Immortals (1 Season)
> Martial Universe (4 Seasons)
> The Demon Hunter (2 Season)
> The God of War Dominates (1 Season)
> Immortality (4 Seasons)
> Legend of Xianwu (1 Season)
> Tales of Herding Gods (1 Season)
> To Be Hero (1 Season)
> To Be Heroine (1 Season)

Maybe Watch:
> White Cat Legend (2 Seasons)
> Ling Long: Incarnation (4 Parts)
> Ling Cage Season 2
> Yao-Chinese Folktales
> Swarm
> The Three-Body Problem
> One Hundred Thousand Years of Qi Refining
> Spirit Sword Sovereign (4 Seasons)
> Martial God Asura
> Keyboard Immortal
> The Ravages of Time (2 Seasons)
> The Legend of Princess Chang-Ge
> Since The Red Moon Appeared
> Purple River
> One Way or Another
> Law of Devil
> The Island of Siliang (3 Seasons)
> Snow Eagle Lord (3 Seasons)
> The Legend and the Hero (4 Seasons)
> Love Between Fairy and Devil (2 Seasons)

I will not include the sequel in the stack if there are too many, I'll type them in the comments and list them below.
This is so I can include more unique series in the one stack.

Sequel Seasons Not Included:
‣ A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality Special (4 Episodes) [7.58]
‣ A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality Season 2 (51 Episodes) [7.92]
‣ A Record of Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Speeding in the Sea of Stars (4 Episodes) [7.80]
‣ A Record of Mortal's Journey to Immortality Season 3 (48 Episodes) [8.21]
‣ A Record of Mortal's Journey to Immortality Season 4 (52 Episodes) [7.88]
‣ Stellar Transformation 2nd Season (12 Episodes) [7.37]
‣ Stellar Transformation 3rd Season (12 Episodes) [7.50]
‣ Stellar Transformation 4th Season (16 Episodes) [7.73]
‣ Stellar Transformation 5th Season (28 Episodes) [7.76]
‣ Stellar Transformation 6th Season (28 Episodes) [7.25]
‣ Fairies Albums 2 (12 Episodes) [7.53]
‣ Fairies Albums 3 (12 Episodes) [7.67]
‣ Fairies Albums 4 (12 Episodes) [7.57]
‣ Fairies Albums 5 (TBA)
‣ Legend of Exorcism 2nd Season (13 Episodes) [7.76]
‣ Legend of Exorcism 3rd Season (TBA)

Chinese Anime Watchlist: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/29720

Contains only one entry per show, multiple seasons exist for most of them but only first season is entered.
Ordered by my personal rating.

Collection of all Cultivation Donghua (only the first season entry)

Cultivation is a reoccuring theme which can be found in Xianxia/Xuanhuan, the extent varies

Check "Cultivation II (Donghua)" stack for more

Donghua is the term used to refer to animation produced in China, encompassing all animated works but specifically referring to Chinese animation. Donghua adapts manhua comics and is often associated with 3D CG animation, although it can also use more standard anime-style animation.

All entries are based on popularity, views (audience), rating, quality, and my opinion. Donghua in this interest stack are considered above-average or top-tier, animation and/or story-wise. Entries higher up are generally (not definitively) better based on the criteria above.

Some donghua on this list have not been watched by me but are generally well received.

I have generally excluded donghua with low-quality graphics (budget), but I would like to mention that they are by no means bad. 

Check out my other list ([SSS] 2D donghua) for more recommendations. Visit my profile for more.

Highly recommend checking some of these donghuas' novels and dramas.


"Short" (5-8min/ ep donghua) recommendations:
1. Martial Master
2. Legend of Xianwu
3. Spy x Sect - Surprisingly enjoyable for me
4. Against the Sky Supreme
5. Alchemy Supreme
6. Peerless Martial Spirit
7. Tales of Demons and Gods

𝙍𝙀𝙂𝙐𝙇𝘼𝙍 𝙐𝙋𝘿𝘼𝙏𝙀𝙎 | 𝙌𝙐𝘼𝙇𝙄𝙏𝙔 𝙎𝙀𝙇𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 | 𝙑𝙄𝙎𝙄𝙏 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀
A list of my highly rated 3D Chinese Anime!

I will recommend or add some donghua that i have watched or currently watching and rate according to my recommendations
Will include S1 only as 50 is the limit

The rating system is solely for Donghua and not for the overall Anime+Donghua

I will also include what genre it is


----Work in Progress----

top rated standalone anime with short episodes (<20 minutes)

Chinese anime or donghua is developing more and more nowadays, with the jaw-dropping 3D animations, osts or the amazing plots adapted from novels or not. Many of them are on par with Japanese anime or even better. Give the donghua's a try if you're a beginner and even if you're not one you can watch the ones you haven't in the list and get lost once again in the beautiful world of donghua.

My personal favorite (cultivation) donghua that ive been watching