For anyone with tricky personal troubles — marital, professional and otherwise — Yu Guan and his buddies have a new business that will provide the solution, from taking the abuse of a man’s nagging wife to showering an obscure writer with awards.

Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner aching for a male descendent to learn his rare and dying art.

Pan Hung is Lily, a humble bus conductor hired by Hong Kong commodities trader Sean Lau to be his connection to the Shanghai stock market. Lily finds the job surprisingly easy, and the duo begins to make big money. But at what price? With wealth and prosperity a driving daily goal for Lily, will her own family come to bear the cost? Director Lee Lok See uses his Shanghai focus to great effect, finding many avenues and opportunities for his satirical observations and cultural clashes. With capitalism and communism going head on in the rapidly growing city of Shanghai, which value system will ultimately live in each person's heart?

Moment in Peking is a 2005 Chinese television series produced by CCTV. It is adapted from Lin Yutang's Nobel Prize nominee novel Moment in Peking.