Middle Earth - China’s cultural industry podcast

Thanks to its rich history, China’s has plenty of artifacts that are being sold and exposed in museums. And there is a market for it, a huge one, where some pieces can be sold for several thousand yuan. How did that market evolve, and what are the dark corners of this industry? 

Featuring
Isaac Duffy : Collector
Sun Jiahui : Freelance writer
Zhang Bo : Architect & Collector

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Wen Jiayin for production assistance, Stephan Lambadaris for the voice-over & Sean Calvo for music support.

After being underground for decades, the Chinese rap scene got a sudden boost in 2017 thanks to the reality show The Rap of China on the online streaming platform IQiyi. How has the scene evolved since then, and what lies ahead?  

Featuring
Dojo Shaolin: Producer & Dj
JFever :  Hip pop artist
Stanley Yang : Zhong TV – Founder

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

C-Dramas have certainly changed over the years as the competitions grew fierce for eyeballs. Why did such changes happen, and what's the future for Chinese TV series industry? 

Featuring 
Sara Huang : Scriptwriter 
Jia Liu : TV Producer 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

With 400 million fans watching over 5000 professional team competing over many games, China’s e-sports industry is one of the most vivid area of China’s cultural industry. How come this industry keeps growing, and what are the recent issues that e-sports players and companies had to face?  

Featuring 
- Josh Lee: Perfect World Esports & tournaments director 
- Zeng Wensen : Riot China Action Genre Publishing Lead 
- Lucy Zhu : BSC Esports Lecturer & Module Leader 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support.

Music festivals have only been around for two decades in China, but have increased exponentially—even leading some to worry about a bubble—until the Covid-19 outbreak. Since then, how has the industry tried to make a comeback for Chinese music-lovers? 

Featuring 
- Eric de Fontenay - MusicDish 独立小炒 President
- Yang Yu - Midi Festival Head of International

 Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support.

China’s video game industry is huge, but most of the games are made for the mass market of online mobile players. But what about the niche market of indie games, often focused more on single player story or particular game mechanics? How do Chinese creators find their audience, and do they have an audience outside of China?  

Featuring 
- Jin Yu : Wanba Studio Founder & Game Producer 
- Zog Zhu : Indie Games Publishing Manager 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support and Li Muyuan for live translation. 

As China’s cultural market becomes more and more competitive, some content producers are looking for the silver bullet to avoid failure: IP. What does IP mean in the Chinese market, and what’s the best way to create one?  

Featuring 
- Kevin Feng : Stars Collective China Executive Officer 
- Li Danlei : Story FM Podcast Copyright Manager 
- Xu Xinyi : Bridging the Dragon Sales Coordinator  

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support and Chu Siyi for live translation. 

Chinese literature is generating an increasing amount of interest overseas. More and more books are getting translated, while Chinese authors are winning international prizes. Yet are the authors and stories being translated representative of what China’s general public is reading?  

Featuring 
- Yan Ge : author 
- Daniel Li: production manager at ACA Publishing & Sinoist Books 
- Emily Xueni Jin : Translator & PhD candidate in East Asian Literature 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support and Hatty Liu for co-hosting 

If China has some issues exporting its music & film, did you know that video games often meet success on the international market? What kind of games meet success abroad, what kind of strategy Chinese companies have to use, and what are the issues inherent to game localization?  

Featuring 
- Chen Jia - Oasis Game COO 
- Joshua Ogden-Davis - Video Game Localizer 
- Stacey Lee - Video Game consultant 

 Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support and Chu Siyi for live translation. 

ASCENSION has been nominated for an Academy Award in the feature documentary category. The film  is a portrait of China’s industrial supply chain and its different social ladders.

It is advised to watch the film before listening to this episode.

This conversation  was originally produced by SupChina. 

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

This show is part of the World of Chinese Magazine’s podcast network. Order your latest copy at www.theworldofchinese.com or follow them on Wechat (ID : Theworldofchinese). 

 At the intersection of KOLs and metaverse lies the niche world of “virtual idols”—animated characters created for the purpose of becoming celebrities. Started in Japan in the 1980s, virtual idols have exploded in popularity in China, especially as Covid-19 continues to change the world of live entertainment: In 2021, the Chinese virtual idol industry was worth 6.2 billion renminbi (almost 1 billion US dollars), and animated star Luo Tianyi attracted over 2.7 million viewers in a Taobao livestream. So how do you build successful virtual idols in China, and will their popularity last in the real world?  

Featuring 
- Elaine Yau - showbiz reporter 
- Inés Feng - Kunyue Shanghai VP 
- Peng Mengyu - Dreamland Maker Tech Branding director 

 Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

The 2022 Winter Olympics is about to start in Beijing, with around 2900 athletes and possibly zero spectators, yet the country now boasts 300 million winter sports enthusiasts. How did China’s winter sports industry grow so fast, and does it differ from other nations? 

Featuring
- Ban Tao: Eternal Star Ice & Snow Head of Branding
- Liu Xia: Burton China Resort Business Manager  

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture, and looks behind the headlines at how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project, like shooting your next documentary, or are looking for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support and Chu Siyi for live translation. 

Finishing our “Dark Series” on China’s guilty pleasures, we tackle gambling, one of the key forms of spending among Chinese tourists overseas.  Did Covid-19 kill the gambling industry, or is it coming back even stronger? 

Featuring 
- Alan Robles: Journalist 
- Ben Lee: Managing Partner at IGamiX 
- Sebastian Strangio:  Journalist & Author 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

In this special episode, we review our top 5 stories from this past year, and make a few predictions for trends in China’s culture industries in 2022. 

Featuring 
- Aladin Farré : Founder of Middle Earth Podcast
- Hatty Liu : Managing editor at TWOC
- William Ace Rowles, Miro Li, Juan Tan, Jerry Kim & Elaine Yau 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

 A mix between the boardgame Cluedo and LARP (live action role-playing), jubensha is the latest craze for over 10 million game enthusiasts in China. Played mostly by young white-collar workers, the industry has seen a massive influx of players and capital while entrepreneurs and scriptwriters want to offer the best experience for players. Where does this success come from and where is this industry heading?

Featuring
- D Qiuqiu: Partner and Jubensha’s market manager at G STone
- Lu Mingfei : Jubensha store owner

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré.  If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

Illegal drug usage among China’s adult population is one of the lowest in the world: 0.16%. But has it always been like this since the Reform and Opening Up period? And did you know there are plantations that legally grow cannabis in China? 

Featuring 
- Mathias Boelinger: Journalist at DW 
- Dylan Levi King: Translator & Author 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

China had just 25 museums in 1949, and around 350 at the start of the reform era in 1979. Since 2000, though, over 4,000 new museums have been built in the country on a wide range of subjects, such as the history of every province and county, or the silly-sounding “Watermelon Museum” in Beijing. In 2019, China saw 1.2 billion museum visits. What’s driving this museum-building boom, and how do you design a good museum? 

Featuring 
- Oranda HOU : Rockart Bund Museum partnership manager
- YU Wanying : podcaster about museums (also guest on Middle Earth #16) 
- ZHUANG Yongwen : architect and urban designer 

Notes
Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! 

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

Short-video app Quibi failed in just six months after launching in the US, so it’s too bad the company didn’t come to China, where hundreds of millions of people watch short drama series that bring you new twists every few seconds… all in vertical form. Why do Chinese audience love such high-speed storytelling and who are the people behind this new content format? 

 After all, as The World of Chinese found out in this article ; most people hold their phones vertically 94 percent of the time, and Chinese mobile content creators are beginning to take note. 

Featuring 
- Ivy YU : Associate Producer of "Love me Fearlessly" /《别怕，恋爱吧！》
- YU York : Commissioner for Kuaishou’s micro-series. 

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!

Show Notes
- The highest score for a micro-series on Douban is 另一半的我和你
- The most shared micro-series is 大唐小吃货

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support. 

 Pornography has been banned in China since 1949. Yet 80 percent of young men (18 – 29 years old) and 50 percent of young women, or 30 percent of the whole Chinese population, admit to consuming porn as of 2015.
 So how do they access it? And are there actually local producers making and distributing this illegal content within China?
 
This is the first installment of a three-part series on China’s “guilty pleasures”: sex, drugs, and casinos.

Featuring
Danny: Chinese translator at Pornhub
Dr. Runze Ding : Postdoctoral researcher, School of Media and Communication, Shenzhen University
Shawn Suyong Yi Jones : PhD Candidate at Concordia University

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two months, both in print and online, the team at TWOC takes a contemporary issue in Chinese society and culture and looks behind the headlines to share how it affects people on the ground.  

Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch!

With thanks to Sean Calvo for music support.