Middle Earth - China’s cultural industry podcast

China’s book market is the second largest in the world, with people reading around 6 billion books a year. But how easy is it for small publishers, bookstores, and writers to get a piece of this pie? And how are digital alternatives to physical books impacting writers and small businesses and writers?

 Featuring
- Chen Qiufan (陈楸帆): Writer & Futurist
- Liu Jue: TWOC – Managing editor
- Su Wan (苏皖): Maziren Bookstore ...

Not sure if you could stand my broken Chinese, but I started a new show regarding China's latest box office called 票房指南 as a part of an ongoing effort to become a true 网红...

The Middle Earth Podcast will return next week.

Links
Subscribe to 票房指南 on podcast app 小宇宙 : Link
Subscribe to 票房指南 on social media Bilibili : Link

原本担心这会是一部古装特效烂片，看过后却成为今年暑期的一大惊喜。 但是，《封神第一部》还有哪些地方可以改进？号称30亿预算的封神三部曲能实现盈利吗...

It's not every day that a magazine publishes its 100th issue—but Middle Earth's distributor, The World of Chinese, has reached this important milestone after 17 years of publication. We want to look at how an English-language magazine based in Beijing sustains itself and evolves into a multimedia platform (including podcasts) for human-centered stories from China.

Featuring
- Hatty Liu: TWOC - Former managin...

Women perform up to 50 percent of the jobs in China's cultural industries, but are they getting equal opportunities and compensation as men? In this episode, guests from the world of film, TV, visual arts, and journalism discuss the barriers female leaders and employees still face in their industries, and the benefits of more gender diversity in the workplace.

Featuring
- Li Muyuan : Gushi FM - Producer
- Hat...

Today I plug in a new show that I'm working on where we interviewed Georges Berne, a true master in the art of lighting design who worked on the Mona Lisa. Today, he reflects on his long career and shares his thoughts on his work.

Winland Art Podcast
Architecture is solidified art, and art is the soul of architecture. Created by the Carte Blanche art team from in Beijing, Winland Art Podcast show focuses on the gl...

A billion internet users means a lot of followers for some content creators in China. But with ad revenue dropping China’s economy is slowing down, are tips and patrons a viable alternative for creators?

Featuring
- Lulu | 璐璐 : LHH Speak Easy ( 璐璐的英文小酒馆 ) - Founder
- Luigi Liu :  BtoZ-Movie - Founder 

To go further
- "Career Fans" article by The World of Chinese Magazine
- Middle Earth episode #8...

Culture is expensive, and China makes no exception to that. Without the support of public and private entities, many artists could not create anything or be overly commercial. After getting through the regulations hurdle, what kind of art are supported by the big companies and local governments?

Featuring
- Yilin Chen : Winland Group - Art Project Director
- Elie Rosenberg : Impromptu - Co-Founder
 - He Xin :...

For a decade or more, rural Chinese have been setting up online stores in their homes, hoping to make a living through e-commerce rather than factory work or farming. But any easy money there was in online selling is beginning to dry up. Village neighbors have been pitted against each other in competition for customers, unscrupulous merchants copy products and images from competitors with impunity, while rural residents also strugg...

As China becomes more assertive on the global stage with its diplomacy and state media, “patriotic KOLs” have appeared on domestic Chinese social media platforms, influencing the political opinions of their millions of fans. But how do KOLs craft their message to be successful, and who’s paying their bills?

Featuring
- Fang Kecheng : The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Assistant Professor
- Miro Li : Double V. Co...

NFTS are legal to be bought in China, but reselling them is an all other matters. Yet a local scene of buyers and artists keeps growing, while some lost a great amount of money as they were hoping for a quick return on investment. How does the scene keep growing while local regulations are put into place?

Featuring
- Ellwood Chen : Digital Artist & Pills Labs Founder
- Rory Mencin : Curator & Art Critic<...

While China struggles to export its cultural abroad, neighbors like Korea and Japan seem immune to this problem. Apart from local regulations in art, what are the issues creators from China face when trying to take their cultural products abroad, and what are some products that actually became hits?

Featuring
- Li Jianbin: Beijing Inmost Media - Senior BD Director
- Alex Taggart: Outdustry - Head of International...

In 2021, there were 2 billion visits to China’s outdoor tourism sites, such as nature reserves and natural scenic areas. How is this part of the tourism industry coping with a growing demand for outdoor experiences, and did that influence the creation of the country’s national park system?

Featuring
- Justin Culkin : A Trails - Business Development Director
- Rose Niu 牛红卫 : Paulson Institute - Chief Conservation ...

As the year 2023 starts, we review our top 3 stories from 2022 and make a few predictions for trends in China’s culture industries in 2023. 

Featuring
- Aladin Farré : Founder of Middle Earth Podcast
- Hatty Liu : Managing editor at TWOC
- Jesse Appel, Sara Huang, Yang Yu, & Jingtong Zhu

To go further
- our podcast top 3 stories of the year
#79 Exploring Wuxia
#67 Creating Games for the Wes...

Greater China is now the biggest art-market in the world, but thousands of galleries in the middle kingdom have closed up, while many artists are struggling to make a living. How are gallery curators, artists, and tech companies keeping up with this ultra-competitive art market? 

Featuring
- Ashley Qin – YITIAO Art Director
- Lin Zi – SANTO HALL Gallery curator
- Sima Yuan – Artist

To go further
- The art...

Wuxia, martial arts stories about heroes and outlaws, used to be one of the most popular genres of literature in the Chinese-speaking world. After countless novels, films and video games, how are the people creating China’s “knight errant” stories modernizing the genre? 

Featuring
- Gigi Chang: wuxia translator
- Lai Jingping: Wuxiaworld founder and CEO
- Felix Lou: former vice-managing director of Xiangshan Film Stu...

After being ostracized for years, motorbike culture is slowly building momentum among Chinese youths. Between 2016 and 2019, the number of bike sales doubled, and since the pandemic especially, a lot of entrepreneurs are jumping on new business opportunities provided by people craving the open road.

Featuring
Steven Tsui :  BG Performance - CEO
Zhang Shuren : Pansaki North Station - Founder
Li Huaqi : Studen...

With over 1 billion internet users, China’s online video and music platforms are the place to be for every creator trying to grow their audience. What does it take for international talent to make it in this cutthroat market? 

Featuring
Tinko Georgiev: Kanjian - VP of Int'l Business
Raffi Kamalian: Collab Asia - Head of Greater China

Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.c...

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 ...

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. I...