Dear listeners, just a quick announcement after more than two years in China, I’m going to take my chance to travel across Asia this October.   So in case you are at the upcoming Busan Film Festival, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and want to meet-up, don’t hesitate to contact me!   My Twitter (@Aladin_F) My LinkedIn (Aladin Farré)   Have a nice day,  Aladin

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...

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...

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...

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...

China has become the biggest film’s market in the world after Covid-19, with 82,000 screens, so distributing a movie in Chinese cinemas seems like it would be an easy task. But with dozens of films coming out each week, what are the tricks for film distributors to find their audience?   Featuring  - Cai Yuchen : UEP Media film distributor  - Fan Lixin : Director & InHope Pictures cofounder  Middle Earth is distributed by The World of Chinese (www.theworldofchinese.com). Every two...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

 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...

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...

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...

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...

 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...

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...

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...

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,...

 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...

China may have 5,000 years of history, but now it has to compete for clicks and eyeballs with short videos on Douyin. From martial arts to Confucian classics to architecture, find out how businesses focused on Chinese traditional culture marketing themselves for young consumers in the modern day.  Featuring AJ Donelly : Co-founder of Cultural Keys Chinese Culture Company Matthew Hu : Co-founder of The Courtyard Institute Carol Yin : Project Manager at the Beijing Institute of Yangming...

Though streaming is on the rise, film festivals are still an important channel for creators to showcase their work. If you’re an indie filmmaker in China, the Xining FIRST Youth Film Exhibition has become the place to see and be seen. Started in 2006, it is now known as the “Sundance of China,” and it is where directors like Wen Muye, director of 2018’s Dying To Survive (the third-highest grossing film at the Chinese box office), was discovered.  In 2011, the festival moved to the remote...

A bonus episode where we will delve into the making of the movie Leap, which came out in September 2020 on the Chinese national women’s volleyball team. Director Peter Ho-Sun Chan and Academy governor-at-large Janet Yang, an award-winning producer, will talk about the incredible journey of the team, the evolution of China over the past few decades, and what it’s like working with acclaimed Chinese actress Gong Li.  This episode was originally produced by the Asia Society Museum and Asia...

The Communist Party of China celebrating its 100th year anniversary this year, driving up tourism to revolutionary sites around the country. The “red tourism” sector has seen significant growth from 140 million visit in 2004 to 1.15 billion in 2019, and now the “Gen Z” is following the trend. How do red tourism sites stay relevant for a new generation?  Featuring   Dr. Mimi Li : associate professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (PolyU)  Michael Wang : VP of Content Dragon...