Despite China's reputation for having difficulty selling cultural products due to local regulations and the audience's taste, some do manage to bridge the Chinese audience with international content. Where do such opportunities lie, and how has...

China's first AAA game Black Myth: Wukong certainly caught the world's attention for its production value, commercial success, and controversies. How did the creative team pull that off, and why was this game considered the "perfect pack...

Leaving Chinese Tier 1 cities that are often the heartbeat of cultural creation and where artists can find patreons, we met two creatives that leave in remote artists communities. Leveraging cheap rent and the artistic community around them, th...

As any taxi driver in China would tell you, the country is safe on every level. But that must make "true crime" storytellers' lives difficult. Therefore, how can those entertainers of the dark world propose to Chinese audiences?Featu...

After 224 guests, 4,439 minutes of content and 1 pandemic we are shamelessly celebrating Midde Earth – China’s cultural industry Podcast 100th episode! In order to make it big I have summoned all my supportive friends living in Beijing and we a...

As AI is creeping into our lives and our work, no industries are left out of it and certainly not China's cultural industry. But do using AI tools to create content is an easy path and what are the ethical issues attached to such practices?...

Before Covid, WWE and UFC were key to push the envelope of MMA in China, now, independent promotion companies like Middle Kingdom Wrestling are left to pick up the momentum. Featuring- Adrian Gomez: Middle Kingdom Wrestli...

With a forecast revenue of 370 billion USD in 2024 market size, roughly three times the size of the US market and Europe, China's apparel market  is home to up and coming fashion brands as well as big brands buying up international competi...

Potentially succeeding where Quibi failed, several Chinese apps (DramaBox, Reelshort) alongside others (Pocket FM, Good Novel) are pushing for 1-minute episodes of micro-series. Often depicted as being of trashy quality, they do seem to attract...

Started as a grassroots movement in the early Chinese internet, web novels slowly became a powerhouse of China’s cultural industry by producing powerful IPs. How did this industry came to be?Featuring- Tage : Author ...

With a 800 billion yuan market size and 1/5 of the doctor’s workforce, TCM is a force to be reckoned with in China. How did the field keeps reinventing itself and why does Chinese youth gets more attracted by it?Featuring- Ma...

New documentary Invisible Summit 《看不见的顶峰》tells the epic story of how Zhang Hong became the first blind Asian person to climb the world’s tallest mountain. On this podcast, director Fan Lixin (LAST TRAIN HOME) discusses how he filmed Zhang’s ext...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 fe...

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.

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 ...

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 s...

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. Villag...

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 cra...

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 ...

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 abroa...

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 c...

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 : Mana...