A lesbian coming to terms with her sexuality, a village covering up abuses and a dissection of the three-child policy — an explosion of Chinese podcasts are wrestling with social issues considered taboo under the country’s strict media controls.
More than 7,000 new podcasts last year came online with an audience tipped at nearly 10 million — a small but fast-growing group in the world’s largest market for Web audio content.
While podcasting has long been part of Western media appetites, it has just started gaining ground in China’s tightly managed media ecosystem, serving up critical social analysis and counter-narratives.
Photo: Bloomberg
For student Cheng Yifan, who listens every night, they are a breath of fresh air.
“Podcasts conform less to societal norms than traditional media platforms,” the 19-year-old Cheng said.
“The media may be more supportive and complimentary of topics like ‘positive energy,’ for example, but that lacks an element of critique,” he said.
Last year, two students — one who made videos impersonating teachers and another who wrote a cynical essay — were urged to convey more “positive energy,” propelling the phrase into the public vocabulary.
Cheng was among about 100 listeners from around China who packed into a Beijing bookstore on a recent weekend to meet the hosts of The Weirdo, one of his favorite podcasts.
“I hope our listeners are broadminded and can become more open to different ideas,” said Meng Chang (孟常), 34, one of the program’s cohosts. “There is not just right and wrong. Things in gray areas should also be discussed.”
Popular podcasts have explored China’s low birthrates and hosted discussions with prominent figures, such as the British ambassador to China, carving out a niche in the ballooning audio industry otherwise dominated by audiobooks and online learning classes.
“Listeners of podcasts are mainly young people who have received higher education, living in first or second-tier cities,” said Wang Qing (王磬), 31, another cohost of The Weirdo.
These groups are more willing to consume in-depth content, said Kou Aizhe (寇愛哲), the 38-year-old creator of StoryFM, a podcast featuring first-person narrations from all walks of life. Kou alone has an audience of 1.2 million listeners.
Yang Yi (楊一), cofounder of podcasting firm JustPod, estimates the market size is up to 10 million listeners — still just a fraction of China’s population.
For many listeners, less conventional content is the main draw.
On StoryFM, a lesbian recounts why she married a gay man, a teacher tells of how she was molested in a village and a sex worker explains how she was duped into the industry.
“When people tell their own stories, there are traces of true emotion... This takes you quickly into their world and helps you understand their experiences and choices,” Kou said.
Although not overtly political, his episodes explore themes sometimes scrubbed from the Web.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in China in 1997, but has been banned from films, while feminist advocates have been increasingly targeted in social media takedowns.
Wang said that the team of The Weirdo explores issues that young people care about, such as the “996” work culture, where staff toil 9am to 9pm, six days per week.
“When we talked about LGBTQ+ topics, it was during a trend of stigmatization ... and we hoped to create a counter-narrative,” she said. “At least there is space for clarification and pushback.”
Audio platforms are betting on new tech to expand what remains a niche trend.
NASDAQ-listed Lizhi has partnered with automakers, such as XPeng, to have livestream podcasts built into vehicle entertainment systems, banking on electric-vehicle sales to boost listenership.
However, for content to survive, the makers must tread carefully.
Last year, an episode of SurplusValue vanished from Chinese apps — the cultural podcast’s interview with a professor about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact involved some critical anti-government views.
The show was eventually canceled and the ex-journalists behind it created a new program, Stochastic Volatility.
“The censorship system is an issue faced by all those in Chinese media,” its cohost, Fu Shiye (傅適野), said.
“What we can do is express ourselves to the greatest degree in a way that we feel safe,” she added.
Creators roll with the punches, picking topics already allowed online or less time-sensitive issues.
Kou said that only two of his 500 episodes had been removed, one on peer-to-peer lending and another about job losses during the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, others were less lucky, having to cut segments or seeing episodes dropped entirely.
“When a medium becomes popular, censorship is inevitable,” Yang said. “It’s an acknowledgement of your influence.”
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