It had been a while since I’d heard from Zhiqiang when he sent me a link with a video showing him and two others, a man and a woman, sitting around a table and swaddled in long down coats, woolly hats and gloves. They were all wearing headphones and each of them had a microphone in front of them, although Zhiqiang seemed to be doing most of the talking.
“It’s my new podcast,” he says.
A serial entrepreneur, Zhiqiang has, since I have known him, tried his hand at everything from online singing lessons to making his mother, a profoundly uptight, retired judge, into a social media star. Last year, he invested in a factory that makes arrows which he planned to sell to archery enthusiasts in the United States.
The fact that none of these ventures made any money has done nothing to dim his optimism or his confidence that a good idea, hard work and a fierce focus will triumph in the end. His podcasting venture has the virtue of having low overheads because he doesn’t have to pay the guests, who are all his friends, and he does all the production and editing himself.
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A cafe close to where he lives offers a studio to podcasters free of charge and it is adequate if a little cold because the heating has not been working since winter began. The recording and editing software is free and there are several platforms that host podcasts for no charge and share advertising revenue with the content creators.
Zhiqiang’s first podcast had him and two of his friends reminiscing about their college days, the second was about food memories, the third was a conversation about books and the fourth looked at forgotten corners of Beijing. Some of the conversations went on so long that he put them out in two or three episodes, each lasting less than an hour.
The cast of friends changed each time, but there was one constant in the shape of Zhiqiang’s college friend Feng, who appeared in every episode. I say he seems to be a good podcast guest.
“I don’t know if he’s good, but he’s always available. And that’s good,” says Zhiqiang.
Podcasts are booming in China with an audience that grew by more than 43 per cent in 2024 and was estimated at more than 150 million last year. Almost two out of three listeners are between 25 and 40, nearly 90 per cent are graduates and most are in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Among the most popular podcasts is Story FM, which has been running since 2017 and features in each episode someone telling a personal story about love, adventure or daily life. The show’s authenticity in handing the microphone to people to tell their story in unadorned language and unmediated by a narrator is central to its appeal.
The podcast has featured stories of people’s lives during the coronavirus pandemic and of earthquake survivors, as well as documenting the intimate feelings and everyday experiences of marginalised groups. These have included people with rare diseases, foreign migrant workers and LGBTQ+ individuals.
The Ingenious Life of Lawyers is another popular podcast that focuses on the daily work and reflections of people in the legal profession. Hosted by lawyers, it offers an unvarnished picture of the legal industry in contrast to the dramatic portrayals found in Chinese legal dramas, which are similar to western ones.
The Little Room offers in-depth interviews with writers, academics, psychologists and lay people about their interior lives. It deals with everything from the loneliness of contemporary society to the dynamics of intimate relationships and the way technology affects cognitive habits and self-perception.
Chinese podcasts face a similar censorship filter to short videos and social media posts, with platforms using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for a preliminary screening. Speech recognition software converts audio into text, which is then scanned for sensitive words which can trigger a manual review.
“No sex or politics. Otherwise, nearly everything is okay,” says Zhiqiang.
The filter appears to be lighter than for videos and social media posts, so that if podcasts avoid overtly sexual content or direct discussion of politics, they enjoy a lot of latitude from the authorities. This does not necessarily translate into a mass audience, as I discovered when I asked Zhiqiang if he had received much reaction to his podcasts.
“I get a few comments every time, mostly from my friends,” he says. “Maybe I should do one with you so we can see if your friends comment too.”
