Send us a text Children’s entertainment is a growing industry in China, with many opportunities for flexible and innovative creators to produce marketable content. Prospects are particularly bright for those working at the intersection of children’s entertainment and education, which has long been an important source of revenue in a country where 93 percent of families pay out-of-pocket for tuition and related fees, according to a 2017 HSBC study. On this episode we discuss the economics of children’s entertainment in China, and how creators can engage in this corner of the market. Featuring: Kevin Geiger: Partner, Magic Dumpling Entertainment Natasha Shetye: Studio Manager, Thinkwell Group April Wang: Manager at Beijing Playhouse 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, please get in touch! Recommended watching and listening: -White Snake 白蛇: 缘起 (2019), a Chinese animated film. - Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf 喜羊羊与灰太狼, a popular Chinese animated TV series launched in 2005. Answers to the episode quiz: - Kung Fu Panda is the hit American animated film that, given the content, made many Chinese netizens openly question why China had not produced anything similar. - Honor of Kings (王者荣耀) is the video game that now features a time limit for children and teenagers playing it. -Wáng Fúmǎn (王福满), the real name of the schoolboy who braved an ice storm to walk to school and whose photo, complete with icicles in his hair, went viral on the Chinese internet — earning him the nickname “Ice Boy.” - Only 30 percent of proceeds at the Chinese box office went to animated films produced in China between 2011 and 2017. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text This week on the Middle Earth Podcast, Aladin sits down over a pint with Sun Yao (孙遥), the proprietor of his favorite local cultural venue-cum-cafe, to talk about the business end of the cultural industry in China. Like the owners of many niche bars and cafes across China, Sun seeks to turn a profit at his hutong establishment, Camera Stylo, by screening films, hosting live events, and otherwise trying to make art pay. A film buff and dedicated entrepreneur, Sun shares his four years of experience running a small business in the hutongs of Beijing trying to bring films and cultural conversations to his diverse clientele. In spite of a rough early start — some of which he spent sleeping in the cafe itself — Sun has managed to ensure Camera Stylo has been able to survive and thrive in a challenging environment. Featuring: Sun Yao | 孙遥 : Proprietor of Camera Stylo 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, please get in touch! Recommended watching and listening: - Aotu Space 凹凸空间 (WeChat Account: aotuspace_bj) - China Film Archive 中国电影资料馆 | Website With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text Podcasting is rapidly becoming the next boom industry in China, with approximately 80 million daily downloads of podcasts and a projected audience of 486 million total. When it comes to putting a number on the industry, however, things get less clear. Some estimate that China’s podcast industry is worth upward of $7 billion, citing a report by China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television. However, this figure is likely somewhat off the mark — the $7 billion figure refers only to “pay for knowledge” programming, that is, educational shows that consumers pay for directly. A more comprehensive number that takes into account free content or podcasts supported by advertisements remains elusive. By comparison, podcasters based in the U.S. made an estimated $314 million in 2017, a number that is projected to double by 2020. Meanwhile, the U.S. “pay for knowledge” industry is estimated to have earned $12 billion in 2016, according to our peer podcast also available on the Sinica Network, TechBuzz China by Pandaily. Featuring Joshua Thomas Ogden-Davis : Writer & Podcaster at Ximalaya (喜马拉雅) Kou Aizhe | 寇爱哲 : Founder & Host of Story FM (故事FM) Yu Wanying | 于婉莹 : Founder & Host of Museelogue( 博物志) 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, please get in touch! Recommended watching and listening - "Digitally China", a podcast about China’s tech innovation. - "Chinese Cooking Demystified", a YouTube cooking show. - 日谈公园, a Chinese podcast about China’s culture today. - 忽左忽右, another Chinese podcast about China’s culture today. Quiz's answers - Ximalaya claimed $100 million dollars of revenue in 2017. - Cai Kangyong (蔡康永) earned 35 million RMB with his podcast "Good Talk" (好好说话). - Zeng Pengyu (曾鹏宇) had his book content shamelessly stolen by the podcast "Peaceful Goddess" (平安娘娘). With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text Live art is one of the few mediums that hasn’t been radically transformed by the digital age. No screen is yet able to capture the magic of in-person performance, be it a comedy show, theater, or even Peking opera. The live performance scene is particularly vibrant in contemporary Beijing, where comedy and theater offerings are as diverse as they are popular. In this episode, Aladin interviews some of Beijing’s emerging live performers to discuss what happens on the stage — and behind the scenes. Featuring Jesse Appell : Comedian and Director of the US-China Comedy Center Raimund Rosarius : Director, Author & Curator Xie Peifan | 謝配釩 : Director, Actor & Teacher 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, please get in touch! Recommended watching and listening - Lao She (老舍) : Chinese novelist and dramatist. - Penghao Theatre : Beijing’s first private theater in Beijing. - Mahua FunAge (开心麻花): Chinese private comedy enterprise that develops and produces plays, films, stand-up comedy, and TV shows. - Zhao Benshan( 赵本山) : Chinese actor and director best known for his frequent appearances on the CCTV New Year’s Gala. He has produced less work in recent years, possibly as a result of political attacks. Quiz's answers - Xiangsheng (相声), also known as “crosstalk,” is a centuries-old traditional form of Chinese comedic art, usually featuring two performers. - During the Cultural Revolution, only eight revolutionary operas (样板戏) were allowed to be staged. - The white mask in Peking Opera signifies treachery and stupidity. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text Clubs and live performances featuring international music started taking off in China in the 1980s. Initially, the scene was very focused on foreign diplomats, journalists, and students who rented out restaurants and other spaces on the weekends. Gradually, as policies governing public radio broadcasts underwent reforms that allowed the performance of international music, a broader audience had access to the genre. Fast-forward to the present day: There is no shortage of music festivals, clubs, and other venues in China that feature performances by artists from around the world — to the extent that, if current trends continue, electronic music will be the most popular genre on Chinese radio airwaves by the early 2020s. In this live recording of the Middle Earth Podcast at the 2019 WISE festival, a few industry insiders discuss the current trends in this lively line of work. Featuring Philipp Grefer : Founder, WISE and Fake Music Media Isla Angus : Booking Agent, ATC Live Paul Neuteboom : Managing Director, Brother Hood Music Fay Haixuan Wang : Vice President at China Minsheng Cultural Media Development Chang Liu –: Chief Operating Officer, Pillz Records Chang Youdai : Radio and Club DJ Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and usually hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Recommended watching and listening - Cui Jian (崔健) the “Father of Chinese Rock” - Tang Dynasty (唐朝乐队) often credited as the first Chinese heavy metal band With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text The stark cultural differences between China and the West are frequently identified as key barriers in productive professional exchanges. However, the mechanisms by which people can actually improve their cultural understanding — or “cultural literacy” — are less clear. How can professionals in China and the West bridge gaps in understanding ensuring that business can sail smoothly? Featuring Vincent Vierron : Director Beatrix Frisch : General Manager at Mackevision Joey Wang : Scriptwriter 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, please get in touch! Three main takeaways from this week’s episode: 1) In Chinese workplaces, flexibility is key. Partially as a result of China’s incredibly competitive labor market, workplaces in China tend to be much more flexible than their counterparts in the West. Media professionals should be ready at any moment for a change in a script or the editing of a commercial, with little notice or supporting budget. At the same time, Chinese workers will almost always respond to their emails on a Saturday evening or late at night (a habit that is far from widespread in Europe, for example). All of this results in sky-high rates of employee turnover as burnout and ambition take their toll. 2) Top-down approaches are standard in China. In the office, the boss is king. He (or she!) will always get the last word, no matter how much work went into a project beforehand. However, if an employee is flexible and patient, they can hopefully avoid the worst surprises. 3) Chinese work culture is constantly evolving. Whether the workplace is a state-owned enterprise or a private, international firm, internal procedures will inevitably vary wildly. What remains constant is that China has come a long way since the beginning of the reform and opening up period, so “middlemen” who take commissions only to put people in contact tend to be less important. Recommended watching and listening - The Flower of War (2011) Quiz's answers - Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest who became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601, when the Wanli Emperor (万历帝) sought his services in court astronomy and calendrical science. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism and translated Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin. - Da Shan (大山), or Mark Henry Rowswell, is a Canadian comedian and television personality who is one of the most famous Western personalities in China. He has appeared several times on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala since 1988. - The Flower of War (2011) is the second-biggest flop at the Chinese box office after The Great Wall (2016). Zhang Yimou directed both films. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text China has found success in exporting domestic technology and consumer goods. However, its culture exportation has not achieved the same success. The language barrier may be an issue, yet South Korean and Japanese films and music have managed to overcome it and found success in exporting cultural products like video games, anime, and movies. So what gives? On this episode of the Middle Earth Podcast, the guests discuss the recent successes and failures of China’s culture going abroad. This episode was recorded during a panel at the WISE Festival 2019 at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Featuring Emily Xueni Jin : Science Fiction Translator Tom Simpson : Senior Director of the China-Britain Business Council Sha Hua | 华沙 : host of the talk) and journalist for the Handelsblatt Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and usually hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project like shooting your next documentary or look for a specific talent, please get in touch! Three main takeaways from this week’s episode 1) Yes, the language barrier is an issue, but it is not the only one. If a Chinese indie band or film producer wants to have their work paid attention to by Western audiences, they have to upload the art onto Western social media platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, etc). Circumnavigating the Great Firewall of China makes this difficult, as well as the need to interact with fans in English. At the same time, non-Chinese individuals aren’t willing (or don’t know how) to surf the Chinese internet. But there is evidence that the language barrier can be successfully traversed: The first video to hit a billion views on YouTube was “Gangnam Style” by the South Korean singer PSY. Yet, in defense of China’s producers, the domestic market is such a huge market compared with South Korea’s that Chinese artists and producers don’t necessarily need to go global in order to survive. 2) There is still Orientalism and a lack of general knowledge about China in the West. As science-fiction writer Emily Xueni Jin pointed out, when you need to translate a Chinese concept or a mythical beast into English, should you borrow its Western equivalent or write it in pinyin and describe it? There is often a tough choice to make: to balance a “Chinese style” to highlight your stylistic differences, or to use an approach that could be construed as Westernization or Orientalism to garner a larger audience. 3) China manages to export three types of cultural products. When you look at the cultural products China sells abroad, only three types really stand out. The first is classical paintings and calligraphy. Given the lack of interest in these things among China’s own domestic youth, it prompts the question of how successful they could be abroad. The second is science-fiction works, which, surprisingly, work really well abroad. Perhaps this is because questions about the future of our planet, and how we should embrace technology, are universally understood. The last (and least known) is foreign films. A few years ago, some companies decided to invest in them. The Academy Award–winning film for Best Picture, Green Book, had a backing by Alibaba Pictures. Maybe after investing and learning for several years, Chinese companies will know how to make a global blockbuster film. One could make the argument that films from the 1990s are examples of China’s globalizing culture industry. However, films that toe the line of acceptability are being produced in far lower volume, and face greater levels of censorship. With thanks to

Send us a text Before the Beijing Olympics, foreign media groups seeking to sell or co-produce science-themed media content in China had a difficult time finding partners. Paul Lewis, an independent producer and former president of Discovery Channel Canada, was nevertheless able to co-produce two science programs in partnership with Chinese state media outlets: "Daily Planet Goes to China" and "Factory Made/Made in China". In this episode, Paul discusses how rapidly the Chinese media landscape has evolved, and the implications for science-themed content. Featuring Paul Lewis: Producer | 制片人 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, please get in touch! Recommended watching - “Factory City” episode of Factory Made/Made in China (Discovery Channel, 2009) With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text Virtual reality (VR) is a new medium that many a technology guru has predicted will revolutionize cinema—or would, if it weren’t for the pesky problem (among others) that VR interface still requires the viewer to wear what essentially amounts to a “head box.” Nevertheless, VR markets around the world are slowly but surely expanding. Many of the major film festivals (Sundance, Venice, and Cannes, to name a few) now feature a special VR section. Overall the industry is indeed growing—especially in China. For context, here are some key figures: The value of China’s VR market in 2016 was around USD $500 million (mainly hardware). The value of China’s film market in 2016 war around USD $6.9 billion. The value of China’s film market in 2020 is projected to be USD $10 billion. The value of China’s VR market in 2020 is projected to be USD $6.5 billion (half in hardware, and the rest split between games, films, enterprise applications, theme parks, etc.). Featuring Eddie Lou : Founder Sandbox Immersive Festival and Sandman Studios | 青岛国际 VR 影像周创始人 & Sandman Studios 公司创始人 Gianluigi Perrone : Founder Polyhedron VR Studio | Polyhedron VR Studio 公司创始人 Denise Wu: VeeR’s Head of marketing | VeeR 公司营销主管 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, please get in touch! This week’s episode is brought to you in partnership with “WISE: The Future Think Tank,” a group founded by Philipp Grefer in Beijing in 2018 to spark cross-sectoral dialogue about digital life, style, culture, business, science and technology. WISE invites and connects thinkers and doers from different industries online and offline to discuss essential questions about how we want and should live in the future. For the second year running, WISE will be hosting a special event in Beijing at UCCA in the 798 Art District from May 18-19, 2019. Topics will range from how AI can help solve world hunger, if the robots will take over, what can be learned about the future by looking into the past, how to find China’s first international superstar, and the future of design and creativity. Investors will share new ideas about the future of cultural and tech industries and startups, while China’s first surfer will share her vision for an environmentally-conscious China. The event will also feature two concerts brought to you by the Reeperbahn Festival, Europe’s largest music platform for international and transcultural exchange. SupChina Access members will receive a special discount. To get your tickets and learn more, visit www.wisenotwise.com. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text Making a feature film can be a long and painful process — especially when you’re shooting an indie film in below-freezing conditions 16 hours per day for 14 days. But that is exactly what the creative team behind "The Last Sunrise" (最后的日出) was able to do, and along the way, they generated useful insight into China’s science-fiction movie scene and the realities of filmmaking in China on a shoestring budget. Featuring Wen Ren | 任文 : Director | 导演 Elly Li| 李昳青: Producer, Co-writer | 制片人，编剧 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, please get in touch! Four main takeaways from this episode: 1) Chinese science-fiction productions tend to be optimistic about the future. While Western science-fiction productions are dominated by dystopian tropes, in contrast, Chinese sci-fi tends to paint a far more benign portrait of how science will usher in a better future. Of course, state regulations that govern cultural production in China have something to do with this, but gifted creators can often find workarounds to these restrictions. 2) In China, getting started in the film industry is like founding a startup. The main goal of most filmmakers is to make a good-quality film and, if at all possible, to pay the filmmaking team along the way. There is no shortcut to a successful career in making feature films; making a high-quality movie is the end result of years of experience in the industry. Big payoffs do not happen by accident. Just like any other entrepreneur, filmmakers need to make good products before they can hope to earn serious revenue, and this means working on as many projects as possible. In China as in many other markets, the jump from making low-budget films online to big-budget films intended for cinematic release is a large one, and not everyone makes it. 3) Chinese internet distributors usually pay a flat fee and keep audience numbers secret. If an internet platform agrees to distribute a film, the producer will receive a flat fee and will need to budget the film accordingly. There is no incentive or bonuses for films that reach a large audience on an internet platform. The general public will likely never learn how many people have actually watched the movie, just as with Netflix in the West. Platforms like Youku do provide an indicator of popularity 热度 and share it with the creators after some time. However, the popularity of any given film peaks only briefly before audiences move on. In the case of The Last Sunrise, for example, the movie was the second-most widely viewed movie on Youku for a few weeks before plunging down to number #799 three months later. 4) There are a few key secrets to shooting a film in 14 days. Do a lot of advance planning to avoid wasting time. Surround yourself with a team who can work long hours and understand your creative vision. Select only a few locations, and shoot indoors as much as possible. For The Last Sunrise , for example, the team limited filming locations to only three places: Beijing (北京), Zhangbei (张北) in Hebei Province, and Ordos (鄂尔多斯) in Inner Mongolia. As you pitch the project, be prepared to propose a variety of budgets and lengths to appeal to different types of investors. Recommended watching and reading: - The Last Sunrise (最后的日出 - 2019): - Train to Busan (2016): Wikipedia page Black Coal, - Thin Ice (白日焰火 - 2014): Wikipedia page - The Wandering Earth (流浪地球 - 2019) - Zhang Yimou’s opinion piece in the New York Times,

Send us a text In case traveling to the nearest Chinese temple may be a bit inconvenient, modern-day Chinese astrologers still have you covered — inevitably, there’s an app for that! In this episode, astrologer Wen Jun explains how she works, the kinds of clients who seek her out, the differences between Chinese and Western astrology, and other aspects of fortune-telling in the modern age. 通过一个app了解占星的艺术世界上最古老的工作已经可以在网络上进行了。文君，一个占星师，她解释了一些问题包括她如何在网络上进行工作，她的客人，以及东西方关于占星的不同之处。 Featuring Wen Jun | 文君 : Astrologer | 占星师 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, please get in touch! Two main takeaways from this episode: 1) There are a number of popular Chinese fortune-telling apps on the market today. Wen Jun works for the popular astrology app Ce Ce Astrology 测测星座. One of its main competitors is another popular app, Stars Network 星星网络. 2) Contemporary Chinese astrologers are very popular. The most famous astrologers in China are Tang Qi Yang 唐绮阳, Uncle Tong Dao 同道大叔, a graduate of Peking University, and Monica Mo 莫小奇, a TV star. With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic design & Sean Calvo for music support.

Send us a text When prodded to think about documentaries at all, most people imagine features films that are shown in festivals and cinemas. What this picture misses is the fact that the majority of documentary filmmakers make their living producing documentaries for television. Does this mean that documentarians in China are all but guaranteed to make money in the country, with its billion-strong audience? 当我们谈论纪录片的时候，很多人会想到在节日和电影院放映的故事片。但实际上，大多数纪录片制作人都是以电视纪录片为生的。中国的亿万眼球能给他们带来财富和名誉吗？ Featuring Steven Seidenberg: Script writer and consultant | 编剧、顾问 Zhang Nan | 张楠: Director PANGO Pictures | 导演，盘古影业 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, please get in touch! Three main takeaways from this episode 1) Documentary storytelling is not the same everywhere. 纪录片的叙事方式在不同的地方并不一样。 Chinese documentaries often feature strong narration with impressive visuals, often called the “voice of God” style. Generally, in this style, the narrator will explain the actions of the characters of a film, with interviews and sound bites reduced to a minimum. This approach to documentaries gives filmmakers more control over the message of the film. While Japanese documentaries are frequently shot in this style, it is markedly less popular in other Asian nations, including South Korea and Singapore, where documentarians prefer to directly show conflict and the end product resembles a fiction film. This preference is also shared in most Western nations, suggesting that cultural preferences may be at work. 中国的纪录片通常有很多的旁白，通常被称为“上帝之声”，然后再由漂亮的画面来修饰它。在采访中，片中角色的行为通常由旁白来讲述，同时现场的录音被减小到最低的程度。同样的现象也出现在日本的记录片中。但是西方国家及某些亚洲国家，比如韩国或者新加坡，他们倾向与表现冲突，这看起来更像一部电影。这种分歧可能来自文化差异，也因为对于制片人来说，这样更容易控制出现在影片中的话语。 2) If you want to make TV documentaries in China, you’ve got to call on the big guns. 如果你想在中国拍一部电视纪录片，那就去找一些大机构。 In China, finding a broadcaster to release your documentary is easy; between CCTV 9, CCTV 10, CGTN, and the plethora of local channels and internet platforms, distribution is hardly a problem. However, many of these platforms will merely post the film and won’t invest in distribution. Funding must come from other sources, such as a local government that wants to advertise the location in which the film is shot, an institution promoting a certain message, a company with a PR angle, or a donor who just wants to support a given project. 有了CCTV 9、CCTV 10、CGTN、许多地方频道和互联网平台，找一个广播公司来播放你的纪录片是相当容易的。但有些平台只是提供一个展示你电影的机会，而不会投资。为了给你的节目制作人投资，你必须找到其他类型的资金。可能是地方政府想宣传拍摄纪录片的地方，想宣传某一主题的机构，愿意参与公关活动的大公司，或者只是想帮助某个项目的慈善家。 3) Filming documentaries is not a path to riches. 做纪录片是不会发财的。 Often we see documentary filmmakers as white knights fighting on behalf of the public by reporting on difficult or marginalized issues. However, even if your film is screened at a famous festival or aired on a popular television network, it is still difficult to make a living. Producers, directors, and scriptwriters of documentaries often have to supplement their incomes by doing other work (e.g., corporate videos, teaching, or doing technical jobs in bigger productions). 我们常常把纪录片制片人看作是白衣骑士，为了公众而报道困难的问题或提出有趣的话题。但是，即使你的电影在著名的节日放映，或通过电视播放，以此来谋生也是相当困难的。制作人、导演和编剧必须另找工作（企业宣传片、教学、在大制作中当技术员），以便在做纪录片的同时维持生活的。 Recommendation - "Last Train Home" (归途列车 - 2009), a Chinese feature film by Fan Lixin. - "A Bite of China" (舌尖上的中国), a doc series on the history of food & eating With thanks to Brenden Gonsalves for graphic desi