Big-city creators have long dominated China’s podcast charts. Now, voices from smaller cities and remote regions are beginning to make themselves heard.
By Fan Yiying and Li Yanshu
As a podcast featuring Chinese comedians, “One-sided Point of View” can get raucous.
On an episode discussing weight loss, the hosts laughed uproariously throughout an 81-minute discussion that spanned their peak weights, chafing clothing, sweating in private places, the pleasures of late-night donkey-burger takeout, and an occasional bit of toilet humor.
“I never sat on a white sofa again,” one guest ended an anecdote as fellow guests descended into giggles.
Addressing some universal themes, the show also has a distinctive local point of view: most of its guests are comedians from the southwestern city of Kunming, who pepper their discussion with local slang terms and references to the city’s food and culture.
Podcasts are big in China: the podcast-hosting platform Himalaya, for example, boasted over 220 million listeners to its more than 240,000 shows in 2023. But creators from China’s biggest metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai have tended to dominate the podcast charts.
Now, content creators from smaller cities are increasingly finding their own voices.
“With the explosive growth of podcast content in recent years, the diversity of topics and stories has gradually attracted the user base to lower-tier cities,” says He Jing, manager of the audio app Lychee FM.
The rise of smaller-city podcasts mirrors broader economic trends across the country: rural youth returning home rather than moving to large cities, growing consumer spending in remote regions, and a surge in domestic tourism to smaller towns and cities.
Sixth Tone spoke to four podcast creators from lesser-known parts of China. They offer a glimpse into the diversity of China’s less-famous regions, covering topics from psychology to travel and agriculture.
Kunming comedians
With the nationwide rise of stand-up comedy, cities are developing their local scenes. That’s what Yang Rui, the 30-year-old founder of “One-sided Point of View” wanted to highlight.
“We don’t have the depth to discuss social culture… and when it comes to exploring business and technology, we’re all just poor,” she told Sixth Tone. “The podcast scene outside of first- and second-tier cities is more about sharing life and providing companionship.”
He of Lychee FM also says listeners in lower-tier cities are more likely to focus on storytelling, entertainment, and comedy content while audiences in first-tier cities tend to focus on educational content, as well as opinions and news about the economy and society.
Yang’s show targets not only residents of first- and second-tier cities but also hopes to attract listeners from smaller cities. She’s gained about 1,700 regular followers on the podcast app Xiaoyuzhou FM or “Little Universe.”
Listener feedback indicates that the show indeed brings a lot of joy — with many sharing their own jokes in comments.
Commenting on the weight loss episode, one listener wrote: “My scales have a weight limit — but I don’t.”
Growing crops, and characters
Du Yue, a 30-year-old part-time tutor in the coastal city of Weihai, is part of the three-person podcast Team Soil, which debuted in 2022 as a platform for conversations about rural life, targeting a younger generation of farmers born after the 1980s.
The podcast has thousands of regular subscribers and has an increasing focus on sustainability. “We interact with many young people who have returned to their hometowns, most of whom are farmers concerned about agriculture and climate,” Du explains.
In a May episode, they chatted with Xiaoxiao, who took over a farm in her hometown in China’s eastern Jiangsu province despite lacking hands-on agricultural production experience.
Xiaoxiao noted that being overwhelmed in her previous job in an organic farming company — attending meetings, and organizing events — left her feeling anxious and suffering from sleep issues.
That changed once she began front-line agricultural work about a year ago. “After I came back, I paid more attention to myself and felt my own needs more instead of mixing my ideas with those of ours,” Xiaoxiao told the podcast.
As well as rural returnees, the hosts’ personalities attract urban listeners. “Our audience is drawn not only to our discussions on agriculture but also to our personal stories and growth journeys,” Du says.
Small-town chronicles
Lü Jiajie, a 33-year-old office worker at a state-owned company, launched her podcast last January upon returning to her hometown of Xingyi, a small city in landlocked Guizhou province.
With a monthly release schedule, “Xingyi Log” has explored the opening of the city’s first Starbucks, as well as tips for tourists visiting the area. In the first episode, they spent 35 minutes introducing Xingyi’s typical breakfast — mutton rice noodles.
“As the weather gets colder, in the morning, you crave something warm, and that makes you want to have mutton rice noodles,” Lü told listeners.
Xingyi Log prides itself on its grassroots authenticity and is proud of having a niche audience: just a few hundred subscribers so far. But those who have listened say the podcast enhanced their visits to the city.
“You introduced me to the wonders of Xingyi,” commented one listener.
Life in transition
Former teacher Mo Mie, 31, started a podcast, “Life Took a Turn,” last year when she was living in the tranquil city of Dali in southwestern China. Aiming to explore lifestyles beyond her usual social circle, she uses in-depth interviews to focus on pivotal moments in individuals’ lives.
Themes covered range from a small-town woman’s transformative gap year in Europe to the experience of divorce, how feminism relates to childbirth, and the career change of a dropout-turned-life coach who became a documentary filmmaker focused on rural education.
Mo believes her content reflects a distinct local perspective. “In the unhurried ambiance of Dali, my content is driven by the themes I want to explore personally,” she explains. Mo handles every aspect of content creation independently, from selection to editing.
Through her podcasting, Mo says she has been on a personal journey, coming away with an appreciation for the complexity of life. And her audience is gradually spreading beyond her own social network, attracting women hungry for narratives about their peers.
“Beyond conventional career trajectories, life offers manifold modes of existence,” she says. “I have come to realize the vastness and expansiveness of life.”
Editor: Tom Hancock.
(Header image: Visuals from VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)
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