The rise of female-centered content has become increasingly evident in recent years. Movies like Her Story and Like a Rolling Stone received both critical and financial success, earning 700 million and 100 million yuan at the box office, respectively. Meanwhile, more female comedians are stepping into the spotlight, offering their own sarcastic take on life as a woman.

However, the growing presence of such content doesn’t mean it’s universally welcomed. Some accuse feminist movies of widening the divide between men and women, while female comedians continue to face backlash and harassment, with some even losing sponsorships. In this episode of the Middle Earth Podcast, hosted by Aladin Farré and produced by The World of Chinese magazine, we invited women working in China’s cultural industry to explore what has fueled the trend of female-centered content and the challenges it still faces in moving forward.

Guests:

Jiang Xiaotong is the founder of Kudos Comedy.

Wang Jiaxi is a scriptwriter and director.

Hayley Zhao is a journalist and editor at The World of Chinese.

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The following are excerpts from the transcript of the episode (edited for clarity):

3:24

Aladin: Compared to 10 or 20 years ago, do audiences and consumers actually have more choices now when it comes to female-perspective stories?

Jiang Xiaotong: In stand-up comedy, you don’t need to look back a decade—just the past three or four years have seen a surge in female comedians. Anyone who watches Chinese variety shows has likely noticed this trend, as “feminism” and “female power” have become mainstream topics. Many viral memes and slang we use in our daily lives now also come from these female comedians.

Wang Jiaxi: Feminism has become a hot topic in recent years, especially in the film industry. I think female audiences are growing tired of blockbuster films centered on crime and war—they want stories that reflect their reality, something from a female director that truly resonates with them.

Hayley Zhao: The same trend is unfolding in the publishing industry. Feminist books have gained significant popularity in recent years. This year’s Nobel Prize-winning work, The Vegetarian, by Korean author Han Kang, also explores feminist themes. I believe social media has played a key role in promoting these books and other feminist content, creating a positive cycle—the more people see it, the more they’re inclined to check it out, encouraging creators to produce even more.

6:12

Aladin: Who do you think is consuming this content? People born in the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s, or does it go further back?

Jiang: I think they’re on the younger side, but not too young—mostly people in their late 20s and 30s. I’m in my 30s. Our generation grew up during a very open time in this country, and it’s easy for us to embrace new trends.

Zhao: But I’ve noticed that many from the post-80s generation are also taking their mothers to see female-centered movies like Her Story and Like a Rolling Stone. They want their mothers to reflect on their own lives and how they view family or motherhood. If the content is compelling enough, it won’t just appeal to people in their 30s—it can resonate with a broader audience. Take Like a Rolling Stone, for example. It’s based on the true story of a housewife who, after more than 30 years of being a devoted wife and mother, decides to leave and embark on a solo road trip. Though the film downplays the abusive aspects of her marriage, it still powerfully portrays a woman breaking free from a toxic environment to reclaim her own identity.

Wang: The heroine belongs to my mother’s generation—women who have sacrificed much of their own lives for the sake of their families. Daughters bringing their mothers to see this film want to show them that there are other ways to live and that they have choices. A friend told me that after watching the movie, her mother decided she wanted a divorce.

Aladin: There is this movie, Beyond the Clouds, that’s based on the true story of a female headmaster at China’s only all-female high school in rural Yunnan. However, the film has faced significant criticism for altering key aspects of her character.

Zhao: This proves that success requires making a genuinely good film—simply marketing it as feminist isn’t enough.

11:39

Aladin: In the film industry, are there more women taking the driver’s seat in decision-making—determining who gets to commission a show and which movies get made?

Wang: Actually, the majority of streaming platform viewers are women. In my experience, most producers are also women—perhaps not the top executives, but the producers themselves. It’s a noticeable phenomenon. Female directors were once rare but are now joining the industry in increasing numbers.

Aladin: As a female director and scriptwriter, what was the process like for you to bring your TV show Lady Tough (2021) to the streaming platform Bilibili?

Wang: It was a really tough process. I was inspired by the British TV series Fleabag and wanted to create something similar. Unlike traditional Chinese TV series, which typically run for 24 to 40 episodes, I envisioned a web series with just 12 episodes per season, each lasting 25 to 30 minutes. When I shared this idea with producers, they all told me that no platform would accept it. They also felt that my story—a girl who doesn’t want to “lean in” but chooses to ”lie down”—wasn’t positive enough and wouldn’t appeal to audiences.

I later shared the idea with a classmate, and she immediately expressed interest. Then the pandemic hit, and during the four months apart in our hometowns, we used the time to complete the 12-episode script. After returning to Beijing, we pitched it to various producers and faced numerous rejections. Eventually, a female producer from the streaming giant Youku took an interest in the project and introduced us to a production company specializing in web series for co-production. However, the platform Youku ultimately declined it due to the low-budget nature of the production. In the end, the web series company financed the entire project and sold it to Bilibili after we wrapped up.

Aladin: Was the show well-received after it came out?

Wang: Yes. The series garnered over 150 million views. I’m especially happy to see so many comments from viewers saying they had never seen a story like this before and felt truly inspired by the heroine, who didn’t conform to the conventional idea of success.

17:32

Aladin: A few years ago, a female comedian sparked heated social debates online with her jokes aired in an extremely popular stand-up contest. Can you explain to those who are unfamiliar with the incident what happened?

Jiang: The female comedian is Yang Li, and she had a joke about the difference between men and women. The punchline that went viral was when she said some men are so average but so overconfident. This became a phenomenal meme, and we’re still using the slang “puxinnan (普信男, basic but confident man)” to this day. It resonated very well with the female audience because we realized that we’ve had or still have puxinnan in our lives. But that joke didn’t sit well with many men, so they boycotted her, costing her some sponsorships and job opportunities. However, at the same time, she also received a lot of commercial interest because of that joke. It’s not a harmful joke, but it has awakened many women to their own situations. I see it as a starting point, where more female comedians are beginning to come forward and share their stories.

Aladin: As someone working in comedy, you’ve seen more girls signing up for shows, right?

Jiang: Yes, more female comedians are starting to realize that this is something they can joke about. Before, although it wasn’t an official rule, there was a general consensus that it wasn’t okay to create a division between men and women. Since most decision-makers in the industry are still men, they would accuse female comedians of profiting from this divide. As a result, many were hesitant to lean into this kind of topic. However, after Yang Li, a lot changed.

Aladin: You’ve had trouble booking female comedians when hosting shows in certain cities in the past. Is that still the case now?

Jiang: Last year, we produced a female headliner show called She’s You and Me and asked cooperating clubs to feature female comedians as hosts. We did 30 to 40 shows in 30 cities. In nearly half of the cities, there were no female comedians available, so we had to fly them in from elsewhere. The club owners, all men, accused us of being picky behind our backs. They preferred to feature their own club members and bad-mouthed us for bringing in female comedians from elsewhere.

But things have improved a lot this year. We did another 35 shows in 30 cities, and now every cooperating club has at least one female comedian. We’re thrilled to see this change in just a year and believe our show played a role in driving it. As the first all-female comedy show, we’ve helped pave the way for more of these shows to emerge. Club owners are also starting to realize they need at least one female comedian on staff—even if only to reduce costs.

Zhao: As a consumer of stand-up comedy and social media content, I’ve noticed more online sketches featuring female comedians. Their material has also evolved, going far beyond Yang Li’s televised sketch. That had to be toned down for a general audience, but clips from offline private shows are often darker and more sarcastic, tackling the unequal treatment women face growing up or in the workplace.

27:31

Jiang: Speaking of televised sketches, female comedians have tried to bring up the topic of menstruation on the show every year, but it wasn’t allowed until this year.

Aladin: Why do you think that is?

Jiang: Female comedians have been pushing back against directors and platforms to address these topics. In recent years, platforms may have also recognized the potential for generating more views and discussions around these subjects.

Zhao: I think there’s also a broader societal shift at play. Period shame has been widely discussed in recent years, especially after the controversy over China’s high-speed trains not selling sanitary pads. That sparked a major debate about whether the decision was fair—which, in all likelihood, it wasn’t. But the discussion helped bring the topic into the mainstream, making it easier for platforms and TV stations to justify addressing it. Since everyone was already talking about it, it was no longer a taboo.

29:48

Aladin: With the economy contracting now, would that encourage platforms to take a bit more risks in terms of content?

Jiang: Platforms are actually trying to be less risky and more secure. But they’re constantly balancing between making money with controversial topics and staying safe as a company. You can’t ignore the fact that audiences want more content on women’s issues. So, in a way, they’re testing boundaries—seeing what works and what’s acceptable. All the platforms maintain communication channels with government regulators, allowing them to gauge what topics can be discussed and what might cross the line.

31:39

Aladin: We had a guest before on this show talking about doing reality shows in China. She said something like, “If you want to make a variety show in China, you must have the women watching.”

Wang: Same goes for the film industry.

Aladin: Also, apparently 80 percent of book buyers worldwide are women.

Zhao: There’s a logic behind this. We want to believe that men and women are equal in today’s society, but that’s simply not the reality. Women have to work harder and fight for an “equal chance.” That’s why we study more, read more, and make sure we’re more qualified when competing for the same job. It’s also why we’re buying more books and consuming more knowledge.

33:19

Aladin: The World of Chinese magazine also publishes many female-centered content. Are these pieces popular among your readers?

Zhao: Our team is predominantly female, so we make a point to produce female-centered stories or those told from a female perspective. These pieces get decent views, but we can’t tell whether people love reading them or are just ”hate-reading” since our website doesn’t have an engagement feature—no comments or “likes.” However, when we publish the same content on WeChat, where engagement is possible, we sometimes receive negative comments.

Jiang: The comedy industry attracts a lot of hateful comments. Anytime a female comedian—not just Yang Li—talks about women’s power or feminism, she would face a wave of backlash. When our female comedy show was on tour, we received similar comments. But I’m actually optimistic about it. If we’re getting these reactions, it means we’ve struck a nerve—and that, in a way, is a sign of success.

Aladin: There are no haters for this show yet, so I’m guessing we’re not doing a good enough job.

Zhao: Maybe you’ll get some after this episode.

35:57

Aladin: Any last comment before we wrap up?

Wang: In the film industry, I feel like the time for many fifth- and sixth-generation directors has already passed. Female directors should be more ambitious and fight for an equal say, so the world can hear our voices.

Zhao: Some might say there’s already plenty of female-centered content and that audiences will eventually tire of it. I don’t think that’ll be the case. These stories have been overlooked for so long that we’re only now beginning to make up for lost time.