Confucius Institute at the University of Glasgow

Podcasting Chinese Lives: In Conversation with Story FM

1pm - 2pm Thursday 26 November 2020

Registration required: Podcasting Chinese Lives: In Conversation with Story FM

In China's complex and saturated media landscape, Gushi FM stands out as an unlikely success story. After starting in 2017, Gushi FM (or Story FM) is now one of China’s most popular podcasts, averaging over half a million listeners per episode.

In each episode, Gushi FM features an individual telling a story from his or her own point of view. Experiences of adventure and the strange feature among the more than four hundred episodes to date, but more common are stories of love and loss, hardship and compromise, or simply coming to terms with life in a changing China. One man tells of a lifetime of separation from his father in Cuba, while another explains his childhood on boats on the Yangtze. A woman tells of her mother’s experience as a Vietnamese bride in rural China. Dancers talk about the frisson and passion in an underground club, while five people talk about life under the Wuhan lockdown. Many reflect on people and situations now lost to the past. Together these stories represent a remarkable window on experiences from across the country and on the vagaries of the human condition.

Kou Aizhe is the creator of Gushi FM. He now leads a team producing three stories a week. He previously worked as a journalist in the Chinese media and with Swedish and Canadian broadcasters. In this event, Kou Aizhe will talk about his work with Gushi FM and how he tells the stories of others in his podcasts.

This event will be held online with a post-conversation Q&A.

All welcome.

Reports on Gushi FM have appeared in the New York Times and with NPR.

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First published: 10 November 2020