The World of Chinese is pleased to announce that Middle Earth Podcast has received the silver award in “Best Podcast/Digital Audio Project” in the small/medium company category at WAN-IFRA’s Digital Media Awards Asia. The award ceremony was held on November 3 in Singapore, attended by media companies from over 10 countries who were honored in categories such as best newsletter, best website, and best audience engagement.

The awards started in 2015 to recognize Asian news publishers who have delivered outstanding and unique digital media projects. Singapore’s own media dominated almost 50 percent of this year’s winners, with Middle Earth Podcast the sole project from the Chinese mainland to win an award.

Produced by The World of Chinese and directed, hosted, and edited by Aladin Farré, Middle Earth Podcast showcases what the world’s second biggest cultural market is consuming in terms of pop-culture—and why. Aladin started the podcast independently in 2018 to fill a gap in English news coverage of China’s cultural industries. Since then, he has interviewed over 200 guest on the show ranging, from film producers and game designers to motorcyclists, gambling consultants, and agencies making foreign creators go viral in China. Middle Earth Podcast joined the Sinica Network in 2019 and TWOC’s podcast network in 2021.

TWOC and Middle Earth Podcast welcome the award as recognition of our professionalism, and would like thank the award committee at WAN-IFRA Asia for the opportunity to compete as peers with other anglophone media in Asia.