Popular Women-Centered Chinese Podcast Suddenly Shut Down

Creators said reasons were "private". Fans suspect censorship.

Popular Chinese podcast Loud Murmurs (小声喧哗) is announcing that it will stop uploading new shows due to “personal reasons” and remove all existing episodes in a week. They have deleted all social media presence and asked fans not to share previous episodes anywhere public. They have also removed their Patreon page.

Three of the four hosts have either locked tweets, deleted tweets or removed twitter account. The podcast’s twitter account now demonstrates “User Unknown” and has no followings.

I reached out to one of the hosts. She reiterated that the reasons for shutting down the podcast were indeed private and hopes that listeners can understand.

The podcast started in 2018 and has had over 100 episodes. It’s hosted by four young women who live and work largely outside China. The show mostly focuses on pop culture, movies and social issues such as race and feminism in China and the US.

“We discuss movies, TV, documentaries, and the social, political issues reflected on by a piece of pop culture work,” their Spotify page says. “Our goal is to make the most thought-provoking Chinese podcast about American pop culture.”

The last few sentences of their shutdown announcement have been quoted by a lot of listeners on Weibo (roughly translated here): "The Internet is a big place. If you, in this vast universe, sense a frequency similar to ours, please hold on to it. We shall meet again."

Fans are devastated. Some have brought up Seahorse Planet 海马星球, another women-focused podcast that ended abruptly last December.

The podcast focuses on feminism and women’s empowerment. The creator said in a Weibo post that she will continue to upload shows on foreign platforms. As of right now, it can still be found on Apple. Its Weibo account can no longer be found.

At the time, listeners shared on Weibo their appreciation for the podcast, talking about how the show introduced them to feminist ideas.

"Female power won't stop here."

"Even if Seahorse Planet is gone from the radio world for ever, the flame of feminism will be carried on."

One user even wrote a fairy tale to commemorate the show, The Tale of Seahorse Planet.

In the past 3 years, the show covered a wide range of topics, including domestic violence, gender theories, everyday struggle for women, economic independence, entrepreneurship, leadership, etc.

As some people have pointed out, these were not the most politically sensitive topics, and yet the show still got banned.

The last episode before it got banned, was an interview with the Chinese publisher for Japanese sociologist Chizuko Ueno's book 从零开始的女性主义, (roughly translated to Feminism from Zero). It's unclear if this episode was the/a reason that the entire show got banned.

The podcast has since uploaded another episode on Apple.