Surplus Value

“Surplus Value” (剩余价值) is one of the most influential feminist podcasts in China. Founded in 2019 by three media professionals born in the 1980s—Zhang Zhiqi, Fu Shiye, and Leng Jianguo—the show quickly became an important voice for discussing gender issues on Chinese podcast platforms. Like “Stochastic Volatility,” it represents a platform for a new generation of Chinese intellectual women, but has its own distinctive style and focus.

Origin of the Name

The name “Surplus Value” comes directly from Marxist political economy—the extra value that capitalists obtain through exploiting workers’ labor. Choosing this name is both a tribute to the Marxist intellectual tradition and a hint at the show’s fundamental concerns: labor, exploitation, and women’s position in the capitalist system.

The name also has another layer of humorous self-deprecation: as podcast hosts, the content they produce is in a sense also “surplus value”—not directly generating economic profit, but making real contributions to public discussion.

The Three Hosts

Zhang Zhiqi was formerly a journalist and editor at GQ China, later helping to found “GQ Lab,” known for her keen observations on public issues.

Fu Shiye previously worked at One-Way Street and is now a freelance writer, focusing on cultural criticism and knowledge production.

Leng Jianguo is a senior media professional, formerly an editor at Esquire, with a unique analytical perspective on popular culture and consumerism.

All three hosts have media backgrounds and wide reading, giving the show both academic depth and sensitivity to the present. Their conversations include both theoretical reflection and nuanced observations of daily life.

Content and Style

“Surplus Value” covers a wide range of discussions, but always centers on several core themes:

Labor and Women: As the show’s core concern, “Surplus Value” frequently discusses women’s labor—whether paid labor in the workplace or unpaid labor at home. From 996 work culture to the distribution of housework, from workplace sexual harassment to the motherhood penalty, the show tries to understand women’s situations in the labor market through a political economy lens.

Cultural Criticism: The three hosts maintain continuous attention to popular culture. From hit TV dramas to bestselling books, from social media phenomena to consumer trends, they analyze gender representation and ideology in cultural products.

Intimate Relationships and Family: Love, marriage, childbearing, mother-daughter relationships—these topics traditionally viewed as the “private sphere” are placed within a public discussion framework in the show, revealing their political dimensions.

Interdisciplinary Dialogue: The show often invites scholars and practitioners from different fields—sociologists, historians, psychological counselors, artists—for interdisciplinary dialogues that enrich understanding of individual topics.

Relationship with “Stochastic Volatility”

Notably, among “Surplus Value’s” three hosts, Fu Shiye and Leng Jianguo are also hosts of “Stochastic Volatility.” The two shows are closely connected but differently positioned: “Stochastic Volatility” leans more toward cultural criticism and knowledge sharing, while “Surplus Value” focuses more on gender and labor issues. Together, the two shows form an important landscape of Chinese feminist podcasting.

Impact and Significance

“Surplus Value” has had significant impact among young Chinese women. It provides many listeners with an intellectual framework for thinking about gender issues, helping them connect personal experiences with structural inequality. The show has created a series of far-reaching discussions, from “fear of marriage and childbearing” to “the labor value of full-time mothers,” from “original family trauma” to “emotional labor.”

Like much feminist knowledge production, “Surplus Value” also faces the problem of a limited audience—mainly urban middle-class intellectual women. But this doesn’t negate its value: in a society where gender discussions are still controversial, such podcasts open new spaces for the spread of feminist thought.

For listeners wanting to understand contemporary Chinese feminist currents, “Surplus Value” is an excellent entry point. It presents how Chinese intellectual women, using their own language and their own problem consciousness, participate in global feminist dialogue.