Internet trendsetters' storytellers'
2025-01-07
People have gone through many activities related to popularizing historical knowledge and sharing cultural experiences. Today, those drowsy storytelling methods seem to have gone unnoticed on the online platforms favored by young people. A group of active bloggers on social media platforms have quietly taken over the online landscape. To visually recreate the Battle of Hanzhong during the Three Kingdoms period, they visited the locations of ancient Shu roads such as Chencang Road, Baoxie Road, Tangluo Road, and Ziwu Road, inspected the contemporary terrain of the fierce battles between Cao and Liu at Guangshi Pass, Yangping Pass, and Dingjun Mountain, created maps of the war, deduced the process of the war, and spent several months making videos; Translating the rough records on ancient wooden slips into "working people" and "refueling and cooking", using small stories full of "internet sense" for netizens to read and empathize, turning "cold knowledge" into "hot dissemination"... The novel attempts of knowledge bloggers in the field of history and culture are constantly refreshing the appearance of historical stories and cultural images, deeply embracing audiences through media platforms. These works from bloggers may not be professional, rigorous, or profound, but they truly capture the audience's attention. I may have always been an amateur cultural blogger. It's okay, I've been growing. Even if the way of growth is wild, even if the speed of growth is not fast enough, and even if one will never become very professional, it doesn't matter This sincere confession from a blogger who graduated from Peking University represents the attitude of many people in this group. These narrators who have put aside their "authoritative demeanor" and broken free from the traditional transmission style of "you don't understand, I'll tell you" have won word-of-mouth in the interactive communication landscape. If historical materials, classic works, museums, and campus classrooms are the source of disseminating historical and cultural information, then in the process of mass dissemination and evolution of information content, these bloggers have become "storytellers" of historical and cultural events. From 2018 to 2020, short videos experienced explosive growth, with a large number of self media creators entering the historical and cultural "track". Is the threshold for creativity high? How many professionals are there? Do the audience of market-oriented media platforms really like historical and cultural content? At that time, there were no answers to these questions. The increasing demand for online learning has boosted the number of bloggers, with new forms emerging such as live streaming explanations of traditional cultural courses and online museum tours. Bloggers are expanding their creative boundaries, gathering strength and showcasing their skills to satisfy the audience's thirst for knowledge. Chen Xin, a high school history teacher born in the 1990s who works in Beijing, became a fan of a Qing Dynasty history blogger at this time. As a professional teacher training graduate, she was shocked by the content of the blogger's speech, even though "the blogger is like an unprofessional skateboarder". After learning that this amateur blogger's main business is car repair, Chen Xin decided to become a blogger himself because historical knowledge is his strength. "With a professional background, I can't afford to lose to an outsider, can I. Outside the three foot podium, on the unfamiliar internet, no one treats her as a teacher, and the content recipient and provider are in a completely equal dialogue and instant communication state. Her monotonous and dry narration is rarely paid for by netizens. The sharp criticism and pitiful likes in the comment section make this history teacher feel that the skills that a blogger needs to possess are much more complex and extensive than having professional knowledge. Wang Zilin, a blogger with a background in history, used a different approach. He chose the "sub track" of the "visiting ancient" category, took his camera to visit historical sites, recorded the current appearance of ancient buildings, compared historical materials to organize travel notes, and then "translated" serious content into humorous "family strengths and weaknesses". Seemingly "obscure" content such as Shanxi ancient temples and Hebei ancient villages has received tens of thousands of likes per piece, and some individual notes have reached hundreds of thousands of views. Wang Zilin himself did not expect such a dissemination effect. In 2023, when his career as a blogger began, the number of bloggers on major media platforms began to slow down after experiencing a surge during the epidemic prevention and control period. The market is gradually maturing, and intense competition is forcing content to undergo the test of high-quality and differentiated development. New bloggers have to stand out with unique perspectives and innovative forms. Once upon a time, people sought cross-border integration in nearby and similar fields. Some film and television practitioners began to produce short videos in the form of historical documentaries, and some historical novel authors shared the historical facts behind their creations. Such content could attract fans Fan Xian, a blogger who interprets "Dream of the Red Chamber" and a post-2000s youth, admitted, "But now, this kind of content that only stays at the professional level, even if it is further integrated, cannot reach the level of 'passing'." Reading "Dream of the Red Chamber" has always been dominated by famous writers, why do audiences watch a naive post-2000s interpretation? Opening her video homepage, it feels like entering the kitchen of a restaurant. The eggplants that have been picked have their skin peeled off, and once the meat is clean, they are cut into small pieces and nailed. They are then fried in chicken oil and mixed with chicken roe, fragrant mushrooms, new bamboo shoots, mushrooms, dried five spice rot, and various dried fruits, all of which are cut into nails... "With" Wang Xifeng's monologue explanation, "Fan Xian transformed into a chef and cooked the dishes step by step. Accompanied by a dense barrage of comments on the upper part of the screen, Liu Laolao brought up the steaming "Qiedong" she had eaten when she entered the Grand View Garden. This is also the part where I feel like crying while watching the Red Chamber! Greedy crying Reading the Red Chamber, realizing eggplant freedom! "Netizens exclaimed," How can we not love it when interpreted like this? "In the fierce competition of content, these bloggers full of creative spirit and daring to turn imagination into action have survived firmly on the Internet, continuing to face the challenges brought by future technological innovations and changes in public aesthetics. When interviewed, Luan Chuqing, a young man born in the 1990s, repeatedly corrected the journalist's statement that "I am not a producer of historical and cultural content, just a porter. In order to 'carry' her beloved historical and cultural heritage, Luan Chuqing became a typical slash youth. On one end of the slash is a media editor, and on the other end is a historical knowledge blogger, a character who turns museum exhibitions into fun videos. Throughout 2024, she spent almost every weekend at various museums and cultural centers in Beijing, with flight schedules filled with "Chengdu, Xi'an, Luoyang". It has nothing to do with profession, it's purely passion When she first planned to become a history blogger, she hesitated about the amateurs in history. "Would you like to go to the museum with a stiff faced history teacher or a smiling little sisters?" She believed it was the latter. According to the feedback from fans, most people chose the latter. It is the interaction with her fans "like Tazi and sisters" that has strengthened her determination to go a long way and a difficult way, and not to give her fans superficial content. She fell into a trance while telling the story of fan interaction to the reporter, shaking the coffee cup in her hand for a long time until it popped out: for the first time, she released her blog notes, and in the comments section, fans pointed out a mistake about ancient Greek wine glasses. The "floors" of the comments were unfolded one by one, and many fans carefully analyzed the mistake, while some fans who agreed with the blogger's statement argued with it. The comment section of rational exploration touched the emotional part of Luan Chuqing's heart. In every corner of the online and real world, there are so many like-minded friends hidden! "For several years, a single and slightly" socially anxious "young woman living thousands of kilometers away from her hometown in a big city has experienced" long lost, collective, and comforting care. For the sake of this' down-to-earth small fortune ', Luan Chuqing decided to venture into thicker and more obscure historical records. On New Year's Day 2025, she updated her "porter plan" and prepared to fly to the other side of the ocean during the long holiday, where there are the British Museum and the Louvre Museum. Becoming a blogger is a two-way interaction process with fans. On the one hand, it is necessary to output information and knowledge for cultural dissemination to the public; On the other hand, we need to continuously learn new experiences based on fan feedback and make the content more rigorous and rich This is a consensus among many bloggers. The comment section, a novel communication field, is a gathering place for bloggers and netizens to interact, where many viewpoints and ideas collide and arise. Zhou Ying, a blogger in the "Visiting Ancient" category and a post-2000 youth, firmly believes in this. After each episode, she checks the fan comments one by one. There are debates and suggestions, like academic discussions in university. "She took notes one by one and wrote down the ideas and inspirations she gained into the next script. Unlike Luan Chuqing, she places greater emphasis on the market-oriented effects brought about by her content and fan interaction. This blogger, who has been consistently producing high-quality content for a long time, has signed contracts with several cultural institutions to promote cultural projects. Every piece of her content can bring her around 1500 yuan in income. Young women who want to establish themselves in Shanghai, this mega city, have gained an additional source of economic security. The person in charge of a cultural and museum unit told reporters that they chose Zhou Ying as the "storyteller" for cultural relics knowledge because she has both the curious eye of an outsider and the spirit of an expert in research. When explaining murals and shrines, she often has "explosive content and unique ideas". This is something that these insiders have long lacked and been striving for. Interactive sharing has also brought about more profound impacts. Based on common interests and hobbies, a relatively close relationship is formed between bloggers and audiences, and fan members also learn from each other and grow together. This kind of benign interaction makes virtual relationships in the network closer to offline, while also promoting the formation of a learning atmosphere for all. Some scholars have also found that popular elements in traditional culture that are interconnected with modern life have catalyzed the emergence of new cultural phenomena. The social groups derived from traditional culture, such as the ancient style music circle, dubbing circle, Hanfu circle, and handmade circle, provide a platform for young people to communicate and make friends. They are all established due to cultural confidence and can further enhance cultural confidence. Similar views are gaining increasing support from scholars. Is it "snacks" or "meals"? On the land of China, which has been immersed in traditional culture for thousands of years, urban forests have already emerged. The functions of learning, working, and living are separated among towering buildings. Connected to them are shuttling traffic, speeding subways, and bustling streets. Can young people with fast-paced lifestyles and busy schedules place a quiet desk in their daily lives? Many people put it in the fragmented time of 5 to 10 minutes when taking the subway, waiting for flights, and working and leisure. Bloggers saw such an opportunity and took advantage of it to put their carefully "translated" and even customized 5-minute or 10 minute works on those "desks". However, being selected on the 'desk' is not an easy task. The difficulty mainly comes from the scarcity of attention resources. No matter how powerful a blogger is, they don't have absolute confidence in winning attention, "described the post-2000 blogger" A Vanilla "." With a swipe of a mobile phone user's finger, your effort is gone. "The audience's attention is like a judge, and in the vast amount of information content, the few seconds that pause at a certain video or note determine the success or failure of a blogger's content output. A Vanilla is well aware that pure theoretical indoctrination can easily make people tired, and plain presentation methods cannot attract attention. Therefore, it cleverly uses "seasonings" such as stories, animations, and humorous language,
Edit:momo Responsible editor:Chen zhaozhao
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