Author | Zhang Youfa
As for the process of oil-paper umbrella, there is a folk proverb: "The process is 72 and a half, and it is not worthwhile to move in and out." In other words, there are 72 processes for oil-paper umbrella.
Yu Wanlun is engaged in the production of "Sichuan Luzhou Oil-Paper Umbrella" whose craftsmanship is more complicated. When Luzhou oil-paper umbrella was in its heyday, the annual sales volume exceeded 10 million. But when Yu Wanlun was a child, he could only sell a few thousand each year. The craftsmanship of oil-paper umbrellas originally required division of labor and coordination, but due to too few people doing it, the few remaining inheritors had to learn all these procedures.
In 2008, Luzhou oil-paper umbrella became the object of national intangible cultural heritage protection, but the oil-paper umbrella still has not changed the dilemma of being far away from the public. Yu Wanlun tried to use new media platforms to promote products, and broadcast live broadcasts to perform oil paper umbrella production, but only a few hundred people watched.
After the improvement of the fan, the sales of oil-paper umbrellas have increased, but they are still far from young people: “Young people buy oil-paper umbrellas very rarely, almost none.” By chance, Yu Wanlun released a paper umbrella on Douyin. Video, the result was an unexpected success. Now his short video has received thousands of comments, especially young girls who love Hanfu have become the main buyers of oil paper umbrellas.
This is a microcosm of the intangible cultural heritage's ring-breaking effect on Douyin. Among the 1,372 national intangible cultural heritage projects, Douyin has already covered 1,214 items, with a coverage rate of 88.4%. These videos have been played more than 106.5 billion times and received more than 3.1 billion likes. In this young platform, intangible cultural heritage is looking for a way to break the game.
Yu Wanlun’s Douyin account
01 | Dilemma
Intangible cultural heritage has faced a severe situation before.
, like other traditional cultures, the biggest problem with intangible cultural heritage lies in the lack of popularity. Due to the process of urbanization and the development of mass media, intangible cultural heritage is becoming less and less "fashionable". The impact is reflected in two aspects:
For young people, the penetration rate of performance-related intangible cultural heritage projects is becoming more and more. low. For example, traditional folk art originally lived in urban theaters or rural grass-stage teams, but with the modernization process, rural areas are becoming withered, and movie theaters and home TVs occupy most of the leisure time of urban residents. Intangible cultural products such as
oil-paper umbrellas are facing the impact of modern industrial products. Umbrellas produced on assembly lines are more cost-effective than oil-paper umbrellas, and the use value of the latter continues to shrink in modern society.
in the sense of collection, due to the lack of audiences, intangible cultural heritage also lacks sufficient consumer groups. At present, young people pay more attention to the symbolic value of products. The hot sales of online celebrity products such as Starbucks cat claw cups and cherries are related to the middle-class label they are affixed. The lack of channels keeps intangible cultural heritage products away from daily life, and the lack of symbolic value addition also makes young people lose their consumption motivation. The living conditions of
are too small to affect the development of the intangible cultural heritage industry, and the intangible cultural heritage technology is facing the danger of being lost. For young people, intangible cultural heritage is not "cool" enough. They will learn guitar spontaneously because of their love of pop music, but they lack the motivation to learn the intangible cultural heritage that has been shelved in art. The lack of monetization ability of
makes newcomers lose the material guarantee for learning intangible cultural heritage. When craftsmanship cannot support their lives, young people have also lost interest in using intangible cultural heritage as a career. As the annual sales volume was only a few thousand, Yu Wanlun needed to do a sideline to support his oil-paper umbrella business. At this time, there were only a few inheritors of oil-paper umbrella craftsmanship, and it was difficult to attract new talents. In order to carry out intangible cultural heritage protection, the state has adopted some administrative measures. But if the innovation of popularization and commercialization is not completed, intangible cultural heritage is likely to become an exhibit in a museum instead of a living daily culture.
enters into the younger crowd, integrates into modern life, and becomes the universal appeal of intangible cultural heritage craftsmen. In the introduction of the vibrato of the Zide Qin Club, these young violinists wrote: "The Zide Qin Club sincerely hopes that the ancient art of guqin can step down the altar and enter life, bringing happiness and happiness to modern people. Harmony.”
And the public is not without demand for intangible cultural heritage. With the development of the economy, the younger generation is also seeking more localized cultural expressions like ancient songs. Fang Jin, a well-known pipa player on DouyinLong once said: "In recent years, the traditional culture has revived, and I will be paid attention to. If in the first ten years, everyone was talking about popular music and western music, I would definitely not have a market."
At this time, a suitable medium is needed to meet the needs of the younger generation.
Douyin President Zhang Nan
02 | The potential energy of Douyin
The rise of Douyin has contributed to the fulfillment of the two needs. For intangible cultural heritage that wants to be modernized and rejuvenated, Douyin is a suitable content container. The user base of
Douyin is large enough. According to data at the end of last year, Douyin has 250 million daily active users and 500 million monthly active users. These popular and young user groups correspond to the demands of intangible cultural heritage. The huge user base of
provides the possibility of becoming popular for intangible cultural heritage. The finger painting artist A Kun once quit his job behind his parents to open a studio and sell hand-painted paintings on the Internet, but because of the lack of exposure channels, his business has not been ideal. When A Kun almost gave up, he uploaded a work on Douyin, which was an instant hit, and A Kun's studio survived and developed. The short video expression of
can intuitively spread the charm of intangible cultural heritage. In a more than ten-second Douyin video, paper craftsman Yan Meijuan showed the practice of a paper trinket, including cutting, rolling, twisting, and stitching. This video received 23,000 likes on Douyin. . These features of
Douyin, from a vertical perspective, help intangible cultural heritage artists to gain unprecedented exposure opportunities. From a horizontal perspective, it has the potential for communication that other platforms do not have. For example, Fang Jinlong's Douyin account has more than 350,000 likes and nearly 100,000 fans, twice the number of fans on other platforms. The topic function of
Douyin makes the popularity of intangible cultural heritage more normal. The topical dissemination feature of
promotes the rapid dissemination of the entire non-heritage category. A Kun publishes his modern and innovative finger painting works under the topic of Douyin Who Says Chinese Painting Doesn't Do Tik Tok. In these intangible cultural heritage-related topics, different content can precipitate and ferment, forming a cluster effect.
Because of the topic function, many intangible cultural heritage content is used as a vertical category to get the attention of users, rather than reaching the audience piecemeal. Topic dissemination also allows Douyin to quickly create popularity and hot spots in the content ecology, allowing intangible cultural heritage to quickly and lasting attention. The dissemination process of
intangible cultural heritage is not entirely spontaneous, and the government also plays a leading role in this process. The Douyin platform has long been helping the dissemination and operation of intangible cultural heritage IP. The official Zeng and Longzai Shadow Puppet Troupe jointly launched the challenge of disseminating shadow puppets, "It’s very happy to skin", with a total of more than 2.8 billion views.
Douyin Intangible Cultural Heritage Partners plan posters
Douyin thus formed a relatively complete communication chain. Netizens can discover new intangible heritage content under the topic, and then pay attention to a specific intangible cultural heritage, and form a continuous attention to a certain blogger. In the comment area, users can also discuss this culture and visually The input is transformed into a substantial discussion of intangible cultural heritage content. The characteristics of
Douyin correspond to the pain points of intangible cultural heritage development. Younger and more popular content channels solve the problem of the aging of intangible cultural heritage users, while visual and topical communication methods make it easier to amplify the aesthetic characteristics of intangible cultural heritage and enhance the symbolic value of intangible cultural heritage products among young people.
03 | Industry chain
To some extent, the short video platform has helped intangible cultural heritage adjust the way of spreading. Intangible cultural heritage craftsmen flock to this platform to gain popularity, and change the expression of intangible cultural heritage according to the characteristics of the platform to make it more suitable for contemporary communication characteristics. Shadow puppet artist Wang Xi told reporters that after entering Douyin, his team has been launching new performances based on the preferences of young people on the platform. In the process of
, the more complete content ecology of Douyin enables intangible cultural heritage artists to obtain a more systematic communication ability. MCN organizations like "Qiren Ingenuity" can help craftsmen complete content output. Yu Wanlun’s oil-paper umbrella videos published on other platforms lacked care and sometimes not updated for a long time. With the help of MCN, his Douyin account operation is more user-thinking and the output is more continuous..
's vital business realization problem has also been improved within the Douyin ecosystem.
Intangible cultural heritage projects with physical products can increase sales with the help of Douyin. In the process of obtaining communication channels, the influence of these projects has increased, and the realization potential has also greatly increased. After Yu Wanlun’s "oil paper umbrella master" account posted 50 videos on Douyin, the order for oil paper umbrellas is now scheduled for next year.
In the Douyin ecological chain, intangible cultural heritage can also directly realize monetization conversion. The ownership rate of Douyin stores of Douyin celebrities is constantly increasing. There was once a sunscreen spray that achieved over one million sales per month through Douyin diversion. Yu Wanlun told reporters that the e-commerce revenue of the team's oil-paper umbrella products in Douyin has exceeded that of physical stores.
performance category of intangible cultural heritage projects, you can gain influence through Douyin and expand the offline box office. After the popularity of Douyin, Peking opera actor Wang Mengting increased his box office by 20% this year, mostly for young audiences. According to Douyin, this year the platform will also invite intangible cultural artists to participate in more offline activities on Douyin to increase their exposure and monetization capabilities. The spread of
Douyin has improved the income of intangible cultural heritage craftsmen, but this process is far from over. The vibrato effect has helped some young people to learn oil-paper umbrellas, but Yu Wanlun said that if the average income of the production staff can reach the level of urban white-collar workers, the issue of the company's successor will not be a problem. This also requires the platform to further explore the value of intangible cultural heritage products. Douyin is advancing the construction of e-commerce mini-programs. According to a recent report by "New Business Intelligence NBT" (WeChat public account ID: newbusinesstrend), Douyin has recently launched a number of e-commerce mini-programs such as "Xiaomi Mall". Intangible cultural heritage products also have greater potential for realizing vibrato. In addition to building an e-commerce ecosystem, Douyin is also more actively involved in the cultivation process of intangible cultural heritage IP. According to its recently announced intangible cultural heritage partner plan, individuals or organizations interested in helping the innovative development of intangible cultural heritage can all Apply to become "intangible heritage partners", and these partners will receive traffic support from Douyin.
Douyin hopes to expand the proportion of intangible cultural heritage content on the platform. According to reports, the "intangible heritage partners" plan announced by Douyin this time is preparing to recruit 50 "intangible heritage partners", and each "intangible heritage partner" will receive corresponding traffic support, training, and branding assistance. Inheritance of the intangible heritage industry. Douyin will build an open platform for intangible cultural heritage, strengthen intangible cultural heritage cooperation with local governments, and further explore the effectiveness of intangible cultural heritage transmission.
In terms of dissemination, Douyin short video will provide technical, operational and traffic support for "intangible heritage partners". For non-heritage practitioners who need production transformation, Douyin will help establish industrial links, help them complete transformation and sales, and ensure that their experience can be replicated. The vibrato story of
intangible cultural heritage is still in progress.
three tones original content reprint, please contact authorized
