reporter: Shi Puning editor: Tang Yuan
is the majestic "Monkey King", a powerful British singer and dancer, and a silently guarding affectionate lover... known as "national style cross-dressing" "Ceiling" Zhu Tiexiong has performed many heroic deeds.
's update frequency is not high. In the more than three years since he opened his account, he has only 38 works, but he has gained more than 35 million fans on the entire network, as well as comments such as "the quantity is very small, the quality is extremely high, and I dare not push for updates."
Usually, after a complete narrative, his videos will end with cross-dressing at the end. The strong visual shock is accompanied by an equal degree of emotional impact. This short video narrative style is summed up by Zhu Tiexiong and his team as "cross-dressing is the skin, the plot is the bone, and the national style is the soul."
On the eve of the 2024 China Internet Civilization Conference, Zhu Tiexiong, who will be one of the conference theme sharing guests, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the "Daily Economic News" around Internet civilization and his own creation.
In his opinion, "national style" is not the same as "ancient style". It is essentially an expression of Chinese emotions and represents China's excellent traditional culture. This kind of culture, regardless of ancient or modern times, is reflected in the characters he plays. They are either well-known legends, or just ordinary people like you and me.
He said frankly that his current works are in a "positive cycle". When he saw that his works focusing on Chinese style continued to receive positive feedback from audiences, partners, etc., he became more determined. and his team’s determination to continue to develop the national style track.
Not only that, the team also gave Zhu Tiexiong strong confidence. He recently renewed his contract with OST Media. He believes that ost Media "as a believer in long-term content doctrine" can allow him to go further on the road of "innovative expression of traditional culture".
The rich connotation of "national style"
See the thing before you see the person.
walked into the studio, and the abstract national style had a concrete carrier. Just talking about "Monkey King", there are his costumes, golden cudgel and various peripheral figures, as well as an autographed painting sent by fans.
Let’s look at Zhu Tiexiong himself. On the day of the interview, he was wearing a T-shirt printed with the lion head pattern in the lion dance, and the bracelet he wore was also in the style of Sun Wukong's curse.
A corner of the studio Picture source: Video screenshot Photo by Daily reporter Du Jia
"National style" is not only Zhu Tiexiong's label as a short video content creator, but also his lifestyle. To a certain extent, the national style as the theme of the content also reflects his and his team’s observation and refinement of life.
The first question that needs to be answered is, what is "national style"? Can works be called "national style" as long as they include Han costumes, dramas, legends, etc. with Chinese cultural labels?
In Zhu Tiexiong's view, "The connotation of 'national style' is actually a big concept. I think the latter can only be called 'ancient style', and there is a very big difference between national style and ancient style."
Let's start with the form. From the perspective of "cross-dressing", national style can be clothing derived from traditional culture; it can also be clothing that can arouse the audience's emotions in the current context.
For example, in a work cooperating with the public security system, the final point of cross-dressing is the image of the people's police. "There are classic roles of heroes in traditional culture, and of course there are also contemporary ones," he said.
In other words, from a spiritual perspective, national style has essentially become an expression of Chinese emotions, and this emotion does not distinguish between ancient and modern times.
People's police officers in "disguise" in their works. Picture source: Video screenshots
On this basis, Zhu Tiexiong and his team summarized their work as "cross-dressing is the skin, the plot is the bones, and the national style is the soul."
He further explained, "The starting point for the shock brought by the modeling is actually the spirit of the characters, which is the core. And to show them, it is through storytelling."
tells the stories of different characters, but it evokes the resonance of most people's feelings of family, friendship, love, etc. "We just put it forward, amplify it, and then show it in other forms. "
For example, in the work released in June this year, the protagonist traveled back in time and wanted to separate his grandfather and his first love "Cuihua". Only later did the protagonist discover that the first love in his grandfather's mouth was actually his deceased grandmother. The elderly It was only because of Alzheimer’s disease that my grandfather forgot his grandma’s official name.
On a short video platform, this short video received more than 8.5 million likes and nearly 350,000 comments. I didn’t feel it at first, but at the last moment of cross-dressing, I didn’t know why, and suddenly I burst into tears.” The comment had more than 100,000 likes.
Zhu Tiexiong’s Chinese style cross-dressing picture source: video screenshot
“We hope that all works will reach The effect is that if you are a very reserved person, your emotions will be released the moment you read our works. Zhu Tiexiong concluded.
Continue to do the right things
The construction of network civilization is a big topic.
In the face of macro propositions and factors such as platform algorithms and traffic, if we want to do the right thing well, It is by no means an easy task.
For short video creators, this means that they must not only create works that are loved by users, but also be able to convey the message in a targeted manner on the basis of the short video communication tonality and the platform ecology. The spirit of the times.
In this regard, Zhu Tiexiong, who has tens of millions of fans and millions of likes on a single work, revealed the "tips" he and his team use when creating traditional culture: "The first thing to do is to pass it on and find it. These great qualities, finding meaning from them, and the people and their stories who uphold them. It’s best to combine real stories and then create. "
Sichuan opera face-changing and fire-breathing are incorporated into the work. Picture source: Provided by the interviewee.
Take the intangible cultural heritage - Ying Song and Dance as an example. Zhu Tiexiong mentioned that due to the needs of the shooting, he had a dance foundation and learned it for a week first. "In fact, what I learned later was only enough to make videos, and I couldn't do it if I wanted to perform with the team. "
The in-depth experience also brings a richer understanding of the content expressed. Especially in the process of getting along with the dance team, Zhu Tiexiong felt the dance team members' "unimaginable enthusiasm" for English singing and dancing.
At the same time, in Live rehearsals and performances brought him "goosebumps all over his body" and made him more aware of the charm of British singing and dancing as an intangible cultural heritage. "What we did in the video was to try our best to restore this feeling. "
Looking through the comments on the above video, "Where did this video go? It is very important to us Chaoshan people" is one of the popular comments.
And this kind of recognition also made Zhu Tiexiong and his team who put a lot of effort into the video shooting I feel gratified, “From our contacts, the core of the stories of many practitioners of intangible cultural heritage is sadness and persistence. We are also happy that they are being seen more. "
Incorporating cross-dressing into British singing and dancing. Picture source: Video screenshot
Zhu Tiexiong has felt the sense of pride that arises spontaneously when he sees the humanistic features and natural landscape of his hometown at least once this year. In his latest release In the work, the exterior scenes were all shot in his hometown, Meizhou Island, Putian, Fujian.
In fact, almost every video released must be a hit and positive feedback, and it also helps Zhu Tiexiong break the Internet content to a certain extent. The "traffic anxiety" faced by creators.
"The audience has gained a certain understanding of me, no longer rushes to update, and is willing to spend a longer time waiting for me. So far, no one is urging us, but we ourselves are more anxious. "Zhu Tiexiong said with a smile.
Zhu Tiexiong's picture source: provided by the interviewee
At the same time, this continuous "positive cycle" also allows Zhu Tiexiong to focus on the content of the work itself when creating, so as to create what he believes is right. In terms of work, I have been working hard.
"During the period of creating Chinese style content, I have become more and more determined in my heart," Zhu Tiexiong said, "Now, our biggest motivation is to try new things, and we want to play with things we have never filmed before. 'It also brings fresh feelings to the audience. ”
Daily Economic News
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