Chutian Metropolis Daily Jimu news reporter Kang Xuyang
The "Shangju 416 Women's Group" sang the ancient style song "Chiling" with the Peking Opera vocal cavity, which accidentally became popular on the short video platform; Hubei Huangmei Opera Hua Dan chengcheng sang Huangmei Opera every night in the Douyin live broadcast room, and received nearly 3 million fans.
416 female group member Yang Huai's live performance photo
Yue opera anchor Zhang Danheng helped hundreds of Yue opera actors turn to online live Broadcasting of Yue Opera, ushering in the "second spring" by live broadcasting tips; Wang Qin, an 82-year-old representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of Yang Opera, taught Yang Opera live on Douyin, attracting more and more netizens to become "Yang Opera fans".
Traditional opera culture is being passed on in new ways. As of November 2021, the average number of quyi anchors on the Douyin platform alone was 3,719 per day, with revenue increasing by 232% year-on-year. The opera performers moved the performance stage online, so that the intangible cultural heritage opera was known and loved by more people through live broadcasting, and they also gained more motivation because they received tips and recognition.
Live broadcasting makes traditional culture "out of the circle"
The collision of traditional culture and emerging media has attracted the attention of Zhang Yiwu, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, and professor of the Department of Chinese of Peking University.
"This is a very positive trend, which is a good thing for the development of traditional opera, and I hope that more and more opera artists will join in and spread the opera culture through live broadcasting." Zhang Yiwu said in an interview with Jimu News that in recent years, emerging network media such as short videos and live broadcasts have swept the netizen groups of all ages with their lightweight and interactive characteristics. Many opera actors and non-hereditary inheritors have captured this new trend and used live broadcasting to make traditional culture "out of the circle".
416 girl group member Bian Jingting's costume photo
"There are more than 300 kinds of Chinese opera, and some of them are very valuable cultural heritage. However, due to various factors, it is difficult for some troupes to have offline performance opportunities. Live broadcasting breaks the restrictions of space and audience, provides a broader stage for opera actors, and makes the dissemination of opera more convenient and extensive. Zhang Yiwu said that unlike offline performances, opera actors can interact with the audience during live broadcasts, and can also popularize opera knowledge, enhance the vividness and stickiness of opera art, and let many people who are not familiar with opera also like it.
How to encourage more opera performers to spread traditional culture through live broadcasting? "Proper tipping is a great incentive." Zhang Yiwu said that live broadcast tipping is actually knowledge payment, which is a high degree of respect for the artistic labor of opera actors, similar to going to the theater to see a play to spend money to buy tickets. But the difference is that live streaming tips give consumers more choices. "To go to the theater to see a play, you must first buy a ticket to watch it, but live broadcast tipping is an active behavior after the audience feels that the content is valuable and likes to recognize it."
Zhang Yiwu believes that the income obtained through live broadcast rewards is also a recognition for opera actors, which can motivate them to show better content in front of the audience, and at the same time drive more opera actors and artists to participate, providing a broader and deeper development space for opera culture.
Live rewards force actors to improve their level
"The live broadcast offers a lot of opportunities for young actors." Zhang Hui is a deputy to the National People's Congress and the party secretary and president of the Huangmei Drama Theatre in Hubei Province. Talking about the live broadcast of opera, he was deeply touched.
In the past two years, due to the epidemic, the troupe's offline performances have become less, young actors rarely have the opportunity to appear on the stage, and fans are worried about not hearing Huangmei opera.
In 2020, Zhang Hui's troupe opened an account on Douyin to promote Huangmei Opera. "The troupe has more than 20 young actors performing in the live broadcast room, and the audience across the country can understand them through live broadcasting, and they have gradually improved their singing skills and popularity through live broadcasting, which has a great effect on promoting Huangmei opera." Zhang Hui said that the cultural influence of opera brought by live broadcasting even far exceeds that offline performances, "Offline is limited by venues, a maximum of 1,000 audiences, 100 performances are only 100,000 viewers, but in the douyin live broadcast, there are 100 offline performances of the spread effect." ”
A member of the 416 women's group dressed in Hanfu, Zhu Ibis
The young actors in the troupe also received tips and encouragement from netizens. "The audience feels that if they sing well, they will go to the tip, and the actors will buy the head of the line, buy the costume and live broadcast equipment after receiving the tip, and then present the audience with a better performance effect." It's a virtuous circle. Zhang Hui believes that at present, more and more opera actors are pouring into the line, and the audience has a broad choice. Actors can only get the audience's love and rewards if they have excellent singing skills, so live broadcast tips are also a way to force opera actors to improve their business capabilities.
Pei Ying, a researcher at the Intellectual Media Center of the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, believes that live broadcast rewards have improved the transmission effect of knowledge. The economic benefits brought about by the mature and rational tipping behavior have attracted more people to join the ranks of knowledge content creators, so that the depth and breadth of Internet knowledge sharing have been greatly developed, and the knowledge inclusion has been brought closer to reality; the tipping behavior itself has further improved the efficiency of knowledge sharing. It is foreseeable that mature and rational live broadcast rewards can empower knowledge creation and sharing, and knowledge inclusion will usher in wider user participation and better content creation, helping the network society to form a "knowledge fashion" that respects knowledge.
It is timely to inherit the live broadcast of intangible cultural heritage dramas
Wu Shuangjian, commentator of The Pole News of Chutian Metropolis Daily
Recently, Zhang Yiwu, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy and professor of the Department of Chinese of Peking University, said that the public's knowledge acquisition through short video platforms should become the norm.
Zhang Yiwu said that it is necessary to allow and support science and education literary and art workers to use short videos and live broadcast platforms to reasonably generate income to stimulate high-quality content. In the vernacular, support literary and art workers to get fan tips through live performances. In this way, the actors can get the benefits, and the traditional culture can be promoted. Win-win!
It has to be said that the short video platform has played a great role in the promotion of traditional culture, especially in the field of intangible cultural heritage drama. According to the "2021 Douyin Intangible Cultural Heritage Drama Data Report" released by Douyin, intangible cultural heritage drama videos have been played 60 billion times and have been liked 2.2 billion times. The post-90s and post-00s have become the main force of Vibrato listening to intangible cultural heritage dramas, accounting for 52% of the total audience.
Did this year's young people fall in love with theater? It's not surprising to think about it. As a short video platform that is popular among young people, under the impact of the cultural wave of national style and national tide, cultural self-confidence has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is only natural that intangible cultural heritage dramas have ushered in a boom.
In the Internet age, it is a blessing for fans to enjoy intangible cultural heritage plays performed online without having to visit the theater in person, and an opportunity for actors. In April 2021, Yue opera actor Chen Yu (@Yue Opera Chen Yu), who was forced by the epidemic to be "cornered", plucked up the courage to start his first Douyin live broadcast. Now, her Douyin fans have nearly 200,000 people. Live broadcasting has brought her far more income than she earned from acting in the troupe.
200,000 followers! Which theater can accommodate it? This also shows that if more intangible cultural heritage drama workers can participate, wouldn't it be more able to promote authentic intangible cultural heritage drama? That's where the energy and charm of the web platform lies! We see that Chen Yu is not alone.
The most crucial thing here is to break through the conceptual barrier of live broadcast tipping. Artists should abandon the mentality of "afraid to talk about money"; fans should also know that paying for quality content will have more quality content to watch. Tipping for intangible cultural heritage plays is equivalent to buying tickets to enter, which is a very normal thing.
The development of intangible cultural heritage opera culture, the occupation of young people's audio-visual, short video platform has great prospects. Artists of intangible cultural heritage opera may wish to pick up the microphone and head to another stage, where there is a great future. In addition, can all kinds of theater teams carry out online performances? The ability of an artist is limited, and a team and a team can better reflect the charm of intangible cultural heritage drama.