In the data age, the "face" has become a tool.
Your face may not belong to you. A face that is "valuable" enough, whether for ornamental or commercial value, can be copied by a flood of imitators.
Some are passive "imitations", that is, they are born with a face that resembles others, such as Jiangxi "Xiao Ma Yun".
"Ma Yun" Fan Xiaoqin and Ma Yun
Even if he is still only a child, it does not prevent public opinion from rushing to this face, which is almost inevitable in the era of traffic.
Where are the active imitators? Open Douyin, you can see at least 10 non-repetitive version of Ma Yun's copy.
For example, a user named "JV Ma Zong" not only looks similar to the real Ma Yun, but also designs the script by himself and launches the "Rich Man Dressing Tutorial", which attracts more than 10 million fans, which is much more popular than some fourth- and fifth-line real stars.
There are more and more "copycat stars", they do not necessarily appear on the big screen and advertising, but are stationed on mass social platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. The wave of new media that swept in around 2015 gave them the opportunity to expose and publicize themselves on a large scale.
Some people can only look at the account name to know who they imitate, such as Yong Jay Lun, Meng Huajian; some maintain their real names, trying to accumulate attention for themselves by rubbing star hotspots, such as Li Dan, a plane model who is famous for imitating Yang Mi. Zhou Runfa's imitator Wen Xiang even cooperated with Zhou Runfa in "Let the Bullets Fly", and many viewers once thought that one person played two roles in the play.
There are also imitators who strive for excellence and do not hesitate to spend a lot of money on plastic surgery to achieve "icing on the cake", such as a Liu Yifei fan who has been undergoing plastic surgery since the age of 19, and even changed his name to "Li Yifei".
Li Yifei before and after plastic surgery
With the development of filter technology, some do not even need plastic surgery, directLY AI face change, such as imitating Uncle Zhao Benshan's vibrato anchor.
A face is like a painting. If the face of the star is compared to a famous painting, the face of the imitator is a fake of the famous painting, the base is already seven or eight points similar, and then add some details in a heavy way, as far as possible to achieve eight or nine points, or even very similar.
No matter who they look like, if a face appears in front of others, another face has automatically appeared in the minds of others. True or false, some people are happy about it, some people are trapped here.
<h1>More than one "fake Jin Dong"</h1>
"Imitation" is an old word, a technique, an ability, and a talent.
Humans first learned through imitation, and today, imitation elements are often applied to comedies and games that bring fun to people.
The imitation in film and television dramas was first called "parody", and there are many similar funny means in Stephen Chow's films, through the deconstruction and tribute to the classics, and then rubbing their own style elements to form a new content core.
Off-theater imitation, that is, imitation of public figures themselves, was first called "imitation show".
At the end of the 1990s, the ace variety show "Happy 100" launched by Southeast Satellite TV had a "happy star face" link, and by allowing many ordinary people to reproduce the sound and smile of the stars, the program created the first batch of "cottage stars", of course, some real stars were also discovered, such as Ye Yiqian, who had imitated Liu Jialing and Fan Xiaoxuan in the show.
Ye Yiqian, who imitated Liu Jialing and Fan Xiaoxuan in "Happy 100"
This is the earliest imitation show in China, compared to the similar appearance, the audience prefers the imitator's personality interpretation, is to unload the baggage, deconstruct the familiar familiar defamiliarization expression.
Around 2015, with the prosperity of the "net red economy", some people did enter reality from the screen and be seen by the public by making themselves a replica of the star.
In the "Happy Girl" in 2016, a girl named He Chengxi appeared, as a loyal follower of Fan Bingbing, He Chengxi began to imitate Fan Bingbing's plastic surgery from the age of 15, and shengsheng made himself into the shadow of an idol. And after spending a lot of money and time, he finally rubbed the heat of the real Fan Bingbing, and later participated in the filming of a movie, the poster read: "Brain 囧之 - I am not Fan Bingbing".
"Brain 囧之 I am not Fan Bingbing" poster
Today, the "cottage" star has become a spectacle, a phenomenon-level commercial product.
There may be only one genuine, but the cottage version can be "unlimited". Just one vibrato, "Fan Bingbing" has less than a dozen. Don't believe it, you open different live channels, you can brush at least 5 "Fan Ye" in one night.
In order to distinguish each other and get along harmoniously, they have to give themselves different flower names, "Fan Ye Bing" and "Bing Bing Fan" are two popular representatives, open any of their live videos, you will definitely see a melon eating masses sincerely ask: Is it really Fan Bingbing?
Is it really Jay Chou?
Is it really Jacky Cheung?
……
Knowing that it is not true, he still can't help but stare at the big eyes and throw out a lot of innocent question marks.
Why can't it be true? Because most of the A-list stars, they are very busy, but also attach great importance to the image, there will be no kung fu "down" to accompany us to play nonsense.
As we all know, vibrato is usually used to "brush", not to "watch", entertainment-oriented short videos are usually not more than half a minute, the user's attention will not stay too long, a quick glance, "original" "cottage" is indeed true and false is difficult to distinguish.
And, what they do, it is indeed "grounded" enough, closer to ordinary people: live broadcasting, chatting, bringing goods, and imitating celebrities...
Some imitators have a good temper, like a small citizen who can be seen everywhere and has street anger, such as one of Fan Ye's imitators "Fan Ye Bing", who will scold the audience who questioned themselves in the comment area, "Don't like to see, don't look at no one begging you".
Some people even don't need to show their faces, just use the basic behavior of "imitation", and then use people's different needs for star brothers to tease others. For example, last year, the aunts were fooled around by the "fake Jin Dong", how many middle-aged women bet on the "Jin Dong brother" Fang Rong, not far away to follow their love, but found that the bamboo basket hit the water empty.
After things cool down, they will still return to their empty and lonely lives, and even the simple joy of brushing videos has been deprived.
Imitators in Baidu Tieba
However, must the attention of the "copycat version" be less than that of the "genuine version"?
Not necessarily.
On Douyin, which is mainly positioned by the civilian carnival camp, the fans of the cottage version of "Zhao Liying" reached 577W, "Di Li Reba" had 436W, and the fans of "Chen Xiaochun" reached 1.71 million... All far exceed countless big Vs, at least to the size of a small star.
In the era of fan economy, data means traffic, traffic, and it means commercial value.
"Cottage Zhao Liying" can earn millions of rewards by relying only on a live broadcast; Jay Chou's "pirated" "Yong Jay", releasing a video with more than 1,000 likes, he did not sit in the mountains and skies, but constantly launched new business in other videos, in addition to imitating the real Jay Chou's concave shape, tone of the look, even his side business magic has also learned pure fire.
"Jay Yong", who has nearly 2 million fans, co-produced a "dream linkage" video with another copycat Zhou Huajian, which received more than 2 million likes
Some videos also appeared in the cottage "star set", "Li Ronghao", "Zhou Huajian", "Xie Tingfeng" and other big celebrities gathered in Jay Yong's dating circle, shocking more than one face.
The cottage "star set" shocks more than one face
"Cottage stars" are usually easier to attract traffic than ordinary short video anchors, singing two songs, saying two mantras, and even just need to show their faces, and they often receive hundreds of thousands of likes. It is indeed a solid "eating by the face".
However, it is not easy to say whether it is your own face or someone else's face.
<h1>Borrowing (stealing) faces to eat? </h1>
"Face value" is also an old word.
In the past, a saying that transformed appearance into capital was called "eating by the face", and now, the more commonly heard word is called "face value economy", which uses the appearance as a social symbol alone, which means to convert the appearance into a measurable value.
In most cases, looking like a certain star is a compliment, at least it means that the "appearance" will not be low. In any era and country, high appearance is a kind of natural luck, for actors, models and other professions, the appropriate thing is "God appreciates food".
As a result, the "cottage star" has slowly become a business and formed a complete industrial chain.
In 2006, Jiangxi set up a special "China Cottage Star Art Troupe", bringing together some budding variety shows, imitation show participants, and folk "imitation masters" scattered in the rivers and lakes, they are grassroots stars, and the real stars may be similar to five or six points, but the value is more than 50% or 60%.
Homepage of the official website of China Shanzhai Art Troupe
In the name of real stars, they undertake various commercial performances, concerts, brand endorsements, TV columns, etc., claiming to "achieve millions of star returns with a small amount of investment".
The head of the "Cottage Star Art Troupe" was interviewed by the Times and confidently promoted its concept of "we are cost-effective".
"Running business performances" is the most common business in the circle of cottage stars, they have repeatedly appeared in more than a dozen small county weddings, real estate openings, new store openings and other occasions, a single offer is usually only a fraction of the star, but because of the low price and can get more work.
Zhang Li, an actor who imitates Mei Yanfang, has publicly stated that as early as 2013, her annual income has been able to easily exceed one million, and Wang Han's imitator Zhang Qiang also revealed in a media interview that "it is also possible to earn four or five million a year."
Zhou Huajian's imitator Meng Huajian often posted live videos of himself and appeared in various large and small business performances on Douyin, and he also held concerts with "Jay Yong" at the livehouse in Beijing, with a ticket price of 220 yuan.
Even if you want to "retire" one day and change careers, the account of the copycat star can also sell for a good price. According to the report of Zhongxin Jingwei in 2020, the account price is calculated according to the number of fans, 10,000 fans are 700 yuan, and a copycat star number with nearly 2 million fans can sell for at least more than 200,000.
Of course, these are all commercial activities within the scope of legal permission. The industrial chain is secretly growing wildly, and some cottage stars are not satisfied with "imitation" and try to confuse the real with falsehood.
In November 2018, a message of "Han Hong rebuked the cottage version of Lin Junjie" appeared on Weibo's hot search. An Internet celebrity named Fan Yixian is famous for looking like Lin Junjie, but he is not satisfied with this, but often under the banner of Lin Junjie's own figure, he swings in and out of nightclubs, and even plays a performance poster, claiming that he is Lin Junjie himself, and by this way he earns millions a year.
Han Hong rebuked the cottage version of Lin Junjie on the hot search
For another example, on September 23, 2018, there were "Tse TingFeng fan meetings" in many places, directly using Tse Tingfeng's portrait and name, and Tse Tingfeng's brokerage company released a Weibo rights protection, saying that the behavior had a misleading effect on consumers and "caused damage to Tse Tingfeng's reputation".
This kind of imitator not only failed to borrow his name, but also lost his original reputation, and really ironically responded to Mr. Qi Baishi's old man's sentence that "those who learn from me are born, and those who are like me die."
<h1>It is difficult to draw a tiger with a skin</h1>
There is a distinction on the Internet between "imitation" and "copycat": imitation is to tell others that it is fake, and copycat is to pretend that it is real.
Once upon a time, "imitation" and "cottage" were things that were connected by roots, and cottage in the broad sense was not a pejorative term, but a common culture.
In 2008, a survey by China Youth Daily showed that 40.8% of people agreed that "innovation" was the core content of "cottage culture", and the reason why it won the hearts of the people was that at the beginning it was not limited to imitating the object itself, but innovatively excavated more symbolic value and catered to people's diverse needs.
In the era of relatively poor entertainment, ordinary people who look similar to celebrities can be regarded as a spectacle, and if they can add their own creativity and reproduce skills such as tone and demeanor, singing and dancing, they will be among the darlings of popular culture.
Even if you don't look like it, there is a chance to become famous by imitating "going out of the circle".
In 2012, a program called "The Colorful Big Coffee Show" was broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV, where ordinary people or hosts imitated popular stars, but imitators needed to go through specific training to challenge the classic tracks of superstars in a short period of time, from superstars such as the late Zhang Guorong, Mui Yanfang, Teresa Teng, Michael Jackson, to avatars such as Snow White, Smurfs, and Uncle Bird. Hong Kong's Wang Zulan imitated Huluwa in the show, so that she became popular all over the country, Jia Ling often imitated boys, and Da Zhang Wei and Qu Ying also ushered in the second peak of their careers with their own creative imitation shows.
Liu Wei, who imitated Wang Yibo in "The Hundred Changes Big Coffee Show"
At that time, Zhang Wei, Jia Ling, and Qu Ying were not all comedy masters, they participated in a parody show as an actor, although they imitated other stars, but they still played themselves.
This imitation is a precious folk culture with technical and artistic content, which injects unique creativity into the simple follow-up trend, and naturally produces new commercial value.
Nowadays, from "imitation" to "cottage", from individual behavior to a complete industrial chain attached to the star effect, to the infringement of external branches, accountability and other chicken feathers, some transgressions and even illegal acts have gradually become a much-criticized but helpless chaos in the "cottage" industry.
Blind, clumsy follow-up and copying, natural lack of technology, and can not talk about any art, even if in the short term can be used as a way to make money, but in the long run, it will inevitably lead to being eliminated by both the market and culture, and it is only a matter of time.
From the perspective of being a person, "real stars" and "fake cottages" are not higher or lower, but from the perspective of being a commodity, "imitation" is of course inferior to "genuine".
To put it bluntly, it's just a delicate face and has no sustainable business value.
Yoko, a spicy yoko who became famous for a Bbox, also added her own playful and funny new ideas to the act of "imitating Bbox", pleasing but creative
It is difficult to draw a tiger with a skin, and if you only regard "imitation" as a superficial copy, a kind of reincarnation speculation, the beginning of a face, the rest all rely on rubbing, "cottage star" and real star even if the similarity is high, it will become like a papier-mâché doll.
Author | South Wind Window reporter Xiao Yao
Edit | Dong Kexin
Typography | Xiao Lijuan