Author: Lian Ziqiang (Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Huaqiao University); Li Xuefang (Master's Degree, School of Journalism and Communication, Huaqiao University)
In the era of rapid development of new media, short videos are not only an important means of daily information dissemination and people's entertainment, but also a major platform for displaying and "activating" traditional culture and carrying people's collective memory. In recent years, relying on the effective development and wide application of new media technology, nostalgic short videos have become popular. Short videos such as improvisational shooting of old-fashioned buildings, self-presentation of old-fashioned life pictures, and fragment splicing of old images often gain considerable playback. The combination of the meaningful cultural phenomenon of "nostalgia" and the emerging media form of "short video" has created a unique cultural landscape in the era of new media, and has also become a cultural mirror image of the current era of thought and social development.
In the main street community of Nanping Street, Nan'an District, Chongqing, the "80 Memory Alley" that carries people's memories has become an innovative landmark of Internet celebrity literature. Paintings and sculptures on both sides of the street, such as tape recorders, supply and marketing agencies, green-skinned trains, and black cat sheriffs, seem to make people "travel" to the past, and tourists who come to take photos and punch cards are endless. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Wei
Micro-narrative and civilian perspective are the basic commonalities of nostalgic short videos
Nostalgia is a subconscious that is deeply hidden in people's hearts, mixed with the perception and experience of modern life and the emotional projection of historical situations by specific social groups. The development of new media technology has enabled the lost years to be preserved through video means, and through editing, collage and reconstruction, it has become a cultural product that provides spiritual comfort, and nostalgic short videos are participating in shaping the spiritual world of contemporary people in this form. From the perspective of content, a large number of short videos on this kind of theme focus on the display of life scenes and the presentation of cultural symbols in the 1980s and 1990s. For example, some show the rural life at that time, eggs for popsicles, wooden sticks to antennas to watch TV scenes restore many memory fragments; some of the main visit shop nostalgic routes, including the market to buy clothes, old-fashioned photo studios, small canteens in the alley, etc.; some of the main imitation makeup, imitation of Hong Kong movie bridge sections, old movie content splicing, etc. Micro-narratives and civilian perspectives constitute the basic commonality of nostalgic short videos.
On February 25, the 49th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in Beijing showed that as of December 2021, the scale of mainland Internet users reached 1.032 billion, of which short video users (934 million users) were used at 90.5%. Nostalgic short videos show a large number of life scenes and cultural symbols in the 1980s and 1990s, and they are also the memories of teenagers and even youth memories of generations, so the current nostalgic short videos present an obvious "middle-aged narrative". From the perspective of intergenerational development, the current society after 70, 80 and 90 is becoming the backbone of society, and it is also inevitable to bear more social pressure. The acceleration of modernization has brought about tremendous changes in contemporary China. Social development is changing with each passing day, scientific and technological progress, social change and the pace of people's lives are accelerating. In an accelerated society, people must constantly adjust themselves to adapt to the pace of development of the times, and when individuals cannot adapt to the environment of accelerated society and fierce competition, a kind of anxiety of "fear of backwardness" quietly breeds and becomes a universal, representative, and tone life experience.
As a result, nostalgic short videos provide a "spiritual massage" for this group. Using the gap between eating and waiting for the bus to be a "low-headed family" has become a rare leisure and entertainment time after busy work and life. The childhood and youth they experienced, every step of growth is accompanied by the fruits and consequences of modernization. Nostalgia is the romantic entanglement of the imagination. What is missing from modern life is a short spiritual comfort in the nostalgic short video.
Through "nostalgia", the self-identity of "our generation" is formed, and attempts are made to communicate and negotiate with the "young" group. In the 1980s and 1990s, scenes such as chickens and dogs barking, black-and-white television sets, printed warm water bottles, Hong Kong and Taiwan pop culture, playing gladiators on the mud, and neighbors sitting around waiting for popular TV dramas belong to their collective memories and are synonymous with "youth", "beauty" and "ideal".
Nostalgic short videos also take on the mission of intergenerational inheritance and intergenerational communication. The communication and inheritance of culture relies on ritual expression at the social level. In the exchange, interaction and sharing of nostalgic short videos, the network community of different generations has quietly completed the symbolic acceptance and spiritual inheritance of nostalgic short videos. Just as in the real society, urban parents will lead their young children to the countryside to experience life, more in the hope that their children can appreciate the natural scenery and the value of labor. Some short video creators will shoot scenes of their previous lives with their children, with the same purpose of hoping that children can understand the living environment and spiritual world of their parents in the past. In this sense, the main body of the dissemination of nostalgic short videos, through micro-narratives, leads the audience of short videos to reflect on current life in nostalgia, and re-examines the truth, goodness and beauty in life in the continuous exchange and collision between tradition and modernity. Today's reality is tomorrow's history, and cultural inheritance is also accumulated and precipitated in this exchange and collision between tradition and modernity.
It is not advisable to blindly indulge in nostalgic short videos trying to "lie flat"
We should also see that the current part of the short video with the label of "nostalgia" is under the guise of feelings, but most of the content created is driven by the interests of commercial operation, chasing hot spots, earning traffic, and being completely market-oriented in form and connotation. For example, in the case of unauthorized short videos with old movie clips to stitch, cut strips, or remake, "old terrier" becomes "new terrier", the amount of playback is there, but reduced to the content of the "porter", although many audiences can enjoy a moment of beauty, but actually involves the risk of infringing on the copyright of the original author; in addition, there are some main nostalgic food accounts, marketing is too heavy, easy to become a vassal of traffic, with commercial, consumer, instantaneous and other popular culture shortcomings.
There have been news interviews about the reasons why users like nostalgic short videos, and one of the netizens replied that it was to miss the beauty of the past. Middle-aged people on the one hand eager to break through themselves, escape the comfort zone, on the other hand, hesitate, so the inner positive emotions projected into the nostalgic short video, seemingly nostalgic for the past, in fact, the pursuit of that distant "utopia", in the long run easy to make people become conservative, self-doubt, worry about tomorrow, these will give birth to the inward roll effect, once the conservative dilemma is formed, it will affect the personal future and self-development, resulting in the idea of "lying flat".
In the short video with nostalgia as the main theme, Li Ziqi's "ancient style" series can be called a phenomenon. These works show the noble morality and aesthetic philosophy of traditional society by showing the traditional Chinese agricultural life in harmony between man and nature, man and man, and man and society. Li Ziqi's short video adds a new understanding of urban young people: the old stove that has never been seen before, the firewood cooking rice, catching chickens, digging sweet potatoes, novel scenes are compressed in short videos ranging from tens of seconds to minutes, showing many new highlights from the old countryside and old things. There are also many rural youths who choose to return to their hometowns after watching more rural nostalgic short videos, re-examine life, and devote themselves to rural construction, and the nostalgic wind also invisibly promotes intergenerational inheritance when it blows to people's hearts.
It can be said that nostalgic short videos are the carrier of people's memories of a better life, and a good life is the key to repairing the audience's realistic trauma of nostalgic short videos, the former is a mirror, the latter is a statue, through reflection, the two are interrelated and inseparable. In fact, finding spiritual comfort in fragmented time and restoring collective memories to help socialize is the reason why most people click on nostalgic short videos. At this stage, the nostalgic theme is diversified and can meet the needs of the audience from all aspects, but the content is inevitably uneven, so the nostalgic short video cannot be simply market-oriented, but also needs to pay attention to the positive guidance of social values, because it not only represents the past, but also connects the reality and the future.
Under the profound changes of the times, focusing on real life and responding to real situations is the direction of the development of nostalgic short videos. Recreating the past in an approachable form is precisely its charm. We need "nostalgia" to reflect on life and clarify the future direction, and we also need to use "nostalgia" to seek common experiences with others and achieve effective communication. Only by creating one high-quality work after another, reflecting people's aesthetic pursuits, generating emotional resonance, and highlighting positive energy, can nostalgic short videos always maintain their vitality.
Source: Guangming Daily
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