As of noon on April 15, the number of viewers of only douyin, headlines, and watermelon videos has exceeded 5 million, and it is still growing rapidly. More than 30 media, including People's Daily, China News Weekly, Central Broadcasting Network, Half Moon Talk, China Daily, China Economic Network, Tencent Network, Sohu.com, Qianlong.com, Overseas Net, Sina Finance, and Beijing Business Daily, reported on "Tsinghua University Interview" under the titles of "Meet Tsinghua University's Open Class, Douyin Becomes the Second Classroom for People to Learn Knowledge", "Douyin and Tsinghua University Launch scholars' Interview Dialogue Program "Tsinghua Interview Record", "Douyin and Tsinghua University Launch "Tsinghua Interview Record" to Build a Digital Humanities Classroom" and published it Professor Zhang Xiaoqin, producer of the "Humanities Tsinghua" project, told the story in an interview with the media. Here, we forward the report of "Half Moon Talk" to thank all media for their support and the audience's love, and to encourage you.
There is no end to learning, and we will continue to work hard.
On social media, "Humanistic Tsinghua" is one of the accounts with the highest knowledge content.
Historians Peng Lin, Wang Hui, Zhang Guogang, sociologist Li Qiang, economists Li Daokui, Bai Chong'en, Jiang Xiaojuan, jurists Zhang Mingkai and Cui Jianyuan, philosophers Chen Lai and Wan Junren, educators Xie Weihe and Shi Zhongying, paleographers Huang Dekuan, film critic Yin Hong, literary scholar Ge Fei, sculptor Zeng Chenggang... The voices of these scholars have attracted the attention of 3.5 million Douyin netizens, and have also enabled "Humanistic Tsinghua" to truly build a bridge between the audience and the temple of knowledge.
"What we do is the work of the connector." Zhang Xiaoqin, a professor at tsinghua university's school of journalism and communication, producer and host of the "Humanistic Tsinghua" forum, said. Social media, a public medium, has made it possible for scholars to communicate directly with the public, and the wide dissemination of various contents of "Humanistic Tsinghua" on platforms such as Douyin has turned this possibility into a reality.
In April 2022, after the number of users on Douyin exceeded 3.5 million, "Humanities Tsinghua" decided to jointly launch the "Tsinghua Interview" with Douyin, which more systematically presents their life experiences, academic experiences, academic discoveries and major contributions in various periods, and their thinking on major social issues from their respective professional perspectives through in-depth interviews with scholars.
Professor Zhang Li, Dean of the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University, will talk about how architecture serves people and the application of this concept in the construction of venues for the Beijing Winter Olympics; Professor Yan Xuetong, Dean of the Institute of International Relations, will lead the audience to understand the basic principles of international relations and the international order of the future world; Professor Bai Chong'en, Dean of the School of Economics and Management, will explore the development path of China's economy; Professor Jing Jun, a sociologist, will tell the story of his years of fieldwork and his thoughts on immigration, medical care, pensions and other issues Jiang Xiaojuan, an economist who is deeply involved in China's reform and opening up, will tell her in-depth understanding of Chinese enterprises and the Chinese economy.
Each interview is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and each interview also makes Zhang Xiaoqin "feel illuminated". The following is Zhang Xiaoqin's self-description, about the story behind the scenes of "Humanistic Tsinghua", about her thinking about new media as a researcher in the field of journalism and communication, about the mission of cultural communicators, and about those "illuminated" moments.
All-media communication of "Humanistic Tsinghua"
In the 1920s, 10 of Tsinghua's 17 departments were humanities and social sciences, and a generation of people laid the humanistic foundation of Tsinghua. In the past 20 or 30 years, Tsinghua's humanities, social sciences, and arts disciplines have developed rapidly, continuing Tsinghua's academic unity and achievements. Entering the new century, how can Tsinghua University create a new pattern of humanities? Under the development goal of "more innovative, more international, more humanistic", the "Humanistic Tsinghua" forum was opened in January 2016. Qiu Yong, then president of Tsinghua University, put forward a concept in his opening speech to let Tsinghua's new humanistic light penetrate the campus and affect the society. Therefore, since its birth, the "Humanistic Tsinghua" project has been a social communication project for the public, with the purpose of "rejuvenating the humanities of Tsinghua and enlightening the spirit of the country" and undertaking the social responsibility of the university.
However, what is society, everyone on the street is an integral part of society, you can't just catch a person and influence others, you have to rely on the communication platform. As a serious cultural content producer, we do not expect to be naturally loved by the public, nor can we presuppose which communication platforms we are suitable for, but do the most extensive dissemination, attract users and gather users with high-quality content.
The content of "Humanistic Tsinghua" is diverse, and the communication chain is also very long, which we call "all media, whole process, all categories" content production and operation. All media, all categories, is for all media types at present, the production of corresponding categories of products, including large-scale live broadcast, ultra-short video, short video, medium video, long video, graphics, podcasts, books, etc., to the mainstream media, online media, social media, but also to offline direct listeners, direct readers for wide dissemination; the whole process, that is, from planning to operation of all processes are produced content, do not do publicity, only do content, but spread at any time. The purpose of this is to reach more people.
After more than 6 years of continuous output, a "Humanistic Tsinghua" all-media all-category communication matrix has gradually been established, and the number of statistics of live broadcasts, videos, graphics and texts comprehensive viewing and reading is close to 1 billion person-times, and there are many spontaneously disseminated contents. In 2017, People's Daily reported that the "Humanities Tsinghua" forum "makes humanities and ideas infiltrate university campuses and affect society", and today it can be said that it has been initially achieved.
In this process of influence, Douyin, Today's Headlines, and Watermelon Videos have played a major role, among which the role of short videos is more significant.
"Short videos like hussars"
A lot of people criticize short videos for fragmenting people's time, but I don't think so. In 2009, I co-wrote a monograph with students, "Mobile Phones: Personal Mobile Multimedia", and we put mobile phones into the long history of human communication behavior, and many of the judgments are still accurate. For example, mobile phones will change from communication tools to mobile multimedia, and they will become more and more close to the needs of people themselves. On the one hand, it does fragment people's time, but on the other hand, it can also make the fragmented time used effectively. The key is not the short video itself, but how people use it. "Humanistic Tsinghua" through mobile media to let people in fragmented time to accept new knowledge, the invalid time into effective time, this is not good?
However, how to use short videos to disseminate academic content does need to be explored. The standard we set is "the layman can understand, the insider can gain", taking into account both professionalism and popularity. This requires content production to be in-depth and simple, and has an "academic translation" function. The short video of "Humanistic Tsinghua" is longer than the general account, most of which is four or five minutes, and a few are close to ten minutes, telling a clear point of view and a story at a time, clear and clear, simple and direct. It's like a hussar that quickly reaches users and condenses users when the audience doesn't know us.
In 2018, we began to operate the Douyin account, when Douyin and "Humanistic Tsinghua" were in the growth period. I still clearly remember that when the number of users reached the first million, Academician Qian Yi's short video views exceeded 10 million, and the rapid growth of the number of users rushed to the line. Academician Qian is talking about environmental protection, and like many of our short videos, it is also academic and professional, but the audience is willing to watch and understand.
At present, Humanities Tsinghua has gathered millions of fixed users in Douyin, Today's Headlines, and Watermelon Video, and short videos have played a decisive role.
But short videos also have limitations, and viewers often ask in the comments where to see the full version. In order to meet everyone's demand for in-depth content, in April 2022, we will cooperate with Douyin to launch two new albums, one is the full version of the speech, with the public speech of scholars in the "Humanistic Tsinghua" forum as the main body, interspersed with a small number of interviews, the length is about 30 minutes, and a major theme is expounded at a time, and 34 episodes are launched in this episode.
The second album is the full version of the "Humanistic Tsinghua" interview "Tsinghua Interview" released for the first time on the whole network, the first season first launched six scholars interviews, followed by the second and third seasons. This is a new category, and it is also the most informative and longest of all video programs.
"Let the light of humanity continue to shine"
Tsinghua has so many outstanding scholars, like a rich treasure of ideas, at the same time, every scholar's concern for society and dedication to learning are also deeply touching. In "Tsinghua Interview", we hope to present richer and more profound content, and we also hope that the audience, like us, will not only gain knowledge, but also be moved and illuminated.
Most of the scholars we interviewed are intellectuals who grew up with the process of China's reform and opening up, and the interviews will fully present their life experiences. Like today's young people, they have also decadence, Professor Yan Xuetong, an expert in international relations, forged an iron bone in the army for nine years, but shed tears for the exam when studying abroad; Professor Bai Chong'en, a famous economist, a doctor of mathematics + economics, also scored 8 points in high school English; Professor Zhang Li, the designer of the world-famous "Xue Ruyi" at the Beijing Winter Olympics, also had a failure when he first came out, and he is still ashamed to speak of it. However, it was that failure, as well as timely self-vigilance and subsequent continuous reflection, that made Zhang Li the designer of the National Ski Center and the Shougang Jump today.
These stories will let young audiences see where the "big god" in their eyes came from, and how they gradually refined from bronze to king.
The interview will present the process of academic accumulation and academic thought formation of scholars. For example, Professor Wu Guosheng believes that there was no science in ancient China, which has caused a lot of controversy. Why he said this, we must understand his academic background, his theoretical context, in order to know why. For example, Teacher Yan Xuetong can often make accurate predictions about international relations, and what is the theoretical support behind this. Every scholar has an area in which they have worked hard, and this is often the doctrinal basis of their views.
Through long interviews, we can get a more comprehensive understanding of scholars. Teacher Bai Chong'en was once called "an economist who was scolded and praised" by the People's Daily, in fact, his scolded views and praised views are based on the same original intention, which is two forks of the same tree.
In the interviews, we will also see the important contributions of scholars in various historical periods, and their interaction with Chinese society. In the process of China's reform and opening up, based on a large number of investigations and studies, Professor Jiang Xiaojuan put forward forward-looking views on important nodes such as the relaxation of restrictions on private enterprises, the entry of foreign enterprises into China, and China's accession to the WTO. When the jurist Professor Zhang Mingkai was in college, the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China had not yet been promulgated, and from studying the Criminal Law to interpreting the Criminal Law and participating in the formulation of one amendment after another to the Criminal Law, his growth process was linked to the process of China's legal system construction step by step. It can be said that the life and academic experience of every scholar are a personal history and a vivid aspect of the process of China's social development.
In the interview, I ask each scholar the basic questions of each discipline and learn to see the world in different disciplinary frameworks. Of course, understanding a discipline requires a long learning process, but if we can understand the different dimensions of the world through the perspective of each scholar, and the pursuit of the common values of human beings in common, we may be able to break the information cocoon to a certain extent, obtain a larger field of vision, and let the world open up in front of us.
So far, "Humanities Tsinghua" has held 34 lectures, and I have also had in-depth exchanges with more than thirty professors, and almost every time, there is a feeling of being illuminated. What every intellectual, who has spent his whole life, is pursuing, their concentration and persistence, their deep thoughts, are touching.
Historian Professor Peng Lin is over 70 years old and has devoted his life to the study of etiquette, and has been mindful of the restoration of ancient Chinese etiquette and the reconstruction of modern etiquette. He led the students to study the Zhou Li, the Ritual Rites, the Ritual Records, unlocked the ancient Chinese township archery ceremonies and weddings from the literature, restored them with physical objects, found someone to make a carriage by hand, made dresses, built a township shooting platform, and trained actors to reproduce... However, the hard-earned physical objects can only be piled up in the office.
I often think that as early as the time of Confucius, the restoration of gifts was already "knowing that it could not be done", how can it be restored today? However, if there is no Confucius two thousand years ago, if there is no Peng Lin today, if there is no watchful eye of generation after generation of sages, how can Chinese civilization be inherited? Although Teacher Peng was deeply worried, he did not stop. Instead of taking the time to sigh, we should amplify his voice and transmit the light that illuminates us so that more people can see and feel it.
In the midst of a torrent of complex voices, this is also our situation as human communicators. However, after all, there are already millions of users, after all, there are hundreds of millions of clicks, I hope that our continuous efforts can pass more light out and illuminate more people.
Douyin is our strong supporter and the medium through which we transmit the light of humanity. I hope that the audience who likes our previous short videos can calm down, listen, feel, understand deeper knowledge, learn more complex theories, establish a pluralistic perspective on the world, and feel the humanistic atmosphere and humanistic feelings. Douyin specially provides a program container that combines long and short, which is convenient for everyone to switch according to their needs.
I hope that more audiences and more media will join the queue of transmitting the light of humanity. Together, we make the world a little warmer and brighter.