Author | Zhu Kai
Edit | Cauliflower
Title map | "La La Land"
How popular is romance among young people?
According to a survey by China Youth Daily, 79.89% of college students have seen romance matchmaking. From "Heartbeat Signal", which focuses on workplace social networking, "Swapping" ex's "Switching to Love", to "Heartbeat 20 Years Old" on campus travel, people are no longer strange to romance:
Several young people spend some time under the same roof, leaving messages every night to a loved one. At the same time, their every move will be recorded by the camera, and the star guests in the observation room will reason about the emotional lines of amateurs and discuss emotional topics with the audience while watching.
Watching the whole process of other people's acquaintance to love from the perspective of God can undoubtedly satisfy the audience's voyeurism and desire to participate, which is especially obvious in amateur variety shows - 50.89% of people regard it as a "love lesson", hoping to learn love experience from ordinary people similar to themselves.
Viewers can learn from the show, such as what not to say. (Photo/"20 Years Old")
The increasingly popular amateur romance has triggered large-scale discussions - some people think that they can find true love on the show, and some people think that amateurs have no "freedom of love"; Some people sincerely snort the popular CPs in the show, and some people think that romance is just script and traffic monetization.
In this case, what is the mentality of the amateurs who choose to participate in the romance? How were they found by the program group? Will their lives change after the romance is broadcast?
We found Mao Longyi, a post-00s college student who participated in romance complexes.
He graduated from Nankai University with a major in electronic information science and technology, and participated in the second season of "20 Years Old" last year, which is a graduation trip for college students, and likewise, the amateurs in the show also leave messages for their favorite people every day.
"20 Years Old"
Although he did not find true love in the show, Mao obviously had his own feelings. Here is his story.
Handsome guy on the show, "recommended by a friend"
How vegetarian are the amateurs in the romance?
At least before going to the romance complex, Mao was a person who could no longer be vegetarian: he thought that he had no popularity on the Internet, usually did not play short videos, nor posted much Weibo, just an ordinary college student.
Of course, due to some force majeure factors, he also has a little popularity in school: since the third year of high school, many juniors and sisters have come to the class to ask him for autographs; When running on the playground, there will also be "unfamiliar guests" squatting on the sidelines, "that should be the most exaggerated (situation) I have experienced so far in the festival."
The sudden attention once made Mao's heart a little dark. But more and more people came to him, and the trouble caused him began to exceed the joy, and the head teacher even thought that he was deliberately eye-catching, and talked to him many times and persuaded him to concentrate on his studies.
As for what force majeure factors are, you can guess. (Photo/provided by interviewee)
In late April 2022, Mao added the WeChat of the director of a romance show - as we all know, romance is a circle, and the program team often looks for suitable amateur guests through official registration, social platforms, friend recommendations and other channels, and Mao was recommended by friends to participate in this show.
At this time, the romance complex was already very popular in China, but Mao had not seen this kind of show - his first reaction was the same as the audience, feeling that the amateurs in the romance complex were not necessarily "vegans", at least they had certain fans on social networks, or signed contracts with MCN institutions.
And he also feels that as a show, the romance will inevitably have a bit of script or performance component: "When I watched the first season of the show, I saw dinosaurs (amateurs) shouting 'be yourself' on the mountain, and I didn't understand it at that time, and I wanted to talk about it and cry?" ”
After the initial communication with the director, Mao had a simple understanding of this show - it focuses on graduation trips, and does not force amateur pairings. At the same time, as an amateur, he became curious about how TV shows worked, so he wanted to participate in it with a tourist mentality.
Some friends who have seen romance remind him that amateurs should be prepared to be scolded when they go to romance. Mao didn't think about it, he felt that he had no problem in being a person, so he decided to officially register and filled out the guest registration form.
Amateurs who participate in romance must fill out a registration form. (Photo/provided by interviewee)
The casting cycle of a romance show is often as long as half a year: amateurs generally do not exceed six men and six women, but the program group will receive hundreds of application forms. Therefore, a suitable amateur needs to go through a process of screening layer by layer -
After adding the director's WeChat, Mao first filled out a registration form, including love experience, ideal type, etc.; After preliminary screening, the program team will also conduct several rounds of online and offline chats with amateurs to understand amateurs' expectations for love and stress reactions in certain scenarios.
At the same time, the program team will also require amateurs to provide social accounts on various platforms, chat with classmates and friends around amateurs, and conduct more comprehensive background checks to prevent the risk of "collapsing" and "overturning" after the program is broadcast.
In order to ensure the watchability of the program, the amateurs selected by the program group have distinct personal characteristics, and there are also differences in appearance, personality and other aspects. Mao did not say exactly why the program team chose himself, but when he appeared, the guests in the observation room gave their first impressions - Japanese boy, manga style, mother-fetus single.
The daily photos of Mao classmates are indeed very Japanese. (Photo/provided by interviewee)
The show has no script,
"Too decent to be interesting"
Judging from the order of appearance of the romance, Mao classmate is the legendary "catfish" -
This is a must-have setting for almost every romance. After four men and four women got along for a while, they suddenly added a few new people, which theoretically made the originally clear situation and emotional trend begin to turbulent, making the show more interesting.
The day before the recording of the show, Mao learned that he was the last male amateur to appear and was going to spend a day alone with the opposite sex. When his mother and fetus were single, he began to feel that the brain CPU was overloaded - "I thought about it at the time, but I didn't come up with any countermeasures, anyway, I was anxious for half a day, worried that I couldn't fit in."
On the first day he came to the scene, Mao really felt the way a show works - he appeared on the snowy mountains of Ganzi, facing several cameras in front of him, his eyes did not know where to look; Sometimes just entering the state, I suddenly heard "male six male six, Mai has no sound, come (adjust) it", and interrupted my thoughts again.
Seeing the state of the other guests quickly blending in, Mao was secretly surprised in his heart: "The first time we met, the heat energy (amateur) came in shouting, and I was frightened at that time, thinking how could there be such an enthusiastic person, as if the camera did not exist in front of him." ”
Mao's first appearance. (Photo/"20 Years Old")
At the beginning, Mao was not accustomed to facing the camera, and often fell into the embarrassing state of two people sitting together without saying anything. But after a long time, seeing that other amateurs were very comfortable, he forced himself to adapt and gradually got used to the camera.
The program group does not have a so-called "script", but there will be basic rules and task settings, and it is also designed on the camera screen: according to the amateur's state of getting along that day, the program group will promote the next activity process in a timely manner; For the appearance of amateurs, the program team will also provide shooting suggestions, such as Mao is "can skateboard appearance, will be more handsome".
The recording time of the program is not fixed, and sometimes it is already early in the morning when it comes to the heartwarming message. Despite this, everything around makes amateurs feel novel, and Mao and his roommate will still endure sleepiness and chat for two or three hours after removing makeup together. At this time, PD will make appropriate reminders -
In the romance, each amateur will have a PD (follow-up director) who is responsible for following up and adjusting their status in the show. Under normal circumstances, PD will guide amateurs to actively initiate topics and express themselves in front of the camera, and at the same time remind everyone not to talk too much in private, so as not to have a sense of separation after the program is broadcast, "For example, you two just had a conflict, reconciled privately at night, and the next day like nothing, the audience will feel inexplicable."
Shows are sometimes recorded late into the night. (Photo/"20 Years Old")
During the recording of the entire romance show, Mao felt that most of the time, the performance of amateurs in front of the camera was not much different from life. But he also gradually began to understand what the guests of the previous season said, that is, it is too difficult to "be yourself" -
"One is the current situation, for example, two people may have defaulted to 'pairing', if you are interested in one of them, you will worry that it is not appropriate to leave a message to this person; the other is that when you speak, you also have to think that after the show is broadcast, the audience will watch and judge your behavior, so you will really think about it a lot."
Mao also has moments when he feels that he has not played well, but he often adjusts his state in time, "If you always have to take into account the audience's judgment of you and make a comprehensive plan, it will actually affect you, too decent and smooth is not interesting, people still have to live a simpler life."
Mao did not find true love in the show. But he tried a lot of things he wouldn't do in life, and many chat sessions in the show prompted him to constantly express himself and say his feelings, and he gained different types of friends:
"In real life, my circle has always been fixed, and my friends are people who are similar to me. If I hadn't come to the show, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet so many people - many people say things and talk about areas that I haven't covered, and I would have felt that because of my social narrowness, I missed a lot of people and missed different ways of expression. ”
Mao hopes to be an amateur who came in on the first day: "Many things will be different, not that they will get better or worse, but I think I will adapt faster and get along with more things." (Photo/"20 Years Old")
After the broadcast of the love complex,
"Junior high school grades are all out"
In the summer of 2022, when the romance series started, Mao was in isolation in the school's hotel.
Although his face was covered in mosaics in the fifth appearance trailer, he was quickly recognized. Some alumni preemptively exposed his Weibo, and classmates came to ask him if he participated in the show, "I just felt that after the show was broadcast, it seemed that something different would really happen."
In his opinion, the overall trend of the show does not have an element of "artificial editing". But looking at it again from the perspective of the melon-eating audience, it is still beyond his imagination -
"My first point of view at the scene is that a lot of CPs have been locked up - two people stay together every day, stay for a day, what am I going to do? But after the program was broadcast, I looked at it from God's perspective, everyone's message objects in the first few episodes were different, the emotional direction changed, and the difference between the first issue and the later was too much. ”
For amateurs, they can also re-examine their behavior through the show and learn what others say about themselves: in life with friends, people do not know how the other party discusses themselves and summarizes the day after they go back, but there is a chance to review in the show——
Mao remembers an invitation event, where he invited a female guest and was rejected, thinking it was nothing at the time, only to find out later that after other amateurs returned to the room, they urgently discussed and reasoned about it; Another time after chatting with a girl alone, the other party mentioned to his roommate that he didn't send him back, and Mao found that he was easy to ignore these details in getting along.
Amateurs are also "eating melons" in the show. (Photo/"20 Years Old")
In the program, guests in the observation room make various real-time reactions to the behavior of amateurs while immersed in watching; Outside the show, the audience also discussed the process of amateurs getting along and the emotional line, although Mao felt that "most of them are not allowed, anyway, just try to have a happy".
The more popular a love variety show, the faster netizens will "pickpocket" amateurs will come - on the one hand, it is aimed at the choice of amateurs in the love show, if you swing between two people, you will be scolded, "I don't know what the audience means, they always hope that the two people see each other for the first time, and then they will always be happy, but the show is only so many days, you can't be (together) right away."
At this time, the amateurs who appeared late were luckier, less entangled, and less scolding. On the other hand, some netizens turned their attention outside the camera and began to spy on the private lives of amateurs in every detail, to see if they had signs of "collapse" - Mao said that some netizens came to pick up their accounts, and also picked up the junior high school transcript, "Fortunately, my junior high school grades are okay."
Under normal circumstances, netizens will search for amateurs' associated accounts on social platforms to see who the other party has followed, what posts they liked, and what statements they have made. At first, they only discussed in the group, and once they had "suspicious evidence", they would go to the amateur's good friend and say "recognize your classmate, he is different from the show, why are you still friends with him".
During the broadcast of the romance series, if the public opinion is too large, the amateur will generally make a clarification statement, and more often he will not respond. For a long time, Mao did not update his news on the Internet, and he felt that the Internet was too terrible: "Although I am only a small traffic, I really deeply realize that it is not easy for celebrities, and the pressure they are under is many times that I don't know." Pickpocketing is so immoral. ”
Mao feels that in a sense, netizens are also quite pure and will not preset the purpose to pick people, "their first reaction is to pick you up first, and then talk about whether it is good to pick it out." (Photo/provided by interviewee)
Although there was no successful pairing in the show, Mao's Weibo also began to gain fans, from dozens to hundreds of thousands, and he began to be recognized when walking on the road - once he went to the gym near his home and found that the front desk stared at him for a long time, and when he was shopping, he couldn't help but ask "Are you the one in the romance".
Soon there were also MCN agencies coming to him, saying that he now has fans and traffic, and can consider becoming a blogger. But Mao temporarily refused these invitations and publicly stated that he wanted to prepare for graduate school - he always felt that these flows did not belong to him, and he did not want his life trajectory to be completely affected, "his personality is not very ostentatious, but he still hopes to leave a little private space."
One year after the broadcast of the love complex, Mao lived a two-point first-line study life, and occasionally was recognized in the study room, so he continued to study in another place. He eventually entered the re-examination of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, "In fact, I also regret a little, so many people know that they are going to graduate school, and the pressure is quite great, but people always have to reconcile with themselves."
Mao's wish. (Photo/"20 Years Old")
For him, romance is a fun experience, but he doesn't want it to become a label welded to his body. There are also programs that invite him to go on the romance again, "But if you go to the romance again, I think I can't be separated from the romance in this life."
At present, Mao's goal is to become a programmer, hoping to have the opportunity to continue his studies: "Of course, I am not an academic fanatic, but I just think I can learn. If I'm suitable for the job, the work is good. My ultimate goal is to be a director, and who knows? I'm only 20 years old, after all. ”
[1] Dialogue with the main creator of "20 Years Old": On top of the customized romance of the 20-year-old crowd, he jumped to the pattern of youth variety shows/watched TV
[2] Revealing the casting of romantic amateurs: GAY, 1% acceptance rate, candidate crash/deep burn
[3] The Third Time and Space of Amateur Romance/News Communication OUC
[4] How do variety shows "gild" amateurs? / Puffer Fish Film and Television Archives
Proofreader: Huang Siyun
Operation: Lu Zirui
Typesetting: Yang Yue