A 49-year-old rural woman made a short video, and the villagers were puzzled: the mother of two children did not know to find a job to do, and she was messing around
Li Dan | Lecturer at the Law School of Nanyang Normal University Invited researcher of the China Institute of Rule of Law Modernization
(Related reading: Women's Army in Kuaishou: Xicun women appear in a group)
Swept through the countryside by fast hands, from time to time there are shocking jaw-dropping raw operations, some people "stew themselves in iron pots" and "fry their crotches with firecrackers" can masochize themselves, some people "swallow octopus alive" and "eat light bulbs" desperately create horrors, some people "ask for blessings for underage pregnancy" and "do farm work in revealing clothes" frantically challenge the bottom line of morality...
News reports about rural vulgar broadcasters
"When we are fine, we love to take some selfies, but we have Internet celebrities here, and we rural people can do our part!" Yanan, who was brushing Kuaishou, finally took his eyes off his mobile phone and inadvertently said the secret rules of Xicun Kuaishou Jianghu. Since 2016, middle-aged women from Xicun have gathered to Kuaishou. In about half a year, middle-aged women in Xi Village touched the net, brushed videos, played selfies, and were busy and happy. A Kuaishou jianghu with the Women's Army as the absolute main force quietly emerged from the smartphones of the people of Xicun. Indeed, as Yanan said, the people of Xicun are safe and secure online and offline. In the Kuaishou rivers and lakes of Xicun women, no one "shows ugliness", "sells misery" and "vulgarity", they appear on camera but not out of line.
First, the online breakthrough of women in Xicun
After Kuaishou short video came to Xicun, the middle-aged woman in Xicun enthusiastically embraced this new thing. In the days of brushing fast hands every day, they have unconsciously undergone many changes. They suddenly found that at some point, they became technically literate, became romantic, and became expressive...
(1) Yanan becomes a "capable person"
The 50-year-old Yanan has only a primary school education, and she was very unconfident when she first came into contact with Kuaishou. With little literacy, she usually takes the opportunity to observe patterns and colors to identify the operation process steps, and after a long period of use, she forms muscle memory, and even reaches the proficiency of "operating with her eyes closed". "At first I wanted my son to teach me, but he was impatient and said I didn't understand anything. I figured it out on my own. Now I'm playing around, idling at home and messing around. My neighbors are all from my church. At first, someone must have laughed at me, leave them alone! Love to say anything, anyway, I can be happy myself. Since then, Yanan has not only broken through his son's "technical blockade", but also become the backbone of Kuaishou technology in the village. According to the authentic saying of the people of Xicun, Yanan is regarded as the "capable person" in the village. "Capable person" is a high level of praise that means smart, flexible and intelligent. Yanan never imagined that one day he would become a "capable person". When she was able to operate Kuaishou skillfully, a sense of accomplishment was born. Middle-aged women in Xicun, like Yanan, who once missed out on fashion again and again, are now catching up with the traffic wave of new media.
(2) Lin Min encountered "520"
49-year-old Lin Min began to celebrate Qixi, Valentine's Day, and 520 in the past two years. For the unexpected middle-aged romance, Lin Min said with joy and restraint: "Now, Kuaishou is popular for Valentine's Day gifts." The woman's life is really happy, and the people are rich. When my father was 520 years old, he sent me a red envelope, and I said no, he had to give it to me, let me buy myself some clothes, and buy whatever I wanted. I still spend it on my children, the children are in school, I don't dare to spend money indiscriminately, the old husband and wife don't engage in the young man's set, I will be content with that heart. In any case, those short videos of showing affection awakened Lin Min's deep romantic longing. Under the sweep of short videos, Lin Min's festivals suddenly increased, and she lost no time in "showing affection" and "showing off happiness". Other women in Creek Village, however, have very different experiences. As for most of the middle-aged men in Xi Village, they cried out one after another, including Wang Li's husband Xu Bing. Wang Li, 39, reposted several short videos of Qixi romantic stories two days before the Qixi Festival, and "accidentally" clicked to play them while having dinner with her husband. However, on the day of Qixi, Wang Li, who was full of expectation, not only did not wait for a dime gift, but also did not receive a single word. Annoyed, Wang Li did not say a word to Xu Bing for two weeks. Under the repeated persuasion of his friends, Xu Bing bought a necklace for Wang Li, which can be regarded as coaxing his wife well. But Xu Bing had another grievance: "I work hard every day to earn money, and I spent a thousand yuan to buy a necklace, and I am reluctant to buy it." This is all a quick hand, depending on what people want, she also wants, and not a child still has to coax. If I don't buy gifts, can it mean that I don't want to spend time with her? That's a lot! "The new media practice behavior of women in Xicun has brought about asymmetric changes in the concept of husband and wife. Those middle-aged Xi Village men who are not good at expression encounter the romantic new trend of rural life, and they are puzzled, uneasy, or disdainful.
Online tutorials for expressing romance
(3) Lu Yan "carried" copywriting
On her daughter's birthday, 54-year-old Lu Yan sent a photo of her daughter's life with the text: "Happy birthday to the baby daughter, although she has grown up by one year, but in the eyes of your mother, you will never grow up, and your mother will always love you." If you are familiar with Lu Yan, you will be surprised when you brush this short video. It is hard to imagine that they scratched their heads that the author of the video was the housewife who did not read much and was silent. Lu Yanfrankly revealed the psychological process of carrying copywriting: "I saw those words from other people's videos. This is what people say, and I was moved when I saw it. Well, when I was little, no one sent me blessings. Now that you are here, buy a cake for your birthday and make a delicious celebration. When I brush the video, I see that when people celebrate their children's birthdays, they can be lively, and the children are happy, and we are happy. When it was discovered that copywriting could be carried online, middle-aged women in Xicun, who were not literate, became "able to speak." They took a big step forward in emotional expression and became direct, passionate, and courageous. In the past, they knitted their love in their children's sweaters, expressed them in their husbands' instructions, and placed them in their parents' snack boxes. Today, they not only "have numbers in their hearts", but also "words in their mouths". Although these emotional expressions are still online, they are beginning to express their chests after all.
Second, the proportions of women in Xicun
The women of Xicun, who were jubilant in the Kuaishou rivers and lakes, underwent a series of remarkable changes, but there was no particularly outrageous transgression. While they became beautiful, confident and calm, they did not slide into vulgarity, vulgarity, and vulgarity. Overall, their performances in Kuaishou rivers and lakes are packaged without excessive, moving forward without crossing the line, lively without losing order.
First, beauty at zero cost. 45-year-old Zhang Cuilian loves the "filter beauty" function. She said excitedly: "I'm just playing blindly." I watched the video of beauty, and I was shocked myself, I can still be so beautiful. You haven't heard that whoever looks beautiful looks like a star. If I really look like this, people will have to say that I have plastic surgery. In order to make it convenient for them to rejuvenate their youthful appearance, Kuaishou platform has prepared online "makeup boxes" and "cloakrooms". After a selfie, they can choose beauty, makeup, body beauty, filters, and after one operation, they will become "white, long legs, thin waist" in seconds. Next, they can also choose "template - beautification - soundtrack - text - fine tuning - cutting - image quality enhancement - stickers" according to their needs. When it comes to the last step of pushing, you can also @ friends, #话题 (example: #浅浅更个新, #今天先长这样). From shooting to graphic pushing, the whole process can be completed in minutes. Such a trouble-saving, interesting, and cost-free experience is naturally very pleasing to middle-aged women in Xi Village.
Second, daily appearance. 38-year-old Yu Mengqiu likes to take selfies in dresses, and after posting several short videos, she found that something was wrong. Someone in the village pointed fingers at her, saying that she liked to spend money indiscriminately on clothes. Originally, she was going to turn a deaf ear, but her mother-in-law also persuaded her. She had to put away a few new dresses and wear them when she had a drink or went shopping in the county. Other middle-aged women in Xi Village also do not dress deliberately, they wear sandals in summer, cotton shoes in winter, and rarely high heels and boots. In addition to making careful choices about what they dress, they are also particularly careful about their body narratives. When making short selfie videos, they are used to holding up their phones to shoot down. As a result, 90% of the short selfie videos are like a photo sticker, with only the head and neck in the frame. Although they love filters, they only play online and do not buy cosmetics and jewelry specifically for selfies.
Headsticker appearance of rural women
Third, low-frequency updates. Wang Ying, a 49-year-old mother of two, is particularly keen on playing fast and can post five short selfie videos a day when she is in a good mood. She has been in contact with Kuaishou for less than a year and has taken more than 180 short videos of herself. However, only more than 90 videos appeared on her account, and the same number of works remained in the draft box. Regarding this arrangement, Wang Ying said helplessly: "I used to like to make videos, which was very fun, but then I heard people in the village talking about me, saying that I have two sons, and I don't know what to do. You talk about it, I shoot the video and it doesn't cost money. Don't I know I have two sons? I usually save money and don't buy cosmetics, they really manage a lot. People are terrible, I don't send out a lot of videos now, so I play by myself. Wang Ying found that it is important to control the frequency of short video updates, otherwise it will be regarded as "idle" and "not doing business". At present, the 15 middle-aged women who are the most active in Xicun basically only post one short video a week.
Third, the rules of Xicun Kuaishou rivers and lakes
The women of Xicun performed in an orderly manner on the Kuaishou platform, confirming that they tacitly followed a strong set of rules of action. So, what are these rules and where do they come from?
First, the way of being a farmer. In the life creed of Xicun people, "looking like a farmer" is the most basic requirement to be a person. Villagers generally accept Kuaishou short videos, but do not seek to become Internet celebrities. Although Aunt Liu has 5,000 followers and 110,000 likes, the villagers do not consider her an "Internet celebrity". Whether it is Aunt Liu or other women, when they pick up their mobile phones to take selfies, they deliberately stay away from the style of Internet celebrities. They will choose no makeup or light makeup, speaking a dialect and vernacular, showing the true appearance of female workers. Nicknamed "Speak for Me" Kuaishou user, her videos often depict her arms under her head and Erlang's legs lying on an open cardboard box. In fact, this look is the most classic image of rural men in summer. The people of Xicun have always pursued "hard work to get rich", and they do not take the kind of money-making method that attracts attention and traffic to the eye, and regard it as "fooling around" and "fooling around". Under the guidance of the principle of "being kind", Xicun women's true colors appear on camera and carefully carry out body narratives.
Second, the logic of family-based living. "Little Pippi's grandma" is the "Queen of Kuaishou" with the most fans in the village. But surprisingly, when asked what the real name of "Little Pippi's grandmother" was, the vast majority of villagers could not answer. In the mouths of villagers, this person who has been married to Xicun for 27 years and has 5,000 fans is just "Grandma Pippi", "Hua Hua's mother" and "Zheng Quan's family". It can be seen from these titles that women are still subordinate in village interactions. In addition to the imbalance in family status between husband and wife, women in Xicun also have heavy parenting responsibilities. Villagers pointed out Ms. Wang's frequent purchase of clothes, on the grounds that she should save money for her two sons to buy a house and marry a daughter-in-law. In the life ethic of Xicun, the main mission of women is to unite the family to live a good life, not to highlight the individual, let alone pursue self-pleasure.
Third, public opinion that overlaps in space. Zhang Hui's more than 1,000 fans are basically acquaintances, most of them are neighbors, relatives and friends. For the people of Xicun, "mutual relations" on Kuaishou has become a new courtesy. He He, a perennial migrant worker, said: "We (people in the village) all follow each other, and whoever posts a video, we know his movements." You are like pressing the monitoring in the village, who gets married and who has children, and it is difficult to pretend that these things are difficult to know. "After a series of interconnections, old acquaintances became fans, and online and offline circles basically overlapped. It is precisely because of the high degree of overlap between online and offline that Xicun women do not perform in relatively independent and unfamiliar spaces, but start broadcasting to familiar faces. Viewers in front of these screens have the authority to make public comments. Once someone has crossed local consensus, they feel clear and powerful pressure. In the face of such "restless people" who have crossed the boundaries of identity, the villagers will unabashedly point fingers. Xicun's public discourse system flooded into the online space, and the social structure of semi-acquaintances controlled the online self-presentation of Xicun women.
A strong civic intelligence center that is standard in the village
The secret to the fact that the new media practices of women in Xicun have not crossed the line and are that the structural strength of Xicun Village is still strong enough. In stark contrast, areas where the internal structure of villages has shrunk will be filled with "color, ugliness, fake, strange, vulgar, and gambling." In this regard, the outrageous actions in Kuaishou's short videos are just a projection of the disorder of life in some regions. If this judgment is largely incorrect, then it is imperative to rebuild public life through citizen subjectivity. There is no doubt that platform companies, government agencies, and news media must work together to continuously maintain a clean external environment. However, this does not mean taking radical measures to turn off beauty, filters, live broadcasts, and tipping functions, let alone denouncing short videos on platforms such as Kuaishou, Douyin, and WeChat Channels as "opium of the new spirit". In fact, in most of the remote hollow villages like Xi Village, new media have provided various benefits to the elderly, women and children left behind. When they pick up their phones, they either share their lives, or learn about the lives of others, or communicate with relatives abroad, or use funny jokes to relieve deep loneliness. In fact, this is also an important reason why middle-aged and elderly people are far faster than young people. Young people have fancy ways to fill the void of leisure, while middle-aged and elderly people who stay in the village do not have much choice. Only by putting ourselves in the shoes of those left behind in the Hollow Village can we more truly understand their fascination with short videos. The Internet Traffic Competition Tournament shows that there are many people who want to become Internet celebrities but eventually become Internet celebrities, and even fewer who become Internet celebrities are not angry and do not overturn. For the vast majority of farmers who are destined to become Internet celebrities, as the main body embodying human dignity, they are fully capable and determined to protect their spiritual home.
(The picture is taken from the Internet, and all the people and places in the article are pseudonyms.) ）