The Narrative Dilemma of Oriental Selection|Observer

The essence of the relationship between people is projection, Dong Yuhui has become the emotional projection of ordinary workers, loving him is loving himself, and defending him is defending himself.

Text: He Yifan

Editor|Zhao Jiankai

Header image source: Visual China

In my family group, in recent days, Dong Yuhui has successfully defeated "What to eat tonight", which has been dominating the list, and has become the hottest topic. A few relatives who are not old enough to be mothers-in-law re-downloaded Douyin and activated their accounts for him. They are the most non-existent in Dong Yuhui's army of 22 million fans, they don't forward or comment, and their attention is silent solidarity, but they just feel that "it's too unfair to this young man who works part-time".

However, it seems that "unfairness" no longer exists, and Dong Yuhui has both his lining and face. On December 18, New Oriental appointed Dong Yuhui as the cultural assistant to the chairman of New Oriental Education and Technology Group and the vice president of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group. Twelve hours ago, his identity had changed from "worker" to "senior partner of Oriental Selection", and it was announced on the same day that he would withdraw from the Oriental Selection live broadcast room, and his main focus would be on the new cultural tourism business.

Yu Minhong made the optimal solution, reflecting the ability of mature entrepreneurs to navigate complex situations. On December 18, Dongfang Selection's share price rose by more than 20% to HK$31.55, and lost fans also began to return. However, considering that Dongfang Selection is not a startup in the true sense of the word - it is backed by New Oriental, and even the name was changed from "New Oriental Online" - this was a low-level mistake that a veteran could avoid, but why did it fall into the narrative trap and struggle for nearly a week before climbing out.

Of course, it is right, because it is positioned as an "excellent product and technology company with its own agricultural products as its core products" and "a cultural communication company that provides customers with a pleasant experience", rather than an "MCN company". If it is an MCN company, it is difficult to drive the transformation of New Oriental Group, and it is even more difficult to obtain a high valuation in the capital market. Because individual IP, especially a single super IP, as a goodwill asset, is too poor for the stability and sustainability of listed companies. "Make a friend" is to untie Luo Yonghao, and after several twists and turns, the backdoor "Century Sage Scientific" was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

But this is just the narrative logic of Dongfang choosing himself. And who a company is is not completely defined by itself, or can be solved by giving users a "meeting". When Xiaomi went public, the prospectus emphasized that it was not a simple hardware company, but an "innovation-driven Internet company", but for a long time, this self-definition was not recognized by the capital market. Through this "small essay incident", the user told Dongfang Selection: At least you are still an MCN company that is highly dependent on a single IP at this stage. The self you see is not the same as the self you think others see and yourself in the eyes of others.

Interestingly, what makes Dong Yuhui's IP influence more indestructible now is precisely Dongfang Selection, if it is more patient in the process of diluting a single IP, or if it makes proper arrangements for Dong Yuhui in advance, Dong Yuhui's influence will transition to the organization more smoothly.

In the epic book "When the Music Stopped", author Professor Alan Blind concludes with an epic essay on the 2008 financial crisis, which he argues sums up all that happened after the financial crisis: people's feelings about fairness create a sense of discarding everything, and if people feel that they are being treated fairly, they may work with you, at least mentally, to support you, but if they feel cheated, you will also lose their support.

Luo Yonghao behaved particularly actively in this incident, and compared Dong Yuhui with himself, from which it was inferred that the treatment Dong received was "unfair". In fact, the starting point of Dong Yuhui's career is different from him, Li Jiaqi, and Brother Xiao Yang, the latter all have their own influence before they have a company, and the former is the company's first transformation into live broadcasting, and then it became popular with its personal talent and efforts, and then led the company to fire.

In fact, the "fairness" that caused the fermentation of public opinion circles is not at all how much money Dong Yuhui makes - if Dong really proves to have a high return, the impact of the narrative will be reduced. The real fermentation point lies in the feeling of fairness, when Dongfang Zhen chose the most clumsy way, he suddenly pierced the window paper of internal contradictions, it doesn't matter whether the copywriter is written by someone, it doesn't matter how Dong Yuhui is treated, and it doesn't matter if Sun Dongxu is "young and energetic, but not mellow enough". The public's voice is almost one-sided towards Dong Yuhui, which cannot be simply understood as the standing of the melon-eating masses or the hustle and bustle of the rabble. The essence of the relationship between people is projection, Dong Yuhui has become the emotional projection of ordinary workers, loving him is loving himself, defending him is defending himself, and everyone finds that voting with their feet can affect the company's attitude towards this young man, which has become another form of "idol cultivation".

Dong Yuhui's participation is not a "Chinese partner" story, but a story of "when happiness knocks on the door", as the producer, Dongfang Selection initially took the wrong script and told the wrong story. Dong's IP attributes are also different from Luo Yonghao, Li Jiaqi, and Brother Xiao Yang - he was born in an ordinary rural family, without any background foundation, and his education is average, he thought that he could be a teacher in a large company for a lifetime, but he didn't expect that under the general trend, his dream was shattered and silent, and he had no choice but to become an anchor, becoming popular overnight, and instantly becoming a national son-in-law. Ordinary people and migrant workers can find their own shadow in him, or what they want to be. And Dong Yuhui has a kind of "weak" temperament, it seems that every step is pushed by fate, fighting back in the established track, some naïve, some stubborn, some humble, and some unconfident, just like Zhang Wuji, the most "ordinary person" in Jin Yong's novels.

New Oriental's internal culture advocates the release of individuality and allows for argument. In January 2019, the internal complaining video "Release Yourself" at its annual meeting went viral in the circle of friends, "I will only sing for the boss's circle of friends", "I can't write PPT because I am tired and tired", the lyrics attracted bursts of cheers from the scene, Yu Minhong smiled from ear to ear in the audience, took the lead in applauding, and gave the main creative team a grand prize. This incident saved his image damage caused by his previous gaffe that "the fall of women leads to the degradation of the country". In that narrative, it was the "beating workers" who challenged the boss, and Yu's open-mindedness was in line with the public's expectations of "fairness".

But the small composition incident, the release of personality has become a demonstration of the weakness of the company's management, and the escalation of infighting. The biggest failure of Dongfang Selection is "tug-of-war", if the editor leaves a message for the first time and decisively unifies the export of external expression, it will not be repeatedly on the hot search. But the fact is that after several rounds of confrontations, there were various voices with hidden emotions such as Sun Dongxu, Xiaobian, Dong Yuhui and anchor Tianquan, and finally the company was shaped into a "strong man" who killed the donkey before the mill was unloaded, and the bridge was demolished before the river was crossed.

The so-called training of the heart, from a long-term point of view, is a milestone event for Dong Yuhui's personal growth and the maturity of Dongfang's selection and management. In the short and medium term, the negative impact will not dissipate quickly at the same speed as Dong Yuhui's promotion, and after Dongfang Selection's live broadcast room does not have Dong Yuhui, a new narrative repair is needed.