Author / Cheng Shushu
Editor / Zhu Ting
Operations / Biscuits
It's been a long time since I've seen a food show like this that makes people want to update the next episode quickly after watching it in one go.
Last night, Youku Humanities launched a new food and humanities visit program - "Life and Food". Different from traditional food programs that work the presentation of food, "Life Food" starts from the "people-oriented" from the perspective of humanities, with the theme of "There is a life called what to eat today", which is in line with the way of today's young people, and connects history and times, culture and emotional connotations, and conveys the wisdom of life behind food culture.
The novel perspective and unique idea really made the audience of the bitter food program for a long time shine.
Since 2016, food variety shows have gradually ushered in explosive growth and have become a very important vertical category of domestic variety shows. However, in the past two years, with the objective problems existing in the general environment, the number of food programs is declining sharply to a certain extent, and it has to be mentioned that the problem of homogenization has to be mentioned.
In KK's view, the timing of the launch of "Life Food" at this stage is very good. After watching the show, it is not difficult to find that the reason why "Life Food" highlights the encirclement of homogeneity is not only the in-depth output of the story behind life and food from a humanistic perspective, but also the humanistic care attribute of the program that is interesting and warm.
1. There is a life called what to eat today
In "The Lonely Gourmet", it is said that God made it necessary for people to eat in order to survive. Therefore, he used his appetite to motivate people to eat, and rewarded mankind with the pleasure of eating. In fact, the purpose of food is not only to be delicious and filling, but also to contain an emotion in every food. It connects everyone's homeland and hometown, present and past, reality and dreams.
This time, the program "Life and Food" is not only a display of the "color and flavor" of food, but also focuses on the Chinese food culture and the diverse emotions of the public behind it. Through the leadership of the host of the program, Liu Yiwei, the audience can appreciate the food and fireworks in the streets and alleys of Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Beijing, and at the same time, they can also travel through time to understand the cultural sources and historical allusions of food.
In the first episode of the program broadcast yesterday, Liu Yiwei led the audience to walk in the market of Chengdu, from the deli on the side of the road, to the Ye'er Ba in the market, the memory of the grandmother's braised pork at the gate of the park in his childhood, and then to the mother's hoof flowers. There are no high-end and complex dishes, not delicacies, and the unpretentious daily food is full of the breath of life of our ordinary people.
In addition to the "fireworks in the market", the output of culture and history in "Life and Food" is also a major attraction.
In all fairness, there are not a small number of food documentaries nowadays, and if you simply express the taste, method, and material of the food, it is actually difficult to pry the audience who have been baptized by food documentaries for many years. And using food as an incision to tell local historical stories, people and changes may be what the audience wants to see.
However, in order to harden the cultural height, some food programs are easy to go to the state of hard bridge and hard horse from eating to cultural floating, but "Life Food" can truly integrate food and cultural output, and the balance is very appropriate.
While waiting for the food to be served, the acquaintances told the origin of the name of Lao Ma's hoof flower in a chattering way, explained the way of eating the hoof flower naturally with the action of eating during the meal, talked about why the name of Lao Ma's hoof flower shop is the head office and the origin of the name, and the problem and opinion mentioned by the fact that the food is named after women, and finally extended to the relationship between the social status of women in Sichuan and food, as well as the local historical events in Sichuan.
Integrating cultural output in these gaps in the search for food is naturally interesting, and it does not declare the dominance of food, nor does it make people feel the feeling of being hard.
What's even more commendable is the original intention of "Life Food".
Nowadays, people live at a fast pace and work under pressure, and many people often feel exhausted. And the food world behind the screen constitutes our small luck in the fast-paced life. Especially for young people who are worried about "what to eat" every day at the company and renting a house, the food program has also become their food illustrated.
"Life Food" sees this pain point of young people, and the program starts from the living habits of contemporary people in terms of city selection and food selection, and fits the rhythm of urban people's life.
"What's the after-work meal?"
It is the mantra of the current young people, and it is also their thirst for a better life, the opening words of "Life and Food", and the humanistic care of the program for the tired life of contemporary urbanites.
Second, the food blind box?
In addition to being novel and unique in content, "Life Food" is also surprising in form.
In the past, the food programs we watched were more divided into several categories: presenting Chinese food with spectacular audio-visual effects, or bringing the daily life of every ordinary person to the forefront, or inviting some celebrities who can cook, so as to stimulate the audience's interest. Indeed, a lot of attention and achievements have been made in the past few years.
Before opening "Life Food", KK thought about how the show could play new tricks? As a result, the program team found a whole new way to create surprises for the audience in the form of food blind boxes.
There is no food preview prompt, and there is no indication of where to look for it, in Liu Yiwei's even a little "aimless" walking through the streets and alleys, delicious daily foods suddenly enter the audience's sight. It can be found in a small roadside shop, in a wet market, in a restaurant where everyone eats, or in a hawker stall...... Every time you encounter a food, you will be surprised by opening a blind box.
"Life Food" focuses on a relaxed and silky output of food culture, which also leaves a lot of cultural tourism ingenuity for the local area. The food blind box in the program is not only "delicious", but also "cultural and connotative".
And these have to mention one person - Liu Yiwei, I believe that the audience who loves food shows is definitely no stranger to him. 22 years ago, CCTV's earliest food program: "Everyday Diet", made Liu Yiwei, who was born in Chengdu, famous and became a famous host in one fell swoop. From this point of view, Liu Yiwei's adaptability to "Life Food" is extremely high, not only with his own food attributes, but also in various fields such as hosting, directing, actors, screenwriters, producers, etc., he has unbridled active thinking, humorous expression ability, and deep and far-reaching ideological depth.
Under Liu Yiwei's real emotions and unreservedly sharing his insights and feelings about food, not only food, but also beyond the combination of firewood, rice, oil and salt, Liu Yiwei and every ordinary person who appeared in the show sincerely cooked meals with a warm atmosphere for urban young people.
In KK's view, the real meaning of the food program is to let the audience feel the temperature and humanistic feelings of the show, experience the taste buds jumping on the screen, and feel the beauty of life off the screen. Let the food and humanistic feelings continue better, this is the real meaning of food variety shows.
It is precisely because of the unremitting innovation and excavation of food programs and the firmness of the inheritance of food culture that it is possible to launch the new - "Life Food". Through this program, the public once again saw Youku Humanities' long-term insistence on deep cultivation and innovation of humanities programs.
From pioneering to deep cultivation, in the past 12 years, Youku Humanities has maintained continuous innovation, adhered to high-quality content, and the platform's sense of social responsibility and humanistic care can be seen. In the future, we look forward to Youku Humanities creating more good content worthy of tasting for us, and also exploring more valuable humanistic business upside for the industry.