Centennial Yuyuan Road, a "story shop" accompanies people about to enter their fifth year. Here, the "goods" on display are stories, the "currency" of exchange is still a story - some people come here and open their hearts to leave stories, and some people come here and rush by to take away stories. In the cycle, stories of all sizes gather and interact here, warm, sad, dreamy, and nostalgic...... Colorful content fills this small space, allowing strangers to find a bond of spiritual communication here.
In the past five years, the "Story Store" has received tens of thousands of cards, condensing the colorful lights and life of our city. Although each one is very ordinary and a little trivial, from time to time there will be poetic threads that gently knock on your heart-
Part 01.
From a microphone to a grocery store
The story is happening
I have wine, do you have a story? This is the pleasure of the rivers and lakes, I have music, do you have a story? This is the "story shop".
Back in the summer of 2019. A singer drove back to Shanghai from Qingdao. The scenery and songs along the way, he suddenly wanted to go to the market towns along the way. Next to the national highway, he came across an old man selling peanuts. "How do you sell peanuts?" said the old man, "fifty dollars." The singer originally thought it was a pound price, but after paying, the old man gave him a whole sack of peanuts. And this bag of peanuts has become the first welcome gift for the "story store" to receive visitors. A handful of peanuts, in a few words, shortened the distance between each other and opened the conversation box of the story.
This singer's name is Yuki, and he is the first "one-day shopkeeper" of the "Story Shop". In fact, Yuki co-created and participated in the creation and planning of this store from the very beginning. In Yuki's story, the "Story Store" is incarnated as the "Story Store", and any currency is invalid in the Story Store, and the circulating currency recognized by the Story Store is the story.
Yuki said that the people who came left their own stories, and he was responsible for writing the lyrics of the stories and singing them to each other. In the process of this exchange, you can't shoot or record, just feel the moment, maybe this kind of story exchange is easier to heal those who tell and listen to stories.
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When the "Story Store" was first established, there weren't so many stories. At first, the space functioned as a "sounding board".
From 2015 to 2019, with the opening of urban renewal version 1.0 of Yuyuan Road, although the environment along the street has become cleaner and the shops have become more beautiful, there is always a lack of something for the surrounding community residents. The change in the hardware facilities of the external space has not brought about a substantial and fundamental change in their quality of life. Urban renewal is changing with each passing day, and the people living in this city do not know what the future holds, and the communication and communication between people may be more valuable.
Fortunately, this problem has been seen by people with a heart.
Xu Yinlan, the director of the Changning District Social Fun Creation Center, said that the original intention of establishing the "Story Store" was based on how to open the barriers between people and the city in the urban renewal of Yuyuan Road, and to shape the humanistic spirit of the city with some heart-warming actions. Although there is no experience or model to learn from before doing this, fortunately, there are many partners who are inspired by co-creation in the process of urban renewal. Lin Dahai from Guangzhou shared with his partners the creation of life scenes in South China, and also shared the concept of "co-creation" proposed by Professor Li Xun, Dean of the Institute of Urbanization of Sun Yat-sen University. The community planning model of "co-creation workshop" has promoted the "problem-solving" of the social governance level of Yuyuan Road, which has opened up Xu Yinlan's thinking: can we use the form of a community of destiny to provide a channel for community residents to express their opinions and suggestions?
Thus, there is the "Story Store". The function here has also evolved from the previous one-way transmission of information to an intermediate interactive station where all kinds of information can be accurately transmitted from the bottom up and from the top down. Here, residents can learn about the work of some functional departments and have the right to express their normal demands, here, residents can not only see, but also speak, they are not only spectators, but also participants, and the "story store" has become a "worry relief grocery store".
Part 02.
From a bystander to a voice for the neighborhood
The story is unfolding
"Recently, there have been more people walking dogs, and there are more pet feces on the big lawn at the entrance of Chuangyi, which has caused a bad impact on the environment of Yuyuan Road, which is really bad. "We call on everyone to raise pets in a civilized manner, walk pets in a civilized manner, and jointly protect our Yuyuan Road." ”
One day in 2022, the "Story Store" collected several of these cards. After Jolie, the captain of the "Yuyuan Road Wangwang Team", knew that he issued a civilized pet raising initiative in the WeChat group of the Wangwang team, and several pet parents who often walk their dogs on Yuyuan Road responded immediately, not only advocating civilized pet raising when walking the dog, but also picking up pet feces when they see pet feces on the lawn. Many merchants on Yuyuan Road have responded positively after they knew about it, and placed pet bags in the store for pet pick-up.
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In the "Story Store", there are two types of co-creation cards designed with "Living" and "Observers" to attract everyone to record the stories that happened to them and Yuyuan Road, and here becomes the carrier for each pedestrian passing by to record their own stories and those of the neighborhood. The text on the cards was originally mostly complaints from the surrounding residents, but as time went on, the complaints gradually decreased, and instead everyone was recording their own stories, and this small space was influencing the people in the neighborhood.
Many "old Changning" who used to live on Yuyuan Road have come from other districts, and even eighty or ninety years old people have come from Fengxian by three buses, just to come and see, sit and leave some stories. The "Story Store" has also become a temporary stop, nearby residents are willing to sit here for a while and chat about family life, and when they encounter tourists from other places who come to ask for directions, they will even pull tourists to enthusiastically introduce what are the delicious and fun shops on Yuyuan Road, as if they were at home.
Xu Yinlan and her team came up with a plan of "everyone is the spokesperson of the block", and found a representative from each of the businesses, Chuangyi Park, and residential areas on Yuyuan Road, and invited them to be the spokesperson of the Yuyuan Road block, giving them the right to speak, and at the same time providing help and convenience to everyone. Later, the well-known teacher Huo Bai, the most beautiful volunteer in the country, Yang Min, the local artist "Aunt Yang" on Yuyuan Road, and Huang Zhiwei, the deputy general manager of Shanghai Chuangyi Industry, were the first batch of spokespersons.
Aunt Xiao Zhen is a regular customer of the "Story Shop". In 2019, the "Story Shop" opened, and she was attracted by the enthusiastic owner of the store. She has lived on Yuyuan Road since she was a child, and she has a special affection for this road. In the more than four years since the "Story Shop" opened, Aunt Xiao Zhen would go in and sit whenever she passed by, and the owners here changed one term after another, and many of the owners became good friends with her.
Once, Aunt Xiao Zhen saw a glass kettle used by a shopkeeper, she felt that such a cup was fragile and easy to burn, so she loved handicrafts, she knitted a cup sleeve and gave it to the shopkeeper, and also made some more to put in the store and give to tourists. In order to make these gadgets more vivid and beautiful, Aunt Xiao Zhen also often renovates the patterns and colors. Over the years, Aunt Xiaozhen's cup sleeves have been sent out batch after batch, she said, this is not only a love of hers, but also a kind of support and participation for Yuyuan Road.
"Yuyuan Road used to be a very quiet road with no shops, but now that so many young people have come, it has become more vibrant and vibrant, and I hope that the 'Story Store' can continue to let more young people understand the history of Yuyuan Road, and I hope that Yuyuan Road can develop better and better in the future." Aunt Xiaozhen said that this is her most heartfelt blessing as a spokesperson.
Part 03.
From entrepreneur to dream achiever
The story continues
The year of the opening of the "Story Store" in 2019 was also a year of high enthusiasm for young people to start a business. They are like a flame, full of passion in their hearts, and they want to do their own business. These young people share a common desire to own their own store to make their dreams come true. However, opening a store involves various costs such as rent, water, electricity, and labor, and it is an excessive burden for Xiaoqing to invest this large amount of money in the early stage, if the store is not in operation.
Against this backdrop, the "Story Shop" one-day owner program was launched in August 2019, and local residents, neighborhood store owners, and local KOLs with various skills can sign up to become store owners. The "Story Shop" does not charge entry fees, and the owner can use his skills and his own stories in exchange to record the stories of the day in the form of the owner's diary, and then leave these intangible wealth to the next owner.
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In 2020, the story store will call Tang Mu back again in the form of a story store, and heal strangers in the form of "I have music, do you have a story", and Tang Mu has also gone to many places, such as Huangpu Binjiang Buylocal Story Market, Public Welfare Xintiandi Story Co-creation Association, Chengdu Story Hotel, etc.
In 2021, the one-day shopkeeper plan of the "Story Store" was upgraded to a "monthly purchase list", using the form of a one-month shopkeeper to link block groups and mutual benefit brands, and link more forces from the C-end to the B-end to join the joint operation and maintenance of the space, making the space both inclusive and dynamic.
In 2023, Yuyuan Road will be rated as a national tourism and leisure block, and its popularity will continue to rise, and citizens and tourists from all over the country will continue to check in. On October 14 of that year, with the strong support of Jiangsu Road Street, the story store was relocated to No. 1046 Yuyuan Road, which also means that the story store has a real home, which takes the renewal and development of Yuyuan Road as its own responsibility, and presents the urban renewal process, tens of thousands of story cards, and fresh dynamics of Yuyuan Road to every citizen and tourist who goes to Yuyuan Road, and at the same time innovates the art and humanities dream incubation section: as long as you have skills or ask questions about life, you will definitely be given the same frequency of answers in the story store. In the past six months, interesting dreamers from all walks of life have come to apply for jobs as store owners......
On October 30, 2023, Sakura, the owner of the FancyXrochet brand, entered the "Story Shop". As a new Shanghainese, Sakura has been working and living on Yuyuan Road for more than two years. Sakura paid attention to the "Story Shop" early on, and when she saw the owner's recruitment information, she signed up as soon as possible. On weekdays, Sakura pays attention to and participates in the rescue of stray animals, and the products she brings are handmade woolen fabrics for pets. During her time as a shopkeeper, Sakura brought a puppy to be adopted, Qiuqiu, to the "Story Shop" to become the owner of the shop, and Qiuqiu performed so well that many people rushed to adopt him. Now, Qiuqiu has been living in the adopter's home for 4 months and has become what others call the "dog winner". At the Story Shop, Sakura gains friends, and Ball has a new home.
"I'm a small boat floating on the sea, and the 'Story Store' is very accurate, like a powerful anchor that holds me to the shore. Sakura said that the "story store" is less commercial and very human, and her brand is known and liked by more people here, and hopefully this model can continue forever.
Half a year after the return of the "Story Store", about 30 independent artists' brands have settled in and carried out in-depth cooperation, and the four words "Story Store" have become a common benefit brand with its own traffic, as well as a medium and platform, giving these artists an opportunity to go out and become known to more people. The card stories collected by the "Story Store" in the past two years have been gathered and sorted into a series of cultural and creative products such as the "Story Happened on Yuyuan Road" storybook, the badge of Aunt Lane Tang, and the "Story Store" archive package, and the cultural content of the neighborhood has also been continuously expanded, evolving into more abundant content such as original dramas and market activities.
The spatial activation of the "Story Store" is largely due to the co-creation of different partners in the Yuyuan Road neighborhood, so that different groups and audiences can find meaning in the space. Whether it is a space where 1,000 people pass through once or a space where 100 people pass through 10 times, they all carry everyone's memories, and at the same time, story cards and "story shop" cultural products truly record different stories and memories, and disseminate more oral histories, local chronicles, and cultural phenomena on a larger scale.
As expected, the "Story Store" will continue, and the story will happen all the time......
The picture comes from Social Fun Better
Written by: Zhu Mei
Editor: Cheng Qian
Editor-in-charge: Yan Wenbin
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