"You're not going to let us live today, are you? We'll see, tomorrow it might be me sitting in that position."
In 2018, an arrogant declaration stirred up thousands of waves on the variety show stage. The person who said this was Li Hongye, a young doctor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
He is full of arrogance and arrogance, believing that the "formula cross talk" he created will replace the traditional cross talk and reach the highest point on the stage. Now he has disappeared in the cross talk world and has become "no such person".
What is "formula cross talk"? What happened from the big to the big down?
Rub the heat and commercial performance operation
In 2017, Li Hongye and his wife can be called the "dark horse" phenomenon on the variety show stage. When they debuted in "I'm a Comedy Maniac", they attracted attention with the new concept of "formula cross talk".
After coming to the stage, the two not only showed off their high academic qualifications and deep theoretical skills, but also released three related books, and even mocked the jury group as "uneducated", and had a lot of criticism about the jury group, but they were slapped in the face by the jury group, and the judge Miao Fu directly counterattacked: "I am a doctor of Chinese language and literature." However, it was this fresh attempt that immediately sparked heated discussions and made people have high hopes for the couple.
However, what really impressed Li Hongye among the audience was his "bold words" when he participated in Guo Degang's "Cross Talk with Newcomers" a year later. As soon as the show began, they released wild words at Guo Degang, openly provocative, and even said unashamedly, "You say I will instruct". Such presumptuous rhetoric made the audience in an uproar, and they all pinched cold sweat for him.
However, just when the audience thought that the couple had any real skills, the next performance was a big surprise. In addition to some innovative attempts, the so-called "formula cross talk" they staged was blunt and contrived, completely losing the agility and humor that cross talk should have, and was finally ruthlessly eliminated in this variety show.
Surprisingly, the budding "newborn calf" did not bow his head because of this. Li Hongye is not only obsessed with the result, but also arrogant to the point of claiming that he will appear on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in 20 years, beating Guo Degang to become a new generation of "cross talk brother". After quitting the show, his wife even opened a small theater on their own, and from time to time provoked Guo Degang to come to the fisherman to borrow a "name".
In the face of this arrogant words and deeds, Guo Degang showed commendable generosity as a senior. He was not as open-mouthed as Li Hongye, but accepted the invitation with a humble and polite attitude, and even joked:
"By scolding me, their theater might be able to sell 10 more tickets, isn't that a good thing?"
What kind of ability do they have to be so confident in their "formula cross talk".
The idealism of high-achieving students
Li Hongye was born in a scholarly family, and his father is a well-known professor at Jiaotong University. Educated at home in Ottawa, he showed extraordinary intelligence and talent from an early age, and was already at the top of his list in secondary school. When he was in college, he chose physics, an unpopular but highly valuable major, and worked his way up the ranks until he earned a doctorate, which is far ahead of his peers.
But since he was a child, Li Hongye has been fascinated by the traditional art form of cross talk. He joined the campus cross talk club and became a core figure, standing out among his classmates. On campus, he met like-minded fellow travelers with his hobbies and married them. The two are obsessed with cross talk, and have their own unique insights and concepts on this quintessential national art.
After graduating, Li Hongye could have relied on his outstanding academic achievements to make a big impact in physics or other fields. But he gave up the way out of the ivory tower, turned to study cross talk, and finally created his own original "formula cross talk" theory.
He believes that although the traditional form of cross talk is humorous and intriguing, it is too boring and thin. He hopes to use a formulaic way to allow everyone to write humorous and interesting cross talk works, find a new way of sustainable development, and promote the innovation and dissemination of this ancient art. It was with this philosophy that the couple relied on their financial resources and talent to establish a studio based on formula cross talk.
Li Hongye's approach makes people laugh and cry, but I have to admit that this "popularity" and "hype" model did play a role - they won more attention and started their own business operations.
Fans have a score in their hearts, and their money bags drop the score
They opened offline theaters, formed cross talk groups, and promoted the concept of "formula cross talk" on the Internet, and carried out knowledge payment and online and offline commercial performances. It did attract some investors and curious followers at the time, but it quickly showed signs of fatigue.
However, the "formula cross talk" program created by Li Hongye and others usually has no laughter, but just "instills" some life philosophies and hot topics into common cross talk jokes, which makes people feel boring. The response from the audience was mediocre, and the box office of the offline event was not good.
What's more, they showed a very arrogant and narrow-minded side in the promotion process. Li Hongye regarded himself as a degree, hyped up the concept of "formula cross talk" excessively, belittled and commented on traditional cross talk, and openly called out with other cross talk experts such as Guo Degang, Miao Fu and others, and his words were extremely inappropriate.
Li Hongye's once close relationship with Jiang Kun, the teacher, soon broke down. When it was rumored on the Internet that Jiang Kun intended to take him as an apprentice, he then clarified: "rumors", and even mocked him with "garbage classification". In the end, under Li Hongye's "work", the two gradually drifted apart.
At the same time that Li Hongye became notorious and notorious, the reality of their studio deteriorated. Due to the lack of recognition for the quality of the content, there were almost no live audiences, and program invitations and business opportunities were all lost. Li Hongye opened the involution mode, and frantically hyped himself regardless of the occasion, hoping to use the heat to attract traffic.
Lack of funds
It was sold out due to weak box office. In 2021, they appeared on the variety show "Uncle Four Flavors of Poison", and they still adhered to their "formula cross talk", and all they gained was sneering and ridicule from netizens, and many people bluntly said that "it was like being choked", which was tasteless.
But not only did they not reflect, but they also began to frantically "scold" Guo Degang, Miao Fu and other famous artists on Weibo, WeChat and other platforms, trying to continue to "run volume" with the help of popularity. But there were few retweets on Weibo, there were not many live broadcast rooms left, and even the backyard audience was soon lost, and the theater had to close.
Fans finally turned over and became black fans one after another. Everyone usually likes to watch some novel things, but Li Hongye is too conceited, lacks sincerity and innovation, and the content is really boring, which quickly makes people lose interest.
From 2023 onwards, all of Li Hongye's social platform accounts have never been updated. The only movement was to see him open a very unpopular formula comedy performance in a small theater in Beijing on Chinese New Year's Eve this year. I'm afraid that even the bell will overshadow his cross talk lines. Unfortunately, the number of people is still very small. After that, Li Hongye seemed to evaporate and gradually disappeared from the public's field of vision.
Too much self and end up in a dead end
Li Hongye has experienced the whole process from "inspirational dreamer for high-achieving students" to "business operation" to "fan centrifugation", and then to today's "disappearing in the online world", which can be said to be a step into the devil.
The fundamental reason for this is that he lacks reverence and in-depth understanding of traditional culture, and only puts his own imagination above all else. He not only lacks reverence for tradition, but also lacks true sincerity for innovation, and only wants to use the concept of "formula cross talk" to make a hammer deal.
For him, "breaking the old and creating the new" is too arbitrary. He completely failed to realize that innovation needs to be based on an understanding of tradition.
Behind closed doors, without respect for superiors, and on top of the sky, this is destined to be difficult to achieve in the field of art. Art has skills to speak of, but it is more about accumulating and accumulating life experience. Li Hongye ignores these and insists on "formulaic" and conceptualizing, leaving no room for real life.
In fact, if we take a closer look at Li Hongye's creative philosophy, it is not difficult to find that he did not intend to completely deviate from or replace the tradition, but simply took an overly radical path. When he first proposed "formula cross talk", he actually still had a warm heart and good intentions, hoping to broaden the audience of cross talk through formulaic methods, so that this ancient art form can be rejuvenated.
It is a pity that Li Hongye lacks the necessary traditional cultural cultivation. He has a biased understanding of the nature of cross talk, believing that cross talk is telling jokes on stage, even if the joke itself is not funny, it can achieve a humorous and funny effect by taking it all according to the script.
On the other hand, Li Hongye's arrogance and lack of humility make it difficult for him to gain a foothold in the small circle of cross talk industry. As predecessors, Guo Degang, Jiang Kun and others have a lot of experience and experience in traditional cross talk, and they have spent their lives working hard to iron out the chaos over and over again, so that the world treasure of cross talk can continue.
However, innovation is not to bring forth the new and start anew, but to have a deeper understanding and grasp of the existing traditional cultural heritage. Although Li Hongye's "formula cross talk" caused a sensation for a while, it was doomed to fail in the end. If he could have been humble and learn more from his predecessors, perhaps he would not have gone down the road of failure.
epilogue
Tradition and innovation are not opposites, on the contrary, tradition is the foundation of innovation. Only by understanding and respecting the traditional cultural core can we transcend it and lead a new path of development.
For the inheritors of Chinese culture, they will not be able to inherit and promote this precious cultural heritage without being able to do their best, and will never deny or even desecrate this precious cultural heritage.
It is hoped that in the future, more talents will learn from others on the road of academia and art, with an open and inclusive attitude, on the basis of inheriting the tradition, and contribute new wisdom and strength to the development of humanities.
Reference Links
[Cross Talk Sketch] Cross Talk "Summer Road Difficult" Performance: Zheng Yu, Li Hongye, https://tv.cctv.com/2018/10/08/VIDEXQPTj6t728xiIByzePIV181008.shtml
The premiere of "Cross Talk with Newcomers" sparked a heated discussion on "formula cross talk"--Cultural Tourism and Sports--People's Daily Online http://ent.people.com.cn/gb/n1/2018/0813/c1012-30225659.html
The "besieged" doctor of cross talk: If I become famous, I will never be like Guo Degang
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1608766788297151656&wfr=spider&for=pc