Xinhua News Agency, Shijiazhuang, August 12 Title: From the "rag king" who collects waste to the butterfly change of tens of millions of fans
Xinhua News Agency reporters Sun Jie, Fan Shihui and Zhao Hongyu
The "rag king" who collects waste, the "net red" of tens of millions of fans, and the two identities that seem to be incompatible with each other are dramatically set on the body of "post-90s" Liu Anan. Why does a young man who collects waste have tens of millions of fans on the self-media? Recently, this reporter went to Liu Anan's hometown of Handan City, Hebei Province, to find out.
When he met Liu Anan, he was buried in a pile of waste "Taobao Shellfish". Seeing the guests visiting, he quickly took off his gloves, and subconsciously wiped his hands on the T-shirt and shook hands with the reporter. "Are you also here to 'TaobaoBei' with me?" After a joke, Liu Anan opened the conversation box.
Liu Anan is a video creator in his studio. (Photo by Li Shufeng)
Born in 1992, Liu Anan graduated from junior high school, and has driven trucks, set up stalls, and worked odd jobs. In 2019, Anan heeded his father's advice and started recycling waste. In this industry, his parents have been working hard for more than 30 years, and his two uncles have also done this business.
"It's very tiring to do this, the daily workload is very large, I get up at four or five o'clock in the morning, I can finish work at 10 o'clock at night, I have to take the workers to do it myself, and I am covered in soil and ash." The family of five people are spent on this, busy a year full of calculation can earn 200,000 yuan. Liu Anan said.
Tired is tired, but Liu Anan never felt that this was a "chore", others think that the harvest is broken, but he likes to call it "renewable resources". "Waste recycling is not only a treasure of waste, but also a part of urban construction, especially in the past two years, paper mills have a great demand for paperboard, and these waste cartons can be recycled into express packaging." Liu Anan said. On a self-media platform, Liu Anan jokingly called herself "the executive president and CEO of renewable resources in Greater China."
Collecting waste every day is busy enough, why did you start self-media? Liu Anan said that like many young people, he sometimes brushes his mobile phone to watch short videos to pass his spare time. Watching the videos shared by others is delicious, and he is also eager to share his own waste acquisition life that is different from many of his peers.
So, Anan began to take some photos and upload them to the self-media account, however, at first, no one paid attention.
In order to make the works he uploaded more beautiful and attractive, he began to learn video editing techniques. In the early days, he encountered various "rollovers", either the subtitle size was not well grasped, or the musical rhythm did not match the number. "Sometimes the well-planned angle and choreographed copywriting have not yet been shot with a large flow, and once I had no confidence in myself, and I also thought of giving up, but I thought that as a 'post-90s', I always had to try to do something different from my father's generation, so I gritted my teeth and persevered." Liu Anan said.
Liu Anan is filming a short video of his "treasure hunting in waste". (Photo by Li Shufeng)
Gradually, Liu Anan found that netizens especially liked to watch interesting small objects such as necklaces, toys, calligraphy and paintings he found out of waste, and the number of hits on videos of these themes was very high. One day, a video about the watch made Liu Anan suddenly angry. "I found a watch in the scrappit and threw it aside without taking it seriously. But a few netizens with hearts left a message saying that the watch must not be thrown away, it is still very valuable. Liu Anan said.
Liu Anan shows interesting objects he found from the scrap. (Photo by Li Shufeng)
As the number of fans soared, Liu Anan became more and more passionate. He began to deeply teach himself video shooting and editing techniques, from the Internet to find various tutorials, watch video experts' works, learn Hollywood blockbusters, his works became more and more flavorful, and even began to imitate his style.
"The spring sun warms the heart, and the earthly world has a few clouds of smoke." In the past, fame and fortune were troubled, and they were willing to work hard and run forward. "The copywriting of Liu Anan's video is also becoming more and more exquisite." I found some rhyming sentences particularly popular with netizens, and I have written more than 200 poems so far, and for the sake of my fans, I am almost forcing myself to become a poet. Anan said that he wanted to be a "rag king" with culture and connotation.
Liu Anan's works are liked by many netizens. A staff member of the Propaganda Department of the Handan Municipal Party Committee said that he has been paying attention to Liu Anan's works because he is very interesting and decompressing, and there is nothing to watch his videos, which can make people love life more. Netizen "Huizi" commented on Liu Anan's vibrato: "I like your little video, it is very humorous and inspirational." ”
Liu Anan became popular, and the number of fans on multiple self-media platforms reached 15 million. Some people advised him to bring goods to "monetize", but Anan said that he wanted to share the harvest of life and labor with fans, and did not want to turn the platform into a tool for profit. "My brother works in a barbershop, and there is a task of selling shampoo in the store, and he said that you have so many fans, can you help sell goods, but I politely refused." Liu Anan said that even if you do the goods, you must make sure that the goods you bring are reliable, and you can't pit the fans. Some institutions had promised him an annual salary of 4 million yuan, but Anan did not agree to it for fear of being coerced.
Starting with donating relatively new books that he had recycled, Anan also started a public welfare. At the earliest, some fans reminded him that some of the books he received were relatively new, and suggested that he donate them to primary schools or institutions in need. So far, he has donated thousands of books.
When there was a flood in Henan a few days ago, Liu Anan also reached out to help and quietly donated 20,000 yuan. "I didn't want to rub this kind of traffic, but I just wanted to make some contributions to the affected villagers within my ability, and then someone questioned me, so I sent a screenshot of the donation to the platform." Anan said.
Have a positive and sunny mentality, be good at learning to embrace new things, pursue wealth but not mercenary, and insist on doing public welfare to help others after getting rich... Many people said that Liu Anan, the "rag king after 90", has become an "Internet celebrity" of tens of millions of fans with this momentum.
"I'm still young and need to keep trying and learning to break through myself. Now that the environment is so good, we young people should sweat to the fullest to realize our dreams. Liu Anan said.