"I am Lu Zhengyi, a young carpenter. Every time you like and pay attention to it, it is a dissemination and recognition of traditional Chinese craftsmanship. On the video platform Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as Station B), Lu Zhengyi, who has silver hair, wears pairs of black-rimmed glasses, and likes to wear vest slippers, is on fire because the wooden carving hand carved with the image of "two-dimensional yuan" is on fire. From the release of the first video on May 20 this year to the present, Lu Zhengyi's account has posted a total of 30 videos, with nearly 1.3 million fans.
Lu Zhengyi wrote on his personal label "Twenty and Seven Years", and the person who helped him shoot was named Ah Wei, who liked to call him "Xiao Lu". In fact, Lu Zhengyi is 72 years old.
Different from people's inherent impressions, more and more silver-haired people have gradually lived out another kind of excitement on the Internet. "QuestMobile 2020 Silver Economic Insight Report" shows that the silver-haired population accounts for 1/3 of the total population of the country, of which the number of netizens exceeds 100 million, and the user growth rate in May 2020 is higher than that of all netizens, becoming an important increase in mobile netizens. Station B revealed that through the "Amway" and other ways for young people in the family, more and more elderly people have begun to actively contact Station B, become users of Station B, and even come to Station B as UP masters.
The elderly are embracing the Internet, and the "silver-haired Internet celebrities" are also approaching the world of young people. But has it really been smooth sailing? What cultural and intergenerational conflicts will be encountered? The elderly face the unfamiliar Internet world, who is behind the "strategizing"? This (25th) day is the Chongyang Festival, which is also the "Festival of the Elderly". Red Star News reporters interviewed two B station "silver-haired Internet celebrities" to reveal the story behind the circle.
Jenny turtle carved by Lu Zhengyi
「Popularity』
Someone does a craft, someone tells a story
Lu Zhengyi is a Fujian Pujiang Xian tourist, the B station account is called "Lu Zhengyi's carving time", most of the fans are young people, 60% of them are under the age of 25. Ah Wei felt that Lu Zhengyi was liked by so many people, in large part because of his image, amiable and cute, plus a strong Xianyou dialect, and then used the form of wood carving to make the "paper man" (two-dimensional image) become real.
Li Wei, a 24-year-old Xi'an native, claimed to be an "old fan" of Lu Zhengyi — after Lu Zhengyi released the second video, Li Wei paid attention to him. Li Wei told reporters that in that issue, Lu Zhengyi carved his favorite anime character "Rem", which was the first time he found that wood carving can also be so delicate. Later, more and more anime characters jumped out of Lu Zhengyi's hands, and he became a "die-hard fan" who must be chased in every issue.
Lu Zhengyi is carving
"When 'Little Lu' learned to carve at the age of 27, he certainly did not expect to carve these things one day. Of course, the craftsmanship is supposed to keep up with the times, after all, playing antiques is a minority, and it is good to keep pace with the times with the help of the platform that young people love to play. Levi said.
There is also an older "silver-haired Internet celebrity" on the B station, according to Jiang Minci's own introduction, she is 89 years old this year.
Click on Jiang Minci's B station video, you will find that the bullet screen is somewhat special: most of the time is countless "grandma good" flying over her head, many people will let her pay attention to rest, do not need to update frequently, Jiang Minci speaks very slowly, everyone says don't worry, you can double the speed.
Unlike Lu Zhengyi, who "goes out of the circle" by handicraft, Jiang Minci's videos are mostly about her daily life and her past experiences, escaping from arranged marriages, and trying to recruit only 10% of girls in the railway school...
In Jiang Minci's video, countless "Grandma Is Good" barrages float by
Becoming the LORD of UP is also a coincidence. In April this year, during the epidemic period, the university for the elderly could not open, and the old partners who fought boxing together could not meet, so Jiang Minci wanted to find some new fun. She became interested in station B through her grandson Doudou (pseudonym), and her family felt that she was too old to be the UP master, so she went to ask netizens. She gave herself a name called "Min Ci is not old", and the first video set a title for herself: I am 90 years old, can I come to B station to be the UP master?
The video was viewed more than 2 million times the next day, and the number of fans rose sharply, exceeding 100,000 in two days. For this speed, Jiang Minci himself did not have much concept. Doudou took himself as an example: in more than two years, he accumulated 10,000 followers at station B, and grandma exceeded this number in just a few hours. Up to now, Jiang Minci has accumulated nearly 380,000 fans in Station B.
Wang Jialin, 22, one of Ms. Jiang's fans, laughed and said she might be younger than Mr. Jiang's grandchildren. "In the context of special times, the different personalities and choices of the characters are different, which in turn produces different life encounters. This is one of the reasons why I like to listen to Grandma Jiang talk about her life experiences. ”
『Contradiction』
The confusion of "packaging" after fame
The Internet has narrowed the distance between the older generation and the younger generation, and while the two generations are close, doubts and contradictions also come with fame and fortune.
At first, Lu Zhengyi did not quite understand why the eyes of the anime characters were so big and why the nose was so small, which was beyond the content of traditional wood carving, and the master did not teach it. Therefore, in the previous few videos, many hand-made characters' eyes were finally drawn with pens, and the wood carvings could only carve out the rough outline, and further down, the technique encountered a bottleneck.
Lu Zhengyi is also accustomed to the traditional way of shaping wood carving, and the face shape of the character is relatively wide, and there is no feeling of anime face. "The expressions of the characters in the first few issues were very 'stupid', and some people said that they were not like it." Lu Zhengyi also tried to avoid the image of a girl with big eyes. However, when he got the main brand of 100,000 fans UP given by Station B, he still did the "gun sister" Misaka Mikoto, who was quite popular among netizens. The video is currently viewed at nearly 8 million, which is also a watershed for Lu Zhengyi's traffic.
Some people also questioned whether the "Xiao Lu" in the video was packaged. Ah Wei did not think so. "Lu Zhengyi in life is also a smiling old naughty boy, I will design some dialogues according to his personality, but will not deviate from his true nature." 」 Ah Wei also often captures some of his small actions, such as watching his mobile phone and playing cards, which are all the way he looks in life.
Lu Zhengyi (second from right)
Lu Zhengyi especially likes to watch the bullet screen, and when he encounters some "terriers" that are difficult to explain, Ah Wei will translate them to him in the local dialect. He will pick some messages for Ah Wei to help reply, and he will gladly accept the bad voice.
Some people also questioned why Jiang Minci insisted on making videos when she was older. There are also people on other online platforms who firmly say that it is not her personal will to be the up master, on the grounds that Grandma is unstable in speaking, so why insist on shooting?
For these, Jiang Minci rarely replied. For her support, she will thank her in unison in the video; if she is curious, she will silently write it down and try to meet it in the later video. She said she had nothing to lose with the traffic, the video was not as high as before, and she also watched it very lightly. In the past, she always felt that her life would end after retirement. Now that the video has been released, someone has been touched, or feels educational, and she feels that she has some role in society.
Jiang Minci
『Behind the scenes』
How to adapt to young people's tastes? They all have "military divisions"
Behind the popularity of many "silver-haired Internet celebrities", there is a young person who supports them.
Lu Zhengyi felt that he could become popular at Station B because of Ah Wei's assistance, and because the wood carving craft was indeed attractive to young people - ah Wei had previously found him and hoped that he could use another form to arouse young people's attention to traditional crafts. Prior to this, Lu Zhengyi had not done wood carving for several years. He saw the hand and photo that Ah Wei had taken, "The tension is particularly large, I want to try, but I'm not sure if I can do it." ”
"Team", just the two of them. The shooting and editing were all done by Ah Wei. Ah Wei usually has to go to work, so most of the time it is recorded on weekends.
After becoming popular, there are many advertisers who come to the door, and Lu Zhengyi will occasionally accept some cooperation. When the previous fan broke through 500,000, he also cooperated with the B station and became the signed UP master.
After signing the contract, Lu Zhengyi still made three or four wood carvings every month. He does not understand computers, Ah Wei will help him operate, reply to fan messages or receive some cooperation with his consent, Ah Wei also has a certain percentage of income.
Lu Zhengyi is carving
Fans like to call him "old two-dimensional", and Lu Zhengyi knows that he is not "old two-dimensional". In order to understand the form and personality of the characters, Lu Zhengyi will watch some "famous scenes" about the characters with the help of Ah Wei.
In order to restore the eyes of the characters, Ah Wei will take a pencil to accompany Lu Zhengyi to try a little. Lu Zhengyi will also question, Ah Wei will explain to him that young people like this, hoping that he will try to restore the original look, he can also understand.
For Jiang Minci, most of the time, what to shoot, she will write an outline in advance, or even a draft. When he is older, he can't remember the details, and his family will help him add it. For example, in the issue of "escape from marriage", the younger son reminded her: "At that time, you carried a sackcloth pocket and beat a barefoot, and talked about this." ”
Grandson Doudou will help Grandma shoot videos, Jiang Minci will be invited to participate in some activities, and Doudou will also accompany her. The editing is also done with the help of Doudou, she will give Doudou her thoughts on editing in advance, and she will check them all when doing subtitles. Jiang Minci is also learning video editing now, hoping to complete it all independently in the future.
New ideas also sprouted in the mind. Jiang Minci has always had the idea of writing an autobiography, and now she can do so by dictating interesting experiences in the form of videos.
After becoming an Internet celebrity, Jiang Minci's life has not changed much, she is still the ordinary old man before, and her life is still the rhythm of the past: get up at 6 o'clock, cook breakfast at 7 o'clock, and go out at 8 o'clock to play tai chi. After the end, I went to the wet market with everyone to buy. Do cooking, sewing and mending, chasing drama. The only thing that has changed is that the old partners around her know that she plays the B station, and some people are eager to try.
In this small village in Putian, there are not many young people, and Lu Zhengyi's life has not changed much after he became popular - watching plays with the old guys in the village, playing musical instruments, playing mahjong, taking grandchildren, and sometimes going to see what the apprentices are doing. Occasionally, he would hear people call him "Old Second Dimension" on the street, and he was embarrassed.
Lu Zhengyi has his own small savings, and he has more things he wants to do. He plans to donate a portion of the proceeds to a local backward secondary school. Previously, Ah Wei had given him a reference album introducing the art of Western sculpture, and he knew Michelangelo for the first time, which was completely different from the wood carving he had done for most of his life. He also wants to go abroad to see the sculptures. If he could, he also wanted to learn how to color wood carving, which would be a whole new field.
Red Star News reporter Peng Xiangping part of the picture according to the interviewee
Edited by Yixi Chen
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