"Young and Vigorous" program host, producer, general director You Zhidong.
If youth is a choice, in the eyes of You Zhidong and his youth team, youth should be "all choices" - can be confused, questionable, overturnable... That's what young people should look like.
Text/Xu Qianying
150 million views - the short video interview program "Youth Young and Vigorous" (hereinafter referred to as youth) updated the first unit, and it became a network hit. You Zhidong, who is also the host, producer and general director of the program, feels that this is not accidental, "because our content is really good."
youth is a short video interview column launched by Phoenix.com at the end of 2018, which is more documentary-style, and the guests include: rural Internet celebrities with 6 million fans, the most controversial and handsome Dao chief, Wang Ju, who became famous overnight, "Hand Angel", a public welfare organization that helps people with disabilities solve their sexual needs, and so on. As the show's slogan , " Don't know me through others, please know the world through me " , these people have a diverse world worth knowing behind them. Similarly, behind this show, there is also a creator worthy of being known - You Zhidong.
Before Youth, You Zhidong had a news talk show "Here It Comes Again" that he had been doing for 5 years. Quick tongue and sharp insight are the fans' first impression of him. And in the midst of youth, he seems to hide his sharp edge, replacing "poisonous tongue" with "gentleness", and when asked which side is the real him, he replies: "You don't know the other side." ”
The emergence of youth is a new attempt by You Zhidong to break through his comfort zone. He admits that critical talk shows need to constantly output opinions, feeling like they are going to be hollowed out, so he wants to find new breakthroughs and try new talk shows. You Zhidong's original idea was simple, that is, to interview some young and vigorous people, such as those traffic stars. He seemed to have found his way, but he was a little lost. Mentor Lu Jiayin asked You Zhidong: "What is the value of your doing this show?" Where is your sense of mission? "He was stunned." If I only interview these guests to get the so-called traffic, how different is I from others, and what is the point of the show? Am I really interested in them? You Zhidong began to doubt himself and seek answers.
Therefore, You Zhidong and the team retreated and returned the criteria for selecting guests to the origin - curiosity. As it turns out, curiosity can kill cats, but it won't treat you badly.
Curiosity never treats you badly
Curious about the real life status of rural Internet celebrities, You Zhidong ran to Tanghong Township in Guangxi to live with the Internet celebrities for a few days and listened to his anxiety and confusion. On the second day of the interview, in order to pursue the perfect sense of picture, the program team asked the three cannons to repeatedly pose for the shooting, but the sky was not beautiful, it rained, and the interview was interrupted. When everyone was bored waiting for the rain to stop, the three cannons made up a paragraph on a whim, and the program team and him completed a short film in the heavy rain. For the Three Cannons, the work is taken from the real material of life. You Zhidong looked at the roughly made real pictures of the three cannons and suddenly realized that this was the real record. After that day, the program team gave up the over-design of the content, adopted a documentary-style shooting method, and refused any artificial setting and posing. They believe that truth has its own power.
"Why did the post-90s Ma Daoshi choose to be the Taoist leader? Is it hype? With curiosity, You Zhidong and Ma Daoshi spent a few days in qingyun palace in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. Once, Ma Daoshi was also forced by his parents to "return to the world", when he was a security guard, he preached and preached every day; when he was forced to go on a blind date, he would show people their hands and face when they met. His parents couldn't help it, so they let him go back to the Taoist Temple. When cutting the film, You Zhidong struggled with whether to cut out the appearance of Ma Daoshi who did not look like a Taoist, or cut out his appearance like a Taoist, and then thought about what is like a Taoist and what is not like a Taoist, it is just that he is.
With curiosity, You Zhidong (left) and ma Daoist (right) after the 90s spent a few days in The Qingyun Palace in Quanzhou.
Born with desires, will the rationality of the existence of this desire change with physical obstacles? In Taiwan, Huang Zhijian, a 52-year-old polio patient, founded Hand Angel, a non-profit organization that provides sexual services. One might wonder, what kind of great people would be willing to do such a thing?
You Zhidong asked the "Hand Angel" volunteer Anan: "Just within the scope of your ability, did you not think of this matter as great as possible?" Anand said, "Yes, I just can't do great things." ”
After completing interviews with Three Cannons, Ma Daoshi, and "Hand Angel", You Zhidong found the value and mission of youth. "A lot of the issues we focus on are empathy issues, because of the public's assumptions, we always have prejudices against some people. I hope that through the program, prejudices will be transformed into understanding of each other, and if you really can't understand, please respect each other. ”
Do your work faithfully
According to the survey, the scale of short video users in China has reached 648 million. In the "big explosion" stage of homogenization of short video content, loyal to their own youth, the traffic exceeded 150 million times. Do shows, who doesn't consider traffic? But You Zhidong does not want to be trapped by traffic.
The Chinese translation of youth is young and vigorous, and the dictionary interprets it as "referring to young people who do not know how to behave in the world", but in the view of the program group, the so-called "living for the world" is just the life experience that most people follow. And in this world, those irregular exceptions deserve to be seen.
Youth's core team is only 3 people, all post-90s, willful and have ideas. When others do shows that cater to the audience's preferences, they do the opposite and do content that caters to themselves. The team admitted: "Curiosity, storytelling, and emotional resonance are the three elements of youth's selection of guests, first of all, we must be interested, otherwise it will be more boring to do." ”
After the youth broadcast, the number of broadcasts and word of mouth are good, as the main creator, You Zhidong feels that pressure and motivation coexist.
In fact, You Zhidong has accumulated a large number of loyal fans in "Here It Is Again", because of the tone of the topic of the show, he has not been "out of the circle", let alone popular. But he is not in a hurry, he said that if he can't be popular at 30 years old, he may go to study abroad, anyway, there are many possibilities in life.
The popularity of youth suddenly gave You Zhidong signs of "going out of the circle", and his fans left a message saying: Finally wait until you are red. You Zhidong was not impressed. Although youth's hit has made him a lot of fans and a lot of attention, he is most happy to see that his show has affected some people.
In March, the second unit of youth, "The Price of Love", began to be broadcast, and the guests included trainees who wanted to become idols, lovers who were 40 years old, Dou Wei's second daughter Dou Jiayan, and special children's groups. In the next unit, it will also explore dangerous relationships, diseases, etc., specifically what to talk about, You Zhidong said: "Keep it a secret for the time being. ”