When he was in college, Zhang Chenliang loved to search for his name on the Internet, and for many years, the Zhang Chenliang he searched for was just a worker of a water conservancy bureau. But in the past two years, he searched for Zhang Chenliang on the Internet, and the results were all himself.
To what extent is Zhang Chenliang's fire? When he was in line on the road, as long as he said two words, someone around him would recognize him. Therefore, sometimes when he had to go out to do urgent things, he would wear a mask and hat like a star, so as not to be recognized and delay the trip.
Being recognized by ordinary people is a common thing, and Zhang Chenliang did not expect that many celebrities would recognize him. In the background of the Douyin Awards Ceremony, Zhang Chenliang met Zhou Jiuliang, a cross-talk actor from deyun Society. Zhang Chenliang thought to himself, Zhou Jiuliang definitely did not know him. But unexpectedly, Zhou Jiuliang actually came to him and said, "Teacher Liang, I especially like to watch your videos."
Zhang Chenliang, who looks similar to the "Tibetan Fox".
Zhang Chenliang's popular science has a distinct stance and personal style. Because his face is slightly square, his eyes are slightly smaller, his brows are slightly wrinkled, and his image is too much like that of a "Tibetan fox", and he persistently debunks the rumors of "Water Monkey", and netizens have called him "Tibetan Fox Jun", "Fox Director", and "President of the Water Monkey Rumor Suppression Association". Recently, Zhang Chenliang's Douyin account "@ Infinite Small Bright Science Popularization Daily" has successfully exceeded 100 million likes, and there are nearly 20 million fans who pay attention to him.
On November 14, 2019, Zhang Chenliang released his first video on Douyin. In just two years, he quickly became the top stream of short video science popularization, almost single-handedly, with "hot" unpopular biological and naturalistic knowledge. So, how did he do it?
"Know thyself and know thyself"
"Identify the popular biology video on the Internet", after the "ding" transition, Zhang Chenliang can popularize more than 10 kinds of creatures in one breath with a witty Beijing cavity. A single Douyin science short video can have more than 2 million likes and more than 30 million views.
In the past, his fans were generally 18-30-year-olds, who preferred to "play terriers" in the comments to amuse each other. On Douyin, in addition to young people, there are many middle-aged and elderly people, and even many parents ask him questions for their children.
The "fox director" of the fire into emojis.
Zhang Chenliang said, "Short video platforms are very inspirational places." A background music or a meme or a mantra can make him shoot a case. He fired out of the circle of emojis, is to see a few people who rush to the sea pick up a grouper, a pile of prawns, and even after the tide recedes, holding out a large winter melon, self-directed and self-acting but pretending to be more like anyone. He was speechless enough to cover his face with his hands, rub it up and down, and sigh on his back.
One day, many TikTok users @ him, asked if the meat stool in a video was alive. As soon as he saw that the video author was a special effects artist, he couldn't understand why this couldn't be distinguished, and in a fit of anger, he hit the camera on the mobile phone. Some of the rumor videos are so outrageous that he will even pick up the double knuckle stick and dance for a few seconds.
These "Hidden Foxes" interspersed in short videos have become a source of fun for netizens. In the comment area, he not only made his own class representative, listed the names of the creatures identified in each video, but also directly humorously and humorously rebuked netizens. This makes the comment area the birthplace of various hot stems such as "Tibetan Fox Beating People" and "Tibetan Fox Playing Stick".
He summed up the essence of his "success study" - to know oneself and know the other.
"Confidant" is to find the core competitiveness, and then find a way to diversify it. But this is often the hardest. "The key is to show yourself, to show yourself well, and you will be half successful." This "self" in the popular science daily of @ infinitesimal light is personal charm, knowledge, conversation, or voice line, and the temperament and personality that emanate from it.
Many people do not have "their own" and imitate Zhang Chenliang's "network heat transfer biological identification". The material is all from the Internet, because it does not have to be produced by itself, and the audience is also wide, and the "identification" series of short videos has evolved into a video type. But they only learned to quickly pronounce "identify the network xx video" at the beginning or add a "ding" sound effect to each transition.
Infinitesimal bright "Network Heat Transfer Biometric Identification" video.
"Knowing the other" is to understand the audience and pay attention to the audience's feedback. Zhang Chenliang said that he was the lucky one among the science popularization workers, and began to communicate with netizens from the first day of work. After shooting a short video, he had thousands or tens of thousands of comments under each vibrato, "What do you want to know, don't want to know anything, love to listen to what you say, love to listen to what others say?" Through observation, he deeply understands the audience, sees how everyone evaluates themselves, and then thinks about how to adjust.
Zhang Chenliang said, "You can't be the second 'infinitesimal light', you have to be yourself." When I was doing Weibo, there was no second 'naturalist'. "But how do you achieve the top class? Knowing oneself and knowing one's other is a must. Knowing oneself and not knowing the other is the source of millions of fan bloggers who cannot jump to tens of millions of fan bloggers.
"Useless" hobbies
Zhang Chenliang's creative starting point originated from his childhood.
When he was in elementary school, Zhang Chenliang liked to watch the insects on the three elm saplings eat leaves in the school playground, and even catch grasshoppers, ladybugs, and butterfly larvae, and go home to raise them in the tape box. In order to feed a grasshopper larvae (aphid lion), he went to catch aphids every afternoon after school, catching more than 800 to feed a grasshopper larvae.
In May, her 4-year-old daughter encountered the larvae of a Chinese knife mantis by the lake, as small as a mosquito. The daughter brought it home. Zhang Chenliang instructed her to learn to distinguish between male and female praying mantises. More than 20 years later, Zhang Chenliang passed on the seemingly "useless" hobby of his childhood to his daughter, and also became the deputy editor of The Museum magazine, the director of the China National Geographic Fusion Media Center, and engaged in science popularization work for 10 years.
Xiao Liang raised two lizards, he said: "I think I have been continuing the interest of children."
"Science can make more people understand and like the creatures of this world, and love this planet a little more." Zhang Chenliang said. Only after people have met the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and transportation will they have a higher pursuit. He believes that "discovering the beauty of useless things" is more advanced.
In Zhang Chenliang's eyes, the beauty of insects comes from many aspects. There are too many types of insects, ever-changing, and cannot be studied in a lifetime, which means that there are new things to study for a lifetime. Insects have a kind of "mechanical beauty", he once described the bug hunting, "the lightness when walking, like a fairy, leisurely strolling... It has temperament, like a general, and that temperament will make you respect it."
He had seen a spider whose general spider's abdomen had all degenerated into a round ball, but there were still a few plates left in the abdomen of this spider, which were the physical characteristics of the ancestors, "and the feeling was that from these plates, you can see a long history." And this kind of smallness and grandeur, as long as everyone crouches on the ground and looks in the grass, it may be observed. ”
How does this personal experience of "beauty" be transmitted to the douyin short video audience? "Science popularization should not be like popular science," Zhang Chenliang said. "Good science popularization should be like the articles of Wang Zengqi and Zhou Zuoren." Although their articles are not popular science texts, they are very engaging and bring reasoning and knowledge to the reader.
For example, when Wang Zengqi talks about how to grow grapes and potatoes, he will not simply tell the reader how to plant them, nor will he make the reader feel that he is being "educated", but let the reader read the article unconsciously. "After you read it, you know how to grow grapes and potatoes."
"Science popularization should be a beautiful and interesting thing, it should be subtle, moisturizing and silent so that you want to protect the environment after reading it, rather than, I said very weakly before, and finally shouted two slogans to protect the environment." Zhang Chenliang's pursuit is to watch his videos when everyone is upset at work, or when commuting to squeeze the subway, and immediately feel comfortable.
Zhang Chenliang likes to interact with fans in Douyin.
How interesting is that? Humor is a very important trait of his popular science, but it is not funny for the sake of being funny. "Copley's humor must be useful — let people remember this knowledge point, make people not sleepy, make people want to forward or comment, let people @ their friends to see." 」 Interesting needs to serve the content that really wants to popularize science, for example, he never specifically buried a "Guo Degang emoji" in the video, but really made popular science interesting.
This is one of the three principles of his popular science short videos. Interestingly, it is to think about every air port, to think about the selling point of every insect. In addition, to say something, that is, every sentence is useful, which makes his short video compact and not boring. Science popularization must also have a sense of social responsibility, can not popularize science wrong, nor can we allow rumors to spread.
"I know what good science is, and I'm sure I can do it." Zhang Chenliang said. His "Web-based Hot Biometric Identification" series of videos, every creature can open its mouth. Even when shooting in the wild, he was able to accurately tell the species characteristics of each insect. This stems from the heartfelt love and professional knowledge of the popularizers, and with the general tone of cross-talk, it cannot but amaze the viewer.
Let the "scientist" become the ideal of the child again
"What's the use of you knowing so many insects?" "I watched your video and forgot about it the next day."
Zhang Chenliang was once questioned like this. His answers are many. He once received a douyin reply: "Since our children watched your video, they have scored 5 times in a row in biology, and the teacher has specially approved that they do not have to turn in their homework for one month." At first, he thought the parent was joking. Later, several parents replied to him, "Since my child watched your video, the biology score has improved." ”
Parents in Douyin to infinite small bright message.
The "water monkey" is a creature that is said to live in the water, resemble an ape, and is harmful to humans. Zhang Chenliang began to do water monkey debunking rumors in 2014. After becoming a "popular science internet celebrity", he felt that he had a greater responsibility. Because he knew that in the 1950s, the spread of rumors about water monkeys triggered the "Hairy Man Water Monster" incident, which turned into a huge social panic. Until now, some netizens have constantly asked him with blurry pixel videos, "Is this a water monkey?" ”
In order not to let such absurd things repeat, Zhang Chenliang insisted on debunking water monkeys for 7 years, and was jokingly called "water monkey national special scholar" and "president of water monkey rumor dispelling association" by netizens. At present, the Easter egg at the end of the "Network Heat Transmission Biological Identification" series of Douyin short videos is still "Water Monkey Time". He said, "After the rumors have formed an atmosphere, the fake ones have become true, and they need to be cleared up." ”
In addition, to some extent, the popular science on Douyin has fed back the slightly declining magazine. Zhang Chenliang's sharing of the magazine's content has made many fans decide to subscribe to the "Museum", which makes the printing of each issue of "Museum" magazine become the norm now. Colleagues in the publishing department of the "Museum" often told Zhang Chenliang, "If you want to recommend a magazine on Douyin, it is best to be early." As long as you push, we have to stamp, and if you push late, we will not have time to add."
Zhang Chenliang also has a grand wish, he hopes that through science popularization, "scientists" will become the ideal of children again. He believes that there is now a climate where people no longer think that "becoming a scientist" is a way. Parents tell their children that you study hard, and it is good to do business and become a programmer in the future. Although it is tiring to do these professions, it is more expensive to make money.
Zhang Chenliang
"Children's futures should have the option of 'becoming scientists.'" Zhang Chenliang recalled that in the past, when talking about his ideals, everyone said that they should become scientists, contribute to the people, discover new insects, and new insects should be named after themselves. Today, 'being a scientist' should once again be the ideal of every generation. ”
"Can make a child who likes insects firmly confident, feel that playing bugs is no longer a game that will be scolded by parents to play things, so that parents are willing to support their children, he may be an entomologist in the future." Zhang Chenliang still remembers that a little girl who visited the museum with her parents took a photo at the entrance of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences when she left — with her back to the camera and her fist raised, meaning that she aspired to be a "biologist" when she grew up. This moved him.
The desire to make "being a scientist" an ideal for children again is very ambitious. But at least, his own experience from loving insects to embarking on the road of popular science has provided some children with a life model, reminding them that they can stick to what they love. "I like to listen to music since I was a child, I still like to listen when I am old, I like to listen to it all my life, why can't I maintain this hobby for the rest of my life?" 」 Zhang Chenliang said.
For many adults, they may be past the age of being scientists. But Zhang Chenliang believes that discovering the beauty of living things and discovering the beauty of daily life is also a value. "Let ordinary people see what they can't see before, and let people discover the beauty that they don't see in life."
In Zhang Chenliang's vision, people who have watched his Douyin science short video, going on an outing and going to a picnic in the future, are not only satisfied with setting up a tent and drilling in it to play cards, but are willing to walk around, "look at flowers, look at insects, look at grass, look at the sky." This very small change is good for himself and for others.
Written by | Xu Xiaodong
Edit | Gully