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Summary
From Li Chun's spiritual and physical strength, we can feel his passion for life. He still looks like a young man full of vitality and firm beliefs, and seems to be ready at any time, and it seems that he can start the next journey at any time. This makes people sigh at the glittering energy that horse racing has brought him over the years. Now he balances the relationship between horse racing, art and business, and is more at ease than ever before.
official account | Internet + Sports
Author | Lin Song
40 Li Chun is a famous horse racing man in the horse racing circle, not only because he is the first six-star runner in Jiangxi Province to complete two rounds of World Grand Slam (Tokyo, Boston , London, Berlin, Chicago , New York), but also because he is the leading medal designer in the horse racing circle.
In 2019, after Li Chun finished his 100th marathon in Shanghai, he was introduced by a friend to design a medal for the Jingdezhen Marathon. At that time, Li Chun had been exploring the cultural and creative industry of marathons for many years, from ceramic war shoes to the surroundings of marathons, but years of hard work did not cause waves in the market. The market situation of high and low quality has troubled him for many years.
And a marathon medal unexpectedly opened Li Chun's entrance to the sports cultural and creative market.
— 1 —
The meaning of a medal
The design of the first marathon medal in life can be said to have made Li Chun "fame in one battle." This is a marathon medal designed by Li Chun for his second hometown, Jingdezhen. With a long-term feeling for Jingdezhen, Li Chun was unique in designing a rotating gyro-shaped medal based on the flaking machine in ceramic craftsmanship, which refreshed everyone at that time.
019 Jingdezhen International Marathon Medal
Since then, Li Chun has set himself another "100 small goal": designing 100 marathon medals.
Li Chun recalled that the first "100 small goal" in his life was to run 100 marathons. In the early years, this was an out of reach for most people, but for Li Chun, who could run more than 30 horse races a year, this goal was quickly achieved.
However, when he truly achieved this goal, Li Chun lost his excitement, "Because I suddenly realized that this was only about his own achievements and did not promote the development of the entire industry."
When he put himself in the context of industry development, Li Chun realized the insignificance of his own value, and the sudden opportunity allowed him to be lucky enough to intervene in the marathon medal design and set new life goals from then on.
In succession, Li Chun has made more than 50 marathon medals. Whenever he goes to a city, he will first go to the local history museum to investigate, understand the local historical customs, then browse the local scenic spots one by one, find the iconic landmark culture, and then shuttle through the streets and alleys to feel the local life atmosphere.
In Li Chun's view, every medal is of great significance to local cities and runners. He said that he has traveled all over the years to China, from the north to the north to the Mohe , from the south to the south to the Sanya , from the east to the Fuyuan , from the west to the Kashgar , from the south to the north to the north. "However, for many other nameless cities, if they had not participated in the marathon, I would probably never know its existence in my life."
As a runner, he hurriedly participated in the competition in a strange city and might have left before he could understand the local customs. "The only one who can stay in the end is that medal. ”
In order to leave the most vivid memory of a city for everyone who travels thousands of miles to participate in the horse racing, Li Chun pays special attention to integrating local culture into the medals. The most representative elements of a city can always be seen on the medals he designed, and the local historical culture is condensed in a square inch, striving to combine the aesthetics of the shape and the humanistic atmosphere.
For example, the ceramic elements incorporated into the Jingdezhen Marathon medal, the rotating five-pointed star embedded in the medal of the City of Heroes Nanchang Marathon; the Wukong elements left on the Guazhou medal in the Gobi City, as well as the Guilin Marathon, Huangpu Marathon, Qingdao Marathon, Jiamusi Marathon, etc. For every medal, he Strive to show the local cultural style.
Ge 15 Challenge Medal
Jiamusi Marathon Medal
019 Huangpu Marathon medal
. From the feedback I have received over the years, Li Chun is increasingly convinced that "Medals are not only a symbol of glory in the traditional sense, but also a work of art with great collection value. "And this actually has brought some impetus to the prosperity of marathon events.
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Cultural and creative journey
As mentioned above, Li Chun's marathon medal is based on the introduction of a friend. It is precisely because of this accidental opportunity, like the seeds blown into the field by the wind, and found a soil suitable for his survival. Li Chun's cultural and creative career will soon bear fruit here.
But before that, Li Chun had experienced a cultural and creative journey.
Turned the time back to before 2015. At that time, Li Chun was an entrepreneur in the real estate marketing planning field. In the years when real estate development was in full swing, he often appeared in major wine shops, accompanied the guests to eat and drink day and night, and the pace of life fell into chaos. At that time, purely out of health needs, Li Chun began to develop the habit of running, but he soon fell in love with this sport.
As the life trajectory changed, Li Chun's enthusiasm for marathons even affected his business. At that time, some employees complained that he "had a marathon every day, and even threw the business aside." "
Faced with the conflict between career and interests, Li Chun felt that his life was unbalanced. The pressure on regulatory policies faced by the real estate industry and the fatigue he felt really felt in it finally made him withdraw from this field.
In 2015, Li Chun officially established Chunru Cultural and Creative Design and Creative Planning, and he himself gradually returned to the identity of ceramic artists and marathon runners. Half of his life was spent in Jingdezhen Ceramics Studio and the road to horse racing.
Li Chun, who loves art and horse racing, wanted to integrate the two at that time, and wanted to become a designer and entrepreneur in the field of marathon cultural and creative industries.
This was very rare at that time. After all, marathon events were just starting in China at that time. People in the sports industry did not need cultural and creative industries, and people in the field of cultural and creative industries would not think of sports. Only Li Chun entered the venue with his enthusiasm "inappropriate" .
So while participating in various marathon events at home and abroad at a high frequency, Li Chun would also personally design and make ceramic running shoes for the directors of major slam events. At that time, he was committed to showing the charm of China's ceramic art to various countries as an envoy of Chinese ceramic art and cultural communication.
"Everyone who receives ceramic running shoes likes it very much." Li Chun still remembers the surprise and excitement in their eyes, which makes him full of confidence and hope for his works of art.
However, when these works really flow into the market and are aimed at the general audience, not many people are willing to buy it because buying a pair of ceramic running shoes is not necessary for runners.
Li Chun recalled that during that period, there were not many people participating in marathons in China, and the scale of the event was relatively small. The entire industry was just starting out, and sports cultural and creative lacked a market. Even the peripheral products of marathon cultural and creative products that were not expensive were rarely interested in online sales during the three-day event.
This made Li Chun fall into painful suspicion. He was struggling to seek entry points for sports cultural and creative industries and the market, but was lost in the exquisite ceramic works. Qu Gao and Wu became his biggest lesson in entrepreneurship.
How to transform from a designer to a person with business thinking? Li Chun began to reflect, and later he realized a fundamental problem: there is nothing wrong with the road to cultural and creative marathons, but the time for the domestic marathon market has not come.
Until 2019, his friend's recommendation gave him a way out. At that time, the marathons registered by the China Athletics Association had reached a hot level of two or three thousand games a year. Compared with the number of less than 20 games in China a year around 2014, it was an exponential increase.
In recent years of development, Li Chun also felt more and more strongly, "Chinese Marathon Cultural and Creative is finally no longer doing cultural and creative for the sake of cultural and creative. It really has such a big demand, and the enthusiasm of the people is no longer different from before."
- 3 —
marathon cultural and creative spring
Nowadays, there are even many chasers in the medals designed by Li Chun. "Many people will look at which event I design medals for, and then go to the horse racing in that city."
He laughed at the beginning when many people around him criticized him for "running horses was just playing with things and losing their ambitions", "But now, I am taking them to run with those who said these words back then." The emergence of this "real fragrance" law of "true fragrance" means that Li Chun's marathon cultural and creative career has finally ushered in spring.
Although the epidemic has hindered the development of the career to a certain extent, Li Chun is still full of confidence in the future. It was also in the past few years that Li Chun had made more than 50 medals for marathon events of all sizes in China, and more than 20 were not issued due to the epidemic. He believed that once the epidemic was over, "there will be people who will run to the event where I designed medals almost every week."
on the right side of the picture is Li Chun
. After designing the "100 small goals" for medals in 100 marathon events, Li Chun set the second and third "100 small goals".
The second is to run a marathon with 100 medals designed by oneself, and the third is to be a Chinese sports and cultural messenger, making ceramic shoes for major organizing committees in 100 countries. "At present, except for small and remote countries in Africa, there are no marathons. Most countries will hold 1 to 2 events."
From Li Chun's spiritual and physical fitness, we can feel his passion for life. He still looks like a young man full of vitality and firm beliefs. He seems to be ready at any time, and it seems that he can start the next journey at any time.
Although Li Chun is in his early 40s this year, "when he finishes running for hundreds of horses and hundreds of countries, he will definitely be running for 6."
This makes people sigh at the shining energy brought to him by horse racing. Now he balances the relationship between horse racing, art and business, and is more at ease than ever before.
At the end of the interview, when I asked Li Chun which of his positioning is more inclined toward which of the three, Li Chun said that his luck is that he does not have to stick to the one-dimensional comparison with others in any circle of the three. He hopes that he is a business-minded middle-aged man who does not fall into any closed circle and has more possibilities than others.
