Li Niangen, the fifth-generation successor of bamboo weaving in Dongcun Township, Fenyi County, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, has become an "Internet celebrity" with 8 million fans on the entire network with more than 50 years of craftsmanship. The picture shows a team photographer taking Li Niangen's work scene. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhou Mi
Intangible Cultural Heritage is a "lively" cultural form with human beings as the main body of inheritance. The emergence of short video platforms has broken the spread of intangible cultural heritage that is still in the dimension of time and space. The inheritors have begun to use short videos to record, express and perform, so that the ancient intangible cultural heritage can be "seen" again. Intangible cultural heritage themes are becoming an important vertical category and beautiful scenery in the short video content ecosystem.
As early as 2019, a short video platform announced that on average, one intangible cultural heritage short video was generated and circulated on its own platform every 3 seconds. Short video platforms have provided new communication scenarios for intangible cultural heritage and broadened the inheritance path. Some intangible cultural heritage projects have even begun to form their own positive cycle business forms. However, for most intangible cultural heritage inheritors, it is not easy to produce high-quality content, continuously interact and innovate through short videos and live broadcasts, and they are often trapped in the dilemma of "turning around". As time goes by, how to maintain vitality in intangible cultural heritage short videos in the online platform is still an urgent problem to be solved in the digital inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
short video allows the silently persistent inheritor of intangible cultural heritage to be "seen"
When the solid-colored oil paper umbrella is painted with Chinese elements such as totem, color knots and fallen clouds, the oil paper umbrella becomes a symbol in the aesthetic sense of modern life, decorating the daily life of ordinary people; when traditional operas are accompanied by light melodies, exaggerated movements and humorous language, elegant art has also begun to become appreciated by both the elegant and the masses. Nowadays, the spread of intangible cultural heritage through short videos has moved from static recording to dynamic performance, and intangible cultural heritage short videos have quickly become popular on major short video platforms. Li Niangen, the intangible cultural heritage inheritor with 8 million fans on the entire network, incorporated bamboo weaving skills into life scenes, allowing bamboo weaving to return to the lives of ordinary people; Chu Tieyi, the intangible cultural heritage inheritor of Wuhu Iron Painting in Anhui, not only made iron paintings widely spread with the help of short videos, but also sold thousands of works one after another through live streaming, with a transaction volume of a single work of up to 170,000 yuan. The daily life of the inheritors, intangible cultural heritage production scenarios, process flow and other original ecological contents have become the basic theme of intangible cultural heritage communication on short video platforms. These intangible cultural heritage short videos that both "real" and "superb skills" break people's stereotypes that intangible cultural heritage projects are "outdated" and "backward" . The strong sense of presence, reality, closeness and deeper interactive experience brought by short videos and live broadcasts have given traditional culture and exquisite folk skills a new space for growth, and have created possibilities for dialogue between tradition and modernity, inheritance and innovation.
's popular intangible cultural heritage short videos have also begun to attract the attention and entry of MCN institutions. MCN is a multi-channel network product form that combines professional production content and ensures the continuous output of content with the strong support of capital, thereby ultimately achieving stable monetization of business. Intangible cultural heritage MCN institutions have taken a fancy to the traffic of intangible cultural heritage inheritors and intangible cultural heritage content and the resulting commercial value. In their opinion, "the value of craftsmen has been greatly underestimated." In this vertical field, MCN organizations have grown rapidly from a small team of several people to a standardized content marketing company. At present, some intangible cultural heritage MCN institutions have begun to show a certain scale. They have more than 50 intangible cultural heritage accounts, with a total number of fans on the entire network reaching more than 30 million, and a monthly viewing volume exceeds 1 billion times. MCN institutions positioned in the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage content often sign agreements with intangible cultural heritage inheritors to help intangible cultural heritage inheritors shoot short video content, do a good job in social platform operation, open up the commercial monetization chain, and obtain share profits with the inheritors through live streaming and offline courses. It can be said that the addition of MCN institutions has really added fuel to the popular intangible cultural heritage short videos. The intangible cultural heritage inheritors in the dual role of
face the challenges of transformation and role conflicts
intangible cultural heritage short videos have become "popular", but new problems have also followed.When intangible cultural heritage inheritors open accounts on the platform one after another, they have gone from a simple cultural "intangible cultural heritage inheritor" to a "intangible cultural heritage inheritor + short video content provider". Faced with the massive short video content and the huge commercial wave brought about by this, many intangible cultural heritage inheritors are unable to bear the burden of the "dual role".
technical capabilities are not supported, platform algorithms cannot be played, and business logic cannot be understood, and other problems limit the possibility of inheritors' in-depth creation and continuous provision of content; lack of understanding of digital communication, it is difficult to grasp the expression of core values, and the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage short videos falls into the dilemma of "being agented"; once the support of external institutions is lost, it faces the possibility of "unlocked", "de-following", and "stop updates"... In the transformation of dual roles, intangible cultural heritage inheritors face a series of realistic challenges and role conflicts.
For example, inheritors’ aging highlights the difficulty of technology adaptation. In the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage inheritors list released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the average age of inheritors is 63.29 years old, of which 9.8% are over 80 years old, while only 0.64% are under 40 years old. Senior inheritors face unignorable technical gaps and digital capabilities shortcomings. Zhang Wanfu, a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor, once said: "I don't know about new things on the Internet, don't know how to shoot short videos well, and are not familiar with user operations. Even if I spend a lot of time and effort, I still cannot attract users' attention." The structural problems of the aging of the intangible cultural heritage inheritors extend from offline to online. People with generally older ages find it difficult to cope with the continuous update of short video content production, and it is difficult to promote the digital transformation of intangible cultural heritage.
In addition, the integrity of intangible cultural heritage expression is subject to the fragmentation of short videos. The narrative presentation of short videos using "seconds" as the time unit of is inevitable conflict with the cultural accumulation of intangible cultural heritage using "decades" and "hundreds of years" as the time unit. In order to cater to the fragmented dissemination of short videos, inheritors or MCN institutions cut, dismantle and reorganize intangible cultural heritage projects, making the core values of some intangible cultural heritage projects unable to be fully presented. When deciding on the location of the account content, intangible cultural heritage MCN institutions will give priority to intangible cultural heritage categories that can bring goods and be easy to consume, and stay away from serious arts and large-scale handicrafts, which limits people's comprehensive understanding of intangible cultural heritage projects. Guided by the logic of short video traffic, intangible cultural heritage projects are prone to tend to be localized, shallower and entertaining. Some intangible cultural heritage artists are worried about this, believing that the intervention of short videos will damage the effective inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
At the same time, the lack of creativity in intangible cultural heritage short videos is also hindering the construction of cultural brands. At present, intangible cultural heritage short videos still lack long-term development goals and brand building awareness, lack development potential, and rarely innovate in content creativity. After some inheritors were active on short video platforms for a period of time, they had to fall into a deadlock of "stop updates" of their accounts. In order to pursue traffic and attention, some inheritors fill the gap with content that has nothing to do with intangible cultural heritage, destroying the connotation of intangible cultural heritage communication and causing blurred account image.
can always "online" inheritors who promote intangible cultural heritage short videos to continue to be launched in new
to realize that intangible cultural heritage short videos are ever-new in the flow of time and space, and the inheritor's shallow "touch the Internet" is still far from enough. Only by promoting inheritors to "online" and improving their digital life adaptability can we truly allow "cultural holders" to express their voices and tell their own stories, thereby presenting the cultural core of intangible cultural heritage in depth, accurately and truly.
Improve the inheritor's digital capabilities is the prerequisite for "online". In the era of digital media, inheritors need not only proficient in intangible cultural heritage skills, but also familiar with the characteristics and laws of digital communication. For example, by promoting typical cases of intangible cultural heritage dissemination, the inheritor can understand the communication process of short videos and understand how to produce intangible cultural heritage content that users like; also through offline classrooms or workshop training, the inheritor's digital skills can be improved and the quality of intangible cultural heritage short videos can be improved; practice can be encouraged through event activities, and the inheritor can be promoted to change the concept of inheritor , so that it can be made from passive presentation to active dissemination.
Enhancement of the hematopoietic function of the inheritor is the key to "online".Policy support and platform assistance are only temporary "blood transfusions". To stand out in the complex and diverse short video ecosystem, the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage short videos must rely on the inheritor's own participation and creation to enhance the ability to make blood. From the perspective of communication subject, we must explore and absorb more young groups into the team of intangible cultural heritage communication, and encourage young people to participate in intangible cultural heritage communication on short video platforms; from the perspective of external conditions, we can create an online community with intangible cultural heritage as our common interests and hobbies, and use the professional advantages of community members to form a joint creative model, realize interest-oriented refined division of labor, and help inheritors achieve diversified communication and inheritance on short video platforms; from the perspective of economic form, inheritors must grasp the laws of short video communication, accurately depict user portraits, transform the cultural communication and user experience of intangible cultural heritage into commercial driving force, and realize the closed-loop business model of intangible cultural heritage brands.
Inspiring inheritors’ content creativity is the guarantee of “online”. When short videos become a new base for intangible cultural heritage dissemination, inheritors should also transform from the original "intangible cultural heritage +" creative concept to "intangible cultural heritage short video +", that is, on the basis of using short videos to present intangible cultural heritage projects, inheritors can integrate different fields, discover different elements, and explore deep value, so as to enhance the cultural and creative ability of intangible cultural heritage in digital communication and stimulate new vitality and value. For example, by tapping social hot spots, we form "intangible cultural heritage short video + hot topics" to improve timeliness and modernity; by using the celebrity effect to create "intangible cultural heritage short video + celebrity stars" to enhance popularity and interactivity; and by integrating technological elements to form "intangible cultural heritage short video + new technology" to present innovative content and intelligent distribution. When intangible cultural heritage short videos are created in combination with elements such as culture, topics and technology, they can effectively promote the dialogue between tradition and modernity, inspire new vitality and value, and empower intangible cultural heritage to "turn" and "move".
In short, inheritors should use short videos as a holistic means of communication, carry out cross-border cooperation, mobilize more social forces and resources to assist in dissemination, and strengthen creative production and innovation sources, so as to maintain the continuous renewal of intangible cultural heritage short video content and achieve better intangible cultural heritage inheritance.
(Author: Ju Honglei He Zijie, professor and doctoral student at the Guangming School of Journalism and Communication, China University of Political Science and Law, respectively. This article is the research result of the "China University of Political Science and Law Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Teacher Training Support Program")
