Non-genetic inheritors encounter short videos, how to get rid of the dilemma of "group turning"

Li Niangen, the fifth generation of bamboo weaving in Dongcun Township, Fengyi County, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, with more than 50 years of craftsmanship, "breaking the circle" has become a "net red" with 8 million fans on the whole network. The picture shows the team photographer shooting Li Niangen's work. Xinhua News Agency reporter carefully photographed

Intangible cultural heritage is a "living" cultural form that is the main body of human inheritance. The emergence of short video platforms has broken the transmission of intangible cultural heritage that is static in the dimension of time and space, and inheritors have begun to record, express and exhibit short videos, 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 ecology of short video content.

As early as 2019, there were short video platforms that announced that on average, 1 intangible cultural heritage short video was generated and disseminated on its own platform every 3 seconds. The short video platform provides a new communication scenario for intangible cultural heritage, broadens the inheritance path, and some intangible cultural heritage projects even begin to form their own positive cycle of business forms. However, for most non-genetic inheritors, high-quality content production, continuous interaction and continuous innovation through short videos and live broadcasts are not easy, and they often fall into the dilemma of "group turning". With the passage of time, how to maintain the vitality of 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 videos let the non-hereditary heirs who silently adhere to it "be seen"

When the solid color of the oil-paper umbrella is painted with Chinese elements such as totems, color knots and sunsets, the oil-paper umbrella becomes a symbol in the aesthetic sense of modern life, decorating the daily life of ordinary people; when traditional opera is accompanied by brisk melodies, exaggerated movements and humorous and humorous language, elegant art also begins to become elegant and popular. Nowadays, the short-form intangible cultural heritage dissemination has moved from static recording to dynamic performance, and intangible cultural heritage short videos have rapidly "caught fire" on major short video platforms. Li Niangen, a non-hereditary inheritor with 8 million fans on the whole network, integrates bamboo weaving skills into life scenes and returns bamboo weaving to the lives of ordinary people; Anhui Wuhu iron painting non-hereditary heirs storage iron art, with the help of short videos, not only widely disseminate iron paintings, but also sell thousands of works through live streaming with goods, and the transaction volume of a single work is up to 170,000 yuan.

The original ecological content such as the daily life of the inheritors, the production scenes of intangible cultural heritage, and the technological processes have become the basic themes of intangible cultural heritage dissemination on short video platforms. These short videos of intangible cultural heritage that are both "real" and show "superb skills" have broken people's stereotypes of "obsolescence" and "backwardness" of intangible cultural heritage projects. The strong sense of presence, realism, closeness and deeper interactive experience brought by short videos and live broadcasts have given traditional culture and exquisite folk skills new room for growth, and created possibilities for dialogue between tradition and modernity, inheritance and innovation.

The 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, which combines professional production content and ensures the continuous output of content with the strong support of capital, so as to ultimately achieve stable monetization of business. The MCN organization of intangible cultural heritage values the traffic of non-genetic heirs and intangible cultural heritage content and the resulting commercial value, and in their view, "the value of craftsmen is greatly underestimated". In this vertical, MCN agencies have rapidly grown from small teams of a few people to standardized content marketing companies. At present, some intangible cultural heritage MCN institutions have begun to show a certain scale, with more than 50 intangible cultural heritage accounts, the total number of fans on the whole network has reached more than 30 million, and the monthly playback volume has exceeded 1 billion times. MCN institutions positioned in the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage content often sign agreements with non-genetic inheritors to help non-genetic inheritors shoot short video content, do a good job in social platform operations, open up commercial monetization chains, and obtain revenue from inheritors through live streaming with goods and offline courses. It can be said that the addition of MCN institutions has really added another firewood to the popular intangible cultural heritage short videos.

Non-hereditary heirs in the dual role face transformation challenges and role conflicts

Intangible cultural heritage short videos "fire", but new problems have also emerged. When non-genetic inheritors have opened accounts on the platform, they have changed from simple cultural "non-genetic inheritors" to "non-genetic inheritors + short video content providers", in the face of massive short video content and the huge commercial wave brought about by it, many non-genetic inheritors can not bear the burden of "double role".

Problems such as lack of technical capabilities, inability to play with platform algorithms, and incomprehension of business logic limit the possibility of in-depth creation and continuous provision of content by inheritors; insufficient awareness of digital communication, difficulty in grasping the expression of core values, and the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage short videos falls into the dilemma of "being represented"; once it loses the support of external institutions, it faces the possibility of "being taken off", "depowdering" and "stopping change"... In the transformation of the dual role, non-hereditary inheritors face a series of practical challenges and role conflicts.

For example, the aging of inheritors highlights the difficulty of technical adaptation. In the fifth batch of national non-genetic heirs 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. Older inheritors face a technological divide and digital capabilities that are hard to ignore. Zhang Wanfu, a national non-hereditary heir, once said: "I don't know anything new about the Internet, I don't know how to make short videos, I'm not familiar with user operations, and even if I spend a lot of time and effort, I still can't attract the attention of users." "The structural problem of the aging of the non-genetic inheritance population extends from offline to online, and it is difficult for the inheritors with higher age to cope with the continuous updating 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 expression is subject to the fragmentation of short videos. There is an inevitable conflict between the narrative presentation of short videos with "seconds" as the time unit and the cultural accumulation of intangible cultural heritage with "decades" and "hundreds of years" as the time unit. In order to cater to the fragmented dissemination of short videos, inheritors or MCN institutions have cut, dismantled and reorganized intangible cultural heritage projects, making it impossible to fully present the core values of some intangible cultural heritage projects. When deciding on the content positioning of the account, the MCN institution will give priority to the intangible cultural heritage categories that can carry goods and are easy to consume, while staying away from serious arts and large-scale handicrafts, which limits people's comprehensive understanding of intangible cultural heritage items. Under the guidance of the logic of short video traffic, intangible cultural heritage projects are very easy to show the tendency of localization, shallowness and entertainment, and some intangible cultural heritage artists are worried about this, believing that the intervention of short videos is detrimental to the effective inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.

At the same time, the lack of creativity of intangible cultural heritage short videos is also hindering cultural brand building. At present, intangible cultural heritage short videos still lack long-term development goals and brand building awareness, lack of development potential, and few innovations in content creativity. Some inheritors have been active on the short video platform for a period of time and have to fall into the deadlock of account "stop change". There are also some inheritors who, in order to pursue traffic and attention, fill in the blanks with content that has nothing to do with intangible cultural heritage, destroying the connotation of intangible cultural heritage transmission and causing the image of the account to be blurred.

Only the inheritors who are always "online" can promote the continuous innovation of intangible cultural heritage short videos

To achieve intangible cultural heritage short videos in the flow of time and space for a long time, the shallow level of "touching the net" of the inheritors is still far from enough. Only by promoting the "online" of inheritors and improving their digital life adaptability can we truly allow "culture holders" to express their voices and tell their own stories, so as to deeply, accurately and truly present the cultural core of intangible cultural heritage.

Enhancing the digital capabilities of inheritors is a prerequisite for "online". In the era of digital media, inheritors not only need to be 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, inheritors can understand the communication process of short videos and understand how to produce intangible cultural heritage content that users like to hear; they can also improve the digital skills of inheritors and improve the quality of intangible cultural heritage short videos through offline classroom or workshop training; and they can also encourage practice through events to promote inheritors to change their concepts and let them change from passive presentation to active dissemination.

Enhancing the hematopoietic function of the inheritor is the key to "online". Policy support and platform assistance are only temporary "blood transfusions", in order to stand out in the complex and diverse short video ecology, the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage short videos must rely on the participation and creation of the inheritors themselves to enhance hematopoietic ability. From the perspective of the main body of communication, it is necessary to excavate and absorb more young groups into the team of intangible cultural heritage dissemination, and encourage young people to participate in intangible cultural heritage dissemination on the short video platform; from the perspective of external conditions, it is possible to create an online community with intangible cultural heritage as a common hobby, form a joint creation model with the help of the professional advantages of community members, realize a refined division of labor oriented by interest, and help inheritors to achieve diversified dissemination and inheritance on the short video platform; from the perspective of economic form, the inheritors should grasp the law of short video dissemination and accurately depict user portraits. Transform the cultural dissemination and user experience of intangible cultural heritage into commercial power, and realize the closed-loop business model of intangible cultural heritage brands.

Inspiring content creativity for inheritors is the guarantee of "online". When short videos become a new position for the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage, inheritors should also change from the initial creative concept of "intangible cultural heritage +" to "intangible cultural heritage short video +", that is, on the basis of using short videos to present intangible cultural heritage projects, inheritors should enhance the cultural and creative ability of intangible cultural heritage in digital communication by integrating different fields, discovering different elements, and excavating deep-seated values, so as to stimulate new vitality and value. For example, by excavating social hotspots to form "intangible cultural heritage short videos + hot topics" to enhance timeliness and modernity; with the help of celebrity effects to create "intangible cultural heritage short videos + celebrity stars" to enhance popularity and interactivity; into the integration of scientific and technological elements to form "intangible cultural heritage short videos + new technologies" to innovative content presentation and intelligent distribution. When intangible cultural heritage short videos are created by combining cultural, topical and technological elements, they can effectively promote the dialogue between tradition and modernity, stimulate new vitality and value, and empower intangible cultural heritage to "turn up" and "move".

In short, inheritors should take short videos as a means of overall communication, carry out cross-border cooperation, mobilize more social forces and resources to help disseminate, and strengthen creative production and innovation sources, so as to maintain the continuous renewal of intangible cultural heritage short video content and achieve better non-genetic inheritance.

(Author: Ju Honglei He Zijie, professor and doctoral candidate of Guangming School of Journalism and Communication, China University of Political Science and Law, respectively, this article is the research result of "Excellent Young and Middle-Aged Teacher Training Support Program of China University of Political Science and Law")

Source: Guangming Daily