From celebrity imitation to national carnival: the logic of entertainment consumption behind the Internet's innate holy body

On short video platforms, "Internet innate saints" are becoming popular by imitating celebrities, which reflects the revival of abstract culture and the new trend of entertainment consumption among young people. This article deeply analyzes the social and cultural motivations behind this phenomenon and is recommended for readers who are interested in Internet culture and youth group psychology.

Young people are gradually moving towards the "abstract world", a new world where a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend.

Recently, in addition to Guo Youcai and "Wang Ma", "face-to-face imitation" has become the traffic code in short videos, and some "online innate saints" have made a lot of money from it. The term "innate saint" originated from online novels and refers to someone who has superhuman talents in a certain aspect. In simple terms, it means "born to do something."

Add the word "Internet" to this word, and you have the "new species" that has emerged on the short video platform recently: they have faces similar to those of certain celebrities, and they become popular through imitation and abstraction, opening the beginning of the "Internet Born Saints Era". Tracing back to the source, in fact, "Internet Born Saints" are the "imitation shows" of the past mass media era.

However, with the changes in media and times, this imitation has inadvertently changed. And these changes are actually the result of the "Renaissance" of abstract culture.

1. The Age of the Internet's Innate Body: Imitation Moves Towards Abstraction

The story began at the beginning of this year, when a young man from Yunnan (@滇阿辉) shaved his head and began a live broadcast career imitating Kobe under the guidance of netizens. At that time, many years after Kobe's death, the "Lao Da" meme swept the Chinese Internet again. Some young people kept saying "man what can I say" as a catchphrase, even though they didn't know who Kobe was.

Image source: TikTok

Yunnan Ah Hui took advantage of this favorable situation and suddenly became famous. He sat in the live broadcast room, with his dark skin and Kobe's No. 24 jersey. As the music of "See You Again" started, the young man began to perform "elbow strikes" crazily (player Kobe was criticized for hitting his opponents with "elbow strikes" on the court), and kept muttering "man what can I say".

Afterwards, the comments section began to swirl with “Art is done”, and the number of people in the live broadcast room soon reached 100,000+ - the “Innate Kobe Holy Body” was achieved. Pandora’s box was opened, and netizens sent their photos to Yunnan Ahui’s comment section, asking netizens for advice. Under the “Cyber ​​Ancestors’ Road”, a number of “Innate Holy Bodies” such as “Wu Yifan Holy Body”, “Huo Jin”, “Zhou Hong 2”, “Lei Min”, and “Anti-fraud Xiao Chen” emerged one after another.

In fact, this phenomenon is not uncommon. "Imitation shows" entered China in the 1990s, and it has been more than 30 years since then. From Southeast TV's flagship variety show "Happy 100" to "Happy Mobilization" produced by Beijing TV and Shanghai TV, to "Variety Show" which is an original variety show introduced from abroad "Your Face Sounds Familiar", "Imitation Show" has long been developed and is no longer a strange and novel thing.

Image source: Douban

However, with the change of media, from mass media to short video platforms, "imitation shows" have changed unconsciously. In the era of mass communication, media resources are in the hands of a few people, and the right to speak is naturally in the hands of communicators. For imitation shows such as "Variety Show", who will imitate, who to imitate, and what to imitate are all decided by the program team.

But in the new media age, the decision-making power falls into the hands of ordinary people - anyone can imitate anyone in any way.

Therefore, on short video platforms, the subjects of imitation are no longer limited to those who are capable of appearing on the imitation show stage, but ordinary people; the objects of imitation are no longer just celebrities, but have expanded to all kinds of people such as internet celebrities and entrepreneurs; the methods of imitation are no longer a series of performances such as singing and acting, but "playing with memes" and "making things happen": "Kobe's Holy Body" performs "elbow strikes" in the live broadcast room, "Wu Yifan's Holy Body" steps on a sewing machine in the live broadcast room, and "Anti-Fraud Xiao Chen" stretches out his tongue and exercises in the short video...

Under the conspiracy of "Xiantian Shengti" and netizens, the imitation show originated in the last century has gradually become a national carnival. "Xiantian Shengti" are eager for traffic and sudden wealth, "cyber immortals" witness their own "midas" and netizens who watch are enjoying the entertainment feast in the information cocoon.

As a result, on the one hand, the myth of "Xiantian Shengti" getting rich by relying on their looks keeps appearing; on the other hand, netizens standing outside the circle are increasingly confused: Why are they so popular? From a deeper perspective, although the main reason is that media changes have helped the imitation show to be reborn in the new media era, behind this is also a reflection of the new trend of the development of the times and entertainment consumption: young people are gradually bidding farewell to traditional and conventional entertainment methods, and gradually moving towards the new world of so-called "abstract cultural entertainment" that is "unreasonable", "absurd and contrary to normal narratives".

This is why the public is no longer satisfied with imitating the performances of a certain type of star, but is instead keen on "innate holy bodies" to recreate those celebrities who once held high positions in the form of "playing with memes" and "making things happen".

2. The Past and Present of Abstract Culture

In fact, this new trend is the "Renaissance" of abstract culture. Abstract culture originated in 2014. The game blogger "Zhutou Li Gan" became famous through sensationalism (such as bragging, repeating, and sleeping on live broadcast), and then established the "Abstract Studio".

This live broadcast method with abstract culture as its core has gradually matured, and well-known bloggers such as Yaoshuige and A Jiao have emerged. For example, Yaoshuige became popular after an 8-hour live broadcast with anti-fans in 2017. Since then, he has given up technical live broadcasts and turned to the image of a clown crying and laughing in the live broadcast room, imitating dog barking, etc. to attract viewers.

Image source: Baidu

As the "Clear and Bright" series of special campaigns on the Internet have been carried out, these "abstract bloggers" have been banned or lost traffic due to being too vulgar and walking on the edge of "skirting the edge" - such as Yaoshui Ge making "sexual" actions towards female anchors - and have gradually faded out of the public's view. From the development history of abstract culture, the so-called abstract culture is without literature, talent, or content. Some scholars believe that the characteristics of abstract culture are "dissolving the sublime, mocking authority, stigmatizing idols, and belittling oneself."

From the Enlightenment to "let a hundred flowers bloom", anchors with the label of "abstract culture" do have such a "rebellious and dissolving" flavor. Such characteristics also exist in today's "Internet innate saints" - the objects of their imitation are all "celebrities", but their imitation behavior deconstructs the sublimity of "celebrities". Under their imitation, celebrities are pulled down from the altar: Kobe, Zhang Yimou, and Hawking are no longer high-ranking superiors, and their imitators deconstruct their authority in a playful way, relying on scandals as nourishment.

These celebrities with "idol significance" have also been stigmatized because of this: when talking about Kobe, it is no longer "Los Angeles at 4 a.m." which is associated with hard work and diligence. Kobe's achievements have been obscured, and what remains is only the reinforcement of his fouls and crimes by everyone.

In the process, they also constantly belittle themselves, doing exaggerated and absurd behaviors in the live broadcast room to attract the audience's attention and laughter. By imitating the negative behaviors of celebrities, they not only deconstruct the lofty image of celebrities, but also belittle themselves to a certain extent, becoming clowns to entertain the public. In addition to these "innate saints", abstract culture has also revived in other entertainment fields.

In April this year, the rapper who was eliminated from "The Rap of China 2024" became famous with the song "Thank God, Thank God". Countless hip-hop fans went to the MV filming location to check in, and sat on the fitness equipment where Nomi was sitting at that time, singing "Thank God, thank God, I want to diss you". This place was also rated by netizens as the third Disney in China.

Image source: TikTok

The reason why Nomi released this rap is that at the audition site of "China's New Rap 2024", Xie Di, a mentor who has an absolute position in the Chinese rap industry, eliminated Nomi and said that the song that Nomi wrote for his grandfather was "a song written for his grandmother."

In a fit of anger, Nomi used the unique diss method of rap to fight back against Xie Di, which was an absolute rebellion and deconstruction of rap authority. This is the abstract culture after the comeback - they dissolve the sublime, mock authority, stigmatize idols, and belittle themselves.

However, after the first generation of abstract culture representatives such as "Brother Yaoshui" were banned, the current abstract culture is more about jokes and teasing. Although vulgar elements still exist, the situation has improved greatly compared with the past.

3. Behind the Renaissance of Abstract Culture

Why has abstract culture made a comeback? Why has young people’s entertainment consumption become more “abstract”?

One of the reasons is that in an era of great economic pressure, young people are trapped in emotions that have nowhere to go. Zygmunt Bauman describes contemporary society as a modernity of fluidity, arguing that consumerism, globalization, and individualization have led to uncertainty, insecurity, and unreliability. While enjoying freedom, individuals are also under the pressure of insecurity, and are in a contradictory state of freedom and insecurity.

On this basis, Han Bingzhe proposed the concept of performance society, believing that it replaced the disciplinary society. Although individuals have escaped external supervision, they have fallen into self-spiritual discipline, and excessive pursuit of affirmation has led to self-exploitation. This has formed a paradox: individuals suffer from the hardship of liberating repression in the freedom of mobility, constantly self-discipline, and bear internal pressure and contradictions.

This provides an opportunity for the comeback of abstract culture. No matter whether it is the imitators or the netizens, they all relieve the oppression brought to individuals by the times in this national carnival: the former find identity and a sense of belonging through imitation, and the latter find an outlet for their emotions by watching memes.

Image source: TikTok

In addition, under the control of algorithmic recommendation technology, young people are trapped in an information cocoon from which there is no escape. This technology analyzes user behavior and preferences and continuously pushes similar or related content, thus building an information bubble around the user.

In this bubble, young people are exposed to mainly filtered information, which limits their horizons and strengthens their preference and dependence on abstract culture. At the same time, this algorithm-driven information flow may also lead to an "echo chamber effect", in which young people are surrounded by similar views and cultural phenomena, which further strengthens their identification with abstract culture.

By continuously optimizing the user experience, the algorithm recommendation system may inadvertently exacerbate the uniformity and homogenization of culture. The deconstruction of authority by abstract culture also contains the risk of "wandering outside of moral ethics and law." However, whether such questions can penetrate the thick information cocoon, break through the barriers, and reach the "Internet innate holy body" and the information flow and concepts of its audience has become unknown in an era where algorithm recommendation presides over everything.

When all the voices around us are positive expressions of abstract culture, abstract culture will inevitably flourish with the help of this group. Under the influence of algorithms and emotions, the myth of short videos making people rich provides enough space for the growth of abstract culture.

Since last year, with the popularity of Yu Wenliang, Wen Huijun and others, and the subsequent myth of wealth creation, ordinary people have realized that they can also become rich overnight with the help of short videos and live broadcasts. It is reported that Wen Huijun received 6,000 carnivals on December 18, 2023 during his live broadcast at the peak of traffic, and the after-tax income of a single carnival was 1,400 yuan, which means that Wen Huijun earned 8.4 million yuan on that day.

The same is true for abstract culture. The earliest "Kobe Bryant Saint Body" came from a "brother-in-law" in Guizhou. In 2022, he was inspired by a "fairy" and began to imitate Kobe Bryant. He became famous and rich because of this: with overwhelming traffic, he once made up to 250,000 yuan a day. Another "Kobe Bryant Saint Body" from Yunnan, Ahui, also revealed in an interview that he made more than 80,000 yuan through live streaming in more than 10 days.

Image source: WeChat public account "一盅情怀"

These glaring numbers attracted the attention of countless people who wanted to get rich overnight. They began to imitate and create their own characters and stories, hoping to get a share of this wave.

Short video platforms have become their stage for display, and young people's emotions that have nowhere to vent and precise algorithm recommendation technology have become their boosters. In general, the popularity of "Internet innate holy body" is a microcosm of young people's entertainment consumption being gradually engulfed by abstract culture. Abstract culture is indeed full of problems, but behind young people's love for abstract culture, there is actually their contradictory psychology of "freedom and anxiety" and the spiritual need of "seeking an outlet for emotional catharsis". They need guidance, but they need to be understood more.

Author: Taozi; Editor: Bandao; Source public account: Sanchuanhui Culture (ID: 1093256)