When traditional culture becomes the "stepping stone" for variety shows to break through the circle

Variety shows have always been a popular type of program. What kind of sparks will be created when traditional culture collides with variety shows? Read this article to find out.

Recently, "Husband Sister" Chen Lijun has become a "regular" in variety show "famous scenes".

A Chinese opera version of "Tian Ming" gained her "cliff-like" popularity and made her the first guest to unlock one million straight shots on the first stage of "Sisters Who Make Waves 2024"; in "I Want to Sing with You", she returned to sing the "Smoke in the Desert" segment of the Yue Opera "New Dragon Inn", creating a new trend of "opera microphone passing" in variety shows. Not only did she set off the famous scene of the audience singing Yue Opera, but the call of "wife" made the usually steady teacher Han Hong smile directly. The two's many interactions directly raised the program's "ratings".

In addition, Chen Lijun also participated in the "Craftsman Conference" with Yang Sunshuo, a Yue Opera makeup artist who has been her partner for 8 years. In the program, Yang Sunshuo recreated Chen Lijun's makeup for the role of Jia Ting in "New Dragon Inn", which not only made beauty instructor Zhang Yuqi exclaim "heartbeat", but also evoked "memories" of fans. After all, Jia Ting's "evil smile" and "one-handed circle" related video clips have been "hard control" fans to this day, and the related topics have been played more than 1 billion times on Douyin.

In addition, Qin Hailu, Dilireba and other stars showed Peking opera performances and Xinjiang dances in Croatia, which also brought "Flowers and Youth 5" to a new height of variety shows. Many netizens said: This wave of culture has become a god. There is also "100% Production" student Liu Tingxiu who adapted rap lyrics from the Book of Songs, which made the group's reputation "reverse"... The "contrast effect" formed by the familiar variety show IP + niche traditional cultural elements has become the traffic code for variety shows to go viral. A group of young people even found "a sense of identity in the niche circle" through the variety show clips that broke the circle.

How did traditional cultural elements become a stepping stone for variety shows to break through the circle? How will the "niche traditional culture" maintain its "popularity" after breaking through the circle?

1. Familiar variety show IP + niche traditional cultural elements = breaking the circle of the masses

If we talk about the variety shows that have been talked about the most in the past two years, "Sisters Who Make Waves" must be on the list. It was only after "Sisters Who Make Waves" became popular that the variety show industry has successively emerged with a series of programs such as "riding the wind and waves" and "overcoming all obstacles". Although last year's "Sisters Who Make Waves" failed in its "bet", it still relied on the emotional traffic to "kill" topic figures such as Wang Xinling and Mei Yili Ya, making the show successfully popular again. In addition to emotions, "Sisters Who Make Waves" has also been deeply involved in the integration of traditional culture. Based on this, the national style stages of previous "Sisters Who Make Waves" have been very popular. For example, Alan and Cecilia Cheung's group's "Red Beauty Old", the opera tune "New Plum Blossom Three Variations" by Tang Bohu, a foreign female singer with a level 10 Chinese speaking ability, and Tan Weiwei's group's fairy-like "Dragon Chant"...

Sisters Who Make Waves 5 (Sisters Who Make Waves 2024) has taken the innovation and integration of traditional cultural elements and variety show IP to the extreme. In the first stage, Chen Lijun stood out with her Yue Opera version of Destiny. The freeze-frame shot of her transformation from Mulan to Sun Wukong in one second made many netizens "excited".

"Sisters Who Make Waves 5" also set the performance theme as China's unique 24 solar terms, integrating women's power into China's solar term culture.

The performance of "Hair Like Snow", which won first place in the first public performance, was interspersed with Chen Lijun's smooth sword-wielding flower performance, and the 10-second related clip once again won over a wave of audiences.

Therefore, with the support of major marketing accounts and fan-created videos, the famous scenes of "Sisters Who Make Waves 5" continue to be enthusiastically sought after on short video platforms.

Taking Tik Tok as an example, the #骑风破浪2024# topic has been discussed over 2.6 billion times so far. Many netizens were attracted by the popular clips of "Sisters Who Make Waves 5" on the short video platform and followed the updates on the long video platform - Mango TV.

According to the data from Maoyan Professional Edition, as of April 30, "乘风2024" had been online for 12 days and had received over 90.91 million exposures across the entire network.

In addition, the female trainees in "100% Production" also "successfully made a name for themselves" by adapting the Book of Songs into relevant clips of RAP lyrics.

In fact, when "100% Production" was first aired, the all-Chinese female rookie group led by Zhang Yixing was not favored by the public at first, and received many negative comments such as "low emotional intelligence" and "no memorable points".

In a stage creation, student Liu Tingxiu adapted the rap lyrics of the performance piece "Beauty" from the Book of Songs "Rang". The line "The mulberry tree has fallen and the flowers have not bloomed, and I have been working hard day and night and night and night" perfectly combines Chinese style with rap elements, which has improved the public recognition of the work. Many netizens said: After adapting it from the Book of Songs, it feels like it has been elevated to a higher level.

In addition to competitive variety shows, variety shows that combine travel variety IP and traditional cultural elements have also been very popular in recent years.

For example, "Flowers and Youth" has always been an adventurous program in foreign countries, deeply integrating the program content with local culture, and striving to achieve cultural breakthroughs in different regions.

However, judging from Douban's ratings, the ratings of the variety show in seasons 1-4 dropped from 7.3 to 5.8. It seems that the series of "dramatic behaviors" of the guests have caused aesthetic fatigue among the audience.

Therefore, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, "Flowers and Youth" launched the Silk Road Season with the theme of "study tour". This time, there was no quarrel between the guests, but instead, the guests praised and cared for each other. The fireworks left by retracing the Silk Road not only provided the audience with a vivid perspective to understand the Belt and Road Initiative, but also successfully refreshed the netizens' reputation for the program. So far, the Silk Road Season of "Flowers and Youth" has a Douban score of 9.2. At the same time, this is also the highest score of "Flowers and Youth" in all its previous programs.

Source: Douban

From this point of view, more and more traditional cultural elements have been cleverly integrated into variety show IPs. The "contrast effect" formed by familiar variety show IPs + niche traditional cultural elements has gradually become the traffic code for variety shows to go viral.

Therefore, variety shows are becoming a bridge for niche traditional cultural elements to enter the public eye.

2. Why are “culture +” variety shows so popular?

In addition to popular variety shows "implanting" niche traditional culture and attracting the public to go viral, the reputation of many vertical cultural variety shows has also soared in recent years.

From CCTV's "must-see series for civil servants" comprehensive programs such as "China in Classics", "Chinese Poetry Competition", "China in Intangible Cultural Heritage", and "National Treasure" to the "China Traditional Chinese Medicine Conference" which showcases Chinese medicine culture with rich audio-visual elements
…
More and more cultural and variety shows have become the "electronic pickles" of young people, and even many fans have said on social platforms that they were moved to tears.

Take "China in Classics" as an example. The program uses the innovative form of star effect + immersive stage play to interpret the classics that were previously "obscure and difficult to understand". Through high-quality plot content + a combination of virtual and real stage presentation, the audience can "immerse themselves in the scene", thus deeply stimulating their sense of identity with traditional culture.

Source: Screenshot from Xiaohongshu

When Qu Yuan, the poet of the Warring States Period who wrote "The road ahead is long and arduous, I will search for it up and down", appeared at the launch site of China's first Mars probe "Tianwen-1"; when Xu Xiake, a geographer of the Ming Dynasty who searched for the source of the Yangtze River for 30 years and eventually died of a leg disease, appeared at Sanjiangyuan 300 years later to taste the water of the Yangtze River... "China in Classics" "makes up" for the regrets of the predecessors through a series of dialogues "spanning thousands of years" and establishes emotional resonance with the audience in a novel and interesting way.

The establishment of this kind of emotional resonance is inseparable from the high attention paid by young people today to the national trend culture. Common manifestations include the explosion of new Chinese style wear, brewing tea around the stove as a new way of socializing, and the Fujian God Tour dominating the screen.

Source: Screenshot from Xiaohongshu

When individuals in society come into contact with culture, the path they follow is generally: interest - understanding - inheritance. First, they pay attention because of interest, then they understand after emotional resonance, and after a deeper understanding, they begin to develop a sense of mission to inherit the culture.

Yu Lei, the producer and chief director of National Treasure, once said: "Today's society has some prejudices against young people's aesthetics. Young people are not attracted by 'silly and innocent', they also like things with texture."

3. How to maintain the heat?

The huge traffic brought by breaking the circle has given the traditional cultural industry more room for growth. However, some originally small-scale industries find it difficult to cope with the suddenly expanding market. As a result, a wave of scalpers "took advantage of the situation". On platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Xianyu, many scalpers sold tickets for the Yue Opera "Chen Sanliang" for 3,500 yuan, which originally cost 680 yuan.

Source: Screenshot from Xiaohongshu

But there is no doubt that in the era of "traffic is king", the increase in attention is more beneficial than harmful to the development of the cultural variety show industry. After all, only when there is popularity can there be resources. The key is how to maintain the popularity of cultural variety shows?

With more and more variety shows of the same theme, cultural variety shows are prone to the phenomenon of "popular but not popular". This is because the audience of this type of program has certain limitations. If the "aesthetic fatigue" caused by homogeneity is added, it is normal for the traffic to decrease.

For example, the cultural exploration program "National Treasure" of the Nth generation of variety shows, although the Douban score is above 9 points in each season, the number of people participating in the rating has dropped by nearly 5 times.

However, this does not mean that there is no future for traditional cultural programs.

In fact, as audiences' demand for cultural diversity and in-depth experience grows, some new innovations are emerging.

Judging from the film lists released by various platforms in 2024, traditional Chinese medicine and food seem to have become innovative hotspots for cultural variety shows.

In addition to the "China Traditional Chinese Medicine Conference" led by CCTV, there are also the first reality show in China to experience the culture of traditional Chinese medicine, "The Beautiful Boy of Traditional Chinese Medicine", the "Solar Season Tasting Plan" to find the smell of fireworks, and the food tracing program "Resurrection! Treasure Recipes", "Fresh Four Seasons New Year Goods Season", "Friends Invite Me to Dinner 2" which shows the social interaction between food and young people, and "Chinese Food is Coming" which combines food and cultural tourism.

Which variety show do you think has the potential to become a hit this year?

Author: Xia Tian

Source: WeChat public account "TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)"