With millions of followers thanks to videos of making iron flowers, why is "Jiang Xunqian" able to frequently become popular?

Have you seen a video of a little girl making iron flowers recently? In the video, the blogger recorded the whole process of traveling thousands of miles to learn from a master and practicing for nine months. In just a few minutes of video, why did she gain millions of followers by making iron flowers? Let's follow the author to find out.

Recently, a video of making iron flowers has been widely circulated on multiple platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and the author of this video "Jiang Xunqian" has once again achieved a wave of fan growth.

On June 14, the blogger posted a video on Douyin about learning the thousand-year-old skill of "making iron flowers", which received 3.54 million likes. Data shows that "Jiang Xunqian" ranked first on the Xiaohongshu's fan increase list this week, with a fan increase of more than 170,000 in a week. At the same time, the blogger also appeared on the Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili fan increase lists in this issue, with a cumulative increase of 1.71 million fans across the entire network during the statistical period.

Jiang Xunqian is a genuine Hunan girl born after 1995. Her current account ID name is "Jiang Xunqian (September)". In fact, before the iron flower video, she was already a blogger with millions of fans. Currently, her Douyin account has 11.73 million fans, her Xiaohongshu account has 2.87 million fans, and her Bilibili account has 2.39 million fans. She has a high influence on all platforms.

It is not difficult to see from watching her videos that she is not only a food blogger, but also a cultural blogger who is committed to inheriting the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Nowadays, when videos full of entertainment such as handsome men and beautiful women, delicious food and pets, and funny plots occupy a part of the short video world, we also find that more and more intangible cultural heritage content that showcases traditional skills is attracting the attention of the public.

1. Behind the iron flower video is the protection of traditional cultural skills

In the few minutes of the iron flower making video, what is shocking is not only the ending scene of "iron trees and silver flowers falling, thousands of stars blooming", but the whole video records the whole process of Jiu Yue traveling thousands of miles to learn the skills and constantly practicing. This spirit of inheriting traditional skills is even more moving.

Different from other traditional skills, making iron flowers is a skill that requires high strength, technology, courage and other factors. Two willow sticks are the main tools for making iron flowers. The upper stick holds 1600℃ molten iron, and the lower stick hits it hard, so that the molten iron falls in a drizzle state. Otherwise, the sesame-sized molten iron will burn the person holding the stick. In order to realize the idea of ​​making iron flowers, Jiu Yue spent a month practicing.

From hitting stones to hitting sand and then hitting water, Jiu Yue's strength and skills are getting closer and closer to the standard of making iron flowers. When choosing a site, she came to the empty desert and built a willow flower shed. It is worth mentioning that the construction method of the willow flower shed was once lost. Her master Yang Jianjun visited Taoist temples and inspected cultural relics, and it took 13 years to restore it in the autumn of 2002.

Source: Video screenshot

It was not until she was about to go on stage that she truly felt the fear of facing 1600℃ molten iron, but her belief in the inheritance of traditional cultural skills made her go on stage bravely, and she successfully played out the most extreme romance she had ever experienced.

Source: Video screenshot

Jiu Yue shared her experience of making iron flowers in the video comment area. She said, "Since I saw the shocking iron flowers two years ago, the idea of ​​making iron flowers has been lingering in my mind, but I have never made up my mind, fearing that I would not be able to bear it after an accident." However, under the guidance of teacher Yang Jianjun's iron flower team, Jiu Yue successfully realized her wish of making iron flowers, and she also became the first female apprentice of Queshan iron flowers in a thousand years, and the seventh-generation inheritor of Queshan iron flowers. Although her clothes were torn with many holes and she also had some burns and even burned a lot of hair in the process of making iron flowers, she felt that it was all worth it.

Source: Video screenshot

One netizen commented in the comments section that “When the sparks flew, I was not only shocked, but also moved by the long-term persistence of the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage. It is a power that transcends the mundane world.”

The iron flower video is just a microcosm of Jiu Yue's journey of inheriting the intangible cultural heritage. In fact, Jiu Yue has made a lot of efforts in inheriting traditional cultural skills. Whether it is lychee wine from 1,300 years ago, the palace delicacy dragon beard pastry, three-no-stick and other ancient delicacies, or kites, fish lanterns, velvet flowers, and tongcao flowers, they are all highly restored in her videos.

For example, the fish lantern in the hands of a woman at an ancient lantern festival, Jiu Yue recreated it step by step from design, bamboo weaving, and paper pasting, showing the sense of agility and jumping. With the blessing of Hanfu, it is definitely an ancient beauty walking out of a painting. There are also aromatherapy made of three-dimensional dried flowers, handmade honey soap... and so on. She can even elegantly recreate the same tea-making and tea-playing in "Dream of Hualu".

It is precisely because of these exquisite videos that she is called a "talented woman". Some netizens commented that "September has the confidence of a talented woman, which is as deep and heavy as the 5,000-year Chinese heritage."

2. "Sugar painting" is one of Jiang Xunqian's labels

Among Jiang Xunqian's many works, the series of videos on sugar painting production cannot be ignored. A video titled "I want to initiate a sugar painting relay challenge" made her the initiator of the "Sugar Painting Challenge" that once swept the entire Internet.

In the video, Jiang Xunqian holds a copper spoon, pours the syrup skillfully, and deftly controls the direction of the syrup. In a short while, he draws an exquisite three-dimensional lantern. Not only the lantern, but also a three-dimensional, lifelike mantis and a phoenix shining in the sun. Each sugar painting work is praised by many people.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

Jiang Xunqian once talked about his original intention of making sugar paintings in an interview: sugar paintings were everywhere when I was a child, but now it is becoming increasingly difficult to see. This wonderful traditional Chinese art of sugar painting is declining. "I don't want the art of sugar painting to decline. I want to evoke everyone's memory in this way and spread sugar painting more widely through the Internet, so that more young people will inherit it."

At first, Jiang Xunqian didn't know much about the process of making sugar paintings. Later, after learning from the master for two months, he gradually mastered the skills. Regarding launching the sugar painting challenge, Jiang Xunqian felt that "inheritance is not a matter of one person, but a matter of a group of people. I hope to use the form of sugar painting to evoke the memories of more people."

What is more meaningful is that in May 21, in order to commemorate Academician Yuan Longping, Jiang Xunqian painted a portrait of Grandpa Yuan with sugar. In the video, Jiu Yue used a copper spoon as a pen and sugar liquid as ink. He held the long spoon in his hand and moved his wrist freely. As the strands of sugar threads floated, a lifelike sugar painting appeared on the smooth drawing board. The video received more than 2 million likes, and many netizens expressed their emotions in the comment area.

Source: Video screenshot

Seeing more and more people love and try sugar painting, Jiang Xunqian feels more motivated to continue doing this. "Originally, I made sugar painting to pass on traditional Chinese skills, but when I was making this video, I suddenly felt that sugar painting can express more ideas than I imagined."

With an atmosphere full of sentiment, ancient-style scenery, and gentle voice, Jiang Xunqian's videos have infected and healed countless people with her unique aesthetics. "In the future, I want to do more meaningful things, make more new attempts, and explore the beauty of the world with my fans." This yearning is being continuously conveyed to netizens through her videos.

3. Conclusion

Short videos have awakened our gradually blurred intangible cultural heritage and gradually brought them back to our daily lives. In particular, they have awakened the young user groups' awareness of intangible cultural heritage and allowed various cultural expressions such as calligraphy and painting, traditional crafts, opera, martial arts, and folk music to return to our daily communications.

In addition to Jiang Xunqian, craftsmen scattered across the country are also telling the story of intangible cultural heritage in their own way. They have activated the original vitality of intangible cultural heritage in an experiential and life-oriented way. The craftsman spirit and outstanding skills they present have also allowed young people who are far away from tradition to begin to have a deeper understanding of intangible cultural heritage life.

Intangible cultural heritage is being recognized, and the craftsmen's perseverance has made intangible cultural heritage more and more popular. The "intangible cultural heritage world" that these treasure craftsmen have been passing on will also release greater potential.

Author: Aries

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