After disliking the internet-famous road sign, look at the city on the road

This seems to be the established route for popular online celebrities: from being highly sought after to being disliked and avoided. Even the popular online celebrity road signs are no longer immune. What does this mean? And how can tourist attractions escape the fate of being short-lived online celebrities and maintain their unique charm for a long time? Let's take a look at the author's interpretation and analysis.

"Netizens have added their own life experiences to the popular road signs, turning the tourist spots that were originally used for check-in into a medium for expressing life attitudes."

As special forces-style tourism is sweeping the world, more and more tourist cities are doing their best to create more landmark check-in spots worth a visit, in order to attract wave after wave of tourists.

Among them, tourist road signs with the representative "I miss you so much in XX" have taken root in more and more cities, and even derived a series of new characteristic road signs. For example, "The wind that misses you still blows to Shanghai" or "The wind that misses you still blows to Guangzhou", which makes people wonder whether the wind that misses you has stepped on the somersault cloud and blows all over the land of China.

Young people with rebellious nature also reprocessed this "rustic road sign" in their own way, so there was a scene of "I really want to die in XX". It is unknown whether tourist attractions miss someone in particular, but people are fed up with the rustic road signs everywhere.

(A re-creation of the I Miss You So Much sign in XX)

From being popular at the beginning to being disliked by everyone now, the Internet celebrity road signs have ultimately failed to break the fate of most Internet hits that are short-lived. Faced with the mushrooming of new Internet celebrity check-in spots, people are eager to become Internet trendsetters; on the other hand, they gradually develop a feeling of disgust due to overexposure and rush to the next "new road sign."

The successive popular attractions and repeated marketing methods make people sigh that many tourism activities are "tasteless and a pity to abandon". Every city claims to miss you, but they all have the same makeup. Have we really experienced the warmth of this city in the midst of all the dazzling flowers?

1. From being followed to being disliked: the short life of the internet celebrity road sign

As early as 2022, some netizens posted photos of road signs that read "I miss you so much in Chongqing" taken at Chongqing Eling Second Factory on social platforms such as Xiaohongshu. The simple color scheme and catchy literary phrases made it quickly popular on the Internet. Subsequently, with the flexible and changeable short phrase templates, major cities began to appear with "Miss you" road signs.

The original steel jungle has been given new life by a unique road sign. Many netizens said that the word "Miss you" has a special sense of intimacy and atmosphere. Especially after netizens took wonderful photos and checked in, the "Miss you" road sign has evolved from a regional sign to a fashionable cultural symbol.

(Different I miss you very much road signs in different places)

With the combination of various elements, the Internet celebrity road sign creates a hazy and distorted sense of romance. The confessions and thoughts that could not be expressed directly convey the warmth and emotions of consensus through a specific landmark.

Compared to deliberately marking your location in the circle of friends, road signs transform the original rigid text expressions into pictures with viewing value. They also add a unique sense of ritual to the current geographical environment, thus satisfying people's dual needs for travel check-ins and social sharing.

The content of the Internet celebrity road signs also happened to fit the reality of the epidemic, when people were not able to move around easily. People in different places expressed their thoughts directly with vivid pictures. Coupled with the promotion of social platforms, the Internet celebrity road signs then spread to every corner of the country, from cities to universities, and eventually formed an all-round "miss you" trend.

(Netizens posted a "Miss You" sign on social media)

But the good times didn’t last long. The overly homogeneous online celebrity road signs were like fireworks on a summer night. After a brief period of splendor, they began to be questioned and disliked by all parties. Many online celebrity road signs did not set the sign content in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and also failed to play the guiding function of the road signs themselves, becoming pure "vase" attractions.

The ubiquitous internet celebrity road signs have brought great aesthetic fatigue to people. The original creative and novel internet celebrity road signs have lost their initial appeal after being copied and pasted. As the check-in craze fades, people's attitude towards internet celebrity road signs has also taken a sharp turn for the worse.

The original simple and warm atmosphere has become tacky in people's eyes. Some netizens have modified the road signs, so the playful and rebellious road signs such as "I'm in XX and no one loves me" have appeared. This reshaping of the original hit has triggered another emotional resonance, turning the Internet celebrity road signs from the original tourist landmarks into frequent guests in people's complaints and emoticons.

People use entertainment to participate in reflection and criticism of Internet celebrity road signs. In this way, they participate deeply in a new round of media spectacles again and again, performing a Huxley-style cultural absurdity drama: no one will take up arms against entertainment, and people gradually fall in love with the entertainment culture brought by industrial technology and cannot extricate themselves.

(The "anti-bone road sign" created by netizens)

Replacing pretentious and tacky road signs with ridiculous ones, and replacing the original warm atmosphere with seemingly funny sentences, netizens add their own life experiences to the popular road signs, turning the scenic spots originally used for check-ins into a medium for expressing life attitudes .

The road sign "I want to die in XX" is a rebellion, but also a mockery and helplessness of one's own life. From being highly sought after to being despised by everyone, the short life of the Internet celebrity road sign reflects the common feeling of many people who travel to popular cities: they feel that every place they go to is more or less the same.

When every city is almost the same, are we exploring the same scenery in different cities, or experiencing different cities in the same scenery? Street signs are the epitome of the city, but the cities are all painted with the same makeup, which makes people feel uncomfortable.

2. From one success to countless replicas: Modern tourism is the same in every city

The life of the Internet celebrity road sign reflects that the popularity of tourist attractions in various places often means the mindless replication of successful experiences. From the beginning of Chongqing's creation of an Internet celebrity city to the subsequent Internet celebrity cities that are similar to each other; from the initial popularity of cultural and creative parks to the construction of identical cultural and artistic attractions in various places.

Geographer Ralph once proposed the concept of "placelessness", and he believed that the diverse experience and identity of contemporary places are increasingly threatened by placelessness. Attractions in various places are showing a kind of "Disneyfication", and places with different styles are being replaced by commercial replication and monotonous reference.

So, when Internet-famous road signs appear everywhere, their monotony replaces the original characteristics of each place, making people feel extremely bored.

Zibo, Shandong, which has become very popular recently, has taken advantage of the tourism boom after the epidemic. In addition, the regional characteristics of Zibo barbecue and, more importantly, the simple folk customs of the locals have made Zibo the latest Internet celebrity city under the right conditions of time, place and people.

In fact, becoming an Internet celebrity city has indeed benefited some cities that were originally facing the pressure of industrial transformation, opening up a new path for them to develop. Cities have meaning because of the intervention of people, but cities must also shoulder the responsibility of supporting them. It is not easy to maintain a delicate balance between maintaining the original intention and obtaining income.

At the same time, the way of checking in at popular tourist attractions also provides tourists with a participatory cultural option. From watching and listening to other people's experiences online to writing about their own feelings offline, multiple senses form a new experience that interweaves virtual and real.

This breaks through the traditional possibility that tourists can only appreciate, watch or even gaze at the city, allowing individuals to gain more initiative in city travel.

When tourists post pictures and texts related to the tourist city on their social platforms, they are given a new identity - we are all introducers of a city. Although we have never been born and raised in a city like the locals, we can still feel the pride brought by promoting the city.

Like many tourists who checked in at the "Xi'an City Wall" before, people used a variety of media combinations to make this internet celebrity space no longer a silent historical attraction, but instead transformed it into a public space full of personal narrative characteristics and differentiation. Foreign tourists used publicity to connect the city with individuals, and achieved a dialogue between modern civilization and ancient relics through the media.

This also means that contemporary tourists are no longer just one-time consumers, but all-round participants. If tourist cities treat tourists sincerely, they will surely be loved by tourists. However, the traffic brought by the city's popularity often exposes more local problems.

For example, the giant rose on the Bund in Shanghai was criticized because of the online picture and the real thing; Dali in Yunnan was once popular for its slow-paced, quaint town setting, but the repeated incidents of tourists being cheated have caused more and more people to question the city; and tourist attractions like Fenghuang Ancient Town and Chongqing Ciqikou, which are named "ancient towns", cannot escape the same fate.

There are tens of thousands of ancient towns across the country, and half of them are cultural and creative.

Zibo, Shandong, which is currently in the limelight, is also facing a series of challenges brought about by the surge in the number of tourists. It is difficult to predict whether this city can maintain its original intention and keep its simple local characteristics.

But what is foreseeable is that a trend of barbecue night markets will inevitably sweep across various places. When Zibo barbecue becomes an "Internet celebrity" barbecue, will the short life of similar Internet celebrity road signs repeat the same mistakes?

To maintain a city’s unique charm, it not only requires city managers to reflect on their development path, but also local operators to stick to their conscience. It also requires every tourist to put down their frequently clicking cameras and feel the fresh warmth of each city.

The road sign "I miss you very much" in XX has become history. When we pack our bags and head to the next tourist attraction where we will meet briefly, perhaps we can get to know the local people, experience things related to the local area, and try to feel the harmony between the city and the individual, so that we can truly strip off the coat of internet celebrities and realize the meaning of travel.

While the spring is here, why not go and reunite with places you haven’t seen for a long time.

Don't just punch in.

(The above pictures are from the Internet)

References:

[1] Zeng Yiguo, Fan Tingting. Re-understanding “place”: Internet celebrity space and the formation of media sense of place—focusing on the short video check-in “Xi’an City Wall”[J]. Journalism and Communication Research, 2022, 29(11):71-89+128.

Author: Tame Mu

Source: WeChat public account "Zhizhu.com"