After a three-year hiatus, Li Ziqi updated again yesterday.
This update once again dominates the Internet.
A single video on Weibo has garnered 130 million views, 1.76 million likes, and over 100000 shares and comments. On Bilibili, I directly rushed to the top of the entire site, receiving over 700000 likes and coins.
As for why, she once again dominates the Internet, not the Chinese Internet…
Because foreign netizens have also collectively celebrated the Chinese New Year.
In the recently updated video with 6.13 million views, there are over 40000 comments in various languages, and the quality is quite high.
These comments can be summarized very simply: “Hey buddy, aren’t you, I’m losing my eye? Is it Li Ziqi who’s back.
A Thai netizen who writes a short essay…
Foreign netizens who are striving to learn Chinese…
The Internet is not short of top stream.
Cai Xukun, Ma Baoguo, Xiao Yangge, different fields, different identities, the same popularity for a time, the same time has passed.
Flowing light easily throws people away, turning cherries red and bananas green.
But Li Ziqi became an accident.
Many people may have heard of Li Ziqi, but have not had a specific understanding. In modern terms, Li Ziqi is a blogger who deeply cultivates rural fields, with videos focusing on daily life in the countryside.
What is rural life? Chai, Mi, Oil, Salt, Sauce, Vinegar, Tea. Today, the whole garlic sprout, tomorrow we’ll dig a bamboo shoot.
But unlike others, Li Ziqi’s videos all start from scratch.
Do you want a cotton quilt?
The first step is not to open a shopping website, but to sow cotton seeds.
Wait for seedling cultivation and flowering, then pick and collect.
After harvesting cotton, it is necessary to go through the process of bouncing the cotton, fixing and pressing it firmly into the shape of a quilt.
In the camera, you can see how seeds gradually break through the soil, how cotton is bounced into a soft and fluffy state by cotton bows and bamboo bows, and how cotton is slowly solidified by pressing it with a stack of pots.
If you want to eat Dingding candy, go plant a handful of wheat.
If you want a can of traditional handmade soy sauce, first hold a hoe and plant soybeans in the field.
Many people enjoy rural life and yearn for the days described by Tao Yuanming as “picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the southern mountains”. In these videos, watching wheat change with the seasons and soybeans gradually sprout has undoubtedly become a dream that comes true.
The growth of crops takes time, so most of her videos have a timestamp. Often, the beginning of a video is still in autumn and winter, in a state of desolation and depression, and by the end, it is already the beginning of spring next year, and everything is sprouting.
These shots not only depict the growth of crops, but also feature unique snacks, festive foods, and the emergence of ancient intangible cultural heritage crafts.
Taking the recent video as an example, in this episode, Li Ziqi discovered that his grandmother’s cabinet was broken and prepared to fix it again.
So, I climbed the lacquer tree to get lacquer, learned the technique of carving lacquer hidden flowers in Chengdu lacquer art, carved the golden qilin pattern and misty mist, and personally made a lacquerware wardrobe.
In order to repair the cabinet, she went to Chengdu Lacquerware Craft Factory and received several days of professional training in lacquer art under the guidance of Yin Liping, a national representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage of Chengdu lacquer art. She followed the complete craftsmanship to restore the cabinet.
This video has also brought lacquer art back to the public eye from a treasured item on the shelf.
On YouTube, there are only a few influential Chinese bloggers, but Li Ziqi is an exception with 20 million followers and more influence than many well-known foreign official media outlets.
So, this video has enabled millions of foreign netizens to learn about Chinese lacquer art.
Whether it’s using grape skins to dye clothes or using traditional lacquer art, these are collectively referred to as “mysterious powers from the East” in the mouths of foreigners.
For my sister in Saudi Arabia, we need to learn Chinese. ↓↓
In a word, if you are a foreigner, this kind of video can satisfy your imagination of China. If you are a Chinese, you can also fill your longing for pastoral life and slow pace life.
However, despite being a top tier employee, Li Ziqi chose to suspend work indefinitely three years ago due to a dispute with MCN.
Her suspension has created a huge content gap in this market, and many fans have begun to try to find the next “Li Ziqi”. Similar rural life bloggers and traditional culture bloggers continue to emerge, quickly gaining fans.
For example, @ Jiang Xunqian, who also took the route of the sister next door, has accumulated more than 4 million fans in Station B, 21.037 million fans in Tiktok, and 220 million praise in total, from hand-made dragon whisker crisp pinch to sugar painting, from iron flower making to ice dragon carving.
Shan Bai, a homecoming who took the “rural expert” photo, also has 14.046 million Tiktok fans, and 1.194 million fans in station B.
There are still many fans who have not yet reached the top stream, but the video quality and creativity are quite impressive. For example, @ I Peng Chuanming, from making silver hairpins to making donkey hide glue, and even restoring ancient cosmetics such as indigo, is quite versatile.
These bloggers are also dedicated to their videos, with exquisite visuals and numerous popular products. They also trace back to traditional Chinese craftsmanship with great care. In terms of content, Li Ziqi can no longer be considered a unique presence.
But have these crazy bloggers of high-quality content completely replaced Li Ziqi, who disappeared for three years?
Uh, looking at Li Ziqi’s updated traffic momentum, it seems that no one has really forgotten about her.
There are many imitators and successful ones, but no one has completely shaken her.
Apart from Li Ziqi’s first mover advantage in this track, I believe there are two main reasons.
Firstly, aesthetics.
The most frequently discussed word about Li Ziqi is aesthetics, which is the expression of each person based on their own aesthetics, elusive and elusive.
Moreover, it is difficult to grasp the aesthetic of traditional cultural tracks. If one is not careful, it can easily become greasy or too official, like in documentaries. But when you look at her screen, it’s very refreshing, just comfortable and pleasing to the heart.
Li Ziqi has constructed her own pastoral aesthetics, successfully restoring the ancient poem ‘There are beautiful women in the empty valley’ through these images. You know, there is a beautifying element in the video, but it does not affect her love for the world she has created.
In the words of Tomohiro Yamashita, “The things in her videos make people feel inexplicably nostalgic.
Secondly, life.
In the era where attention is the economy, this action itself constitutes consumption.
All the content you see is a type of consumer goods, mostly short and fast, filled with traces of cost compression and time saving.
Indeed, you may also see a lot of intricate and patient manual labor in other people’s videos, but the occasional appearance of modern sofas and skipping the harvest of the growth patterns of all things throughout the year will still make you clearly know: this is a “show”, not life.
As for Li Ziqi, her videos are naturally a type of consumer product, but unlike others, she works from day to night, from sprouting to harvesting a few crops, to producing an item that takes months or even a year. Every corner of her life is alive in that mountain.
The consumer goods she provides are not some exquisite content, but a whole “Guiyuantianju” constructed by her and played by her.
In an era where consumer goods are mass-produced by companies and factories, and the pace of life is infinitely accelerated, primitive craftsmanship and leisurely living slowly disappear. You sprint on the streets at 9am because you are worried about not being able to catch up with that check-in.
But in this world, there is a person living in a courtyard with flowers and grass, farming and feeding birds, and accompanying their family.
You know this is a kind of program, but you can’t help but give a click and enter that small courtyard that can satisfy all your imagination of a better life, “walk out” from the grid that is difficult to distinguish day and night, and truly feel the rotation of the four seasons.
In the first video of her comeback update, someone left a standard line to welcome the appearance of superheroes:
When the world needed her the most, she came back, welcome back.