Everyone knows everyone (why half of the people in Wuxi know Zhang Meili)

The "Hilarious Wuxi" team is shooting a short video. Photographed by reporter Long Danmei/Visual Chongqing

Stills from the "Funny Wuxi" production. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Stills from the production of "Funny Wuxi". (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Stills of "Funny Wu Xi" and "Zhang Meili" (left). (Photo courtesy of interviewee)

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With the popularization of smartphones, the new media of “going to the mountains and going to the countryside” has developed rapidly in rural areas. It provides a new way for farmers to conveniently obtain information and express their demands.

When rural governance meets new media, what kind of sparks will emerge? In Wuxi, mainstream media and the local self-media platform "Laughing Wuxi" have been deeply integrated to explore a new path for rural governance.

“It’s dark, the road is slippery, and the network is complicated. If you don’t wipe your eyes, you have to be careful. (The local dialect means falling)...” Recently, a reporter from Chongqing Daily visited Wuxi County During the interview, I heard people singing this "local rap" from time to time on the streets.

Some people also commented: "There are QR codes all over the street now, but you can't scan them casually. Two days ago, Zhang Meili was selling potatoes, and the QR code for collecting money was secretly changed. Scan the code to buy groceries and pay." All the money went into other people's bags."

"Meili Zhang" as everyone calls her, is one of the protagonists of Wuxi's local self-media platform "Funny Wuxi". This "local rap" that everyone is singing comes from a short video specially produced by the platform for the National Cyber ??Security Awareness Week. In just two days, the video's circulation reached 500,000.

Wuxi County is a key county for national poverty alleviation and development, with a registered population of 540,000. The number of subscriptions to the Douyin account of "Funny Wuxi" has reached more than 430,000, and the number of subscriptions to the WeChat official account has reached 370,000. More than 70% of the subscribers are from Wuxi, which means that more than half of Wuxi people have subscribed. "Funny Wuxi" all know "Zhang Meili".

Why are "Pretty Zhang" and "Happy Wu Xi" so attractive?

The "grassroots" team of the post-1990s generation made a "hit" video with down-to-earth dialects

"Funny Wuxi" is a self-media platform that produces comedy micro-videos in local dialects. The main creator The team members are all born in the 1990s and come from rural families in Wenfeng Town, Wuxi County. The video producer is Wang Yunlin, who wears many hats - screenwriter, director, cameraman and post-editor.

In August 2017, Wang Yunlin had a fun mentality and spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy a second-hand computer. He used his mobile phone as a camera, hired Zhang Yong and Du Xianxiao as actors, and tried to make funny movies in local dialects. Short video.

In Wuxi dialect, "what to do" is called "Gomuli", elders are called "Lao Yisheng", and "falling somersault" is called "Taipucai", which is very local characteristics. Several members of the team grew up in local rural areas and speak very authentic dialects and slang. The short video content they create comes from the people and things around them, which is both relaxed, humorous, and down-to-earth.

Today, the roles played by this grassroots team are almost household names in Wuxi: "Zhang Meili" played by Zhang Yong, is a rural youth who likes to be greedy for petty gains, lazy to eat, and cheat and cheat; Du Xianxiao has Zhang With a baby face, he plays the role of "Chen Xijiu", a quirky and mischievous rural youth; Liao Bin, with a simple and honest appearance, plays the role of "Boerke", an honest and kind rural youth who only knows how to work hard...

"At the beginning, our positioning was to make jokes in dialects, and we would shoot whatever was funny, without a specific theme." Wang Yunlin said that although the short videos he created at that time were popular, they generally only had more than a thousand views.

This team truly created a "hot-selling" product due to a personal experience of Zhang Yong, the actor of "Zhang Meili".

There is a poor household in Zhang Yong's village. Both his mother and brother are sick and life is difficult. However, this poor household also has to deal with numerous "nothing wines" and often borrows money to give favors. , very distressed.

This gave Zhang Yong creative inspiration, so he and his team members made a short video "Nothing to drink, no illegal banquet" with the theme of satirizing "nothing wine": the first time , "Zhang Meili" drove a car to have a drink; the second time, the car turned into a motorcycle; the third time, the motorcycle turned into a children's bicycle; the fourth time, someone called "Zhang Meili" to drink wine again , "Zhang Meili" who gave gifts to her poor family no longer dared to go...

This "hot-selling" experience made the team start thinking about the future development direction.

“Low-level pranks cannot attract fans for a long time.” Wang Yunlin said that if you can use humorous short videos to explain current affairs policies and social hot spots to everyone, you can do a good job of “antenna” and “ Only by being a liaison between "Earth Qi" and spreading positive energy in laughter can we make more "hits".

Successful Transformation "The Lazy Man Escapes Poverty" won the National Award

Timely transformation will make "Hilarious Wuxi" frequent "hits" in the future.

Health care product scams and telecommunications fraud in rural areas have become their topics. They also use irony to criticize some local stereotypes and evil practices, which are very popular among the people.

By 2018, the number of fans of "Funny Wuxi" has reached more than 200,000, and almost every video has received 100,000 clicks. The frequency of online works has also increased from once a week in the past to 3 times a week.

On May 16, 2018, Wang Yunlin combined with the social hot spot of the country's vigorous efforts to combat drunk driving, made a short video "Driving after drinking is so exciting, the mother-in-law and the baby burst into tears", which was posted on Douyin and WeChat After being played on public accounts and other platforms, it received more than 23 million views and received 236,000 likes, ranking second on Douyin’s “Today’s Hottest Videos” list that day.

In 2019, the poverty alleviation campaign in Wuxi County entered the "tackling" phase. The "Hilarious Wuxi" creative team created two short videos of "Lazy Man Eradicating Poverty" in April of that year.

"Zhang Meili" this time is from a poor household, but he is a lazy man at a young age. His family is so poor that "whenever a mouse comes, he has to run away with tears." Tired, we blindly rely on the support cadres "Boerke". "Bo'erke" took the right medicine and persuaded "Zhang Meili"'s ex-wife Youyou back, successfully stimulating "Zhang Meili's" endogenous motivation to get rid of poverty. A year later, "Zhang Meili" successfully got out of poverty through her own efforts.

The video received an enthusiastic response online. Some netizens left a message: "Now the policy is so good, as long as you are not lazy, your life will get better and better!"

In April this year, at the Central Government In the 15th National Party Member Educational TV Film Watching and Exchange Event organized by the Organization Department, "Lazy Man Escapes Poverty" won the National Excellence Award.

"Funny Wuxi" also continues to absorb new blood to enrich the team.

72-year-old Zhang Guanghe is a poor household in Group 4 of Yinfeng Village. He lives in the mountains with his wife and has difficulty traveling and drinking water. He is quite resentful. Relying on the poverty alleviation policy, in May last year, a road was built in front of Zhang Guanghe's house, a water reservoir was also built, and the old couple renovated their old house and successfully escaped poverty.

In June 2019, Wang Yunlin developed Zhang Guanghe into a cast member with the character name "Bald He", allowing this former poor household to explain and publicize poverty alleviation policies. "Funny Wu Xi" often used his old house as the background for filming, and Zhang Guanghe gradually became a local "celebrity". Whenever someone comes to visit, he takes the initiative to preach poverty alleviation policies to them.

From August 2017 to the present, "Happy Wuxi" has won the favor of many netizens with its humorous and localized expressions. In the past three years, it has released more than 400 original videos, with a total of nearly 100 fans on various platforms. million, with over 5 million clicks per month. The creative team has grown from a "Grass Team" of three people to Wuxi Mianbaer Cultural Media Studio, with the team members increasing to 11 people.

The deep integration of media provides new ideas for rural governance

Wuxi County has given strong support to this local self-media "popular" platform, providing scientific guidance while supervising it. Make it a supplement to the official media and promote Wuxi mainstream media and mass media to further deepen cooperation and pioneering innovation.

Starting from May 1, 2019, the Wuxi County Integrated Media Center has played the "hilarious Wuxi" micro video through multiple integrated media platforms, and opened a special area for it on the on-demand homepage of the cable set-top box. Relevant functional departments of Wuxi County also actively cooperated with "Funny Wuxi" and asked them to produce light-hearted and humorous short videos to promote various policies, which greatly improved the acceptance of the policies by the public.

For example, during the COVID-19 epidemic this year, "Happy Wuxi", under the guidance of the health and epidemic prevention department, launched four short videos on the prevention and control of COVID-19 to help local people understand how to scientifically prevent the epidemic. The total number of plays on the platform exceeds 3 million times.

During the recent National Cyber ??Security Publicity Week, the Wuxi County Cyberspace Administration and "Laughing Wuxi" jointly planned 7 public welfare videos to promote network security, and the number of dissemination reached 500,000.

In cooperation with functional departments, the image of Internet celebrity "Zhang Meili" has become more popular. Sometimes he becomes a liar who resells old masks but suffers from it. Sometimes he becomes a liar who sells potatoes with a QR code but is caught. Rural hawkers who are deceived by others are sometimes rural "singers" who can sing rap... Some netizens left a message: "Listening to 'Zhang Meili' talking about policies is easy to understand and fun."

Wuxi County Rong Zou Yongwu, director of the Media Center, said: "Today, using new media to receive and disseminate information has become the new normal in rural areas. The innovative expression of 'Hilarious Wuxi' provides new ideas for our rural grassroots governance."

"The existence of rural self-media represented by 'Funny Wuxi' is of great significance in opening up the 'last mile' of disseminating the party's voice at the grassroots level." The relevant person in charge of the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the Municipal Party Committee believes that "Funny Wuxi" "It provides samples and references for the growth of rural self-media, innovative grassroots governance methods, and prosperous rural culture.

Our reporter Long Danmei