"Anti-fraud police officer Lao Chen" resigned: I made a wrong decision
"China News Weekly" reporter / Ni Wei
Published in the 1041st issue of "China News Weekly" on April 25, 2022
In the live broadcast room, a golden trophy-shaped gift popped out and spun in front of the anchor Lao Chen, accompanied by a flickering halo.
Then came the second, the third... 333 in one go.
Old Chen was incoherent, and stammered: "This is the largest one in the country, today's one, so what?" This gift is called "Carnival", the most expensive gift in the Douyin live broadcast room, each costing 3,000 yuan Buy.
The "Carnival" received that night totaled 1 million yuan.
As usual, he didn't take a penny, donated everything to charities, and published the donation certificate.
But no one expected that this reward had laid a foreshadowing for him to bid farewell to this live broadcast room.
On April 8, Chen Guoping, who popularized the short video platform with the account "Anti-fraud Police Officer Lao Chen", announced his resignation in a short video.
He became popular in the short video world because of his identity as a policeman, and quickly got out of the circle with the contrast effect of breaking the "dimensional wall", and was eventually bounced back to the real world.
He decided to take off his police uniform, bid farewell to the "anti-fraud police officer Lao Chen", and return to the citizen Lao Chen.
Chen Guoping, 44, was previously a police officer at the Anti-Fraud Center of the Haigang Branch of the Qinhuangdao Public Security Bureau in Hebei Province.
Since September last year, it has gained nearly 7.5 million fans because of its rapid appearance on the short video platform.
Later, he shared the stage with Sa Beining, was supported by Bai Yansong, and also appeared on popular variety shows such as "Talk Show New Year's Eve" and "Ace vs Ace".
In the live broadcast room after get off work, he randomly PK with various anchors, some are "talent anchors" who disguise themselves as women, and "Monkey King", "Zhu Bajie" and "Ultraman".
When the anchors saw the police uniform, they were suddenly stunned, so that their expressions were dull. The audience liked this picture, and they also watched him with relish and asked him righteously: "Are you lying?" "How did you lie?" human?"
Traffic always comes with controversy.
Under pressure, he finally submitted his resignation report at the end of March.
When interviewed by China News Weekly, he had rested at his home in Qinhuangdao for more than half a month, and his tone revealed exhaustion and grievance.
For some questions, he thought for a long time and gave the simplest answer; for others, he kept his mouth shut.
"The mood can only be said to be quite depressing," he said. "I hope it cools down slowly, and a smooth transition is the best."
criticize
The thing he hopes to cool down is the two Internet violence incidents in March.
He attributed the reason for his resignation to these two cyber attacks.
For the first time, on March 18, someone encouraged him to connect with the anchor named "Cambodia Little 6".
The anchor was in Cambodia and claimed to be doing business there, but was questioned by many netizens for being involved in fraud.
As always, Chen Guoping chatted with the other party in a relaxed tone, and then followed a step-by-step routine.
But then came a flood of critical comments, saying he shouldn't be talking to each other with a smile and that he "doesn't deserve to be a policeman."
The second time, just after a netizen swiped 1 million yuan for gifts in a row, he received a lot of bad comments, saying that he relied on this police uniform to make money.
It was March 27. He cooperated with the Douyin platform to carry out a public welfare live broadcast of "Help Epidemic Prevention and Control". Including 333 "Carnivals", he received a total of nearly 1.2 million yuan in rewards that day.
Four days later, he announced the payment amount, tax payment certificate and donation certificate in the video. He received about 790,000 yuan in payment from the platform, and donated all of it to a foundation. The amount is accurate.
"Old Chen has deteriorated after all!" "Are you right or wrong in doing this?"... The feedback from netizens made Chen Guoping feel aggrieved. He told China News Weekly, "The spit star can drown people, it really kills people. It's very powerful." But in fact, the majority of voices supported him, and netizens who supported him also spontaneously defended him in the comment area.
During these two cyber violence, he felt that he saw signs that continuing the live broadcast would implicate the unit. After all, he was wearing a police uniform, so he submitted his resignation to the unit.
A few days later, the Douyin account of "Anti-fraud Police Officer Lao Chen" has been renamed "Haigang Anti-Fraud Center" - this is the official account name of his former unit. The role of "Anti-fraud Police Officer Lao Chen" no longer exists, but The video of Lao Chen in the new account has not been deleted.
In fact, the criticism did not come suddenly. Along with his popularity, right and wrong have been entangled with him.
Last year, someone reported to his unit on the grounds that the police should not live broadcast.
But it did not have much impact on him, and the negative comments this year have become more and more turbulent. He believes that it has reached the level of Internet violence, which has seriously affected his emotions.
In the system, the police are occasionally involved in another dimension. In addition to the apparent success and brilliance, the pressure they face is invisible and huge.
Those who oppose it mostly focus on the economic benefits that the Internet may bring.
Chen Guoping responded decisively to this, and he could not use this to make money, "I am not an Internet celebrity."
But in the eyes of most people, Lao Chen is indeed an internet celebrity.
"What I do may be thought by others to make money. They think that you are famous by the police (identity), and you want dividends after you become famous. In fact, they don't see my real pressure, and they still want dividends. It is difficult to live a stable life," he told China News Weekly.
Although personally, he is not afraid of the shadow, but he is worried about the negative public opinion caused by the unit.
He has been carefully handling the relationship between the live broadcast and the working unit, hoping to separate the online "anti-fraud police officer Lao Chen" from the offline police officer Chen Guoping.
On the one hand, he appeared in a police uniform, and his Douyin account was a government affairs account certified by the unit, and was inevitably called the spokesperson of the unit; on the other hand, he tried his best to put aside the direct connection between online activities and his own work, and only after get off work Live broadcasts in their spare time, live broadcasts are not included in work assessments, and do not accept any rewards from within the unit.
The only support provided by the unit is to provide an office for live broadcast after get off work.
However, the relationship between live broadcasts and units and their own work is extremely delicate, and it is very difficult or even impossible to control the scale.
On the day he received the million-dollar reward, Chen Guoping did not actually wear a police uniform, but in the eyes of netizens, the invisible police uniform had been welded to him.
He broadcasts live on two accounts and is very careful to avoid suspicion.
During the live broadcast of the "Anti-fraud Police Officer Lao Chen" account and Lianmai, he was wearing a police uniform. The chat content was mainly about explaining anti-fraud knowledge and promoting the National Anti-Fraud Center App. He would turn off the reward function; on his personal account "Lao Chen" During the live broadcast of "Life Number", he was wearing a sweater and a suit, chatting more routinely and accepting tips.
In a micro-documentary, he shared his experience while chatting with his friends who were filming anti-fraud skits, saying that the more rewards, the more popular the live broadcast room would be.
He donates the income from each tip and announces the bill in the video.
Even so, it is also unavoidable to be questioned to make money by being a police officer.
After handing in the resignation report, he told his lover about it, but the lover did not express any objection.
"She thinks that I used to be too old to be at home, and now it's good to be able to stay at home more." Before, he was busy with official business, and after he started doing live broadcasts, there were still a few days a week after get off work. It's 12 midnight.
Later, he occasionally went to various places to show on a larger stage, and his lover was not very happy.
The elderly in the family are more worried about resignation. They feel that such a good job will not be done if they say no, have they made a mistake and have been fired from the unit?
But I didn't dare to ask.
"Actually, this decision was wrong," Chen Guoping told China News Weekly, "but I think someone will come to make some wrong decisions after all, to educate future generations or provide experience." As for what kind of warning And experience, he did not explain.
flow
"In 2017, the leader asked me to lead three people to set up an anti-fraud squadron. In fact, we should call it an anti-fraud squad based on the number of people, but the anti-fraud squad has no momentum and can't scare people." Chen Guoping paused just right , took hold of the rhythm, "We have to deceive first." This attracted laughter, and Chen Guoping also laughed with a wrinkle on his face.
At a video site's talk show New Year's Eve party, people from all walks of life were invited to the stage and each spoke for a few minutes.
Chen Guoping's few minutes received good feedback from the scene, and there was not too much embarrassment for laymen to debut on the stage.
It was at the end of last year, and his face was full of red light. When the host Li Dan introduced him, he shouted: The light of the right path!
It was just three months after he became popular.
He started shooting anti-fraud short dramas in 2018, and tried live broadcasts in 2020. At the beginning, the standard live broadcasts did not attract much attention, and only two or three hundred people watched.
It was not until September 1 last year that he connected to the microphone in the live broadcast room and had a conversation with an anchor named "Xichang Yuhuatian".
The anchor was dressed in ancient costume and imitated the father-in-law of Xichang in the movie. When he saw Lao Chen in police uniform, his smile suddenly froze: "I'm funny, brother, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm definitely a good citizen." Chen Guoping After promoting the anti-fraud knowledge to "Xichang Yuhuatian", let him also help with the publicity.
Unexpectedly, it became an instant hit.
He cut a short video of more than 5 minutes of Lianmai this time, posted it on the account, and immediately "exploded".
The platform discovered this explosion, contacted him on the same day, arranged another live broadcast, randomly PKed with other anchors, repeatedly staged the scene of "returning to the original shape", and "exploded" again.
Two days later, he broadcast live back and forth on the two short video platforms for 6 hours. At the peak, 780,000 people were online at the same time, with a total of 80 million views.
After several live broadcasts, the account has gained nearly 2 million followers.
He once said in an interview that "(the platform) may have given a certain amount of traffic".
His popularity hit the traffic outlet of the live broadcast platform. In the case of weak short video traffic growth, the "live broadcast PK" gameplay continued for the platform.
Later, Chen Guoping watched "Xichang Yuhuatian" connect with other anchors, and found that he was indeed helping to promote anti-fraud, and asked other anchors to download the National Anti-Fraud Center App: "I received a big task. If you have nothing to do, download it, okay?" He felt that in addition to the entertainment effect, interacting with these different types of anchors can indeed expand the publicity of anti-fraud.
"I'm an anti-fraud anchor, what kind of anchor are you?" and "Have you downloaded the National Anti-Fraud Center App?" These two sentences have since become Chen Guoping's iconic catchphrase, and once became an online buzzword.
In addition to full-time anchors, he also interacts with celebrities, hoping to leverage his huge fan base to leverage the power of anti-fraud propaganda.
His propaganda echoed the nationwide promotion of the National Anti-Fraud Center App, which China Police Network said in an article stating that Chen Guoping’s live webcast had boosted downloads of the app soaring.
At the same time as Chen Guoping's popularity, the National Anti-Fraud Center App topped the download list in the Apple App Store.
Chen Guoping's popularity has not only been regarded by officials as a successful case of innovative anti-fraud work, but has also become a benchmark for new government media operations.
In the wave of "two micro-waves and one shake" (Weibo, WeChat, Douyin) by various government departments across the country, every successful "fan-absorbing" operation method will immediately attract transplants and imitations from peers across the country.
After a chance encounter with Chen Guoping, "Xichang Yuhuatian" was approached by the anchors of the traffic police, fire protection, industry and information and other departments in the live broadcast room, and took over the publicity tasks of various departments.
However, popularity must be kept within a safe and controllable range, and it cannot hurt the seriousness of the official department. Once negative public opinion is triggered, it will be regarded as "toxic" traffic.
How to catch traffic is not what these government departments are good at.
Therefore, the questioning started from the moment it became popular.
On September 7, some netizens encouraged him to join the celebrity couple Huang Shengyi and Yang Zi Lianmai. At that time, the two were carrying goods on live broadcast, and Lianmai was unsuccessful at first.
Until netizens swiped in the live broadcast room of Huang Shengyi and Yang Zi, Yang Zi stopped bringing the goods after finding out, and connected with Chen Guoping.
After the live broadcast, some netizens said that Chen Guoping and Huang Shengyi had contacted in advance, and this was a planned traffic game.
It was only 5 days after the first mic, Chen Guoping announced the suspension of the live broadcast for the first time because of the surging online comments, and returned to the live broadcast room after half a month.
Facing the CCTV camera, he said angrily at the time: "(The nature) has changed! Everyone is imposing it on me with their own cognition, and everyone's selfish desires are different. I dare not broadcast it any more." What netizens are watching is not his anti-fraud work, but his traffic effect.
Bai Yansong commented on this in the program, I don't know what kind of pressure Lao Chen felt, but this is a volunteer behavior that keeps pace with the times and moves forward. I don't think there is anything bad, so let him Go ahead and try and do it.
What prompted him to return to the live broadcast room was still the desire to rescue the victims who were trapped in fraud.
On the night when he returned from the first suspension of the live broadcast, Chen Guoping and a young man, Xiao Yang Lianmai, who had been defrauded of 160,000 yuan, persuaded Xiao Yang to forget the sad things and return to a normal life. This kind of experience comes sooner than later. Come strong.
Chen Guoping initially attached great importance to anti-fraud publicity because he saw that the rate of telecommunication fraud is high, but anti-fraud cases are difficult to detect, and some are committed by overseas gangs. .
When the anti-fraud center was first established, he and his colleagues traveled about 200 days a year to investigate and collect evidence in various banks, race against fraud suspects, and block channels for money to flow out.
However, with the strength of only a few people, several cases cannot be solved in a year.
Seeing many victims crying, he felt that prevention was more important than anything else.
"In a live broadcast, even if only one person learns fraud prevention knowledge, I am worth it." In a micro-documentary, he talked about the initial sense of value of this job.
Some people surrendered in his live broadcast room, some people solved the knot of property deception, and he also saved lives in the live broadcast room.
Once, a young man worked part-time and saved 200,000 yuan, plus 200,000 yuan for the demolition of his family. All the 400,000 yuan investment was defrauded. In desperation, he asked Chen Guoping: "You think it's better for me to die? Jumping from a river? Jumping off a building? Electric shock?" Chen Guoping persuaded him for more than an hour, and finally succeeded in persuading him.
road ahead
A few days after his resignation, Chen Guoping participated in the video link of a legal program in Heilongjiang as an "anti-fraud expert", still sitting in front of the background of the gray curtains during the usual live broadcast, explaining the scam about the fraud of fake antiques.
He posted clips of the program on the short video platform with the caption: "Lao Chen participated in an event for the first time after his resignation."
Just a month ago, he was wearing a police uniform, sitting in the same position, and participated in the live broadcast of CCTV's "315 Party".
Apart from the clothing and title, not much seems to have changed.
But Chen Guoping is very clear that after taking off the police uniform, the "returning to the original shape" effect of "returning the wheat" will basically disappear, and he is not sure how long the enthusiasm of personal anti-fraud can be maintained.
"It's not the police anymore. It's more difficult for individuals to do anti-fraud. In the future, it will only be a part (content), and the content of positive energy should be the main content." He said that the platform has not taken the initiative to discuss the direction of cooperation at present, "I am also watching."
In the short video announcing his resignation, Chen Guoping said word by word that in order to realize his dream of public welfare and prevent his personal public welfare behavior from causing more trouble to the unit, he decided to resign and continue to do anti-fraud and public welfare publicity as an ordinary person. .
He understands that this decision made him give up flowers and applause, and even more questions, denials and irresponsible abuse.
This decision also made him give up the stable life of a civil servant, "If I quit the Internet, don't do it, and sleep on the credit book, I can also live the life of a civil servant with thousands of dollars a month, and the leadership I can do whatever I do, and it's pretty comfortable."
But now, he feels "wronged", "irritable" and "unconvinced", and life seems to be difficult to return to before.
"It affects my emotions. The reaction in this situation may seem abnormal, but it is actually quite normal." He went back to the countryside to watch the elderly, dig wild vegetables, and "look at nature without looking at his mobile phone."
At present, he has not taken any new jobs, but is temporarily out of work.
As for the public welfare dream mentioned in the short video, he also confessed that he does not have much confidence in success.
After taking off this police uniform, Lao Chen's heart is also vague about what the new life will look like.
"China News Weekly" 2022 Issue 15
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