Just after May Fourth Youth Day this year, a small shop on the edge of Beijing's East Third Ring Road reopened its doors. It has been in business here for more than 20 years and has always been a dumpling restaurant with only a few tables. The owner of the perennial garlic peeler said that over the years, she has watched the CBD not far across the road erect skyscrapers and Sanlitun become a trendy place.
But a few months ago, the shop suddenly closed its doors. Will it disappear like many small shops that have experienced all kinds of shocks? Some curious reporters from China Youth Daily have considered: Can this small shop be used as a target for reporting? Or, if you want to tell the story of such an ordinary roadside shop, where to start?
Before they could make a decision, at noon not long ago, several flower baskets were suddenly placed outside the door of this small shop. The boss is still the original boss, the "recipe" has changed, and the dumpling restaurant has become a Sichuan Maocai restaurant. My colleagues were the first diners. The boss's son told these curious guests that he felt sorry for his mother's hard work in making dumplings by hand, so he urged him to change direction. The young man changed the name of the shop from "Food with Fortune" to "Pepper Flavor", and even printed the napkins in English. He renovated the storefront according to his own aesthetics, opened the storage room that used to be hidden behind the wall, and raised green plants inside. The dumpling restaurant that tasted great but was often overlooked by passers-by really disappeared.
We tried to organize an interview team to find out more of these kinds of shops that were guarding the various "edges". Of course, this is not inspired by one store. For more than 20 years, we have focused on the creation of the first Internet companies, bringing together entrepreneurs who were once very young. The tide of the economy is always coming and going. This time, we plan to look for small shops behind the tide and on the "wind outlet". We want to know how they try to grow or change direction. How do they stay alive, and what problems they may encounter. Those decisions within a few square meters, what kind of rough or meticulous planning.
The first batch of reporters who participated in the research of "Youth Small Shop" and I went to various cities and villages to listen to the stories of small shop owners and young practitioners. We've been to well-built influencer neighborhoods, and we've been to places where there isn't much nightlife. We refer to those individual businesses and small businesses that are mainly brick-and-mortar small shops and young people as the protagonists, collectively as "youth shops". According to statistics from the State Administration for Market Regulation, as of January 2023, there were 1 million registered individual industrial and commercial enterprises nationwide, accounting for about two-thirds of the total number of business entities, and driving nearly 1 million people to employment. Studies have found that young people under the age of 14 account for the majority of small shop workers.
Behind the "youth shops" are the efforts of hundreds of millions of young people, the force to promote Chinese-style modernization, and the important service objects of the work of "educating people for the party" in the new era of China Youth Daily, and the epitome of the development of new business formats integrated by our "youth, science and education, culture, data and innovation". We advocate the "youth good living method" of learning and growing together with young people, and there is never a "edge" or "boundary". Actually, we opened a small shop ourselves.
Youth has no "edges"
The small shop is located in Qianmen, Beijing, and is called "Youth Bookstore". Soon after opening, it attracted some owners of "youth shops" to talk about cooperation. Among them, the post-90s owner of the Big Golden Goose Coffee Shop held an abstract pulling activity with young people who tried coffee latte for the first time. Young people don't know each other, but because of their common love of coffee, they gather in small shops and share their imagination.
The bookstore, which opened on the central axis of Beijing at the end of 2022, is also the "Morning Bell" cultural workstation jointly created by China Youth Daily and Dongcheng District of Beijing. More than 100 years ago, Mr. Li Dazhao and a group of young people founded "Morning Bell", and the old site is nearby. Relying on the offline youth bookstore, we launched a series of "visual live broadcast" and "youth tea house" online activities during the epidemic. We hope that it can become a fashionable "check-in" shop for drinking coffee and leaving images, directly establishing links with front-line young people across the country, and also singing the melody of youth in a century-old time and space travel, just like Mr. Li Dazhao once hoped for "Morning Bell", becoming a "friend of youth".
After the National Two Sessions in 2023, a series of online and offline interactive stores (including brand cooperative stores) with this small store as the flagship store will become part of the new cultural format of the "Youth Metaverse" of China Youth Daily.
Before opening the store, I visited more than 20 "youth shops" in Dongcheng District, Chaoyang District and Haidian District of Beijing, and I was deeply touched and shocked. Among them, there are many young people who have mastered various vocational skills, as well as many college students and graduate students who have returned from studying abroad; There are both migrant workers who work tirelessly day and night, and innovators who are "new every day, new every day"; There are both repeated defeats who have closed their stores within a few months of opening, and stubborn adherents who have encountered the epidemic for the first time...
Some people may not list them as "mainstream youth" in the traditional concept, but it is precisely the hundreds of millions of vigorous "youth shop" youth, representing the richness of fireworks, the vitality of urban and rural development, the fashion of digital intelligence, and the relay inheritance of cultural spirit. They form an important part of the Chinese story, and when they come together, they can partly reflect the "mainstream" of our society.
Struggle has no "edge"
Not long ago, I went to Nanjing, Jiangsu Province and found that the characteristic "youth shops" of Kexiang and other neighborhoods have sprung up. Food, culture, tourism, friendship, etc., the functions of traditional small shops have been amplified several times. There is strong support from the local government.
On the basis of creating a "quarter-hour convenient living circle", Nanjing launched the "Small Shop Plan" to promote the convenience, characteristics and digital development of small shop economy through the implementation of five major actions: drainage and gas gathering, digital upgrading, cost reduction and efficiency increase, convenient service for the people, and demonstration.
Small shops are popular, streets are vibrant, and cities are vibrant. In Chengdu Sansi Road Night Market, Suzhou Twin Pagoda Market, Shanghai Tianzifang, Beijing Longfu Temple... The "small shop" with different characteristics is not only a commercial gathering place, but also a cultural landscape, highlighting the historical heritage, expressing cultural genes, and showing regional confidence. They attract people to stop, play, shop and "check in", making people can't help but revisit, and unknowingly, the employment and entrepreneurship of young people are constantly creating and driving new ways of living and consuming.
We see that after 00, Zheng Mengting, a girl from Shanxi, lost her hearing unexpectedly in childhood, and later went to Nanjing to learn to make coffee pastries and became a barista at the "Dangqu Silent Coffee" restaurant. The income from the small shop supports her stable life in this city. In Shanghai, the post-90s French chef Zhong Lili set up a stall on Julu Road, even the ingredients for roadside barbecue must be carefully selected and the production standards are strict. Under the dim street lamps next to the stalls, diners hold lunch boxes, share food, and steam up different kinds of fireworks. This Guangxi girl, who came to Shanghai to work hard, gave herself the English name Fifi, which means Fighting.
Some people commented that this is the appearance of a young man who works hard with his hands. It is true that in the most difficult times, the tenacity of life is created by the most frontline young people. Small shops are the "capillaries" and "nerve endings" of the market, and although they are small, they are extremely resilient and rock-solid, supporting such young people in a down-to-earth life.
According to data from the leading domestic technology retail platform, in the first quarter of this year, the number of newly opened small shops in Shanghai exceeded 3,1; In Fujian Province, Fuzhou City alone has added nearly 700,<> small stores to the platform, covering nearly <> categories. These figures are just a microcosm of the country.
Nowadays, the "youth shop" is not only an important channel for young people to find employment and entrepreneurship, but also carries the lifestyle of a new generation of young people. More "small and beautiful", "small and trendy" and "small and new" characteristic small shops have emerged, and their fluidization, discreteness, fragmentation and flexibility have depicted a new model of contemporary youth employment and entrepreneurship - the time and space of work have been fissioned, and consumption patterns and consumption concepts have been innovated.
In April, China Youth Daily surveyed 4,1242 young people and found that 88.3 percent of them preferred jobs with a high degree of freedom. The young people interviewed believe that high-freedom work tests coordination and integration ability, self-motivation and planning ability. 76.9% of the young people surveyed said that working with a high degree of freedom makes them feel more fulfilled at work.
"The small shop cured my mental internal friction and brought me closer to real life." Shin Yunchang, one of the owners of the Big Golden Goose Coffee Shop, said. This post-90s couple has a high-quality pursuit of coffee and tries to create a coffee club. Many fans put their expectations on this small shop, saying "Please keep going", making them feel motivated every time they think about it.
Services have no "edges"
Two months ago, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said studies showed that more than half of the daily consumption expenditure of urban residents was concentrated within 1 kilometer of the community, or a 15-minute walk. The nationwide campaign to build a "quarter-hour convenient living circle" should be carried out one after another.
In this regard, a relevant survey conducted by China Youth Daily found that nearly eighty percent of respondents expect their communities to create a "quarter-hour convenient living circle". Among them, the livable ecological environment, convenient social services and rich literary and artistic life atmosphere are the most expected. In the community business district where diversified consumption formats are concentrated, the development of "one store and one morning", the completion of "one dish and one repair", the good service of "one old and one small", facing the personalized, diversified and characteristic needs of residents, "policy according to the circle" has become a consensus.
A variety of specialty shops can meet these needs. Community shops active in the streets and alleys and large buildings in the old city, with the advantages of "small fast spirit", bring consumption to the "doorstep", are the most direct service providers of the people's lives, and they face the most practical difficulties. For example, some shop owners told us that their small shops need organizational resources and digital skills to standardize and improve their operations, while expecting a fairer business environment and more convenient government services.
Correspondingly, the "last mile" of the "youth shop" taking root still needs to be opened. Housing rents in first-tier cities, the degree of cooperation of landlords, the guidance and support of urban management and fire departments, etc., have all become important factors affecting the survival of "youth shops". For some chain stores, the social security expenditure of employees is still a big challenge for the cost of enterprises.
In the face of these "urgent difficulties and worries", city managers need to take into account the needs of residents and the demands of small shops, not only to "implement policies according to the circle", but also to "one store, one policy", refined management and assistance, so that the city has more temperature and the city can retain young people. To this end, many cities have already taken action.
Digital empowerment evolution has no "edge"
We see that artificial intelligence is affecting youth shops. Nanjing's "Internet celebrity" brand "Xijie Fried Skewers" found silicon-based intelligent companies to cooperate, hoping to use the other party's "digital human" technology to carry out live broadcasts in exchange for traffic. In the new technology model, just upload the product picture to the platform, and the "digital human" will explain each fried skewer product, 24 hours online. One employee can operate multiple computers and manage multiple "digital human" live broadcast rooms at the same time, directly reducing the high cost of hiring a professional live broadcast team.
In the era of digital economy, small shops urgently need traffic. In view of the "traffic dilemma", the relevant person in charge of Shenzhen Baiguoyuan Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd. in Beijing suggested that in addition to the traffic of the online platform, relying on the "quarter-hour convenient living circle" to carry out the selection of small shops, through the community bulletin board or other display channels, can enhance the trust and acceptance of community residents in small shops, and at the same time, the emotions of small shops serving community customers will be stronger.
All parties are supporting the "youth shop". Around the May Fourth Youth Day this year, a 7-day urban youth life inspiration convenience store was opened on the streets of Jing'an Temple in Shanghai, which significantly boosted the consumption of surrounding small shops through pop-up activities with themes such as youth cultural creativity, youth consumption, and youth public welfare. Jing'an Temple Street will also use the youth center of the street as a public welfare store, allowing different small shop owners to take turns to be the head of the house for a week, try new products, new ideas, new customer groups, and divert traffic for them.
Research has no "edges"
Why start with the "youth shops" scattered throughout urban and rural areas and carry out research and research? This is the need of the China Youth Daily to adhere to the main business of "educating people for the party." The theme education carried out by the Party Central Committee is an opportunity for China Youth Daily, which is "deeply integrated and developed with all-media integration", to strive to improve the ability to publicize and explain the party's innovative theories and better lead the vast number of young people to follow the party forever; It is an opportunity to strive to enhance the close ties between China Youth Daily and the vast number of young people and more effectively serve the growth of young people. Closely centering on the lifeline of "serving the youth", we should take the mass line in the new era, focus our work on the broadest masses of ordinary young people, conduct in-depth research and understand the urgent and difficult problems of young people, provide practical help to young people, and let young people feel that the party's care is around them and in front of them, which is our responsibility.
Thematic education should be problem-oriented. At present, in the process of young people's growth and development, a prominent problem encountered is employment and entrepreneurship. The investigation of the "Youth Shop" is one of the measures taken by China Youth Daily to earnestly implement the spirit of the general secretary's important speech, implement the central policy, and actively serve the growth of young people. Focusing on youth employment and entrepreneurship, a reporter from China Youth Daily interviewed nearly 100 people a few years ago, followed up the report for a long time, and launched a series of reports on "Patent Rights Protection Difficulty, Curbing College Students' Enthusiasm for Entrepreneurship", which promoted the solution of problems and the improvement of relevant systems.
As the mainstream media closest to young people, whether we can do a good job in the investigation and research of young people is related to whether we can reflect the real situation, real problems, and put forward real insights. We must swoop down and sink to the front line, stick to the lifeline of serving youth, and integrate "attention to youth, youth concern" into every bit of research.
In a sense, the "youth shop" is also the youth practice of China's social, economic and cultural development, and the "Chinese story" of hundreds of millions of young people. I hope that we can closely focus on the content of youth ideology and morality, youth marriage, youth employment and entrepreneurship, youth culture, and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of young people behind hundreds of millions of small shops, from strengthening news topic planning, youth issue research, etc., to strengthen ties with departments related to youth work, and improve the quality of reporting on all-media content.
The in-depth integration and development of the all-media integration of China Youth Daily is to tell Chinese stories and youth stories well. Through this "Youth Little Shop" survey, China Youth Daily should not only truthfully tell the party the temperature of the youth, but also fully transmit the warmth of the party to the youth, and provide real help for the youth by promoting, participating and building a platform for communication and interaction with the "Youth Little Shop". It is also necessary to earnestly practice the "four forces", improve the "application innovation" service ability of the new mainstream media, guide the vast number of young people to establish a correct concept of employment and entrepreneurship, tell youth stories well, stimulate the spirit of struggle, and advocate the good and good living method of youth.
Explore without "edges"
On May 5, I visited the relevant R&D and promotion institutions of national cultural big data, and discussed with relevant experts the realistic path and future prospects of the "Youth Cultural Big Data Headquarters Base" to serve hundreds of millions of "youth shops". I am very excited by the vivid cases of empowering "youth shops" with the digitization of excellent traditional culture.
Let more and more "youth shops" become the "client", "readership", "creative place" and "experience field" of the new era of China Youth Daily - in the next step, the visual exploration of China Youth Daily will further work on integration, timeliness, interaction, scene and digitalization, and reconstruct the more valuable and efficient "industry-university-media research and application" integrated new cultural format industrial chain. In the interpretation and youthful expression of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we will not only put young people in it, but also put ourselves into it, look for common needs, emotional resonance, and spiritual resonance, enhance the sense of participation and belonging of the vast number of young people in accompaniment, and let the mainstream voice really enter the eyes, ears, and hearts.
In recent years, China Youth Daily has promoted the upgrading of visual "integrated media cloud kitchen" for high quality and high efficiency, accelerated the pace of strengthening new mainstream media, proposed to build a new cultural format of "youth metaverse", and conducted research on related issues on digital technology to empower youth development. Youth bookstores are linking up "youth shops", combining them with the newspaper's digital collection platform, intelligent technology middle platform, university growth platform, cloud ideological and political communication platform, etc., and also linking the "youth metaverse" with the struggle of generations of young people and the demand for a better life.
On May 5 this year, China Youth Daily, as the main co-organizer of China Tourism Day and a media involved in the planning and creation, will directly connect to the main venue, carry out a visual cultural tourism feast online and offline, and release a series of measures to serve "youth shops". At the same time, the "More Reading Youth Bookstore" located at No. 19 Haihai Warehouse will also open to welcome customers, which is another offline reading space with youth characteristics. The newspaper has also cooperated with Beijing Shijingshan District Culture and Tourism Bureau and More Reading Club to "Smaller Reading Smart Bookcases", and more than 2 have been laid in Shijingshan District. Compared with the public nature of the library, the smart bookcase focuses more on the personalized reading needs of residents within "one kilometer" through data collection and scene analysis. In the future, more content products and activities from China Youth Daily will also rely on smart screens to provide residents with a variety of cultural services.
In addition, we will work with relevant units to build the "Youth Shop AI Service (Experience Version)" to provide AI services that integrate technology and culture for young entrepreneurs' online shops. More than 30 "visual collaborative innovation laboratories" of the newspaper will also make efforts, combined with the upgrading and transformation of the newspaper's visual "media cloud kitchen", to help more small shops and young people grow.
We make these exploration attempts, not simply to open a store for the sake of opening a store, to interact for online and offline interaction, but to use these "youth shops" full of human fireworks to build a "quarter-hour convenient living circle and communication circle" for the Communist Youth League to serve young people, and use online and offline interaction to directly provide innovative services of the new model of "edge computing". In our youth-oriented content and services, we will disseminate the core values of socialism, carry forward the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind, and promote the exploration and innovation of the "two combinations" of youth, modernization, fashion and digitalization, which can not only enable young people to more intuitively perceive the latest achievements of the Sinicization of Marxism through various new technologies, new media and new methods, but also deeply penetrate the hearts of the people and arouse resonance, so that they can strengthen the "four self-confidence". Do a good job in the youthful interpretation and visual dissemination of the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is precisely the purpose of China Youth Daily to build a new cultural format of "youth metaverse".
In the youth bookstore in Beijing's Qianmen, when the pair of post-90s baristas talked about the characteristics of their small shop, they said two words in unison: "sincerity." They are sincere about life, sincerely open a small shop and make a cup of coffee. The first batch of young journalists who have in-depth experience in the series of "Youth Shop" will also take up their posts one after another, becoming watchmen, recorders and "waiters" of the "Youth Shop" - where we hope to establish face-to-face links with young people directly.
This "sincerity" and "companionship" are also our consistent attitude towards all young people and every "youth shop" today.
Zhang Kun, reporter of China Youth Daily Source: China Youth Daily