Text/Yangcheng Evening News reporter Sun Lei and intern He Wentao
At the moment, the most popular person in the literary circle is not Yu Hua or Mo Yan, but probably Dong Yuhui.
He is a "real money" sensation: on January 9, Dong Yuhui's "solo" live broadcast debut attracted 150 million yuan in one night; on January 23, Dong Yuhui sold 82,600 sets of "People's Literature" during his live broadcast in 4 hours. ” magazine, the transaction amount was 17.85 million yuan; on January 28, Dong Yuhui’s latest performance was exposed, and the sales of the “Walking with Hui” live broadcast room in 20 days reached 800 million yuan…
What is the concept of 800 million yuan?
Netizens calculated an account and found that it would take an ordinary person 7,000 years to save without eating or drinking, and it would be too late to start working during the Warring States Period.
More than one person wondered: Dong Yuhui, why is he so popular?
Rather than saying that hard work and talent are the key to his success, it is better to say that culture and the times have created each and every charming "Dong Yuhui" who sells goods.
His favorite thing to sell is always books
"About 10,000 years ago, in the Crescent Wetland, which is now the two river basins-the Euphrates River and the Tigris River, humans domesticated wheat; at the other end of the Eurasian continent, the Chinese domesticated rice. Human beings have a total of 7 million years of In history, only these 10,000 years are really important..."
On June 9, 2022, Dong Yuhui introduced the discovery, cultivation and sowing of rice from its historical origins in a live broadcast of selling rice, and also connected the elements of rice with humans and the stars in the universe.
This unique way of live streaming has become a hit on the Internet, and the gears of Dong Yuhui's destiny have begun to turn.
He is full of knowledge and can speak well. With his ceiling-level essays, he has become a "top ten million anchor" and has also opened up a new content live streaming model.
He quotes from a wide range of sources and talks endlessly about history and life. He also sincerely shares his personal life and feelings in conjunction with products.
The story full of cultural flavor allows people to rarely feel the warmth of knowledge from the lightweight and vulgar live streaming audio-visual carnival.
From a farm boy to a famous New Oriental teacher to an Internet celebrity, Dong Yuhui’s rise to fame was both accidental and inevitable. He once said, “This is all a gift from books.”
Although Dong Yuhui got his start by selling various agricultural products, his favorite thing to sell has always been books.
Reading "The Right Bank of the Ergun River" by Chi Zijian, he said: "Reindeer roost on the moss, shamans dance under the moonlight, stars hang low in the night sky, people sing and dance around the bonfire, drink and have fun until dawn." "It's too fast, but people walk too slowly"... His recommendation helped the book sell nearly one million copies in four months, which is equivalent to the total sales of the novel in the 17 years since it was first published in 2005.
Dong Yuhui has read "The Ordinary World" by Lu Yao six times. He frankly said that this book even shaped his character.
When recommending, he said: "Fate often gives you gifts but also hides its price. However, everything that troubles you also has its own reward."
It is precisely by virtue of his unique personal charm and live broadcast characteristics that he is as clear as a stream in the live broadcast industry. Dong Yuhui has attracted a large number of deep users.
Approximately 80% of the fans of Dong Yuhui’s personal account are women, and 70% are over 31 years old.
It may not be accurate to call Dong Yuhui's supporters "fans"; they are even called "mother-in-laws."
With the strong support of the "mother-in-laws", the "little composition incident" ended with Dong Yuhui being promoted to vice president of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group and senior partner of Oriental Selection. Dong Yuhui also started a new career.
Knowledge-based live broadcast with unique humanistic flavor
Reading not only shaped Dong Yuhui's character, but also made "culture" a unique label for his live broadcast room.
A live broadcast of "Walking with Hui" on the evening of January 23, 2024 can be called his two-way journey with literature.
That night, famous writers Liang Xiaosheng, Cai Chongda, and "People's Literature" editor-in-chief Shi Zhanjun were guests in the live broadcast room, talking about "My Literary Path" with Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui.
This is the first live broadcast of "People's Literature" magazine, and it is also the first time that the live broadcast room "sells only one literary magazine in the whole process", creating history in the literary and communication circles.
The live broadcast event had a total of 8.95 million viewers, with a peak of more than 700,000 people online at the same time, and received hundreds of millions of likes.
From 8 to 12 o'clock that night, "People's Literature" 2024 full-year subscriptions sold 82,600 sets and 992,000 copies within 4 hours, with a transaction amount of 17.85 million and a sales volume of 19.83 million.
This achievement has broken the record of the highest single book sales of 10 million in a single book sold in the Oriental Selection live broadcast room.
Dong Yuhui has almost created a literary miracle.
Behind the miracle, it is inseparable from the help of the platform and the rapid development of book category live broadcast in recent years.
Under the three-year impact of the epidemic, the live broadcast model has been completely matured, and there has been a trend of "bringing everything" in live streaming. Dong Yuhui's unique humanistic knowledge-based live broadcast has brought paper books to the fierce competition in live streaming. Breaking through the competition and becoming the pinnacle in the industry.
In particular, the live streaming of books has entered a stage of rapid development and expansion in recent years.
The addition of purely literary books has largely broken the public's stereotype of live broadcasts and greatly expanded the possibility of live broadcasts to bring goods. After the success of selling books, Dong Yuhui's live broadcast room also began to focus on cultural promotion, cultural tourism promotion and Overseas live broadcast.
It can be said that the success of live streaming of books has allowed Dong Yuhui to find a new track for live streaming, and it has also largely broken the boundaries of live streaming.
Hot-selling refraction: the “mother” role of literature
It can be seen that whether it is the sales of paper books with goods or the live broadcast of Dong Yuhui conquering thousands of viewers through literary knowledge and sincerity, literature is the key force behind this.
The popularity of live broadcasts by Dong Yuhui, Yang Lan, Ma Weidu and others reflects the change in cultural consumption of the public's desire for knowledge and warmth.
Successful practices of literature "breaking circles" and "crossing boundaries" have not only given full play to the role of the "mother book" of literature, but also released the potential of literature and greatly expanded the development space of literature.
This has made more ordinary people pay attention and realize that no matter how technology develops, literature is still an indispensable part of people's spiritual life, and literary workers can feel that readers' demand for serious literature still exists. The key is How to discover readers and activate their reading needs.
In fact, literature will never lack readers. What is lacking is innovative means of discovering readers' vision and attracting readers.
With the evolution of reading media carriers, more diversified literary reading methods have been activated. New forms such as "knowledge anchors" and "cultural delivery" have also boosted the wave of "video reading". Cultural live broadcast rooms and even to some extent Become a "meal replacement" for public reading.
With such a variety of media carriers, literature has more space and possibilities to break the circle. The evolution of reading media carriers helps to form a "literature +" ecological pattern. New media can open new windows for literary communication, with a more comprehensive The web-like attitude and contagious narration attract more people to feel the warmth and depth of the literary world and enrich people's spiritual and cultural life.
In this era of fierce competition, the rule of survival has returned to "content is king", and literature has become a new password to help brands or platforms, bringing new tracks and more possibilities to live broadcasts.
This is a process of mutual achievement and mutual fulfillment, and it is also one of the key reasons for Dong Yuhui's success.
There is still a long way to go for live streaming of books, especially literature.
The success of Dong Yuhui and others also allows us to see that in the era of screen reading, although the social influence and communication power of literature have been repeatedly weakened, literature is always there, neither sad nor happy.
Literature will not disappear. It has a flexible and tenacious power. In the context of a new era, the pure literature that the public has gradually become alienated from will eventually return to us in some form.