China News Service, Zhengzhou, April 1 (Reporter Kan Li) "Wang Po's matchmaking" became popular all over the Internet in the ancient capital of Kaifeng. On April 1, Li Lixin, director of the Institute of Literature (Yellow River Culture Institute) of the Henan Academy of Social Sciences, gave an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Service to explain this popular cultural tourism phenomenon.
At the end of March and the beginning of April, this company located in Kaifeng Long Live Mountain·Da Song Martial Arts City Scenic Area in Henan launched the blind date program "Wang Po Matchmaking" to great acclaim and success. While becoming popular both online and offline, it also brought "splash" to the local cultural tourism industry. Heaven is rich and noble."
Data obtained by Li Lixin shows that "Wang Po" has single-handedly increased the popularity of cultural tourism in Kaifeng by 94%. Henan tourism has also become popular, with Qingming holiday bookings increasing by 582% year-on-year.
The picture shows the scene of "Mr. Wang's Matchmaking" in Kaifeng, Henan Province on March 30. Photo by China News Service reporter Kan Li
In recent years, "Zibo BBQ", "Erbin Ice and Snow Tour", "Luoyang Fancy Pampers" and "Tianshui Malatang" have become popular. Recently, "Wang Po Matchmaking" has emerged. China's cultural tourism industry has frequently experienced explosions in recent years. The project has attracted much attention from all parties.
At the "Wang Po Matchmaking" site, reporters from China News Service saw that the crowds of tourists were mostly young people. Zhao Mei, the actor who plays "Wang Po", is very popular among young people because of her humorous skills such as eloquence, acting ability and scene control. She often made jokes and improvised songs and dances, which attracted bursts of cheers from the audience.
So, why did “Wang Po’s Matchmaking” become so popular overnight?
In this regard, Li Lixin explained that in fact, as early as 2010, Li Wuwei, a famous economist who won the "China Creative Industry Outstanding Contribution Award" and was known as the "Father of China's Creative Industry", had compared Henan's historical and cultural resources. The rich characteristics give the answer to the "unpredictable": first, to reproduce the scene and add fashion elements; second, to make up a good story and activate history; third, to refine symbols and build a brand.
The picture shows the scene of "Mr. Wang's Matchmaking" in Kaifeng, Henan Province on March 30. Photo by China News Service reporter Kan Li
In Li Lixin's view, "Wang Po's Matchmaking" combines the above three aspects, and its popularity is both accidental and inevitable. "Wangmao Matchmaking" is a performance project that reproduces the scene of throwing hydrangeas to attract a bride in ancient China. It adds Zhao Mei's fashionable rhetoric, earthy love words, exciting singing and dancing, friendly nicknames, and exciting stages to directly touch the hearts of young people. The immersive experience attracts a large number of young people.
"It has reversed the image of the 'Wang Po' in the film and television drama Water Margin and revitalized the history of the Song Dynasty." Li Lixin believes that "Wang Po's matchmaking" cleverly borrowed stories that are well known to women and children in China's "Four Great Classics" "Water Margin", but The negative story is also written on the positive side. The "Wang Po" on the stage is full of love, enthusiasm and sincerity, humor, and full of positive energy.
"'Wang Po Talks Matchmaking' is the result of hard work." Li Lixin introduced that as early as 20 years ago, Henan had built "Great Song Culture" as an important cultural resource, and Kaifeng built "Little Song City" around "Great Song Culture" , "Song Dynasty Tokyo Menghua", "Qingming Shanghe Garden", "Song Dynasty Martial Arts City" and other cultural tourism projects, "Wang Po Matchmaking" has also been going on for six years. It is Kaifeng Cultural Tourism's continuous refinement of the cultural symbols of the Song Dynasty and has been a long-lasting The achievements of successfully building a cultural tourism brand. It can be said that the above three aspects are the main reasons for the popularity of "Wang Po Matchmaking", and the empowerment of digital intelligence and the ignition of the Internet are the triggers for its popularity.
Taking the "China Internet Core Trends Annual Report (2023)" as an example, he explained that in 2023, the number of monthly active users of China Mobile Internet has exceeded 1.224 billion, and the average monthly usage time of the entire network is close to 160 hours. WeChat, Douyin, Baidu, etc. The Internet platform has 980 million monthly active users after removing duplicates. The prosperous Internet application ecology promotes the integration of cultural content with online and offline, resulting in collective "fusion". "'Wang Po Talking Matchmaking' exploded due to the rapid spread of video websites and other Red".
Li Lixin believes that the industrial transformation of Henan's rich historical and cultural resources has always been a bottleneck restricting Henan's cultural industry and cultural tourism industry. In recent years, Henan has made active explorations and attempts in this area, and there are many successful works. Henan's cultural tourism has frequently been out of the circle, including the Tang Palace Night Banquet, Luo Shen Shui Fu, Hanfu craze, and wonderful museum tours. There are waves of cultural tourism boom.
How to make cultural tourism from popular to everlasting? Li Lixin gave suggestions. On the one hand, we need to persist in innovation and produce more creative cultural and tourism products; on the other hand, we need to further provide good tourism services and humanistic environment to truly build "Hometown Henan" into the spirit of Chinese people at home and abroad. The main place of home and spiritual hometown. (over)