The "hilarious Wuxi" team is shooting a short video. Reporter Long She/Visual Chongqing

Stills of Laughing at Wuxi. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Stills of Laughing at Wuxi. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Stills of "Laughing Wuxi" and "Beautiful Zhang" (left). (Photo provided by the interviewee)

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With the popularity of smart phones, the new media of "going to the countryside" has developed rapidly in rural areas, providing a new way for farmers to obtain information and express their demands conveniently.

When rural governance meets new media, what kind of sparks will it collide with? In Wuxi, the mainstream media is deeply integrated with the local self-media platform "Laughing Wuxi" to explore new paths of rural governance.

"It's dark and slippery, and the network is complicated. If you don't wipe your eyes, you should climb carefully (in local dialect, it means to fall down) ... "Recently, when interviewed in Wuxi County, Chongqing Daily reporter heard this kind of" local rap "sung in the streets from time to time.

Others commented: "Now there are two-dimensional codes all over the street, so you can't just scan them. Artichoke sold beautifully two days ago, and the QR code for collecting money was stolen. The money paid for scanning the code to buy food went into someone else's bag. "

Everyone's "Beautiful Zhang" is one of the protagonists in Wuxi's local media platform "Laughing at Wuxi". This "local rap" sung by everyone comes from a short video specially produced by the platform for the National Cyber Security Publicity Week. In just two days, the video spread reached 500,000+.

Wuxi county is a national key county for poverty alleviation and development, with a registered population of 540,000. However, the number of Tik Tok subscribers to "Laughing Wuxi" reached more than 430,000, and the number of subscribers to WeChat official account reached 370,000. More than 70% of the subscribers are from Wuxi, which means that more than half of Wuxi people subscribe to "Laughing Wuxi" and all know "Zhang Meimei".

Why are "Beauty Zhang" and "Laughing at Wuxi" so attractive?

After the dialect was grounded, the "grassroots" team made an "explosion" video.

Laughing at Wuxi is a self-media platform for making micro-videos of local dialect comedies. The members of the creative team are all post-90s, all from rural families in Wenfeng Town, Wuxi County. The video producer is called Wang Yunlin, who has several roles-screenwriter, director, cameraman and post-editing.

In August of 20 17, Wang Yunlin bought a used computers with a playful attitude and spent more than 1000 yuan. He uses his mobile phone as a camera. Please be an actor with Du and try to shoot funny short videos in local dialect.

Wuxi dialect calls "how to do" what to do, the elders "the older generation" and "tumbling" as "jumping", which has local characteristics. Several members of the team grew up in the local countryside, and they speak very authentic dialect slang. The short video content they created also comes from people and things around them, which is both humorous and grounded.

Nowadays, the role played by this grassroots team is almost a household name in Wuxi: Zhang Meimei is a rural youth who likes to be greedy and cheap, lazy and sneaky; Du Chang has a baby face and plays the eccentric and naughty rural youth "Chen Xijiu"; Liao Bin looks simple and honest, playing a rural youth "Bohr" who only knows how to work hard. ...

"At the beginning, our positioning was that dialects were funny, what was funny, and there was no specific theme." Wang Yunlin said that although the short videos created at that time were popular, the number of hits was generally only 1000.

The team really made "explosive" products because of a personal experience of Beauty Zhang actor Zhang Yong.

There is a poor household in Zhang Yong's village. His mother and brother are both ill, and life is very difficult. However, this poor household has to deal with countless "no wine to drink" and often has to borrow money to give away, which is very distressing.

This brought creative inspiration to Zhang Yong, so he and his team members made a short video "No Wine and No Joy" with the theme of irony: for the first time, "Zhang Meimei" drove to eat wine; The second time, the car became a motorcycle; For the third time, motorcycles became children's bicycles; The fourth time, someone asked "Zhang Meimei" to have a drink, and Zhang Meimei, who gave a gift to her family, never dared to go again. ...

This "explosion" experience made the team start thinking about the future development direction.

"Humorous spoofs can't attract fans for a long time." Wang Yunlin said that if we can use humorous short videos to interpret current affairs policies and social hotspots, be a good liaison between "antenna" and "local atmosphere" and spread positive energy in laughter, we can make more "explosions".

Successful transformation "Lazy people get rid of poverty" won the national award.

Timely transformation, so that "hilarious Wuxi" is followed by "explosion".

Rural health products fraud, telecom fraud, etc. It has become their topic, and they also attack the stereotypes in some places in an ironic way, which is deeply loved by the people.

By 20 18, the number of fans of "Laughing at Wuxi" has reached more than 200,000, and the click volume of almost every video can reach 65,438+million+,and the frequency of online works has also increased from 1 time in the past week to three times a week.

On May 18 and 16, Wang Yunlin made a short video of "A woman cries for two lines after drinking and driving for a while". After being broadcast on platforms such as Tik Tok and WeChat official account, the reading volume reached more than 23 million, and it won 236,000 likes, ranking second in Tik Tok's "Hottest Video Today" list.

In 20 19, Wuxi county entered the stage of "getting rid of poverty", and the creative team of "Laughing at Wuxi" created two short videos of "Lazy people getting rid of poverty" in April of that year.

"Zhang Meimei" is a poor household this time, but he is a lazy person at a young age. His family is so poor that "the mouse will leave in tears when it comes." He is tired of doing farm work and going out to work, and he relies on helping the cadre "Bohr" to make trouble. Bokeer prescribed the right medicine, persuaded Zhang Meimei's ex-wife Youyou, and successfully stimulated Zhang Meimei's endogenous motivation to get rid of poverty. A year later, "Zhang Meimei" succeeded in getting rid of poverty by her own efforts.

The video received enthusiastic response on the Internet. Some netizens commented: "Now the policy is so good, as long as you are not lazy, life will get better and better!"

In April this year, in the 15th National party member Educational Television Film Observation and Exchange Activities organized by the Central Organization Department, Lazy People Out of Poverty won the National Excellent Award.

"hilarious Wuxi" constantly absorbs fresh blood and enriches the team.

Zhang Guanghe, 72, is a poor household in Group 4 of Yinfeng Village. He and his wife live in the mountains, so it's inconvenient to travel and draft is also a problem. He is rather resentful. Relying on the poverty alleviation policy, in May last year, Zhang Guanghe built a road and a reservoir in front of his house. The old couple rebuilt the old house and successfully got rid of poverty.

2065438+June 2009, Wang Yunlin developed Zhang Guanghe into an actor with the role name "Bald Head and Harmony", so that this once poor household can explain the poverty alleviation policy. Laughing at Wuxi is often shot in the background of his old house, and Zhang Guanghe has gradually become a local "celebrity". Whenever someone visits, he will take the initiative to preach the poverty alleviation policy.

From 2065438 to August 2007, Laughing in Wuxi has been sought after by many netizens for its humorous localized expression. In the past three years, more than 400 original videos have been released, with nearly one million fans on each platform and over 5 million monthly hits. The creative team has developed from a "grass-roots team" of three people to Wuxi Face Bar Cultural Media Studio, and the team members have increased to 1 1.

The deep integration of media provides new ideas for rural governance.

Wuxi County has given strong support to this local self-media "explosion" platform, given scientific guidance while supervising it, made it a supplement to the official media, and promoted the further cooperation and innovation between mainstream media and mass media in Wuxi.

From May 65438 to May 1 day, 2009, Wuxi Media Center played the micro-video of "Laughing at Wuxi" through multiple media platforms, and opened a special area for it on the homepage of the cable set-top box. Relevant functional departments of Wuxi County also actively cooperated with "Laughing at Wuxi" and asked them to make short and humorous videos to publicize various policies, which greatly improved the acceptance of the masses.

For example, during the epidemic in COVID-19 this year, under the guidance of the health and epidemic prevention department, "Laughing at Wuxi" launched four short videos to prevent and control COVID-19, to help local people understand how to prevent epidemic scientifically. These videos have been played more than 3 million times on various platforms.

During the recent National Cyber Security Publicity Week, the Internet Information Office of Wuxi County and "Laughing at Wuxi" jointly planned seven public welfare videos to promote cyber security, with a spread of 500,000+.

In the cooperation with functional departments, the image of online celebrity "Zhang Meimei" is more deeply rooted in people's hearts. Sometimes he becomes a liar who sells old masks but suffers greatly. Sometimes he becomes a rural vendor, selling potatoes with a QR code but being cheated. Sometimes it is a rural "singer" who can sing and rap ... Some netizens left a message: "Listen to' Zhang Meimei' to talk about policies, so learn and have fun."

Zou, director of Wuxi Media Center, said: "Nowadays, 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' hilarious Wuxi' is of great significance for opening up the voice of the party and spreading the' last mile' at the grassroots level." The relevant person in charge of the Network Information Office of the Municipal Party Committee believes that "Laughing Wuxi" provides a sample and reference for the growth of rural media, the innovation of grassroots governance methods and the prosperity of rural culture.

Our reporter Long Meidan