"Accompany you to the scenery, accompany you to the adventure, and it doesn't hurt to accompany you to lose my country. The wind of the Li River blew on the bridge, the cotton thread of Xiaowei's hat flew everywhere, he shivered from the cold, and sang to the mobile phone camera. "Have you heard this song?Xu Huasheng sings, he is our big Internet celebrity in Guangxi, and he is our pride. He imagined that he could become an Internet celebrity with tens of millions of followers.
On the first night of the broadcast, there were only a few people in his live broadcast room. "Give some, brother, give some. He said it one after another. It was pitch black under the bridge, and he suddenly raised his voice, turned his head to the Li River and shouted: "I am now short of a consortium, and I am short of a 'big brother on the list' who will set sail for me!."”
This is the Guilin Nanzhou Bridge. Along with Xiaowei, there are dozens of anchors. They are from the same media company, most of them are newcomers who have just started broadcasting, and they have just over 10,000 fans. An anchor once introduced in the live broadcast room: This is the largest Internet celebrity bridge in Guangxi.
Every night, countless lights stand on the bridge. Chatting, shouting, and singing sounded one after another. Without the advantage of talent and appearance, they usually sit on the bridge and broadcast live all night. There are also people wearing straw hats and performing "a mouthful" with brown stoneware wine bowls.
In the eyes of those who agree with the live broadcast, this is the largest local "Internet celebrity bridge", and on the bridge is a group of young people with entrepreneurial dreams. In the eyes of those who disagree, this is the "beggar bridge", and the bridge is a lazy "Internet beggar".
However, anchors are convinced that live broadcast is an outlet, a way to realize the dream of Internet celebrity, and an important profession that provides emotional value and relieves stress. They said, "Whether it's Guilin or the deep mountains and old forests, it's all going live." ”
The anchors gathered at the bridgehead for live broadcast and sat on the ground. Figure Jiupai News Li Qian.
1] Internet celebrity bridge, beggar gang bridge.
At 10 o'clock in the evening, the DJ sound stopped, and the crowd of square dancers dispersed, but the Nanzhou Bridge was still lively.
The anchors came on electric cars, and everyone had an "L" shaped single folding sofa on their car, and a large black bag in the back seat of the car - which contained a fill light, a sound card, and a capacity of 25 liters of thermos kettle, 25A 5W mAh power bank, as well as dozens of data cables and three mobile phones in a mess - only in this way can the live broadcast be supported until dawn.
Electric vehicles are parked in an orderly row by the bridge. The anchor who came early has set up a fill light, plugged in the sound card, and adjusted the angle. "Fight chicken blood to make money, it's on!Li Qin raised his clenched fists and cheered him up. Lin Yu, the anchor on the side, looked at her and said, "You will definitely be able to receive two Huazi tonight (that is, a virtual gift in the live broadcast room called "Carnival", which is 3,000 yuan). ”
After the broadcast, Li Qin's voice was "clipped", and she said a string of welcome words in a loud tone like a machine gun: "Be careful first, whether it's good to take advantage of the list, brothers, praise and take a walk, praise and take a walk." "Oh, look who's here!."It's our brother who is back!I haven't seen you for a long time, and I miss Na ...... very much”
She tilted her head and kissed as she spoke, "I think my eldest brother is in my heart, didn't you notice that I was a little shy?."Even if she sat on the ground, it didn't prevent her from pretending to be stomping her feet, clicking on her toes.
All the equipment you need for outdoor live streaming. Figure Jiupai News Li Qian.
It's hard to imagine that Li Qin actually rarely speaks in daily life, and she has no sense of presence among the anchors. The most active in the crowd was Wanwan, also known as the "second sister" - because she was the second most rewarding person per night. The anchors on the Nanzhou Bridge each have their own style - Lin Yu's live broadcast content is singing, and the singing voice imitates Jay Chou. The sixth brother mainly shouts and chats. The "first sister" who ranks first in the number of fans and tips used to be a piano teacher, and her former student also joined the ranks of anchors this night.
Making money is the only purpose they gather here. "First Sister" raised her chin, she revealed that her income from the live broadcast last month was about 100,000.
The anchors are immersed in that small square inch world, and everyone's eyes are on their mobile phones.
On the bridge, there are occasionally groups of teenagers in groups of three or five, riding electric cars and speeding past, shouting at the anchors in a playful tone: "Hey, yo yo beggar, Internet beggar." ”
There was no anchor to raise his head, and they gathered together to form a larger "enchantment", and the enchantment blocked all sounds.
Lin Yu said: "Other celebrities can pull down their faces and broadcast them here." He pointed to Zhao Yiwei, a man who was singing hard next to him, and the search engine introduced him as: Chinese actor and singer. He once signed a contract with singer Zhang Xinzhe in the same ** company.
When did the taunts come from?In November 2021, a well-known actor expressed his dissatisfaction with the current chaos of live broadcasting: "It's very sad, now many children, find a corner, turn on a lamp, scratch their heads, and live a good life!."Then netizens PS these words with the live broadcast of Nanzhou Bridge. Every time they broadcast live, their comment area and barrage are crowded with invective of "lazy and lazy" and "social moths".
The controversy did not stop. Passers-by often stop to watch, take pictures, and discuss, and when they say something, they point to the crowd and comment: "Look at them like clowns." The older man poked his head out and asked, "Can this make money?"”
Jiang Qiang, the substitute driver who also works late at night, looked at the anchor and said fiercely: "If young people are like this, they will die in the country", he rode a folding car, saying that he stopped to look at the beauty, but his mouth did not stop: "Capital has driven them crazy, and if they are crazy, they will have nothing to do." He despised the meaningless content of the short ** platform, saying that he never watched live broadcasts, "I usually watch "Qiang Qiang Threesome" (Phoenix Satellite TV talk show). ”
There is also a gentle voice. A passer-by said that he would not object to his child's live broadcast, "If the child likes it, then do it."
When he left, Jiang Qiang's words suddenly softened, and he said that he understood that live broadcast was a last resort choice for some young people, and live broadcast was okay, but don't gather outdoors, "The impact is not good." ”
2] It's all about traffic.
We just sang and chatted, and we didn't play a side game, and we didn't disturb public order, and we couldn't figure out what mentality to scold us. An anchor said aggrievedly: "If it weren't for the traffic, who would want to do this?."”
Traffic is the reason why anchors gather at Nanzhou Bridge.
Huddle live broadcast is for traffic. The company's operation, Ah Yu, sits at the forefront of the anchor camp and is responsible for dealing with emergencies. He picked up his phone and swiped it up and down, "As long as you swipe to one that is broadcast here, you will swipe this piece (all anchors) next, and there is a mutual driving effect." ”
Live streaming all night is also for traffic. "Small anchors can only pick up traffic that big anchors don't want. "Top streamers tend to broadcast live during the day or in the first half of the night. In the second half of the night, Ah Yu began to smoke one after another to refresh himself, because he stayed up late to smoke for a long time, his lips were black, and his teeth were covered with thick cigarette stains.
Usually from 0:00 to 2:00 in the morning, there is a peak in traffic, and there is a wave of peak around 8 o'clock in the morning, and in the middle hours, the anchors sleep on the outdoor ground and wait.
Ah Yu said that Guangxi's outdoor live broadcast is very famous. By chance, the company called the anchors to go live outdoors, and accidentally found that the traffic was even more considerable. Some anchors once tried to accumulate fans outdoors and then turned back indoors, but the traffic plummeted, so they had to choose to continue broadcasting on the bridge.
What's even more amazing is that the more streamers on the bridge, the better the traffic. Ah Yu raised her eyebrows and said proudly, "It's an eye-opener for you, see this formation!."”
The anchors have a clear goal line in their eyes - traffic equals fans, fans equals channels, and channels equals making money for everything. But in reality, the number of people in the live broadcast room does not bring them actual benefits, and they ultimately need to make a profit by asking for tips and gifts.
For example, if an anchor receives a gift worth 100 yuan in one night, the platform will draw 50 yuan, the company will draw 5 yuan, and the remaining 45 yuan will belong to the anchor personally.
Make a lot of money" is in the minority. Even if you are in the traffic highland of Nanzhou Bridge, most people can only earn a few dozen yuan a night. Ah Yu said that there was an anchor who had just started to "stay up late to broadcast, but it turned out that even the mobile phone data fee was not enough." ”
In the initial stage of torment, each streamer has their own idol. Sixth Brother's idol is "Little Ghost", and Xiaowei's idol is Xu Huasheng - they both have tens of millions of fans. Xiaowei will write on the accompanying text of **: "Mr. Xu Huasheng, have you seen it?."One day I'll be like you. He even thought about what goods to bring after becoming famous - Guangxi's specialty snail noodles.
Onlookers also came for the traffic, and Qin Hui was one of them. He shuttled between the anchor's "workstations" and held his mobile phone to test the number of people in the live broadcast room.
Qin Hui is from Longsheng County, Baise City, Guangxi Province, and after his jewelry business failed, he began selling his hometown specialty Luo Han Guo online. In order to broaden his sales channels, he once asked professional anchors to bring goods, but "a lot of money was spent, but not much was sold". He and his partner decided to go into battle in person, and tried it in the warehouse, in the office, under the street lamp, in various locations, "just don't get in." "Every time they go off the air.
After brushing up on the live broadcast of the anchors on Nanzhou Bridge, Qin Hui had only one thought in his mind - there must be traffic here. The next day, he and his partner drove here. "Don't talk about it, the test here is good, I'll sell my monk fruit here. He was eager to try.
Someone on the side said that the first batch would be sold to this group of anchors, "It's just that they are struggling!."The crowd burst into laughter.
3] The second half of the night on the bridge.
At the end of November, the temperature in Guilin plummeted, and the cold wind of the Li River made people's faces ache. The streamers added thick clothes and warm babies to their luggage.
Mosquito repellent water is also a must-have on the bridge. The river under the bridge smells smelly, attracting mosquitoes to rage, and the mosquitoes may fly to the mouth.
When the wind blows, a large truck passes by, and the smell of gasoline is mixed with the smell of urine. Passers-by frowned, "What's the smell of urine?."One anchor hurriedly denied: "It's not us, we're all under the bridge." Whether it is a virtual network or real life, there has been too much criticism, which causes anchors to have a stress reaction and subconsciously want to explain.
During the live broadcast, the basic physiological needs were solved at the Nanzhou Bridge. If you are hungry at night, you can order takeout, and fill in the takeaway address as "Qiaotou Live Broadcast Office". There are toilets in the park under the bridge.
Late at night, a female anchor got up and asked if anyone wanted to go to the toilet, it was too dark under the bridge, and she needed a companion. Public toilets are sometimes locked by security guards, "There is a grassy slope in front of the bridge, be careful not to fall, just find a place." She stuck out her tongue and didn't continue.
Sometimes they are expelled by the chengguan or traffic police, etc. At this point, they will move to the bridge or somewhere else.
After four hours of live streaming, the time came to two o'clock in the morning, and it was even darker under the bridge, with few vehicles passing on the bridge, and only the sound of the wind blowing leaves could be heard everywhere. Li Qin took out a massage pillow from her bag to relieve the leg pain caused by sitting for a long time. The sixth brother added a pack of instant black coffee to the thermos cup to refresh himself and try not to sleep - he was afraid that the cold would enter his body and get sick after falling asleep.
The anchors slowly became tired and depressed from passion. Lin Yu held the microphone and stopped singing loudly, his eyes were empty and dull. There are also people who flatten their L-shaped clay hair, put a bath towel on their head, and cover their face with their eyes closed.
The whole field began to be filled with emotions and anger. The pain and exertion of the body consumed their tolerance for bad judgments. They no longer pretended not to see it, but took the microphone and shook their legs in reply: "I am not a pillar of the country, you are you." "You lie in bed and swipe your phone to comment on me, and say that I wasted my life. ”
Behind the anchor is the Nanzhou Bridge, and it will be broadcast live on the bridge when the wind is not strong. Figure Jiupai News Li Qian.
Let's find a class", Wanwan said, because she had worked, she didn't want to go to work, "I don't want to live that kind of life where you have to calculate the amount of food." ”
In June 2022, Wanwan graduated from a second-class college in Guangxi, majoring in art. Before becoming an anchor, she worked as an art teacher with an hourly salary of 13 yuan. Most of the roommates were admitted to the teaching establishment and civil service. Her roommate told her that she needed to do a lot of chores at work, and her monthly salary was three or four thousand. She was not satisfied with this way out.
She counted with her fingers, got rid of the rent, bought vegetables, and bought something casually, and there was nothing left for three or four thousand. "My parents are farmers, so if I need money for an accident, do I still let them subsidize them?”
You can also give it a go and earn more. She is the eldest child in the family and has always been very independent, and she took the train to Dongguan to work alone during the summer vacation of high school. The girl who started the live broadcast at the same time as her didn't stick to it. She survived the early days, and now most of her monthly income is more than 10,000 yuan.
The price is the abuse of the screen in the live broadcast room. She retold the bad words sent by netizens sentence by sentence: "You really lived in vain, you went to college in vain, and you are still undergraduate" "You might as well sell it, don't your parents feel distressed when they see it?"”
In this night's live broadcast, Wanwan was praised 160,000, ** 148 people. Among the audience were her parents.
She didn't care about it. Her parents don't know much about the Internet, and they don't object to her live broadcast, but they will ask her with the comparison psychology of the elders: How can other people's live broadcast rooms receive so many tips?
4] On-screen and on-screen.
Tipping often comes with harassment. Outside the live broadcast room, the anchor also needs to spend a lot of time and effort to maintain the relationship with the tipper.
Wanwan will divide the big brother on the list into two categories, the "sentimental party" that purely expresses appreciation and the "other big brothers" who have other plans. She trusts one of the "big brothers" of the former the most. When there is no ticket, the eldest brother will give her a "dignity ticket" and a "Huazi".
My eldest brother treated me as a daughter and gave me life advice. She said that on the chat software, her eldest brother often chatted with her about art and architecture, and enlightened her about the conflict with her parents. When debugging the equipment before the broadcast, she was still sending voice messages with her eldest brother uninterruptedly, sharing her daily life.
In the chat record shown by Wanwan, the "big brother" once said that she was like her first love, and seeing her was like seeing her young and youthful self.
She has a cheerful personality and talks openly about her parents, hobbies, and pets in the face of strangers. For the food sent by strangers, she naturally accepted it, invited her to drink milk tea together, and she would naturally hold the girl's arm. Chatting and sharing as part of her daily routine, she doesn't seem to be averse.
In the face of tippers with other plans, Wanwan said that she never agreed, "I don't want to be like that". Speaking of this, she paused and lowered her head: "But it has become something I never expected, I thought that after graduation, I would be a white-collar worker in an advertising company." ”
Female anchors want to keep the "big brother on the list", and male anchors also want to keep the "big sister on the list", how to control the boundary between inside and outside the screen is a common problem they have to face.
Research data shows that male anchors account for about 11 of the total. Lin Yu said that the "man" of the male anchor is the "difficult" of the difficulty.
In the ** section of the homepage, he is dressed in camouflage uniform, either crawling on the lawn, or showing his martial arts skills, showing the character of a "young tough guy". He knows very well that his audience is an older sister.
Once a sister proposed to develop a relationship with him, Lin Yu said: "I don't want to be like this, just be friends, if something goes wrong, I can't say clearly." After being rejected for a love request, the "No. 1 Sister" who said that she wanted to brush Lin Yu with 10,000 sunglasses never came to the live broadcast room again, and blocked him.
The "first sister" on the side came to support, mentioning a similar experience, she found the other party's mobile phone number, "I called, and he came back." When Lin Yu heard it, he said, "Are you back?."Cow!You should take the initiative. The two agreed, shook their hands, and said nonchalantly, it should be like this, "You can't ask for face, you just want money." ”
Even if he chooses to completely "commoditize" intimacy in "pulling", he is not as accustomed to providing companionship and intimacy as Wanwan. He said that he treats his eldest sister as a friend and provides emotional value, but he feels "very difficult" about chatting and has to find a way to reply well, not perfunctory.
Under the emotional labor of one-on-one during the day and one-to-many at night, he became untalkative in real life. But he is convinced that this profession is meaningful, and in today's stressful modern life, everyone needs an emotional outlet.
Xiaowei's appearance and personality are not as good as Lin Yuyi's favor with the "eldest sister". He is small and thin, and whenever he appears in the live broadcast room, he will wear a woven flower hat, and he says that he is bald, for fear of scaring the audience.
He can't sing, and he doesn't have any other talents, so he has to keep saying "give some, brother, give some" in the live broadcast room. It's really boring, he will walk around the bridge and comment on the figure and appearance of the female anchor next to him with the audience.
What does the audience like about him?The barrage floated through two words: sincerity. He repeatedly emphasized that he regards fans as true friends, pays trust and sincerity, and focuses on long-term companionship.
A similar argument also appeared in the mouth of the head of the company. For newcomers who want to enter the industry, Sister Ting, the person in charge, advised: "To treat the audience as friends, to put it bluntly, it is to praise him, praise him, and provide him with emotional value, and the eldest brother will say yes to everything." ”
Sister Ting emphasized that offline maintenance is a necessary part of the work, "'Big Brother' consumes so much for you, don't you want to make a ** and don't want to do it at once?"She also added that for excessive requests, it is necessary to report to the company in a timely manner, and if you see the "big brother" without authorization, the company will not come forward if there is a problem, "This is a matter of personal feelings." ”
She said that falling in love with a tipper is a free choice for the anchor and is normal.
Almost every anchor will bring a doll to the side to accompany them. Figure Jiupai News Li Qian.
5] "Making intimacy" should not be burdened with too much moral sin.
Dong Chenyu, a lecturer at the School of Journalism at Chinese University, discussed objectified intimacy in the industry through a year-long fieldwork on live broadcasts.
His research compares the live broadcast platform to an "emotional delivery factory", and the anchor is an emotional delivery for people to choose from to fill the audience's emotional hunger. In the eyes of the live broadcast audience, the relationship between them and the anchor is more like an ambiguous game of "renting" with gifts and relieving loneliness.
In his book "Making Intimacy: Commoditized Relationships and Their Instability in China's Online Show Livestreams", he mentioned that live streaming platforms encourage a highly commoditized intimate relationship between anchors and viewers through technical configurations such as intimacy, gifts, and PK. In vocational training, the guild further concretizes this intimate relationship into two strategic methods: "hospitality" and "push and pull".
The Beijing News Book Review Weekly mentioned in an exclusive interview with him that in Dong Chenyu's view, most of them, whether they are live broadcast practitioners or viewers, are ordinary people and should not bear too much moral sin. The content and relationships in the live stream are certainly not real, but this may be the only solace that many people have. "Short-lived, shallow, superficial, and even pseudo-intimate relationships are just a stopgap measure for people. ”
In the live broadcast where "money" and "emotion" flow together, the 40-year-old sixth brother is very special. The background picture of his homepage is a family photo with his wife and children, "I extinguished that fantasy as soon as I came up, I am a person with a family." He expressed his attitude clearly.
My live stream is pure. He said he never maintained offline relationships. He was proud of this, he stood up and pointed to one of the anchors, "Look at that, sit on the ground, wait for the big brother to come and swipe the gift" "That, I didn't think about making an account well". Other anchors complained that the data cable was broken, and he teased: "If it's broken, let the big brother buy you a new one, your whole body, even the ** was bought by the big brother." ”
He also struggled to get a reward. Last month, he earned 7,000 and sent 5,000 to his wife at home, leaving the rest to pay rent and living expenses, smoking a pack of cigarettes for five yuan.
It rained all night in Guilin, and the anchors fell ill one after another. The sixth brother posted an announcement on the homepage of "stop changing tonight", and he sighed that he had earned 700 after staying up for a week, and he had to post it upside down when he was sick. He is no longer ambitious, thinking that he will be able to "Douyin half of the country" for another year or two.
Now his greatest wish has changed. He wants to go back indoors, live during the day, get a good night's sleep, and "live a normal life." ”
A streamer's coffee brewing, and a doll that is "sleeping". Figure Jiupai News Li Qian.
Except for Dong Chenyu, all the characters in the article are pseudonyms) (Jiupai News).