China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Ning Di.
In 2024, "Erbin" ushered in the hottest Spring Festival in history.
On the ** street of Harbin in the first month, shoulder to shoulder, the river is endless. Tourists from all over the world and busy shops on the corners of the streets and alleys form the most beautiful scenery in the Spring Festival.
Some people come to the street, in order to taste a bite of Internet celebrity ice cream, some people to snap up an AR refrigerator magnet, and some people to taste a cup of frozen pear coffee. These large and small storefronts are the most active cells on this century-old street, and behind the bustle of the small shops, there are many young people who are silently making efforts.
Borrow a cup of frozen pear coffee to export Northeast culture.
Frozen pears with coffee, cup after cup". In the days when "Erbin" was out of the circle, in the Deer Fish Coffee Shop located in the first street and alley, frozen pear coffee could sometimes sell hundreds of cups a day.
The "frozen pear", which belongs to the childhood memory of Northeast people, has become so foreign overnight that it is called a native of Harbin, and he shouts "I can't understand it" and "we haven't seen it".
At the beginning of this year, the number of people who walked into the Luyu Coffee Shop to buy frozen pear coffee suddenly increased, and the clerks found that their frozen pear coffee had been pushed on the Internet.
The fusion drink of crushed frozen pears and cold brew coffee is added, and the sweetness and sourness of frozen pears and the mellow aroma of coffee attract many young people.
The frozen pear coffee made in the coffee shop has attracted the attention of many consumers. Photo by China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Ning Di.
The store manager, Cao Tingxiang, did not expect the frozen pear coffee to be so popular, but it was not surprising that someone noticed it, "Our store launched frozen pear coffee as early as 2018. ”
Cao Tingxiang told a reporter from China Youth Daily that a few years ago, the owner of the coffee shop wanted to design something different, and as a post-80s generation, he wanted to combine coffee with Northeast culture. As a result, the store has developed a coffee that fuses frozen pears and sugar gourds, which is also a sentimental card. "When I was a child, there were very few fresh fruits in the Northeast in winter, and every household would have frozen pears and frozen persimmons, which were the childhood memories of Harbin people. ”
Frozen pear coffee is served in front of the guests, and some foreign tourists will ask about the ** of frozen pears, and the clerk will popularize the Northeast food culture by the way.
The frozen pear coffee in the store is more popular with customers in the hot summer in the past, and in the face of the sudden popularity of frozen pears this winter, Cao Tingxiang is not panicked, "We have always had sufficient supply." "Although the color of frozen pears is black and does not slip into autumn, not all varieties of pears can be made into frozen pears. The coffee shop found a ** merchant, and there are stable quality frozen pears available all year round.
Cao Tingxiang lamented that it has not been easy for coffee shops to operate in recent years, and after experiencing store expansion and epidemics, Luyu Cafe, like many small shops, has survived in difficulties. After the adjustment of the epidemic prevention and control policy in 2023, the store is on the track of recovery, and the small store also carefully did a lot of design and creation of Internet celebrity scenes last winter to attract young people. At the beginning of this year, "Erbin" became popular, and frozen pears were out of the circle, not only foreign tourists, but also more locals began to notice this small shop. This small shop in a small western-style building on Hongzhuan Street, morning coffee and evening wine, push the door into the rich retro European decoration style and ** street style is very echoing.
During this time, the coffee shop is frequented by many customers every day. The clerk in the store is busy. Photo by China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Ning Di.
Frozen pear coffee became popular, but the store did not do large-scale publicity, and the store did not even have a poster about frozen pear coffee. As the store manager, Cao Tingxiang does not want to overconsume frozen pears. "The more tourists from other places, the more rigorous we must be, we must control the quality of raw materials, and we can't blindly do marketing and forget to do a good job in the product itself. Cao Tingxiang told reporters.
The clerks are making the drinks ordered by customers step by step, and the most conspicuous position on the bar in the store is placed several cultural and creative products such as Internet celebrity snowman dolls and creative refrigerator magnets.
We hope to turn the coffee shop into a cultural export space, so that more tourists can learn more about Northeast culture and Harbin when buying and tasting coffee and desserts. Cao Tingxiang introduced that the western-style building where the coffee shop is located has been nearly 100 years, and its architectural heritage is also quite profound, and the coffee shop also tries to integrate the history and culture of Hongzhuan Street into its own products, research and innovation.
Erbin: "Cultural creativity not only has good looks, but also black technology.
Walking out of Deer Fish Café, in a small shop in the shape of a train on ** Street, tourists come in and out.
This is a new small shop that emerged this winter, called the Magic Cultural and Creative Center, which was opened and operated by Longguang (Heilongjiang) Cultural Tourism Science and Technology Innovation Industry Development *** hereinafter referred to as "Longyue Cultural and Creative Industry"), mainly selling exquisite cultural and creative goods related to Harbin.
As soon as they enter, many tourists go straight to the refrigerator magnet sales area, wanting to buy the AR (augmented reality) refrigerator magnet that has exploded this year. This group of refrigerator magnets has four items, which are designed with Siberian Tiger, ** Street, Sophia Church, Ice and Snow World, etc., to show the beauty of Harbin's four seasons.
What makes it out of the circle is not only its appearance, but also technology and hard work. Log in to the designated WeChat applet, scan this refrigerator magnet with your mobile phone, and there will be a group of animated real-life images on the screen, showing the different seasonal customs of "Erbin".
As soon as the AR refrigerator magnet went on sale, the online and offline were quickly sold out, especially the Ice and Snow World model, which was out of stock several times. This made the post-90s girls Wang Jiale and Guo Jinni overjoyed.
As refrigerator magnet designers, they returned to Harbin from Beijing at the end of last year to track and understand the market's reaction as soon as possible.
The listing of refrigerator magnets gave a new topic to "Erbin", which had been on the hot search at that time, and some netizens gave praise: "Such a cool refrigerator magnet is too long for us" Erbin "face!" "There are even scalpers on the Internet who have fried this refrigerator magnet in the ice and snow world for nearly 100 yuan.
In the small shop of the Magic Cultural and Creative Center, the clerk is busy checking out the payment for customers who buy refrigerator magnets. Photo by China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Ning Di.
However, all "out of the circle" is not accidental. Fridge magnets are on fire in the winter, but a lot of the stories happened much earlier.
As early as last summer, Wang Jiale and Guo Jinni began to conceive cultural and creative products for Harbin, "I brought my little friend (Guo Jinni) to Harbin to play, she said that Harbin is very beautiful, and I hope not only to buy a souvenir to take home, but to keep a good memory." Wang Jiale told reporters.
The two met when they were working in Beijing, formed a "puppy creation" team, began to do cultural and creative design, and successively cooperated with local museums, accumulating some experience. They began to conceive and design refrigerator magnets and contact manufacturers to produce them. In August last year, after the launch of their spring refrigerator magnets with Siberian tigers and lilacs, they attracted praise and began to cooperate with Harbin Siberian Tiger Garden to sell them in scenic spots.
Later, the duo began to design summer, autumn and winter models. One day, they saw a ** on the Internet, and they could see the AR animation effect by pointing their mobile phones at the postcard and scanning the code, which instantly triggered their inspiration. They approached the technical team and realized the AR idea on the refrigerator magnet.
After the launch of the Siberian Tiger refrigerator magnet, Longguang Cultural and Creative also noticed this young team on the Internet and started follow-up cooperation, and this cultural and creative product also landed in Harbin's business districts and scenic spots.
In addition to the AR model, several other refrigerator magnets and cultural and creative products sold in the small store of the Magic Cultural and Creative Center are also very popular. Wang Jing, general manager of Longyue Cultural and Creative Network, told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network that there are many young people's creativity behind these designs. Wang Jing found that many niche design teams and professionals in different industries can also bring different design ideas to cultural and creative products, and the company found these creative design teams on the Internet, and then carried out cooperation to promote more high-quality cultural and creative products.
Young people are concerned about the development of their hometowns.
In addition to the puppy creation, the magical-style Harbin refrigerator magnet designed by the 61 persimmon team is also popular among young people. The team members are a young couple born after 95 - Liu Yu, a young man from Harbin, and Tang Duo, a girl from Changsha.
After working hard for several years in advertising companies in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, the two decided to settle in Changsha in 2021 to start a business. Later, in the process of designing Yuelu Mountain's cultural and creative products, they deeply felt that cultural and creative products can empower the development of a city's cultural and creative industries.
Liu Yu has been away from Harbin for many years, homesick, and also came up with the idea of making cultural and creative products for his hometown.
At that time, the two had no way to go back to Harbin to find inspiration because of the epidemic, but the memory of traveling to Harbin many years ago was enough to impress Tang Duo, "The first time I went to Harbin was in winter, when the snowflakes were fluttering, and I thought Harbin was so beautiful. At that moment, Harbin not only has the historical accumulation of the old industrial base in Northeast China, but also a rather romantic city in her heart, "Harbin is a city with a lot of cultural heritage." ”
In the small shop of the Magic Cultural and Creative Center, a customer is looking at the magic style Harbin refrigerator magnet designed by the 61 Persimmon team. Photo by China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Ning Di.
Later, the two turned the picture of standing in front of the windowsill playing the saxophone and playing the cello into refrigerator magnet elements, and used cultural and creative products to freeze their memories and thoughts of Harbin.
They also read a lot of materials and books to do their homework, and after learning that Harbin is a city pulled by trains, they combined the current train station shape with a steam train. And the magical style that young people love is also derived from the European architectural style of Harbin - it is often compared by netizens to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter.
In October last year, after the magic refrigerator magnet sample was launched, Tang Duo was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback from netizens, and within a few days, she found out that she was pregnant, "I have received two good news in a month." ”
These young people hope that Harbin's cultural and creative products are not only beautiful, but also more in line with the aesthetics of young people, and can also allow more people to understand the treasure city of Harbin through small cultural and creative products.
Along the way, many young netizens have also contributed a lot of wisdom and suggestions to the improvement of the product, "such as the adjustment of colors, as well as the correct writing of Harbin Pinyin letters, many netizens have left us messages." Tang Duo told reporters that after the trial launch of the product, he paid attention to the feedback of users. After the fridge magnet became popular, imitations began to appear on the market. Recently, everyone is also doing intellectual property protection, and many netizens will leave messages on the team account on the Internet, telling them that there are imitations.
Puppy Creation and Liuyi Persimmon have also received a lot of invitations to seek cooperation, including local from Harbin, Beijing, Henan and other places, which allows them to see the influence and market potential of carefully tapping local culture. "When the local culture is more excavated, the cultural and creative products made have more soul, and the vitality of the city can also be awakened. Liu Yu knows that this is just the beginning, and the Northeast culture will be known and loved by more people.
Wang Jiale and Guo Jinni are already preparing for the next step to open a studio in Harbin, switching between Beijing and Harbin; The small company started by Liu Yu and Tang Duo was registered and established in 2020, and the current office of the two is at home. "After the fridge magnet was on fire, the pressure was really high. Wang Jiale told reporters that now the team not only has to do design, but also production, logistics, marketing and other aspects must be paid attention to, which requires more professional people to join in the follow-up, and everyone will do a good job in cultural creativity.
The affection for his hometown and his love for Harbin brought a group of young people together. This moved Wang Jing, who was born in the 80s.
Longguang Cultural and Creative is invested and established by several member companies of Shenzhen Heilongjiang Chamber of Commerce, with more than 20 core members, and is currently working in Shenzhen and Heilongjiang. As the secretary-general of the Shenzhen Heilongjiang Chamber of Commerce, Wang Jing introduced that there are more than 500 enterprises with members of the chamber of commerce, and the entrepreneurs are all from Heilongjiang who started their own businesses in Shenzhen. Among these enterprises are listed companies and industry leaders. There are six professional committees and four industry branches in the Chamber of Commerce, among which the Cultural Tourism Science and Technology Innovation Branch is responsible for integrating the enterprises and resources related to cultural tourism in the Chamber of Commerce and absorbing external technical and financial resources. "Everyone does this out of a feeling for their hometown. ”
In the winter of 2023, as soon as Longguang Cultural and Creative was registered, it has successively launched hundreds of cultural and creative products with the theme of Heilongjiang culture and Harbin culture, including paper carved lanterns, silk scarves, incense stones, bookmarks, refrigerator magnets, etc., "In fact, we started preparations as early as half a year ago. Wang Jing told reporters.
At the end of December 2023, the two stores of the Magic Cultural and Creative Center will be open near ** Street and Sophia Church respectively, and after three days on the market, the first phase of the 10,000 AR refrigerator magnets produced was sold out, and soon 60,000 were pre-sold online. Not only AR refrigerator magnets, but also several refrigerator magnets are also hard to find, because the Spring Festival factory holiday is approaching, and the online speed of refrigerator magnets has to slow down. During the Spring Festival, the company stepped up stocking to meet everyone's needs.
Although many young people have moved to other places, they are still concerned about the future of their hometowns. Wang Jing is a native of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, and has been working hard outside for many years. She deeply felt that the emergence of "Erbin" this year not only gave her personally, but also inspired the development of cultural creativity in Heilongjiang as a whole. "In the past, some people had an inherent impression of cultural and creative products, thinking that doing cultural and creative products was not profitable. But in fact, only when it really enters the hearts of consumers can it open up the market. Wang Jing learned that Heilongjiang has laid out four emerging industries in recent years - digital economy, bioeconomy, ice and snow economy and creative design, in her opinion, an AR refrigerator magnet is a microcosm of the integration of digital economy, ice and snow economy and creative design, digital technology empowers cultural and creative products, bringing more added value.
With the popularity of "Erbin", some entrepreneurs in Shenzhen plan to come to Harbin to inspect investment, Wang Jing said, "I believe that next year in Heilongjiang there will be more and more cultural and creative products with better quality and better creativity." ”
Reporter's note] Write glory for your hometown.
My hometown and I cannot be separated for a moment. No matter where I go, I will be concerned about its future.
In the interview with the youth in my hometown, I had red eyes several times, and they used cultural creativity to empower "Erbin", so that I could see that whether they stayed or went out, the children of the Northeast will not forget their Northeast genes.
Young people's longing and concern for their hometown are being transformed by the way they play in this era. In them, I see a kind of hope, that is, no matter how much ability I have and where I am, I want to work hard to use what I have learned to "dig and dig" for the future of the black soil.
They are well aware that although the development of the Northeast is still unsatisfactory, it is not flawed. In the eyes of the older generation, Harbin can definitely be called a "treasure city", no matter from the first, second or third industry, the glory of "Erbin" and today's popularity, have proved a point, "it is worth it!" ”
Erbin "deserves to be seen, the Northeast deserves attention, and the young people in the Northeast are even more promising." Times are changing, and new forces are on the scene. Just like our grandparents, this generation of young people is also writing glory for the Northeast.
*: China Youth Daily client.