Nowadays, “consumption upgrade” has mushroomed, and the concept of IP has blossomed everywhere. The concept of IP (Intellectual Property) is relatively new in China, but it has been popular in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea for many years, forming a unique development model in the field of digital culture. In November, 2020, the Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Digital Culture Industry issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism introduced the concept of IP, and proposed “cultivating and shaping a number of original IPs with distinctive China cultural characteristics, strengthening IP development and transformation, and making full use of animation games, online literature, online music, online performances, online videos, digital art, creative design and other industrial forms to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture”.
Under the guidance of such a policy, in recent years, on the road of IP-based development and practice of traditional culture, a number of typical examples have emerged: stunning netizens of traditional cultural programs such as Banquet in Tang Palace and National Treasures, and IP creation in the Forbidden City, Dunhuang and other countries make life more literary and artistic … Experts generally believe that IP is the essence of culture after it has accumulated to a certain level, with a complete world outlook and values, and its own vitality. First, while the literary circle, the art circle, the game circle and the film and television circle covet the “big IP”, they also focus their attention on the excellent Chinese traditional cultural resources with a deep “family background”. If they slow down, they will lose not only the theme of IP, but the huge potential consumer market and strong purchasing power of fans behind the traditional cultural IP. Similarly, making full use of digital means such as online literature, animation, TV dramas, games and e-sports to promote traditional cultural resources to form a more popular cultural symbol, namely IP, in the existing cultural industry chain will also contribute to the inheritance and innovation of traditional culture.
Many people say that nowadays, the “spring” of Chinese excellent traditional culture IP has arrived. So, how can we better revitalize the traditional cultural IP in the new era? Which kind of traditional culture has the potential of IP, and has a large utilization space? How can film and television, games, cultural and creative design and stage art “expand the territory” for the IP journey of traditional culture? How can excellent Chinese traditional culture achieve a win-win situation between commercial value and social value in a quiet way?
Daolu movie and television
Rooting in traditional culture and innovating expression techniques
In recent years, variety works with traditional culture have become a beautiful landscape on TV screens. These variety shows rooted in traditional culture and innovative expression techniques, by absorbing the nutrients of traditional culture, can enhance their connotation and depth, and also enable Chinese excellent traditional culture to be passed down and carried forward in the process of program dissemination.
On the Spring Festival Evening in Henan this year, “Tang Palace Banquet” was born, not only breaking the circle, but also “exploding the circle”. The girls from the Tang Palace who “walked out” from the Henan Museum not only brought the clothes of the Tang Dynasty, but also brought the national treasures such as “Women Love the Owl”, “Jia Hu Bone Flute” and “Lotus Crane Square Pot” to the Spring Festival Evening stage with the help of VR technology. 2 billion broadcasts, tens of millions of barrage, and five hot searches-14 dancers dressed in Tang tri-colored dresses, their fleshy faces painted with “oblique red” makeup, sometimes serious and solemn, sometimes laughing and slapping, just like the beauty of Tang Palace who was resurrected from the museum.
The highly recognizable IP image makes Tang Palace Night Banquet the new favorite of the creative world, so Henan Museum has started a series of IP derivatives and co-branding of Tang Palace Night Banquet. After “Tang Palace Night Banquet” became popular, the number of tourists in Henan Museum doubled and became a popular tourist destination for Spring Festival travel. Urged by netizens, Henan Museum responded quickly and launched the blind box of “Ladies Band”, which became a best-selling explosion. Since then, Henan Satellite TV’s “Wonderful Night of Lantern Festival” and “Wonderful Tour of Qingming Festival” have been series programs in the form of “animation IP”, which has been integrated into the elements of Henan cultural tourism, bringing the audience a refreshing look and feel and a lasting aftertaste. “Dragon Boat Festival Wonderful Tour” innovatively adopts the form of “online drama+online comprehensive”. From the perspective of four “Tang Xiaomei”, it extends the staggered story line and tells the prequel story of “Tang Palace Night Banquet”. All the historical and cultural contents familiar to China people, such as “Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival”, “The Song of Warrior Lanling Breaking the Battles”, “Luoshen Fu”, “Treatise on Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases” and Qu Yuan’s Sacrifice, have been integrated. They have history, culture, stories, interest and originality, and have won unanimous praise from the market. “Taking China traditional festivals as the starting point to create the IP of China Festival has become the original intention of Henan Satellite TV to create this series of programs.” Chen Jia, the director of the program, revealed that instead of merely pursuing the copying and presentation of historical materials, the program should carry out interesting deconstruction and artistic processing to make it conform to the aesthetics of current young people.
Similarly, the cultural exploration variety show “National Treasures” changes the boring and serious style of previous cultural programs by collecting the cultural relics resources of top museums in China, and uses sitcoms to interpret the stories behind the cultural relics, so that the cold cultural relics “come to life”. This approachable program form makes the audience feel the wisdom of ancient craftsmen in China and the spiritual connotation of the continuation of civilization and Chinese culture carried by cultural relics in a relaxed and pleasant viewing atmosphere. “If National Treasures Can Talk” tells the creativity of the ancient people in China through 100 national treasures, and shows the story behind each national treasure and its rich culture to the audience in a simple way in a five-minute episode. However, this light-weight, short and concise form of communication adapts to the fragmented acceptance of the audience in the new media era, making the program easier to spread. Nowadays, these two programs have become “big IP” and become an important carrier for spreading Chinese excellent traditional culture.
“The power of film and television to promote traditional IP is still very strong. In a sense, its influence and audience breadth can also transcend words, language and barriers between different nationalities. This is a natural advantage of film and television works. ” Pan Kaixiong, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Committee and literary critic, pointed out that through film and television works, the cultural relics collected in museums, the handcraft skills spread across the vast land and the spiritual connotation of Chinese excellent traditional culture carried by them are constantly becoming active.
In terms of movies, in recent years, such phenomenal, well-received and well-received animated film IPs as Journey to the West, Big Fish Begonia and Ne Zha have appeared in China, and the box office records of 956 million yuan, 565 million yuan and over 5 billion yuan respectively have made the public have a new understanding and higher expectation for domestic animated film IP. All of these works are based on the traditional cultural stories of China, and the design of artistic pictures incorporates the poetic classical beauty of China. The expression of content and theme conforms to the unique values and cultural interests of China people, so they can resonate deeply with the audience in China.
No matter it is a great success in animation, film and television, or a big hit on TV programs, China’s traditional culture IP is undoubtedly the rising star of Ran Ran in the current domestic IP industry, which has an important enlightening effect on the future development of domestic IP industry.
Path drama
“Synaesthesia” Expression of Static Cultural Relics Towards Dynamic Art
Art categories are closely related to each other, and a famous painting that has been passed down for thousands of years can also be interpreted as a delicate and lovely dance on the stage. Just this year, two precious national treasures were put on the stage in the form of dance drama. One is one of China’s top ten famous paintings collected in the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the long-volume silk-colored painting “A Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers” created by Wang Ximeng in the Northern Song Dynasty. The other is the armguard of Sichuan brocade in Han Dynasty, which is known as “one of the greatest discoveries of China archaeology in the 20th century”.
“Only by integrating the excellent Chinese traditional culture with the life of the current people can lasting charm and vitality bloom.” Based on this consensus, China Oriental Performing Arts Group has joined forces with the Palace Museum to make the cultural relics collected in the museum, the heritage displayed on the vast land and the characters written in ancient books really move and “live” in the form of stage art.
Wang Ximeng’s painting “A Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers” has a lasting charm thanks to the developed social economy, literature and art in the Northern Song Dynasty. How to interpret a famous ancient painting into a stage work of art is the biggest problem faced by creators. In the end, in emphasizing the plot and conflict of the drama and highlighting the inner feelings of the characters beyond the past and the present, the creator chose the latter. The dance poetic drama “Only This Green” cuts into and traces back to the excellent Chinese traditional culture from the perspective of modern people. The audience followed a modern researcher of the Forbidden City-the exhibitor, and followed the chapter outline of “unfolding, asking for seal characters, singing silk, searching for stones, learning pens, quenching ink and painting”.
In order to accurately reproduce the aesthetics of the Song Dynasty, the creators read a lot of literature, listened to experts’ opinions, and constantly verified them in ancient books and paintings. Under meticulous care, “Only This Green” became an explosion when it was invoiced. The first round of performances ended in August, and the reputation was overwhelming. Some netizens commented: “Thousands of miles of mountains and rivers are’ alive’!” “At last, at the moment when the exhibitor and Ximeng salute each other across the picture scroll in a crowded exhibition, you can deeply realize what is called the inheritance of culture, and tears will fall down.”
In September this year, at the opening ceremony of the 6th “Colorful World-Exhibition Activities of National Characteristics along the the belt and road initiative” in Shougang Exhibition Area of the 2021 Trade Fair, the wonderful segment of Beijing Performing Arts Group’s large-scale dance drama “Five Stars Out of the East”-The Phantom of the Silk Road’s Lantern Dance was performed outside the theater for the first time. The 5-minute performance made the envoys and representatives of Chinese institutions of 27 countries and regions along the “the belt and road initiative” full of praise. The idea and theme of the play originated from the armband of Han brocade, a national first-class cultural relic “Five Stars Coming out of the East to Benefit China” unearthed at the site of Niya, Hetian, Xinjiang, on the ancient Silk Road. Based on this invaluable creative resource, the play tells a legend of western civilization and world harmony through artistic creation, which makes the beautiful implication of astrology and the profound cultural connotation carried by precious cultural relics vividly displayed on the stage.
It is reported that in order not only to reproduce the original appearance of the archaeological site of cultural relics on the stage, but also to truly present the prosperity and wealth of thousands of years ago, the costumes in the play incorporate the elements and colors of unearthed cultural relics in terms of colors, styles, patterns and other designs; On the basis of studying historical materials, the dance design also restores the real historical scenes on the stage through artistic treatment. The lighting design also focuses on the color of the arm guard, which runs through the plot.
To “live” cultural relics, artistic creation should go deep into life and take root in the people. In fact, the needs of the two meet and meet each other, and the vast world is just around the corner.
Lu Dao San Wen Chuang
Lock in young groups and optimize commercial brands.
With the rise of “post-90s” and “post-00s” as the main consumers of the new generation, cultural and creative products of major museums with cultural attributes and innovations are increasingly favored by young consumers. Cultural and creative museums have gradually become popular in the market, becoming a new trend and a new choice for young consumers.
As the leading “big IP” in China museum industry, the Forbidden City’s cultural and creative market and potential should not be underestimated. In the process of the traditional culture of the Forbidden City from simple commodities to creative products, it has built its own cultural and creative business map and an industrial chain that adheres to IP value and is open and interactive. Since then, innovative and iterative cultural and creative derivatives have been continuously developed, making the 600-year-old Forbidden City younger in an unprecedented manner. In 2008, the Forbidden City Cultural and Creative Center, which focused on the cultural creation of the Forbidden City, was established, and Taobao, the Forbidden City, was officially launched. However, the cultural creation of the Forbidden City at that time was very “quite satisfactory”. In 2014, after an article titled “Yongzheng: I feel so cute” was published, this “nonsense” image caused great repercussions. After that, the operators of the Forbidden City also seized this stalk and “played tricks” on the characters of the emperor and queen, turning the noble and serious royal family into quaint and lively. Netizens began to learn about the different Forbidden City, attracting a large number of fans, and In 2016, the Forbidden City IP launched “Visiting You Through the Forbidden City” H5, a popular circle of friends, which received 3.47 million hits. In the same year, the cultural relics documentary “I’m Repairing Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City” was broadcast on the whole network. After the broadcast, it was very hot, and the total broadcast volume exceeded 90 million.
At the same time, the Forbidden City IP also integrates traditional cultural elements into public life, and high-frequency communication drives low-frequency consumption and experience. An important IP path to create a sense of difference in the Forbidden City is to develop cultural and creative products. For example, headphones are made into Chaozhu headphones, fans are left with IP copy of “I am such a man”, umbrellas are made into sun protection umbrellas with flowered official hats, and even mobile phone coats, palace fans, and bus and subway card packs. According to industry experts’ analysis, the success of the Forbidden City IP lies in the fact that the style and image of its own IP are younger and the whole income system is optimized when the spending power of the original consumers is difficult to further improve. Therefore, the business model of the Forbidden City has been completely changed, and more young people love it.
The IP development of Dunhuang culture is also of reference significance. At the beginning of 2016, Dunhuang Museum began to build the IP project of cultural creation, taking the integration of Chinese and western culture, tradition and modern culture as the core idea, so that more young people can understand and like Dunhuang culture. In 2017, Dunhuang Research Institute reached a strategic cooperation with its partners, launched a program called “Digital Sponsor of Dunhuang”, and worked together to create five episodes of animated dramas. After that, the game skin was developed in cooperation with the popular mobile game the glory of the king, which won great praise among young people. In 2019, Dunhuang Museum and JUSTICE Skateboard jointly created Jilotte Skateboard. This skateboard quickly went out of the circle and boarded the hot search in Weibo. For a time, the goods were in short supply, which fired the first shot of Wenchuang products for Dunhuang Museum. In 2020, the Dunhuang Museum cooperated with the popular variety “This is Street Dance 3” across the border, and jointly created the content with the documentary “New Domestic Products” produced by Tencent. The reading volume of the program broke 200 million, and the topic flow broke 600 million. In addition, the special activity of “Digging Dunhuang” was jointly launched with Tmall, and Dunhuang IP was promoted by live broadcast, which made Dunhuang culture more popular.
“The popularity of Dunhuang reveals the power of national brands behind it.” Industry experts believe that Dunhuang IP has outstanding advantages in terms of cultural foundation, extension and aesthetic feeling. At the same time, Dunhuang IP is becoming younger, and it has shaped itself into a brand, a treasure house that allows users to find a sense of belonging, affinity with the people and trust.
The innate advantages in IP development of museums are obvious. Under the new cultural atmosphere of “All things are IP”, more Forbidden City and Dunhuang are needed. Only in this way can museum IP quickly emerge and reshape cultural vitality.
Four-path game
Oppose fast-paced and utilitarian with slow aesthetics and fragmentation.
According to the 2020 China Game Industry Report, the actual marketing revenue of self-developed games in China reached 240.192 billion yuan in the domestic market, an increase of 50.678 billion yuan or 26.74% over the previous year, accounting for more than 80% of the total domestic marketing. As a vivid carrier of traditional culture, national wind games constantly show superior adaptability. In the era of “Digital Plus”, game companies actively explore the way to inherit and activate traditional culture, and with a high degree of inclusiveness and extensibility, the national wind games are constantly updated and upgraded.
“A Hundred Scenery in the South of the Yangtze River” combines the classical aesthetic style with “slow life” to create a unique game rhythm and gameplay: with Jiangnan in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty as the background, players build their own waterside paradise in the game, and enjoy their leisure time of farming, rain and reading; It incorporates the works of wu school represented by Shen Zhou, Tang Yin and others, and the scenes are taken from ancient paintings such as Riverside Picture at Qingming Festival, Illustrated Picture of a Lonely Paradise, Portrait of a Salesman and Fanhui Picture in Southern Capital. One of the main tasks of the game even restored the construction process of Hoonji Liuli Tower and Suzhou Liuyuan Garden. Players “rebuilt” the ancient elite buildings with their hands, filling their hearts with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, and inspiring their admiration and love for Chinese excellent traditional culture. The game leads the players to return to the slow life of the ancients, enjoy the pleasure of spiritual life in the quiet joy of moistening things, and fight against the fast-paced and utilitarian life with the slow aesthetic and fragmented game mode.
In November 2019, the new cultural creation project of the glory of the king Yue Opera was unveiled. Different from previous cross-border cultural cooperation, this “the glory of the king” not only created a cultural skin of Yue Opera with Zhejiang Xiaobaihua Yue Theatre, but also found the contemporary trend deduction of the traditional art form of Yue Opera-shaping the virtual actor Shangguan Waner of Yue Opera. Under the guidance of “Master” Mao Weitao, Shangguan Waner appeared on the stage as the first virtual actor of Yue Opera, and innovatively performed the classic selection of Butterfly Lovers “Hui Eighteen” through holographic technology, showing her charm as a female student of Yue Opera. In addition, “the glory of the king” has created a culture of long-term interaction between Wan’er Digital Interactive Exhibition and users, and popular science Yue Opera.
In the opera industry, from 2016, when Cantonese opera joined hands with Jianwang 3 to launch “Decisive Battle of Tiance Mansion”, to 2019, when the cross-border Cantonese opera “the glory of the king” broke its dimension and “accepted its disciples”, it caused wide resonance.
Similarly, the perfect world’s mobile game masterpiece “Fantasy New Zhu Xian” also launched the “Heavenly Work Dream Project” in May last year, inviting many representative inheritors of non-legacy projects to polish the high quality of the game together. Henry Hui Wang, the representative inheritor of Shu embroidery, a national intangible heritage project, designs exclusive clothing and accessories for the characters in the game. Bi Liufu, the representative inheritor of oil-paper umbrella making skills, a national non-legacy project, drew exclusive oil-paper umbrellas for Baguio and Lu Xueqi, the two protagonists in the game. These two umbrellas also became the key props of the protagonists.
“The national style itself is charm.” As Bao Weiwei, the developer of “A Hundred Scenery in the South of the Yangtze River” and the CEO of Coconut Island Games, said, games, like literature, art, drama and movies, have the ability to carry cultural connotations.
direction
Exploring the Evolution of Chinese IP in Traditional Culture
From the perspective of traditional culture itself, its rich connotation is often precipitated after hundreds or even thousands of years. If we can’t produce content with awe, and only take the flow and attention as the measurement standard, it will inevitably lead to problems such as low quality of products. Drainage and publicity are of course important, but relying on them alone can’t keep the real audience. The long-term development of IP industry depends on the content that can withstand time washing and excellent enough production. Only by creating high-quality content products can we win the audience’s reputation and achieve long-term development.
At the same time, the problem of infringement of property rights has attracted more and more attention, and related cases are not uncommon. Besides copyright disputes, there are often peripheral products that use other people’s IP images without approval in the market. Many costume dramas, such as Tomb-raiding Notes, legend of miyue, Splendid Beauty, etc., have been involved in infringement disputes, and the domestic animation “Bear Haunted” has also brought the merchants to court because the animated images were made into dolls for sale without permission. Similar property rights disputes are numerous.
Experts said that traditional cultural IP wants to develop steadily, on the one hand, it should start with its own awareness of property rights, strictly regulate the copyright purchase process, and standardize, open and program the content production process; On the other hand, we should pay attention to our own copyright. Once we find the infringement problem, we should actively respond to it and use legal weapons to protect property rights. Relevant departments should also severely crack down on infringement, establish industry standards and extensive awareness of property rights, and avoid short-sighted behaviors that undermine the sustainable development of IP.
In addition, it is necessary to create a “superhero” that highlights the value of IP. Fan Wen, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of Yunnan Writers Association, pointed out: “Among all kinds of cultural IPs, hero IP can best cross the gap between countries, nations and cultures and is recognized by consumers all over the world.”
At present, the development of overseas superhero IP is in full swing. For example, Marvel Comics and DC cartoon companies have created many familiar superhero images, such as Superman, Batman, wonder woman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc. Japanese animation also has many superhero images that can be compared with them, such as Altman and Kamen Rider. These characters have both surreal abilities and heroic personality charm, so they are deeply rooted in people’s hearts. With the overseas dissemination of animation, movies and other literary works, these superhero IP not only become an important part of the cultural industry economy of relevant countries, but also become an important carrier of their dissemination of values.
Pan Kaixiong, for example, the early Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, relying on the rich resources contained in China’s traditional culture, excavated many heroic images of China, such as Monkey King, Nezha, etc., and also created such images as Hulu Brothers and Black Cat Sheriff. In addition, in recent years, by absorbing the essence of traditional culture and digging deep into the resonance point of China’s story, excellent Guo Man created on this basis has been constantly emerging, whether it is Nezha, Under One Man, Fox Demon’s Little Matchmaker, White Snake’s Origin, etc. These Guo Man with China’s story as the core actually have the foundation for developing China’s superhero IP.
“‘Chinese-style IP’ should have its own unique ideas and methods, otherwise it will only be in a backward position after foreign models and experiences.” Fan Xiaoqing, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and honorary chairman of Jiangsu Writers Association, believes that it is necessary to better sum up experience, take the creation of new texts as a new thinking for the development of cultural industry, promote the digital cultural industry to expand to more economic fields and cultural resources, and further increase the industrial growth rate. Fan Xiaoqing suggested that the copyright protection mechanism should be further improved, and at the same time, through policy support and guidance, more enterprises and institutions with technical capabilities and qualifications should participate in the IP mining and cultivation of traditional cultural resources.
(Xue Shuai, reporter of China Culture News)