Guangming Daily article | Xiong Yu. Recently, Chen Jinao, the popular "Huluwa Grandpa" in Shaoxing, along with his wife, cut off seven gourds from their balcony and took them back to their house due to a surge in tourists and concerns about their safety. As a result, seven "new version of Huluwa Grandpa" were hung in the neighboring coffee shop.
The evaluation of this move varies among different parties. Some criticize it for "imitating others in the east"; Some tourists also said, 'After hanging gourds in the coffee shop, there are many people checking in, but there are not many people left on Grandpa Huluwa's side anymore.' This is actually quite good.
This is undoubtedly 'riding on the heat', but it also deeply interprets what 'that honey is, my arsenic is'. For the elderly, traffic is a burden and has little value; But for the shop owners, this is a rare business opportunity, and the burden of traffic that the elderly cannot bear is likely to be a "curse of wealth and prosperity" for themselves.
No matter what attitude people hold towards riding on popularity, it must be acknowledged that whether popularity can be "monetized" is the key to sustainability. Previously, there were also media reports that many places had seen internet famous attractions such as the "loneliest tree", but due to the unbearable disturbance of local people, they had to cut it down in the end. On the contrary, small vendors such as "Chicken Chop Brother" and "Braised Goose Brother" who accidentally became popular have actually enjoyed considerable traffic dividends and are still active today.
Grandpa Chen's message at his doorstep
The difference between these is very easy to understand, that is, the traffic is caught by a ready-made, for-profit carrier. Chicken Chop Brother and Braised Goose Brother are themselves operators who set up stalls for business. Every time tourists stop and take photos, they can seamlessly convert into an order for freshly fried chicken chops or braised geese, with no conversion cost between traffic and business.
However, even if the "loneliest tree" and "Grandpa Huluwa" attract many tourists, they are ultimately just private or public landscapes. They do not sell tickets or souvenirs, and the more spectators there are, the more noise and disturbance their owners bear, even the result of trampling on farmland. They cannot receive any dividends themselves, nor can they maintain their own order of life, and in the end, they can only refuse to watch.
This may also be a paradox: people like the purity of 'Grandpa Huluwa' without any commercial impurities; But in order for traffic to last, sometimes it must also be driven by some commercial value. And this drive itself is exactly what the onlookers initially wanted to escape from, so the "traffic" always jumps back and forth in both positive and negative directions, with people flocking to it at times and then sneering at it at others.
This paradox is actually a bit unsolvable, but it's better to let each of them find their own place. As the staff of the scenic area responded, the store is privately operated and the scenic area will not interfere with its behavior of hanging gourds. This may be a more pragmatic attitude that respects both: those who need quietness can refuse tourists themselves, and those who crave traffic can also catch them themselves without forcing a consistent answer.
For the general public, this may also be a revelation: people are too eager for something pure, but the real world is filled with contradictory philosophy. Purity and monetization, quietness and traffic, are not necessarily either or right or wrong questions, but rather multiple-choice questions that each person, each store, and each scenery must weigh themselves.
Grandpa Huluwa cut the gourd, it was his choice; Hanging gourds in coffee shops is the shop owner's choice. Instead of judging right and wrong for them, it's better to accept that this world is inherently diverse, respect by "cutting the gourd", understand by "hanging the gourd", and allow different people to pursue different directions with different purposes. Putting aside some kind of obsession may also be a more comfortable way to get along with the Internet era. After all, the Internet has always been a world where beauty and commercial use coexist, and the two ultimately complement each other.
Image: Yueniu News, Online
Recitation: Wang Qian
Editor in Chief: Sun Xiaoting
Editor: Sun Dai and Chang Ying