They can deny Guo Jingming, but they can’t deny the self who wants to dream.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Hedgehog Commune” (ID: ciweigongshe), span style = “letter-spacing: 0px;”> OF: Jia Xuan, editor: Yang Jing .
“You can never like what you don’t like, but please allow it to exist” has almost become Guo Jingming’s representative golden phrase.
In the first and second seasons of “The Actor, Please Be Here”, Guo Jingming argued with the actor Li Chengru many times and used this sentence to defend his position. And these back and forth clashes in multiple Weibo is boosted by popular searches, making the program more effective. So much so that some media comment: Guo Jingming is the real “Wealth password“.
Picture source丨Tencent video “The actors please take their place 2”
Since the 2016 movie “Lord’s Trail” fell into the cold, the market has stopped chasing the box office halo of Guo Jingming’s “Little Times” series, and Guo Jingming has rarely appeared in front of the public. In the past two years, he has relied on the variety show “Boom” and served as a mentor in multiple programs, with outputting opinions and creating controversy as the main goal of “Qiafan”, and once again entered the public eye.
However, the other side of “variety cafe” Guo Jingming is the network-wide forwarding caused by Gu Li’s birthday on August 18; it is the literary enlightenment of countless people in middle and high school; it is the group of boys and girls ten years ago, gradually Dare to face up to the youth that was once difficult to express. This profoundly confirms a fact that people cannot ignore: regardless of praise or criticism, Guo Jingming and the brand he created have become an indelible mark of the era.
Half of the country
In 2012, Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature. As soon as the news came out, Mo Yan’s works were quickly robbed of books in the bookstore, and there was a nationwide “Mo Yan fever”.
But even if Mo Yan had the bonus of “Nobel Prize Halo”, he still failed to change the pattern of the Chinese literature sales market. According to the “Literature Blue Book”, “Chinese Literature Report (2012-2013)” and the 2012 novel book rankings, the top 1 sales volume that year was Guo Jingming’s “Little Era 3.0 Thorn Golden Age”. At the same time, among the top 20 bestsellers, Guo Jingming has three works, and two of them belong to Di’an, a contracted author under Guo Jingming.
Bai Ye, chairman of the Chinese Contemporary Literature Research Association and a well-known literary critic, once commented: “Not only books, but the circulation of all traditional literary publications in China now can only match the five magazines under Guo Jingming. Circulation.”
Guo Jingming’s magazines have the highest sales volume, undoubtedly “The Least Talk”, which he is the editor in chief. “The Least Talk” first came out in November 2006. In 2007, he won the Forbes China Celebrity Awards Ceremony·Culture and Sports Best Commercial Organization Award. In the 2008-2009 voting for the top ten Chinese publishing institutions and literary publications, “The Least Talk” topped the list, with a far higher vote rate than the old magazines such as “Reader”, occupying more than 40% of the share.
The cover of the first issue of “Minimalism”
The netizen “Guier” recalled that she spent her junior high and high school in the company of “The Least Talk”.
“I really liked it at that age. I remember it was 10 yuan or 20 yuan a book. Anyway, it’s quite expensive. I don’t order meals, eat instant noodles, save money to buy their magazines, and secretly buy them in look in the bed.” Gayer said to the Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe).
In the high school memory of the netizen “Xiaota”, every book of “The Least Talk” that appeared in the class had to be circulated. Everyone will read it over and over, relying on a magazine for a month. In the bookstore near the school, half of the display is Guo Jingming’s works.
Guo Jingming, who sits on “half of the world” in the publishing market, has also been praised by the famous Hong Kong writer Ni Kuang. “I know you. I heard that one of your books can sell 2 million copies. You are very good.” Ni Kuang said to Guo Jingming. Although Ni Kuang and Guo Jing are too far apart in the next year, and can no longer understand works such as “Little Times” and “Legacy”, he still recognizes Guo Jingming’s huge market value and mentions the words “Master Jingming” on the title page of the donated book.
At that time, Guo Jingming was not a “wealth code”, but a well-known “stone”.
The outside world
“Guo Jingming knows how to create a beautiful dream for junior high school students.” Douban user “Guess the train “Say.
In 2010, Guo Jingming established ShanghaiZushi Culture Development Co., Ltd. He signed contracts with nearly a hundred authors of characters and paintings, and provided full-time editors for each contracted writer. The most world-owned platforms such as “Minimal Talk” and “Most Comics” are platforms for them to open columns, accept interviews, and publish serials. At the same time, different combinations of writers and writers, writers and cartoonists are also arranged to publish books to form a brand synergy and build a “business empire.”
In a sense, Guo Jingming is the first person to “idolize creators” in popular memory. The novel authors, illustrators, and photographers of the most world can be portrayed as idols, and even Guo Jingming’s assistant has his own fans. Driven by the fan economy, the writer brokerage business has become one of the most profitable sources of culture, and the copyright of the works of contracted writers has also become the core resource of the most culture. “The Bund Pictorial” once reported that the signed writers of Zushi Culture contribute 200 million yuan to the book market every year. It is not an exaggeration to call Zushi Culture an idol artist agency.
Ten years ago, the marketing strategy of “creating personal design” was not yet common in the entertainment industry, and Guo Jingming already knew how to package personal images and used “fan circle thinking” operation author.
A former loyal fan recalled: “At that time, they were from the author to the staff. Everyone who could call his name had his own distinct personality. In the current language, it was set by people. Each issue of the magazine is open at regular intervals. , Very attractive to me at the time.”
“There are many kinds of people, including high school drop-out literary girl, Paris studying girl Kochi, resident Australian man, cold and introverted male writer… Guo Jingming is really a business ghost.”
The operation ideas of the most modern culture permeate various details. Authors who show their faces should have good looks; each year they lead them to different countries and regions for group building, such as London, Kanagawa, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, France, etc., and publish their travel records as books to create the “Next Stop” series. Stimulate readers’ yearning for the “outside world”; one of the most popular sections of each issue is the sharing of the editorial department. Authors complain about each other, share good things, comment on essays, and type create the personality of the author, and establish the Relationship Net; A literary competition is held to select newcomers, and readers need to buy magazines and send back votes to “pick” their favorite authors…
The most popular culture “Next stop Naples” promotional image
Countless young, gentle boys and girls are eager: one day, they can go to the “dream city” Shanghai with LV, GUCCI, and AMARNI, step into the office of the most world culture, and become this “western, high-end” As a member of the “elite, petty bourgeoisie” team, I met the idol writers who have been chasing for a long time, and lived a life he yearned for.
What they bought was not just a magazine or a novel, but a dream created by Guo Jingming’s team for them.
The bursting of the bubble
In 2007, 2008, and 2011, Guo Jingming topped the list three times with royalties of 11 million yuan, 13 million yuan, and 24.5 million yuan respectively. Guo Jingming has made a lot of money.
But no matter how strong an individual is, he cannot resist the torrent of the times. “The sales of all magazines are declining, and we still have a small decline.” Guo Jingming said in the interview.
With the development of technologies such as the Internet, the glorious era of paper media has finally come to an end. The goal of the Internet is to let everyone “see the world without leaving home.” This allowed Guo Jingming’s seductive “outside world” supported by magazine content to begin to die out.
Guo Jingming promptly transformed into a screenwriter and director, bringing his masterpiece “Little Times” to the big screen. With a huge fan base, “Little Times” had a box office of 73 million on the first day, breaking the record for the first day of domestic 2D movies. In 2015, the “Little Times” series ended, with a total of nearly 1.8 billion in box office. On the back of the high box office, every movie’s Douban score is less than 5 points, and “bad movies” are constantly controversial.
“Small Times 1.0 Origami Era” Studio Photo
This does not affect Guo Jingming’s success. With an overall return on investment of more than 250%, “Little Times” has not only become Guo Jingming’s “stepping stone” in the film and television industry, it has once again sent his commercial value to the “sacred altar”.
However, Guo Jingming failed to sit on the “Altar” for too long. Waterloo in the 2016 movie “Lord’s Trail”, so that Guo Jingming is losingAt the same time of word of mouth, it was also abandoned by the market. The curse that never disappeared became more fierce and fierce, and this time brought him on the verge of collapse. The last stop of the movie “Grand Trail” was set in the “dream city” Shanghai where countless people yearned for him. He cried and asked: “Is it because my name is Guo Jingming, so everything is wrong? Is it only because I die that you will not scold “Juji”?”
The poster image of “Grand Record”
It wasn’t until the recent two years of variety shows that he recovered his market value. But no matter the past or the present, Guo Jingming is a collection of contradictions and disputes.
Eight years ago, in the mainstream literature circle, he was an unacceptable “material desire” full of copper odor; in the eyes of publishers, he was a talented and ambitious “moneymaker”; in the hearts of diehard fans Even though he is burdened by plagiarism verdict, he is still an unattainable “god.”
Now, he has become an entertainment circle, A unique “aesthetic” of the film and television industry, It is even the “incarnation” of certain market chaos and capital power. It seems that only as a “cultural businessman”, he has never subverted the imagination of the public.
Gay, who did not buy the “Smallest” in the first issue, now has a family and a business, said with emotion: “When I grow up and look back, I will feel that’Pediatrics’, the life of himself and the people around him is far more colorful than the novel. “But she emphasized that she did not think that it was a dark history, nor did she regret having read these magazines by Guo Jingming.
The person who really “made dreams” in the past was not Guo Jingming, but the era when resources were scarce and material desires were gradually expanding. Because in that era, there were too many people who wanted to dream, and Guo Jingming, who discovered this dream, came into being. They can deny Guo Jingming, but they cannot deny that they want to doDream of yourself.
Stills of “Little Times 1.0 Origami Era”丨Source: iQiyi
In the long river of history, people will remember Guo Jingming of that era, and will gradually accept the painful emptiness and obsession with those beautiful colors in the youth of this generation. Respect the original appearance of this memory, and then move on.