"Chinese Strange Story" poster

There are more than 8 episodes of the "Chinese Little Monster" story that touches the audience's heartstrings. In an interview with reporters recently, Wang Jianer, chairman of Shanghai Film Group, said that the "Internet celebrity" animation that will be launched on the Bilibili platform (Bilibili for short) in the beginning of 2023 The short film collection "Chinese Strange Story" is already preparing for the second season.

This collection of animated shorts took two years of planning and production. Since its launch on New Year's Day, it has been "out of the circle" with word of mouth. As of January 13, the total number of views of the film exceeded 73 million, with a score of 9.9 on Station B and 9.5 on Douban, and it has been on Weibo's hot search list dozens of times. Online word-of-mouth and popularity have also extended to offline. Shanghai Animation Film Studio put two original products of "China Strange Story" on the official flagship store of the consumer platform, which were sold out within a week.

Why is "China Strange Tan" magical? The reporter tried to uncover its "traffic password".

An "awakening" of animation original IP

"Chinese Strange Story" is composed of 8 stories rooted in traditional Chinese culture created by 11 directors, namely: "The Summer of the Little Monster", "Goose Goose Goose", "Lin Lin", "The Country Bus Takes the King and the Immortal" ", "Xiaoman", "Jade Rabbit", "Small Shop", "Birds and Fish". The story surveys the past and present, and looks forward to the future. From local nostalgia to technological fantasy, from life motifs to human thinking, it shows imagination and cultural traditions with Chinese characteristics.

Wang Jianer introduced that Shanghai Film's "14th Five-Year Plan" high-quality content strategy and big IP development strategy will integrate and develop "China Strange Tan" into an "IP universe". Each short film will have a different IP development plan according to its own characteristics.

"Meiying Studio adopts the form of art short film collection, gathers a group of excellent animation directors, and also gives everyone a free creative space, and completes an innovative expression of Chinese traditional culture through mutual discussion and even competition." Wang Jianer He said that it is this kind of creative form that provides a broad space for "Chinese Strange Tan" to create an "IP universe". "Out of the circle" both online and offline provides a rich soil. Such a broad and deep content IP provides us with new opportunities to build China's own IP universe."

It is understood that Shanghai Film Group will extensively learn from overseas mature development models and develop long-term projects with the goal of creating a "universe". On this basis, combined with the characteristics of the Chinese market and Shanghai Film Group's actual situation, it will explore the development path of China's big IP. "For example, we are studying the production committee model adopted by Japan, where the animation industry is developed. This model has mature experience in joint production teams, platforms, industrial resources and capital." Wang Jianer told reporters that the future "little monsters" They will have their own big movies, their own spin-offs, and more importantly, they will have their "own development team"—"China Strange Tan" will set up its own IP development company.

"Light up" the thick traditional culture

Take stock of the several short films that have been broadcast and will be broadcast in "Chinese Strange Tan", and you will find that the traditional cultural elements are everywhere in the details. For example, the short film collection "Lin Lin" invited national music composer Ma Jiuyue as the music director. During the whole process of composing and arranging, Ma Jiuyue tried to use flute, xiao, and Chinese drum to interpret the music in the forest sea and snow field. legend. At the same time, he also revealed that the most important thing is to use the national musical instrument with a long history in our country - Ruan.

"Ruan, it is very individual and very Chinese. It makes everyone feel a feeling of coming from ancient times. This 'ancient' is more 'Chinese ancient'." The composer interpreted it this way.

Whether it's pictures or music, traditional cultural elements are "lit up" one by one in this short film collection, which made many viewers can't help posting bullet screens, and frankly was impressed by the main creative team.

""China Strange Tan" is very good. I think the profound cultural heritage, modern expression methods, industrial production capacity, and good stories are the 'traffic code' of cultural and creative hits." Shanghai Mihayou Network Technology Co., Ltd. The president of the company Liu Wei bluntly expressed his love for "China Strange Story". At the same time, he succinctly stated the endogenous reason why this "magic work" quickly "out of the circle", that is, the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture.

"Two-way travel" between creators and audiences

Chen Rui, chairman and CEO of Bilibili, also has something to say about the strong traditional Chinese cultural atmosphere of "Chinese Strange Story". He believes that the success of "Chinese Strange Story" is a result of China's original animation itself. It is necessary to praise a large number of audiences who have grown up with station B and have a strong interest in traditional culture.

In recent years, a large number of UP masters under the labels of "traditional culture" and "Guochuang" (China Original) on the Bilibili platform have gathered. They are not only a new generation of viewers and consumers, but also creators and publishers who can dominate personal video production. On such a platform where a large number of talents gather, the cumulative number of traditional cultural themed documentaries and self-made short videos broadcast in recent years is very impressive. In the "chasing fan" link of animation, more "more fascinated and more professional" traditional cultural in-depth users will appear, which must be a major trend in the future.

In short, in Chen Rui's view, the popularity of "Chinese Strange Story" has made everyone see a "two-way rush" between the main animation creator and the audience.

Faced with the audience's ever-increasing expectations, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, which has the reputation of the "Chinese School" of animation, is also planning to continue such a "two-way rush".

The year 2022 that has just passed is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chinese animation. Over the past century, Chinese animation has grown from scratch, from short to long, from black and white to color, from silent to sound, from two-dimensional hand-painted to digital design, and has always told Chinese stories and spread Chinese culture.

The content team of "China Strange Tan" told reporters that this is a tribute to the predecessors, and it is also a sailing on a new journey and a new starting point.