Youku Vice President Zhang Lina: Technology+Art Makes Traditional Culture Cool

On June 29th, at the theme forum of the 3rd China Radio and Television Media Integration Development Conference, titled "Traditional Culture is' Popular '," Zhang Lina, Vice President and Editor in Chief of Youku, delivered a keynote speech titled "Shaping the Contemporary Image of Chinese Culture and Collecting Today for Tomorrow". She said that to make traditional culture cool, the key is to use stories to move people, explore the shining moments of Chinese civilization in creation, promote the beauty of traditional culture, and use new technologies to enable young people and traditional culture to travel in both directions

On June 29th, at the theme forum of the 3rd China Radio and Television Media Integration Development Conference, titled "Traditional Culture is' Popular '," Zhang Lina, Vice President and Editor in Chief of Youku, delivered a keynote speech titled "Shaping the Contemporary Image of Chinese Culture and Collecting Today for Tomorrow". She said that to make traditional culture cool, the key is to use stories to move people, explore the shining moments of Chinese civilization in creation, promote the beauty of traditional culture, and use new technologies to enable young people and traditional culture to travel in both directions.

"In 2012, Youku was the first audio-visual platform to open a cultural channel on the whole network, and ten years later, it is still the only platform to deeply cultivate traditional culture and new audio-visual expression on the whole network." Zhang Lina introduced that, from the reality drama "Houlang", "Chinese glazed roof tile" to the ancient costume historical drama "Long Moon Ember Ming", "Twelve Hours of Chang'an", From the cultural documentary program "Qiang Qiang Xing Tian Tian 3", "Shine! Chinese Civilization" and "One Pulse" to the variety show "Chinese Tide Sound", "Fantastic Night on Mountains and Seas" and "New Folk Music National Wind Night". In recent years, Youku has produced and broadcasted traditional cultural programs in multiple content categories, involving traditional festivals, cultural relics and archaeology, literary classics, intangible cultural heritage, and other forms of expression.

According to the "2022 Traditional Culture Program Data Report" released by Youku, the cumulative viewing time of traditional culture programs in 2022 reached 84.46 million hours, an increase of nearly six times compared to 2021. The post-90s and post-00s are the main viewing groups, accounting for 70%. More than 60% of Generation Z believe that traditional cultural programs are deeply innovative, and the design of scenes and plots is very appealing, which conveys the ideological connotation of traditional Chinese culture and is a window for learning about traditional culture.

"Five thousand years of Chinese civilization, which is the foundation of our cultural heritage and cultural confidence. We hope that through innovative story cores and content design, young people will fall in love with traditional culture and inherit traditional culture." Zhang Lina said that Youku Animation and children also set up a special national style theater, and launched many national style animations such as "The Bright Moon in the Qin Dynasty", "The Code of the Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Thirty six Horses". In order to attract young people's attention to traditional culture, Youku Children has also launched the first youth axis micro documentary "One Line", which tells unique axis feelings from different fields such as architecture, music, poetry, Peking Opera, painting, and sports.

Zhang Lina emphasizes that when creating traditional cultural programs, one must devote oneself to research. The Chinese characters are very intelligent. The so-called 'research' refers to the 'Nine Caves of Stone Opening', which means perseverance, finding patterns, and not being 'off topic'. Creators need to have a deeper understanding of excellent traditional culture, be able to discover new highlights in traditional culture, and combine new technologies to present to the audience

She introduced that many programs on Youku have made traditional culture shine through "technology+art". This Decade: Happy China "uses AI/XR technology to create a spatiotemporal dialogue spanning thousands of years; Youth Defender "simulates martial arts speed changes through bullet time; Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival) Wonderful Tour uses AR technology to perform the oriental lion dance; Shine! Chinese Civilization uses CG special effects to restore the holy tree of Classic of Mountains and Seas. Enriching the artistic creation space with visual 'novelty', fully explaining the Chinese spirit and values, and making traditional culture shine brightly

The best inheritance is dissemination, and the best protection is use. Zhang Lina stated that Youku also combines traditional cultural IP with cultural tourism to capture the circle of young people's friends. Due to the popularity of Dunhuang aesthetics, "The Long Moon Burning Bright" has also made Bengbu famous overnight, creating a new style of cultural and tourism integration; "One pulse" visits the six landmarks along the Zhongzhou Road; The novel "Full of Love and Nine Corners" has sparked a cultural and tourism craze among Hutong people in old Beijing. Our Chinese nation has a history of five thousand years and is a precious cultural asset left to us by our ancestors. Traditional culture is vast and precious, and we should actively leverage the rich historical culture to empower the tourism industry and promote the deep integration of culture and tourism

Turning to the creation and expression of traditional culture in international communication, Zhang Lina said that Youku will open up the publicity system of other countries with the platform as the core, build a "Chinese style global expression" with global creative thinking, and strengthen faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance in the translation of ancient poetry and Classical Chinese, and make friends abroad with the language of overseas friends. Move overseas friends with Chinese wisdom, Chinese heroes, Chinese aesthetics, and Chinese vitality

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