Why are all the singers you love giving concerts?

Original, He Chang, Power Plant

Reporter, He Chang

Editor, Gao Yulei

After three years of absence, the concert finally came back to us, urgent and intense on stage, in the lights, and in the music.

According to incomplete statistics from the power plant, this year, more than 50 groups of artists have put their personal concerts on the schedule, and there have been at least 200 concerts nationwide. Just taking May 20 as an example, nearly 20 singers including Liang Jingru, Liu Ruoying, Zhang Shaohan, Li Yuchun, Li Ronghao, Zhang Jie, Xue Zhiqian, etc. The concert location covers Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Quanzhou and other cities. BLACKPINK Macau concert even attracted Angelababy, Ouyang Nana and many other stars to the scene, and the highly anticipated Jay Chou, Mayday and Eason Chan are about to take the stage to sing. So much so that some audience members teased: "The singers you can think of are either holding concerts or on their way to concerts."

However, the entrance tickets for encounters belong to only a few people, and the concerts that are well-received and well-received are ultimately only a few. Behind the strong demand and the hot industry, there are many grass-roots teams who are eager for quick success and fish in troubled waters, planning sloppy projects with poor returns, and over-commercialization driven by interests. The extremely fragmented performance market is also correcting, improving and evolving in the selection of audiences again and again.

Outside of the dreamlike scene, this was actually a winner-take-all game.

Concerts "Bloom Everywhere"

Since mid-February, "traveling all over the country" has become the norm for many people in the performance industry, because there are too many concert projects that require pre-preparation, implementation and even waiting for acceptance. "So I travel frequently and fly everywhere," said one performance industry person.

The return of "retaliation" in the concert market is reflected in the audience level, and it is difficult to find a ticket. Data from the ticketing platform Damai shows that all 12 of Jay Chou’s "Carnival" world tour concerts in three cities have been exhausted in seconds, and the number of tickets for the most popular shows has exceeded 3 million; Xue Zhiqian’s "Out of the Sky" tour data remains high, and Quzhou, Foshan and Zhengzhou have all added. Some industry experts predict that the box office scale of the concert market will reach 3 billion yuan in the first half of 2023.

The Mayday concert even led to the overall heating up of Beijing’s accommodation industry. According to Meituan and Dianping data, during the Mayday concert on May 9, the day of invoicing, the number of accommodation bookings in Beijing during the Mayday concert increased by about 300% compared with the same period in 2019. Among them, the 5km around the concert venue, the Bird’s Nest, increased by 2,400%.

Holding a photo clock in hand outside the venue, shouting out the name of the person on the stage with all their might, participating seriously in the choral part of each song, turning on the flash of your phone to create a sea of stars, even holding up a paper bag just to catch the sprayed colored bars with lyrics – those warm and generous feedback are the most sincere praise and unabashed desire that an audience can give to a concert.

With a sore wrist, he swung the glow stick with another hand; his voice was hoarse, but he refused to stop singing and screaming. A spectator who watched Li Yuchun’s concert on the night of May 21 was so excited that he cried: "Looking at her face and listening to her voice, I feel that the memory of every cell in my body has been awakened. I haven’t seen you for a long time. It’s really nice to have a concert, and it’s really nice to meet."

The same is true of the concert organizers. From the preliminary preparations to the decisive addition under the hot billing, the activism of the organizers formed a wonderful contrast with the madness of the audience. A concert organizer told the power plant that in the past three years, everything from the host company, the stage equipment rental company and the relevant supplier team have lost their working scenes. The upstream and downstream of the performance industry are facing huge cash flow pressure, and naturally hope to speed up the pace. "Everyone has been waiting for so long, and the preparations are basically ready. When there is work to do, of course, they have to rush to do it in a hurry to earn back the money for these three years."

In fact, a considerable part of the above concerts belong to the projects postponed due to the impact of the epidemic, such as the personal concerts of Jay Chou, Zhang Shaohan, Zhang Xinzhe, Xue Zhiqian and other singers, which have been postponed until now and finally restarted.

Of course, there are not a few players who temporarily organize the game. Especially in the more intensive music festivals, there are more than 40 music festival performances during the May Day holiday alone, which can be called a large-scale platter tour of leading bands and musicians.

Zhang Hubin, a former music industry practitioner, believes that the encouragement of consumption at the policy level has reduced the difficulty of concert approval to a certain extent. Therefore, on the one hand, concerts have come together and emerged in an endless stream; on the other hand, more and more non-first-tier cities have begun to get the opportunity to build a stage, which is one of the breakthrough points for promoting the integration of culture and tourism.

At the same time, there is another key reason for the "sinking" of concerts – the schedules of first-tier cities and major venues are extremely tight, and the organizers with strong singers and sufficient preparation in the early stage have already taken the lead, and other participants can only settle for the next best thing. What’s more, the concerts in first-tier cities are too dense, and in order to stagger each other, some organizers have taken a different approach, and instead tend to consider some unpopular cities that lack rich cultural life. "Maybe the passerby plate is not bad."

How to organize a profitable concert?

And beyond the hustle and bustle, a question is in the spotlight: Who will make money in this swarming concert battle?

Several interviewees told Power Plant that domestic concert revenue mainly consists of two parts, one is the box office, and the other is the commercial sponsorship. The former accounts for a high proportion, and the latter is "very small".

When it comes to the box office, the concerts that "sell well" are mainly divided into two categories. One is the very solid projects of passers-by, and the names of the artists are familiar. Jay Chou, Mayday, Eason Chan, Jacky Cheung, Stefanie Sun, and Lin Junjie all belong to this category. "They are all singers we have heard of before. In addition to the fans they have been following, their audience is still wide, and they are aimed at people with medium and high spending power in the true sense." The aforementioned performance industry person concluded.

In the eyes of the above-mentioned concert organizers, these projects can already be predicted to be sold out before the ticket is issued, and only top artists with a certain status dare to test the waters in a new city, or even open multiple games, because "this is a winner-takes-all logic."

As for the second category, there are artists who have come from the draft, with the advantages of a fixed fan base and a considerable base, and a very high level of repurchase. The disadvantages are equally obvious, and the sustainability is uneven – some people can be popular for more than ten years, the output is stable, and they are still active in the front line; some people can’t support a concert at all, and the content value declines sharply. After making a few years of fast money, it disappears.

In addition to the box office itself, making money is closely related to cost. According to Power Plant, concert costs can be divided into several parts such as artist show fees, venue rentals, stage equipment, ticketing platform services, and other costs.

In most cases, in order to ensure the consistency of stage art and lighting, Hong Kong and Taiwan artists used to bring their own stage art and lighting, stage hardware engineering and show fee packaging, and unified expenditure was not related to the box office. Ten years ago, the concert packaging cost of Jay Chou, Eason Chan and other artists was around 5 million to 6 million yuan, and now, this figure is expected to approach 10 million yuan or even higher.

In addition, there is an agency fee of 6% to 8% for the audience to buy tickets from the ticketing platform. The rental of venues, as well as other costs including security and free tickets, can be regarded as the operating costs of the organizers.

According to the above-mentioned people in the performance industry, the rent of main stadiums in various provinces in China is generally 300,000 yuan/day to 500,000 yuan/day, and the rent of stadiums is more expensive, ranging from millions of yuan/day to millions of yuan/day.

Taking the National Stadium "Bird’s Nest", which can accommodate 91,000 people, as an example, holding a personal concert here is the dream goal of many singers. In 2014, Xiang Jun, the executive deputy general manager of the National Stadium Co., Ltd. said in an interview with the media that the benchmark figure for the rental fee of the Bird’s Nest venue is 3 million yuan/day, and the specific venue fee fluctuates with some factors, such as the level and grade of the performance. The higher the number of people attracted, the lower the rent.

In Zhang Hubin’s view, this is an issue involving industry efficiency. The higher the venue utilization efficiency, the higher the income, and the lower the marginal cost; the lower the venue utilization efficiency, the higher the team cost and the worse the execution effect. However, most venues are currently vacant for a long time, the single cost remains high, and the additional costs such as free tickets leave the organizers with little profit margin.

All costs will be carefully calculated and woven into every ticket on sale. The difference between the mainland and Hong Kong concert ticket prices can be used as a note. One audience member grabbed a ticket to Eason Chan’s Hong Kong concert a few years ago, and the ticket price at that time was as high as 980 Hong Kong dollars, which is still basically the same. Compared with that, she mentioned that the price of 1680 yuan, 1880 yuan and even 2,000 yuan in the mainland is now "really expensive". "In Hong Kong, the cheapest ticket price is about the same as watching a movie."

Process and the roles behind it

For the audience at the lower reaches of the industry chain, ticket platforms such as Damai and Maoyan are the closest players. But in the whole process of concert preparation and completion, ticket sales are just one link.

Approval is the starting point of a concert, and only a series of permits can be obtained to hold the event. But before that, a number of preparations have been completed. First, the organizer contacts the artist team or the agency about the tour plan to determine the location, scale, theme, creative direction. Then, the organizer calculates the cost, gives the budget and box office planning. After the initial formation of the plan, the materials can be summarized and submitted to the local culture, public security and other relevant departments for approval, and after receiving the approval, the pre-sale will be started on the ticketing platform. With the completion of the invoicing, the stage construction of the venue and other work will be carried out step by step and in an orderly manner. A set of processes runs down, from the beginning of the preparation to the end of the performance, the whole cycle can be as short as two or three months, as long as half

Under normal circumstances, in the operation of a personal concert, the artist and the agency behind it control the content itself, which is at the top. The organizer is responsible for paying for it. In addition to personally connecting with the stage art and lighting design teams, it can also cooperate with some co-organizers, namely local performers. The latter undertakes tasks such as assisting with approval and on-site execution, and some of the platter concerts that rely on sponsor resources are also completed by them. It is worth mentioning that the role of the organizer is not fixed, and sometimes the artist agency itself can also be the organizer.

Then there is the ticketing platform, which involves exclusivity and distribution. In the past, the exclusive ticketing platform meant that there was only one ticket, but now the "general ticketing agent" gets most of the tickets, and other ticketing companies divide up the rest, the person in the performance industry said. The key here is the ticketing system used, such as whether the ticket is from Barley or from Cat’s Eye on the face of the ticket.

In addition, more detailed roles such as stage construction team, security, volunteers, etc. will also appear one by one. At this point, the character puzzle behind a concert has been roughly completed.

It should be noted that although there are many roles and the domestic performance market has maintained rapid growth before the epidemic, the industry branding trend is weak, and there is no pusher comparable to Live Nation – the global live performance industry giant, which covers ticketing, performances, and entertainment marketing solutions. There are more than 26 million visiting users every month, and more than 20,000 performances are produced for more than 2,000 artists around the world every year, reaching 200 million consumers through live performances and multiple platforms.

From a model perspective, CMC Live Chinese cultural performing arts is the closest to it. As a performing arts platform under Chinese culture, it formed an alliance with 21 leading performance companies in various provinces and cities at the end of 2017, covering the whole country. The aforementioned performance industry person told the power plant that the resource-centralized CMC Live Chinese cultural performing arts can participate in the preparation of most concerts, and its market share is bound to be very high, but even so, it is far from a monopoly.

"Because the industry is extremely fragmented, artists are also scattered in multiple agencies, and the size of concerts and the ability of artists are different." Based on the size of the venue, the concert market can be divided into four categories. From the smallest Live House level, to theaters that can accommodate one or two thousand people, to stadiums with as few as three or four thousand people, and as many as ten thousand people, eventually evolving to stadiums with 20,000 or 30,000 people in small venues, 50,000 or 60,000 people in large venues, and even higher. From small to large, it constitutes a growth path for an artist to hold concerts, and also creates different opportunities for companies of different sizes. For example, some companies only host concerts above the stadium, while others prefer to cooperate with fixed agencies.

Mr. Zhang noted that the gig industry has so far grown that such a huge market has not been able to produce a true "Chinese version of Live Nation" because every city has at least one company that can act as a concert organizer. "This company can’t be bypassed in any way, which makes it impossible for a higher-level national performance organization to exist. There is no way, and it cannot be worn at all."

Strength and professionalism win

In fact, the bigger contradiction at the moment is that the performance industry urgently needs to regain the "territory" that has been lost for three years, and is delivering products with doubled production capacity. However, in the face of such a high concentration of the market, although the demand for watching concerts has been concentrated, the overall consumption power is ultimately limited, and the audience’s enthusiasm, attention and freshness for concerts under irrational demand will always be exhausted one day. "This must be a game of drumming and passing flowers, which has been passed on until a certain point suddenly collapses. Some music festivals are already losing money," Zhang Hubin said.

Especially in cities that have never held concerts before and have been overdeveloped, "this phenomenon will be more obvious in the second half of the year, and it will be found that tickets cannot be sold," the aforementioned performance industry person added.

Once the attendance rate is low and the scene is empty, it will not only be detrimental to the survival of the organizers, but also directly affect the position of the artists in the performance market. The reputation of the latter’s concerts has declined, the number of concerts has dropped sharply, and the city level is getting smaller and smaller, and the overall scale is getting smaller and smaller.

A former music industry figure believes that for some idol artists, concerts are as important a source of income as endorsements and variety shows. On the one hand, they are not singer-songwriters and lack copyright income; on the other hand, if there is a small audience outside fans, the income generated is not even as good as the so-called platform Divine Comedy.

This may explain why artists who have not released a new album for a long time are also keen to hold personal concerts – for income. However, the bigger role of concerts is communication. Every time an artist goes to a city, thousands or tens of thousands of people will meet and fall in love with him again, which can be regarded as a ground marketing method to continue his career. If the box office performs well, the commercial value of the artist will be further enhanced.

Over the past decade or so, concerts have operated in a relatively fixed mode, with both deep-rooted professional companies that fully understand the music industry and grass-roots teams who have jumped into the game to make a fortune. The above-mentioned performance industry people predict that this situation will change from this year after the baptism of uncertainty. That is, concert resources will be more close to companies with strong strength, strong professionalism, good at integrating high-quality content IP, accurate judgment and decisive execution.

"Concerts are a kind of high-risk investment, and tens of millions of yuan will be invested at every turn. Everyone wants to cooperate with a strong, professional and reliable team, and the requirements for the organizers will become higher and higher. It is not very likely that an external company wants to come in and do concerts casually." The person added.

No matter how the industry wind continues to blow, what audiences really care about is whether they can grab tickets to the concerts of their favorite singers. This seems to be an unsolvable problem under the premise that there is a certain proportion of free tickets, the gap between the number of votes and the number of people who grab tickets, and the nature of popular concerts tends to be financial, with huge hidden interests behind them.

Recently, Liang Jingru and Liu Ruoying’s concert in Shanghai has implemented the "strong real-name system" ticket purchase rule, that is, "person, certificate and face" are integrated, and you must carry your ID card bound to the ticket, verify the ID information and pass facial recognition before you can enter.

It seems that this does effectively limit scalper scalping behavior, but it has also evolved into a double-edged sword. Since refund and transfer are not supported, tickets can only be wasted when the audience encounters emergencies. What’s more, the gift of tickets is not limited, and the restrictive effect is only for the kind of grabbing, as well as ordinary audiences.

Even so, a standardized and flexible ticketing system is still the development direction of the future performance market. If the concert is a beautiful dream, except for the lucky few who get tickets, more people are still lining up and waving the number plate of love. In the original vision of the dreamer, the opportunity to dream should belong to all equally.

The original title: "Power Plant: Why are all the singers you love holding concerts?"

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Peng Yuyan, thank you for encountering this movie at this age

Peng Yuyan is grateful that he came across the script of "Dog Formation" when he was 40 years old, and perhaps only at this age can he be so emotionally involved in "Dog Formation". The film won the Best Film Award in the Attention Section and the "Golden Palm of the Dog" Jury Award at the 77th Cannes International Film Festival this year, and began to be released in China on June 15.

Peng Yuyan said that making the film gave him the opportunity to look at his past four decades. "We may be busy every day, but we don’t know what we are busy with. In an environment like the Gobi Desert, human beings are really insignificant, that is, a grain of sand in the Gobi Desert. What you think is important may not be so important."

"This film gave me the opportunity to explore human nature and learn more about myself."

The movie "Dogs" sets the story in a small town in the northwest. After "Bullfight", Guan Hu’s director returned to the animal theme after 15 years. In the film, Jiro, played by Peng Yuyan, is imprisoned for manslaughter and returns to his hometown after parole, but it is difficult to integrate into society. Forced to join the dog fighting team, Jiro saves a black dog due to an accidental car accident, and the fates of the two are connected. Two incompatible souls resonate in each other’s loneliest moments, redeem each other, and become inseparable life partners.

The story of Jiro and the black dog in the movie has aroused the empathy of many audiences. Although the people and dogs "don’t speak the same words," they "have the same heart." Some viewers said, "Jiro is a maverick and marginal person, just like the dogs in the movie, wild and bloody coexist." Jia Zhangke commented, "People and dogs warm each other in the desolate land of the northwest, and the vitality that bursts out is touching." The director Guan Hu also said in an interview, "The animal nature contained in the human body is particularly precious. We lost it all the way when we grew up. The blood that Jiro should have was inspired by this black dog."

"The epidemic made me want to do something different, spend more time with my family, experience a different life, and my worldview and outlook on life have changed. When I came across this very good script at this time, I felt very much when I read it, and I wanted to have a different experience. So, I have to do this thing, and there is no reason to refuse."

Jiro in "Dogs" resonated deeply with Peng Yuyan: "After returning to my hometown after ten years, Jiro’s world is different. For others, time in this world has been passing, but for Jiro, it has been lost for many years. When I read the script, I think, what has this character gone through before? I don’t have a few lines in the film, but there are many opposite scenes with dogs, which is a very attractive role for me. It gives me the opportunity to explore human nature and understand myself better at the same time."

Peng Yuyan admitted that if he had seen such a script a few years ago, he might not have felt as much as he does now. "But when I encountered this scene at the age of almost 40, I felt very resonant. Many times life is not up to me to decide. How do I make changes or find my place? The process is inevitably confused and painful. Jiro in the movie is also in this situation. He is struggling to break through himself or find his place in the world. What else can he do for this society, what can he do for his family, what can he do for himself? He is at a big crossroads and does not know what to do."

Peng Yuyan said that when he reads the script, it is easy to substitute, and if he and the character have a certain degree of fit, he will have a strong desire to create. "I think the play’Dog Formation ‘can definitely give me a lot of energy and make me transform again. And Guan Hu is also a director I admire very much. I like his works very much, and I have always hoped to have the opportunity to cooperate with him."

Dedicated the most subversive performance since the film

In "Dog Array," Peng Yuyan gave his most subversive performance since he was a photographer. He admitted that Erlang was a character he had never played before. As always, he did a lot of homework for this character.

The first is the change of appearance, "The story of" Dog Formation "mainly took place in Jiuquan and Yumen, Gansu Province in 2008, and I didn’t look like the people in that environment. During that period, I drank a lot of coffee and tea, rinsed my mouth instead of brushing my teeth, and made my teeth a little yellow and tanned, which also reduced the workload of the makeup artist. Because the ultraviolet rays there are stronger, people will have a redder and darker complexion, so I got my sun spots out, my scalp was also cracked, and I shaved a short inch, and then made my body a little stronger, but I won’t be as thin as before" Tropical Past ". Because Jiro’s character is not in an unhealthy state, he came from a place where life is very regular. The bad thing about him is that his brain has not yet adapted to the current era. He has been away from his hometown for ten years and has been out of touch with the times. During the shooting process, I feel that Jiro’s state is more and more like that dog. I like my style in "Dog Array" very much.

In order to shoot "Dog Formation", Peng Yuyan also learned motorcycle stunts, "I have filmed a lot of motorcycle scenes before, but I have never practiced stunts. This time I have to ride a motorcycle to climb stairs and fly. After all, Jiro is a champion stuntman, so I still need to practice. Flick the tail, ride the stairs, rush down and fly up, and then land. I fell quite badly in the process, and the daily training will be more exhausting."

Peng Yuyan smiled and said that it is difficult to learn motorcycle stunts, "because the old motorcycle is very heavy, and its oil should be grasped very firmly. I wear protective gear when I practice, but I don’t have it when I shoot, so it is actually very dangerous. If you don’t have professional guidance, you really don’t practice by yourself. All our motorcycle riding scenes are real shots, and I like this kind of challenge very much. Like when I shot" Emergency Rescue "before and got burned or hung on a helicopter, I just had to fight hard and survive. Because of the movies I shot before, I have good physical training, but motorcycle stunts are not purely physical. Sometimes those stunts really can’t be done because it requires physical memory and brain access. You can do it today, but maybe not tomorrow. When I practice after work, I keep falling. I will have shadows and pain, so I don’t dare to practice again. I hit my instep and toes a few times in the middle, and I also took X-rays several times because everyone was worried that I would get injured. Now, riding a motorcycle has become my hobby, just like riding a bicycle before. "

"I didn’t adopt Xiao Xin, it adopted me"

A very important part of "Dog Formation" is getting along with dogs. Before the movie started, Peng Yuyan went to learn to train dogs and cultivate feelings with more than ten black dogs. "At that time, there were many dogs in the crew, and the animals were uncontrollable in filming, so I had to cultivate a good relationship with each dog. During filming, many scenes were shot to the end, and there were not many editing parts, so I would rehearse with the dogs many times in advance. I think dogs know what we are talking about. When we were filming, we knew what we wanted them to do. Every dog has its own personality, even if they are the same color, but their eyes are different. There were a total of more than a dozen dogs at that time, and I remember every one of them. We’ve been training and cultivating our relationship for a long time. We have scenes of eating, bathing, sleeping, biting me, and licking me. To some extent, the dog is the real star of this drama. "

Peng Yuyan has been with these dogs for more than four months, and there is a scene in which Erlang is bitten, so Peng Yuyan has to be bitten by dogs many times during the audition, "One time, I didn’t wear protective gear, and the dog habitually came up and bit my leg, and I was bitten before I could get out of the way. It sometimes bites me when it is not happy, but I simply don’t hide and let it bite. Of course, there is protective gear to protect it, but it will still hurt. Because the dog bites without letting go, even if it wears protective gear, it will still be bitten until it is bruised. If there is no protective gear, it is estimated that the second one will not be able to shoot, but slowly I bite a lot, and I will get used to it, and I am not afraid. A dog biting is a normal and instinctive behavior, how can you ask an animal to lose its animality. The play "Dog Formation" is quite philosophical, although I don’t have any lines, but the play with animals can show a lot of human parts. Dogs are human to some extent, they just don’t talk. Dogs know if there is any fear or anxiety in you, they use their eyes to communicate, and they use their sense of smell to identify and judge what the person has experienced. Maybe because dogs don’t have language, their senses become clearer, and they remember the smell of you. They can feel what mood you are in, or whether you like dogs or not. I believe that dogs can feel the energy of a person, and in their eyes, everyone’s color is different. "

"Xiao Xin," the black dog in "Dog Formation," also won the "Jury Prize" from the Organizing Committee of the Golden Palm of Dogs at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. After finishing, Peng Yuyan also adopted Xiao Xin. "I have three dogs now, one is Xiao Xin in" Dog Formation ", and the other two are puppies born to the pregnant dog in the play. These three dogs have been with me until now."

Xiao Xin is the dog who has played the most roles against Peng Yuyan. "On the first day I went, he could sleep next to me for 20 minutes without fear. He is the only dog who can sit next to me in the shower and act with me. Xiao Xin is very obedient, he doesn’t bark, but he is very smart. Every time I look at him, I know that his eyes are thinking, and his eyes have subtext. Xiao Xin can really perform, very spiritual, and has his own ideas, but he can’t say it. The other two puppies adopted, a male and a mother, will want to convey some ideas when watching people. The male is a little more dormant, but he is also very cute and has his own personality."

Owning a dog changed Peng Yuyan’s daily life. He got up at 6 o’clock, developed the habit of walking the dog three times a day, took care of the dog’s daily life, and even went to Cannes to attend the film festival. Most of his luggage was dog-related supplies. Peng Yuyan said that filming "Dog Formation" with Xiao Xin changed his perception of performance, and owning a dog changed his outlook on life and values. Xiao Xin is now more than three years old, and his feelings and tacit understanding with Peng Yuyan have become deeper. The pure, direct and comprehensive expression of Xiao Xin also made Peng Yuyan pay more attention to the present moment of life and cherish every moment with him. He said frankly, "I didn’t adopt Xiao Xin, but he adopted me."

This was the most unknown filming experience. There were many moments of helplessness, vulnerability and even fear

Despite a lot of preparation, Peng Yuyan smiled and said that when he arrived at the scene, he realized that it was different from what he imagined. "I can’t predict how the dog will perform, so I have to overturn the previous preparation, fully immerse myself in the moment and give an intuitive response. There are many moments of helplessness, vulnerability and even fear in this process, because I don’t know if the performance is accurate, and the only thing that can help me believe in myself is the dog who is playing against me, and they are the most authentic."

The director, Guan Hu, did not want to see any trace of performance on Peng Yuyan. Peng Yuyan said: "He wanted to shoot a real person in life, and for me, this was the most unknown shooting experience. I can only trust the reaction of the animals in the opposite scene. This movie changed my brain’s understanding of acting to some extent, and made me have a completely different understanding of acting."

Peng Yuyan liked Guan Hu’s "Bullfighting" and "Killing Life" very much. "When I watched the movie, I felt that the actors in it were tortured badly, and when I made" Dog Array ", I also wanted to be abused and watched. Actors in such an environment will be in a different state, and I don’t need to change too much by myself, because the cold and wind in the northwest will naturally give me a feeling of living there. I have always liked unknown things, and this time, I didn’t make any deliberate designs for the characters. The director and I both hope to pursue the most realistic and life-like performances, putting aside words and performing with our eyes and bodies."

"Dog Formation," Peng Yuyan’s film with the fewest lines, admits that it makes the performance more difficult, "because it is difficult to strengthen the body, especially many long shots to the end, and close-ups. When there is a camera, I feel that I need to give something, and I will realize that someone is watching, and it must be different from not having a camera. So when the camera is far away, it is easier for me to perform more loosely, but it is impossible to be too loose, and it is difficult to find that balance. And the director has found a lot of local amateurs to act with us. If I design my performance, the effect will become very strange."

Living without a cell phone signal, purely immersed in creativity

This is Peng Yuyan’s first time working with the director Guan Hu, and he is very honored. "My role may be the inner world of the director Guan Hu, the medium that the director needs when he wants to talk to the world, and I complete this dialogue through performance. The director has high requirements for the work and details, but he still gives me a very free space to create. It is really not easy for the team to shoot such a difficult artistic work in such a harsh environment. I am very grateful for this experience. Our group of people created such works together. For four or five months, we lived without a cell phone signal, and we were purely involved in the creation. It was a rare experience in my life."

Peng Yuyan praised Guan Hu for knowing how to act and being very good at acting. "The director seems to like filming animals and challenging himself. He knows exactly what he wants to do, and he doesn’t use the camera for more than a second. If the actor does something wrong, he just doesn’t want it. The director makes me feel very at ease, and I was a little afraid at first, but he takes great care of the actors and allows us to have a very comfortable environment to perform, and he will make everything around him meet his standards. He is a very demanding director, which I think is great. The director doesn’t have much setting for me, because my character doesn’t have lines and doesn’t have much action. He is stricter on actors who have lines."

Peng Yuyan laughed and said that in one scene of his scenes with dogs, there were 80 or 90 shots, "The director said that he broke the record of Teacher Huang Bo and the cow. In fact, for every scene with dogs, I basically have to shoot 30 or 40 shots. The final feeling of this film is that I will no longer shoot with animals, haha."

The director of Guan Hu hopes that Peng Yuyan is real enough and life-like enough, "I think it’s very good, I tell myself that every shot should be like the first shot, how to keep myself in the first state every time, which is really the hardest. So, I will be a little different for each one, depending on which one the director likes. Sometimes it’s more fun, sometimes it’s a little bit more small, and it gradually becomes more and more natural and more open. Seeing which one the director likes and which one to choose is actually a good exercise. Because sometimes three or four shots are taken in a scene, and the director says it’s good after the first shot, but for me, if I shoot 30 shots, of course I can have the opportunity to use 30 performances, then see if I can think of 30 performances, which is actually a big challenge. Moreover, every time a dog’s performance is different, so I can’t design it. Every time I act with a dog, I will react directly to what it does, so acting with a dog is probably the most natural. If it kisses me or bites me, my most instinctive reaction will be made, and the director will be happy, and the audience will see the real reaction. "

Try to change yourself a little bit instead of doing what you are better at

The character of Jiro is very different from Peng Yuyan’s personality, but Peng Yuyan said that he has always liked this contrasting role. "I was not a gymnast before, but I just made" Roll Over! Ashin "to make myself like that. Of course, I am much different from Jiro. In fact, whether it is this kind of literary film, sports inspirational film, police and gangster film, I try to make myself a little more change, rather than choosing to do something that I am more good at. I hope I can try every genre. This time, the director Guan Hu came to me. The director thinks he can change me to this, so I will try my best to meet the director’s requirements."

Talking about the "distance" between the character and himself, Peng Yuyan said: "Maybe I don’t look like the character, but I find it interesting that people don’t necessarily know what kind of personality I am. The me I learned through interviews or other channels is to some extent the’Peng Yuyan ‘I am playing. The real me has many sides, and the real me may be hidden in my role."

Every play that I have filmed has also become a part of Peng Yuyan’s own life. "Whether it is the skills I have learned or the friends I have made, such as cyclists or MMA instructors, it will become a part of my life later. For example, I got my license as a dolphin trainer for filming. Although I don’t usually think about it, when I go to Ocean Park, I suddenly recall that experience. This time I met these dogs in" Dog Formation "and wanted to continue the relationship with dogs into my life, so I adopted Xiao Xin."

Peng Yuyan believes that one of the blessings of being an actor is having images to help him record his life. "Many things don’t seem to exist if I don’t remember, but I am lucky to have images to record, and I will remember what year I did. When I received" Dog Formation ", I thought that meeting a character like Erlang at this time must have some meaning, and I can gain something in the days to come. I think it is a gift."

When he was 40, Peng Yuyan said that the mood when he made "Dog Formation" was different from before. "As I got older, I also experienced more things. This play is the theme of magical reality, and it is the story of a frustrated man who finds himself again. A lot of my thoughts changed during the epidemic period, and when I met this character, I could convey my understanding of the world. For example, Jiro was at a loss in the face of the new world, and his vulnerability and confusion were also my feelings about the outside world at that time. Whether it is the director or me, we are willing to fully commit ourselves to creating a work of art that may not be so commercial. We are willing to take risks to do this. We have the same bravery as Jiro."

By our reporter Zhang Jia

Photo by Xiaoxuan

(Beijing Youth Daily)

Hu Ge’s "Flowers" stills premiered, and the emotional creation of A Bao’s monologue was praised by Wang Jiawei

Hu Ge

Produced and directed by Wang Jiawei, written by Qin Wen, and starring Hu Ge, the drama "Flowers" was recently exposed for the first time. The afterglow is red, and the style of the times is slightly revealed. Hu Ge (as Bao) sat alone on the ridge, looking out into the distance, the times are boiling, and it is difficult to hide the story in his heart. Some carefree, some melancholy, the tiles are warm, and it is just right to drink alone.

"That day, I sat on the back of a goldfish, but it didn’t move. (Signed) Bao." It is reported that this passage was made by Hu Ge after filming the scene, and after filming, he wrote it and sent it to the director Wang Jiawei. There is another paragraph earlier, "Betty likes to climb the roof with me the most. She said that every house with red tiles is a goldfish. She also said that the wind is water, and when the wind blows, every house swims." After reading it, the director Wong Jiawei praised "Hu Ge is Bao."

The drama "Flowers" is based on the novel of the same name that won the award for the famous writer Jin Yucheng Mao Dun Literature Prize. The drama will revolve around Bao (played by Hu Ge). In the early 1990s, in the bright era, everyone competed for the upper reaches, and Bao also became Mr. Bao. He has succeeded and failed, and left a legend among the trendsetters in Shanghai. There have been golden wonders, there have been long streams, men and women, ups and downs, all the love and truth of an era. Everyone thinks that Bao Zong can eat and determine the future, but no one knows Bao’s past. There, dreams are piled up, and a goldfish suddenly appears.

As an authentic Shanghai actor, after the official announcement of Hu Ge as Bao in the drama "Flowers", he has been widely expected and praised. It is agreed that his unique temperament and growth background are undoubtedly not as good as Bao’s character setting. As an authentic daughter of Shanghai, Qin Wen, who has won the Magnolia Award for Best Screenplay at the 24th Shanghai TV Festival, will present the most authentic taste of Shanghai with unique brushstrokes. The depths of the flowers bloom and fall, and the wonders of the sea are full of sadness and joy.

In order to explore the true picture of Shanghai and capture the sound of the times, from the city’s ups and downs to the daily changes of food, clothing, housing and transportation, the drama "Flowers" created by Zedong Film ingenuity is all exquisite. In order to truly restore the true colors of the times, the drama will be built 1:1 in real scenes to immersively reproduce the scenery of Shanghai and Shanghai in the past. In addition, Bao Dexi, who has won the Best Cinematography Award at the 73rd Academy Awards, is invited as the visual director to reproduce the Shanghai night of "City Light", and the sounds and colors of flowers and leaves will be presented one by one.

The drama is currently being filmed in Shanghai and will be available to audiences in the future.

Geely Xingyue L has a new model on the market, with 2.0T high power +8AT.

Recently, it has been learned from relevant channels that Geely Xingyue L has added a 2.0TD high-power +8AT two-wheel drive flagship model for consumers to choose from. The official guide price of this car is 168,200 yuan. The biggest highlight of this car is the only two-wheel drive model equipped with 8AT gearbox in the family. What exactly is the specific performance of this car? Let’s find out.

appearance design

First of all, in terms of appearance, because it is a new model, the appearance has not changed much. The front face adopts a polygonal air intake grille with a relatively large area, and the interior is blackened and decorated with many straight waterfall structures, which enhances the exquisiteness of the front face. The headlights on both sides are sharp and give people a good visual impact. On the side of the car body, the through waistline design looks slender. Below is equipped with a more personalized wheel hub, which enhances the sporty atmosphere on the side of the car body. In terms of car body size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4,770 mm, 1,895 mm and 1,689 mm respectively, and the wheelbase is 2,845 mm. At the rear of the car body, the design of the whole rear of the car body is relatively full. The taillights are designed in a popular penetrating style, and the interior is blackened. After lighting at night, the recognition is very high, and the exhaust pipe is adopted.

Interior layout

In terms of interior, the first thing that catches your eye is that the whole interior adopts two-color matching, which gives people a bright feeling and enhances the sense of grade of the whole interior. In addition to the steering wheel equipped with three-position multi-function configuration, it is also equipped with a 12.3-inch full LCD instrument, a 12.3-inch central control screen and a 12.3-inch co-pilot entertainment screen, which embellishes the due sense of science and technology. In other configurations, there are practical functional configurations such as 72-color interior atmosphere lights, 540-degree panoramic images, active braking, tire pressure display, main driver’s seat memory, full-speed adaptive cruise, lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning, etc.

Power aspect

In terms of power, this car will be equipped with a 2.0TD high-power engine with a maximum power of 238 HP and a peak torque of 350 Nm. In terms of transmission system, it is matched with an 8AT gearbox.

Summary: Generally speaking, the overall performance of this car is good, with a high-value appearance, full of interior technology, space that can fully meet daily use, and excellent power. I look forward to its later sales performance.

Shanghai market supervision department cracked down on illegal behavior of community group buying price.

  "Shanghai Market Supervision" WeChat WeChat official account news, at present, with the rapid development of community group buying, it has played a positive role in ensuring people’s livelihood, but there have also been some operators who use the community group buying model to implement unfair price behaviors such as price gouging and price fraud. To this end, the market supervision department, while strengthening the warning to the organizers and operators of community group buying, continues to severely crack down on illegal acts according to law, earnestly safeguard the market price order and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. A new batch of typical cases of illegal community group purchase prices are now announced.

  Case 1: Zhezang (Shanghai) Catering and Entertainment Management Co., Ltd. bid up the prices of edible oil and other commodities.

  Minhang District Market Supervision Bureau recently received a report clue, and law enforcement officers immediately inspected Zhezang (Shanghai) Catering and Entertainment Management Co., Ltd. After investigation, the parties carried out community group purchases through WeChat group and sold commodities such as grain, oil and milk to residents. Among them, the highest price difference between edible oil and milk is 105% and 90%, which is much higher than the price difference between similar products in the surrounding markets at the same time.

  The behavior of the parties concerned violates the relevant provisions of Item (3) of Article 14 of the Price Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Guiding Opinions on Determining the Illegal Behavior of Driving Up Prices during the Epidemic Prevention and Control Period, which constitutes the illegal behavior of driving up prices. At present, the case is being handled quickly.

  Case 2: Li’s case of driving up vegetable prices

  Changning District Market Supervision Bureau recently received complaints from the public, reflecting that Li sold vegetables at high prices during the epidemic. After investigation, Li purchased vegetables from wholesalers at low prices and sold them to residents in surrounding communities through WeChat. In the case of no obvious change in the purchase cost, Li significantly raised the sales price of vegetables. Among them, the purchase price of green vegetables is 3 yuan /500g, the sales price is 10 yuan /500g, and the price difference between purchase and sale is 23.3%; The purchase price of ginger is 5 yuan /500g, the sales price is 15 yuan /500g, and the price difference between purchase and sale is 200%. The price difference rate of the above vegetables is much higher than that of similar products in the surrounding markets at the same time.

  The behavior of the parties concerned violates the relevant provisions of Item (3) of Article 14 of the Price Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Guiding Opinions on Determining the Illegal Behavior of Driving Up Prices during the Epidemic Prevention and Control Period, which constitutes the illegal behavior of driving up prices. At present, the case is being handled quickly.

  Case 3: Pork belly becomes sandwich meat, Zhao Moumou’s price fraud case.

  On April 30th, the market supervision bureau of Putuo District received public opinion, reflecting that the pork belly bought by a certain community was not pork belly.

  After investigation, Zhao Moumou, as a pork supplier, still bought pork from a meat business department at a price of 14 yuan /500g, and sold it as pork belly at a price of 23 yuan /500g, with a total illegal income of 2,268 yuan. At present, Zhao has refunded the overcharged money to the residents in full.

  The behavior of the parties violates the provisions of Item (4) of Article 14 of the Price Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC), which constitutes an illegal act of price fraud. Putuo District Market Supervision Bureau intends to impose a fine of 9072 yuan on the parties for price violations.

  Case 4: The case of changing cold meat into frozen meat, and the price fraud case of Yehuan Food Business Department.

  On April 29th, Minhang District Market Supervision Bureau received reports from many residents in a certain district, reflecting that the package of chilled pork purchased in community group purchase was actually frozen pork. Minhang District Market Supervision Bureau immediately dispatched case handlers to conduct on-the-spot investigation.

  After investigation, this community group purchase was initiated by the party Ye Yuan Food Business Department through the head of the group, Wang, in the group purchase applet. The "Cold Fresh Pork Package" is marked as: cold fresh forelegs 1kg/ bag, cold fresh pork belly 1kg/ bag, cold fresh soup in small rows 1kg/ bag and cold fresh slices in large rows 1kg/ bag. However, the products sold by the actual parties are all frozen pork, which is deliberately marked as "cold and fresh" pork with inconsistent quality with the actual situation.

  The behavior of the parties violates the provisions of Item (4) of Article 14 of the Price Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC), which constitutes an illegal act of price fraud. At present, the case is being handled quickly.

  Case 5: Yuanhao Comprehensive Business Department carried out the case of unclear price tag for community group purchase.

  Minhang district market supervision bureau recently received a report clue, and law enforcement officers immediately inspected Yuanhao comprehensive operation department. After investigation, the parties set up a WeChat group for community group purchase during the epidemic period, and sent photos of the list of sales commodities to the WeChat group every day, so that community residents could make purchases through group solitaire. However, in the community group purchase WeChat group, the parties only marked the product name, but did not indicate the price, pricing unit and other related contents.

  The behavior of the parties violates the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 13 of the Price Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC), which constitutes a price violation that is not clearly marked. Minhang District Market Supervision Bureau has served a notice of administrative punishment, and intends to make an administrative punishment of ordering it to correct the illegal act and fined 3,500 yuan.

  Reminder: Organizers and operators of community group buying should strengthen price self-discipline, standardize the price tag, and operate according to laws and regulations. Do not use false or misleading price means to trick consumers or other operators into trading with them; It is not allowed to fabricate and spread information about price increases, hoard and drive up prices, push commodity prices to rise too high and too fast, and disrupt market price order.

Herd immunity: Why does herd immunity in English use herd?

This article is reproduced from "A Zewai English Notes" and has been authorized.
At the beginning of the spread of the epidemic in March 2020, the British Prime Minister put forward the proposal of "herd immunity", which made many people feel "refreshing". At that time, the successful development of the vaccine against COVID-19 was still far away, and the British Prime Minister could only imagine the HERD Immunization achieved through "infection of diseases". This proposal with low safety attracted a lot of criticism at that time.
Since the beginning of this year, with the listing of various vaccines, safer herd immunity has become an important means to fight the epidemic. Countries are encouraging people to vaccinate, and strive to reach the vaccination scale needed to realize herd immunity as soon as possible.
Herd immunity will effectively reduce the negative impact of the epidemic and protect people’s health; This statement itself also contains a remarkable feature of English in language and culture, as well as the great differences between English and Chinese.
Before explaining English knowledge, let’s first understand the principle of group immunity.
What’s with Herd immunity?
The definition of Herd immunity is roughly as follows:
Herd immunity is a phenomenon seen when a high percentage of individuals within a population have developed immunity to a pathogen.Group immunity is a phenomenon: in a certain population, a large proportion of people are immune to a certain pathogen (such as bacteria or viruses).
Because so many people within the community are unable to contract the disease or virus, this reduces the likelihood that those who have not developed immunity will contract the disease. Because most individuals in this population have acquired immunity, they will not be infected with related diseases or viruses; In this way, the possibility and risk of exposure to related diseases or viruses will be greatly reduced for those individuals who have not acquired immunity in the whole population.
There are two ways to obtain immunity from a virus or bacteria: infection or vaccination. Comparatively, vaccination is the safer, more effective path, as it provides immunity without illness.
There are two ways to get immunity from a virus or bacteria: one is to infect the disease, and the other is to vaccinate. In contrast, the method of vaccination is more effective and safer, and it will not cause illness while generating immunity.
Different expressions for "group"
In English, there are several other expressions of held immunity, including community immunity, population immunity and social immunity, but in newspapers and media, most articles use the wording of held immunity.
The original meaning of the word herd in English is not used for "people", but to describe "groups of animals".
In practical use, herd mainly refers to cattle, and sometimes also refers to deer or elephants, such as: A herd of cows/deer/elephants and so on.
Using herd to refer to people is strictly an extended metaphor. In addition to newspapers and magazines, people are often referred to in various fictional novels, and the language effect is herd vivid, such as:
She pushed her way through a herd of lunchtime drinkers.
She struggled through the crowd who were having lunch and drinking.
Two idioms
Although the description of "crowd" with herd is vivid and interesting, its meaning is not completely neutral, and it is somewhat disapproving or even critical. It is emphasized that when many people get together, they often lose the ability to think independently as individuals.
Herd mentality or herd instinct, which is often used in English, is usually described as "herd mentality" in Chinese, which means: like flocks of animals and livestock, they have no thinking ability, only know that follow the herd takes action with the whole group; What most other members of the group do, they follow suit.
There is an idiom to ride herd on sb/sth in American English, which is often used to describe crowds. This idiom comes from the plains of the western United States, which reminds people of the scene of cowboys riding horses and herding cattle on the grassland.
Although it originated in the countryside, to ride herd on sb/sth is mainly used in urban areas, which refers to crowd control, usually refers to unorganized crowds, such as:
The police rides herd on crowds of youths on the streets.
The police kept order in the street to prevent groups of young people from getting out of control.
Situation difference
This figurative use of herd to refer to the crowd mainly exists in newspaper articles and literary novels, and is also used in popular science books for the public.
However, in academic articles and official documents of various institutions and departments, most people deliberately avoid using Herd to describe people. For example, in academic and formal occasions, herd immunity is usually replaced by community immunity and population immunity.
Although this will reduce the vividness of the language, it can rule out the possibility of association and avoid being offended. Although it is vivid, it is more objective and accurate.
cultural difference
Different from English culture, many other languages and cultures are not used to using words specially used to describe animals to describe human beings, and even are very taboo about it. This is the case in Chinese, and an obvious example is a large number of insulting expressions in traditional Chinese that originated from "dogs".
This cultural difference between Chinese and English deserves special attention when learning and using English. When translating English-quoted media articles, it is especially important to realize that when "animals" are used to describe "people" in English, they are usually not insulting, and they are not intentionally offending others and calling them "animals, pigs and dogs are inferior".
Most of the time, Herd’s analogy of "animal" to "human" can be directly translated into plain language without rhetorical meaning.
Two more "groups"
Realizing the cultural differences between Chinese and English in animal metaphor can also help us to use English more vividly and effectively, and we will not be timid because of this "burden" of traditional Chinese rhetoric expression.
English words like herd, which use animals to describe "people", are very rich and constitute a systematic series.
For example, herd is suitable for cattle, deer, elephants and other large animals; The "flock" of smaller animals is called flock in English, which mainly refers to sheep.
In addition, flock can also refer to a flock of birds, such as the proverbial birds of a feather flock together, which often corresponds to the Chinese word "birds of a feather flock together". When describing insects, such as bees, it will be called swarm.
Like herd, flock and swarm are often used to describe people, which not only remind people of vivid images, but also have their own division of meaning and function, describing different characteristics and aspects of "group behavior" respectively. In English, these statements are usually not regarded as insulting or demeaning.
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