In a year and a half, this blogger has only updated 22 videos, but one of them has made him gain a million followers. He is the top blogger of Chinese style cosplay, Zhu Tiexiong (朱铁雄). He used the ultimate special effects to ignite the passion and romance in the hearts of all ancient style fans.
01 Chinese-style passion and romance
Zhu Tiexiong inspires the emotions rooted in our heart with his moving stories.
His first video is very short. He uses cheap cardboard to pretend to be Sun Wukong, guarding the dreams of sick children, but when he is mocked and belittled, he does a backflip and rises into the air, transforming into Qi Tian Da Sheng. “Those dreams that seem so ridiculous are the light we guard with all our might”.
He is also the majestic Zhao Yun, riding a white horse, heroic rescue. Behind his gorgeous chinoiserie costume transformation, is the heroic nature and chivalry. Through the constant reversal of the plot, it touches our emotions.
But Zhu Tiexiong does not intend to let the audience stay only in the visual enjoyment, he hopes to convey more values. He began to try to add traditional emotions such as heritage and morality to make the plot richer and the characters fuller.
In the latest video “Lion dance”, the apprentice, who is afraid of heights, gets angry with his master and does not want to learn anymore. But in the moment when the apprentice gently puts down the lion's head, it is his love and reverence for traditional culture.
Zhu Tiexiong from the appearance of the characters in the shape of clothing, aural music in the national style, to the scenes in the national style elements set, script choreography, will be repeatedly refined.
Zhu Tiexiong will repeatedly review the make-up, costumes, soundtrack, scenes with Chinoiserie style elements, and script arrangement.
Each video takes at least a week, or even a month, from planning, shooting, to special effects production, and the long preparation corresponds to high-quality work.
And he also shows the Chinoiserie style of passion and romance to the fullest, through traditional skills to convey a rhythmic, warm story, we see more meaning behind the culture, and this meaning needs to be passed on from generation to generation.
02 The innate love
In 2017, Zhu Tiexiong, who was still working as a new media editor, created his own account at the suggestion of a friend and soon gained a group of fans with his excellent special effects skills.
He imitated the filming technique of the movie Inception and folded the city.
Zhu Tiexiong is also willing to share his filming process and special effects techniques in his videos.
But because of the very different styles of his work, it is hard to have a memorable tag other than special effects master, making his creation a bottleneck.
Maybe it's time to make some changes, Zhu Tiexiong gave up his account with millions of followers and started to explore a suitable one that he really wanted to do.
But the success of the first account can not be separated from each of Zhu Tiexiong's experiences. Born in Putian, Fujian, Zhu Tiexiong grew up studying martial arts, and after entering university, he studied ancient battlefield combat with an off-campus teacher.
During his time at school, he also participated in numerous plays and won numerous awards. As the rehearsal footage of each performance needed to be kept for documentation, Zhu Tiexiong learned photography and editing on his own. During his internship at the TV station, his skills were also professionally enhanced. Genius is not achieved overnight, each experience is to guide him to the road to his own star.
03 Awakened young people
“Chinoiserie + reversal plot + special effects”, Zhu Tiexiong's success is not an unexpected or lucky one, but his careful polishing of the short video scripts repeatedly and his strict requirements for action, shooting, and post-production. The image of Chinoiserie costume style from him makes traditional culture take firm root in the young crowd.
Traditional culture is more like a faith inheritance, and this kind of touch is deeply hidden in everyone's heart. “What I want to do is not to create it, but to awaken it.” Zhu Tiexiong said.
Zhu Tiexiong's team, with an average age of only 23, has become the group of people who are inspired and infected by traditional culture because they are doing this. “The wind of the times is blowing to what I love.”