CBN Friday Special丨Local tourism officials turned “internet celebrities” for...|四川省|理塘|理塘县|甘孜|甘孜州

Hello! Welcome to this edition of CBN Friday Special. I’m Stephanie Li.

A recent video has gone viral on China’s social media, which features a local government official from Hubei cosplaying as an ancient white knight who did sword dancing and played chess. But its sudden popularity was apparently for all the “wrong reasons” — he was ruthlessly mocked for being “too ugly”.

Xie Wei, director of the Suizhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism in central China’s Hubei province, was criticized by Chinese netizens for his performance in a series of self-made films promoting local tourism.

In the video that drew the most criticism, Xie wore costumes and role-played as an ancient knight at a scenic local site famed for its ginkgo trees.

Despite upset by the comments at first, Xie accepted them and insisted he was doing the right thing: to publicize his hometown. “As long as I can show off the beauty of Suizhou, I don’t mind making a fool of myself,” Xie said.

In fact, he might be on to something. Xie’s candid response to the criticism has won him respect on social media, and so far a Weibo hashtag on the matter had won 5.5 million views.

Since May, Xie has uploaded 23 videos on Douyin promoting the natural environment and culture of Suizhou, attracting 27,000 followers and 153,000 likes.

Another reason why he did the portrayal himself is because the bureau didn’t have the budget to pay a celebrity influencer and professionals to make the videos. And Xie was not the only local official who embraces social media as a low-budget way to attract national attention to their beautiful yet little-known hometowns.

In 2020, He Jiaolong, deputy head of Zhaosu County in Yili, Xinjiang went viral after dressing up in a video in a red cape and riding a horse over snow-covered ground. Chinese internet users admiringly described her horseback riding as “valiant and heroic” and “too beautiful”.

The 41-year-old female official’s striking posture on horseback became an overnight sensation and earned her a new title as “the deputy head of county with the largest amount of fans on Douyin”.

As deputy county head in charge of agriculture, He has devoted almost all of her spare time to learn how to run an e-commerce studio on Douyin since May 2020, even signing up for online courses at her own expense.

Her efforts paid off. Followers of her account grew from 500,000 to 1.4 million, and she started to livestream, selling local delicacies such as honey and rapeseed oil before going to work in the morning.

It's not just a spur of the moment. When it comes to poverty alleviation and tourism promotion, local governments mean business. Chinese tourism officials have become increasingly creative in their promotional efforts since the Covid-19 pandemic began, especially after the success of Ding Zhe who has absolutely played a role in inspiring local governments to embrace social media in promoting the beauty of their hometowns.

Tamdrin, or known as Ding Zhen in Mandarin, is a 21-year-old member of the Tibetan ethnic group in southwest China's Sichuan province. Tamdrin was spotted and videotaped by a photographer in his hometown in Litang County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Sichuan Province. The seven-second video garnered nearly 3 million "likes" on Douyin in less than three weeks.

Meanwhile, “Ding Zhen” continues to trend on Weibo. People also got to know him as more videos came out, in which he used stumbling Mandarin to introduce himself and express his affection toward his chubby pony "Pearl," and the animal has gained over 80,000 followers on its own Weibo account.

Not only did his video go viral in 2020, but thanks to his good looks with Bambi eyes and a bright smile, he has also been appointed to promote tourism in his hometown through short videos.

The secret behind Tamdrin’s fame have a lot to do with a Garze’s tourism officials. Local government quickly reacted to Tamdrin's soaring popularity, inviting him to be the tourism ambassador of Litang County just days after his first video went viral. He was also hired by a local culture and tourism promotion company for a monthly salary of 3,500 yuan (about 532 U.S. dollars).

At the same time, Liu Hong, Director of the Culture and Tourism Department of Garze also became famous from his social media videos for his “handsome” movie-star looks.

The county, with a population of some 73,000, just shook off poverty in February 2020. Compared with its neighboring Daocheng County, Litang's tourism has not been robust, though its views are no less impressive, according to local authorities. Tamdrin's overnight fame gives the local government a boost to develop local tourism.

Many netizens are seriously considering a tour to Litang. According to a report of Trip.com, China's major online tourism company, the search volume of "Litang" increased over six-fold in the 10 days after his video came out. More and more travel websites have published articles introducing travel routes to Litang, hotels to stay in and places to visit there.

"The world is big, but I love my hometown the most," Tamdrin said in a promotional video. It’s the sincere love for one’s hometown and the boundless creativity to help lift it out of poverty that actually count.

近日，湖北随州市文化和旅游局局长解伟把当地的古银杏带火了，出圈的原因竟是“太丑了”？

解伟在推介随州当地的千年银杏谷景区时，自己出镜作古风男子扮相，在银杏树下舞剑、下棋，其意在尽力营造出唯美意境。

“白衣侠客弄剑，红衫美人抚琴。”想象中的仙气飘飘，镜头拉近之后，看客啼笑皆非。旁人眼中，这位白衣男子脸颊稍显圆润，身姿不太灵活，实在不契合小说中的侠客形象。网友评价辛辣：“妆发尴尬”“太胖了”“没有颜值不必强求”……解伟解释是“因为没有什么预算请演员，于是就亲自上场了”。

解伟说：“只要能让网友觉得有趣，哪怕是我自己献丑好笑，你们能知道随州有这么多美景，就行了。”虽然有些评论不太友好，但至少有不少人可能是通过解伟才知道，原来神农、曾侯乙编钟都出自随州。

事实上，解伟并不是第一个亲自上阵宣传的文旅局局长。新疆伊犁州文旅局局长贺娇龙凭借一则鲜衣怒马雪地驰骋的视频涨粉50万，四川甘孜州文旅局局长刘洪以“笑傲江湖变装视频”走红网络……而作为“萌新”，解伟的“变装秀”是他向两位“前辈”学习的成果。

“他们懂得通过自媒体，运用自身优势介绍当地的资源，迎来不少游客，推动经济发展，我非常佩服。”解伟说起自己的构想：“他们都是成功的案例，我学习他们，模仿他们，争取靠近他们，哪一天说不定超越他们。”

不过，同样是“秋日黄叶”的主题，刘洪围巾大衣有型有款，解伟则被评价“造型师要扣工资”。网友调侃，一个是韩剧，一个是喜剧。

拥抱社交媒体的旅游宣传，已经得到不少地方文旅部门的重视，这或多或少可能受到了丁真“意外走红”的启发。

”2020年11月11日开始，丁真的一则短视频刷爆全网。这位来自四川省甘孜州理塘县的普通少年凭借着天然粗犷的“野生”美感，瞬间收获无数粉丝，也成为11月下旬火遍全网的现象级网红代表。丁真的出现，使大众们眼前一亮。简单的七秒视频，在网络上只发布了两小时，就突破1000万次的播放量，每一个看过视频内容的网友，都被眼前这个阳光大男孩的笑容治愈。

面对突如其来的关注，丁真有些不知所措，他在接受采访时用藏语表示：“我不知道自己怎么红的，但是出名以后能为家乡做宣传，我很高兴。当地一家国有企业，即四川省甘孜州理塘县文旅体投资发展有限公司，与丁真一共签订了2份合同，一份劳动合同，一份代理合同，职位是旅游形象大使，需要他为理塘和甘孜的旅游出力。理塘文旅公司是理塘县国资委下属国有公司。

丁真的爆火无疑是理塘最好的宣传名片，当地名气提升了，村民的收入增加了，连带着四川甘孜州的机票、火车票都成倍地增加。据旅游类APP统计，当时理塘的搜索率升高620%。

虽然在“颜值即正义”的时代，不少地方文旅局都以“貌”取胜，但解伟“丑出圈”也能带热当地旅游产业，似乎也印证了一个道理：保持初心，无关颜值。

“外面的世界很大，但我还是最爱我的家乡。”