China Youth Daily is concerned about how to treat the "usefulness" and "uselessness" of culture.

For drinking tea, it is obvious that ordinary white porcelain bowls can meet the demand, but why do we prefer porcelain tea set with fine workmanship? When writing, the arm rest is used to prevent the arm from being stained with ink. Obviously, as long as it has the function of putting the arm, why do we pay attention to its material and the carving on it? When we are moved by the beautiful artistic conception of an ancient poem, when we are fascinated by the exquisiteness and elegance of a handicraft, what do we get from it? What can those humanistic details and artistic values bring to our lives? Or, is culture "useful" or "useless" to our life?

The "uselessness" of culture is also "great use"

In the dialogue session hosted by Bai Yansong at the 15th Cultural China Forum, Pan Lusheng, chairman of China Folk Writers Association, pointed out that "useful" means "practical" and "useless" means aesthetic "useless". Material and spiritual use and life use are both useful and practical, while useless is also useful and even useful.

Pan Lusheng introduced that in Lin ‘an City in the Southern Song Dynasty, the palace culture, the literati culture and the street culture were integrated, which formed the idea of "craft for practical use", and also created a life style of unity of practicality and aesthetics in the Southern Song Dynasty. During this period, the weaving technology was superb, and the fabrics made were dense and light as cicada’s wings. Not only were there various types of yarn, Luo, Qi and Ling, but the silk reeling and embroidery techniques were also superb. The gardens in the Southern Song Dynasty are like three-dimensional landscape paintings with pavilions and winding paths, which contain the spiritual complex and aesthetic artistic conception of literati. From the clay figurines of children in the Song Dynasty in Zhenjiang Museum, to the Children’s Plays in the City in Taipei Palace Museum, from the white porcelain children’s pillows in Dingyao in the Palace Museum, to Song Jin’s Paintings of the Hundred Immortals in Cleveland Art Museum in the United States, all of them reflect the aesthetics and interest of life in which humanities and art are combined with street life.

In contrast, in today’s fast-paced diet and fragmented culture, modern people no longer seem to have an attitude of attaching importance to life aesthetics, and traditional crafts no longer pursue use value. In this context, should we learn from the ancients and return to the "elegant life" way of the Southern Song Dynasty?

"The handicraft tradition of the Southern Song Dynasty is historical and contemporary, which runs through the traditional Chinese aesthetic spirit, lifestyle and cultural taste." Pan Lusheng said. Therefore, he proposed to develop a new economy of Song rhyme culture, take people’s life needs as the guide, enhance cultural life experience, and study how elegant lifestyle can be integrated into today’s life, so that people can gain a sense of cultural identity.

Pan Lusheng believes that, on the one hand, by reviving traditional crafts, we can explore how to better inherit and utilize traditional craft and cultural resources at present, inject the culture of Xixiang into education and cultural communication, and serve people’s spiritual and cultural life. On the other hand, through the development of cultural industry with cross-industry barriers, traditional craft culture can be transformed into the resources of contemporary Song Yun cultural industry, creating higher economic value, thus better serving people’s material and cultural needs.

"Cultural pension" is worth looking forward to.

On the aesthetic level of life, the "usefulness" and "uselessness" of culture may be a philosophical proposition, but in the medical field, the "usefulness" of culture is indispensable. According to Zheng Xiaoying, academician of the Academy of Sciences of developing countries and director of the Peking University Population Research Institute, culture is even more "useful" than science and technology.

Zheng Xiaoying said, "Everyone’s ultimate wish is to grow old healthily and say goodbye to the world happily. This is by no means a problem that can be solved by relying solely on science and technology or medical means, but a realm that must be achieved through the combination of culture, art and technology. In this sense, the infiltration of culture is more important than the development of science and technology. "Zheng Xiaoying believes that" medical art education should be integrated into medical education so that every doctor can accumulate deeper artistic accomplishment and cultural heritage. "

Zheng Xiaoying pointed out that cultural blessing is also needed to deal with the problem of population aging. She introduced that with the intensification of the aging process, the life expectancy of China’s population is also increasing rapidly. However, most of the increased life expectancy is unhealthy, that is, life expectancy with disabilities. Among the disabled people in China, 53% are elderly people. To solve the problems of these elderly disabled people, we need the support of science and technology, but more importantly, we need the support of culture. "Let them be happy and enjoy the benefits brought about by the reform and opening up to the maximum. This is not a problem that can be solved by a simple assistive device."

At the same time, Zheng Xiaoying emphasized the concept of "cultural support for the aged", which is a way to support the aged on the premise that the material needs of the elderly are basically guaranteed, on the basis of meeting spiritual needs, on the basis of communicating emotions, exchanging ideas and having a healthy body and mind, and on the purpose of publicizing individuality, advocating independence and enjoying the spirit of happiness and pleasure. "Cultural pension meets the spiritual needs of the elderly. For the elderly without children, this pension model is particularly important." Zheng Xiaoying said.

How to realize the mutual integration of science and technology and humanities

Undoubtedly, the integration of culture, art and technology can make people’s lives better. So, as an individual, how should we start from ourselves and realize the integration of technology and humanities? This is also a question that Wang Yuming, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and an expert in fluid sealing engineering technology, is often asked.

Wang Yuming laughed and called himself a "science man". "However, although my main business is mechanical engineering, I am not" mechanical "culturally. He is a student of Mr. Ye Jiaying, a consultant of the Chinese Poetry Society, the director of the Poetry Working Committee of colleges and universities, and the president of the Tsinghua University Lotus Pond Poetry Society. It can be said that he is a person who perfectly balances "poetry and distance".

When answering the question "how to realize the mutual integration of science and technology and humanities", Wang Yuming believes that in terms of values, science and technology and humanities and arts are both pursuing truth, goodness and beauty, and they are essentially interlinked; In the mode of thinking, both of them need logical thinking and inspiration epiphany thinking, which can promote each other. The same is true of many masters of science and technology (such as Einstein, Yang Zhenning, Qiu Chengtong, Gu Yuxiu, Qian Xuesen, etc.). However, the most important thing is to have a "pure heart" in both scientific research and literary creation.

On the "Use" of China Culture from the Outside

The Chinese culture has a long history, and the "useful" culture not only created the fashion life of the ancients, but also injected spiritual strength into solving modern social problems, and also brought about an impact on the civilized development of neighboring countries.

In the dialogue session, Cheng Yonghua, former Japanese ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to People’s Republic of China (PRC) and executive vice president of China-Japan Friendship Association, introduced the "use" of Japanese culture to neighboring countries. He said that China’s culture had a profound influence on the Korean Peninsula, Viet Nam and Japan. Take Japan as an example. The Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties were the historical peaks of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges. During this period, ancient Japan sent 19 groups of envoys to China to study, with a maximum of 600 people at a time. In addition to sending envoys, a large number of international students also came to China from ancient Japan. Many of them stayed for many years, and some even stayed in China to work as officials in Chang ‘an until they died and were buried in Chang ‘an. In 645 AD, the ancient Japanese carried out the "Dahua Innovation" movement, abolished the monopoly regime system in big noble, and established an ancient centralized state with reference to the rules and regulations of the Tang Dynasty in China. During the Song Dynasty, more and more Japanese people came to China to study. Jian Zhen, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, traveled eastward to preach the precepts to Japan and was honored as the ancestor of Japanese Buddhist legalists. The Tang Zhaoti Temple complex built by him and his disciples in Nara, Japan, embodies the architectural characteristics of the Tang Dynasty and is the largest and most beautiful building in Japan’s existing Tianping era. Japanese characters are also born out of Chinese characters. At first, there were only languages but no characters in Japan. In asuka period, Buddhist classics introduced into Japan along with Buddhism made Chinese characters penetrate into Japanese life. The first Chinese characters were used by ancient Japanese as phonography, but they were troublesome in the process of use, so heian period invented katakana and hiragana with reference to the radicals and cursive scripts of Chinese characters. In addition, the present Japanese court music-gagaku,It is also music from the Tang Dynasty in China.

Cheng Yonghua said that Sino-Japanese exchanges have a history of 2,000 years. Today, Japanese young people are still attracted by China’s rapid economic development and technological innovation, and feel that "they should go to China to see more and communicate more".

Whether it is "practical" or "useless", the China culture of the same strain needs and deserves to be passed down and carried forward by contemporary people. As Pan Lusheng said, culture is a nation’s overall lifestyle and value system. If the ancients’ fashion is integrated into contemporary life, we may be able to create a pioneer culture with temperature, connotation and taste in the new era.

The quality is spit out, the design is involved, and it is trapped in marketing … How do domestic beauty products "get through"?

Image source @ vision china

Text | The forefront of entrepreneurship, author | Li Xiaofan, editor | Feng Yu

The beauty circle has changed.

A few years ago, China brand was hard to find in the world’s high-end makeup market, and most of China’s beauty market was occupied by brands such as the United States, Japan and South Korea. However, with the emergence and growth of domestic beauty players, this phenomenon has been reversed.

From large advertisements in elevators to celebrity endorsements and bloggers bringing goods, domestic beauty seems to have been riding the dust. More importantly, beauty has become a benchmark industry in the trend of new domestic products.

However, behind the heat wave, some industrial problems have gradually been exposed. On platforms such as Xiaohongshu and bilibili, many bloggers have given a "lightning protection guide" in the evaluation of domestic beauty products; There are even bloggers who point out that some domestic brands have plagiarism and imitation in design.

At the time when domestic beauty cosmetics were in full swing, a pot of cold water was pouring down.

About five years ago, when Guo Xianger just became a beauty blogger, he found that few beauty bloggers used domestic beauty products.

Now, only a few years have passed, and she has seen that most beauty bloggers have several domestic products. In her own videos, domestic brands appear in almost every issue.

Especially with the rise of a "new domestic product" trend in China, beauty cosmetics, as a representative industry, has been in the limelight for a while.Among the rising brands, the most dazzling ones are Perfect Diary and Huaxizi.

In 2017, the perfect diary was born. It took only two years, and the sales of its parent company reached 3.5 billion yuan. In the same year that Perfect Diary was established, Hua Xizi was born. In the same two years, its annual sales of Tmall also reached nearly 2 billion yuan.

In this year’s Tmall 618 makeup brand TOP10, Hua Xizi and Perfect Diary were ranked first and third respectively.

New domestic brands are emerging one after another. For example, in March 2020, a domestic skin care brand named PMPM was launched. According to public data, the GMV of the brand was 150,000 yuan in the month when it was launched, and after six months, the GMV increased by 100 times.

The amazing rise speed of domestic beauty cosmetics can’t help but make people stunned. "It is rare to see any international beauty brand that can achieve such a volume in a few years." Diu Diu, founder of Xinran Advertising and beauty blogger, told "the forefront of entrepreneurship".

Cutting-edge beauty cosmetics became popular overnight and quickly opened the market, which became the target that many domestic brands looked forward to. However, this speed of development has also led to the market gradually becoming impetuous.

On platforms such as Little Red Book and Tik Tok, some beauty bloggers pointed out that some products were not easy to use in makeup evaluation.

"To be honest, there is no makeup to satisfy me in the domestic products now." Senior beauty blogger "Luo Wangyu" is outspoken in the video.

The performance of some make-up products is not satisfactory. In Hua Xizi’s product evaluation, Luo Wangyu once fired at Hua Xizi’s "Loose Smoke Eyeliner" and "Loose Smoke Butterfly Feather Mascara (Slim Edition)". "The eyeliner is like a primary school student’s mark, and the eyelashes are caked and not long." He said in the video.

In addition to the product quality being spit out, there is still a more serious problem in the domestic beauty industry-brands may imitate or even copy each other.

Diu Diu revealed that some domestic brands of cosmetics or skin care products will find some mature foreign brands for 1:1 re-engraving. "At most, they change their LOGO and set up their own concepts."

On bilibili, the UP owner "Open-shelf King Boy" once released a video, taking stock of "copying" domestic brands of other beauty brands.

She mentioned in the video, for example, the outer packaging of a lipstick of NOVO is similar to YSL except for the LOGO, but the color number is quite different.

Figure/"Open King Boy" video screenshot

Some domestic beauty players not only copy foreign brands, but also have serious involution between domestic brands.

"susisu (domestic make-up brand) has launched a quicksand eye shadow tray, which is beautifully packaged and priced at 148 yuan in Taobao flagship store. A few days after the launch of this product, a number of products with almost the same appearance appeared on the market. " Diu diu means.

According to the rough statistics of "the forefront of entrepreneurship", in addition to susisu, there are at least six similar eye shadows on Taobao, and one of them is a Thai brand. Among these seven products, the cheapest one only costs 11.5 yuan. In addition, there are two products, but the eye shadow tray is changed from square to round, and the design has not changed much.

Figure/Taobao screenshot

Imitation, plagiarism, involution … It seems that the domestic beauty products that are running for their lives also need a pot of cold water to cool down.

Not only is the product extremely involuted, but the strong marketing attributes of the beauty industry also make traffic the lifeline of the product.

"If you have been exposed to cosmetics for a long time, you will see many helpless phenomena. It is the grandfather who has money to promote, standing at the top of the food chain, and all those who have no money to promote are buried under the iceberg." Little Red Book beauty blogger "Ollie Oris" said in his video.

At the moment when new brands are emerging one after another, in order to get out of the circle, brand owners have to spend some time on marketing. And some domestic beauty brands are well known to the public, and they really rely on high-frequency marketing.

"The frequency of domestic beauty advertisements is very high. There are several brands that have fixed cooperation with me. When new products are launched, they will be promoted. When they are frequent, there will be two or three advertisements a month." Guo Xianger said.

In marketing tactics, domestic beauty brands also show differences from international brands.

"International brands are well known to consumers. The main purpose of their marketing is to promote brand influence, so they will cooperate with celebrities, heads and other heavyweights to promote them." Diu diu said.

Domestic beauty brands are better at using "human sea tactics". "For example, some brands will even cooperate with more than 1,000 bloggers in a single month to promote their star products." Diu Diu introduced. "Many domestic brands don’t have too many requirements on the magnitude of KOL in the early stage of promotion. One is to save costs, and the other is that their popularity is not big enough, and they may not be able to cooperate with head bloggers and stars in the growth period."

The parent company of Perfect Diary, Yixian E-commerce, once stated in the prospectus that the company has cooperated with nearly 15,000 KOL with different popularity, including Li Jiaqi and Viya, among which more than 800 have more than 1 million followers.

However, domestic beauty cosmetics are gradually approaching international brands, and one obvious performance is to find celebrity endorsements.

In October 2020, Zhou Xun officially announced that it would become the global spokesperson of the perfect diary brand; In May of this year, Dilraba officially announced that it would become the global spokesperson of colorkey Ke Laqi brand …

There are also differences between domestic brands and international brands in the evaluation criteria of marketing effect. Different from international brands, which emphasize the subtle influence of marketing on consumers, domestic brands pay more attention to the immediate conversion rate, that is, the effect of bringing goods.

The most intuitive performance is that many bloggers have added shopping links or soft implants in their videos. When choosing KOL, the brand will also measure the data of its historical goods, and cooperate with bloggers with higher selective prices.

"Users have the habit of buying international brands and may consume them at any time, but for domestic products, if consumers don’t buy them today, they may not take the initiative to buy them in the future." Diu diu said.

In addition, the pricing of domestic brands is low, and the cost of trial and error for consumers is low, which also provides the possibility for brands to assess the instant conversion rate.

Overwhelming marketing seems to be the key password for the new brand to break the circle.Naturally, they also invest a lot in marketing. "As far as I know, there are no fewer than five domestic beauty brands with a marketing budget of over 100 million this year." Diu diu said.

Too frequent marketing may attract users’ disgust. "When bloggers on all platforms are pushing the same product, consumers will inevitably have rebellious psychology."

If the marketing investment is too much, the expenses for product research and development will naturally decrease. This has also led to some domestic beauty brands being called "marketing with heart and making products with feet" by the outside world.

Beauty brands are crazy about marketing, but do they make money?

It doesn’t seem to be.

Diu Diu said that the marketing expenses of most products often account for 50%-60%, including anchor commission, pure grass type marketing, etc., plus operation and maintenance, manpower, warehousing and other costs, so that the brand hardly makes any money.

But in order to gain a foothold in the market, marketing is both helpless and inevitable for the brand.

"I sometimes feel that some brands pay too much attention to marketing, but this is something that can’t be helped. As a person in the beauty industry, I know about new products through marketing, not to mention consumers. " Guo Xianger said.

"There are some very old cosmetics brands with good research and development capabilities and product quality, but the products are not hot." Diu Diu also noticed the influence of marketing on products.

There may be two reasons behind this, one is that the brand’s marketing ideas can’t keep up, and the second may be that there is no money to do marketing.

"Some brand new products are put on the shelves, and 500 to 1,000 talents are found for promotion at one time, while some traditional domestic brands hope for’ tap water’. However, the volume and volume of’ tap water’ obviously cannot compete with the pyramid promotion of new brands. There are still some old players who know to do marketing, but their ideas and styles are not fast enough, so they have been eliminated by the market in the wave of Internet e-commerce. " Diu diu said.

This makes it difficult for domestic brands to reach consumers without marketing. Insufficient marketing can’t stimulate the splash, and too much marketing will lead to consumer disgust. This is a difficult battle to control.

Another problem in front of domestic beauty cosmetics comes from consumers’ stereotyped cognition.

In the minds of many consumers, domestic brands are equated with "cheap prices", and few consumers are willing to look at the design and product development behind the products. This also leads to the brand’s lack of motivation to increase R&D costs in the short term.

Fortunately, in the domestic beauty industry full of thorns, there are also some products with both reputation and quality.

Guo Xianger once bought an eyebrow pencil with "khaki color" and one from 9.9 yuan. "The color and durability are good, and it will not agglomerate. The eyebrows drawn are well-rooted." She said.

She once compared the eyebrow pencil of "khaki color" with the eyebrow pencil of "Bei Lingfei", an American make-up brand, which cost more than 160 yuan. "I can’t see any difference by using these two eyebrows to brush the eyebrows on the left and right sides, and I even think the’ khaki color’ looks better."

Although some products have been vomited, domestic beauty may still be worthy of consumers’ patience."Even if it is an international brand, no product is perfect. For example, a lip glaze, if it is bright, it must be sticky; If it is matte, then I will accept it to a certain extent. " Guo Xiang said.

Surprisingly, the growth space of domestic beauty cosmetics is not limited to the domestic market, and brands such as Huaxizi, Perfect Diary, Zhiyouquan and Tangduo are all seeking to go to sea.

"In 2020, we began to make efforts to go to sea. By the end of May 2021, Perfect Diary had become the top cosmetics seller in Vietnam on the Shopee platform, the top cosmetics seller in Singapore and Malaysia, and the Top 1 in loose powder sales in the Philippine market." The person in charge of the perfect diary said.

Most domestic beauty brands set their first stop at sea in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries, and these products with the imprint of China are also very popular overseas.

"The concentric lock lipstick with China elements sold out quickly on the first day of its launch, and once entered the top three of the Japanese Amazon lipstick sales list." The relevant person in charge of Hua Xizi said.

There are also Japanese netizens who marvel at the West Lake Imprint Gift Box of Hua Xizi, inheriting the craft design of oriental aesthetics, and its related Twitter content was once on the Japanese Twitter hot search. "According to feedback from many users, our Miao Impression Gift Box has also triggered reverse purchasing by Japanese users, and the price has even been fired from 900 yuan to 2,000 yuan." The person in charge added.

Figure/Hua Xizi official (Hua Xizi concentric lock lipstick)

There is no denying that domestic beauty cosmetics are indeed immature, but users should also treat their achievements in a short time dialectically. There is no perfect person, and there is no perfect brand.

In the domestic beauty industry, giants and upstarts have emerged. But if you want to further expand your territory, players need to put out more chips.