Live Broadcasting of Performing Arts: Unlocking a New Way to Break the Deadlock in the Performing Arts Market

Written by｜Cen Cu

Edited by｜Ba Rui

Online Live Broadcasting Booms, Doubling the Performances of Traditional Theatrical Troupes

Chen Yuqing, a post-95 Changsha Huagu Opera actress, could hardly imagine that a short video of her practicing "beating cups" on her balcony on an ordinary afternoon five years ago would suddenly become popular.

In that 59-second short video, Chen Yuqing with a ponytail is performing a classic Changsha Huagu Opera excerpt "Tea Picking Tune" in front of the camera. She deftly holds four small wine glasses with her fingers, and the four glasses vibrate nimbly at her fingertips, making a crisp sound like bells, which is very pleasant to the ear.

This unique skill became popular on Douyin. As a traditional art practitioner, she suddenly discovered that there are so many Douyin users who like Huagu Opera on the Internet. In the past five years, Chen Yuqing has been live-streaming and singing Huagu Opera on Douyin, gradually becoming a Douyin talent with 560,000 fans, known as "Huagu Opera Yi Dong" from an ordinary Huagu Opera actress.

High popularity has brought Chen Yuqing more and more opportunities. She never thought that because of the live broadcast, she would have unlimited possibilities. Chen Yuqing feels that she is very lucky.

Originally, as a traditional theater troupe, the Changsha Huagu Opera Protection and Inheritance Center had an annual quota of 160 performances to send operas to the countryside, with only a few hundred people watching each performance, and the audience was mostly older middle-aged and elderly people. In September 2022, three years after Chen Yuqing became popular, in order to expand the influence and spread of Huagu Opera, the Changsha Huagu Opera Protection and Inheritance Center also launched online live broadcasts.

The first online live broadcast of Changsha Huagu Opera received a strong response

Unexpectedly, the debut of Huagu Opera, a traditional art, on Douyin attracted 3.5 million views.

Now, in order to meet the viewing needs of online users, In addition to the original 160 offline performances of the troupe, an additional 30 online live broadcasts have been added. The number of viewers has also increased significantly. From the offline performances with only a few hundred people watching in the past to the online performances with thousands of people watching now, Huagu Opera, as a traditional cultural art, has ushered in new development opportunities after the introduction of live broadcasts.

The comprehensive effect that live broadcasting has brought to the traditional performing arts market has even attracted the attention of the academic community. In the "Performing Arts + Live Broadcasting: New Business Forms, New Models and New Characteristics" report (hereinafter referred to as the "report") released by the research group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently, it is mentioned that "The traditional performing arts industry has long faced problems such as venue and time limitations, and a limited audience coverage, resulting in a low capacity utilization rate. The established scale of performing artists, performing venues and equipment has limited output times, frequencies and coverage scales. However, the introduction of the new live performance form has enabled the traditional performing arts industry to leverage each other online and offline, increasing the scale of performances, income and influence."

The latest data released by the China Association of Performing Arts in the middle of the year shows that In 2023, the market revenue scale of China's online performance (live broadcast) industry reached 209.5 billion yuan. Obviously, live-streaming of performing arts has become an important part of the performing arts market.

The live broadcast scene of Changsha Huagu Opera Protection and Inheritance Center

In addition to the traditional performing arts market, the new type of performing arts organization - Performing Arts Guild, which has emerged in recent years with the rise of short videos, has also tasted the dividends in the live broadcast era.

In 2019, Caihongtang was established in Changsha, known as the "City of Internet Celebrities". In five years, the guild has developed into a leading performing arts guild with 500 signed anchors.

Caihongtang attaches great importance to the professional ability of the anchors, including image styling, anchor stage style, online interaction ability, performance style and other aspects. In order to create professional anchors, Caihongtang provides a series of professional supporting services to the anchors. The basic personnel configuration around an anchor is a director, a cameraman, a post-producer, and an operator. In addition, there are also makeup artists, performance teachers, eloquence teachers and dance teachers. If it is a big anchor, the personnel configuration will be maintained at more than 10 people. With the support of professional institutions, the career promotion path of ordinary anchors is also more smooth.

Live Broadcasting Enables Every Actor to Build Their Own Independent Stage

The expansion of the market scope and the lowering of the entry threshold have given every performing artist more opportunities to showcase themselves through live broadcasts.

The report released by the research group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences points out that compared with traditional performing arts programs that require a complex preparation process, live broadcasts are more flexible and convenient, and the threshold and cost of single-item production and single-person performances are greatly reduced. The rapid feedback mechanism formed by real-time comments and likes enables practitioners to obtain audience feedback in a timely manner, and can quickly adjust the performance content to improve the quality and attractiveness of the content.

This means that Whether it is an actor from a professional troupe or a grassroots artist such as a non-professional performing arts practitioner, they can showcase their talents through the live broadcast platform and attract fans' attention.

Before becoming an anchor, Yang Hao, a post-85, made a living in a small town in Liaoning. When Douyin live broadcasts first became popular, he would live broadcast for one or two hours after finishing work after 12 o'clock at night.

At the beginning, there were only four or five people in his live broadcast room. "Ten years earlier, if there were no live broadcast platforms, and I were not a professional singer, no matter how good your singing skills were, no one would discover you." With his persistence, relying on his understanding of music and his exploration of live broadcasts, the number of fans in the live broadcast room slowly increased to more than 200,000.

Yang Hao who is live broadcasting

In the summer of 2021, he decided to leave the small northeastern town and go south to Changsha to look for opportunities. Changsha's July was sweltering and uncomfortable. He found Tang Yi, an anchor of Caihongtang who was live-streaming on the street at that time. Yang Hao almost "intruded" into Tang Yi's live broadcast camera. At that time, Tang Yi was ready to end the broadcast, and he seized the last opportunity to perform in the live broadcast room of the big anchor. After that, Yang Hao successfully signed with Caihongtang and started his career as a professional anchor.

The professional packaging of the live broadcast guild is extremely important for Yang Hao's change. In order to help Yang Hao find the right style, the guild's operation team continuously tried and made mistakes. "From standing and broadcasting to sitting and broadcasting, from indoor singing and dancing to outdoor live broadcasts, and then to large-stage live broadcasts, from regular clothing appearances in live broadcasts to performance clothing appearances in live broadcasts, and from love songs to DJs in musical styles," said Cai Qi, the general manager of Caihongtang. After trying all the permutations and combinations, the team set a "outdoor + suit + DJ" trinity live broadcast form for Yang Hao.

Yang Hao, who has been professionally packaged by the team, has made a very fast start on the platform. Yang Hao insists on live broadcasting for 5 hours every day, and at most, he broadcasts for 7 hours a day. He gains tens of thousands of fans a day, and at most, he gains 90,000 fans in three days.

Yang Hao's experience is not an isolated case. Live broadcasting has given every actor the opportunity to move up. The same is true for Chen Yuqing.

During the three years of the epidemic, the theater troupe could not perform. Chen Yuqing had to pay the rent and the mortgage. Facing huge economic pressure, she began to try Douyin live broadcasts. Her first live broadcast had no sound card or lighting. She held her phone and sang without accompaniment for 2 hours, "I earned 5.2 yuan," Chen Yuqing is extremely impressed by this number, "This really can make money."

Since then, she has been live broadcasting for two consecutive years, and her popularity has been increasing. The increase in online popularity is also feeding back to her offline performances. While her income has doubled, she has gained a group of fans who like Huagu Opera art, the "Dongjia Army". Every time she goes to an offline performance, there are fans from all over the country at the scene. The backstage is filled with snacks given to her by fans, and there are fans shouting to her loudly, "Girl, you are great."

Chen Yuqing who was invited to participate in the offline performance

The report mentioned that online live performances break the time and space limitations of traditional performing arts, increase the frequency of performances, and improve production capacity. It not only expands the scale of the performing arts market, but also allows actors to gain additional income through rewards by opening up live broadcast positions, giving them sufficient opportunities to showcase themselves.

It cannot be ignored that while achieving the development of individuals and institutions, online performing arts live broadcasts have driven a large number of employment opportunities. According to Cai Qi, the guild has a detailed division of labor, and professionals are involved in different links. "Many of the guild's staff come from traditional media organizations, and we also accommodate many college students for employment," Cai Qi said. The guild adds one or two hundred new employment people who pay social security every year, and the average income is over 10,000 yuan.

The report of the research group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences states that the live broadcast industry has brought new jobs and job types, and an anchor can drive 2 to 20 jobs.

Data comes from the statistics of the report of the research group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

With the rapid development of the performing arts live broadcast industry, various new occupations derived from it have also been officially recognized. In July 2024, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other three departments officially released 19 new occupations such as "Online Anchor", which means that the anchor has become an officially recognized formal occupation, and the anchor as a profession is also rapidly achieving professionalization and regularization.

Performing Arts + Live Broadcasting Has Become a New Idea for Breaking the Deadlock in the Performing Arts Industry

Compared with the flexible development of individual live broadcasts, the live broadcasts of traditional art theater troupes are obviously much more complicated.

After the rise of national live broadcasts, Wang Yong, the director of the Changsha Huagu Opera Protection and Inheritance Center, led Changsha Huagu Opera to the forefront of the digitalization of national theater troupes. Traditional theater troupes have been accustomed to the traditional operation mode of rehearsing, selling tickets and performing. Of course, it is not easy to shake the offline traditional performing arts method that has been followed for many years, but in the face of the general trend, Wang Yong does not intend to back down.

"The Internet is the platform with the lowest cost but the fastest effect to expand influence. We have no reason not to try it. If no one watches and no one knows this art, there is no talk of inheritance." He is responsible for building a live broadcast team and gradually promoting it from aspects such as hardware equipment, performance repertoire, and performance personnel.

In order to adapt to the new form of live performance of the theater troupe, the theater troupe invested more than 5 million yuan to specially build a double stage - a live interactive small stage + a large stage; in terms of personnel arrangement, the theater troupe specially established a new media department to coordinate the live performance of the theater troupe.

In order to adapt to the viewing habits of live broadcast audiences, Chen Yuqing and other actors adjusted their performance methods, "Our singing rhythm will be a little faster, and we will add some jokes when live broadcasting to allow more audiences to participate in the interaction."

After a series of preparations, on September 15, 2022, more than 50 people in the entire theater troupe carried out a 3-hour Douyin online live performance. Surprisingly, The first live broadcast attracted 3.5 million views on the day, which is 70 times the total number of audiences of the 160 performances of the theater troupe sent to the countryside in 2022