Scenic spots vying for traffic are all flocking to create "celebrities".
When you open a short - video platform, it seems that a strange geographical transformation is taking place in scenic spots across the country overnight. Ancient - style blocks, martial - arts towns, and landscape theaters are everywhere, filled with "princes", "second aunts", and "Zhan Zhao".
These are not cold sculptures, but living people who can interact, give wall - presses, dance to disco music, and compose poems in response.
In the spring of 2024, the "Matchmaker Wang's Match - making" event became a huge hit at the Wansui Mountain Martial - Arts City in Kaifeng. It brought amazing commercial returns to this scenic spot, which used to rely mainly on large - scale situational dramas. Its operating income soared from 180 million yuan in 2023 to 540 million yuan in 2024 and reached 1.27 billion yuan in 2025. The annual number of visitors exceeded 24 million.
This is a strong signal.
So, the script was quickly replicated. Characters like "Snow - cake Monkey", "Sang Mu", and "Eunuchs" emerged like mushrooms after rain. Countless young people with dreams of performing and becoming internet celebrities escaped from the constraints of traditional talent agencies or jumped out of their ordinary lives and flocked to these "artificial martial - arts worlds".
They run, smile, and are surrounded by onlookers. They actively become the "core loop" of the grand narrative, lighting up the emotions of tourists.
This scene can be regarded as a real - life Chinese version of Westworld.
However, what is staged here is not the awakening of immortal robots, but the joys and sorrows of real life, the iterative anxiety about traffic, and a question about "how long one can stay popular".
01 An Industrial Revolution from People to "Codes"
Once upon a time, scenic spots made money from tickets and secondary consumption, competing with each other in terms of natural scenery and historical heritage.
Now, the logic of making money has changed.
When scenic spots themselves become homogenized, the core asset that tourists pursue has become "emotional value". Whoever can provide freshness and empathy can capture users' attention.
The Wansui Mountain in Kaifeng is the cradle of this "industrial revolution". The former wedding host, the "second aunt", became the red - dressed "Sun Erniang" who raps and dances to disco music on the stage, controlling the thunderous cheers. Her popular video was the famous interactive scene of "Happy Sheep! Big Big Wolf!" in February 2026. For this scene, fans were willing to occupy their spots two hours in advance under the scorching sun.
Sang Mu at Zhengzhou Fantawild turned the interaction into a direct confrontation with "body - image anxiety". His "core loop" is to encourage fans with a princess - carry. With this positioning, he created 400 million topic traffic for Fantawild in one month in the summer of 2025, and his fans soared from 200,000 to 2 million. Wang Yinan in Gubei Water Town changed from an unknown extra to the object of "Brother, give me a wall - press" in the comment section with his "dominant CEO wall - press" persona.
This is the standard traffic script: a distinct character setting + replicable and easily - spread interactive actions + a large number of slices on social media. The cost is the salary of the performing staff, and the benefit is the viral spread and the rapidly increasing ticket bookings.
It even attracted former "real stars" to join.
Ma Jingtao, 63 years old, re - created the role of "Zhang Wuji" at Songcheng in Hangzhou. Zheng Guolin, 49 years old, replicated the role of "Li Shimin" at the Eternal Love in Xi'an. Kou Zhenhai, 71 years old, played "Lu Zhenhua" in Shanghai.
The "down - grade" participation of stars adds a footnote to the new traffic script with the public's nostalgic memories. It is really lively.
However, behind the glamorous figures lies the dangerous beginning of standardization.
When all scenic spots start to mass - produce NPCs with "core loops", players are caught in the cruel involution of the stock market. Whether it is a dominant CEO, a princess, or a knight, the interaction modes are limited, while the audience's threshold is rising infinitely. The wall - press and princess - carry that can make tourists scream today may seem cheap and boring tomorrow due to overuse.
The experience of Songcheng Performing Arts is a mirror.
Although it has frequently been on the hot search because of star NPCs, invited top - tier stars to "re - enter the industry" and vigorously incubated internet celebrities, its performance in the first half of 2025 unexpectedly declined. Among them, the revenue of the Eternal Love scenic spots in Lijiang, Guangdong and other places decreased by more than 12% year - on - year, and the overall net profit decreased by nearly 30% year - on - year.
Industry insiders analyzed that the key to this phenomenon of "traffic does not equal consumption" lies in the industry's homogenization dilemma. "Tourists may be interested for a while, but the impression of the same - looking Eternal Love everywhere leads to aesthetic fatigue."
This scenic - spot revolution centered on "people" is turning into a fatigue war for attention resources. Tourists will not always pay for the same set of emotional templates, especially when they find that the heart - warming plots may be staged in the next scenic spot as well.
02 When the Fan Circle Enters Westworld
Sang Mu didn't expect that the "collapse" would come so suddenly. One day in January 2026, due to the large number of tourists, the interaction time between him and each fan was compressed to 30 seconds. A girl who came from afar experienced Sang Mu's "distraction" when responding to others' interference during the precious dozens of seconds.
The girl's video of grievance went viral on the internet, and the incident fermented into negative public opinion such as "charging 240 yuan for 30 seconds" and "intentionally ignoring fans". Sang Mu's schedule suddenly decreased, dropping from 29 events a month at the peak to only two during the May Day holiday.
"I've always been telling my fans that 'the world is a wonderful place', but then I became the one who made the world less wonderful." This 1.88 - meter - tall muscular boy fell into deep remorse.
Wang Yinan's dilemma is more common.
In order to maintain the relationship with his fans, he even made a 12 - page PPT, taking screenshots, marking, and memorizing the faces and names of each regular fan. But with hundreds of thousands of fans whose makeup and clothing change every day, he still called the names wrong. When the fan who flew here specifically heard her name called wrong and left with a dim look in her eyes, the sense of frustration was silent but intense. Sometimes, just because his facial muscles were stiff after smiling all day and the smile was not perfect enough, he would receive private messages accusing him of "fake smiling and being insincere".
These subtle moments tear open the most vulnerable part of the real - person NPC model.
They are not perfect program codes but real people with emotions, prone to fatigue, and having limited memory. However, the logic of the fan circle pursues absolute loyalty and flawless interaction.
In Westworld, the awakening of the hosts begins when they realize the falsity of their "codes". In the real - life "Westworld", the crisis of NPCs stems precisely from the instability of their "codes". When traffic pushes ordinary staff to the front stage and expects them to operate with the perfect standards of "star idols", any fluctuation of human nature - whether it is physical fatigue, a low mood, or a simple memory error - may trigger a "system crash", making the persona, a traffic check, invalid instantly.
After the Sang Mu incident, Fantawild is likely to re - examine this gameplay. Every fan who is disappointed with Wang Yinan may take away a group of potential tourists. In terms of cost, these real - person NPCs are not only a salary expense but also a risk point for brand reputation. They light up emotions as well as the fuse of an explosive package.
03 Being Popular or Not: A Zero - sum Game
In this artificial martial - arts world, not everyone can become the "second aunt" or "Sang Mu".
Niu Niu, a music performance major at Nanyang Normal University, plays the "lamp - selling girl" at the Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden. She only has more than a thousand followers on Douyin. Looking at the "Zhan Zhao" and "Little Liu" with hundreds of thousands of followers around her, she knows that she can be replaced at any time.
Little Liu's anxiety is more concrete. His knees are severely worn out from climbing Mount Tai with tourists. He dreams of changing from a temporary actor to a fixed IP like Zhan Zhao and then entering the entertainment industry. He spontaneously prints personal cards, distributes them in the scenic spot during the day to attract traffic, and conducts live PK at night, acting like an independently - operated startup. However, he is often squeezed out by the formal employees of the scenic spot and driven away by the security guards.
Even the "second aunt", who has achieved some success, is constantly feeling the pressure of being chased by new comers.
"The new NPCs are more excellent and powerful. Of course, I will be anxious." Her work and life have merged. Even when she relaxes and browses Douyin, it is to study new gameplay methods.
This is a system with an extremely sharp pyramid structure. Those at the top enjoy the dividends of overnight fame, but also bear the pressure of out - of - control traffic and the risk of persona collapse at any time. Those in the middle are struggling to climb up, using all kinds of "primitive" methods to accumulate fans. The bottom layer, which is the largest in number, is the background board that supports the immersive experience of the entire scenic spot and maintains the scripted world, but they hardly have the opportunity to get a share of the traffic pool.
The dividends are not fairly distributed to everyone, while anxiety is equally shared by everyone involved. Scenic spots rely on this "leading - wolf effect" to attract tourists. However, for the vast majority of NPC practitioners, this job does not offer a promising future but a highly uncertain "instant" career, whose sustainability is far lower than that of the traditional performing industry. What is even more worrying is that when the traffic of top players fades and the audience suffers from aesthetic fatigue, whether this "NPC industry chain" that emerged with the trend can smoothly transition to a new stage is still a big question mark.
04 The Real - world Projection of the Traffic Economy
Discussing the deep - seated value of the scenic - spot NPC phenomenon may provide a kind of helpless consolation. For many practitioners, this is "more than just a show".
Before becoming an NPC, Wang Yinan was inferior to his professional - actor friends in the same period. Here, he has been healed by countless interactions. "NPCs are not just giving unilaterally. It is more of a two - way interaction between tourists and service providers."
Little Liu hopes to pave a way to Hengdian through Sichuan Opera face - changing and the fixed role he has strived for. The "second aunt" sees the star template of "Matchmaker Wang".
The scenic - spot NPC positions provide them with a stage with the lowest threshold to realize self - potential and a positive cycle of obtaining immediate positive feedback (audience's love). To some extent, this alleviates the general achievement anxiety of some young people nowadays.
From a broader consumption trend perspective, this is a typical projection of the upgrading of the cultural and tourism industry from "casual sightseeing" to "in - depth experience for emotions". Tourists need not just a passive viewing but an experience that can "immerse them in the scenery, the play, and the heart". This also drives the entire industry to bid farewell to the single "ticket economy" and transform into a "comprehensive consumption" model that combines cultural and tourism with scripted murder mysteries, health care, and sports events.
Companies like Songcheng Performing Arts still choose to increase their investment in internet - celebrity incubation and customer experience when facing performance pressure. Even if it pushes up the cost in the short term, it is a response to the general trend of the "rigid demand for experience value".
The problem is that the current NPC model may be the primary form of "in - depth immersion". Future cultural and tourism consumption obviously cannot be satisfied with just a brief interaction with a real person dressed as an ancient - costumed character. It requires a more logical, longer plot line, and a closer integration into the "meta - narrative" of the scenic spot, so that tourists can finally feel that they are not just spectators but real participants in this narrative world.
05 Conclusion: Where is the Road after Idealism?
There is a ceiling for traffic after all. When every scenic spot starts to copy the same "internet - celebrity" script and the threshold for tourists' likes is constantly raised, the marginal benefit of this model is decreasing rapidly.
Sang Mu's unexpected "fall from grace" exposes the fragility of the real - person - dependent interaction model. Wang Yinan's impossible task of remembering hundreds of thousands of names reveals the limit of personal IP's ability to maintain emotional relationships. The strange circle of "high popularity but decreasing income" in Songcheng Performing Arts' financial report declares that the traditional path of relying solely on traffic artists to attract tourists and single - viewing live - action performances is facing severe challenges.
Some industry observers have long pointed out the crux of the problem. These large - scale tourist performances are caught in a homogenization dilemma of "one set for a thousand shows", just like the theater version of the similar myth brochures in scenic spots in the 1980s. To truly retain tourists and generate secondary consumption, what is needed is not more well - known NPCs but more diverse interactive activities, such as more in - depth live - action scripted murder mysteries. It also needs to use AR/VR technology to expand