Hot, made 26 hours of super long "short" videos in two years, and post-90s programmers transformed into historical bloggers late at night | Video | Programmers
In the era of short videos, in order to compete for fragmented audience time, the length of the video is measured in seconds, wishing to tell a story in 60 seconds and output a viewpoint in 15 seconds. Yang Lihui, a programmer born in the 1990s, went the opposite way. While writing programs, he also became a history blogger, challenging the audience's habit of watching videos in an extreme way: his videos about the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms lasted for 26 hours, and his videos about the middle and late Tang dynasties lasted for 20 hours. Unexpectedly, the views of both videos exceeded 50 million, and one of them received over 880000 likes.
Two videos topped by Yang Lihui, one lasting 26 hours and the other lasting 20 hours
Yang Lihui spent his day like this: after finishing his work as a programmer at nine to six every day, he went home to eat dinner and then went to bed. Waking up in the middle of the night, his mind was clear and undisturbed. He transformed into a history blogger, researching, writing, drawing, and creating animations until dawn. He took a nap and was supposed to go to work. When netizens are urging for updates, he sometimes works all night, washes his face, and goes straight to work. In his spare time as a programmer, he has to carve out 40 hours a week to do videos.
Yang Lihui enjoys a busy and disciplined life. He said, "The stereotypical impression of programmers may be 'overtime' or 'hair loss', but in fact, programmers are very satisfied when writing code and can create a world completely under their own control. As a history blogger, the same goes for me. I feel like the princes and generals in history are like chess pieces, and I can tell their stories in my own way."
In a fast-paced era, he filled the gap with ultra long videos
"Brothers, remember to connect to WiFi." "I fell asleep and woke up for more than ten hours." "Do you have any misunderstandings about 'short videos'?" This is a comment under Yang Lihui's 26 hour video "Romance of Five Generations.".
Yang Lihui's answer is: "There is no misunderstanding, it is only relative to the Buddhist tradition."
He was born in Fuyang, Anhui, and has been fond of history since childhood. He studied computer science in college and became a programmer after graduation. When working in Shanghai in 2019, Yang Lihui had the idea of becoming a history blogger. The most direct stimulus was when he saw an analysis post online about the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which was full of loopholes. He wanted to find information that could correct these errors, but couldn't find suitable promotional videos online, so he decided to take action on his own.
Therefore, Yang Lihui re read the original historical books such as the new and old "History of the Five Dynasties", "Zizhi Tongjian", "New Book of Tang", "Old Book of Tang", and "History of Liao", trying to piece together and restore the history of the Five Dynasties, Ten Kingdoms, and the middle and late Tang Dynasty. At the beginning, each of his videos was 10 to 15 minutes long, updated once a week, and after two years, he talked about the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, gradually accumulating some fans. Some people find it hard to enjoy watching, while others say they don't know where to start. So, Yang Lihui decided to integrate them into a super long "drama".
Screenshot of Yang Lihui's video
Yang Lihui's videos do not follow hot topics and focus on presenting obscure historical stories in their original form to netizens. In the 20 hour video about the mid to late Tang Dynasty, there were over 20 topics that were endless and boring, but for the sake of the completeness of this historical period, Yang Lihui still presented these contents. "For me, the most important thing is to recreate a section of history and let the audience evaluate it themselves."
Will netizens really finish watching a 26 hour long video? How many are here to join the fun? Yang Lihui told reporters that the video has been played over 50 million times, and there are only a few tens of thousands of people who have truly completed the broadcast. But there are 370000 people who collect this video, many of whom watch a little bit every day, and the progress bar is continuously advancing.
"It is gratifying that his videos have proven that in the era of fragmented reading, there are still people who have a great interest in systematic knowledge." Professor Yu Gongzhe from the School of History and Culture of Shaanxi Normal University said, "There are 1.4 billion people in China, and even though the proportion of people who like the history of the middle and late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is very small, the absolute number is also very large. However, there is a shortage of popular science products in this area, and these people are eager to be fed. The emergence of Yang Lihui just fills this gap."
Solid and meticulous, the history teacher uses his videos as courseware
The seed of history in Yang Lihui's heart was planted by his grandfather.
When he was a child, his grandfather often told him the story of the Yang family general of the Northern Song Dynasty after tea and dinner. "Dalang replaced Emperor Taizong of Song, Erlang replaced Nanqing Palace, Sanlang's horse trampled like dust, and Silang was lost in the state of Liao." Little Yang Lihui listened with questions: "Who is Emperor Taizong of Song?"? Who are the Eight Sage Kings of Nanqing Palace? What is the relationship between Liao and Song?
He plunged into the history book, feeling hungry and thirsty. After graduating from junior high school, he has read through the "Old History of the Five Dynasties" supervised by Xue Juzheng of the Northern Song Dynasty and the "New History of the Five Dynasties" written by Ouyang Xiu. "Reading history has allowed me to understand how our ancestors and parents have come together to this day, carrying Chinese culture and spirit. It has taught us to inherit and reflect."
Now, it's Yang Lihui's turn to tell a story to his son. My son is almost 9 years old, and my father's videos are always watched, making him a loyal fan. Just like before, my son always likes to ask "why". In the first year of becoming a historical blogger, the accumulation of fans was slow and there was not much profit. "I just thought, 'Even if no one is watching, we should keep going. Let's treat it as a gift for our son and tell him the historical stories I know, just like how my grandfather told me back then.'"
Yang Lihui's bookshelf is filled with books related to history and computer science, with pictures provided by respondents
Today, Yang Lihui has more than 800000 fans on Tiktok, and many history lovers "gather" under his video. Many high school history teachers have sent private messages to Yang Lihui, saying that they will play Yang Lihui's videos to students in class. Netizens who like Yang Lihui have formed a WeChat group and often chat about history in the group. Many netizens have also joined his video production. Nowadays, the dubbing of different historical figures in videos is done voluntarily by netizens.
Experts are among the people. Every time a new video is released, for the first two hours, Yang Lihui stands in front of the computer, staring at the screen as if waiting for a trial. He made a basic mistake: during the Tang Dynasty, there was a prime minister named Yu Di who mistakenly printed Yu You Ye in a book he was looking up and moved it to a video, only to be discovered by a child who was a few years old. "This child was only 5 years old when he first started watching my videos, and now he is 8 years old. He has a very rich knowledge of history. His father and cousin are both fans of me. It is their presence that constantly urges me to master more solid historical knowledge and produce more exquisite videos, so as not to disappoint their trust."
Using technology to transform ancient books into forms that modern people love to read
During the process of becoming a history blogger, Yang Lihui encountered many difficulties, with a heavy accent being a major obstacle. At first, many netizens were concerned that his Mandarin was not standard, and he had also practiced diligently, but the results were not satisfactory. He could only accept it and use his accent as a characteristic.
Although the "hard injury" is obvious, Yang Lihui's advantage is also very prominent. Being a programmer has been of great help to him. After celebrating the Spring Festival this year, he spent over a month establishing a database of historical materials from the mid to late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, improving the efficiency and accuracy of data retrieval.
Yang Lihui racked his brains to attract netizens to continue watching. How to tell a good story when there are no well-known classic battles or historical figures in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms? Yang Lihui decided to use the map as a pivot to present historical changes. "The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is one of the most chaotic periods in Chinese history, and I hope to vividly and vividly restore this period of history through deductive techniques." So far, Yang Lihui has produced more than 400 maps of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
For software engineers, GIS software and PS technology are not difficult. The difficulty lies in determining the terrain, landforms, and national boundaries, state boundaries, county towns, and military numbers on maps. For this reason, Yang Lihui constantly consulted historical books, conference proceedings, and county annals. In addition to static maps, he also created animations that accurately reflect the marching route and story progression of even the smallest battle on every frame of the screen. Currently, Yang Lihui is researching how to automatically generate maps in a modular and programmatic manner, which will greatly improve efficiency.
With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, he has a bold idea of using AI technology to convert ancient books into popular audio and video in bulk. "In the Internet era, we need to inherit and innovate, hoping to transform ancient books into a form that modern people like to see."
Will history bloggers be replaced by artificial intelligence in the future? Yang Lihui's answer is, definitely, can only accept it calmly. "I will continue to write code and make videos until the day when I am replaced. But I believe that there will be a new world waiting for us, and all we can do is adapt to the development of the times and find our new position."
