Presenting the loneliness and romance of life at sea through short videos, China's first female captain to cross the Arctic Ocean boarded the trending bridge | Navigation | Life
Bai Xiang'en still remembers the scene of driving the "Snow Dragon" across the Arctic Ocean in 2012: the ship was sailing in the icy sea, and in front of him was not only a huge bridge, but also a 360 degree panoramic sunroof. The waterway was slowly breached, and sea mist rose up, everything resembling a mirage in the sea. "It's difficult for you to describe it in words. You would think that Chinese ships are great, and what we're doing is also great."
On July 9th, "28 year old female pilot sailing through the Arctic Ocean" became a hot topic on Weibo, with the protagonist being Bai Xiang'en. She is an associate professor of the Merchant Shipping School of Shanghai Maritime University, the first female navigator to cross the Arctic Ocean in China, and is now a popular science blogger on Tiktok with 64000 fans. Bai Xiang'en said, "On the one hand, I want more people to see the sea and understand navigation knowledge, and on the other hand, I want to inspire more women and not set limits for myself."
China's first female navigator to cross the Arctic Ocean, Bai Xiang'en
Breaking through obstacles and embarking on the path of navigation
Last summer vacation, Bai Xiang'en sailed out to sea, and the students had no chance to board the ship for three years. She asked if she could share some real-life videos. The sea traffic is limited, and it takes time and effort to send videos to the course group one by one. Bai Xiangen thought of Tiktok.
Life at sea is dull, so Bai Xiangen decided to make this voyage into the "Follow Captain Bai to See the Sea" series. Some shared the dry sailing goods, such as how the bridge operates when approaching the dock and how ships interact with each other; Some showcase the loneliness and romance of sea life, such as sunrise and sunset, accommodation and meals.
Gradually, this account "broke through", and the audience expanded from students to the general public. Bai Xiang'en also transformed from a university teacher on a three foot podium to a "Captress White Captain" facing science popularization for the whole society. Newcomers in the industry care about business processes, while ordinary audiences care about what they can see and eat on board.
Bai Xiang'en's short video page
Bai Xiang'en was born in 1984 into a maritime family in Shanghai. Her grandfather worked as a sailor all his life, and her father worked in maritime transportation. She grew up at the dock and had many ship models at home. She often asks her father about things at sea: what to do when encountering strong winds and waves? What is the experience of living at sea? Bai Xiang'en wanted to board the ship, but his father said that only licensed sailors could enter the cockpit. However, at that time, there was no university in the country that recruited female students in the field of navigation. "I have a rebellious mentality, why can't girls sail? I just want to prove myself."
Fortunately, in 2000, Shanghai Maritime University set a precedent, and two years later, Bai Xiang'en successfully enrolled. At school, she not only needs to learn practical skills such as ship simulator operation, but also needs to learn fire safety and first aid knowledge. "Ships are enclosed spaces and cannot rely solely on land for replenishment. Often, it is necessary to learn how to self rescue and save people."
At that time, many shipping companies still did not recruit female employees. Considering employment issues, schools added courses in English, management, and maritime law to female students. Among the 30 girls of the same class, only Bai Xiang'en remains at sea now.
The risk is unknown, and every voyage is a first time
In 2012, the fifth Arctic expedition "Xuelong" reserved a pilot seat for Shanghai Maritime University. Bai Xiang'en, who had been teaching on campus for four years, registered and interviewed, and ultimately became the chosen person.
On June 27th of that year, the "Snow Dragon" officially set sail, and for the following 92 days, Bai Xiang'en was dealing with and solving sudden difficulties every day. The biggest danger occurred on August 30th when the ship was heading towards the pole along a high latitude route, and the ice layer in the working sea area was over 1.5 meters thick. After breaking through two ice ridges in a row, the ship was stuck. The team attempted to accelerate the impact on the ice ridge with full power and adjust the course, but all failed. After being trapped for several hours, the team had to resort to desperate measures to continuously adjust the ballast water. Relying on the vibration of the ship itself, it finally shattered the hard ice around the hull.
"The risks at sea are all sudden, and many problems you have never encountered before, or have only seen them in textbooks and emergency plans, so every voyage is the first time," said Bai Xiangen. In the Arctic, once she was delivering water to a scientific expedition team member and accidentally fell into a hole drilled by a seal. Her right leg plunged into the water and she instantly lost consciousness. Two team members beside her quickly pulled her out, and she sat on the deck, waiting for twenty minutes for her right leg to warm up.
Nevertheless, Bai Xiang'en still regards going to sea as "happiness in life". "If someone asked me if I would regret it, I would say 'absolutely not' and let me choose again. I will still board the ship."
Just before and after that trip to the Arctic, Bai Xiang'en began her science popularization career. She took part in TV programs, went to primary and secondary schools to give lectures, and last summer she began to regularly do Tiktok accounts.
Bai Xiang'en is doing science popularization
Life on the sea has attracted the attention of many netizens. During the month of frequent updates, Bai Xiang'en's views exceeded 12 million, which made her feel the energy of short videos for the first time: "Do you think I usually only give lectures, with a maximum of three to four thousand people per session? How many lectures do I need to give to reach the level of tens of thousands?"
Navigation Science Popularization, Awakening More Blue Genes
In Bai Xiang'en's view, the popularization of science on navigation in the past was far from enough. She found that many people couldn't distinguish between "maritime" and "ocean", thinking that sailors and captains were both underwater "drivers" holding steering wheels, and there were often errors and omissions in the news media. "When some media introduce the Snow Dragon and Snow Dragon 2, they may say they are sister ships, but in fact, they are sister ships because the tradition in the maritime industry is to use female characters to spread maritime culture."
Why does the public know pilots but not sailors? Bai Xiang'en believes that one of the reasons is that there are many aviation themed movies and TV dramas, but there is a lack of maritime themed ones. She said that compared to other fields, there are indeed obstacles to popularizing maritime science. It is not closely related to people's daily lives, and there is also a problem of "temporal and spatial misalignment" when it is disseminated: live science popularization on ships is vivid but without signals, and when it returns to land, there are signals. Without ships or seas, the visibility of science popularization is greatly reduced.
"We are a big maritime country, with more than 18000 kilometers of mainland coastline. If we want to build China into a maritime power, don't we need the public to know more about it? I think everyone has the blue gene, but more people need to wake up to this reason." Tiktok has given Bai Xiang'en a wider window, and the intuitive and convenient short videos have gradually become "ring breaking". In Bai Xiang'en's words, "more and more people who previously did not know the industry are interested in sailing".
A while ago, after the college entrance examination ended, many parents consulted with Bai Xiang'en about her navigation major through her account, and professionals in information technology sent her a private message, saying that seeing her climb the cabin during ship inspections, she had the idea of developing navigation drones and robots. Bai Xiang'en also takes the short video as a cut for classroom introduction. Before class, she will let students "preview" in Tiktok.
Bai Xiang'en's short video page
A fan is a sailor who is lonely at sea and often feels lost, not knowing where life should go. After seeing Bai Xiang'en's science popularization account, he felt that he could also learn to create an account. He said he wants to play the guitar and then write a song about the small stories on the sea to sing to everyone. Seeing this private message, Bai Xiang'en was very pleased. She replied, "In the future, when you play guitar, the background must be the ocean.".
