Unique style and big imagination! When comic artists and musicians open stores... commercial space | physical | musicians

The gameplay of commercial spaces in Shanghai has always been very diverse, and now, a group of cultural figures have intervened in physical operations, making the space full of more possibilities.

Among them, some used to be drama and musical teams, while others were online comic brands, but they all took the bold move of renting commercial space, crossing physical commerce for the first time.

Cultural people come with rich professional content, what new insights will they bring to physical commercial spaces?

When the online comic operation entity space stepped into the B1 floor of Shanghai center Building, only the highly saturated orange and blue intertwined, and the young, fashionable and interesting atmosphere came to us.

In this space of over 1900 square meters, there is a Hunan restaurant, a pop-up exhibition space, a bookstore, a coffee shop, and a small theater that can accommodate 150 seats. All these stores come from an online comic brand that has never set foot in physical commerce before: Hunzhi. "Why isn't Shanghai called Xiahai?" Someone popularized knowledge in the form of interesting comics, and this is Chen Lei, the founder of "mixed knowledge". In 2014, Chen Lei's manga "The Old Confucius You're Not Very Familiar with" was released online and went viral. In the same year, the manga series "If the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was a class, it would be easy to understand" further gained fans.

He likened the complex Eastern Zhou states to a homeroom teacher with a group of bear children, the Zhou emperor to a homeroom teacher, and the Qi state to a "wealthy and handsome" student named Xiao Qi. Several academic elites took turns appearing, fighting and making fun of each other. The comics were full of wit, allowing readers to quickly understand the historical overview of the Eastern Zhou states. From then on, Hunzhi was committed to using comics to popularize various knowledge, with a humorous and witty art style, profound reasoning, and sales of over 30 million copies of its publications. Nowadays, as physical commerce embraces the online market and online platforms are like a fish in water, why do we reverse the layout of physical commerce? The person in charge of Hunzhi Shanghai center said that Hunzhi could read 100000+comics in one hour and leave tens of thousands of messages on the backstage in one day, but at first they didn't know who their readers were, "Who is talking to us?" The first time they gathered online comics into offline publications, Hunzhi started the national signing meeting, and the results were mostly children, which surprised the team. "Our initial topic planning did not consider children," explained the team members. Realizing this, they began to be more careful, reducing homophonic memes in the content of the publication, fine-tuning the language style, using more rigorous vocabulary, and distinguishing it from online works.

There have been many offline activities, and the team has found that every time they go to various places to set up exhibitions and organize activities, there is always a long queue in front of the mixed booth, which has a high demand for cultural space. In addition, the team hopes to communicate face-to-face with readers, understand their audience, and expand more possibilities, so they have an idea: it's better to operate a cultural space on their own.

It's not just a bookstore, but also a knowledge themed space. How can a comic brand create a physical space? The entire wall of Xiang Restaurant is almost covered with content from mixed knowledge comics.

Have a meal and also learn about the history of the Eastern Zhou states. Have a drink and take a look at the difference between craft beer and industrial beer. The pattern on the restaurant wall will also be changed regularly.

The mixed knowledge bookstore and caf é are quite large, with over 30 series of books displayed at the "Half Hour Comics" counter at the entrance, such as "Half Hour Comics Chinese History", "Half Hour Comics Economics", and "Half Hour Comics World Masterpieces".

A practical "mixed knowledge book list" for daily life is provided on the bookshelf, which is also regularly updated, such as "Lazy Weight Loss Method" and "Social Fear Survival Guide".

Order a cup of coffee, remove the label on the coffee cup that says "If you don't understand anything, tear it off", and store some knowledge about coffee or tea. For example, what is fermentation like? Several comics are presented in simple and easy to understand terms.

Even if you're just strolling around the bookstore, you'll be attracted by various hanging paintings on the display walls. "Remember the karst landscape in 30 seconds" and "Remember the Hexi Corridor in 30 seconds", each painting is a knowledge point.

In addition, there are also some cultural and creative peripherals, such as jigsaw puzzles, car models, music equipment, etc., which incorporate knowledge design details everywhere.

In the "mixed knowledge microcosm" area, you can design your own avatar through an electronic screen, and print it into a badge on the spot. You can also print the pattern on cultural and creative products, making it a unique gift. "Hunzhi Flash Space" regularly holds various small exhibitions. The "Mixed Knowledge Small Theater" at the end of the caf é has various performances, such as the healing concert every Friday noon, created by the "Ear World" team and popular among white-collar workers in Lujiazui. Tickets priced at two to three hundred yuan are sold out almost every week, and some even book a quarterly ticket just to get a good night's sleep every Friday noon. There are also irregular parent-child theaters, public welfare talk shows, book signing events, etc. During leisure time, small theaters can also be used by enterprises to hold events such as press conferences, team building, and annual meetings.

Running cultural bookstores, coffee shops, and small theaters is natural, why do you still have to open restaurants? The person in charge candidly stated that on the one hand, cultural venues may not necessarily make money, and restaurants have the value of profit trade-offs. On the other hand, in the daily way of eating, drinking, and having fun, knowledge is disseminated everywhere, and diet itself is also the meaning of the question. At first, Hunzhi thought about collaborating with a mature catering team, which was more convenient. But during the process of adaptation, they found that their operational thinking was different from traditional catering enterprises. Will hosting cultural events interfere with normal restaurant operations? Will cultural implants affect the design and even cost control of dishes? "If it's two companies, it's easy for them to have disagreements with each other," said the person in charge of operations at Mixi Space. "If it's one company, restaurants, bookstores, coffee shops, theaters can even be fully operational.".

For example, if a company formulates team building content, it can first hold a promotional event in a small theater, then go to a restaurant for lunch, hold a salon course in the afternoon at a coffee shop, customize cultural and creative gifts, and fully integrate "one-stop" cultural services. This kind of operational thinking is not something that a single traditional restaurant or theater can achieve.

For traditional restaurants, the cultural content design of large walls and the graphic design of various spaces need to bear significant design costs if replaced regularly. This money is better spent on the "cutting edge" of dishes. But the mixed knowledge team already has its own cultural content and operates as a physical entity, but instead often becomes constantly new. Coffee shops and bookstores, including the music and children's areas, are filled with knowledge points and comics, and it can be said that no corner is idle.

If traditional bookstores and coffee shops want to do this, they either hire professional copywriters and illustrators to customize it, or purchase third-party content copyrights at a high price. From a cost perspective, it is not cost-effective. But the inherent content of mixed knowledge is not so much a cultural space, but rather an offline knowledge theme space constructed using a contextualized, entertaining, and comic style approach.

Cross disciplinary entities of cultural individuals may provide new ideas for breaking dimensions in the market.

Drama producer and lobby manager. Nowadays, the new space for performing arts in Shanghai has inspired various new styles of performances. Yuyuan Road, which has been selected as a national tourism and leisure district, has a special bar and theater. The bar is called Specter Club, and every Thursday to Sunday evening, there is a live music show performed here. The operator is the offline entertainment team under Chinese Culture, Chinese Dream. Simply put, they operate a bar for a limited time for a musical. The Chinese version of the musical "Murder Ballad" comes from a classic Broadway show and tells a suspenseful love story that takes place in a bar. The Chinese version has been on stage for 5 years and has been performing in theaters before, with the theater decorated as a bar. The sixth edition of "Murder Ballad" and the theatrical version that appeared in the bar are almost two completely different products.

"The musical takes place in a real operating bar," said Chen Xijia, CEO of Chinese Dream. "It doesn't even need to deliberately create an" immersive "atmosphere, it is itself a real scene.". In order to help the audience enter the play more quickly, the work has undergone tonal adjustments from the theatrical and musical aspects. The entire bar is the stage, and the audience can find a place to stand or sit anywhere. During performances, people can maintain all the habits of being in the bar, such as relaxation, entertainment, socializing, drinking, and chatting, which are all allowed. The audience is actually a natural "group performance" in this musical.

The lead actor performs while chatting with customers during breaks, and even mixes drinks for customers who order. There are also some scenes where the lead actor will actively interact with the audience or involve them in the plot. The real scene overlaps directly with the space of the musical. It goes further than immersive performances, with no need for deliberate design of stage details, actor movements, and a realistic environment and atmosphere. The story scene is authentic, which is a breakthrough in the viewing mode. Chen Xijia said that the Chinese Dream had previously focused on large-scale productions such as "Mamma Mia". However, nowadays, content is always king, but not just content.

The theater is limited, the content of the venue is limited, and the frequency of performances is also limited. How cultural performances can be deeply integrated with the cultural tourism sector and various physical spatial scenes requires more cross-border innovation. For example, from a small restaurant or a commercial building to the entire cultural park or cultural tourism town, they can all be used as performance venues. Chen Xijia summarized this model as "centered around drama, but detached from the original theatrical scenes, borrowing other models to make the income side more diverse and attract more diverse audiences." The audience can have their own gameplay, and the lead actor works together with the audience to complete a new category. These playwrights have conducted research on all the bars around Yuyuan Road, continuously learning and improving, and are currently in the exploratory stage.

For example, "Murder Ballad" still adopts a ticket purchase method for entry, with alcohol and drinks being counted separately to ensure daily income. Therefore, consumers are mostly fans of the show, and some viewers have already come for the second or third time, just for the show. There are actually not many customers ordering alcohol and drinking. In the future, the team hopes to have more diversified income, which means there will be more non drama fans and fans mixing and playing together.

Another innovative attempt of the Chinese Dream of a Full Day Vacation in the Theater is the addition of a "Catering Show" section. The children's drama "A Big Dinosaur Comes to the Palace" at the Jiukeshu Future Art Center on weekends has become a hit. In the play, dinosaurs compete with chefs for cooking skills, and each dish is tasted and graded by children and parents on stage.

For the playwright, the difficulty of this play lies in designing the script to interact while also studying the dishes and serving process. After several rounds of screening, it was found that Cong you bing, Lamian Noodles, etc. were more suitable for performance and more user-friendly. The process of when each dish is put into the incubator, when it is cooked, and how to set the plate is very professional. The team has specially invited chefs to come for training.

The executive producer of the drama laughed and said, "I am now an excellent lobby manager." It turns out that in the drama, she needs to be in charge of the catering process. The stage producer is responsible for greeting guests. Each group of executive directors needs to confirm whether their dishes are ready and make up for any problems in a timely manner. The Nine Trees area is relatively large and includes multiple performance spaces. Its essence is still to hold regular performances. Chinese Dream is responsible for all operations of Nine Trees Weekend. Chen Xijia said, "We want to create the concept of a 24-hour theater." Traditional large theaters are usually empty during the day and only have one or two performances at night, resulting in low space utilization. But if the theater is regarded as a way of life that is compatible with commerce, exhibitions, and interaction, content can be implanted from morning till night.

For example, watching exhibitions in the morning, exploring treasures and playing parent-child games in the afternoon, choosing to watch talk shows, dramas, outdoor movies in the evening, and having LIVEHOUSE and bar performances late at night. On the lawn of the Nine Trees, activities such as yoga and running can also be organized to connect every part of weekend life with the venue, creating a micro vacation viewing mode. She calculated that based on the 2022 Shanghai commercial performance data, there were approximately 31000 commercial performances in the city, of which 50 theaters and 74 professional theaters held nearly 6000 performances. Where do the other sessions come from? The new space for various performances and the integration of multiple forms of entertainment have expanded the market, which is the trend of the future. How to break through boundaries and attract more people to watch performances, with new scenes and new gameplay. For example, some cinemas are also seeking diversified innovation, collaborating with escape rooms and murder screenplays, and even inviting small theaters to perform in cinemas, using public spaces to create VR dramas, etc.

Various types of public spaces can be stacked with more functional floor effects. For example, take out a portion of the shopping space and turn it into a small theater in the morning and evening. Attempts in various small spaces have led to a shift in performance space from extensive growth to more refined and vertical segmentation.

"Not long after, everyone will notice that the commercial format is changing," Chen Xijia said. "People around me who were originally not related to physical commerce are gradually entering. It is not uncommon for property managers, theatricians, curators, and comic artists to flock to the physical commercial space."

The fate of cultural people is slightly different from the thinking of traditional business people. They care more about content and hope to leverage new scenarios to achieve profitability in content.

Regardless of whether they will succeed or be sustainable, the current trials bring new ideas, stimulate vitality and creativity, and are worth looking forward to.