Xiaohongshu helps Shanghai create a new "urban business card", with over 200 events appearing in the roadside city of Shanghai

From August 3rd to 13th, Shanghai added a new "festival". As one of the important activities of the "Summer Consumption Season", the first "Road Life Festival" of Xiaohongshu has kicked off in Shanghai. This Road Life Festival consists of over 200 events, including cultural and artistic exhibitions such as concerts, art exhibitions, and photography exhibitions, as well as leisure and entertainment activities with a strong sense of lifestyle such as trendy sports, cool markets, and city walks. It covers more than 30 roads in Shanghai and helps Shanghai create a new "urban business card".

Conveying the "cultural business card"

The Road Life Festival is centered around Huangpu District in Shanghai, covering major commercial districts such as Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road, embellishing more than 30 roads along the Huangpu Riverside and core sections, and radiating to Shanghai and surrounding areas. The project leader of Xiaohongshu, Leila, said, "Xiaohongshu was born in Shanghai, and this Road Life Festival is also a love letter written by Xiaohongshu to Shanghai on the occasion of its 10th anniversary."

The opening concert of the Road Life Festival will be held in Nanjing Road Walkway. In the late summer night, the terrace of the century old Yong'an Department Store turned into a stage, with singers singing on the second floor and bands playing on the first floor. On the road, citizens sway the fan given by Xiaohongshu and sit on the pony, looking up to watch. Singer Yuan Yawei said, "This can only happen in Shanghai."

"This is a music show that has never been seen before. We use music to tell stories and personify Yong'an Department Store. It has stood here for a century, observing the changes in Shanghai and also being an observer of the lives of citizens." Bai Ling, the project leader of the terrace concert, said that the terrace music show presents the inclusiveness and innovation of Shanghai at the cultural level, showcasing the collision of Chinese and Western cultures, and conveying Shanghai's urban cultural business card to the outside world.

The initial design of the performance scene was to embody the concept of "carrying a better life", but new creativity emerged in the collaboration. Bai Ling said that the entire concert fully utilized the unique balcony space of Yong'an Department Store, and the different floors and content arrangements of the building corresponded to each other. "For example, there was a performance of the Phantom of the Opera in the concert. In the past, a high-rise building was artificially constructed in the theater, but this time, a real scene was used."

The Xiaohongshu blogger who watched the performance on site commented, "This performance combines history and fashion in a form that young people enjoy, and also allows people to see some new and beautiful scenes in the urban space."

Creating a "travel business card"

It is not uncommon for Internet companies to create festivals, but it is the first time for them to put their activities offline and move to a city.

The inspiration for the Road Life Festival comes from Shanghai's youth culture, which includes trends, openness, innovation, and more. Leila said that this is a concentrated, concrete, and authentic offline presentation of the Xiaohongshu community, a symbiosis of fireworks and culture, "showcasing the 'new ecology of a better life' and exploring the urban relationship of 'life is not elsewhere' together."

"This road is not long, I can only be on the roadside, and you can always be on the road." This is a poem written by a Xiaohongshu blogger for the roadside power supply box. The Danshui Road beside Xintiandi in Huangpu District is covered with the works of small red book poetry bloggers. Cafes, flower shops, balconies, and trash cans all have their own poems.

Huai Su, the project leader of the "Xiaoma Road Poetry Exhibition", believes that the most realistic scene to life should be found in the small alleys behind the street. Although Danshui Road is a small road, it has coffee shops, tailors, restaurants, and bars. It is a complex urban ecology where one can see a high quality of life. "We have moved the vertical poetry section of online culture to offline, using these warm resonance to help people find the beauty of life in the details."

This "Road Life Festival" also includes trendy shopping, pet parties, sports parties, and other activities. At the intersection of Nanpu Bridge and Ma Road, a well-known restaurant in Shanghai and nearly a hundred young brand managers appeared at the "Naliang Market" with their works; Xiaohongshu also collaborated with 29 trendy stores to create a "Shanghai trendy map", inviting young people to discover the charm of Shanghai together; 50 stores on 10 characteristic small streets in Shanghai will also carry out a "Small Road Shopping and Eating Tour" activity.

The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce stated that the Road Life Festival not only creates a new "urban travel business card", but also brings new multiplier effects to Shanghai's promotion of urban digital economy construction.

Displaying the "Art Business Card"

Shanghai is striving to build a world-class design capital. Whether it's bustling skyscrapers or bustling street corners, Shanghai has become a subject of creation and recording for many young people on Xiaohongshu. They capture moments in the city and express their love for life here and now. And these online shares have also been moved offline in this "Road Life Festival", making the artistic life more organically integrated with the artistic life.

The "Youth Luminous Art Exhibition" and the 10th Anniversary Photography Exhibition of Xiaohongshu, "We Among Them," held at the Shanghai World Expo Creative Show, are concentrated manifestations of these moments.

The works exhibited at the Youth Luminous Art Exhibition include paintings, sculptures, installations, images, etc., which are rich in content, full of emotions, and lively in form. Xiaohongshu hopes to provide young artists with a path of online and offline collaboration, through diverse forms of artistic expression and presentation, to connect screens with reality and better connect art with life.

The photography exhibition "We Among Them" featured 99 works from dozens of active photographers on Xiaohongshu. These photography works that capture the daily lives of ordinary people, focusing on specific people and their lives, fully embody the spirit of "life is not elsewhere".

Outside, on multiple roads such as the South Square of the World Expo City Best Practice Area, the Times Square of Shanghai, Nanchang Road, and South Suzhou Road, you can check in on the art installations created by Xiaohongshu and many well-known artists at home and abroad, interpreting the integration of art and urban space, as well as the symbiosis with street communities.

At No. 168 Nanchang Road, Pocket Garden and other places, young artist Luo Shengtian initiated the "Flower Patch Plan", using felt tools to make felt flowers, felt animals, and felt mushrooms, repairing damaged corners on old street floors and walls. Luo Shengtian said, "Faced with the aging aspects and corners of urban architecture, I want to use such artistic expression to bring unexpected softness and reshaping to life."

As an offline festival based on urban public spaces, Xiaohongshu hopes to guide people to pay more attention to nearby, current, and specific people, and work together with everyone to find the 'life code' that the city has given us. Leila said that everyone's sharing is worth responding to, and what is within reach is a good life.