"Unscrutable Shijiazhuang" launches alternative city promotional video: using rock to fight back against mediocre cities | Shijiazhuang | promotional video
The city of Shijiazhuang, which aims to comprehensively build a "rock city" in China, is attracting more and more attention from the outside world.
On July 17th, the official WeChat video account of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Hebei Province released a video titled "The Immortal Shijiazhuang": Shijiazhuang - Rock Home Town, the Stubborn Rock, Time Difference Island, Earth Speech Shijiazhuang Chapter was launched!
At the beginning of the short film, Wang Zhonghao, an actor from Hebei Province and invited speaker of Time Difference Island, introduced that Shijiazhuang, the capital of China with the lowest sense of presence, is not as grand as Beijing, but as exquisite as Shanghai, not as carefree as Chengdu, and as ordinary as Guangzhou. When it comes to it, people will describe it as magical, mediocre, and lost. But it used to be incredibly important, founding the first city and liberating the first mine. This used to be a crossroads in China and the industrial center of the republic. Now that its glory has faded and fallen to the bottom, it still relies on its savage vitality to fight against loss with tenacity and mediocrity with rock. This is Shijiazhuang - an indestructible city.
Part 1 of the short film is titled "Overnight Wealth": Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, covers an area of 14000 square kilometers, which is approximately equal to 0.96 Beijing. The population of 11 million is half of Beijing. The Taihang Mountains witness the long history of this region, with the oldest stone bridge in China - Zhaozhou Bridge, and the ancient city of Zhengding, one of the three major towns in North China. Shijiazhuang is located at the junction of the second and third steps of China. The Taihang Mountains divide North China in two, but leave the most important opening here, which is the most convenient channel connecting the Loess Plateau and North China Plain. 100 years ago, through this opening, the earliest railway in China opened up the Taihang Mountains, connecting Shandong and Shanxi with the first north-south artery in China, the Jinghan Railway. It intersected in Shijiazhuang, making this ordinary small village the busiest intersection in China, just like a big transportation hub. In just over 30 years, a small village in a city pulled by trains has expanded into a large city with 250000 people. The annual population growth record of 14% was only broken by Shenzhen after being maintained for half a century. The train brought prosperity, bringing the largest pharmaceutical factory in Asia and the largest market in North China. In 1968, at the age of only 43, Shijiazhuang defeated Baoding with advanced transportation and became the capital of Hebei Province. His first half of life was a history of instant wealth, like a poor person suddenly winning a billion yuan lottery without realizing that the building was about to collapse.
Short film Part 2 is entitled Magic Land: At the beginning of the 21st century, when the Internet and finance swept across the country, Shijiazhuang, accustomed to lying and winning, stuck to the surviving real economic foundation, and struggled on the narrow path, its GDP also fell rapidly from the highest of 16 in 1997 to 40. This is the darkest moment in this city, with over 30% of Shijiazhuang families facing layoffs and struggling to make a living at the end of the century. As the provincial capital closest to the capital, Shijiazhuang undertakes a large number of heavy industries relocated from Beijing, and has become the city with the most severe smog in China. However, when Beijing needed blue skies, it stopped production and production, lacking cultural heritage, and falling behind in the economy, making Shijiazhuang's position in Hebei Province awkward and lacking in presence. Its economy is not as strong as Tangshan, its culture is not as profound as Baoding, and its history is not as long as Handan. Shijiazhuang is even the only provincial capital in China that does not have a 985/211 university.
Perhaps eager to be noticed, eager to be seen, Shijiazhuang is addicted to wonders and begins to rush towards the "International Village". "Shijiazhuang Office of the United States Congress", "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Hebei Branch", "Louvre Shijiazhuang Branch", if someone tells you that I want to take you to romantic Türkiye, and then go to Tokyo and Paris together, you should first find out whether he is from Shijiazhuang.
"What else can I do?" Therefore, Shijiazhuang has become a filming location for many realistic film and television dramas, oppressive, decadent, and with its own magical background. "Give you a chance, you're useless."
The people of Shijiazhuang have turned the huge contrast of reality and the inability to change the current situation into self mockery and self criticism. We call Shijiazhuang International Village and call ourselves villagers. When PM2.5 exceeds 1000, we self criticize and serve the people. A large number of Shijiazhuang children who grew up in the planned economy era began to shout out their despair and hope for this city through rock and roll. The coincidental name Rock Home Town in Shijiazhuang predicts that it will become the "hometown of rock and roll" in China.
More than 300 local bands and the backbone of Chinese rock music were born here, as well as the universal youth hostel of the first band in the North China Plain, which hit the soul most directly. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences once selected Shijiazhuang as the happiest city in China, while CCTV rated it as the busiest city in all of China. The seemingly contradictory result reveals the personality of Shijiazhuang people, who accept fate but are not willing to accept it.
In 2022, Shijiazhuang was the first to be liberated during the epidemic and unexpectedly became the fastest growing provincial capital. During the epidemic, this place produced a nationally scarce box of Lianhua Qingwen and over 1 billion tablets of ibuprofen. It is the most inclusive provincial capital city in China, and Mandarin is the dialect here. It is also the first provincial capital city to propose unconditional settlement, regardless of age, education, housing, or work. Those who come here are the people of Shijiazhuang. Authentic Anhui beef plate noodles have opened over 2000 stores in Shijiazhuang and have become the most famous snack here. They are both magical and friendly, with spicy soup and strong noodles, which are the greatest common denominator of flavors for immigrants from all over the world.
These Shijiazhuang people, who have experienced countless ups and downs, no matter how self deprecating and self deprecating they are, have an indestructible power in their bones. This power does not come from impulse or shouting, but from enduring, enduring the glory and loss, magic and mediocrity imposed on them by the times. This is Shijiazhuang. Every Chinese person who bravely faces life and faces the joke of "killing that Shijiazhuang person", we will answer and come over.
At the end of the short film, there is a sentence from The Fallen Sea Band&La Qiang: "Welcome to Rock Home Town."
The reporter from Pengpai News noticed that this Shijiazhuang city promotional video is being produced by the well-known domestic tourism and cultural new media, Time Difference Island. Time difference Island has been collaborating with tourism bureaus in various regions, including Canada, Switzerland, and Nordic countries and regions, responsible for their local brand promotion, new media operations, and communication.
This somewhat unconventional city promotional video, "The Immortal Shijiazhuang," sparked a heated discussion among netizens as soon as it was released. A netizen left a message saying, "The film was well filmed and the copy was well written! Dare to speak and speak, dare to self deprecate and never give up, this is already rock and roll! Go International Village, go Rock Shijiazhuang, go Rock City!"
Some netizens also said, "The people of Shijiazhuang don't want to surpass Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, they just want to make this city better day by day." Some netizens are also paying attention to Shijiazhuang's rock dreams, saying, "Don't just talk about it, let's see what we do later. The cultural industry can't be built in three to five years. Let's learn from the neighboring Shandong and truly provide support and support for Chinese rock."
Previously, on July 13th, the official city of Shijiazhuang announced that from July to October this year, the city will hold the "Rock Home Town" - the "City of Rock and Roll" music performance season in China. By organizing a series of large-scale rock music performances and conducting mass, public welfare, and normalized performances for the benefit of the people, we aim to comprehensively build China's "City of Rock and Roll".
The website of Hebei Network Radio and Television Station once published an article in 2022 stating that the English term "rock" for "rock" also has a solution: it refers to the huge rock that forms the hardest part of the earth's surface or protrudes from the surrounding ground. In English, "rock" and "stone" are the same words. Shijiazhuang - RockHomeTown, can be translated as "hometown of rock/rock" in English. Regardless of reality or fate, Shijiazhuang is a truly "rock city".
On July 17th, Great Wall Online published a commentary article pointing out that rock music, as a cultural form with strong personality and rebellious spirit, has been loved by many young people. In recent years, with the development of the economy and the acceleration of urbanization, the cultural construction of Shijiazhuang has also made significant progress. However, more efforts and exploration are needed to make Shijiazhuang a vibrant and charming cultural city. With the continuous acceleration of urbanization, competition among cities has become increasingly fierce. In order to stand out among many cities, creating a city name card and city IP has become one of the important strategies for many cities. Building Shijiazhuang into the "Rock City" of China can not only provide local people with more diverse cultural life and spiritual pursuits, but also bring more economic benefits to the city.
On the evening of July 16th, at the Letai Center in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, the "Gravitational Wave Band" song "Ocean and Sky" pushed the atmosphere to a climax. Accompanied by dynamic music, the audience sang in unison, igniting a sensation throughout the venue. The "Passionate Summer Night" rock music performance and the "Weekend Lawn" rock music performance kicked off.
On the day of the start of the performance season, 13 rock bands including Gravitational Wave and Rainbow performed in 10 locations, including the Complex Square, Commercial Pedestrian Street, Summer Beer Garden, etc. The "Passionate Summer Night" rock music performance event was thus launched. At the same time, 12 rock bands including Dawn's leader, Milia, and others began singing in 10 open green spaces, lawns, and parks, marking the beginning of the "Weekend Lawn" rock music performance.
Regarding this, CCTV commented that whether from the perspective of enriching the lives of local citizens, attracting tourists from other places, or achieving urban "breaking through boundaries", Shijiazhuang clearly hopes to use rock music, which has its own unique advantages and can ignite the passion of young people, as a starting point to break through a path of differentiated competition in the city. Against the backdrop of many places struggling to find the path to breaking through boundaries, this proactive and daring approach is very avant-garde.
However, shaping the public image of a city is not something that can be achieved overnight, nor is it solely based on passion and inspiration. It requires a deep exploration, inheritance, and promotion of the city's historical context, development and transformation, as well as the cultural psychology of the public society. Simply put, it is about finding genuine, enduring, and constantly innovative empathy and resonance points that the public can share with the cultural temperament of the city. For example, how can Shijiazhuang and rock music truly immerse people's minds and hearts? When it comes to rock music, it immediately creates a deep impression and association that "Shijiazhuang is the city of rock, and the first choice for listening to rock music is Shijiazhuang"? At present, it is not easy. From the fact that many people, including some locals, are still unaware of the historical connection between Shijiazhuang and rock music, it can be seen that Shijiazhuang lacks in shaping urban IP, and it is worth considering how to break through now.
CCTV believes that what kind of appearance should a city's image and business card look like? For every city, it is a serious exam question. The answer cannot blindly follow the trend, nor can it be achieved artificially. Instead, it needs to evoke cultural and emotional recognition, confidence, pride, and broad participation from the general public. It also requires politicians to answer seriously with a long-term perspective and calm thinking.
