This sounds like a fairy tale: overnight, from Guangdong in the south to Liaoning in the north, whether in the water towns of the south or the loess highlands of the north, everyone was blessing Liuba. If you said you didn’t know about it, the kids around you would think you were still using a Nokia.
Xiaomi phones by Lei Jun, Luo Yonghao’s “Luoji Thinking,” Diaoye’s beef brisket, Ma Jiajia... compared to all that, they all seem weak. A wave of collective unconsciousness, violently propelled by square dancing and the internet, quickly took over the headlines of major media.
Who is Liuba?
Liuba is a small mountain town under Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, China—a place few have heard of.
So what’s this about blessing Liuba?
In 2012, the song “Blessing Liuba” was born—written by Wang Junjie, composed by Jiang Caisheng, and sung by Lu Wenjiaocuo, a singer from Zhenba, Hanzhong. It was a very ordinary thing, as ordinary as a drop in the ocean. But the turning point came in 2014, when a young man named Liao Di from Nanning, Guangxi, adapted the song into a square dance routine, performed by the Zhang Chunli Dance Team. They tried to plant flowers but they wouldn’t bloom; they planted willows without meaning to, and they thrived. Once the video was uploaded online, it quickly went viral, with as many as 400 different versions of “Blessing Liuba.” In over 10 provinces and cities including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hubei, and Liaoning, the aunties put their creativity into full play, imagining and artistically interpreting this mountain town in diverse regional accents and styles, expressing heartfelt longing and admiration for this small city—leaving even the newly popular “Little Apple” and its friends completely astonished.
Blessing Liuba _ Video Link: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNzg5MDkzODIw.html
You don’t mess with the aunties—everyone knows that. Square dancing is not to be trifled with—everyone avoids it. And the internet is king—it can make or break anyone in minutes. A series of completely unrelated elements were unconsciously strung together, just by sheer coincidence and a rush of enthusiasm. Now, Liuba has become the most well-known county-level city in China. With tourists, inspectors, those seeking inspiration, the curious, and the just plain nosy flocking in, this once quiet and peaceful little town will soon become bustling.
Doesn’t that sound a bit unbelievable? A bit nonsensical? That’s how stories go in the internet age— the more rigorously you reason and plan step by step, the weaker you are; the more you mix things across boundaries and do things spontaneously, the more popular you become.
Let’s take a look at what kind of place Liuba really is.
Rafting on the Plank Road