By Art Promoter Tan Xiaozheng
On May 10th, at 8pm, a live broadcast of artists called “Zhao 3 Mu 4” was quietly opened on the Red Book platform. Four artists, Tan Xiaozheng, Jin Huo, Mickey and Qiao Zhi, who had never met before, traveled across Chengdu, Chenzhou, Qingdao and Hangzhou, completing an in-depth collision of art and business, ideals and reality, with a frank dialogue that set no limits. This two-hour live broadcast is not only a marvelous attempt of “netizen’s run”, but also a vivid footnote of “self-improvement and self-help” for artists in the era of new media.
The origin of “Zhao San Mu Si”: a self-help experiment for artists
“The essence of doing IP is screening, and live broadcast is a game for the brave.” As the initiator of the event, Tan Xiaozheng confessed the difficulty of the screening process: not only do we need to “dare to be responsible for what we say”, but also need to be “not afraid of saying the wrong thing”. He positioned the live broadcast as a practice of “ArtTo” – with 20 years of experience in vertical media, he pushed artists to break the boundaries of traditional creation and display. The name of the event, “Zhao San Mu Si”, is adapted from the Chinese idiom “Zhao San Mu Si (朝三暮四)”, which is a metaphor for “attracting three people and focusing on four behind-the-scenes artists”, aiming to stimulate the resonance of ideas among artists through high-frequency and lightweight connections. It aims to stimulate the resonance of ideas among artists through high-frequency and lightweight connection.
The AB Side of Four Artists
Tan Xiaozheng (Chengdu): Founder and art curator of Moving Guest, Tan Xiaozheng is a self-proclaimed “missionary in the art world”. From a depressed person to an art promoter, he says, “Being an art curator is more suitable for me than being an artist”, and he is committed to connecting the ecology of the industry with new media.
Jin Huo (Chenzhou): A trend artist and former photographer, he is a self-deprecating “master photographer delayed by painting”. From comics, animation to trendy IP design, he is obsessed with deciphering business logic: “It’s useless to be jealous, but only by studying the underlying rules of successful people can we save ourselves.”
Mickey (Qingdao): A Taiwanese English teacher and art creator, Mickey laughs and says that she “feeds her art dream by teaching”. She integrates design thinking into her life: “The curiosity of dismantling structures has made me the ‘plumber’ in my family.”
Qiao Zhi (Hangzhou): A “wild” college teacher and pink fanatic. After transitioning from the academy, he admits that he is “like a wild man returning to nature”: “There is no burden for wild creativity, but selling paintings? I am pessimistic and balanced – after all, everyone is not selling well.”
Live Highlight: A Spicy Dialogue on Art Survival
1. Ideal and Reality: What can an artist live on?
– Jin Huo: “I’m not puritanical, if I can’t live, I’ll make money, but the method is important. Study Takashi Murakami’s ‘Theory of Artistic Entrepreneurship’ and learn that packaging logic is more useful than jealousy.”
– Qiao Zhi: “If someone asks ‘to study pure art or design’, I will advise him: if you will die if you don’t paint, choose pure art, otherwise choose design. The idealist’s path is destined to be more tortuous than others.”
– Mickey: “Contemporary art is long overdue to break the ‘closed door’! If students only want to draw, I will force them to contact AI and bazaar – creativity needs multiple touchpoints.”
– Tan Xiaozheng: “The animation industry relies on ‘fatherhood’ (strategic capital), and the art world is the same. Individuals without resources must use new media to turn themselves into IP.”
2. Business Logic: Bubble Mart and “Emotional Value”
When the topic shifted to Bubble Mate, a giant of trendy games, the live broadcast room instantly boiled over.
– Mickey showed screenshots of fans walking their dogs and tying blind boxes: “Rabble has become a social currency, and it’s an emotional necessity for young people!”
– Jin Huo analyzes the underlying logic: “Successful IPs are reproducing old bottles of new wine, the key is to find a style that suits you.”
– Tan Xiaozheng predicted, “The meta-universe will subvert the gameplay, and artists must embrace change. If you don’t make a small red book now, you may be eliminated in the future.”
3. Circle breakout: mixing circles or being yourself?
– Qiao Zhi laughs at himself as “helpless”: “Post-95 artists are coming out of nowhere, and some of them are co-branded with LV as soon as they graduate. I have passed the qualification of jealousy, and I only have a bitter laugh.”
– Jin Huo pointed out sharply: “There is hegemony in the academic circle, and the art circle looks at capital. It is more important to study ‘why him’ than to be jealous.”
– Tan Xiaozheng called for group hugging: “We are freer than the big names! The flexibility of joint names, bazaars, and low-cost trial and error …… individual households is the biggest advantage.”
Future Plans: Make “Zhao San Mu Si” an Open Proving Ground for Artists
The first live broadcast ended with a small-scale test run with 11 people online, but the four artists have already planned their blueprints:
– Constant connection: 1-2 times a month, randomly combining artists, covering topics such as behind the scenes of creation, market practice, IP co-branding;
– Experiment in Showcase Shopping: Promote the artists to open a Red Note store, and turn the live broadcasting room into an “online art bazaar”;
– Meta-universe layout: exploring new forms such as virtual pavilions and digital collections to find incremental space for artistic expression.
As summarized by Tan Xiaozheng, “Branding is a cognitive war, and the personal IP of an artist is worth more than his works. In this era of ‘paintings are easy to be identical, but souls are hard to copy’, those who dare to broadcast live have already won the first step.”
Live-streaming golden sentence wall
– “Internet raffic is metaphysics, but persistence is not.” –Tan Xiaozheng
– “Creating art is like running naked, but running naked is real.” –Joji
– “Instead of learning from the famous people, it is more important to learn something about life by yourself.” –Jin Huo
– “Art students don’t like learning English? AI and other things will teach them to learn it!” –Mickey
Redbook Click to follow @Tan Xiaozheng @GoldenFireBurningRoom @PleaseCallMeJoji @Ratgoofy to unlock more artist survival factoids.
The second installment of #MoveThreeActFour is in the works, waiting for you to “dismantle” the art!
(This article is organized by DeepL and reviewed by the artists)