“博主长了一张小说男主脸!”

“我想了解他的民族文化!”

“这个耳饰好特别!”

"Now the protagonist

in the novel has a face."

"I really want to see his culture."

"The earring is so unique."

这是20岁网络短视频博主木叶视频评论区的留言。这位帅气的彝族小伙正通过自己极具表现力的视频，把优秀的彝族文化带到大众视野。

This comment was posted to the 20-year-old social media influencer Mu Ye's account on Douyin, the Chinese name for TikTok, and is a good demonstration how the handsome young man from China's Yi ethnic minority has succeeded with his videos introducing his ethnic culture.

去年，一个7秒的视频，让有着纯洁烂漫笑容的藏族小伙丁真走红网络。而长相帅气的木叶也被广大网友戏称为“彝族丁真”。对此木叶表示，被“看脸”并不是他的目的，他希望通过短视频的分享形式，能吸引更多人了解当今彝族人的生活方式与状态。

Dubbed by many as the "Yi group's Ding Zheng," referring to the young Tibetan man who became an internet sensation after a seven-second video featuring his innocent smile two years ago, Mu Ye said that he doesn't mind taking advantage of the "pretty face effect" so long as it can get more people to understand the lives of today's Yi people.

短视频达人成长记

2018年，木叶发现各大短视频平台已成为推广本土文化的新渠道，他制作并上传了自己第一条网络短视频作品。通过4年多的努力，如今他在某社交媒体平台上已经拥有超过15万的粉丝。

Having more than 3.2 million likes on his videos on Douyin, Mu Ye's cyberstar journey began in 2018 after he saw that promoting local culture through short videos was becoming a trend on various Chinese social media platforms.

在短视频生产的起步阶段，木叶的作品通常以带领大家游玩的导游视频为主，穿插一些四川乐山的自然风景和乡亲邻里们的日常生活，但这样的传播效果并不尽如人意。后来，他注意到有不少网友经常在评论区谈论他的长相。

Accordingto him, as a "green hand" he started off acting as a tour guide filming a lot of natural scenery and people's everyday lives in his hometown, a village in Leshan, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, but that didn't work out too well. Later, he saw an opportunity when he noticed some netizens were leaving comments such as "He's handsome!"

木叶说：“我转念一想，为什么不通过自己出镜的方式来更好地展示我们家乡的文化呢?”之后，木叶调整了网络短视频的内容，开始时不时地在视频里展示现代装束和彝族传统服饰的穿搭造型。

"Later I thought,‘Why don't I post some videos of myself and in that way display our culture better?'" he noted. Changing up his content, he started to produce videos with him wearing both modern jackets and traditional Yi ethnic clothing in a single short video.

这引起了网友对彝族文化的好奇。“他们(粉丝们)经常留言问我这是什么衣服、背景乐是什么彝族歌、能不能带他们游览我们村子……”

This increased people's curiosity about his cultural stories. "They [my fans] asked what the clothing was, about the Yi ethnic music I used for background music and if I could offer them a tour of the village… things like that," he said.

起初，木叶做视频只是为了好玩。在有了一定的经验后，他决定把短视频博主作为自己的工作，不仅推广了家乡文化，也凭其养活了一家人。

Finding the key to intrigue netizens, the young star, who originally was only casually making videos for fun, decided to embark on a journey to become a professional online influencer, which eventually allowed him to become the main bread winner in his family.

木叶不是唯一一个彝族网红。他的姐姐，罗其果果在某社交媒体平台也已经有超过50万的粉丝了。

Mu Ye is not the only young Yi person to walk the path of fame on the internet. Luoqi Guoguo, Mu Ye's sister, has become an even bigger influencer with more than 520,000 followers on Chinese short video platform Kuaishou.

罗其果果在成都学习过摄影。她想通过自己的镜头语言，展现并记录现代潮流和传统彝族服饰之间的融合。比如，在罗其果果上传的作品中，就将彝族标志性的羊毛裙、彝族银耳环，和现代西装领结混搭起来。

Having studied photography in Chengdu, Sichuan, Luoqi Guoguo has dedicated herself to become a photographer who combines traditional Yi aesthetics embodied in clothing and jewelry with modern trends such as matching the iconic Yi wool dress with a unisex suit and tie and a pair of dazzling Yi silver earrings adorning her face.

“短视频平台的发展打破了人们对我们‘偏远落后’的刻板印象，我们也通过网络平台，了解到了全球最新的流行文化。”她说：“作为少数民族的年轻人，我们展示的也是当代中国年轻人的精气神。”

"We can still connect to global culture. The digital age has brought us an opportunity to break the 'isolated' and 'underdeveloped' stereotypes people having about us," she said. "We are young ethnic people, but we show the spirit of young Chinese people too."

网红的初衷

通过这几年在网络短视频行业的摸爬滚打，木叶感觉，极个别网红在利用“少数民族”的身份标签谋取名利。

Having gained experience in the short video industry over the years, Mu Ye saidthat many online influencers use the "ethnic people" tag as a gimmick to earn fame and money.

木叶说，网友们对少数民族文化充满兴趣，这一点为很多视频创作者带来了机会，但“一夜爆红”很容易让人迷失自己。

He explained that netizens in China are very accepting of ethnic minority culture and that this has created many good opportunities for online stars, but becoming famous overnight can become a distraction that leads some to neglect their cultural roots.

“不仅如此，还有一些网红通过‘哭穷’、‘卖惨’博取关注。但实际上，其中不少人在扶贫政策帮助下早已脱贫，所谓的‘贫困生活’不过是摆拍效果。”罗其果果解释道。

"It is not just that, there are other ethnic online stars who sell their‘poor lives' for attention. And many of those poor lives are deliberately staged especially when actually poverty alleviation efforts have solved these issues effectively," Luoqi Guoguo noted. "I don't think they are true influencers because they have forgotten our cultural mission and why we are on social media," she said.

木叶说：“我不认为他们是真正的网红，因为他们忘记了初衷。”他表示，如果展现帅气的外表能吸引到更多人关注彝族文化，那他将致力成为一个“高颜值”的彝族文化传播者。

Mu Ye noted that if showing off his "pretty face" is an effective way to promote Yi culture, then he doesn't mind taking advantage of it to produce more cultural-oriented content for fans

“接下来，我想让我父亲加入进来，他对彝族文化历史很有研究，但一直以来，他不知道如何与他人分享这些。”木叶说道。

"Next, I want to create content featuring my dad, who knows our cultural history but doesn't know how to get others to learn about it," said he.