Chapter 448 Stone, selling concepts
To be honest, I really like pure artists like Tan Shaojie.
I said, "I'll explain it in two steps. The first is that selling tickets is a stupid idea. The second is selling stones, which is a concept."
He said, "I forgot to pour tea for the teacher." He boiled water and washed the cups, and it took a while before he brought the tea.
"Let me start with the first point: any memorial hall, museum, or art gallery that relies primarily on ticket sales cannot sustain itself. With the exception of the Forbidden City, few museums have ever made a profit. Even Ma Weidu's Guanfu Pavilion, so large and filled with treasures, doesn't make money from ticket sales.
Places that make money from ticket sales need to have a large enough flow of people. Take Wuzhen, for example, located in the heart of the Hangjiahu Plain in the "Golden Triangle" of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and backed by the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone.
It is 13 kilometers from Tongxiang city, 80 kilometers from Hangzhou and Suzhou, 140 kilometers from Shanghai, and only 300 kilometers from Nanjing. It is surrounded by a city dweller with affordable living.
How does Zhangjiajie make money? It has unique landscapes, an airport, and significant investment, attracting tourists from all over the world. It's the top destination for Korean tourists visiting China. How many people are there in your small county? Probably only around 200,000.
Shaojie shook his head and said, "More than 100,000. The entire county has only about 500,000 people."
"Right. With a population of 500,000, two-thirds are agricultural, which leaves about 150,000 urban residents. If even one-tenth of these residents come to see your museum, that's pretty impressive."
He said, "Stop, why is it only one tenth?"
"People now have a high standard of living and travel frequently. They've seen museums like this before. Their museums are larger, more diverse, and more impressive than yours. But if you charge a fee, will they come and visit?
Besides, even if someone comes to see it, it’s only once, and they won’t come back a second time. The influence of a small county town is weak, and it’s impossible for outsiders to come specifically to see your strange stones.”
He said, "Stop, one-tenth of that is 15,000 people, and charging 20 yuan a ticket would still be 300,000 yuan."
"You're dreaming. To keep people coming back, you'd have to spend at least 100,000 yuan on renovations and shelves. And if you have someone on duty every day, paying them 100 yuan a day, that'd be 30,000 to 40,000 yuan a year. And that doesn't even include water and electricity bills.
The county town is a society of acquaintances. If someone wants to bring a child in, they will get a discount for the number of people. What can you do? If they don’t listen to you, are you going to spend money to hire a security guard?
What I'm talking about is the theoretical value. I can guarantee you that it won't be able to run for a year.
Other people's rock museums have a rich variety of rocks, including huge rocks and strange rocks, covering several acres or even dozens of acres.
You only picked up a few rocks that fit in the trunk of your car, and you're so shameless as to charge for them. You're a typical intellectual, you've never done business before."
He laughed at my comment and nodded, saying, "If you don't count, you won't know. Once you do, you'll be shocked."
I said, "Let's get back to the point. Cover your bottom tightly. What this means is that not only can you not run a museum, you won't even allow others to see your stuff."
"All locked up in one house?"
"Yes. When you weren't out taking photos, you went to your cousin's house and washed the stones over and over again. You gave the stones that had no special features to your cousin to build a pigpen (he laughed), and kept the stones that had special features.
Among the distinctive stones, we compare and identify them again and again, select the truly distinctive stones, and name them one by one according to their characteristics.
Selling stones is selling concepts and culture. Stone itself is not valuable. It is not gold or jade, it is just a piece of stone.
For example, at the beginning of China's real estate development, in the 1990s, commercial housing began to be sold. The advertisement for the first commercial housing in the country was: "Live in a classic city and lead a happy life."
What's a classic city? Isn't it just a neighborhood? That's called selling a concept. So, you chose stones and named them according to their shapes, like "Out of the Bath," "Spreading Wings and Soaring High," "Depending on Each Other and Falling in Love," and "Peacock Spreading its Feathers."
If the stone's appearance isn't distinctive, look for patterns, spots, or designs. Then, use your imagination. Name it "Clear Spring Flowing on a Stone," "Chang'e Flying to the Moon," "Flying Sky," "Shepherding Sheep in the Morning Light," "Shepherd Boy Playing the Flute," "Golden Lotus Pushing the Window," and so on.
The imagination must be a bit bold. The imagination must be a bit outrageous. The name must be unique. Because the buyer of the stone is also interested in concepts.
When he showed the stones he bought to others, he would say, "Look, this one looks like a girl taking a bath, this one looks like a shepherd boy playing the flute. And this one is amazing, it really looks like Sister Pan opening the window."
As he explained, the more people looked at it, the more they saw the resemblance. Perhaps someone who liked it would buy it, because some people like young girls bathing, and some people scolded Sister Pan for her immoral behavior, but in their hearts they particularly like coquettish women like Sister Pan.
Tan Shaojie held his stomach and laughed.
I said, "I'm just using an analogy to get your mind thinking. After you pick a name, you can start monetizing it. This is a three-step process."
Put photos of the stones up for sale on China Strange Stones Network, the China Strange Stones Network Forum Trading Area, or the China Strange Stones Network Trading Platform. These platforms have transactions every day, and this is the first step.
The second step is to open a column on your blog to record the discovery process of each strange stone and what makes it unique.
The third step is to promote it on Douyin. Once the conditions are met, you can start a livestream. With so few films to shoot right now, many celebrities are doing livestreams. They're selling their looks and fame, so you can sell your pity and culture."
"Playing the victim?"
“You picked up all these rocks while taking photos. Sometimes you found a strange rock and climbed up a cliff to get it, and you almost fell to your death.
Some are in the river, and if you go to get them, you slip, cut your feet, and get soaked."
“There really is such a thing.”
"Play your sympathy game occasionally to let people know how hard it was to get your stone. To get Sister Pan's window push, you, like Brother Ximen, took a huge risk."
He couldn't stop laughing.
I said, "Don't laugh. You think there's no market, but in real life there really is. Qishi.com brings together stone lovers from all over the country.
People who collect stones are particularly fond of stones and have a good financial foundation. People who have trouble eating will definitely not come to collect stones. Compared to your 20 yuan ticket, buying 100 tickets is not as good as buying one online."
He asked, "Really?"
“It’s not steamed, it’s boiled.”
He blushed: "Teacher Wan, you are so humorous."
I said, "Although you are a member of the China Photographers Association and a leader of a county-level photography association, I despise economic idiots like you."
He laughed out loud.
I said, "We need to develop art, and we also need to develop economics. There's no contradiction. For thousands of years, China's agricultural society has always emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce. This is especially true for intellectuals. They seem to think that the mere mention of making money conflicts with pursuing art."
I guess you can do it by writing articles and posting photos of your stones on the Qishi website. But if you are asked to live stream online, you will be like a fallen woman.
He couldn't help laughing.
"Economy is the foundation. If you have money, you have the capital to do art. Just follow my ideas."
Tan Shaojie said, "It's so happy to be with you. Come, help me with another word test to see if this is really worth doing."
"Go ahead."
"'Jin' as in progress."
I ordered some tea and wrote the original Chinese character for “進” (enter) on the table—進.
"Jin, 隹, represents a bird, and next to it, 走. The whole meaning is that a bird is walking. Because a bird cannot walk backwards, it can only walk forward.
If you observe carefully, you will see that birds on power lines often hop and fly slightly. Why do they fly? Because when they are moving forward and need to change direction, they cannot retreat, but can only fly a little, change direction, and then move forward again.
"You mean, if I become a strange stone, I can only move forward and never retreat. I must forge ahead."
"Yes, sit with me for an hour and your IQ will be online."
"I want to be reborn as a woman in my next life so I can be with you."
"Your face shape only looks good on a man. It would be mediocre if it became a woman's face. I like beautiful women."
Tan Shaojie said, "Forget it, forget it. I don't want to marry someone above my station. By the way, you're from upstate. Although I'm not from the same province as you, it's only a little over a hundred kilometers from where we are to your upstate."
Before the New Year, you must come to our small county town and spend some quality time with Lao Long at his shop. I will also give you some guidance on naming the strange stones."
For some reason, I agreed immediately.
I mainly wanted to meet Shaojie's wife. I could tell from Shaojie's nose that his wife must be very virtuous. Shaojie goes out to take photos whenever he has time, so I wanted to see what this virtuous wife looks like.
Are there any of his stones that are particularly outstanding and worth collecting? Oh, and about that fortune-teller, Old Dragon, how is his partnership hotel doing?
Seeing that I agreed, he danced with joy and said, "Let's drink. In the photography world, those who are better at photography than me can't drink more than me; those who can drink more than me can't take better photos than me."
I said, "In the world of fortune-telling, those who have something in their head can't beat me. And those who can beat me don't have as much in their head as I do."
Tan Shaojie laughed so hard that he slammed the table and chairs, saying, "A kindred spirit! A kindred spirit! There are very few who understand me, and you are one of them."
The next day, after Tan Shaojie left, I finally had time to ask my master to tell Mr. Deng's fortune.
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