Online creator conference looks at new focus

One of the speakers, William Brown, professor at the School of Management, Xiamen University, shared his indissoluble bond of friendship with China.

He came to China in 1987, and during the past 33 years, he was pleased to see the great improvements on people's livelihood in China. When he first traveled around China with his family in 1994, it took him three months to finish the whole journey, while in 2019, Brown spent 32 days making the second round trip over the same route. The rapid and thorough changes in China within simply 25 years "moved me deeply", Brown says.

Brown tries to share his affections for China from an external perspective with more people. After publishing more than 20 books and filmed over 400 episodes of TV programs, Brown joined Toutiao last October and became an online content creator for the first time. Now he has garnered around 330,000 followers. Some of his videos received millions of views within a few days, which looked incredible to him.

"It is with your attention and support that I can be more motivated to share with you more of what I see and feel. There is an old Chinese saying that 'stones from another mountain can be used to polish one's jade'. As a foreigner, I can feel more clearly the actual benefits that China's development has brought to the people. I also want to share this simple touch with a wider audience," he says.

Brown says he has participated in this year's annual selection of the top 100 works. He chose the video clip he created in June, A Chinese Story Starts from Quanzhou, in which he introduced how this ancient port called Zaitun city by the then Arab merchants inspired writers to create magical stories like Aladdin.

Brown says he will continue to tell stories of the common people he meets in China, and in his own words "hearts, then head", to enhance the mutual understanding through the emotional connections.

Popular science creator Wang Jie says the author's depth of understanding of science is the "tao" of popular science video creation, which determines the "ceiling" of the work; and the professionalism of the video is "technique", which determines the relationship between the work and the "ceiling". Roy and Sue, a couple filming travelogs believes that only by slowing down on the details can they generate unique ideas and touches. The creative sharing will be more real, deeper and valuable.