Breaking stereotypes, the relaxed life of "rural left-behind blogger" Guo Jiahan

This article tells the story of how Guo Jiahanhan, a "rural left-behind blogger", broke the stereotype with his unique attitude and way of life and became a blogger with millions of followers. It guides readers to have a deeper understanding of the influence of personal brands and the power of social media. I hope it will be helpful to you.

"Recently I fell in love with a blogger named 'Guo Jia Hanhan'. From her I saw how happy Ziqia is." These words come from a 30-year-old worker in a large factory - "Ziqia Meets Miao".

In order to reconcile with her job as soon as possible, after careful and rational consideration, "Ziqie Yumiao" decided to change jobs at the "highest ROI moment". When is the "highest ROI moment"? She herself didn't know. So, the anxiety cycle came as expected.

At this time, she saw a short video of Guo Jiahanhan, in which Guo Jiahanhan was lying on the ground with his dog in his clothes. The text of the video was: What are you thinking about? I think now is the happiest time in my life. There are always people who say that we should not live like this, and only by working hard can tomorrow be better, but today is already good, why should tomorrow be better, and shouldn’t the day after tomorrow be even better? In three or five years, will you be the best person in the world? They said I didn’t understand and was a fool. I grinned.

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Many fans envy Guo Jiahan for being able to lie on the ground as he pleases, but they are also worried that their clothes will get dirty if they lie on the ground, even though we all know that clothes will always be washed.

At this moment, "Self-Consistent Meets Cat" found the emotional balance point in Guo Jiahan. It seems that there is no so-called "ROI Highest Moment". Even if people eat and grow old, as long as their hearts are rich, they are happy. She said: "The more I watch, the more I feel that this sister's mental state is a hundred years ahead of me."

Guo Jiahanhan defines herself as a 170-pound rural left-behind woman, while her fans define her as a "prose poet." In her Douyin account, under the video with the most likes, you can often see comments like this. For example, "Why do I envy her life?", "She always gives me the feeling of an intellectual.", "She lives like a prose."...

Thanks to this "prose"-like life, her Douyin account @郭家傻傻 gained 1.4 million followers in 3 months, and her Douyin account @魅力志玲儿 also gained more than 200,000 followers in the same three months. After becoming a million-dollar blogger on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, in addition to the relevant content appearing in marketing accounts, some fans also extracted the golden sentences of Guo Jiahanhan's videos and widely circulated them on social platforms in the form of posters. Among them, the highest number of likes on Douyin exceeded 10,000, and the number of likes on Xiaohongshu exceeded 100. There are even some fans in Spain and Africa who stay up late to "squat" for video updates.

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By observing the content of her videos, we found that after Guo Jiahanhan became popular, most of her fans went through three stages of change, namely questioning Guo Jiahanhan, understanding Guo Jiahanhan, and wanting to become Guo Jiahanhan. How did Guo Jiahanhan become popular? Why is her content so "addictive"?

1. The first wave of continuous popularity was due to two dogs - Zhigang and Zhiqiang

A fan of Guo Jiahanhan said that he first came across Guo Jiahanhan because of her dog, "at that time she only had a few thousand fans."

Two years ago, someone gave Guo Jiahan a small dog. She filmed a video recording the process of her and her husband taking the dog home, and invited netizens to name the dog. Unexpectedly, the video was viewed by 78,000 people, so she posted a follow-up on the dog's name.

Among the many strange names suggested by netizens such as "Wuzui'er, Guokui (noodle snack), Developer, Capitalist", etc., Guo Jiahan decided to give his dog a name that "fits his identity and temperament".

As a result, a cry of "Zhigang, come here" caused tens of thousands of netizens to collapse instantly.

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Because their relatives or friends have the same name as Guo Jiahan’s dog. Therefore, this naming video has a lot of interaction, and the comment area is full of comments such as "My brother is also named this", "I have two relatives named Zhigang", "My husband's uncle is named Zhigang", "Our former boss was named Zhang Zhigang", etc. There are also fans who directly "get up close" to ask Guo Jiahan if her ex-boyfriend is named "Zhigang". "Frightened" Guo Jiahan sent two "no"s to refute the rumor.

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Interestingly, wherever there is “Zhigang”, there is basically “Zhiqiang”.

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A fan once commented under the video: "I have two brothers, one is called Liu Zhigang and the other is called Liu Zhiqiang." Another fan said that his distant relatives and colleagues are named Zhigang and Zhiqiang respectively.

Guo Jiahanhan also explained in the video that the reason why he named the dog "Zhigang" was because he hoped that the dog would have "strong ambitions" in the future.

Everything seemed to go smoothly, and Guo Jiahanhan really met her "Zhiqiang". On the way home late at night, Guo Jiahanhan and his wife encountered "Zhiqiang" lying in the middle of the road and hit by a car, and took it home. So far, the video of taking "Zhiqiang" home has received 370,000 likes.

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After that, Guo Jiahanhan often posted videos of feeding the two dogs. Relying on the accumulated "eating broadcast" fame of "Zhigang" + "Zhiqiang", Guo Jiahanhan was affectionately called "Zhiling" by fans and successfully gained a wave of fans.

In addition to "Zhigang" and "Zhiqiang", many other animals also appeared in Guo Jiahanhan's videos. For example, the couple helped cut off the collar of the little white dog, rescued a puppy "Grizzly" who met in the snow, asked the rescue team to take care of the stray cat with prolapse, and "Xiaohui" who often ran around "unable to see dogs", etc. It can be said that Guo Jiahanhan's first wave of continuous popularity is inseparable from the blessing of these pet contents.

On the Douyin platform, pet topics have always received a lot of attention. According to data from Bytedance, Douyin's pet content has an average monthly reach of more than 300 million people in the past year, with more than 150 million interested users.

In addition, we also observed that in the pet track, content with the theme of "picking up cats and dogs" has gained followers very quickly. For example, @土豆笑子, the first content he posted was a video recording the process of picking up a stray puppy, which made @土豆笑子 gain 500,000 followers in 10 days (data source: Operation Gongju Xiaoleilei). So far, the video has received more than 6.52 million likes.

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After having a certain fan base, Guo Jiahanhan started her e-commerce sales journey at the end of 2022. Therefore, trailer products began to appear in her videos, such as Xiaopeng Food’s old-fashioned spicy slices, Sichuan Wazi chili sauce, etc., and she also began to try live streaming sales at the same time.

However, the good times did not last long. Her dog "Zhigang" unfortunately died because he did not have time to go to the hospital, and "Zhiqiang" was also stolen by the "bad guys". Guo Jiahanhan, who was busy looking for the dog, stopped broadcasting for a while, and then continued to sell goods while looking for the dog.

2. The sense of relaxation made Guo Jiahanhan become a blogger with millions of followers within a month

It was not until January this year that Guo Jiahanhan became truly popular.

According to Relang data, as of January 31, Guo Jiahanhan had 1.089 million followers on Douyin, successfully becoming a blogger with millions of followers. Moreover, on January 31, she set a record of gaining 72,000 followers in a single day.

Source: Heatwave

As of now, Guo Jiahanhan’s main Douyin account @郭家汉汉 has 1.551 million followers, her secondary account @魅力志玲儿 has 269,000 followers, and her husband’s account @汉侯小蒲 has 82,000 followers. The total number of followers of these three accounts on the Douyin platform alone is 1.902 million.

In addition, Guo Jiahanhan has registered accounts on Bilibili, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu, and currently has 179,000 fans on the three platforms. In summary, Guo Jiahanhan has more than 2 million fans on the entire network. With the growth of her fans, her live streaming venue has also changed from the previous small supermarket shelves to the live streaming rooms of brands such as Hongxing Erke.

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After this explosion of popularity, Guo Jiahan’s fans said: “As they scrolled, they found that her fans had increased from a few thousand to millions. Is my niche hobby going to be discovered again?”

Therefore, these fans spontaneously told their stories of meeting and knowing Guo Jiahanhan in the comment section. In fact, when most fans first "met" Guo Jiahanhan, they were almost discouraged by her sloppy image and "careless" life details. For example, you might see her picking up popcorn on the ground with disheveled hair and a dirty face to taste it; you might also see her "washing her head with hot water" with a towel after washing her face, etc. These "scenes" plus the remote rural living environment made many fans who saw Guo Jiahanhan for the first time "watch with frowns". But after watching a few videos in a row, they will start to be "addicted".

A comment with 32,000 likes reads: "Why am I addicted to watching (Guo Jia Hanhan)? Because I feel like I can live a pretty good life without so many things to worry about."

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For example, when she had been trying to lose weight for health reasons but still "followed the instructions of fate and ate chicken legs", she said: "Too much worry about tomorrow will reduce the experience of today"; when she saw the beautiful scenery outside the window while washing dishes, she said: "Although there are greasy dishes waiting for me to wash, the beautiful scenery outside the window is also born for me"; when the electric car suddenly ran out of power and was forced to stop, she said: "All journeys will come to an end, there is no need to rush"...

Guo Jiahan's videos reveal a sense of freedom and relaxation, just like the "cucumber" described by Xiao Hong. If it wants to bloom a yellow flower, it will bloom a yellow flower, and if it wants to produce a cucumber, it will produce a cucumber. If it doesn't want to do either, no one will ask it.

The sloppy appearance and the unkempt rural environment, in contrast to her slow and measured tone full of "philosophical" words, magnify Guo Jia's simple and self-consistent spiritual core. This is similar to the fact that in the past two years, young people have chosen to "let themselves go" in a competitive society with intensified "involution". Therefore, many young people can empathize with Guo Jia, and it turns out that low-cost life can be so fulfilling.

According to Relang data, nearly 70% of Guo Jiahan’s Douyin fans are between 18 and 30 years old. Most of them are from Generation Z, followed by sophisticated mothers, small town youth and new white-collar workers.

In addition, she never deliberately conceals her "mediocrity", which also makes Guo Jiahanhan gain countless fans. In Guo Jiahanhan's videos, she has always generously shown her living environment and the real appearance of reality. Some scenes that most people feel "embarrassed" are just records of her daily life. For example, a kitchen full of greasy mud, a pigsty piled with debris, and a cement house without any decoration.

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In this materialistic age, Guo Jiahan has her own attitude towards life. She said in the video: "I was not well behaved since I was young, my grades were average, and I went with the flow at work. I was not as determined as others, so naturally I did not have a decent career. To be honest, even my cousin who was born in the 2000s earns more than me. Therefore, I know that I am the most insignificant person in this world."

Seeing this, some fans expressed that they have a better understanding of Zhiling'er. "I don't think you have a bad life, but envy your casual and open life."

3. Breaking the constructed image of “rural women” through short videos

After Guo Jiahan became popular, some fans teased her character of a left-behind woman, because her husband Xiao Pu often came back to see her, and every time they met, Xiao Pu "responded to every word", giving her enough emotional value, which is something that many husbands of left-behind women cannot do. In Guo Jiahan's videos, there was no mention of children, and even the only dog ​​"Zhiqiang" who needed to be watched was currently missing.

Compared to those left-behind mothers who cannot be with their families for a long time or who have to take care of their children alone, Guo Jiahan is indeed lucky. Or perhaps this luck has given her a strong and stable spiritual core. Through the short video, Guo Jiahan shows us an image of rural women that is different from the previously constructed image.

In your opinion, what should rural left-behind women be like? Doing farm work while taking care of children? Or being bullied by the mother-in-law? These similar "plots" are not uncommon on social platforms. Previously, the "bitter melon brigade" represented by @小英一家 scared many female college students.

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The "bitter melon brigade" usually refers to "women" who married into poor rural areas at a young age, have endless farm work to do, endless housework to do, and endless children to coax every day, and have a husband who is "confinement" and needs them to take care of him. Therefore, their videos are all centered around their husbands and children.

Guo Jiahanhan's videos are centered on herself. Different from our stereotypes of rural women, this 170-pound "rural left-behind woman" blogger not only watches the American TV series "Game of Thrones" but also reads the world-famous novel "Walden". Guo Jiahanhan uses her own way to get out of the countryside and see the outside world.

The core of Walden is that the less you ask from the outside world, the more fulfilled your heart will be. It is called "the book of answers to life" by many people. Previously, Qiu Yong, the president of Tsinghua University, gave this book to freshmen as a gift for admission. The core of this book is also very similar to the attitude expressed in Guo Jiahan's short video.

In order to broaden her horizons, Guo Jiahanhan also visited Tsinghua University and Peking University when she traveled to Beijing. She said: "When I was young, I always thought that everything would be fine if I was admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University. In fact, the troubles of Tsinghua University and Peking University are no less than ours. Is it possible that we have lived our lives wrongly, always thinking that today is tired and uneasy, and tomorrow will represent stability and happiness. These do not need to wait until tomorrow. Having money to buy a bowl of noodles is wealth, no one chasing you on the road is stability, and smiling more is happiness."

It is worth mentioning that, influenced by the inherent image of rural women, Guo Jiahan's detached attitude towards life has begun to make some netizens "doubt" the authenticity of her video. After all, the last rural expert with millions of fans, @凉山孟阳刚, was sentenced for "faking and selling misery".

Some netizens thought that the video of Guo Jiahanhan picking up the puppy was a staged photo, and some netizens questioned her family conditions after seeing her piano. Guo Jiahanhan did not shy away from such questions. She said that she picked up the puppy and recorded the video because she saw something driving by on the road, and then Xiaopu returned to record it with her mobile phone; and she played the piano because of her "one-time" hobby.

Judging from Guo Jiahanhan’s current videos, she does not deliberately exaggerate her “hardships”. Her videos include not only rural concrete houses, but also her mother’s house and her own car.

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At the end of one of her videos, Guo Jiahanhan introduced to her fans the original intention of posting videos: she hoped that everyone could get some "comfort" through her videos. Therefore, whether it was the dust in the corner, the simple kitchen, or even the quarrel between her and Xiao Pu, she showed them all without any effort.

Guo Jiahanhan said: "When your friends are enjoying fine food and wine, and you are eating fast food downstairs, you will see my videos and sigh, this woman eats worse than me; when your friends are successful in their careers and have luxury cars and houses, you see my videos and you will think that not everyone is rich, you see Guo Hanhan is doing worse than me." Guo Jiahanhan further explained: If his videos can bring some inspiration to others, "that will be my merit."

Do you like Guo Jiahanhan? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss.

Author: Xia Tian WeChat Official Account: KOL User Manual (ID: KOL-TOPKLOUT)