A surprise inspection of the left wrists of contemporary young people revealed that in addition to watches, there were also bracelets

This article is an article that explores the reasons and problems of the popularity of Wenwan bracelets among young people. It has a novel concept, rich content, and has certain thinking value. It has certain reference value for understanding the current Wenwan market.

Nowadays, if you suddenly check the left wrist of young people today, you may see a bracelet in addition to a watch.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

"I started to get into this at the end of last year, and I've probably bought no less than 30 bracelets, including several of the King Kong, Star and Moon, Monkey Head, and Cypress Fragrance varieties." Mark, a new collector of antiques born after 1995, told iBrandi.

Compared with eyeshadow palettes and liquid foundation, cultural relics represented by bracelets seem to be more popular among contemporary young people; compared with luxury goods counters, more and more young people are beginning to go to Beijing Panjiayuan (China's largest flea market)...

Why are bracelets popular again among young people? When young people coil tree seeds, what are they actually “coiling”?

01 From the incense ash and glass of Lama Temple to the Bodhi roots of primary school students, why are bracelets so popular among young people?

Perhaps it was the Lama Temple incense ash and glass bracelet that Ding Chengxin from Times Youth League wore that made the "same style as celebrities" attract so much attention, or it could be that young people who "choose to pray to Buddha over praying to others" wanted to relieve their anxiety through the metaphysics of temples and bracelets... It is difficult to have a definite time point, but ornamental bracelets have once again become popular among young people, even among primary school students.

There are two main types of bracelets worn by contemporary young people on their left wrists. One is made of incense ash and colored glaze from Lama Temple, which prays for academic success, career, and money, and focuses on metaphysics.

The other category is the focus of this article, which is "artistic bracelets" represented by tree seeds such as Bodhi and Hericium, and wooden bracelets such as rosewood.

According to the "2021 Cultural and Artifacts E-commerce Industry Insight Report" released by Mob Research Institute, the age structure of cultural and art e-commerce users shows the characteristics of "small at both ends and large in the middle" - those born after 1975 are still the mainstay, but the young groups born after 1990s and 2000s are rising rapidly, and consumers under the age of 35 account for nearly half.

As for how bracelets became popular among young people, iBrandi believes that if primary school students play with Bodhi roots mainly for "fun" and "stress relief", then young people place more emotional value on bracelets.

You can feel how passionate young people are about bracelets by searching related terms on Xiaohongshu.

On Xiaohongshu, there are over 2.36 million notes about "literary playthings", over 1.66 million notes about "literary playthings bracelets", and the number of notes about the representative product "Bodhi root" has exceeded 500,000.

From the content of the notes, we can also find out why bracelets attract young people.

First, appearance is justice.

Ranked by popularity, the Bodhi root bracelet, which is loved even by primary school students, is one of the most popular bracelets at present.

On the one hand, Bodhi root has a large output and is therefore more cost-effective. On the other hand, it can be dyed and DIYed freely, which makes it more favored by female players who believe that "beauty is justice."

Fish is also a new collector of collectibles and showed iBrandi some of his DIY bodhi root bracelets.

"My colleagues in the office were also attracted to it and bought one each. In the afternoon, the sound of strings being skewered could always be heard in the quiet office. Recently, I also plan to 'advance' and buy a string of star and moon bodhi." Fish told iBrandi Pinchuang, "As for why I started with bodhi roots, it was mainly because they are cheap."

On Xiaohongshu or Pinduoduo, Bodhi roots with free shipping for 9.9 yuan are everywhere. At the same time, in order to further satisfy girls' pursuit of beauty, Bodhi roots of various colors and shapes have emerged and have "unique" names.

Various shapes such as "charcoal grilled cat's paw" and "charcoal grilled buns" continue to appear. The green one is called "half mountain and half water", the mixed one is called "candy color", and the one dyed with red edges is called "slightly drunk wild berry"...

Cost-effectiveness + DIY-able appearance, these "currency" that are not worth mentioning in the eyes of veteran collectors of cultural relics have become the stepping stone for most young people to enter the cultural relics market.

Second, what you are playing with is the bracelet, what you want is the emotion, and the purpose is to relieve stress.

If wearing them to look good is just a superficial reason, then the deeper reason may be that young people place some of their emotional needs on these tree seeds.

"Vajra Bodhi, Star Moon Bodhi, Buddha's Hand, Walnut, etc., to put it bluntly, are all tree seeds, but because they are seeds, as you play with them, you can see their color change, which, to some extent, gives you a sense of satisfaction." Mark told iBrandi. "On the way to work, while slacking off at work, or watching TV series at night, you can also use it as a pastime."

Whether it is a bodhi or wooden bracelet, or a walnut or gourd, etc., as time goes by and they play with it, for young people, the process is stress-relieving and the result is "gratifying".

Third, identity and social value.

Young people who love to share not only like to make surprise checks on the left wrists of contemporary young people on Xiaohongshu, but also like to show off their own left wrists.

"Look at your star-moon bodhi", "Look at your monkey head", "Look at your Vajra" have become popular topics in the Xiaohongshu cultural and art circle recently. Under the theme notes, users are also spontaneously sharing and "showing off" their bracelets.

In addition, when the picture is a naked "I want to buy a bracelet" or "I want to buy a bodhi tree", under the note is a community where young people help each other. Xiaohongshu, which is good at discovering niche trends, has once again become a spiritual sustenance station for young people who play with cultural relics.

Of course, in addition to the sharing of entry-level products, there are also some bracelets that have created the so-called "chain of contempt" in the cultural relics circle.

"The first generation of customized Panlong pattern is 108, starting from 9800." A Douyin live broadcast room introduced the price of its first generation Panlong pattern to the audience. In fact, tree seeds also have high and low prices, and in addition to Bodhi bracelets, beeswax, turquoise, southern red, small-leaf red sandalwood and other categories are also expensive.

Behind this wave of cultural relics craze, young people are not only "playing around" with beads, but also emotions, social interactions, and circles.

02 A market worth hundreds of billions of yuan, and a derivative business created by “distribution”

"All categories are worth re-doing", and cultural relics seem to have caught up with the new consumption trend. If primary school students and young people are the new groups that cultural relics have caught up with, and Xiaohongshu's "planting grass" is the new marketing, then e-commerce is the new channel for cultural relics to catch up.

According to iMedia Consulting data, the user scale of the cultural relics e-commerce industry reached 60.85 million in 2020, and the transaction scale reached 163 billion yuan. It is estimated that the overall user scale will exceed 100 million in 2023, and the transaction scale will exceed 500 billion yuan.

No market is willing to miss out on the preferences of young people, and in order to cater to this hobby of young people, some derivative industries have begun to emerge in the cultural relics market.

1. If you can’t do it yourself, there are tools; if the string is not beautiful enough, there are accessories

Young people love to wear bracelets, but if you have more than 30 bracelets like Mark, then how to distribute them evenly in a short period of time becomes a problem.

If you ask any player with relevant experience, and he plays the more popular and popular categories in the current market, he will tell you: "King Kong cannot live without a brush in his life, it is needed for removing alkali and brightening", "Star Moon and Monkey Head can be polished with gloves", "Priming, coloring, patina, and daily cleaning are the 'standard' procedures"...

I don’t know if the process of stringing bracelets required so many complicated and detailed procedures when the grandfather in the community park was stringing the original King Kong. But now, gloves, nano brushes, pig bristle brushes, automatic stringing machines and other “plug-ins” for playing with bracelets have begun to appear on the market, and most people have begun to pay for them.

In a Douyin store called "Pan Shajiang", the host broadcasts a live show of brushing strings with a machine while putting the goods on a truck. A set of "electric brushes for cultural relics" worth one hundred yuan can sell nearly ten thousand per month.

In addition, cultural relics strings used in conjunction with DIY have also become a necessity, and creative products such as Buddha heads, waist beads, and top beads that are added to the strings to make the bracelets more pleasing to the eye are constantly emerging.

In addition, for a string of star-moon bodhi or small golden jewel worth hundreds of yuan, young people are willing to buy a beeswax worth thousands of yuan to match it. The phenomenon of "accessories are more expensive than strings" is not uncommon.

In the world of young people, bracelets can be used not only to kill time, but also to add a touch of color to life through DIY; the "three winters and two summers" of playing time can also be shortened by using "black technology" to make oneself feel satisfied faster.

2. The studio’s “careful selection and matching” and “identification” services

In fact, apart from some cost-effective entry-level bracelets commonly seen on the market, those rare tree seeds or bracelet categories, such as the first generation of dragon patterns, beeswax, turquoise and other products, usually need to be customized and purchased at high prices.

This led to the emergence of cultural relics studios and appraisal businesses.

Simply put, the seeds of a tree have different sizes and textures. How can we make them look better when strung together into a string of 108 or a bracelet? This is why the Wenwan Studio, which provides "careful selection and matching" services, came into being.

Compared with passionate consumption in the live broadcast room, the period of "careful selection and matching" by the cultural relics studio is longer. Similarly, when a bracelet is blessed by a brand studio, it will inevitably have a certain premium.

Some sellers seem to be well aware of young people's consumption psychology and have caught their desire to share and their concept of cost-effectiveness. For example, in a studio on Xiaohongshu that specializes in monkey head bracelets, users can get a 30 yuan cashback if they post a note with a good review.

Bracelets with the blessing of "brand" may be able to calm young people's hearts. Since they are carefully selected and matched, the probability of "technology and hard work" may be reduced. So, what about those that are not produced by studios?

Perhaps compared to the shoe circle, the cultural relics circle may need "Dewu" more.

Judging from the business of several popular cultural and art e-commerce companies on the market, "identification" is an indispensable business. However, with the large-scale entry of "cultural and art novices", the "identification" service is becoming less simple.

On the one hand, there is a certain threshold to become an appraiser of cultural relics, and there are good and bad so-called "appraisers" on social media. On the other hand, when he appraises that your cultural relics are "garbage" and starts recommending his own products to you, you need to think about whether he is an appraiser or a salesperson.

03 “Deep” cultural relics and “seasonal” bracelets

Of course, the bracelets discussed in this article are only the tip of the iceberg of cultural and artistic objects. After all, there are deeper cultural, historical and artistic values ​​behind cultural and artistic objects.

At the same time, the saying “the waters of antiques are deep, and the waters of cultural relics are muddy” is not groundless.

"After buying a few bunches, I learned that Dajinang is divided into medicinal seeds and original ecology. Baixiang also has various production areas, such as Rezhen, Ganzi, and Tibetan areas. It is said that the best ones are from Rezhen, but as a newcomer, it is actually difficult to distinguish them." Mark, who has been in the market for more than half a year, said to iBrandi. "It turns out that there is technology and hard work in the cultural and art circle."

In a live broadcast room of cultural relics on Douyin, a host gave some newbies in cultural relics the most heartfelt advice. In addition to "there is no difference between expensive and cheap cultural relics", the host also gave some advice such as "don't rush to buy a collection of cultural relics" and "newbies should look more and sell less"

This can be considered a relatively "conscientious" anchor. After all, driven by young people, the "deep" characteristics of cultural relics have begun to be magnified.

There is no threshold for buying a plate, but there needs to be a certain cognitive threshold for cultural relics. This is the first problem that cultural relics and young people need to face now.

Another question is how long this cultural relics craze can last and how many young people are truly interested in cultural relics.

Open Xianyu and Xiaohongshu, in addition to merchants selling beads, there are also users who are "recovering their losses". For young people, cheap Bodhi bracelets are more like a "seasonal throwaway" product.

04 Conclusion

As a non-standard product, cultural relics have problems such as long supply chains, unclear pricing, and rampant counterfeits. The traditional offline cultural relics market has problems, and cultural relics e-commerce has no exception. Especially online, where you can’t see the real objects, it may even bring more problems.

In addition, why is the relatively expensive small-leaf red sandalwood not as popular among young people as the bodhi root? We don’t know whether young people buy bracelets based on cost-effectiveness or artistic value, and we don’t know whether they buy emotions or works of art.

If young people only regard cultural relics, including bracelets, as "toys", then this craze may not continue. After all, it is not easy to guess and retain the hearts of young people.

Perhaps for “slow-heating” cultural relics, the best way for them to survive is to “make money quietly”?

Author: Bale

Source: WeChat public account "IBrandi Pinchuang (ID: ibrandi)"