608: Chapter 608 Image Ambassador

Generally, provincial culture and tourism bureaus only cautiously seek out image ambassadors or promotional ambassadors from exceptionally outstanding Olympic champions. Of course, it is more common for provincial bureaus not to get involved directly; instead, the municipal culture and tourism bureaus take the lead. Only then might they cautiously invite a professional artist with a good reputation to become the "XX City Promotional Ambassador."

There's no helping it; the entertainment industry is too chaotic, and there's no telling when a scandal might break. Once the two parties are tied together, if something comes to light later, it's a blow to the city's image.

However, none of this concerned Lin Chuyan.

Truth be told, the provincial culture and tourism bureau had been eyeing him for a long time.

There were many reasons. Beyond his solid professional skills and good reputation, Lin Chuyan possessed many advantages that others lacked.

For instance, "boundless oceans, vast skies" was now dubbed the "provincial anthem" by the people of Guangdong Province. Wouldn't inviting Lin Chuyan, the singer, to be the "Image Ambassador" be a match made in heaven?

For instance, Lin Chuyan possessed extremely high international fame and influence, which other artists couldn't even come close to. After Lin Chuyan became the Image Ambassador, this fame and influence, through his promotion, could bring tremendous attention to Guangdong Province's culture and tourism.

For instance, Lin Chuyan's positive, enterprising, and resilient spirit aligned with the qualities Guangdong Province's culture and tourism wanted to showcase. This would help establish and strengthen the image of Guangdong Province's culture and tourism, while also changing some people's traditional perceptions of it and attracting more young tourists.

For instance, Lin Chuyan had a massive fan base. When he held concerts in Guangdong Province for several days straight, the local culture and tourism bureau truly witnessed how an Asian superstar could drive the local economy. The bureau had long wanted to recruit Lin Chuyan. Once they announced the news, it would naturally attract more tourists to choose Guangdong Province for their travels, boosting the local tourism industry.

After comprehensive consideration, combined with the vision Lin Chuyan recently displayed in writing "three-region film set notes," the provincial culture and tourism bureau finally made up its mind to invite Lin Chuyan to serve as the "Guangdong Province Culture and Tourism Image Ambassador."

This was a true win-win.

"First, let's clarify one thing: this is the provincial bureau, not the municipal one. This means it's not an honor that just any star or artist can get," Wu Yue explained to Lin Chuyan. "But you're different. It's clear that the authorities like you a lot. What I mean is, this is a matter of nothing but benefit for you, so we must take it."

"Accept, accept, accept, we must accept it!" Lin Chuyan laughed happily. "For one, I'll be contributing to my hometown, and for another, my parents will definitely be very happy."

"That's true, it's a real honor to your ancestors," Wu Yue couldn't help but emphasize. "Since you're interested, I'll continue to push it forward. There should be a formal invitation later. In any case, you need to behave yourself from now on! Remember your status in everything you do. You should know that the other provincial culture and tourism image ambassadors are Olympic world champions who have won countless gold medals, truly bringing glory to the country. To be honest, they are more impressive than you, and each of them is younger than you."

Lin Chuyan was speechless: "...I will continue to work hard and strive to be worthy of this title."

"The principle is the same. We just need to work steadily in our own profession. Being number one is also very impressive." Wu Yue stopped discouraging him and changed the subject. "By the way, it seems like it's a bit difficult for 'ne zha' to push for the number one spot?"

Lin Chuyan nodded: "It's difficult. I estimate it will still fall a bit short. But I thought of a way: why don't we extend the release? Keep it in theaters and try showing it for a while longer?"

"Will that work?"

"Which aspect are you referring to? Whether it can be extended? Or whether it can reach the top if extended?"

"Reaching the top, of course."

Extending the release was too simple—what a coincidence, right? Extending the digital cinema key required communicating and applying with China Film Digital, and China Film Digital was a subsidiary of China Film Group... In other words, Lin Chuyan only needed to say a word to President Fu and go through the procedures.

The key lay in another point.

"Whether 'ne zha' can reach the top doesn't just depend on luck, strength, and marketing." Lin Chuyan took a sip of water and continued, "Brother Yue, I've observed a phenomenon recently."

"Hmm?"

"In the past, the cinema chains actually had tremendous power..." Lin Chuyan organized his thoughts as he spoke. "On one hand, film producers had to say all sorts of nice things to the cinema chains, begging them to allocate more screenings just to get better box office results. On the other hand, the cinema chains could schedule however they wanted because people would watch regardless. How does that saying go? If you don't watch it, plenty of others will. To a large extent, the cinema chains determined the life or death of a film."

Hearing him say this, Wu Yue recalled: "It really was like that in the past. Mainly because the audience back then wasn't picky... Is that right?"

"Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes; it always requires a process. My biggest realization over these past two years is that the times have changed. Or rather, the audience finally no longer tolerates terrible films. The term 'film and television winter' has been shouted by many directors in the industry for years, but in these past two years, I reckon their feelings are the most profound. The audience is truly not buying it anymore."

The more Wu Yue listened, the more he felt something was off: "Why do I feel like the problem lies with you?"

"Hmm?"

"Director Deng Yu's 'the play' had very high screening allocations at the time... If you hadn't stood up and exposed the 'Emperor's New Clothes,' the box office probably wouldn't have been low. Plus, your 'the mission' went straight to streaming, and then there was 'la la land.' The cinema chains are no longer united."

Lin Chuyan shook his head: "No, it's not about whether they can be united or not. Let me give you an example. 'new police story' was shown for another half month after its original scheduled end date. It wasn't Boss Yang begging the cinema chains; the cinema chains asked proactively. Why? Because there were no good films for the half-month slot after 'new police story.' There were new films, quite a few, but if you showed these new films, the audience simply wouldn't buy it! The audience just wanted to see me acting alongside Big Brother. Tell me, what about after 'ne zha' finishes its run? Could it be the same?"

"After the National Day slot... the Christmas slot isn't popular anymore, so that just leaves the New Year's Eve slot, and after that is the Spring Festival Movie Season when 'mr. & mrs. smith' is set to be released."

"Yeah, that's a long way off. From the National Day slot to the New Year's Eve slot, that's almost three months." Lin Chuyan smiled and asked a question: "Brother Yue, what if the films in the New Year's Eve slot aren't that great either? I don't mean they're necessarily terrible films, but they just can't compare to 'ne zha.' Just like the half month that 'new police story' was extended, the box office was still good."

Wu Yue raised an eyebrow, roughly understanding what Lin Chuyan meant: "Good grief, are you trying to... have 'ne zha' seamlessly connect to 'mr. & mrs. smith'?"

Subtext: You want to earn all the money yourself, right?

Lin Chuyan nodded: "Exactly, that's just what I'm thinking. But there's no rush; let's wait until 'ne zha' is about to finish its run. Still, as I said, cinema chains don't have much power now. If there are no good films to follow up, maybe someone will proactively contact me and ask me to extend the release."

Wu Yue thought about it, his tone uncertain: "Actually, is this a good thing? Ultimately, it means that audiences nowadays aren't even willing to watch films that are 'not so terrible.' If you want to get people into the cinema, you have to put out high-quality films... Wouldn't this force the industry to improve?"

Lin Chuyan agreed: "That's what I think too. With the cinema chains' power slipping away and audiences no longer tolerating terrible films, only truly good films will have a chance to shine."

"It's just hard to say what kind of growing pains this 'forcing' will go through."

"The logic of cinema chains showing films has always been winner-takes-all; that won't change. What has changed is the power dynamic. Before, they could manipulate producers and the audience, but now? If they don't show 'ne zha' and can't sell drinks and popcorn, what then?"

As the saying goes, the business world is like a battlefield, and it's also said, better you die than I.

Lin Chuyan didn't have any cheap sympathy; he didn't have the mentality of "giving terrible films a way to survive." If it should be released, release it. The most important thing was for 'ne zha' to take the title of "number one box office in domestic film history."

...

The Guangdong Province Culture and Tourism Bureau acted quite quickly. A few days later, the formal invitation arrived.

Both parties quickly finalized the agreement. Lin Chuyan needed to attend some relevant promotional activities for the provincial culture and tourism bureau, post content related to culture and tourism on platforms like Weibo, and his image would even appear on the provincial bureau's promotional posters and official website, among other places...

However, these were things to do in the future. Over these past two days, Lin Chuyan had taken his team back to Guangdong Province, traveling to several places and filming quite a few solid culture and tourism promotional videos.

With this, the title of "Guangdong Province Culture and Tourism Image Ambassador" finally fell upon him; all that remained was the formal public announcement.

As for the public announcement, Yanzi had a new idea: "Since the new album is already done, why don't we release them together? This new identity of mine and the Cantonese album 'boundless oceans, vast skies' go quite well together."

That was a good idea.

After some consultation between the parties, Guangdong Province Culture and Tourism Bureau and Tianxing started posting on Weibo, both including the hashtags.

#Lin Chuyan Serves as Guangdong Province Culture and Tourism Image Ambassador#

#Lin Chuyan's Brand New Cantonese Album Officially Released#

Sharp-eyed Haters had already discovered this and started roasting: "Pah! Image Ambassador? What kind of image? Singing 'watching the snow drift by' shirtless in Guangdong Province? And calling it the 'provincial anthem,' for f***'s sake! Seriously, do you even have snow there to be 'watching the snow drift by'?"