What exactly are the confusing behaviors of contemporary young people?
To those who do not know the baby scene, “raising BJD dolls” (hereinafter referred to as “raising a doll”) when it is one.
If the player buys not the official full set of dolls (with official designated makeup hair and doll clothes), but a naked doll, the process is complicated. Just picked up the naked baby is a “white boiled egg”: the body is naked, by a visually similar to the real skin of the resin material molded; head without hair, eyes and eyebrows, revealing two empty eggs. The head has no hair, eyes and eyebrows, revealing two empty eye sockets; the joints are connected by spherical parts, making it easy for the doll to assume a variety of poses.
Next, the work of making the baby beautiful is given to the baby girl (the player who raises the baby) – a private letter to the makeup artist about makeup, patiently waiting to be selected by the makeup artist, selected to send the wrapped naked baby head to the makeup artist; according to the baby set, the doll with clothes, buy eye balls, wigs and other accessories. If you wish, you can also configure the doll with the same proportion of the doll house, table, chairs, sofas, books, swords and other props.
Costs not only time, but also money. The most expensive is the doll body, according to the height of the body type, three points bare baby (about 60cm high, 1/3 of the real height of 1m8 human) more than 1000 yuan. Six points naked baby is about 30cm high, the price is also between 600 and 2000 yuan, other body types of naked baby there are four points, eight points, twelve points, etc.. But no matter which body type, a BJD doll cost basically thousands of dollars.
The price is not expensive to stop the enthusiasm of young people. On the topic page of the word “BJD”, the total number of video plays reached 2.99 billion times, and a video of the doll theater was liked by tens of thousands. In the video, the dolls are posed in different positions such as eating, sleeping, kissing, etc., with the bed, baby house as the background, with simple subtitles and clips, they are derived from a small story or warm or lingering.
There are also some rumors about the high price of BJD dolls, difficult to grab. Some people showed me an auction of 100,000 yuan “the secret language of the bird” three points of the baby clothes video, vintage style, colorful. Rumor has it that it took the designer three years to make this doll. There are also interviewees said that in December last year, they like a doll opened a one-time 2,000 head, a second that was ordered, simply can not grab.
Why do these young people like to raise children, and what is expressed in the act of raising children? We chose two of the many interviewees, perhaps representing two different stages of child rearing for the baby mothers. The following are their self-reports.
A form of healing
My name is Zheng Zheng, I am 16 years old and I am the mother of six children.
The first time I saw a doll was five years ago. They were so beautiful, I thought I could never be so beautiful in my life, their faces were so delicate, and their eyes were so soulful, not like a fake doll at all. At that time I wanted to buy one, but the price of the doll is a bit expensive, a set down, the cheap is almost a thousand. After thinking about it, I didn’t buy it because I was too embarrassed to ask my parents for money and didn’t want them to think I didn’t know any better.
I picked up the first doll home in 2019, a second-hand Korean eight-point doll, my parents gave it to me on my birthday. I bought the used doll because many dolls are limited, and the brand new one I was looking at was sold out, so I could only find it on the used platform. With tariffs, the first doll cost a total of $1500, and if it was brand new, it would have been more expensive, costing more than 2200.
Generally speaking, the doll will be shipped with a “birth certificate” (production date), lift the doll’s brain, you can also see the manufacturer’s brand stamp or the doll’s The head plate, to prove that she is a genuine doll. So, as long as the seller is complete with all these things, basically do not worry about the doll is pirated. In the doll world, pirated dolls are a very taboo thing, people call pirated dolls “D wa”, the people who raise pirated dolls are Many makeup artists will directly indicate in the requirements of taking orders “not to accept D Many makeup artists will directly state “No D” in their requirements.
Many people ask me why your parents are so open-minded and support you to raise a child. In fact, it is very simple, many people who raise children have an unhappy thing, and they want me to be happy. When I was in middle school, I got sick and was depressed. I went to the doctor to know that the symptoms are quite heavy – there is a depression level test form, the normal score is around 160, I measured out to 380.
Maybe I was putting too much pressure on myself. Ever since I was a kid, no teacher ever praised me for being smart, and my parents always said I was smart, so I thought since I was so smart, I had to be the best. As a result, when I started middle school, my grades slipped a bit. The most impressive thing is that one math test, full score of 100 points, the whole class did not get 90, I took 89.5, especially sad, I think my mother to say I. I actually cried at that time.
It was at that time that I suddenly realized that since I was a child, I had listened to my parents. My mom said, you have to score more than 90 in math, and more than 90 in language. I was not convinced, the language topic is so subjective, how can it be guaranteed? But in fact, I don’t blame them, many parents are like this, according to their own ideas to require their children, such as after the college entrance examination to what university on what major, before the second year of college no makeup, and after the second year of college can talk about boyfriends, 25 years old almost should get married, and give birth to a child can also help me bring.
Basically, every parent has said these words, I just realized these too early to make myself a little depressed.
So, just like many people have pets to keep themselves company, they just started having children because they could keep me company. Sometimes I’m in a bad mood and don’t want to talk to anyone, but I’ll talk to my dolls. Many people may not understand that pets at least meow, dolls are not even living things, but how can I say it, everyone is two-sided, right? My friends think I’m cheerful, including myself, and strangely enough, once in a psychology class, I scored higher on the introverted side than on the extroverted side.
Perhaps we all need a quiet moment, and dolls allow me to enjoy that moment of silence. Especially when you sit down to change their clothes and hair, it’s really rare to have that kind of patience, and it’s especially healing to treat a beautiful thing carefully and with full attention.
Then again, who doesn’t yearn for beauty? I have a friend around me, the same naked baby, she has 10 at home, only the makeup and dressing is different, because too much like that doll. There is an even more ruthless, the official full set of Dragon Soul family, limited to 80 sets worldwide, she has 9 sets at home. Their ideas I can understand, according to my imagination of beauty, really good-looking people should be androgynous, swimming in the margins of gender, and the doll is the embodiment of this ultimate beauty, not bound by gender.
Of course, not all dolls are as beautiful as the pictures, and sometimes the doll that you pick up does not meet expectations. For example, my latest arrival of a full set of dolls, from the official new, scheduled to get their hands, before and after waiting for eight months, really equivalent to the birth of a child. As a result, the hair is a bit tangled when you take it apart. But what can I do? Already my child, I try to be even, give other dolls new clothes, will also be within a month to buy him a new suit.
Now, I have a total of 5 children at home, there is 1 still on the road. Because the time to raise children is not too long, I bought a few children are basically official, in general, the girls go European style, it is similar to the parents’ expectations of their children, I hope she can love, beautiful, not like me, live like a man (laughs). I wanted to write a story about an assassin and a dark guard – two people who live in darkness and redeem each other. I named the two dolls “Zheng Huaijin” and ” As for the novel, I didn’t use my last name, otherwise it would be too strange for all the characters to be named Zheng.
In the future, I want to engage in BJD doll-related careers, to doll face pinching or be a makeup artist. Have not thought very clearly, but in general this direction, so prepare for college to repair the sculpture, art major. As for my parents, they also want me to be myself now. Sometimes my mom sweeps the floor and jokes with me, “Pick up my grandson (doll), I’m going to sweep the floor! “.
My other self
I am “Baby Shimizu”, people who follow the baby circle should be familiar with my screen name.
In 2003, because I like Japanese manga and drawing, I created an illustration forum, “doll” is only one of the sections. But the impression is that at that time, in addition to Barbie, like BJD, cloth, there is no place for online communication, slowly, “doll” has become the main forum. At that time, the domestic BJD brand only started, the forum assumed a special function is to put together a single single, by the good English people open group, and then communicate with the foreign baby society unified, the order. However, the development of the national community very quickly, the latest is 2008, the forum has appeared on the section dedicated to supporting the national community.
This is also the year, I ran the first Beijing baby show, has been run until now, into a national tour baby show. The change is still quite obvious, in 2008 in Beijing recruited to 8 booths, in 2009 30, in 2010 50, after that it is all more than 100 booths. Now you can often see some particularly cheerful girls at the show, but also boys. This was not the case in the early days of the show, you can feel that more of the people who came to the show were nerdy, introverted girls, probably in the zero years, the first to pay attention to these gorgeous dolls are some people who like to explore their own hearts.
In addition, according to my observation, at least 30% of the people around the children are studying design categories, such as painting, graphic design, home design, clothing design, they have a high aesthetic pursuit. But, is a person will have to be less satisfied with their appearance, and finally found that the doll still looks good, only the beauty of the doll is lasting and eternal.
There are still people who think that raising a doll is not to play Barbie as a child? In fact, not the same, Japan’s largest doll society – Volks Society at the time of the launch of BJD dolls, the official Slogan is “Another Yourself ” (another self), which is the biggest difference between BJD dolls and tide play hand-me-downs, Barbie. Instead of saying “raising a baby”, it is better to borrow the doll, extending “I” the will, “I “aesthetics, and even the story I want to tell.
Just like the period when European sculpture was prevalent, people used to pursue the perfect presentation of the human body, and now young people are raising dolls, only to add clothing, accessories part to project a perfect or different self.
In my case, I added a lot of my own preferences when I designed the doll. For example, I am big-eyed, I also like big eyes, and I especially like to do the duck’s mouth expression, that is, the mouth pursed into a line, I also designed this combination for my dolls – “big eyes + duck’s mouth “. I also designed a male doll with an open mouth smile, Korea has a similar smile mouth, but the Korean designers to pursue the real, the decrescendo lines also made out, I do not like.
For ordinary waifu, BJD dolls also have a lot of room to play. Generally, before picking up the naked baby, the baby girl has already thought about the specific “baby set” information, what identity, what style, soft and cute or domineering lady, common muscle (natural skin tone, slightly yellow), whitening, or day burn (dark skin, bronze), how the doll’s life scenes, used in what theme shooting, just like writing a biography.
After that, the most laborious is to apply makeup. Once you encounter a cloudy day, the humidity is greater than 40%, basically you can not make up. Because of the fixed makeup to use matte, after each layer to spray, matte can make the makeup surface has a uniform sense of grain, but it is chemically unstable, fixed makeup after a large change in humidity, the makeup surface is easy to crack. Therefore, the south a series of more than ten days of rain, makeup artist which day can not be on the makeup, it is easy to delay the makeup period.
Usually when we receive the demand for makeup, we ask the customer to send a small note in a unified format with the head of the wa, stating the makeup taboos, makeup style, color scheme, specify small decorations, etc.. He can not give me any request, what he likes and what he does not like must be said, because the doll is his extension, not my extension, I want the customer to get the doll he imagines.
The most popular request my makeup artist encounters is “no freckles”, and many people do not want black eyeliner, black eyeliner tends to make the eyes look especially large, not good with clothes. You must wear a dark wig to look good. There are also a variety of requirements: some people do not want the corners of the mouth down, but some people like the expression of unhappiness; some people do not want heavy blush, everyday life looks a little strange, and some people want heavy blush, outdoor sunlight is strong, makeup face than the stronger the better, in fact, is the difference between the human world of daily makeup and stage makeup.
Overall, our makeup on the daily side, priced at about 200-300 yuan. Circle also has some very expensive makeup, on a makeup thousands of dollars, some dolls auctioned tens of thousands, but such a makeup artist is very few, counted not more than ten names. Moreover, people on the makeup expensive is reasonable, many of these makeup artists are from the class, with years of experience in makeup. The makeup process is also very complex, just the makeup base to lay several layers, facial pores, blood, shadows are drawn very carefully, the real-life style. The artistry of the makeup is also strong, the eye coloring is very complex, the overall to look beautiful instead is the most difficult.
But there are some self-publishers who can’t see this, they call raising dolls “raising kids” and spending a lot of money, I really think that these reports are wrong and are demonizing the baby scene. The BJD doll circle itself is a niche luxury circle, to meet the aesthetic needs of some people, self-seeking.
Last year, I gave a lecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts to popularize BJD knowledge. Some students asked me why exquisite doll clothes (non-daily style clothing) cannot be mass-produced, and those who make them are all kind of tiny studios. I said, “First, you define a quantity of mass production. He said, “Mass production should be at least three to five hundred pieces. I told him that this quantity is considered explosive in the industry, and if it really sells this quantity, it must be that the baby clothes are particularly good-looking. The reason is that very few people like to have their own children and other people’s children clash every day, right?
And again, the price of the naked baby, why do people feel that the price of the naked baby on the expensive side? In fact, this is related to the production model of the doll itself, to be precise, the mass production of BJD dolls is “small batch of handmade production”, the official production of an original mold, the original mold Not steel and copper mold, is a silicone mold, must then be manually turned by workers, not a machine “snap” press, 5000 dolls out. Therefore, the production time of BJD dolls, the number of production is trapped by the material, it is destined to produce a small amount of all the brands of dolls on the new can not be sold openly, are limited to open sales or custom orders.
This inevitably led to the BJD doll circle is a “high unit price, low production” profit model, compared with other industries several times the profit margin, BJD doll profit return Negligible, it is impossible to meet the imagination of the investment industry. Previously, there are large and small companies to consult me, or want to invest in related industries, but the results are not because they can not calculate a better rate of return, or changed to do MJD – mechanical movable joint dolls.
Also as a result, the national community is now mostly long term fighting, few people short term fighting. This is good, a stable market environment is what we want, I do not want too much hype, there will be hype will have peaks and valleys. I hope this market is flat, slowly, and always do.
Note: “Zheng Zheng” is a pseudonym in the article.
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