Chapter 14: Creating Demand Where There Is No Demand

After Xu Yichi finished speaking, he rubbed his hands nervously, fearing that he had said something wrong and would be hit on the head by this ancestor again.

Fortunately, Yang Yan'an didn't get angry after hearing what she said. He just nodded slowly and said, "Yeah, that's about right."

"Most of the intangible cultural heritage, especially those that are about to be lost, are either expensive or time-consuming, or both... A small number of them are due to the destruction of machines and discontinuity of technology caused by factors such as war. If you look into them in detail, it's hard to take care of them."

"So, if we look at productivity development, traditional market demand and pure cost-effectiveness alone, it is only natural that these things are on the verge of being lost."

"But... the significance of the existence of these intangible cultural heritages cannot be considered solely from the perspective of productivity and market demand, right?" Xu Yichi blinked, and his ears unconsciously pricked up again and again.

"It's obvious." The little girl shrugged casually. "The value of these things in studying historical development and local cultural changes is much more important than productivity and market demand!"

"——Don't forget, there are a lot of things in here. They were all carefully selected items guaranteed by the Nine Clans. They can be said to be the crystallization of wisdom passed down from generation to generation by the ancient working people!"

“So…” Xu Yichi leaned forward slightly.

"So, now that we know that the fundamental reason why most of these things are on the verge of being lost is that they are difficult to learn, and there is no money and it is not easy to make a living, then we should find a way to solve the problem from the root." Yang Yan'an tilted his head, clearly disliking the little girl's slow reaction.

"...Ah?" Xu Yichi was confused and stunned. This time she really couldn't follow her ancestor's thinking.

"Ugh... this thing, just, push it backwards, push it backwards!" The little girl cursed, walked over in two or three steps, grabbed the little girl's face, and rubbed it hard, "Following your idea just now, push it backwards, can you do it?"

"I, I, I... I'll try to think about it." Xu Yichi, whose mouth was squeezed into a chicken's mouth by a certain demon spirit loli, hummed, "Machine damage and technological discontinuity are definitely something that professionals like them will have a headache about, but if that's hard to learn and I don't have money..."

"Senior, do you mean that we can find a way to reduce the cost and difficulty of learning, and at the same time try to increase the income of the inheritors from other angles?"

"Yeah, what next?" Yang Yan'an squeezed the little girl's face and didn't let go, "How can we solve it specifically? Keep talking."

"There could be more..." Xu Yichi laughed awkwardly, "How would I know this?"

——She is just an unlucky otaku game producer, how could she understand this!
"It's said that the way of thinking of you young people is really... Forget it, I always want to complain about this whenever I talk to you, a little feudal person." The little loli pursed her lips, and as soon as the words fell, she loosened her grip on Xu Yichi, looked up at the sky with great disappointment and sighed.

"Can't you think of a way to string together what we've talked about today and synthesize it?"

"Uh..." Ling's question hit the girl's blind spot, "No, I can't quite connect the dots..."

——If she could connect all these things together, she wouldn’t have to force Xiaobai and the others to play games anymore.

Then she can probably go directly for the civil service exam.

"So, if we want to increase the income of practitioners, we can only start from two aspects." Yang Yan'an waved his hand and stretched out two fingers. "The first is the work of the relevant government departments. We should support and guarantee the basic survival needs of practitioners and inheritors as much as possible from the government."

"We can't interfere with this, and the policies of different places are also different." "The second is to use existing means and channels to find ways to increase market demand."

"This is related to the 'transmission' part of the 'inheritance' I told you about."

"Increase... market demand." Xu Yichi was confused, "But demand..."

"There's a saying, 'If there's no demand, create it.'" Yang Yan'an grinned, "Give me an example?"

"Where do you think the custom of eating apples on Christmas Eve came from?"

"Eating apples on Christmas Eve is not... that is not..." The little girl's throat was suddenly choked.

She originally wanted to say, "Isn't it to pray for peace?", but when the words came to her lips, she suddenly realized that she really seemed to have no idea where this saying came from.

She only remembered that ever since she knew there were such things as "Christmas" and "Christmas Eve" in the world, the idea of "eating apples on Christmas Eve" had been stuck in her mind like a package deal... and everyone around her thought so too.

"Except for the Chinese language system, in any other language system in the world," Yang Yanan grinned, "does the word 'apple' have anything to do with 'safety'?"

"Based on my limited knowledge...it seems not?" Xu Yichi hesitated.

"So... no matter whether this saying came from the mouths of college students in the 80s, or was made up by small vendors in the 90s to sell unsalable fruits--" The little girl raised her eyelashes meaningfully, "'Eating apples on Christmas Eve' is essentially a created demand."

“Putting apples in pretty bags and tying them with bright flowers and ribbons — does that make them tastier? No, it just makes them more expensive.”

"You can usually buy a bag of apples for ten yuan in a supermarket, but on Christmas Eve you can only buy one - but the saying 'eating apples on Christmas Eve' has long been accepted by everyone. Even though people know that apples are expensive, there are still many people who spend a little more money to satisfy their sense of ritual and have fun in order to seek 'good luck' and blessings."

"So a new gap appeared in the market out of nowhere, and a complete industrial chain was born - at first the packaging bags might have contained ordinary apples, but later they were gradually replaced by other things."

"Local specialty fruit varieties and imported red apples are advertised as carefully selected and carefully cultivated premium fruits, as well as various apple-shaped daily necessities and accessories... Now I look online and it seems that there are even apples weighing several kilograms of pure gold."

"Look, Xiao Xu, this market has been well-managed, hasn't it?" Yang Yan'an folded his arms and sneered, "Quite a number of people enjoy it every year."

"Ah, this... is indeed the truth." Xu Yichi clasped his hands and rubbed his knees uncomfortably, "But senior, is it that easy to create market demand?"

"And if we really create a demand gap out of thin air... wouldn't that be a bad idea?"

　As if I were talking about that economics (bushi)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)

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