Auntie, I don't want to work hard - the birth of "Auntie Papazao"

Aug 27, 2022

At the end of 2021, Wang Lilan, a Tin Hau-level language lecturer from Malaysia and a host who has been nominated for the Taiwan Broadcasting Golden Bell Award for many times, invited me to join the host team of the radio program "Happy United Nations". Produced by New Residents, the show has been around for eight years. We didn't have any personal friendships before, because the documentary series " Apocalypse of the Southern Kingdom " produced by Public Television needed someone to consult the shooting plan in Myanmar. Under the introduction of the teacher, Lilan contacted me, and I learned that she had brought her with me at Tsinghua University. The volunteer group for nearly ten years goes to Malaysia every year to support the preservation of cultural assets in various small towns, build museums, shoot documentaries, etc.

Documentary filmed by the Malaysian International Volunteer Group: Taiping Madang Shipyard

This person is a strange person. It should be said that Lilan and her husband, " Daddy Xiao Shi ", both husband and wife are strange people. When I met Lilan, she was studying for a PhD in Anthropology at Qing University, and was an adjunct lecturer at three (or four?) national universities, teaching Malay, Indonesian, and Introduction to Southeast Asian Culture, as well as being a radio broadcaster. The host and producer supervises the daily on-screen programs of five episodes a week, and leads the volunteer group to Malaysia for a month of field work during the winter and summer vacations.

The point is, she also has two children under the age of five. I thought she was so busy to support her family, but she said, "No, our family is financially free, I'm just doing what I want to do." "Then do you have time to take care of the family?"" My husband is in charge of taking care of the children." "Will he?" "He's an internet celebrity dad."

What? ! This combination is too inspiring and inspiring! ! ! Can this story be told well?

In the era of Web 3.0, does the influence of radio hosts still exist?

After producing radio programs together for about half a year, I, who came from a marketing background, instinctively had many doubts about the direction of program content and social influence. In the era of Web3.0, what is the meaning of "broadcasting"? In the last century, the radio used to be a must-have media device for every household, but now, a hundred years later, the form of listening has been transformed into podcasts in cities and generations under the age of 50. The influence indicators, audience needs and listening habits of radio programs have long been the same as in the past century. Before, even twenty years ago, it was very different.

Lilan is well-educated and eloquent. The host of the show is steady and funny, and the response is very fast and dramatic. Listening to her show is never boring, no matter what the subject matter of preaching can turn corrupt into magic. I asked her, "You're so good at making shows, why don't you start a podcast yourself? You can talk about whatever you want, and you don't have to be bound by rules and regulations. And you have a doctorate in anthropology. Don't you think it's a pity that the traditional host of the show is playing the ball and telling the guests?"

I am looking forward to her ability to fully display her talents and to be recognized more widely. It is not only me who sees her ability, but her ability, experience, and life experience along the way are just needed in this era. I have confidence in my intuition.

So, under my push, the Podcast " Aunty's Talk " was born.

According to the division of labor between the two parties, Auntie Lilan is in charge of producing the program, and I am in charge of QC, listing, publicity, and observing audience responses and current events. The last week of each month is our two "Auntie Talk", which takes a cold shot at this society and challenges stereotypes. and traditional values.

Aunts in their thirties and forties, what "gap" did they observe?

Lilan and I both have overseas Chinese and immigrant backgrounds. She is born in the 1980s and I am born in the 70s. We are all transnational migrants. Our parents and grandparents came from southern China to "go to the South Seas", and we "drifted from the north" to Taiwan. We studied and worked in Taiwan for more than 20 years. This "strangeness" is an awareness that we check with each other most often: "Hey, don't you know?" "I don't know, what is that?". Lilan gets along with college students day and night; I face students aged 40 to 80 who are adult to mature at the social university. Everyone has their own vision, as well as their own prejudices and limitations, including ourselves.

It is precisely because we "explain" to each other too often, and when facing "Taiwanese in Hong Kong", many problems recur again and again. For example, the parents of the child expect them to be civil servants, but the child has a world in mind and wants to make a breakthrough. It's a different way; to face international competition is to learn English, but our experience really feels that English is not the key, the key is what language you want to use, this world is not only English-speaking countries, but also large Some children can’t even express their meaning in Chinese. When they ask them “what do you want to express”, they will only say “I don’t know how to say it” (I don’t know how to say it in Chinese, and I don’t even know how to translate it into a foreign language?!) …

To put it bluntly, it is cultural communication. Not just ethnic groups, everyone has their own culture, values, habits, how to understand each other, and let the other party understand themselves and build consensus, no one is superior or inferior.

How to face career development, parenting, marriage and love for an aunt who wants to lie down

Auntie Lilan often asks me, "Aren't we going to lie flat? Why does this show sound so hard every episode?"

Always try hard before lying flat. Education in Chinese society is very strange. If you are not good in mathematics, you need to make up for mathematics, and if you are not good in English, you need to make up for English. As the saying goes, "Wherever you spend your time, you will achieve success". If you spend your energy on a place where you don't have talent, you will be watering the desert with blood and tears, expecting it to become a rainforest. Are you hello?

It is not easy to change the goal of life's efforts from "doing what others expect me to do well" and "directing" to "doing what I am good at and effortless".

Therefore, we invited a lot of weird people who are "not doing their job properly" to come to the show and chat about each other's cross-border life or career. Every time I go to the QC before the shelves, I will be very excited to tell Auntie Lilan the inspiration I got, and I often burst into tears when I listen to it.

If you are faced with "men should make a lot of money to support their families", "women should give up their careers", "government workers are life guarantees", "financial freedom is an unattainable dream", "to live is to go to work" ", "Engineering and medicine are the kingly way, and liberal arts is Lu"... If you are puzzled by such frameworks, welcome to listen to Auntie Papazao . Here is a group of travelers who have traveled around the world. In Auntie Lilan's superb "Onion Peeling Interview Technique", they confessed their truest way of survival.