On short video platforms, there is a special group of "internet celebrities" who are not handsome men or women, but excavators with different coatings and infinite power. Accompanying them are a group of skilled operators with dark skin. This group, known as the 'Excavator Sky Team', is using the lens to transform the machinery and labor that were originally hidden behind the construction site wall into a unique cultural landscape that attracts millions of fans.
Technology Flow and "Ultimate Skills" Display
The most eye-catching ones are undoubtedly various jaw dropping "amazing" videos. The videos of "using an excavator to open a beer bottle", "writing calligraphy with a brush", "stacking nut towers", "lighting a lighter", etc. vividly demonstrate the delicate operation of an excavator comparable to a human arm. Behind it is the years or even decades of hard training of the operators, whose control over leverage has reached a state of perfection. This type of video not only satisfies the audience's curiosity and admiration for "hardcore technology", but also completely breaks the stereotype of the public being "clumsy" in excavator operations.
Labor Aesthetics and Rural Documentary
More down-to-earth videos faithfully record the daily life of excavators in rural China: clearing rivers blocked by flash floods, leveling courtyards for elderly people for free, and helping to dig canals and drain water during the harvest season. In the camera, there are muddy tracks, silhouettes of machinery under the setting sun, and the smiling face of the operator satisfied after finishing a day's work. These smoke filled scenes create a unique "labor aesthetics" that allows the audience to feel the value and warmth behind their sweat. Excavators are no longer cold tools here, but an important role in changing the appearance of rural areas and maintaining social bonds.
From Individual to Ecology: New Occupations and New Marketing
Traffic has changed the fate of operators. Top "internet celebrity operators" earn far more than traditional models through live streaming rewards, advertising endorsements, and technical training. Some agents and manufacturers have also keenly sensed business opportunities and have cooperated with internet celebrities to promote new products or brands. The excavator skills competition also gained unprecedented attention through live streaming. This cultural phenomenon even feeds back vocational education, allowing more young people to see that proficiently operating heavy machinery is also a respected and "promising" craft.
The rise of excavator internet celebrities is a wonderful collision between mechanical culture, short video media, and contemporary rural China. It takes heavy machinery off the pedestal and integrates it into the entertainment and life of ordinary people, injecting the warmth of humanity and the pulse of the times beyond the steel and iron bones.
