"Friends walk together for a lifetime, those days will no longer exist."
On December 18th, Dong Yuhui, who had disappeared from the public eye for a while, returned to the live broadcast room of Dongfang Zhenxuan and ate hot pot, chatted about household chores, and talked about Du Fu's poetry with Yu Minhong. The number of online viewers exceeded 4 million at one point, and many viewers exclaimed that the familiar Dong Yuhui seemed to have returned.
In just one day, Dong Yuhui was no longer a "salesperson". Now he has three new identities: "Senior Partner of Oriental Selection", "Cultural Assistant to the Chairman of New Oriental Education Technology Group", and "Vice President of New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group".
In the past two weeks, the unexpected public opinion heat has engulfed Dong Yuhui: in front of the live broadcast camera, he admitted that he has poor sleep and can only fall asleep at six or seven in the morning every day.
In the eyes of the outside world, he is full of witty words, but privately he has some social anxiety. The most frightening thing is to get on the elevator. Every time he sneaks into the innermost position, his back to the person, his face buried in the corner, "Because everyone knows me."
"It looks a bit serious, not as lively as during the live broadcast," recalled Dong Yuhui, a staff member of Dongfang Selection, to reporters who brushed past him in the elevator
"When misfortune hits you, you don't hide. One day, good luck will come crashing into your arms." A year ago, Dong Yuhui, who was once popular for his poetic expression and "bilingual sales," returned to the spotlight. Behind him, a butterfly flapped its wings, triggering a hurricane.
"Cutting" Dong Yuhui
"At that time, Dongfang Zhenxuan was not very popular, and there were not many people watching live broadcasts." Wu Li, who had worked as a live assistant for Dong Yuhui, recalled to a reporter from The Paper that she was tidying up the refrigerator late at night and couldn't fit a bag of frozen hairtail. Dong Yuhui found her after finishing work, half kneeling down and tidying up bit by bit.
Wu Li was deeply impressed by this scene: "He is a live streamer, this is not his job, but he is the only person present who noticed that I was at a loss, very warm and considerate."
When discussing the reasons for joining New Oriental, Dong Yuhui once said, "I am a rural child. Although I come from an ordinary background and have an ordinary appearance, as a teacher, I can change young people. They grow up in various industries, and I have helped them grow. I feel that this is meaningful."
A student named Dong Yuhui told Pengpai News that when he first joined New Oriental, Dong Yuhui didn't schedule classes and only received a basic salary of 2000 yuan per month. Despite this, Dong Yuhui persisted and relied on word-of-mouth to gain a large number of students, all the way up to become the youngest English teaching and research director at New Oriental.
In the eyes of former New Oriental "master" Luo Yonghao, Dong Yuhui is an honest person. "His value lies in having something simple, clean, and unpolluted, which is relatively rare among contemporary urban youth." Luo Yonghao said that the reason for arousing sympathy from the outside world is that, "He also has a certain fragile and vulnerable trait, and it would be even better if his logic is better and his personality is stronger." In the "essay writing" controversy, did Dong Yuhui suffer from workplace bullying? Several insiders of Dongfang Zhenxuan told Pengpai News that there was no similar impression. "During their trip to Jilin, Sun Dongxu and Dong Yuhui had a great time playing snowball fights and drinking together." Another industry insider who had close contact with Yu Minhong revealed that Yu Minhong had never publicly stated any conflicts with Dongfang Zhenxuan. "Every time I say he (Yuhui) is pretty good," he said
However, the external perception is that since becoming popular in September 2022, the relationship between Dongfang Zhenxuan and Dong Yuhui has become increasingly delicate. Dong Yuhui once admitted in a live broadcast that he didn't even have a ticket for the 30th anniversary of New Oriental. It was only after Yu Minhong found out that he gave him a ticket. Being promoted to a senior executive or something is just a pipe dream. I am just an ordinary anchor.
For live streaming agencies, "removing the top" has become a convention, and rumors of "cutting off Dong Yuhui" have also spread for a long time. However, some industry insiders in the live streaming industry have told reporters that Dong Yuhui's total sales account for nearly 50% of Dongfang Zhenxuan's overall sales, which is an absolute top stream and has a significant impact on the company's overall development. It is not easy to cut it.
Another leading MCN company has stated that the current valuation of unicorn enterprises is generally around $1 billion. If Dong Yuhui starts his own business and incubates a unicorn enterprise, his value can reach this level.
It is worth noting that, due to the influence of public opinion and product discounts, according to monitoring data from Grey Porpoise, the GMV of Dongfang Zhenxuan did not show a significant decline in the absence of Dong Yuhui. Cartography: Pengpai News
Dai Bin, who had previously served as a project manager at New Oriental and now serves as the chairman of Zhongyi Education and a member of the Guangdong Youth Federation, closely followed this matter. He admitted to The Paper that former New Oriental people are quite familiar with the so-called suppression of Dong Yuhui by Sun Dongxu, the CEO of Oriental Selection, "All New Oriental executives will suppress their famous teachers because controlling their salaries is their task. Within New Oriental, suppressing celebrity employees is a habit."
"Many statements on the internet nowadays are too irrational, not necessarily because Sun Dongxu's character is particularly poor." Dai Bin said that Sun Dongxu's approach is completely copying the management style of the New Oriental era. Suppressing Dong Yuhui is also for the benefit of the entire group, and we cannot let the group overly rely on a certain anchor. "As CEO, he may also be a bit 'sour'. Dong Yuhui is so popular."
Yu Minhong once said that the outbreak of this essay incident was a problem with the management process: "This is a super low-level mistake for us. The mistake is that the grassroots employees of New Oriental actually participated in this incident and turned it into a public matter, so from the perspective of the entire management process, it is seriously inappropriate."
This statement seems somewhat unbelievable to former employee Xiaozhi of Dongfang Selection. In his mind, Dongfang Selection is a company with a very rigorous and even rigid copywriting process. He gave an example that he used to write copy that could pass two or three times in his previous company, but in Dongfang Zhenxuan, he had to review it more than ten times, and the internal atmosphere of the company was also very oppressive. In the past six months of working at Dongfang Zhenxuan, he has only added one colleague on WeChat.
Why did the editor suddenly leave a message under the official account of such a company with strict auditing? In Xiaozhi's view, this is difficult to explain.
"The company office is cluttered with pots and pans, and the live streaming process and procedures seem not professional enough, but the product selection is indeed very strict." Xiaozhi admitted that when he left, he saw more than ten resignation forms piled up on the HR desk, which is the number of resignations within a week. He told Paper News that except for the employees of the former New Oriental Online (the company's original name before Dongfang Selection's transformation into live streaming), Dongfang Zhenxuan has high liquidity.
Yu Minhong's Struggle and Compromise
"The Dong Yuhui incident is the first time in New Oriental's history that it has compromised with a 'famous teacher'," said Dai Bin.
In Dai Bin's eyes, Yu Minhong is a "face saving" person. Even Luo Yonghao, who has a more arrogant personality, never made him compromise before leaving. "If you want me to predict, this will also be Yu Minhong's last compromise. He can compromise, but he will never give up: he cannot accept being constrained by a so-called well-known anchor."
"The spirit of New Oriental is not to believe in evil." Dai Bin said, "Even if you know you can't do it, you have to do it. Everyone says that Dong Yuhui cannot be replicated, but in New Oriental's thinking mode, there is nothing that cannot be done."
Previously, Luo Yonghao had judged that Dongfang Selection would definitely continue to promote the "de Dong Yuhui transformation". Dong Yuhui's future in Dongfang Selection is not optimistic. If Dong Yuhui could receive a decent return in the future "de Dong Yuhui transformation" process, it would be the best outcome.
Screenshot of Luo Yonghao's Weibo account
Dai Bin still remembers the scene when he first met Yu Minhong: "Because I was working at Guangzhou New Oriental and went to Beijing for the first time. When I first arrived, he asked, 'Who is Dai Bin?' Dai Bin recalled that Yu Minhong was the mentor of many teachers, observing in detail." During dinner, he said, 'Dai Bin, sit next to me and have a good chat. If you were given a research and development center, what would you do?' "
Yu Minhong's unconventional approach to talent selection is rare in the industry. Dai Bin said, "His scale of talent selection is the boldest I have ever seen. He dares to use any type of teacher, even if it's a lot of quirky personalities. Unlike many institutional teachers nowadays who are obedient but lack personality, this is also his (Yu Minhong) most unique charm."
Dai Bin told Pengpai News that before the controversy ended, he judged that Dong Yuhui would definitely stay. "Dong Yuhui may have met Yu Minhong at the lowest point of his life, and Yu Minhong is his uncle."
Yu Minhong once mentioned that "going to famous teachers" is New Oriental's strategy: "Once, New Oriental rose up because of famous teachers, but we didn't have the platform and ability to retain them. Finally, we decided to go from being famous teachers to becoming more refined in small classes." In his autobiography, he also said, "When there is something you can't do, you must find several people to help you do it at the same time, so that they can balance each other."
The well-known blogger "Hao Da Yi" posted that New Oriental has lost many famous teachers, and after leaving New Oriental, their respective careers are not bad either. This indicates that senior executives led by Sun Dongxu have formed a rigid management style during their years in power. "They absolutely do not allow employees who have achieved great success to appear. Once they discover signs of growth, they must be suppressed."
"Struggle, conflict, and competition for resources are the norm within New Oriental." Another former employee of New Oriental told The Paper that the fundamental reason why Dongfang Zhenxuan quickly became popular is that New Oriental's economic strategy of creating personal IP influencers is perfectly aligned with the industry of live streaming, which can easily create a big internet celebrity like Dong Yuhui.
"It is precisely because New Oriental has a lot of experience in creating personal IPs that it naturally believes that it is not difficult to drive away the old internet celebrity Dong Yuhui and create one or more new internet celebrities to support the facade of Oriental's selection." He said, after all, from New Oriental's teaching staff of tens of thousands of people, select a few eloquent and culturally and visually appealing individuals as sales anchors in the eyes of the audience, It's not too difficult.
Another former teacher from New Oriental told Pengpai News that New Oriental has always been a benchmark in the education and training industry, and of course, there may be various problems, but it must be much more conscientious and bottom line than many institutions in the same industry, as can be seen from the double reduction. In his view, there is an exaggeration and distortion in the online criticism of New Oriental. "Many excellent teachers still choose to stay at New Oriental," he said
"Many people spoke out about this incident because of the depth of love and the sense of responsibility behind it. If it weren't for the deep love they had before, they wouldn't talk about it every day," Dai Bin told reporters,
The "one out of two" controversy
"The reason why Dong Yuhui's story has touched so many people is because people see in this young person the efforts, perseverance, and resilience of ordinary people, as well as the new life they have gained as a result," said Chen Duan, director of the Digital Economy Integration and Innovation Development Center at Central University of Finance and Economics.
She believes that Dong Yuhui's growth process is a process of constantly relying on his own perseverance and efforts to climb up the ladder, which has created strong empathy among the working class.
The origin of the essay controversy seems somewhat dramatic.
On December 6, Dongfang Select Tiktok left a message at the bottom of a promotional video, suggesting that Dong Yuhui's live copy was not created by himself, but by a team. This statement has been controversial among netizens, but it has not attracted much attention.
Afterwards, Dong Yuhui called the editor "Hu Reply" in a live broadcast, and the editor retorted, "I can't bear Yuhui to say in front of the camera last night that the editor" claims to know the business very well "and" Hu Reply ". The editor did not" Hu Reply "!" Afterwards, the editor accused Dong Yuhui's fans, saying, "There are always claims that 'fans' use the name of love to stir up trouble and even sexually harass us online!"
This response angered Dong Yuhui's fans. In the evening of the same day, fans rushed into another educational training company's Gaotu live broadcast room, demanding to "catch the sky shattering wealth", and the conflict erupted.
Subsequently, with Dong Yuhui publicly responding and modifying his personal homepage signature, the fact of "infighting" in Dongfang Zhenxuan has surfaced. Rumors of Dongfang Zhenxuan choosing between Sun Dongxu and Dong Yuhui have also quickly spread, and a verbal battle caused by a "small essay" has officially become a public opinion storm sweeping the entire network.
On December 16th, influenced by anchor Tianquan throwing his phone and insulting the audience during the live broadcast, Dongfang Zhenxuan experienced the largest scale of fan loss. Later that day, Yu Minhong quickly took action: Dongfang Zhenxuan announced the dismissal of Sun Dongxu as Executive Director and CEO of Dongfang Zhenxuan, and Chairman Yu Minhong concurrently served as CEO of Dongfang Zhenxuan.
Afterwards, Yu Minhong announced within one day that Dong Yuhui would become the "Senior Partner of Dongfang Zhenxuan", "Cultural Assistant to the Chairman of New Oriental Education Technology Group", and "Vice President of New Oriental Culture and Tourism Group", and arranged for Dong Yuhui to resume broadcasting. With a series of swift rescue measures, Dongfang Zhenxuan's fans even exceeded the number before the essay, with a fan base exceeding 31.22 million.
Data source: Grey Porpoise Data mapping: Pengpai News
Despite the fading doubts, the storm seems to have not yet reached its end.
Chinese Partner 2.0
Zhai Wei, Executive Director of the Competition Law Research Center at East China University of Political Science and Law, told reporters that Yu Minhong's decision to dismiss Sun Dongxu and appoint Dong Yuhui as a partner was a timely stop loss measure in a "tear jerking Ma Su" style. "However, Yu Minhong's approach was only a temporary measure, a tactical stop loss measure."
In his view, whether Dong Yuhui can successfully develop in New Oriental in the future and whether he will eventually resign depends not only on Dong Yuhui himself, but also not solely on New Oriental. It depends on whether Dong Yuhui and New Oriental can achieve "co frequency resonance". Otherwise, Dong Yuhui and New Oriental may eventually go their separate ways.
Several students of Dong Yuhui recalled his past to reporters from The Paper. A student said that starting around the second year of high school, they would run around the campus in Xi'an with a group of friends and follow Dong Yuhui in class. She added Dong Yuhui's WeChat account and occasionally asked questions. She also got used to browsing Dong's social media and giving him likes and comments.
She no longer has a deep impression of the course content, but still remembers Dong Yuhui's wit and humor. In my memory, everyone's first impression of him is: "A teacher who is not tall and has a small skeleton, but has a square face, he would also joke about it himself."
The students refer to Dong Yuhui as "Jay", which may have originated from a small classroom program during his previous teaching period. A reporter from Pengpai News discovered multiple videos on social media, in which Dong Yuhui, who was in his early years, sang Jay Chou's songs in class. Later, during a live broadcast by Dongfang Zhenxuan, Dong Yuhui stated that Jay Chou is a musical memory of a generation, and "he (Jay Chou) is my idol, so I call myself 'Zhongguancun Jay Chou'.".
Today, Dong Yuhui is dressed in a suit in the live broadcast room, but his eyebrows are no longer as relaxed and unrestrained as before. Yu Minhong announced that Dong Yuhui will establish an independent studio and a personal IP live broadcast room, focusing on cultural and tourism business. The content direction of this live broadcast room includes cultural promotion, book recommendations, author interviews, cultural tourism promotion, and traditional agricultural product sales.
Yu Minhong promises that Dong Yuhui, as a member and senior partner of the current Oriental Selection Decision Committee, has full say in the company's development direction and major decisions, and will have both executive power and income.
Regarding when personal accounts will be launched, "at least a month later," Dong Yuhui responded, "launching now feels like taking advantage of the kindness of many people."
Will all of this be a Happy ending?
(Xiaozhi and Wu Li are pseudonyms in the text)
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