Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System
Chapter 394 - 196: From Li Younan to Teacher Li
In the first episode aired, only one contestant was eliminated.
This contestant was tragically eliminated due to a lynx attack, and the show didn’t even censor the contestant’s wounds, graphically showcasing the reality and brutality of the program to the audience.
The unfortunate experience of this contestant aired as the focal content of the first episode, highlighting the admirable performances of the other contestants, contrasting with Li Younan and Pacini’s good fortune and professionalism.
The show was almost simultaneously launched on TikTok.
After all, they had previously signed contracts, and if the launch times differed too much, viewers would prefer to watch the pirated original version.
On a quiet night, the first episode of "Alone in the Wilderness" officially aired.
It had been over half a month since the hype on the video platform, and during this period, the popularity of "Alone in the Wilderness" had substantially declined — after all, in this era of information explosion, no one would continuously pay attention to a show with an uncertain airing time.
During this period, discussions about Li Younan’s performance in the show had never ceased.
Although the traffic was gradually decreasing, the judgments about Li Younan were becoming similar.
First, it must be affirmed that Li Younan has extremely high archery skills.
Secondly, he also showed certain wilderness survival skills during his climb of Gongga Mountain.
However, upon calm analysis, these may not ensure he will progress far in "Alone in the Wilderness".
Everyone realized that one should not overestimate the benefits brought by archery skills.
A direct reason is that the opportunity to successfully use archery to hunt in the wilderness is not abundant.
Looking at past episodes of the program, there were contestants who successfully hunted with archery, but not many.
The reason most contestants failed to hunt was not due to poor archery skills, but due to the inability to find prey.
Li Younan will face the same dilemma; no one can guarantee he will hunt large animals with a bow in the early stages of the show.
If luck is poor, he might get eliminated without even seeing the fur of an animal.
As everyone knows, once a person lacks food, a few days is enough to be eliminated.
Although some have pointed out that Li Younan possesses commendable fishing skills, rebuttals quickly follow: Li Younan’s fishing prowess was exhibited in a modern societal context, with professional baits and tools, which don’t exist in the wild.
Without these professional tools and fish feed, can he still catch fish?
This judgment is somewhat reasonable; if not for the fact that Li Younan is not only a fishing expert but also skilled in animal behavior and environmental hydrology changes, he indeed would struggle to consistently catch fish.
Initially, there were plenty of opposing opinions concerning the pessimistic views about Li Younan, but rational voices gradually prevailed, becoming mainstream, while other discussions like shelter building received less attention.
Because these early voices became mainstream, when the show aired, Li Younan’s utterly unexpected performance drastically extended this contrast to the maximum.
As people pondered how Li Younan would overcome early obstacles, they were astonished to discover he had no intention of attempting to hunt large animals initially.
He was merely leisurely strolling in the woods, while engagingly educating the audience in front of the camera about certain plant properties, whether they were edible, their utilizable effects, and so on, while he gathered vines to weave a basket.
Then, after a few camera switches, when returning to his footage, his basket was already filled with edible items.
Even to allow viewers a direct feel of these plants’ roles in the "Alone in the Wilderness" show, several camera shots featured Li Younan’s cooking mukbang scenes.
Following closely was the fishing detail by Li Younan, which was meticulous to an astonishing degree.
He explained almost confidently to the audience what water regions, time points, and methods to use to catch certain fish near Chilco Lake in Canada.
Subsequently, as if to validate his statements, he demonstrated the essence of "small fish eating large fish" fishing within minutes to the viewers.
The fishing skills displayed there surpassed those showcased by fishing masters within the context of civilized society.
Although Li Younan’s fishing skill level is only one, he relies on mountaineering skills granting him judgment of the natural environment, along with zoologist skills judging fish behavior, allowing him to showcase higher limits and lower bounds in the wilderness with just level one fishing skills.
By only observing Li Younan’s footage, it is hard to believe it represents a reality show trying to survive under harsh wilderness conditions.
And it seems the show’s producers intentionally drew the audience’s attention to this point, intercutting the other contestants’ miserable states in the edits.
Especially in the first episode, the scene where the unluckiest guy was scratched by a lynx—although the version on TikTok had been censored—still sent shivers down the spines of the viewers.
Only then did they realize this show was a genuine survival challenge, not the scripted performance they had imagined before.
After all, the show rewards the last survivor with 1 million USD.
While watching Li Younan, the audience also saw contestants getting their hands cut by wood while building shelters and a female contestant cheerfully collecting a handful of berries.
In the end, compared to Li Younan, everyone gradually realized: Li Younan was not the kind of contestant who would be eliminated early for failing to hunt large game.
Li Younan’s storyline concludes with him starting to build a log cabin and rammed earth walls.
This scene moved most Chinese viewers—he had already showcased the intangible cultural heritage skill of weaving rattan baskets on the show, and his following skills in beam-lifting house structures and rammed earth walls were a powerful display of Chinese stories and culture on a world-class stage.
When the scene of Li Younan using three fish heads as offerings while bowing eastward to pay respect to ancestors appeared, many Chinese people were moved to tears.
Foreign viewers were equally emotional, leaving comments like: "Mysterious Eastern ritual, it’s just so cool!"
Some foreigners commented online, asking what was happening, and soon many Chinese people eagerly explained.
The comment section was filled with Chinese people enthusiastically explaining Chinese culture to curious foreigners, who were eagerly learning.
After the initial delight of the audience, marketing accounts and video bloggers jumped on the trend, providing detailed analyses and professional interpretations.
These included animal science bloggers with thousands of followers across the internet.
The animal science blogger Pacini earnestly interpreted the wildlife appearing in Li Younan’s videos.
His analysis was in line with Li Younan’s explanations in the videos, but to show his expertise, he went into more detailed explanations.
At the end of the episode, Pacini seriously said, "We can see that Teacher Li is very professional in wilderness survival. His knowledge of these animals and plants is so thorough that I can’t find any flaws with my current knowledge."
"Bear in mind this is at Chilco Lake in Canada, which is quite different from the domestic environment; this shows he did a lot of homework before going to ’Alone in the Wilderness’.
"I suspect he has an encyclopedia of flora and fauna around Chilco Lake in his head."
"What does this teach us? It shows the importance of reading and learning."
"An excellent wilderness survival expert not only needs top-notch practical skills but also a solid knowledge base to go further."
Additionally, bloggers focused on intangible cultural heritage and ancient architecture also jumped on the trend.
From a professional perspective, they analyzed the skills Li Younan displayed on the program, such as basket weaving, carpentry joinery, house structure frameworks, and rammed earth walls.
By this time, everyone had begun addressing Li Younan as Teacher Li instead of his previous name.
"Look at the rattan basket Teacher Li wove; it’s not just a few twisted bamboo strips! Pay attention to the herringbone weave at the bottom—each cane must be aligned with the fibers and of similar thickness, or it won’t withstand uneven force and may crack. Also, the basket’s sewn edge uses a flexible lock passed down from southern bamboo craftsmen, sturdy yet slightly adjustable to fit whatever is inside."
"Teacher Li’s skills are undoubtedly at an intangible heritage level!"
"Let’s pause and take a look... first at the set of wooden house frames Li Younan built. Anyone knowledgeable can see at a glance—he used a simplified version of the tie-beam structure!"
"Let me first explain what a tie-beam structure is..."
"And look here, Li Younan didn’t use a single nail, relying entirely on mortise-and-tenon joints. The vertical and horizontal beams are tightly locked with dovetail joints; I’ll post a special feature explaining why this structure suits the tools he currently has... Next, the diagonal braces use half-mortises which save material and withstand lakeside winds. Most impressive is the detail in his timber processing... After cutting the trunks, he lightly roasted them over a fire, an old carpenter’s method for drying and crack prevention. In this tool-less wilderness, this is more practical than any modern anti-corrosion method."
"Look at his rammed earth walls—these are true restorations of ancient methods! He didn’t just pile up the clay; he laid a layer of crushed stones on the foundation—this is the hidden safeguard against rainwater seeping into and softening the foundation, a step many modern faux-antique buildings skip. While tamping the earth, he also added base pillars, like adding rebar to the earthen wall to greatly reduce cracking. Constructing a house in the Canadian wilderness using traditional Chinese tamped earth techniques while considering local climatic conditions—his knowledge and practical skills truly earn my respect as someone who researches ancient architecture..."
As more domain experts analyzed Li Younan’s performance in ’Alone in the Wilderness’ on camera, it not only raised the show’s profile but also had a reciprocal effect, promoting knowledge dissemination and the spread of intangible cultural heritage.
Many ordinary people who previously didn’t understand this field began to see the treasures within traditional Chinese culture, the relationship between humans and nature, and the promotion and protection of intangible cultural heritage. It’s not an exaggeration to say this process even inspired philosophical reflections on these topics for many viewers.
Li Younan, Teacher Li—this title is absolutely deserved.