What Niu Lai Teaches Me about Humanity

Niu Lai (《牛来》) is interesting not because it teaches us how to make a great movie. It teaches us something about being human.

(Niu Lai is an usual crude animation that broke box office records. It costs RMB1,680 and made RMB 30M)

1. Humans are attracted to imperfection

We assume people want the best: better graphics, better technology, better acting, better production.

Yet people knowingly bought tickets to watch a movie widely mocked for being crude.

Why?

Because perfection impresses us; imperfection can involve us.

When everything is polished, we become spectators. When something is obviously imperfect, we notice the people behind it. We laugh, comment, share and participate.

In an AI world where perfection is becoming cheaper, human imperfection may actually become more valuable.

2. Humans don't buy only products. We buy stories.

If Niu Lai had simply appeared as another low-quality animation, few people would have cared.

But once the story became:

“How can something like THIS possibly be showing in cinemas?”

people wanted to experience it themselves.

The movie became secondary. The story surrounding the movie became the product.

That applies to business too. Customers don't merely buy what we make. They buy what it means to them.

3. Humans want to belong

Once Niu Lai became an internet phenomenon, watching it gave people something to talk about.

“I watched it.” “You really did?” “How terrible was it?”

People weren't necessarily purchasing 86 minutes of animation. They were purchasing membership in a shared experience.

This is profoundly human.

We want connection. We want shared laughter. We want stories that we can tell other people.

4. Humans are moved by authenticity

This is where I see the connection between Niu Lai and Dear You (《给阿嬷的情书》).

They appear to be complete opposites.

Dear You moves people emotionally. Niu Lai makes people laugh at its roughness.

Yet underneath them is something similar:

Neither feels manufactured by an industrial machine.

Their imperfections become part of their identity.

That is my idea—

People are moved not by perfection, but authenticity.

—captures something important about both phenomena.

5. Humans can give value to something that originally had little value

Perhaps this is Niu Lai's deepest lesson.

The audience didn't merely discover the movie's value.

They created its value.

Someone joked about it. Someone shared it. Someone bought a ticket.
Someone made a meme. Someone brought friends.

And suddenly something almost nobody wanted became something millions of people were talking about.

This connects beautifully with my idea of:

Don't wait to find meaning. Give meaning to what you are already doing.

Meaning is often not embedded permanently inside an object, job, relationship or movie.

Human beings give meaning.

And when enough human beings give something meaning, that meaning can become economic value.

And that brings us back to Love Intelligence LQ

AI will become better at making beautiful pictures, videos, presentations, advertisements and perhaps entire movies.

So what remains uniquely important?

Care: Do I care enough for another human being to feel something?

Courage: Am I willing to be imperfect, different and even laughed at?

Connection: Can what I create become something people want to experience and share together?

That is Love Intelligence — LQ.

Niu Lai therefore leaves me with an unexpected lesson:

Technology can manufacture perfection.
Humanity creates meaning.

And in the AI age, perhaps our greatest competitive advantage is not becoming more perfect than machines.

It is becoming more human.