Hello everyone, welcome to continue to pay attention to the National Day feature of “Oriental Time and Space” – Chinese Story. Let’s look back at our common struggle and precipitate our common memory. This year is the final year of the “Strategic Plan for Rural Revitalization (2018-2022)”. How has the appearance of Chinese villages and the lives of Chinese farmers changed today? Is the “Village BA” that has become popular all over the Internet this year just a ball game? What are the enterprises that have completed poverty alleviation doing today? How did the library in the village become an internet celebrity? Let’s walk into our story of[Village to Revitalize]today to find the answer. Let’s take a look at the basketball court first.
“Village BA”: The popularity of small villages deep in the mountains
This is the “Village BA” basketball game that has been popular all over the Internet this summer. Munkou Stadium, grass-roots teams, and amateur golf skills have attracted huge crowds of spectators. Not only at the scene, but this basketball game in the mountains in southeastern Guizhou also attracted praise from the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which made Yao Ming worry that he “couldn’t get tickets”. The cumulative number of viewers of the online live broadcast has exceeded 100 million. What are you attracted to? Is “Village BA” really just a basketball game? Let’s first take a look at the changes in Taipan Village after the “Village BA” became popular. The most intuitive changes start from the pitch.
After the stadium was renovated, firstly, the facilities were more complete, and secondly, the stands were bigger. Audience seats will increase from more than 10,000 people to more than 20,000 people. In this small village, basketball was meant to be a natural way of life. This year’s unexpected popularity has made them firm that the event must not only go on, but also become famous. This summer, the “Village BA” event in Taipan Village received 500,000 tourists. When tourists come, consumption comes.
A ball game becomes an invitation. It seemed that the spectators were coming for the game, but they were actually coming for a village that was different from what they had imagined. Everyone wants to see what kind of life they have today in a village that loves basketball so much, and a group of villagers who are actively fighting for layups. In fact, in recent years, these rural sports activities full of village flavor have emerged in many places. “Village BA” came out of the circle, perhaps because of the rapid changes in “rural China” today, beyond the imagination of many urbanites. And behind the popularity of this country ball game, people from the city and the village have found the resonance of pursuing a better life. Next, Taipan Village also plans to register the “Village BA” trademark to create an industrial chain combining sports, culture and tourism. With the east wind of Taipan Village, the basketball game has now become a cultural and tourism business card in many villages in Guizhou.
The attractiveness of the countryside is changing. Not only are cultural and tourism business cards such as “Village BA” attractive, but also the conditions for entrepreneurship and employment are constantly improving. And being able to start a business and find employment at the doorstep of the house solves not only the problem of one’s job, but also the family’s reunion with the United States. Wang Guiwa, 39, signed a labor contract with a technology company in front of her home in April this year.
Hongde Village: Poverty alleviation and revitalization do not stop
Hongde Village, Hongsibao District, Wuzhong City, Ningxia is an ecological immigrant village, which was relocated from 27 villages in 5 towns and towns in Xihaigu. Wang Guiwa was the first group to settle down here. When they first arrived in 2012, their per capita annual income was less than 1,800 yuan. This figure to last year, has reached 12,500 yuan. How is this achieved?
With the idea of losing money, Xu Ling, who has experience in enterprise management, took over the task of leading the whole village out of poverty. The peasants’ cultural level is not high, so the poverty alleviation workshop starts with simple packaging cartons. Hard work pays off. In 2019, Hongde Village was listed on the list of poverty alleviation of the whole village. As soon as we got rid of poverty, the new crown epidemic came. How can poverty alleviation workshops enhance their ability to resist risks and not be overwhelmed? This became an urgent problem that Xu Ling and the others had to face.
A live broadcast of the “Silver Hair Live Broadcasting Group” in the poverty alleviation workshop was one of the methods that Xu Ling and the others came up with. The “Silver Hair Live Group”, with an average age of 66 years old, used a factory renovated with cardboard as their stage. These farmers, who have depended on the sky for most of their lives, have their own fans here. In just over a year, they’ve sold more than 1 million products.
Move, stay, and get rich. This depends on the industry at the doorstep. According to the data of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security at the end of 2020, after five years of hard work, a total of 32,688 poverty alleviation workshops have been built across the country, absorbing 437,000 jobs for the poor. By 2021, wage income will account for more than 42% of farmers’ income, becoming the main channel for farmers to increase their income. In the past ten years, the lives of 98.99 million rural poor people in China have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the appearance of 128,000 impoverished villages has been completely transformed. To eradicate the root causes of poverty is to solve existing poverty on the one hand, and strive to prevent new poverty from occurring on the other hand. Blocking the intergenerational transmission of poverty through education and illuminating children’s dreams is one of the keys. This uniquely shaped wooden house is a country book house and a new world for nearly 400 children from Dong villages to sow their dreams.
Village Book House: Children have dreams to chase
This romantic library is called Pingtan Bookstore. It is hidden in the rolling hills in the southwest corner of Hunan Province. The bookstore integrates the wooden construction skills of the Dong people for thousands of years. Outside the window, there are golden rice waves. The idea of the bookstore comes from Cai Ling, a Guangzhou-based designer. She had been to Pingtan Township many times before, and she also came up with the idea of designing and building a bookstore for the Dong village after all-round poverty alleviation.
Since the opening of Pingtan Bookstore for more than half a year, it has received nearly 14,000 books donated by all walks of life. Both the principal and the designer are the dream-makers of these rural children. Now, Hou Zhimin, the former principal who fully supported the construction of the Pingtan Bookhouse, has arrived at the new school, and he also wants to pass on his dream here.
The Chinese countryside, which is heading for revitalization, has charming local culture, strong local industries, and local life that is reunited with the United States. Children have dreams to pursue, adults have careers to do, and the elderly have happiness. Such a rural China can retain villagers and attract urbanites, not just one-way outflow. On the road to revitalization of the countryside, we are all beneficiaries. Space-time National Day special feature – Chinese story, continue tomorrow.
