Guizhou: “Good craftsmanship” empowers rural revitalization

Peng Qianxiang, who had never been exposed to handicrafts, never thought that one day he would become associated with the Buyi ethnic minority’s intangible cultural heritage - liquidambar dye.

In 2017, after being relocated to Xinmin Community, Mingtian Street, Huishui County, Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, Peng Qianxiang successfully started working in the workshop after more than a month of employment skills training. She said: "Not only have I learned a craft, but I can also earn a salary of more than 2,000 yuan a month. I can take care of my family and make money at the same time."

In recent years, Guizhou has been exploring and sorting out "good craftsmanship" in rural areas and improving rural areas. Measures such as the supply and service of cultural products and the development of rural tourism with rich cultural connotations allow culture to take root in the soil of rural revitalization. Not only can the excellent traditional rural culture be protected and passed on, farmers' cultural life will be enriched, and the rural economy will also become more prosperous.

There is an "intangible cultural heritage corridor" deep in the mountains

Dajie Village, Congjiang County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, is located on a ridge deep in Miaoling, with the Duliu River flowing slowly at the foot of the mountain. Flow slowly. The closed environment once made this place a difficult target for poverty alleviation - a typical deeply impoverished village with a poverty incidence rate of 52.56.

At the end of 2019, a "civilian army" joined the battle against poverty in Dajie Village. The Guizhou Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center and the Traditional Crafts Guizhou Work Station have set up a special working group and organized expert teams to conduct field surveys of cultural resources in Dajie Village many times.

"Through research, we found that in this village with only more than 2,000 people, in addition to the representative projects of intangible cultural heritage folk arts, there are all representative projects of the other nine major categories of intangible cultural heritage. In addition, There are also many intangible cultural heritage projects in nearby small villages," recalled Long Youming, director of the Guizhou Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center.

The working group put forward the protection idea of ??promoting the rural revitalization of Dajie Village through the overall protection of intangible cultural heritage, and the protection concept of "Intangible Cultural Heritage Corridor on the Ridge - Dajie Miao Village" gradually became clear. By connecting the "dots" of intangible cultural heritage projects in each village, a cultural tourism "intangible cultural heritage corridor" is formed.

In April 2020, the Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism organized experts to go to Dajie Village to train local residents in traditional skills such as embroidery, and established an intangible cultural heritage poverty alleviation employment workshop and an intangible cultural heritage poverty alleviation family industry. Square.

"After just 5 days of training, the villagers were able to present something completely different from before, and these eye-catching handicraft products were quickly converted into orders." Long Youming explain.

On the basis of systematic protection and inheritance, more and more intangible cultural heritages are transforming from "fingertip skills" to "fingertip economy". According to statistics, as of June 2020, Guizhou has established 3 intangible cultural heritage towns, 10 intangible cultural heritage villages, and 10 intangible cultural heritage poverty alleviation employment workshops. Tens of thousands of people have found jobs and started businesses relying on traditional handicrafts, becoming inheritors of intangible cultural heritage. It is an important way to drive more people to increase their income and become rich and to achieve rural revitalization.

Artists in Hongjiang Village

"Go back to the Tang Dynasty and drink with Li Bai, then go to the Song Dynasty and find Dongpo for a walk. Instead of going anywhere else, invite them to Libo Hongjiang... …"

This is the invitation issued by the poet Yan Xi in his poem "Summer in Hongjiang". The "Hongjiang River" in the poem is located in Libo County, Qiannan Prefecture, which is known as the "Emerald of the Earth". This was once a "hollow village" and a deeply impoverished village with a large population exodus, but now it has become an ideal place for people to find homesickness and poetry.

The story begins in 2017. Hongjiang Village made full use of the rural collective construction land use rights system reform pilot village policy, introduced artists from all over the country to Hongjiang, and transformed old abandoned houses into art workshops and living rooms. , fully activate idle assets.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 60 buildings invested by artists have been restored and built in Hongjiang Village, and nearly a hundred poets, writers, painters and other artists from all over the country have settled in.

In 2017, artist Li Xiangming, with the creative thinking of "how to return language to the earth", went south from Beijing to Hongjiang Village, hired local villagers to renovate the abandoned old stilt-style houses, and turned this new The architectural space is named "Tuyu Nanju".

During the restoration of old houses and daily interactions, Li Xiangming intuitively felt the changes in the villagers: when he first arrived in Hongjiang Village, the villagers hid in their homes from far away, and their eyes were mostly dull; now, The villagers are very enthusiastic and their eyes are shining.

In Hongjiang, the poet Yan Xi taught children to read and write poetry in a renovated old house; the painter Li Huixi, who had a professional football career, and the curator Xu Tao and his wife established a children's football club in the village Teams lead children to play football and participate in competitions; some villagers, encouraged by artists and resident cadres, returned to the village to open a ceramics museum...

"The word 'revitalization' means revitalizing the spirit. What thrives in the world is industrial development." Li Xiangming said that he hopes that through the cooperation between artists and villagers, new ideas can be injected into the countryside, so that villagers can change spiritually and culturally, and inspire everyone's endogenous motivation to participate in rural revitalization.

Today, Hongjiang Village is exploring a new path through artistic rural construction to help revitalize rural culture. Since 2019, more than 500 migrant workers in Hongjiang Village have returned to work nearby, and the average annual household income has increased by more than 5,000 yuan. This year, the case of Hongjiang Village’s “Integration of Arts and Tourism to Explore New Paths for Rural Poverty Alleviation” was selected into the “2021 World Tourism Alliance – Cases of Tourism Helping Rural Revitalization”.

Miao embroidery enters the market, and its craftsmanship shows vitality

In the Haodeng Miao Folk Museum in Sister Street, Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, there is a dazzling array of finished Miao embroidery products in various styles, and there is also a The walls are covered with certificates of honor and plaques of honor.

The owner of the museum is Shi Chuanying. She followed her mother from village to village to collect embroidery since she was a child, and then used it to set up street stalls in surrounding towns. She has always had a wish: to make Miao embroidery go further and let more people understand and love this traditional skill and Miao culture. Since 2000, she has traveled across most of China with her embroiderers.

"The market outside is wider!" Shi Chuanying said. In 2016, she decided to return to her hometown to register a company, integrating traditional Miao thread-breaking embroidery techniques with modern craftsmanship and clothing cultural elements, and developing a series of Miao embroidery craft bags, scarves, pillows and other products based on customer needs.

In 2019, Shi Chuanying reached a cooperation with the Italian OTB Group to jointly develop new Miao embroidery fashion products. After the 1.2 million yuan order in the development and promotion phase was completed, the 260 embroiderers who participated in the project received a salary of 276,000 yuan, which also allowed Shi Chuanying's Miao embroidery products to successfully enter the European market.

In order to broaden the sales channels for Miao cultural products, Yuhang District of Hangzhou City has invested 3 million yuan in assistance funds since May 2019 to introduce the China Women’s Development Foundation’s “Made by Mother” project to Taijiang County , has cooperated with a number of online platforms, enabling more than 500 poor embroiderers to find employment nearby, and the per capita annual income increased by more than 15,000 yuan.

Since this year, Guizhou Province has formulated and promulgated the "Action Plan on Accelerating the High-Quality Development of Guizhou's Miao Embroidery Industry." In the "Guizhou Province Small and Medium Enterprises "Specialized, Special and New" Cultivation Implementation Plan" issued by the Guizhou Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, qualified Miao embroidery enterprises were also included in the scope of cultivation, and 5.9 million yuan was invested to support Miao embroidery. , precious silver, batik and other ethnic handicraft training projects, and invested 3.9 million yuan to support Miao embroidery and other special tourism product projects.