How Cultural Development Is Changing the Face of Agriculture, Rural Areas and Farmers
On the writing desk, farmer calligraphers and painters wield their brushes and splash ink; under the green shade, farmer poets express their aspirations and feelings; on the stage, one performer exits as another enters…… At the cultural station of Dongyangzhuang Township in Bazhou City, Hebei Province, farmers come here year-round during the slack farming season and after tea and meals to discuss poetry, paint, sing opera and enjoy entertainment, and the cultural station has become the liveliest place in the area. This is just a microcosm of the close bond between culture and rural areas and farmers.
Right now in Hebei, culture is already inseparable from agriculture, rural areas and farmers - the “three rural issues.” In advancing the building of a new socialist countryside, Hebei is making culture gradually become a booster for upgrading the agricultural industry and a converter for changing the face of rural areas, enriching farmers' lives.
Cultural creativity boosts modern agriculture
“I never imagined that the mushrooms we usually eat actually have such a long history and story!” said Wu Xiaoding, a tourist who traveled from Shijiazhuang to Pingquan County in Chengde City after hearing about it, after spending nearly 2 hours touring the China Mushroom Culture Expo Center. At the China Mushroom Culture Expo Center, people can not only experience up close the 7,000-year history of Chinese mushroom culture through pictures, text and exhibits, but also watch edible mushroom production and processing on site, taste edible mushroom delicacies, and take part in an electronic mini-game themed on mushroom culture called “stomping mushrooms.”
“Only agriculture with culture has lasting vitality.” said Sun Liliang, deputy county magistrate of Pingquan County. Following the idea of integrating cultural creative design with modern agricultural development, Pingquan County invested 1.5 billion yuan to build the China Mushroom Culture Industrial Park, which includes the China Mushroom Culture Expo Center, an edible mushroom processing park and other projects, held the first China Mushroom Culture Festival, and made the name “China's Home of Edible Mushrooms” widely known. At present, Pingquan County produces more than 260 million bags of edible mushrooms annually, which are sold far away to the United States, Japan, France and 20 other countries and regions, generating more than 30 million US dollars in foreign exchange each year, and has become a golden rice bowl for farmers to increase income and become prosperous.
The integrated development of cultural creativity and design services with agriculture makes agriculture no longer a synonym for “hard labor,” but a way of leisure. In Langfang City, adjacent to Beijing, there are a large number of agricultural leisure and sightseeing parks, such as Jiutian Ecological Leisure Valley, Guohua Ecological Agriculture Industrial Park and Gu'an Agricultural Expo Park. Among them, Jiutian Ecological Leisure Valley fully considers the climate characteristics of the north and uses greenhouses to transplant southern vegetation to northern cities, creating a landscape of flowers blooming in profusion and greenery competing across the four seasons.
Cultural facilities beautify the rural landscape
Entering Bailongqiu Village in Xincheng Town, Xinji City, the hardened main streets and lanes are clean and tidy, the Chinese scholar trees and holly along both sides of the road are lush and green, and what catches the eye most is the village street cultural wall. These cultural walls are not only brightly colored, but also carry many themes, such as advocating diligence and thrift in managing the household, honoring virtue and doing good, prospering the family through hard work, and respecting the elderly and loving relatives. Li Mengqun, director of the Bailongqiu Village Committee, told reporters: “In the past, these walls were covered with randomly scribbled small advertisements. Now that they have been painted into cultural walls, they are not only nicer to look at, but can also subtly raise the villagers' ideological awareness.”
To improve the rural landscape, cultural facilities are indispensable. Focusing closely on the public's love of square dancing, Changli County built 281 cultural squares in 17 townships and 3 subdistrict offices across the county, including 272 rural cultural squares, accounting for 97% of the total. “The construction of rural cultural squares not only gives farmers a place for leisure and entertainment, but also makes the once quiet countryside lively all at once.” said Bai Xiuchuan, director of the Changli County Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Press and Publication Bureau.
In addition, Sanhe City invested 40 million yuan to build 40 villager leisure and entertainment squares integrating function halls, reading rooms (village history exhibition halls) and information resource sharing rooms. At present, the city is planning to invest 50 million yuan to build a group of new villager cultural and sports activity squares, providing more venues for villagers to carry out cultural activities.
“First, to meet farmers' basic cultural needs and ensure cultural activities have venues, equipment, funding and dedicated organizers; second, to give rural areas landmark buildings and good places for leisure and entertainment.” Regarding the positioning and role of cultural facilities in rural areas, Qi Yanli, chief of the Social Culture Section of the Zhengding County Culture, Radio, Television and Press and Publication Bureau, said.
Sending culture to the countryside enriches farmers' lives
On August 27, the Hebei Heart-to-Heart Art Troupe's “Chinese Dream · Road to the Exam - Entering Beautiful Villages” culture-benefiting-the-people condolence performance tour entered Taicheng Village in Anping County, and more than 500 villagers came after hearing the news to watch the performance. A large number of literary and artistic programs, including songs and dances, folk art, opera and skits, allowed villagers to enjoy high-level artistic performances right at their doorsteps, drawing bursts of applause and cheers from the scene. This year, such activities of sending culture to the countryside also include the special action “Culture Nourishes Farmers” jointly launched by the Hengshui City Culture, Radio, Television and Press and Publication Bureau and the Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, and the 100 grassroots cultural performances carried out by the Cangxian Culture, Radio, Television and Press and Publication Bureau.
A relevant person in charge of the Art Division of the Hebei Provincial Department of Culture told reporters that since July this year, the Hebei provincial finance department has arranged 9.26 million yuan in special funds to purchase cultural services from society, delivering 879 various literary and artistic performances to grassroots rural areas, communities and primary and secondary schools, including acrobatics, opera, song and dance and other art categories widely loved by farmers.
Inviting farmers into the city to build a stage and provide a platform for farmers' “cultural dream” is also a form of sending culture to the countryside in Hebei. Just after this year's Spring Festival, the Propaganda Department of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and the Hebei Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles held the first Hebei Provincial Farmers' Calligraphy and Painting Works Exhibition in Shijiazhuang City. As one of the important contents of the “Chinese Dream · Road to the Exam” culture-benefiting-the-people-reaching-every-home activity in Hebei Province, this exhibition attracted more than 100 farmer calligraphers, painters and enthusiasts to actively participate, and collected more than 1,400 works in total, comprehensively displaying the spiritual outlook and cultural pursuits of Hebei's new farmers.