Peking University master's graduate Chen Wenkai leads farmers in growing a "wealth tree"
Chen Wenkai, a member of the "post-85" generation, is 31 this year. In 2012, with the halo of a Peking University master's degree, he became an ordinary college-graduate village official in Linguo Village, Xincheng Town, Yizheng, and embarked on the path of entrepreneurship. Over more than four years, through his own perseverance, he has continuously led local farmers onto the road to prosperity, letting his dreams shine brightly on the fertile soil of the countryside. Since beginning his work in the village, Chen Wenkai has successively received honors including one of Yangzhou's Top Ten Youth Entrepreneurship Stars, Jiangsu Province Outstanding College-Graduate Entrepreneur, and Jiangsu's Most Beautiful College Graduate, and has earned broad recognition from the public and society through his practical achievements.
Chen Wenkai was born in a rural area of Henan and graduated from Peking University with a major in Western philosophy. He once studied in Germany for a year, making him something of a half "returnee." In 2012, after finishing his graduate studies, he gave up the opportunity to stay and work in a big city and came to Yizheng to serve as a village official, which surprised and puzzled many people.
"I am from the countryside. Rural areas are actually wonderful. Only by truly taking root here can you feel the joy of this place." When he came to the village in 2012, Chen Wenkai brought village officials along as "translators" and visited nearly one hundred households in the village, from households receiving minimum living allowances and left-behind children to people in difficulty and veteran Party members, getting a full picture of the village's situation and recording it all in his work notebook.
During his visits, Chen Wenkai found that many villagers were not very enthusiastic about growing grain, but quite a few wanted to cultivate cash crops. In 2013, Chen Wenkai suggested to the village that, with the village collective and willing villagers as the main body, a seedling cooperative be established to develop the landscaping seedling industry and promote shared income growth among villagers.
"Growing seedlings takes three years before you see results. I can't wait three years in hardship." Chen Wenkai came up with an idea: have everyone interplant edamame in the woods to develop three-dimensional agriculture. Chen Wenkai planted 20 mu as a demonstration, and estimated that the net income per mu could reach about 2,000 yuan. The 20 mu of edamame grew very well and matured quickly. Chen Wenkai hauled a cartload of edamame to the Yizheng vegetable market for wholesale, but unexpectedly ran into trouble with sales. After returning with the unsold edamame, Chen Wenkai spent a sleepless night, and finally thought of selling the edamame directly to residents of nearby communities. He acted at once, organizing people to pack the edamame in five-jin bags and, under the brand "College-Graduate Village Official Entrepreneurship Park Edamame," hauling it to the local Xinbei Huayuan community. When residents heard it was edamame grown by a college-graduate village official's startup, they came in droves to buy, and it sold out in less than half an hour. Seeing this, some villagers in the village took Chen Wenkai's hand and said: "This young man can endure hardship and has ideas. From now on, we'll follow you!"
In May 2013, Chen Wenkai's entrepreneurial project to lead villagers to prosperity -- the Linguo Kaiyuan Flowers and Seedlings Professional Cooperative -- was registered and established. The cooperative received support from higher-level government, but having long been used to growing grain, many farmers found it hard to suddenly switch to growing flowers and trees. Chen Wenkai held countless meetings of village representatives for this reason. "In rural areas, you must do the work with the common people well. They must fully understand the cooperative's situation, otherwise it definitely won't last long." The cooperative ultimately won the support of the common people, covering 186 mu and attracting 150 households to join.
By the end of 2014, the cooperative's landscaping seedling base had expanded to 296.2 mu. In 2015, the cooperative's nursery officially began seedling operations, but at that time the seedling market was sluggish. After market research, Chen Wenkai decisively established a landscaping company to take on landscaping projects externally and maximize the added value of the seedlings. After the landscaping company began operating, the first project it completed was the Masan Road greening project. The weather did not cooperate: on the very night the first batch of saplings was planted, a fierce windstorm and rainstorm struck. Chen Wenkai immediately got out of bed, rushed to the work site, and braved the wind and rain to patrol along Masan Road, propping up the fallen trees one by one. In Chen Wenkai's heart, these trees were the result of hard cultivation by himself and the villagers together, the "money trees" for prosperity, and could not be allowed any mishap.
To build a diversified product structure, Chen Wenkai focused on developing a three-dimensional ecological forestry economy centered on cultivating landscaping seedlings, supplemented by understory planting and breeding. The seedlings include 11 landscaping tree species such as camphor, southern magnolia, trident maple, and red-leaf peach, while the understory economy includes 4 bean varieties such as black beans, green beans, soybeans, and red beans, as well as poultry meat and egg products such as improved-breed chickens and grass geese. In recent years, Chen Wenkai has used the internet's massive information resources and convenient communication features to comprehensively expand the cooperative's customer base, establish basic files for existing consumers, record consumer preferences, improve after-sales service, deepen customer relationships, and provide customers with more value-added services.
The cooperative has revitalized the collective economy of the entire Linguo Village, enabling villagers to live a life of "common prosperity." Data shows that over more than three years of project operation, seedling operations, landscaping projects, and the understory economy have generated cumulative revenue of more than 2.6 million yuan, driven 139 surrounding households to start businesses, and boosted the annual income of participating villagers by more than 700 yuan per mu.
Now, Chen Wenkai serves as deputy director of the Linguo Village Committee in Xincheng Town, secretary of the Xincheng Town Youth League Committee, and Party branch secretary of the Xinbei Huayuan community. In the past two years, he also married a local girl and had a child, truly taking root in this land and making Linguo Village his real home.
Carrying a youthful entrepreneurial dream and insisting on taking root in the fields, Chen Wenkai has overcome numerous difficulties in recent years. Chen Wenkai said that it is not easy for a college-graduate village official to start a business empty-handed, and that the entire process of his entrepreneurship also received support and help from all sides locally. Now he not only feels that his original choice was right, but is also moved by the warmth and trust the local people have given him.
"After finally escaping the farm, why return to the countryside?" Faced with the reporter's question, Chen Wenkai said: "A person must always have pursuits and take on responsibilities. No matter how much you study, you are still just a passerby in history. You must always do something for the country and society and leave a little mark. Where does China need talent most? It is this land beneath my feet. I just want to do something for them."