彭骞
Description: 彭骞 (Peng Qian) is a Professor at Guilin University of Tourism and a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), specializing in rural revitalization. He has been instrumental in the re-development of Daoshan Village, a small farming community south of Guilin. His work focuses on integrating ecological sustainability and cultural preservation with economic growth. Peng has helped boost local tourism and agriculture through initiatives like the Longgen Cultural Festival, which promotes the village’s rich history and high-quality produce. He also collaborates with Guilin University to support local talent and infrastructure development.
Resources:
Background: The Rural Challenge to the Chinese Dream
Carbon Footprint Analysis of Tourism Lifecycle
Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Influence Mechanism of Habitat Quality in Guilin City, China
The Sustainable Development Model of China’s Tourism-Based Poverty Alleviation Industry
Exploring the Relationship between Regional Tourism Development and Land Use Efficiency
Other Mentions:
Show Notes:
[0:01] Introduction to Our Journey
[2:13] Arrival at the Village
[5:44] Exploring the Village Life
[7:06] The Lee River Experience
[12:32] The Revitalization of Daoshan
[15:07] Role of the CCP in Revitalization
[23:27] Insights from the Professor
[26:45] Conclusion and Reflections
[28:45] Raw Audio of Peng Qian Answering Our Questions in Chinese
Unedited AI Generated Transcript:
Brent:
[0:01] Ready when you are welcome.
Keller:
[0:03] Back today brent and i are going to give a background on an interview we did in china with pung chan professor at guilin university of tourism and a party member of the ccp who focused on village revitalization in rural china before we get into the depths of that i want to give a little bit of background of how we ended up in china so brent and i both studied at the National University of Singapore for our fall semester, our junior year. And on our way back to the United States, we were lucky enough to be able to stop by in China. We started off in Hong Kong, made our way to Guilin, where we did this interview, then went to Chengdu, to Xi'an, and to Shanghai. The whole trip was about 17 days.
Brent:
[0:45] Yeah. And huge shout out to a fellow who was researching here at UC Davis, Liwen Chen. She connected us with basically all the professors that we have previously released and recorded a podcast with while we were in china so this one was an interesting one uh we were talking with him on wechat for a little bit prior to actually going out and recording and it wasn't until probably about 11 50 at night the night before that we got the actual village name and confirmation we're going to go do the recording the following day and yeah.
Keller:
[1:20] I mean it still wasn't even clear at the time we found out whether we were going to have a translator whether the entire thing was going to be in mandarin on our way out there we took a dd which is their version of uber took about two hours and the entire time we were just translating our questions and trying to figure out if if we don't have a translator how are we going to make this work.
Brent:
[1:40] Yeah and then on that's like the interface on the app is fully in chinese there's no english option we went to the hotel staff i'm like hey where's this village how can we get there no one really could help us so we just copied and pasted the message he sent us into the app and hoped for the best yeah.
Keller:
[2:00] And when we got there again we still didn't know for sure we were in the right spot we got in there was just little kids playing out in the front obviously we stood out like a sore thumb and people came up up within a minute on a motorcycle
Keller:
[2:12] and said you know come with us.
Brent:
[2:14] But they just motioned it they didn't say a word they just said it was like we hopped on the back of a motorcycle and just were driven about like a couple hundred meters to this house that uh he was living in and we went and sat down at this tiny table on stools or the table was probably like smaller than like my knee.
Keller:
[2:40] Do you want to go into this stuff, the taxi stuff, like after?
Brent:
[2:46] Which taxi?
Keller:
[2:46] Like all this stuff is from later.
Brent:
[2:49] Yeah, no, let's talk about the time in the town. Yeah. So we sat down at the stable and the first thing that basically they started doing was showing us all like the products that they had and they made. Because part of the revitalization was not only producing the rice again, like redoing their farming practices, but it was also packaging the rice, packaging the fruit products and selling them to a larger market and exporting them around China and somewhat outside of China, depending on the different sanctions and whatnot.
Keller:
[3:19] Yeah. And so after we finished up the interview, we went and we checked out the rest of the village, which part of what they farm is citruses. We got to walk around and try those out. and as we're moving along kind of more people from the village came out and were walking with us and while the conversations were obviously slim um it was nonetheless great to kind of feel welcomed in that environment yeah.
Brent:
[3:41] And part of the like it was very clear that how welcoming they were because as we walked past the fruit trees they run over to like the oranges and like grab them pick them and like hand them to us everywhere we went was just like trying to show how like proud they were of their village and the culture that they're bringing back and they're trying to highlight and.
Keller:
[4:00] So we made our way over towards the school part of the village and we got to see you know the traditional school setup there are still students there that were being taught so a lot of the university students from guelan university would come in on the weekends or come in during part of the week to teach the the younger uh students actually lived in the village so we got Got to see a little bit of that in action. Got to see all their awards that they had. And it was just really cool to see the distinction, I guess, of what we think of a traditional classroom.
Brent:
[4:30] Yeah. And then after there, we kind of walked along the rice paddies and they pointed to a different side of it because it was a town in between a bunch of different hills. And for people listening, you'll be able to go on the website and see all the photos that we took there to paint this picture a little bit better. But uh pretty like steep mountains rising out of nowhere and then apparently there was a taoist monk and he was practicing his religion there in a cave in the mountainside over 500 years ago and that's kind of where like the town name came from and then we continued back to like the house where we recorded the podcast and there we ate dinner had like rice and vegetables I honestly think that was probably the best rice we ever had it was literally grown 100 meters away incredibly good.
Keller:
[5:29] And after that, we took some pictures of the rest of the village. It was just kind of, again, really nice to get to spend time with them. I think for both us and them, we really hadn't been able to interact with that
Keller:
[5:42] like group ever before. And they seemed really excited about that. And luckily, on our way back, we were initially going to take a taxi again, but the students at Guelan University were all taking a bus together. Other and so we're able to ride with them for about an hour and talk on we chat with them and get a little bit of a better understanding of you know how they're thinking through some of the things when it comes to just overall life in china whether it be their idea their perception of the united states um which we were surprised to find out was really rather limited um it.
Brent:
[6:14] Was like equivalent to like one class in high school i think yeah.
Keller:
[6:17] Like the one thing that they said was is that they love the warriors.
Brent:
[6:19] Yeah no because uh the words would do like annual trips out there so everyone was very very familiar with them and like warriors being the basketball team in the nba and then uh we we talked with them on wechat because they were a lot of them understood english pretty decently but it felt like they were shy to share and like try to practice speaking it so we all added each other's wechats which is basically their all-purpose app that mostly for texting for us and um they were able to translate their messages or translate our messages to have a better understanding so that's why it was a mix of talking on the bus but also like texting each other while we were sitting next to each other.
Keller:
[7:00] Do you want to go into the next day on the lee river christopher.
Brent:
[7:06] Yeah and then also like before we hopped on the bus it was funny because we again hopped on the motorcycles to go back over to the bus and the i was sitting behind the professor and his son was in between his legs on the scooter as we're driving over and it was also super interesting because this village like the dachshund village transitioned to organic like very sustainable agriculture and then where the bus was parked was bordering up against another farm and that farm was being sprayed by like a swarm of drones it was crazy to see like that in practice and then again we'll put the video up on the website as well.
Keller:
[7:51] Hopped in the following day. So then, yeah, the following day when we went back, we were lucky enough to be able to do the Lee River cruise. So the Lee River is the river that runs through Guilin and Guangxi. And we were able to do that, again, because Li Wenchun set us up with a really good driver who kind of took us around and was giving us all kinds of historical background to what we were doing. And it was just really cool to hang out for a prolonged period of time and see that part of china the cruise itself took four or five hours.
Brent:
[8:26] Yeah and like that part for the people who might not be as aware it's it became pretty famous in the west through uh kung fu panda and the river being shown there with the super steep tall mountains as well so that's super interesting and then this is like a huge cult like tourist attraction within china and i think one part that made it like super popular was the back of their 20 yen bill like equivalent of like the paper money uh has an image from that like that part of the river that we like did the cruise on and so when we got to that section everyone went on the roof and was taking photos like holding the dollar like their uh money against like the background of what was printed on the actual like paper money itself and then or just taking selfies with it and it was really fun to see like how pumped all the people were to like see what they've always seen on like their money.
Keller:
[9:26] And we were finished with the tour. We went around and walked in a little village off of the Lee River. And we were told that one of the things we had to try was the snails and the Lee River beer fish. So, initially, we just got the snails. We were confused on even how to eat them.
Brent:
[9:44] Yeah. You got to suck the snail out of the shell and not blow it onto the plate.
Keller:
[9:49] Um and as we're eating uh the the chef comes out and says like oh like please like let me let me offer this to you um so okay like i guess we'll we'll get this meal do.
Brent:
[10:00] You accept the fish.
Keller:
[10:03] Yeah so we just say yeah like of course like we'll eat more and she fully like in that moment takes the fish out of the tank and it's a it's a pretty big fish yeah um and proceeds to beat it with like a wooden stick from the flintstones type like just club and then just immediately immediately runs back into the kitchen starts cooking it and i mean we'll probably attach that video too but it was just like does not get much fresher than that.
Brent:
[10:29] Yeah no and it's just an amazing part of the trip a lot slower paced compared to a lot of the other chinese cities that we were visiting at that time.
Keller:
[10:38] And that night we got to do a like traditional show that was kind of telling a story about a young spirit that lived in the Lee River area and the show itself takes place in the water. And so, they're using lighting to at certain times highlight the mountains or highlight the water, go completely dark and use like just a lot of lighting techniques that I just hadn't seen before and the scale of which it operated was really hard to express in words. Yeah.
Brent:
[11:10] Yeah, we'll try to put some photos and videos up from that as well, but I think hands down the most insane production I've ever seen in person. Yeah and that town was like the yangshua.
Keller:
[11:21] Yeah and.
Brent:
[11:23] I will link to like all of the stuff we're talking about as well in the notes but um yeah and then before we get into the actual like summary of the interview itself uh huge shout out to soren keller's friend for translating it give some background yeah.
Keller:
[11:45] So best friend from from high school who went to the naval language academy and learned chinese past year and he was kind enough to take our transcript and translate the entire thing for us as well as give us kind of some context behind the meaning uh beyond just the actual words that were meant on some of the underlying things uh whether that be culturally really or historically that might have been going into some of the word choices um which we'll talk about more at the end there but just really great uh for us to have that because obviously in the moment we had no idea what was being said we were just nodding along and trying to smile when we could um and getting this level of depth of analysis after the fact really kind of
Keller:
[12:29] drove the whole thing home for us so.
Brent:
[12:33] Let's dive into the actual summary of the episode.
Keller:
[12:37] Yeah. So, I'll start out with a little bit of history of Daoshan. So, like Brent mentioned a little bit earlier, the village had been around for 500 years dating back to the Ming Dynasty, which is China's like 13th major dynasty right before the Qing Dynasty. It is 330 acres of forest, 16 acres of organic rice paddies, and 33 acres of citrus orchards. About 240 people live there. So, it's really, really small, tight-knit community. They have a surname Li, largely because they live near the Li River. Farming is the main source of livelihood for them. And so, that's been a big part and something we'll talk a lot about in this episode about the revitalization is how do they integrate farming back into the village in a way that is sustainable. Dao is part of the ethnic group of the Yao ethnic group, which is one of the 56 recognized ethnic groups in China, and the Yao people typically reside in mountainous regions in Southern China. And now we'll talk a little bit more about how exactly they were revitalizing the city.
Brent:
[13:42] Yeah. So the revitalization plan was part of a larger movement by the National Party after they've really grown and expanded economically. And now they have the money to go back and not only build out their cities, but also take a focus on the rural communities in China. So they have a huge focus on ecology and culture. And like those things both go like very much hand in hand they start out with the industrial revitalization of the actual town uh which would be like the farming the houses they're rebuilding all the houses uh redoing all how like the farming techniques and then the next step was the talent revitalization and that's a huge part where you see the school rebuild and like the curriculum restructuring to build out the talent that's being produced in this town and then at the last part of it they go in and establish an internal organization and like structure so think like a local town government and just making sure that it's sustainable once they leave because the professor moved here uh he's not originally from this town and he's there for roughly 10 years focusing on like really setting up this town and making sure it runs well when he eventually leaves and goes to the next town to repeat and like restart the process all over again.
Brent:
[15:07] A big part of it was not only just the revival of the town but also a refinement of their culture, and really like throughout this whole thing you'll start to hear like how important the culture is to them and they not only did it for themselves but they're promoting it on their social media and um.
Brent:
[15:32] So, and then the next part is the CCP, like overall, like this was a top down, uh, approach and movement. So they're playing a huge role when it comes to like initiating these revitalizations. And, uh, he used a really interesting analogy of a locomotive or a train and the party as like at the nation level is the driving force. That's like propelling the train forward. board and there's a very interesting approach that they take called like the one plus one plus n and the one being the party branch the second one being the actual party member in the town that's leading the revitalization and then n being all the villagers who are working under the leader in that town and he really stressed like the importance of an excellent party leader that That is working for the betterment of the village. And that leader. Or the second one. Is the one that's really going to be driving the change forward. With the help of all of the other villagers. And this one plus one plus N approach.
Brent:
[16:43] Allows for a good subdivision of tasks. And managing the transformation. And making it just manageable and sustainable. Because once that second N. The party leader leaves. The N will be. Or once that second one, the party member, they leave the end, all the villagers, they'll be able to sustain this development and keep up the new practices they have. And another slogan they had was five demolitions, five cleanups, and five constructions. And this was really important. Designed to tear down rebuild as a unit so everything looks more cohesive and aesthetically pleasing and it's also like ecologically sustainable sustainability organic farming it was like a huge through line throughout this entire revitalization and uh this was kind of by doing it in chunks of like five five and five they are able to like do it in an orderly fashion because previously the villagers would independently decide to tear down a house or redo part of the field or and it just led to this overall somewhat, disordered poor land management and the appearances of the villages being pretty disorganized so the whole idea of chunking it is to have a once like through line one sustained message and like model that they use to revitalize the town, Yeah.
Keller:
[18:11] So then next we asked about the Guilin University of Tourism and what that partnership looked like with the village. And we were told that the village has its own model and mechanisms, very similar to a university. But where the university really comes in and shines is their ability to provide knowledge and talent and extra support. So like we mentioned, that's where the students were coming from. The university itself was about an hour away way of Daoshan but they would come in and they would support both with the education of the youth there but also the development and the ways in which they were showcasing the culture because a big part of that was they felt like the university had an advantage at understanding the depth of a culture but the people that were part of the village, they might not necessarily be able to like express that in the same type of way as the.
Keller:
[19:02] The university itself was just better at discovering those parts that make the village unique and, again, showcasing that to the rest of the world. And when we asked about whether tourism had increased, he said that tourism had increased, but overall, tourism levels are relatively low because they're trying to perfect the basic infrastructure of the town and of the village before moving to more supportive facilities. And that, again, kind of goes to show what Brent was saying about the 10-year timeline of this. They're really trying to do it so even though they easily could build out an entire metropolis that they wanted to in one year, it's not really about the pace of development, but the sustainability of that development and making sure that when things are built, they would really only need to be built once and they'll be able to operate on their own moving forward.
Keller:
[19:47] And so, that tourism and tourists mainly come for two reasons. And that's one, their love of the rural way of living and to experience a healthy way of life. And most of them are coming from larger cities. So, when they get the chance to come here from, I mean, China has a tiered city system that basically has tier one you can think is like Shanghai or Beijing and then they can get tier two is essentially the same in size, but these massive, massive cities. And so, getting the chance to come visit a tiny village of 250 people and just see the difference and at the bare minimum, the pace of life is something that they said that people really, really enjoy. And one of the ways that they're getting tourists to come is by having this annual festival. So it's called the Daoshan Forum Longan Cultural Festival.
Keller:
[20:33] And it's meant to really do two things. And the first is to showcase, like we were talking about earlier, the ethnic group and the culture involved there and to show the harmony of the village. And they want it to be shared mainly with outsiders. So, they'll dress up in traditional garb and they'll do different events for, I believe it was a weekend. And the whole thing is targeted at the outside. So, they publish stuff on social media on that. And then the other aspect of the festival is to showcase their agriculture because they're very prideful of their high quality rice. Like we were talking about the difference between their organic farming and the drones and the pesticides in the village, literally right at the border. They believe that they have the best rice and that's something that they're very prideful about. So, they're not only trying to show their unity and their culture, but also their unity in their industry. And that is kind of a big part of the revitalization of these villages. It isn't just that they have the culture or they have the needs to sustain themselves, but they're doing both at the same time and growing both at the same time. That's kind of the unique angle that they're bringing to tourism in this village and really in this entire program.
Keller:
[21:43] And with that, they have the one village and the one dream slogan, which is kind of further tying into that industrial side to development. And the perception that they're trying to move across with that is that rural areas aren't these lazy areas that lack motivation and want to stay from the outside but they're kind of trying to protect their culture and they're trying to do it in a way that if they do bring in industry they can do it in a way that can motivate the people for a better life but do it in a way that ties in to what their culture was before they don't lose that culture and their aspiration to develop and to be sustainable yeah.
Brent:
[22:22] And then just like one other note on that part it's the people, lacking the motivation they these universities and this program is just bringing a structure that allows them to bring out their intrinsic desire to improve themselves and improve their village and improve like the overall conditions that they're living in.
Keller:
[22:44] Yeah and kind of like one more thing on that with the whole one dream aspect that's tying into a big part of what is chinese culture and that's the development of a collective dream and with doing this they're able to further push each other and push the entire community towards a more vibrant and dynamic society yeah.
Brent:
[23:03] And then after we finished up like the individual questions we had for him uh we just offered a time to say any additional like final thoughts and um that's where we're going to read this a little bit more verbatim versus summarizing it just only few people want to lay down and do do nothing.
Brent:
[23:24] Most people want to work hard for a better life. So those of us that want to work hard, industrialization is the concrete representation of this abstract idea of hoping and working for a better life. Industrialization lets them see concrete examples of hope and them is basically referring to peasants. The second thing he was talking about it was brand and this is where it's a little bit harder to translate and this is where Soren's like kind of helping out with some of the interpretations of it but when brand and industry are thriving and, When industry is thriving, we also need branding. Branding itself at its core encompasses culture. So through culture, through unearthing and revealing culture, we can enrich our industry. Enriching industry and the core driving cultural factor are inseparable.
Brent:
[24:22] They're both symbolic. And this brand thing that they're talking about, this is kind of like Soren's interpretation of it, is it's a spiritual driving factor. A deeper sense of connection to the past and the present and a kind of a guiding star for societal development and this isn't unique to the towns in the revitalization process when we were in Xi'an the former capital of China it was crazy to see the number of people dressing up in traditional ancient Chinese like dress and go into these cultural sites they erected like this entire walkway that has famous poets and famous members of like chinese society and just kind of telling the story of their past and uh it's really interesting that they're using the word brand uh because it's showing how the ccp is using the messaging to instill these deeper values and simulate something that currently might not be existing to the extent that it was before and trying to connect modern china with traditional china and because, there is a current disconnect it ends up being somewhat of a marketing tactic or branding, and then the last point he brought up at the end here was social responsibility.
Brent:
[25:47] And say so from my perspective as traditional chinese people and scholars we have a sense of patriotism and dedication to our country. Doing these things is similar to what we are commonly known as public welfare today. In fact, we've had the sense of responsibility even before the term public welfare became popular.
Brent:
[26:07] As traditional scholars, we have the mindset of improving oneself in times of hardship and helping the world when successful. It is not necessarily about waiting until one is successful to contribute to society. Throughout our lives, many of us serve and contribute, driven by a sense of patriotism. This is at the core of my work. My primary focus is to serve the countryside, hoping to create one or two exemplary models, that surrounding villages, the government, and society can see. This demonstrates that rural development can take various forms, emphasizing diversity rather than a single model.
Brent:
[26:46] And that is where the interview wrapped up.
Keller:
[26:51] Yeah. And then one more point as we're up here. Soren wanted to include a poem by one of the founders of Taoism, Lao Tzu. And the book is Tao Te Ching, which is the way and its power. And the poem, he felt, encompasses kind of a lot of the ideas of the current, revitalization system and what it means for China as a whole. A man is born gentle and weak. At his death, he is hard and stiff. Green plants are tender and filled with sap at their death they are withered and dry, therefore the stiff and unbending is the discipline of death the gentle and yielding is the discipline of life thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle a tree that is unbending is easily broken the hard and strong will fall the soft and weak will overcome.
Brent:
[27:47] Come awesome thank you all for listening uh after this we will put up the actual recording itself which is fully in mandarin so for the listeners out there who can understand that we hope you enjoy it uh and then on the website as well we'll put english and chinese translations, and transcripts up there along with all the different things we've talked about like photos those videos, links to other resources and whatnot.
Keller:
[28:17] Thank you.
English Translation of the Recorded Interview
Question 1: Could you describe the history of Daoshan Village?
Simply described, Daoshan Village has a 500-year history, its founding dates back to the Ming Dynasty. It is part of the Fuli Town, Yangshuo County, under the administration of Qingniao Village Committee. Daoshan Village is a natural village (自然村屯?) with over 2000 mu (approximately 329 acres) of forest, more than 100 mu (approximately 16 acres) of rice paddies, and over 200 mu (approximately 33 acres) of citrus orchards. Additionally, there are small amounts of Chinese yam and other fruits and vegetables. These fruits and vegetables make up the main components of our economic and industrial landscape as well as our environment.
The village has a population of 240 people, (primarily with the surnames Li and Li). Traditionally, the villagers have relied on farming as their main livelihood, passing down agricultural practices from generation to generation.
Question 2: Could you describe the process of revitalizing Daoshan? What steps did you take to get where you are now?
Now, answering the second question?, looking objectively at Daoshan Village, on the process of our rural revitalization and the development of Daoshan Village, we can see that our village, compared to other villages, doesn't possess significant advantages in terms of resources or industry. So, we have pursued a development strategy based on this difference, leveraging our main advantage: the lush green mountains and clear waters, aka, our excellent ecological environment.
Our village’s positioning and development are primarily centered around this ecological factor. We focus on ecological rice farming, ecological culture, and our agrarian and rice farming culture.
Starting from our initial positioning to our subsequent overall planning, we have progressed step by step from industrial revitalization to talent revitalization, and then to the establishment of internal organizational systems. We have also focused on the revival and refinement of our culture, and then promoting it externally. (Basically, we cover various aspects that involve ecology to allow everyone to see, even online you can see related reports and some information) organizational coverage and media reporting (would recommend dropping this section and folding into above as literally a sentence with no info)
(Basically, we cover various aspects that involve ecology to allow everyone to see, even online you can see related reports and some information)
Question 3: Could you describe the government structure in China and the importance of creating an “excellent” village level party branch in order to revitalize your town?
The third question involves describing the structure of the Chinese government and the importance of establishing an excellent village-level Party branch for rural revitalization. Local development requires guidance and support from the government, which serves as a foundation. [The Party branch plays a key role in establishing organizations and systems. ] This is akin to a locomotive, driving the train of development forwards. Who brings the motivating force? Where is the source of this force? [This force is not just industrialization.] So at the village level, an excellent Party branch is just like a leader. These leaders are crucial because they are willing to contribute and work for the betterment of the village. The Party organization and Party branch plays a critical role in affecting village development.
Question 4: What is the “1 + 1 + N” model of party building, and how has it helped Daoshan?
Our fourth question is about the "One Plus One Plus N" Party-building model. “1+1+N” is a model that came out of our village’s experience in party-building as a way to sum up our scaling method of breaking down Party tasks. It is not necessarily applicable to every village or location. The model consists of one Party branch, one Party member, and a group that is led or supported by this member. This group is composed of several villagers, effectively subdividing the entire village into smaller units with differentiated tasks. This model allows us to break down complex and large systems into simpler, manageable parts that can be covered by everyone. It is similar to the concept of the span of control in management. By applying this model, we can maintain an appropriate span of management or support within our village.
Question 5: What is the “Five Demolitions, Five Clearances and Five Constructions” model?
The fifth question is about "Five Demolitions, Five Cleanups, Five Constructions." This concept is part of our Beautiful Countryside construction process. Initially, during the development process, villagers developed independently, which led to some disorder in regards to land use such as housing, housing planning, and just general, overall appearances. This period of development resulted in some areas that were not very clean, tidy, or orderly. In response, we launched the Beautiful Countryside campaign across China.
On another note, some arable land used for growing crops was lost during the disorderly construction and development process. Therefore, part of the beautification process involved consciously restoring some of this farmland. The "Five Demolitions, Five Cleanups, Five Constructions" initiative aims to create harmonious and beautiful villages, making them cleaner, more orderly, and more aesthetically pleasing. It also promotes a more harmonious and ecologically sustainable development.
Question 6: How did Guilin University of Tourism Association help construct the Daoshan model for rural revitalization? How have others expanded on the foundation of what was done in Daoshan?
Because each village has its own model and mechanisms, as a university, the most crucial role is to provide knowledge and talent, this kind of export, or support. This is very important because leveraging our strengths can significantly enrich our villages.
The university, with its teachers and students, has a cultural advantage and depth. They are adept at discovering, showcasing, and promoting cultural elements, which brings substantial development to our villages. By combining the intellectual resources and cultural insights of the university, we can effectively support and enhance rural revitalization.
Question 7: How has Daoshan tourism increased? Where are the tourists coming from?
Definitely increased, “without a doubt” has increased BUT but right now, it is smaller, relatively smaller. This is just because right now our supporting facilities are not yet perfected, but we are working nonstop on our basic infrastructure and on perfecting it.
Tourists mainly come for two reasons: they enjoy the rural lifestyle and they want to experience a healthy way of living. Most of our tourists come from major cities and from those who have deep connections and interactions with us.
Question 8: There was some confusion, so we skipped it.
Question 9: Can you describe the "Daoshan Daoshang" Agricultural Culture Festival?
The ninth question is: Can you describe the Daoshan Forum Longgen Cultural Festival? The Daoshan Forum Longgen Cultural Festival primarily showcases the culture of the Dao ethnic group. This festival aims to present the inherent culture of our village and, through this cultural display, to demonstrate the village's integrity, harmony, and unity. It is an event designed to share this cultural scene with outsiders. The festival has been held three times so far.
Question 10: How has the agricultural culture and pride of Daoshan Village improved?
Our agricultural culture in Daoshan Village is closely related to the previous question about why we hold the Agricultural Culture Festival. Firstly, our rice is very popular in the market. Our villagers feel a great sense of pride because other villages cannot produce such high-quality rice.
Additionally, it is important to solidify our industry and cultural identity. We need to continually show our villagers that there is hope and that their incomes can increase throughout this development process. By strengthening our agricultural industry and fostering a strong cultural identity, we can enhance both the agricultural culture and pride of our village.
Question 11: Could you describe “one village, one dream” allows industry to empower culture and culture to empower industry?
"One Village, One Dream" embodies a driving force for development. Many rural areas are seen as lagging in development or lacking motivation, relying on external assistance. However, this is not the case. Each individual and village possesses an intrinsic motivation for development and a desire for change, much like our personal pursuit of a better life.
The core underlying logic of "One Village, One Dream" is that every village, like every person, aspires to improve and grow. This initiative aims to harness this intrinsic motivation to simultaneously enhance the village’s industry and culture. By fostering a collective dream, it encourages the pursuit of prosperity and cultural enrichment, leading to a more vibrant and dynamic rural community.
Post questions extra thoughts:
Key points:
1. Only few people want to lay down and do nothing (躺平 tangping) (also has nihilism connotations), most people want to work hard for a better life. So for those of us that want to work hard, industrialization is the concrete representation of this abstract idea of hoping and working for a better life. Industrialization lets them (referring to peasants basically) see concrete examples of hope.
2.Brand (hard to translate what he means by this, he is basically saying branding as in group/social identity) when industry is thriving we also need branding, branding itself, at its core, encompasses culture, so through culture, through unearthing and revealing culture, we can enrich our industry. Enriching industry and the core driving cultural factor are inseparable, they are symbiotic.
Soren’s Thoughts: On this brand thing, I think he is trying to get at a spiritual driving factor, a deeper sense of connection to past and present that unites and sets a guiding star for societal development. This is actually really interesting, his use of branding, because over the past 30+ years Chinese leaders have tried to find deeper/higher/further upstream values from which to base the need/demand of development on - as opposed to pursuing money for money's sake. However, they have not succeeded. And this guys use of the word “brand” really proves the idea of the medium is the message, because no matter how much effort CCP does to instill deeper values, they are trying to simulate something that is not currently existing and so all their branding of trying to connect the modern china to the traditional china (in a value sense and therefore political, cultural, spiritual) just ends up being marketing: branding. (We can dig deeper into this if you guys would like, I think this is really the most interesting part of this interview because the whole greenification and sustainability is really being used as a balancing lever for money for moneys sake that creates a society without any depth and therefore without any survivability, would love to go on the pod with you guys and discuss).
3. Social responsibility “So, from my personal perspective, as traditional Chinese people and scholars, we have a sense of patriotism and dedication to our country. Doing these things is similar to what is commonly known as public welfare today. In fact, we had this sense of responsibility even before the term "public welfare" became popular.
As traditional scholars, we have the mindset of "improving oneself in times of hardship and helping the world when successful." It's not necessarily about waiting until one is successful to contribute to society. Throughout our lives, many of us serve and contribute, driven by a sense of patriotism. This is the core of my work.
My primary focus is to serve the countryside, hoping to create one or two exemplary models that surrounding villages, the government, and society can see. This demonstrates that rural development can take various forms, emphasizing diversity rather than a single model.
OK, thank you. You're welcome.”
Original Chinese AI Transcript:
[30:12] 那简单的描述一下 就是我们稻山村 是建村有500年的历史了 从明代开始 我们隶属阳朔县福利镇, 青鸟村委 我们稻山村 它是属于自然村屯, 我们大概有2000多亩的供应林 有100多亩的水稻 然后我们有200多亩的柑橘 另外还有少量的淮山 这些果蔬类, 这是我们主要的经济状况 产业状况和我们的环境 另外的话, 我们村庄人口是240人 然后以离姓和离姓为主, 这边传统师师代代 基本上都是以这样农耕的方式 农耕的方式为主.
[31:14] 第二个问题 我们就是阐述一下 稍微客观的去回忆一下 我们乡村振兴 或者是我们稻山村 发展的这个过程 那我们道山村 其实第一个呢 就是相比啊 其他的村庄来讲呢 还是资源 或者是产业各方面来讲 是不太具备什么优势, 那我们呢 就是通过我们的这个 差异性的这种发展, 我们呢 就是把我们的这个 村庄的这些优势 就是我们村庄主要的优势 就是我们的 绿水青山, 就是良好的生态环境 那么我们依托于这个 我们整个村庄的定位和发展 就是以生态为主, 我们的生态的水稻 生态的文化 然后以及我们的农耕和稻作文化为主.
[32:21] 那么我们从最刚开始的定位 到我们后面的整体的规划, 然后一步从产业到人才振兴 然后到组织内部的制度的设置 文化的挖掘和文化的这种提炼和向外传播.
[32:46] 那么我们基本上 就是各个方面都覆盖和涉及得到, 那么所以大家可以看到 包括在网络上也能看到我们很多的相关的报道和一些资讯.
[33:05] 那么第三个问题, 就是描述一下中国政府的结构 以及为乡村振兴 创建一个优秀的村级党支部的重要性, 就是咱们呢 我们地方的发展 就是它需要靠政府去引导 或者是政府作为一定的支撑, 我们市场为调解 我们整个乡村振兴的过程当中 它有一个很重要的关键节点 就是我们的组织和制度的设置很重要, 这是像一个火车头一样 谁来带动力源在哪里 那么这个动力源 不仅仅是指产业的动力源 所以我们在村级里面 优秀的党支部 它就相当于带头人一样 相当于领导者 这些领导者很关键 这些能够愿意为乡村付出 干事情的, 这样的 我们的党组织 党支部 它就起了非常关键的作用.
[34:22] 那么我们第四个问题 就是什么是一加一加N 我们的党建模式 那么我们在我们的党建过程当中 一加一加N 这是我们村体验出来的, 总结出来的一套模式 它并不是说每个村 或者是每个地方都是这样 那么我们一个党支部 然后一个党员, 然后领导 或者是帮扶一个小组, 这个小组就是有若干的村民组成 就相当于我们把整个村庄 又把它细化和细分, 分成一个格子个格子 那就是一加一加N这样的模式 那这样的模式就是我们可以把 很繁琐的或者是很庞大的这些体系 我们把它拆解成比较简单的, 每个人都可以覆盖得到 那就像在我们管理学当中 有个管理的幅度 在合适的管理幅度 或者是帮扶的幅度.
[35:40] 那么第五个呢 什么是五拆五清五建 那么这个呢 是就是我们在这个乡村的这个, 美丽乡村的这个建设过程当中啊 就是我们原来呢 就是在这个发展过程当中 第一个我们发展相对来讲 就是老百姓自主发展 这过程当中 就是会有点无序 那么对土地的使用 那包括对房子 这种房屋的规划, 那么还有我们的这种 外貌等等 就是显得不会很干净 很整洁 很有序, 那么我们在 整个中国的大地上 我们就, 就做了一场这个美丽乡村的一个建设 那另外呢 这背后还有一个就是我们的一些耕地啊 就是种粮食 种这个作物的一些耕地 我们受到了一定的这个.
[36:45] 就说在这个过程发生当中 有一些它流失了, 就是流失也有一部分是因为 没有无序的建设, 导致这些土地的流失 那么我们在这个过程当中 相当于有意识的去 恢复一部分的耕地, 就是在五拆五清五建这个过程当中 最终我们就要建成和美乡村 让乡村变得更整洁 更有序 更干净, 而且更漂亮, 另外也更和谐 也更符合这种生态自然的这种发展.
[37:33] 第六个就是桂林旅游大学 就是我们的乡村振兴协会 和我们的整个大学 它是如何构建 或者是帮助我们乡村振兴的 那么其实在我们在做的过程当中 因为每一个乡村 它的模式或者是它的机理都不一样 那么我们首先来讲 作为一个高校 或者作为一个一所大学 它最重要的是提供智力和人才的这种输出 或者是支持, 这个很重要 那么我们把我们的优势发挥出来 它就能很好地为我们的乡村去富人 然后再结合高校 它本身作为个体来讲 大学老师和学生 他们相对有一定的文化优势, 有文化内涵 他容易把看到的这些文化挖掘和展示出来 然后对外向外传播, 那么就给我们乡村带来很大的这种发展.
[38:52] 那么第七个 稻山的旅游业增长了吗 游客来自哪里 就是稻山村的旅游业 肯定是增长了的, 这个是毋庸置疑 只是说现在目前来讲 相对是较少 相对较少 因为为什么 就是因为我们现在的 所有的配套设施 还不够完善, 我们的这些 整个基础建设 就是我们的这些设施设备 我们都还在不断的建设 和完善过程当中 等一下我们也可以 一一去走访去看看, 然后我们的游客主要来自哪里 第一个就是他们喜欢这种田园生活, 第二个就是他们想来体验这种康养 健康的这种生活方式的, 主要是来自这种一线大城市 和我们这些跟我们有非常深度交流的这些客户.
[40:01] 你们的询问是什么? 关于欧洲和卡拉特的问题,和优利的国家的问题, 我们看到网上说有交易。. 我可以答这个问题吗?
[40:33] 第九个问题, 能描述一下 道山论道 龙根文化节 就是我们道山论道的 龙根文化节 主要还是以道族文化, 这样的一个方式 去展示我们村里面的这种 本身拥有的这种文化 然后也通过这种文化的方式 去展示我们村庄的这种 一种诚信 然后和谐团结的这样一个场景 一种风貌展示出来, 也是向外人去传递这样的一个活动 那么这里也举办了三届了.
[41:23] 那么第十个问题 稻山村的农业文化和自豪感如何提升 那么我们道山村的这个农业文化呢 就是跟上个问题是紧密相关的 就是为什么要去做这个农耕文化节 那么首先第一个 就是我们现在所生产的这个像那个大米 那大米呢 我们在整个市场上是非常受欢迎的 非常受欢迎 然后呢, 我们的村民 他也非常非常有这种自豪感 就是别的村种不出来 别的村没有拥有这么好的大米, 那么另外就是这种认同感 还是第一个 我们要把产业做实 然后把我们的文化认同 给做实来, 另外的 当然我们要不断的 在这个过程发展过程当中 要给我们的村民们看到希望 他的口袋能够增加收入.
[42:33] 然后第十一个问题 就是你能描述一下 一个村庄一个梦想 是如何让产业富人文化 文化富人产业的吗 就是一个村庄和一个梦想 它这里面有一个激励 就是我们认为很多 很多就是像这个乡村 它是发展滞后的 或者是觉得没有什么动力, 都是靠吃这个等靠药去发展 但是实际上不是这样子的 就是我们每一个个体 也包括我们每一个村庄 他其实都有这种, 自身发展的这种原动力 他都想去改变 就像我们每个人 对美好生活的这种追求 所以一个村庄一个梦想 最核心的底层逻辑是这样.
[43:30] 那么明白了这个底层逻辑之后 其实我们就顺着村庄这种激励 那村庄它肯定是有大部分人 他是想改变的 他是想变得更好, 就像我们人成长 那么愿意躺平 或者是愿意什么都不想干的 只是少部分 对吧 那所以我们在这个里面 我们要把产业坐实 产业让他们能够看到希望 产业真的能够做起来, 能够为老百姓去征收 那么在这个时候 就是我们产业做起来的时候, 另外我们也需要去立品牌 那么品牌它是 本身品牌最核心的属性 就是文化, 所以通过文化去挖掘 挖掘文化的话 来去富人我们的产业 他们本身就是相辅相成的, 所以这两个是 我觉得是他不脱离的, 那么我们这些所有的问题 我都给你们阐述完了, The old question.
[44:53] 那么我个人来讲, 我们传统的中国人 传统的读书人也好 他其实是有一种家国情怀的 那么其实做这些事情 就像我们市场上 比较流行的 就是所谓的公益, 那么其实我们 在没有公益这个词出现之前.
[45:20] 我们传统的读书人 他就是这样 就是穷者独善其身 达者兼济天下 那甚至在不是说所谓达的时候 就一定才能够兼济天下 那么在这个过程当中 其实我们很多就是一辈子 可能我们都是在服务贡献, 仅仅围绕着这个家国情怀 去做这样的事情, 这就是我主要的 围绕这个核心工作 那么我的核心工作 这些内核实验 那么核心的就是所形式 展现出的形式 我就是为乡村服务, 希望能够做出一两个样板 做出一两个示范点 给周边的这个村庄能够看到 给我们的政府能够看到, 能够给到其他的社会的人 人能够看到 其实乡村的发展 它是有不同的形式的, 就是我们讲要多元, 并不是说一个模式, OK 谢谢 You're welcome.