In April 1935, the Central Red Army passed through Changshun County in the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province during the Long March. More than 90 years later, Leiba Village in Changzhai Subdistrict, Changshun County, is exploring a new path for rural development.
The Central Academy of Drama has continued to carry out artistic assistance, bringing university resources into the countryside and extending its support from the development of distinctive industries to the excavation of local culture, the planning of cultural tourism activities, and brand communication. For Leiba Village, this years-long university-locality cooperation has brought not only projects and resources, but also a renewed understanding of the village's own cultural value and a shift in its development approach.
From distinctive industries such as chili peppers, sika deer, and passion fruit to cultural activities including the Qiupo Culture Festival and the Rural Drama Week, Leiba Village is attempting to link cultural resources with industrial development and increased incomes for the people.
University resources broaden rural cultural horizons
What changes has university assistance brought to Leiba Village? Li Yu, Party General Branch Secretary of Leiba Village, told reporters: "In the past, our external contacts in Leiba Village were mostly limited to the county seat and subdistrict, and the resources we accessed were basically local agricultural and infrastructure-related. It was very difficult to connect with platforms in big cities, universities, and the literary and artistic fields, and the outside world rarely paid attention to us. Many good things were hidden in the mountains. We wanted to promote them outward, but could not find a suitable window."
After the Central Academy of Drama established a paired assistance relationship with the village, Leiba Village's connections with external resources gradually increased. Li Yu said: "After the pairing with the Central Academy of Drama, it was like opening a direct channel for us to Beijing and university circles. We no longer just passively wait for resources arranged by higher authorities, but have gained new channels such as university resource platforms, media publicity, and study and exchange visits."
Compared with general industrial project assistance, what differences can art universities bring when they enter rural areas? In this regard, Li Yu told reporters: "Many paired assistance units focus more on industry and infrastructure construction, solving problems of 'money and goods.' The biggest difference with the Central Academy of Drama is that, in addition to industrial assistance, education, culture, and infrastructure construction, it also brings the academy's culture, artistic thinking, and folk customs into the mountains, thereby helping students walk out of the mountains."
In Li Yu's view, artistic assistance is not just about introducing projects. "The Central Academy of Drama does not simply deliver supplies and launch projects. Instead, it works with us to excavate local culture and promote the village through drama, video, and stories. This is very special, and it also made us understand that rural areas are not just places for producing agricultural products. Our mountains and rivers, folk customs, and the everyday stories of ordinary people are themselves valuable resources."
In the past, Leiba Village's external publicity mainly relied on the public accounts of the county and subdistrict, and the presentation format was relatively simple. Li Yu recalled: "In the past, our external publicity was mainly through the public accounts of Changzhai Subdistrict and Changshun County. We would take a few scenic photos and add a few simple lines of text. We did not know how to distill distinctive features or how to package them. Resources such as 'Qiupo' and ethnic minority folk customs were there, but we could not sort out the highlights clearly, did not know how to tell good stories, and the publicity methods were relatively simple."
As university teachers and students continued to enter the village, Leiba Village began to re-sort its own cultural resources. Li Yu told reporters: "Now it is completely different. First, we have learned to systematically sort out our assets: which are ecological resources, which are folk custom resources, and which are legends and stories, and classify and organize them; second, we know how to grasp IP, for example, we focus on the 'Qiupo' symbol to create content and promote it; third, the forms of expression have become richer. It is no longer just pictures and text, but we know how to present externally through short stories, short videos, scene performances, and study tours and field collection."
Publicity channels are also expanding. According to Li Yu, the first secretary stationed in the village also helped Leiba Village promote the village's scenery, stories, and agricultural products through self-media, giving more people the opportunity to learn about this land.
Art empowerment broadens the path for distinctive industries
How to further transform cultural resources into development momentum is a practical issue that Leiba Village must face. While developing distinctive industries under existing conditions, enhancing product recognition and expanding sales channels are also important directions for local industrial exploration.
Wang Xiaobin, first secretary of the Central Academy of Drama stationed in Leiba Village, told reporters: "Leiba Village is constrained by mountainous conditions, with scattered land and a weak industrial foundation, and the added value of traditional planting and breeding industries is not high. The Central Academy of Drama's 'art plus industry' assistance model precisely fits the village's actual situation. Its core advantage lies in leveraging the university's cultural and artistic resources, deeply excavating local folk culture, and transforming rural resources into cultural advantages."
Regarding specific paths, Wang Xiaobin told reporters: "Based on mountainous resources, we steadily develop distinctive planting and breeding to consolidate the industrial foundation, and then use artistic empowerment to support integrated agriculture, culture, and tourism. At the same time, through artistic planning, event creation, and brand packaging, we inject cultural connotation into agricultural products and local cultural tourism, filling the shortcomings of mountainous villages in terms of lacking brands and traffic."
"On this basis, we have not only revitalized local folk custom resources and expanded sales channels for agricultural products, but also driven cultural tourism traffic, achieving mutual promotion between planting and breeding industries and cultural tourism, and embarking on a revitalization path for mountainous villages that uses culture to invigorate industry and industry to enrich the people," Wang Xiaobin further stated.
Planting chili peppers is a concrete practice in Leiba Village's development of distinctive planting. According to Wang Xiaobin, the chili pepper industry has involved 30 farming households in planting, with a planting area of more than 300 mu, and a number of large chili pepper growers have emerged, with some planting more than 15 mu. Based on actual revenue calculations, the annual income per mu can reach 3,500 yuan.
Around chili pepper planting and processing, the local area has improved drying conditions by building a drying base and is exploring order-based sales to stabilize sales. Wang Xiaobin said: "Processing on-site at the drying base solves the problems of difficult drying and unstable sales channels for chili peppers, allowing chili peppers produced in mountainous areas to improve quality and increase value."
The significance of developing the chili pepper industry also lies in driving up farmers' incomes. Wang Xiaobin said: "Many farmers rely on contract chili peppers to achieve stable production and income at their doorstep. Some poverty-stricken households have made chili pepper planting their main channel for increasing family income. They do not need to go out to work and can obtain tangible returns from the land, truly making small chili peppers a distinctive industry that drives the people to prosperity."
In addition to chili peppers, Leiba Village is also developing distinctive planting and breeding industries such as passion fruit and sika deer. According to Wang Xiaobin, Leiba Village will continue to strengthen these distinctive industries, consolidate the village's economic growth foundation through planting and breeding industries, and at the same time, based on visitor flows into the village, encourage villagers to operate independently, sell agricultural specialty products and distinctive catering, and broaden household income channels.
Regarding the next steps for industrial development, Wang Xiaobin also mentioned the need to continue actively introducing high-quality enterprises, revitalize idle land and idle resources in the village, strengthen collective economic income, and provide local villagers with more nearby employment opportunities.
Cultural tourism activities activate rural consumption scenarios
The Qiupo Culture Festival and Rural Drama Week are important vehicles for Leiba Village to carry out cultural activities and attract external visitor flows. As the activities continue to be held, the linkage effect between cultural display and rural consumption has gradually emerged.
(Leiba Village Qiupo Culture Festival. Photo courtesy of Changshun County Convergence Media Center)
Speaking about the visitor flow and consumption brought by cultural activities, Wang Xiaobin told reporters: "The Qiupo Culture Festival and Rural Drama Week continue to attract traffic. This year's Qiupo Culture Festival attracted nearly 100,000 visits and drove local consumption of about 6 million yuan in total."
How to convert visitor flow into villagers' income is also a focus of local attention. Wang Xiaobin told reporters: "Leiba Village has not yet developed a homestay industry. The benefits of visitor flow are mainly released to rural stalls and mountain markets. Villagers set up stalls to sell distinctive snacks and agricultural specialty products, increasing income and becoming better off at their doorstep."
On this basis, the local area is also trying to connect cultural activities with red study tour routes. Wang Xiaobin said: "We also link local red study tour routes for two-way empowerment, integrating drama performances and folk custom experiences into study tour itineraries, channeling festival traffic to red study tour sites, and enriching the cultural content of Rural Drama Week with red stories. This allows tourists to receive red education while experiencing folk art, broadens the source of red study tour visitors, drives sales of agricultural specialty products, realizes mutual promotion and integration of folk festivals and red study tours, and further activates the momentum of rural cultural tourism development."
For the villagers of Leiba Village, selling distinctive snacks and agricultural specialty products has become a way to use festival visitor flow to increase income. The value of cultural activities is also reflected in the process of villagers' participation. Villagers are no longer just spectators of the activities, but have also begun to participate in excavating local stories, creating wall paintings, and rehearsing short red dramas.
Wang Xiaobin told reporters: "With villagers participating, they have changed from bystanders of culture to participants and creators, and their cultural identity and sense of belonging to the village have been directly enhanced. Everyone actively excavates the village's red memories and local stories, painting their daily lives and the history of the old revolutionary base onto walls and bringing them onto the stage, gaining a deeper understanding of local folk customs and red history."
As participation opportunities increase, villagers' understanding of local culture is also deepening. "More and more villagers are willing to actively learn about village history and conditions and sincerely recognize the cultural value of their hometown," Wang Xiaobin said. The enthusiasm of the masses to participate in collective cultural activities is high, neighborly exchanges have increased, and the sense of collective honor has continued to strengthen. Many villagers who are away from home also pay attention to hometown cultural activities, and their pride in their hometown has increased significantly.
Cultural activities have also brought a positive impact on village governance. Wang Xiaobin said: "Cultural activities have united people's hearts, and the masses have a stronger willingness to jointly build a beautiful homeland. They actively maintain village appearance and participate in village affairs, forming a good atmosphere of gathering hearts and jointly building their hometown."
Regarding the next step in cultural tourism development, Wang Xiaobin said that Leiba Village will rely on the industrial and cultural resources accumulated through six years of artistic assistance from the Central Academy of Drama, continue to polish distinctive brands such as the Qiupo Art Festival and Rural Drama Week, use the popularity of "Going to Qiupo" to continue attracting traffic, stabilize rural cultural tourism visitor flow, and routinely activate the rural tourism market.
University-locality collaboration strengthens village development capacity
The effectiveness of university assistance is reflected not only in how many resources have been introduced and how many activities have been held, but also in changes in the capacities of the village's two committees and whether the village can gradually form an independent development approach.
Speaking about changes in the village's two committees, Li Yu told reporters: "First, communication ability has improved. In the past, we were rather reserved when connecting with external units and did not know how to clearly express the village's needs. Now we can introduce Leiba Village's advantages in an organized way and explain clearly what we need. Second, the ability to plan and coordinate has improved. We have learned to take into account multiple dimensions such as industry, culture, and ecology and make long-term plans rather than only looking at the present. Third, the ability to mobilize the masses and organize cultural activities has improved. We have learned to organize cultural activities and guide villagers to participate in cultural excavation. Fourth, brand awareness has improved. We know to cherish local IP such as 'Leiba' and 'Qiupo,' and consciously safeguard the village's image when carrying out various tasks."
Li Yu believes that these changes mean the village's two committees have begun to shift from passive implementation to active planning. "Overall, we are no longer executors waiting to receive plans, but have gradually become leaders who can think and plan."
Bringing in external resources is only one part of assistance. More important is whether the village can develop development awareness and action capacity during cooperation. Li Yu told reporters: "I think the most important result is that Leiba Village has accumulated endogenous cultural confidence and development ideas. It is not just leaving behind a building or an event, but changing the thinking of the whole village: we recognize that the land beneath our feet and the culture passed down by our ancestors are precious wealth."
Li Yu further stated: "The village's two committees have learned the idea of cultural empowerment for rural areas. The people have moved from feeling that local culture is unremarkable to being willing to protect and pass it on. Even if teachers and students from the Central Academy of Drama do not come often in the future, we still know how to excavate stories, how to tell Leiba Village's story well to the outside world, and how to rely on our own resources to pursue integrated development."
Independent village development also requires a clear division of labor and collaboration mechanism. Wang Xiaobin told reporters: "The village's two committees and the Central Academy of Drama village work team adhere to division of labor, collaboration, and joint promotion. The village's two committees are based locally and are responsible for the overall implementation of village affairs, mass mobilization, and daily governance; the village work team gives play to the university's resource advantages, connects external resources, and plans project ideas; the first secretary stationed in the village coordinates the work of both sides, handles coordination and connection, and major matters are jointly studied and discussed collectively, forming a linkage mechanism in which the two committees implement and the work team introduces resources."
Speaking about the specific results of stationed assistance, Wang Xiaobin said that university assistance has brought new development ideas, allowing the local area to break away from the single development thinking of traditional agriculture and introduce the concept of "art empowering rural areas." "As the first secretary stationed in the village, first, I grasp the building of grassroots Party organizations, use Party building to lead university-locality co-construction, and strengthen the village-level fighting fortress; second, I actively introduce industrial and cultural tourism projects, activate the collective economy, and broaden income-increasing paths; third, I focus on practical matters of people's livelihood and earnestly resolve the urgent, difficult, worrying, and hopeful issues of the masses."
Wang Xiaobin concluded that, relying on the university's intellectual resources, cultural resources are transformed into development momentum, promoting Leiba Village's transformation from a traditional village to integrated agriculture, culture, and tourism development.
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