A rural woman in her forties filming short dramas—what is that experience like? That is precisely my story... This self-produced video by Wang Youxiang, a resident of Tandi Village in Sishui Town, Gaozhou, was recently displayed on the big screen at a sub-venue of the 2026 China Civilized Rural Practices Conference held in Linyi, Shandong.
The conference, themed "Civilization Makes Villages Better," featured five distinct sub-venues, bringing together grassroots governance and rural cultural development representatives from across the country to exchange experiences and learn from each other. Representatives from Maoming and Gaozhou participated in related sub-venue activities, sharing the story of Tandi Village through "Wang Youxiang's Story," allowing the fresh breeze of civilization from the millennium-old lychee region to reach East China and presenting the "Maoming Gaozhou Experience" on a national stage.
Grassroots Participation Seizes Opportunity, Pioneering Short-Drama Industry
Smartphones have become new farming tools, online traffic a new agricultural resource, and filming a new form of farm work. At the conference, Guo Jing, Deputy Party Secretary of Gaozhou City, depicted this new form of public culture—where ordinary people are not just spectators but creators of culture.
A quiet transformation is underway in Tandi Village, Sishui Town, Gaozhou. Former lychee farmers who once toiled in the fields now stand before the camera, becoming the main force in rural cultural creation and industrial income growth.
Villager Wang Youxiang epitomizes the local acting talent. Once shy and hesitant before the lens, this lychee farmer is now a featured actor with roles in over a hundred short dramas, with daily earnings rising from an initial 30 yuan to 300 yuan. Inspired by her, over 300 villagers have participated in filming, with a standing reserve of more than a hundred extras, ready to form a local performance troupe right in the fields at any time.
The populace does not just act; they also take up writing scripts and leveraging traffic for e-commerce. A young returnee, Xiao Hei, and his foreign-born wife renovated their old family home into a distinctive restaurant, catering to film crews and tourists, with peak daily revenue exceeding 8,000 yuan. The couple writes and stars in local micro-dramas based on real lychee country scenery, embedding e-commerce links for agricultural products in their videos, selling 100,000 jin of lychees in just 20 days, effectively converting video traffic into sales of specialty produce.
This new cultural industry, with全民 participation, has delivered tangible growth for the village collective economy and individual incomes. In just three years, Tandi Village's collective income surged from nearly zero to 2 million yuan, while the per capita annual income of villagers grew from 41,000 yuan to 56,000 yuan. Local folk art is no longer just leisure entertainment but a genuine new rural industry widening income channels, transforming residents from observers of rural culture into co-creators and beneficiaries who build and share in its success.
Government Paves the Way with "Five Fires," Building a Short-Drama Industry Ecosystem
Tandi Village's metamorphosis into a renowned filming location for "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" micro-dramas was no accident. Building on local resource advantages, it resulted from systematic government planning and comprehensive support policies, using the "Five Fires" to accumulate momentum and empower rural cultural industry development.
Igniting the "Policy Fire" with targeted, substantial financial support. Gaozhou introduced the county's first special support policy for micro-dramas, allocating no less than 5 million yuan annually in special funds, providing graded subsidies and rewards for quality scripts and award-winning works, lowering costs for film crews working in rural areas.
Igniting the "Platform Fire" for hassle-free, one-stop coordination. It established the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao "Three Rurals" Micro-Drama Filming and Creation Cooperation Zone and set up a Micro-Drama Economic Service Center, integrating supporting services like catering, accommodation, equipment rental, and costumes, enabling "zero-obstacle, one-stop" service for crews entering the village.
Igniting the "Facilities Fire" by creating real-life sets across the area. The village promoted the enhancement of farmhouse aesthetics, completing unified renovations for over 180 residences. It leveraged the ancient lychee orchards to create a Tang Dynasty post station and transformed idle old houses into retro taverns, establishing 25 distinct, characteristic filming sites suitable for diverse themes like ancient style, farming, and entrepreneurship.
Igniting the "Talent Fire" by attracting and nurturing local performance talent. It used special public institution positions to recruit professionals in directing, editing, and new media operations, regularly arranging for acting instructors to give village-based classes. It also built community networks for extras and filming coordination, allowing crew staffing needs to be met quickly and efficiently.
Igniting the "Collaboration Fire" by connecting with top-tier resources for expansion. It proactively engaged in deep cooperation with platforms like CCTV.com, universities, mainstream media, and leading short-drama platforms. Currently, over 60 film and television institutions have set up operations, with nearly 200 crews having filmed in the village.
These measures have yielded impressive results: the village has built over 20 standardized characteristic filming sites, hosted nearly 200 on-site crews, and generated over 5 million yuan in annual revenue from micro-drama related industries. Related series have garnered over 20 million online views, with related topic clicks exceeding 780 million nationwide.
Local productions like "The Lychee Immortal's Millennium Feast" and "I'm Partnering with Lady Xian in Lychee Country" have won national awards and international film accolades, allowing Lingnan's乡土 stories to reach national and international audiences through the small screen.
Culture Nurtures Hearts: Economic Industry and Civilized Rural Practices Empower Each Other
These micro-dramas rooted in local soil have done more than fatten villagers' wallets; they have reshaped neighborhood relations and deepened local cultural confidence, achieving a two-way synergy between industrial prosperity and beautiful rural customs.
Previously, villagers in Tandi were busy with their own farm work, with little neighborly interaction. Now, frequent collaboration through filming has brought them closer, making mutual aid and harmony part of daily village life.
Scripts with positive messages, rooted in local cultural heritage, subtly influence hearts and minds. The micro-drama "New Dreams in Lychee Country," focusing on youth returning to protect ancient lychee trees, inspired many villagers to voluntarily adopt old trees, stating that protecting them means safeguarding the cultural roots passed down through generations in lychee country.
The hit series "I'm Partnering with Lady Xian in Lychee Country," deeply exploring the spirit of "using only one good heart" embodied by historical figure Lady Xian, went viral and spurred many villagers to voluntarily become rural cultural guides.
From "making a good drama" to "revitalizing a whole village," Tandi Village has used micro-dramas as a lever to catalyze a dual transformation of industrial upgrading and rural custom revitalization. By using the popular micro-drama format, it transforms profound agricultural civilization and virtuous humanistic spirit into lightweight, visual content, allowing文明 cultivation to move beyond traditional lecturing models and truly resonate with the people.
At this conference, Gaozhou's integrated development model for "Three Rurals micro-dramas" received high recognition from delegates nationwide. The practice in Tandi Village suggests that the code to rural revitalization often lies in the simplest local logic—making culture tangible, industry accessible, and benefits reachable for the people.
Moving forward, both Maoming and Gaozhou will continue to deepen the "short-drama+" ecosystem, promoting deeper integration of micro-dramas with lychee tourism, agricultural product processing, and rural cultural creation, attracting more leading platforms and creative teams. They will also replicate and promote the Tandi experience to other distinctive villages and establish a mechanism for short-drama traffic to反馈 and benefit agriculture through digital means, allowing more farmers to share in the dividends of流量 and culture. The goal is to truly achieve "one drama igniting one village, one model activating a whole countryside," contributing more "Maoming solutions" to the national effort of building civilized rural practices.
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