Digital Power Helps Deliver Rural Revival
- Share via
From the ancient Liaohe River in Liaoning province to beautiful villages in Jiangxi province, grassroots Party workers are using mobile phones as new tools, the internet as a new platform and livestreaming as a new means of communication.
They are bringing agricultural fields into livestreaming rooms, sending local culture onto cloud platforms and connecting policies that benefit thousands of households.
Every afternoon Hu Yuming, 44, appears on time for his livestream, interacting with people throughout China to promote the attractions of Hejiaxin village in Tieling, Liao-ning province. He highlights the village’s lush grasslands, vibrant wetlands, rich ecological foundation, profound revolutionary heritage and distinctive folk culture.
In September 2021 Hu came to Hejiaxin to serve as its first Party secretary. When his two-year term ended in 2023 he wanted to continue working in the countryside.
“At the time the village was seeing some progress in terms of rural development,” Hu says. “I hoped to help make it better, so I decided to stay.”
In March 2024 local authorities organized a series of training sessions for more than 100 village-level first secretaries on topics such as new media technology and livestreaming, aiming to encourage them to promote local economic development through online platforms.
“The training helped me a lot,” Hu says. “Not only did I pick up technical skills, but I also realized that the internet can drive economic growth and benefit locals.”
He did his first livestream on Hejiaxin’s vast grasslands last year.
“The two-hour session attracted some viewers, and I kept talking as I wanted, presenting the beautiful scenery and local specialties of the village.”
He has helped villagers sell agricultural produce, such as sweet potatoes, corn and garlic sprouts, worth more than 50,000 yuan ($7,370), he says.
Many Party workers such as Hu have dedicated themselves to front-line work and are empowering the countryside with the help of the internet.
Chen Jianguo, 46, Party secretary of Beishan village in Shangrao, Jiangxi province, has revitalized the village using just a mobile phone and a livestreaming room.
A typical livestream starts with Chen adjusting his collar, placing a product such as a jar of homemade preserved vegetables on the table in front of the camera, and greeting viewers in his signature style: “Good evening, dear friends, and welcome to Beishan Secretary Chen’s livestream.”
Chen, who left Beishan as a young man in 2004 to seek better opportunities in Zhejiang province, returned to his village after a high-speed railway opened in June 2015.
“The convenience of high-speed transportation helped take Beishan’s agricultural products outside, and brought Beishan’s youth back home,” says Chen.
At a rural e-commerce training session organized by the local government, Chen chanced upon a whole new world.
“The teacher talked about online programs that are helping drive rural vitalization, and I thought we could integrate resources to promote our agricultural products outside.”
With policy support for agricultural e-commerce, Beishan started making big strides through livestreaming.
In early 2020 an official named Du Bo crafted a vibrant story of cultural tourism revitalization as she created a short video on epidemic prevention in the local dialect.
The video attracted 750,000 views, and Du, who was then director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau in Tahe county, Heilongjiang province, encountered the powerful reach of new media for the first time.
“The success inspired me to form my own new media team,” she says.
“In my spare time we filmed short videos or livestreamed to promote the icy landscapes, forest ecology and local ethnic culture.”
In early 2023, when temperatures in the county fell to -4 F, Du donned the traditional attire of the Oroqen ethnic group to film a short video, titled White Deer Fairy, in a birch forest, and it was widely seen on the internet.
“Our endeavor coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Oroqen people settling down since they moved out of the mountains,” Du says. “We went to see their ethnic costumes and cultural products, and those were exquisite. After getting the owner’s consent, I borrowed the costumes for filming.”
As the director of the tourism bureau, Du’s job was to promote local tourism resources. “I not only promoted tourism but also planned and built a large number of scenic routes and cultural projects each year.”
