The Hundred Artists Settlement in Villages Plan was launched by Songyang, a county in east China's Zhejiang Province, in April 2018. Under the plan, artists from across China were invited to help protect and inherit local culture, and to boost the development of the county's centuries-old villages — through art. Since then, an artistic atmosphere has swept the county.

"Some artists beautify villages through artistic forms, which help raise the popularity of the villages. Some lead villagers in living prosperous lives by making artworks. Some help villagers promote their handicrafts and agricultural products, by integrating creative cultural elements into the crafts and products," says Li Wei, director of the Publicity Department of the Songyang County Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Power of Art 

In 2018, when Yang Yang, director of Beijing Jiuceng Art Museum, first set foot in Shanlong, a village in Songyang, she was attracted by the village's atmosphere. A small stream flows through Shanlong, which is surrounded by mountains. The ancient rural dwellings, with yellow mud walls and black tiles, are scattered on the mountain. Yang planned to open an art museum in the village.

Yang believed the art museum should contain local architectural elements, such as woodworks and rammed earth and black tiles, to fit in with the surrounding environment. She even invited Hu Miao, an inheritor of traditional construction skills of the wooden arch bridge, a national-level intangible cultural heritage, to help design and build the museum's wood-structure roof. The museum was completed in May 2023.

Since the establishment of the museum, Shanlong has been a magnet for tourists from across the country. The village is now a practice base for several universities, such as Tongji University and Huaqiao University. "The village used to be dark at night. The arrival of the artists has lit up the whole village," says Zhou Shuijin, a resident.

Sun Yingying promotes a souvenir decorated with a villager's artwork

Enriching Villagers' Lives

Art has not only helped residents of Songyang increase their incomes, but has enriched their spiritual lives. Initially, many of the rural residents, who had few if any opportunities to receive an art education during their early years, asked the artists to explain what art was. Now, the residents are participating in various art-related activities, during which they can find their own definition of art.

Sun Yingying, owner of a guesthouse in Songzhuang Village (in Songyang), has done her part to enrich the lives of the village's senior residents. She and her young employees have guided the villagers, who had not learned to paint before, to create paintings with plants and/or their palms and soles.

The elderly dip palms, tea leaves, or chunks of apples, potatoes or green peppers, into the paint, and press the "painting tools" against paper or canvas to create their artworks. The young people even hold an art exhibition for the elderly. More than 20 artworks, including calligraphies and paintings, are on display in a house of the village.

In May 2022, Sun began helping residents earn money through their artworks. The artworks have been printed on the packaging of the village's agricultural products, and on the guesthouse's cultural and creative products. An elderly person can earn a royalty from each product sold bearing his/her artwork.

"The goals of introducing art into the countryside are to raise villagers' cultural awareness, and awaken the 'dormant' villages," says Liu Qi, a teacher at Kunming University of Science and Technology.

Photos by Yu Xiangjun

(Women of China Women of China January 2024)