Editor's Note

With the care of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and under the leadership of the All-China Women's Federation, the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) launched the Spring Bud Project in 1989, to help impoverished girls return to school, and to promote girls' education in disadvantaged areas.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, in 2012, with the attention and concern of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, and with the strong support of Peng Liyuan, special envoy of the Spring Bud Project for promoting girls' education, the project has conducted various activities to care for and support girls, and it has focused on girls' education, safety and health. During the past decade, the project has supported 1.76 million girls, and it has provided one-on-one companionship services and personalized psychological counseling to 133,400 girls. After they receive support from the project, the Spring Bud girls never forget to give back to society. With love and various actions, the girls have demonstrated the Spring Bud spirit of "unremitting self-improvement, striving for excellence, developing stronger virtues and pursuing better lives."

Today, we introduce a new section, Spring Bud Blooms, to share stories about Spring Bud girls who have grown up and become contributing members of society, and to encourage society to care for the development of girls. Feng Wangmei is one of them.

"My wish is to lead the women in the village in living better lives with their own hands!" says Feng Wangmei, an ethnic Hong Yao entrepreneur in Baiyun, a township in Rongshui Miao Autonomous County, in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Hong Yao is a branch of the ethnic Yao group.

As a graduate of the country's first Spring Bud girls' class, Feng rooted her dreams in her hometown and, after years of hard work, that is where she started her business. With an annual revenue of nearly 800,000 yuan (US $114,286), her business has helped more than 70 families increase their incomes. When speaking about what she has today, she is deeply grateful to the Spring Bud Project.

Feng was born in Yaokou, a village in Rongshui, in 1982. Located in the mountains, Rongshui was once a national-level, poverty-stricken county. Feng's parents, as farmers, had a meager income, and life was hard for the family.

The idea that girls should not study was prevalent in Baiyun at that time, so a lot of girls lost the opportunity to attend school. Feng was no exception, although she had always dreamed of going to school.

China's first Spring Bud girls' class was established in Baiyun in September 1988. As a preliminary public-welfare initiative of the All-China Women's Federation and the China Children and Teenagers' Fund, the class was intended to help out-of-school girls in impoverished ethnic minority areas return to school. That class was the prelude to the Spring Bud Project, which operates across the country today.

"The village cadres went from house to house, encouraging parents to allow their daughters to receive an education. I signed up for the project, and I knew that my dream was going to come true," recalls Feng.

The project provided the girls with subsidies, for tuition and other expenditures. As the youngest in her class, Feng appreciated the assistance she received from the project, and she studied hard. Baiyun is home to various ethnic groups. 

Feng Wangmei (center) and her colleagues plant ganoderma on the hillside.

In the beginning, Feng could not understand some of her classmates, due to the differences in the languages, but later they learned Mandarin and became good friends. "Going to school was the happiest part of my life, every day, at that time," Feng says.

To date, more than 500 girls in Rongshui have been enrolled in schools through the project. They carry forward the Spring Bud spirit of unremitting self-improvement, striving for excellence, developing stronger virtues, and pursuing a better life while managing to contribute to all parts of society. The outdated idea that girls should not study has disappeared.

After graduating from junior high school, Feng decided to work while studying. Using online resources, she started to learn mushroom cultivation technology, and she later decided to return to her hometown to start a business.

"I have encountered many difficulties in the past few years, and I have always encouraged myself to face them bravely, and to overcome them," says Feng.

In 2005, incessant downpours triggered a landslide in Baiyun, and that landslide destroyed the factory Feng had built at the foot of the mountain. 

Heavy pressure fell on her shoulders, but her unyielding spirit inspired her to start again. With the help of her parents and friends, she managed to build a new factory in 2006.

After several attempts, Feng set her sights on the ganoderma planting industry, in which it is comparatively easier to make a handsome profit.

In 2012, about 1.33 hectares of Feng's ganoderma were harvested, earning her the first bucket of gold.

She and her husband established Baiyun Town Xiaokun Edible Fungus Cultivation Cooperative, in 2014, and Rongshui Youye Agricultural Technology Cooperation, in 2021, both of which are now undergoing expansion, with a projected combined annual output of 200,000 sticks of fungi after completion.

The project gave Feng the opportunity to gain knowledge, and her gratitude for that has remained in her heart. Out of that gratitude, she decided to give back to society, to help people in need.

There are many stay-at-home women, with meager incomes, in Rongshui. In 2009, Feng began inviting them to plant ganoderma, to increase their incomes, and to improve their lives. To date, she has helped 78 families.

Feng goes to many places to obtain knowledge about and technology related to fungus-stick cultivation. She also invites experts and scholars to give lectures and training to farmers, to teach them how to run an online store.  

Feng is influencing more and more local women, inspiring them to create better lives for themselves, with their own hands.

Photos Supplied by CCTF

(Women of China English Monthly March 2023 issue)