Yom Chonggyab from Qinghai province in an art workshop in Pingnan, Fujian province. [Photo by Xing Wen/China Daily]
An art project in rural Fujian province, which aims to transform a sleepy town into a creative hub, is drawing young people from the cities, Xing Wen reports.
Two years ago, a 19-year-old sheepherder from Qinghai province in the country's northwest, laid down his crook and traveled all the way to East China's Fujian province, to pick up a paintbrush and pursue his dream of becoming an artist.
The destination for Yom Chonggyab's first trip out of his hometown, Tongde county, which has a large Tibetan population, was Antai Art City in Shuangxi town in Fujian's Pingnan county, where he enrolled in a project that gave him free access to painting materials and art classes.
"I used to spend most of my days tending to my family's sheep grazing in the hills," recalls Yom Chonggyab. "Now I go out and sketch in the nearby villages during the day, and I spend my evenings learning to paint at the art center."
He says he couldn't really picture his future before he came to Fujian, but since his arrival he has developed a bold new plan－to set up a studio with friends in the near future.
Two weeks previously, one of his portraits of a Tibetan child sold for 2,500 yuan ($390) online. And thanks to the art center's policies, Yom Chonggyab was only required to pay back enough money to cover the cost of the oil colors and canvas he used for the painting.
Similar art spaces of varying sizes found in other parts of Pingnan are participating in a government-backed initiative that began in 2015 to promote charity art classes as a way to stimulate the cultural and creative industries in the area. Initially aimed at benefiting local farmers, impoverished people and vulnerable groups in Pingnan, the project soon attracted many visitors from outside the county, including unemployed youngsters like Yom Chonggyab, as it offers young people the chance to play a part in the rejuvenation of the region while providing a refreshing alternative to fast-paced urban life.
To Yom Chonggyab's delight, his two paintings Tibetan Kid and Tibetan Girl have been bought online, each at 2,500 yuan ($390). [Photo provided to China Daily]
'New villagers'
Launched in October 2015 as the biggest art center in Pingnan, Antai Art City has attracted more than 10,000 visitors every year, according to Lin Zhenglu, the initiator and creative director of the project. In May, Antai welcomed its 30,000th visitor. And a small but significant proportion of these visitors have chosen to settle down in nearby villages, says Lin.
Zeng Wei is among such settlers. The 32-year-old Jiangxi native who is self-employed in cultural businesses, literally became a "new villager" in Pingnan last year after taking a 15-year tenancy on a house in Longtan, a poverty-stricken village 50 kilometers from Antai.
With the influx of new arrivals, the village has become lively again. Before May 2017, there were less than 200 locals, as the village had been so poor that many had left to work in nearby cities. Many families also relocated elsewhere. But with the emergence of the art project, within less than a year, more than 500 people－including 60-odd migrants from cultural and creative backgrounds－moved to Longtan to set up home there. A mixture of designers, bookshop owners, magazine publishers, engineers and directors, the new arrivals come from places as diverse as Shanghai, Jiangxi and Hong Kong, or even as far afield as the United Kingdom.
Zeng took up the painting classes on offer at Antai together with his wife in August 2016. He soon became enthralled with the cultural atmosphere, the beautiful scenery and its ancient architecture, which dates back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.
Zeng says the villages in Pingnan county want to develop into "a rural counterpart to Beijing's 798 art district" where galleries, studios, hostels and bars nestle between households of locals and recent settlers.
The couple turned their house into a library where they occasionally host a reading salon, and they are planning to open a cafe there later this year.
"I can meet people from around the world in this place," says Zeng. "I feel cozy here, not only because of its natural environment but also for the sincere way we get along with one another.
"The interpersonal relationships here are more relaxed than the ones you have in cities."
He adds that the improved infrastructure and emerging entertainment spots around the village make it more livable than before. Express courier services and the internet also allow villagers to work and shop from home, which is an added convenience.
When he's not learning to paint in the art center, Zeng spends the rest of his time working at a training agency in central Pingnan that provides teenagers with quality-oriented education. He also plans to open a branch in Longtan to help the local children.
"I think newcomers like me yearn for a lifestyle like this, one that isn't that of an urban commuter," Zeng says.
To Yom Chonggyab's delight, his two paintings Tibetan Kid and Tibetan Girl have been bought online, each at 2,500 yuan ($390). [Photo provided to China Daily]
Better platform
Lin says around 60 percent of the new settlers are in their 20s or 30s, and the art project director says the recent arrivals have lit up the villages in the county with their youthful vigor.
"These young people with their better educational background and wider horizons can 'shed their urban skins' by trying the new daily routines they find in the countryside," says Lin. "And the countryside will serve as a bigger stage for them to go out there and promote their work."
Duan Hongfang, 24, an art-and-design graduate from the Southwest University of Science and Technology in Sichuan province has found his bigger stage in Xiadi, another village in Pingnan.
Duan has been a volunteer worker in the renovation of the ancient village since 2016, under the direction of Cheng Meixin, a Chinese-Swedish art critic and an expert in art and architecture. The renovation of village houses is part of the art project in Pingnan.
The past two years have seen more than 50 volunteers join Cheng's conservation team to work on restoring dilapidated buildings around Pingnan by working around their original framework, according to Duan.
"I first need to check through the county annals to find out the stories behind the house-owners and try to ascertain the function of each room," says Duan. "Then we sketch out a layout before we start to do any carpentry."
This year, as the leader in renovating a historical mansion called Xue Fu (Xue's residence) in Shuangxi, Duan worked from dawn to dusk to convert the ramshackle complex covering an area of some 1,500 square meters into a public cultural center, which will jointly function as cinema, library, cafe and exhibition hall.
"The mansion's facelift may inspire wonder in others, but for me, it comes as no surprise. It's the result of a lot of hard work," says Duan, who adds that he was satisfied with the results, despite a few setbacks. "Honestly, there were times when I grow impatient about the progress of work, especially when there are no profits or promotions on the horizon."
However, Duan says the best thing about the project is that he is able to single-mindedly complete each process without being rushed, something unimaginable in a commercial project.
His job includes negotiating land use rights with the local villagers, budgeting the restoration work and organizing formal receptions for the many officials and artists who visit the mansion.
"I've become a multitasker now," says Duan. "It's a great platform to improve myself, because the creativity and power of the younger generations are cherished by the community here."
A group of volunteers, including Duan Hongfang (standing first right), contribute their time and skills to a local renovation project. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Clear self-cognition
Wang Yafei, an assistant teacher at Antai, initially hesitated about continuing to paint after she spent four years studying art at Nantong University in Jiangsu province.
"I had grown so accustomed to focusing on technique rather than expressing my own feelings in my paintings, that my work ended up lacking originality," says the 29-year-old, referring to her previous over-reliance on her teachers' guidance.
But after studying at Antai for a year, her mindset has changed. The lessons there have encouraged her to focus on her own psyche as a channel for her creativity, rather than relying on external influences for inspiration.
"Focusing on my inner self. That's what I've learned here," says Wang. She has also begun to apply the philosophy toward her art to her personal life.
Wang says she had nearly succumbed to pressure to get married in the past because she was not emotionally independent enough to face up to other people's "good intentions".
"I won't be swayed by other people's words any more, as I've discovered my life's passion here," she says.
[Photo provided to China Daily]
Gao Rongrong shares Wang's views.
The 26-year-old moved to Jixia village in Pingnan to volunteer as an English teacher at a local primary school in 2015, a year after her graduation from Shanghai Maritime University.
"When I was a freelance interpreter in Shanghai, I found myself wasting a lot of time commuting on the subway," says the Zhejiang native. "The sense of exhaustion nagged away at me every day when I returned to the small room I rented."
She adds: "I thought of having enough time to do something I adored was too much to hope for－until I came here."
When she isn't teaching, Gao uses her spare time to study French and Japanese, read books and learn more about digital art.
"I make full use of my time in the village and have sharpened up my drawing skills," she says. "I love comics."
She is currently working on a series of cartoons where her characters appear in photos of the nearby villages. She plans to earn her living through comics in the future.
"I've been enlightened here," Gao says. "I know who I am and I've already got the nerve to explore the possibilities of my life."
Contact the writer at xingwen@chinadaily.com.cn
By Xing Wen
