Fractions Behind the Gorgeous Ideal: An Analysis of Chinese Cultural-rural Regeneration Based on Shuiping Village, China

Cultural-rural regeneration is an important strategy adopted by the Chinese government for its poverty alleviation program, which has been announced to be successful by 2021. However, all evidence suggests that this attempt to apply western-originated cultural regeneration to the Chinese rural context has not been as perfect and successful as the government has claimed. For example, the needs of rural residents are often ignored, inequities persist, and income improvements are unsustainable. Surprisingly, these issues are rarely mentioned and discussed in Chinese research, and there is no objective framework for evaluating the success of rural cultural regeneration. To address these issues, this paper firstly provides a clear definition of cultural-rural regeneration based on both Chinese and foreign literature. Meanwhile, a poverty alleviation program in Shuiping Village, Anhui Province, China, is analysed as a case study. Interviews with three key stakeholders provided insight into their respective perceptions of cultural-rural regeneration.



That’s what they said:

“Jobs can be definitely created during the constructions which need a lot of labour, but these are one-off opportunities. We believe B&B running by the locals is the best way to maintain high employment rates in the long term. At the same time, this is more than creating jobs, because the B&B business not only has owner-customer relationships, but promotes information exchange. The communication between the artists, tourists and locals will refresh local perceptions and bring vitality to the village.” – Wei, architect from DILA (Chapter 3-pp.11-12)

“The state funding was too limited and in the end was not enough to support the implementation of our plan to the whole village. As far as I know, only two houses at the entrance of the village have been adapted to our design, which are used as samples to encourage villagers to change some backward habits and transform their living environment.” – Qian, architect from DILA  (Chapter 3-pp.12)

“This (Cultural Rural Regeneration) is a very small aspect (of the poverty alleviation project), you can use this as an entry point for understanding our poverty alleviation strategy. Cultural and creative projects have limited help after all.” – Foo, CEO from the development corporation (Chapter 3-pp.13)


“My dad is ill, so working at hometown gives me opportunities to take care of him. And they (the development corporation) promised that I could work in the nearby city after several years.” – Ming, a university graduate working at the B&B (Chapter 3-pp.14)


Due to the imbalance among powers, it is argued that the ineffectiveness of Chinese cultural-rural regeneration results from the differences between these perceptions and the ignorance of rural residents' opinions. In this paper, I hope to lay the foundation for future discussions by proposing a definition. In addition to that, I hope to reveal the differences in perceptions and point out the resulting problems that can trigger all stakeholders to work together on eliminating the differences and reaching a consensus, so as to mitigate some existing shortcomings of Chinese cultural-rural regeneration. 


Cultural-rural regeneration is an important strategy adopted by the Chinese government for its poverty alleviation program, which has been announced to be successful by 2021. However, all evidence suggests that this attempt to apply western-originated cultural regeneration to the Chinese rural context has not been as perfect and successful as the government has claimed. For example, the needs of rural residents are often ignored, inequities persist, and income improvements are unsustainable. Surprisingly, these issues are rarely mentioned and discussed in Chinese research, and there is no objective framework for evaluating the success of rural cultural regeneration. To address these issues, this paper firstly provides a clear definition of cultural-rural regeneration based on both Chinese and foreign literature. Meanwhile, a poverty alleviation program in Shuiping Village, Anhui Province, China, is analysed as a case study. Interviews with three key stakeholders provided insight into their respective perceptions of cultural-rural regeneration.


That’s what they said:

“Jobs can be definitely created during the constructions which need a lot of labour, but these are one-off opportunities. We believe B&B running by the locals is the best way to maintain high employment rates in the long term. At the same time, this is more than creating jobs, because the B&B business not only has owner-customer relationships, but promotes information exchange. The communication between the artists, tourists and locals will refresh local perceptions and bring vitality to the village.” – Wei, architect from DILA (Chapter 3-pp.11-12)


“The state funding was too limited and in the end was not enough to support the implementation of our plan to the whole village. As far as I know, only two houses at the entrance of the village have been adapted to our design, which are used as samples to encourage villagers to change some backward habits and transform their living environment.” – Qian, architect from DILA  (Chapter 3-pp.12)
 
“This (Cultural Rural Regeneration) is a very small aspect (of the poverty alleviation project), you can use this as an entry point for understanding our poverty alleviation strategy. Cultural and creative projects have limited help after all.” – Foo, CEO from the development corporation (Chapter 3-pp.13)

“My dad is ill, so working at hometown gives me opportunities to take care of him. And they (the development corporation) promised that I could work in the nearby city after several years.” – Ming, a university graduate working at the B&B (Chapter 3-pp.14)

Due to the imbalance among powers, it is argued that the ineffectiveness of Chinese cultural-rural regeneration results from the differences between these perceptions and the ignorance of rural residents' opinions. In this paper, I hope to lay the foundation for future discussions by proposing a definition. In addition to that, I hope to reveal the differences in perceptions and point out the resulting problems that can trigger all stakeholders to work together on eliminating the differences and reaching a consensus, so as to mitigate some existing shortcomings of Chinese cultural-rural regeneration.

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