ZHEJIANG, East China — In the heart of Yaoli Village, where traditional homes with white walls and black tiles stand as a testament to the past, an abandoned pigsty has found new purpose.

Transformed into a pottery culture center, it now welcomes visitors from across China with a poetry anthology titled “My Ideal,” collaboratively crafted by over 30 villagers who had never before engaged in creative writing.

“I want everyone who visits Yaoli to be creative, for adults to feel like kids again, and for older people to remember their past,” says 28-year-old Huang Binbin, co-founder of Hangzhou Sunshine Culture Tour, who spearheads a project to revitalize the village and preserve its legacy.

Located in the eastern Zhejiang province, about 150 kilometers from Shanghai, Yaoli’s heritage centers around pottery kiln culture dating back more than 1,000 years. Despite its historical significance, the village, like many across China’s countryside, declined in recent decades as many young people left in search of better opportunities, leaving the community sparsely populated.

To counter this decline, Huang, in collaboration with the Shanlian Town government, launched a project last year that blends preservation with innovation, drawing on the village’s rich pottery heritage. By transforming everyday objects into symbols of renewal through art and cultural activities, the project aims to rejuvenate Yaoli, attract visitors, and boost the local economy.

They included an art residency program that brought young artists to Yaoli, who collaborated with locals to create public artworks like murals and sculptures, turning the village into an open-air gallery. Pottery and traditional crafts followed along with community events, such as poetry readings and cultural festivals.

In 2023 alone, Yaoli Village collectively earned 2.28 million yuan ($300,000), with over 800,000 yuan directly from rural tourism activities. To build on the success, Huang now plans to establish an International Youth Art Creation Center in Yaoli, inviting participants from across the world to participate in the village’s rural revitalization efforts.

Such initiatives are part of a broader national trend. By 2021, China’s urbanization rate had reached 64.7%, turning some villages into “desolate lands.”

In response, authorities began implementing policies and strategies to promote rural revitalization, achieve more balanced economic and social development, and encourage young people to return from cities to the countryside.

According to Zhou Jin, associate professor of Fudan University’s Art Education Center, the countryside offers natural advantages and a low cost of living. Coupled with policy support and financial backing from local governments, as well as intellectual investment from universities and research institutions, these unique characteristics have transformed some villages into the “dream hometowns” for young people, fostering artistic and cultural activities.

While there’s no official data on the number of people who’ve returned to villages, Zhou says: “Rural revitalization through art means providing spaces and improving infrastructure so young minds can unleash their creativity.”

Despite these efforts, challenges remain. While Huang acknowledges Yaoli Village’s charm, she also underscores the difficulties in attracting visitors due to limited accessibility and population outflow in the region. To expand the village’s influence and attract more visitors, she emphasizes the need for novel products and attractions to meet customer expectations.

Trash to treasure

For 15 days in May and June, 32-year-old Wu Dan, a Ph.D. candidate in public art at Shanghai University, and a team of locals scoured Yaoli’s homes, alleyways, and abandoned buildings for discarded furniture. The goal: to breathe new life into these forgotten items.

Using intricate weaving and collage techniques, they transformed old, worn-out stools into checker-patterned seats and wrapped abandoned wooden pieces in colorful yarn to create playful rocking horses.

“[Our work] is like a children’s world, with no standard answers, no judgments, no burdens, only an indiscriminate curiosity and desire to explore everything,” says Wu.

Wu was selected for the “Art and Rural Revitalization: Beyond Concepts” residency program, which helped create 13 new artworks in Yaoli. The project involved 30 young Chinese artists chosen from 140 applicants based on their creative experience, portfolios, and interviews.

“In the design process, it is essential to integrate tradition and modernity to present new forms of expression,” Wu tells Sixth Tone. “Learning to appreciate beauty not only improves personal aesthetics but also provides social moral constraints, as everyone will jointly protect a beautiful environment.”

The artists’ residency program was Huang’s newest initiative in Yaoli. During their stay, young artists collaborated with villagers to create sculptures, murals, and paintings that blend art with traditional craftsmanship. They repurposed discarded roof tiles into an outdoor circular stage, transforming it into a hub for community events and family-friendly activities.

The project also led to the creation of a poetry exploration trail, guiding visitors to discover poetry while exploring iconic trees, birds, centuries-old residences, and bridges. The packaging of the village’s specialty, yellow peaches, has been upgraded with various designs for different consumer demographics.

Zhu Qunying, 61, returned to work in the village a few years ago amid Yaoli’s renaissance. She now maintains the cultural center and teaches various subjects to children.
What started as pottery classes has expanded to include painting, kite flying, outdoor cooking, fruit picking, and crayfish fishing, drawing hundreds of tourists.

She’s also noticed more young people returning, whether for work, leisure, or to introduce their children to rural life. “This influx of creativity is refreshing, as if I’m on a journey to a new place,” she says. “I admire the village artists who paint with skill and grace, and I often stand in awe as I watch them work.”

Li Zeyi, a designer with over seven years of experience and a member of the artist residency project, recognizes the importance of children in revitalizing and retaining rural populations.

Coming from a remote rural area in Binzhou, in eastern China’s Shandong province, Li understands the challenges faced by underdeveloped regions, particularly the lack of children’s play facilities and educational resources. This absence often leads to a decline in vitality as young people and families migrate elsewhere, leaving villages desolate.

Considering the lack of children’s entertainment facilities, Li and other participants transformed Yaoli’s main road corridor into a playful space featuring waltz dance steps. There are also cartoon images of local symbols like black waterfowl, white cranes, and scarecrows.

Inspired by his experience in Yaoli’s art program, Li plans to launch cultural and creative projects in his hometown in Shandong. His goal is to enhance public aesthetic literacy, promote local heritage, attract youth to rural areas, and address population decline issues.

Zhao Deyu, director of the China Rural Development Research Center at Fudan University, emphasizes the importance of artistic rural reconstruction in preserving traditional village characteristics while integrating modern cultural elements.

“However, only a small number of villages currently have access to cultural and artistic resources, and the rural artists they need are particularly scarce,” explains Zhao. “We need to strengthen the link between rural development and the arts, promote cultural rural construction, and innovate organizational systems to ensure a continuous flow of artistic resources into rural areas.”

Huang concurs and believes that while the theme of being child-friendly can be applied to many villages, it’s crucial to innovate based on each village’s unique characteristics. “This process should also promote local cultural resources and integrate them into products, with a particular emphasis on cultivating localized operational teams,” she says.

Looking ahead, Huang reveals that major brands like Lego have expressed interest in establishing educational sites in Yaoli, indicating a promising future for the village. “I hope more brands will eventually choose Yaoli too, to support its goal of becoming a child-friendly destination,” she says.

Additional reporting: Li Yanshu; editor: Apurva.

(Header image: Visuals from @窑里不一样 on WeChat and VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)