On the second day of my short field mission to Gu-Tian county, I came to Shan-yang town (杉洋镇, a town of Gu-Tian county) in the morning, and was received by the clerk and the deputy of the town at the local culture center.
Shan-yang town has a long history of culture and education, and is a “National village of tradition” since 2012.
On the day of my arrival, I was lucky to witness the founding ceremony of the calligraphy community of local farmers.
The calligraphy on the left above is of a famous poem for the moon festival (Mid-Autumn Day), showing the strong concept of family in the traditional culture: “The moon does wax, the moon does wane / And so men meet and say goodbye / I only pray our life be long / And our souls together heavenward fly.”
Amazed was I by the love and passion of the local people for the traditional art, I found that their talents certainly were not limited in just farming, but also in handwriting and wash painting. The youngest artists whose work of wash painting were selected for the exhibition were a boy of 7 and a girl of 12.
In the afternoon, the principal of a local school guided me to Bai-xi village (白溪村, meaning “white brook”, is a village of Shan-yang town). There, the head of the village was already waiting for us.
Bai-xi village is situated in the mountains 1000m above sea level. It is quite a remote area where I didn’t have mobile signals and couldn’t geotag my Instagram photos. But the natural environment is indeed very robust, and so is the life style of the villagers.
Taking advantage of the optimal ecological condition, a project to maintain and reinforce a natural tourist site has been going on by the village through out the surrounding area.
We went into the woods and onto the hills, surveyed the rocks and waters, and crossed the scattered houses. Conditions are abundant, people are friendly and warmly opened their doors to others.
There was the serenity and harmony between nature and men. Sustainable planning with anticipation is the most needed for Bai-xi village to protect the nature and benefit the people. It seems so clear here that these two are interdependent and mutual beneficial, like everywhere in this world.
At the end of this trip, the sun was setting one last time in the year of 2015 on the country road of my way back. And I was grateful, to my guides, to the host from the local government who took me around, and most of all, I was touched by the simplicity of the people of Gu-Tian, a county that was once left behind, yet has hope of a more promising future to come.
The End | Originally published at www.linkedin.com.