Art festival highlights rich village culture

The 2018 Yanping Art Harvest kicks off today aiming to arouse people’s awareness and pride in China’s rich village culture and arts.

The cultural event, through February 3, at the Yanping District of Nanping City, Fujian Province, is organized by the Shanghai Ruan Yisan Heritage Foundation and the local government.

During the three-month event, contemporary artists and musicians from home and abroad will draw inspiration from the village scenery, customs, architecture and folk arts. 

Heritage protection and cultural relics expert Ruan Yisan says the artists will live in the village and interact with the local people. 

“The artists will also cooperate with the village people to bring vitality to the area,” says Ruan. 

Diverse works of theater, music, painting, sculpture, photography and video will be exhibited. Among the highlights is a mural of dragons, a huge apple-shaped installation and an artistic neon light device at an old house.

Veteran architects will also present design projects for the village’s future. 

According to the organizers, all of the art creations will follow the heritage preservation and rural vitalization theme. And the artists will evoke the values of the village with their work. 

In addition to exhibition and cultural performances, public lectures will also be hosted. Scholars will exchange their opinions on rural heritage preservation and revitalization.

The event will also invite three to five locals to have an on-site experience, talk with the artists and record village life with photos and video sequences.

Yanping District has a history of more than 1,800 years. It is one of the birthplaces of Fujian Province culture.

With a forest coverage rate of 73.92 percent, the district has poetic mountain scenery and historic heritage. Distinctive Tucuo mud-houses have been home to locals for over 1,000 years. Traditional residential architectures are well preserved in the district.

The tasks and targets for a rural vitalization strategy have already been outlined by the Chinese government. 

Ruan, who has more than 30 years of experience in urban and rural heritage protection, noted that although many historic cities and cultural heritage sites have been preserved, more sites and villages are vanishing. 

With the rapid process of urbanization, many villages become part of cities. A lot of houses in the villages are now obsolete as their owners are working and living in the big cities.

“China has several thousand years of farming culture,” says Ruan. “Many of our traditional culture and art originated from lives in the villages. Distinctive rural lifestyles should not disappear.”

 In addition to taking people back to the village life, Ruan and his team are trying to put forward a subject on scientific preservation and developing plans for villages. They hope that with the efforts of the public, rural heritage can be well preserved in the country.