Recently, 20 students from the Jining (Sishui) Rural Revitalization Center of Tsinghua University have carried out social work for 13 days in Sishui County, Jining City, Shandong Province. With a creed of “not to entertain impractical notions or indulge in rhetoric”, students investigated with earnestness, designed with ingenuity, planned with precision, and ultimately made many achievements.
In October 2017, Tsinghua University initiated the pattern of “Rural Revitalization Centers”. Following this pattern, derelict houses in the countryside are transformed into multifunctional center sites to meet the need for offices, accommodation, training, conference centers, exhibition centers and so on. This pattern aims to encourage professors and students to take root in rural areas and to provide long-term services. Eventually, these sites across the country are expected to form an interconnected network that serves the national rural revitalization strategy.
At present, Tsinghua University has signed site construction agreements with 25 cities, districts or counties of 16 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities. Over the past four years, the center has organized more than 300 teams, with more than 4,000 teachers and students from nearly 200 colleges and universities to carry out public services. A total of 25,000 square meters of derelict houses have been renovated, and nearly 200 million yuan of construction investment has been introduced from local governments and enterprises. Twelve established sites have served more than 100,000 villagers, provided more than 50 "honorary villagers", cultivated more than 5,000 backbone volunteers and trained more than 40,000 rural cadres and villagers.
During the recent social practice in Jining, the center focused on cooperation with local enterprises, including Jining Hongrun Food Group which originally took the route of food reprocessing with the traditional mentality of small profits but quick turnover. In order to expand its business, students of the center proposed the brand "A Bite of Crispy Meat" to appeal to more young consumers. They designed new product packaging and created a novel brand narrative for crisp meat in accordance with the aesthetic taste of young people. A series of product designs combined the historical allusion of Su Daji and the crispy character of the product through a pair of Chinese homophones, integrating traditional culture with the selling point. In addition, they devised coffee packaging for the local cafe. On the packaging, the ukiyoe-style landscape painting gently sketched out mountains and lakes, depicted a harmonious scene of coexistence between man and nature, and injected the spirit of leisurely life into coffee products.
In addition, students of the Jining center have thoroughly investigated the current situation of the Nishan Luming Pastoral Complex during the 3-day field investigation, covering the river system, public transportation, village settlement, cultural landscape and so on. On this basis, they completed the overall planning of the complex centered on regimen residence. In the plan, they marked off three residential clusters—Luming commercial zone, an agriculture experience zone and a forest regimen zone. They also projected recreation buildings at the nodes of the public space. Meanwhile, in cooperation with the local commonweal organization - Sishui Micro Public Welfare Association - students put forward a conceptual plan for the interior space renovation of Luci Children's Home, and designed four aesthetic education spaces with different themes for left-behind children: ascend step by step, study the nature of things, Mondrian, and a square box space.
In brief, the Jining Center is committed to serving as a platform and attracting talents. Furthermore, it is devoted to linking universities, local governments and corporations, synergizing talents from various majors and maintaining normalized operations. Shen Zhen, manager of the Jining Rural Revitalization Center of Tsinghua University, said: “Rural revitalization is a cause that requires college students to contribute their creativity and to encourage more young people to keep striving.”
Writers: Liu Han, Su Rui
Editors: John Olbrich, Li Han
