More than 1700 students in over 100 teams spent their summer break actively participating in rural revitalization projects, covering 30 provincial administrative regions. One of the teams, a group of 20 students from Tsinghua University and six other universities traveled to Dongzhongdu Village of Sishui County in Jining City, Shandong Province, to continue advancing rural revitalization.
Let’s read their story and see the contributions made by Tsinghua students for rural revitalization.
Village Photo Studio
Considering that the nearest camera studio is 8 km from the village, students came up with the idea of opening a pop-up photo studio for villagers. They walked along the village paths, interacted with local villagers and captured candid moments with their cameras.Every picture says a thousand words. Elderly villagers sitting in the shades fanning themselves gently with warm expressions. Carefree children playing throughout the village. After a day of walking through the village shooting these precious moments, the students then went to the photo shop in town and printed the photos. At night, many villagers came to the Sishui Rural Revitalization Center of Tsinghua University to pick up their complimentary photos. They scrutinized their photos happily and expressed their appreciation for these students.
Open-air Film Festival
At night, during the movie screening, there were hardly any empty seats in the venue. To meet the needs of different groups, the cartoons were played for children inside. A great number of villagers entered the Rural Revitalization Center to learn more about the students’ experience and projects and to inquire about becoming more involved in rural revitalization in their hometown.
Enjoying a film with a cool breeze in the evening and a group of happy people formed the most beautiful picture of a relaxing and refreshing summer. According to the feedback participating in the open-air film festival was a unique experience for many of the villagers.
Space Renovation for Rural
Revitalization Center
The Sishui Rural Revitalization Center of Tsinghua University was officially launched in July 2022. Students majoring in architecture added indoor and outdoor spaces for villagers’ practical use, exhibition, office work and so on, to optimize the original functions of meeting, working and accommodation. For example, some villagers mentioned that due to the establishment of the Center, the removal of the original basketball court was a great pity. To solve the problem, the architecture group designed to rebuild the basketball court in the vicinity, and added green space for villagers to enjoy. In response to the needs of the government, local businesses and small operators, they renovated the Center to set aside privacy space for meeting and business, equipped with multimedia systems and modern facilities.In the future, the Center will further serve the university, government, enterprises and villagers and drive the common development of the surrounding villages.
Voluntary teaching activities
This summer, students devoted themselves to rural education service and carried out voluntary teaching activities over five days. They offered several courses that covered a wide range of fields, such as history, culture, geography, and so on. From videos, storytelling, to calligraphy, and arts and crafts, they applied various pedagogical methods to guide children to experience, for example, the wonders of China’s history, the characteristics of different traditional Chinese festivals and to learn about well-known Chinese landmarks.They also introduced traditional boardgames and LEGO to the children after class, which enhanced their sense of identity to traditional Chinese culture, group work and friendship. Tsinghua students also proposed Rural Open Online Course project to extend the education service further. Aiming at the elderly and children, the vast majority of villagers, this project offered several series of lectures about convenient service teaching and popular science sharing to innovate the educational functions of the Center.
Live streaming for local enterprises
Tsinghua students collaborated with local enterprises to help them improve their products’ branding.Conforming to the current trend of e-commerce product live streaming, students from Sishui Rural Revitalization Center arranged a live stream with local corporation Leisure Valley Art Granary for Sishui specialties, wormwood and sweet potatoes. They designed stunning promotional posters, created content for social media, and also invited two team members to serve as moderators for a 90-minute live broadcast.Emerging consumption trends offer unique online shopping experiences and attract more consumers to local specialties, injecting vitality into the online retail sales.
With passion and dedication, let’s inspire more TsinghuaRen to join them and contribute to rural revitalization together.
Were you involved in voluntary activities over the summer break? Where did you go and what did you do? Feel free to share your experiences below.