As urbanization proceeds, many multi-storey buildings have replaced the traditional single-storey ones in rural China. Two environmental challenges tend to arise from this transformation. One is that bricks and tiles of those demolished buildings have become waste scattered around the village. The other is the lack of planning regarding places for households to store their unused straw for cooking fire. This case is derived from Xintang Village of Maqiaojiedao of Haining City in Zhejiang Province. In it, a project by the name of “Bank of Bricks and Straw” has been created to address these challenges. The bank has not only preserved the traditional cultural practice of using straw for cooking fire, but also contributed to developing Xintang into a modern beautiful village.

The Bank has an area of 2,000 square meters designated by the villagers’ committee. Villagers can either store the bricks, tiles, and straw of their household in the area free of charge for up to five years, or sell their bricks at the price of 0.1 RMB/piece and tiles 0.03 RMB/piece to the Bank. Within six months, 400 households have participated in this initiative, “depositing” around 700,000 bricks, more than 230,000 tiles, and over 120 metric tons of straw. Then, the villagers’ committee saved 90 percent of these deposits and used the remaining 10 percent for developing landscape features of the village. Craftsmen in the village have used straw to create ornamental animals, and bricks and tiles to create various kinds of pavilions and walls. These landscape features, in turn, have increased villagers’ sense of belonging to their community.

Three lessons about rural governance can be learned from this case. First, long-term effectiveness of rural governance relies on meeting villagers’ practical needs. The Bank of Bricks and Straw addressed certain issues that had troubled villagers for a long time; therefore, it has won their support and strengthened their connections with village leadership and local government. Second, the Bank has reconstructed collective consciousness and public spirit in the context of acquaintance society. On the one hand, it has kept the memory of the village by preserving certain cultural traditions specific to Xintang. On the other hand, certain elements of these traditions have been used to develop new landscape features and even a new mode of rural governance. The Bank, in this sense, nourishes both the body and the soul of Xintang Village, the nourishment that is often missing in the process of building beautiful villages. Third, cultural elements that are unique to a village should be leveraged in the planning phase of village redevelopment.