How can cultural heritage help a village to lift itself out of poverty?
传统文化如何让贫困村脱贫致富？

This case is about how Jianta Village has achieved poverty alleviation by developing its cultural tourism projects. The village is part of Ganxi Town of Pujiang County of Chengdu City in Sichuan Province. In 2016, it was identified as one of relative poverty in Chengdu’s third round of targeted poverty alleviation.
箭塔村隶属成都市蒲江县甘溪镇，2016年，成都市展开第三轮第二批精准扶贫，人均收入不足万元的箭塔村被认定为相对贫困村。2017年，箭塔村通过发展文旅项目脱贫。

The development of Jianta’s cultural tourism projects is based on rebuilding villagers’ confidence in their own rich cultural heritage. In Tang Dynasty, the village was an important military town and was named by Lu Yu (i.e., China’s Sage of Tea) as one of tea production sites then. In Song Dynasty, Jianta was the location of the imperial mint. In Yuan Dynasty, the Venetian explorer Marco Polo visited Jianta several times when traveling along the Silk Road. In Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, the village was an official courier station by the name of “Nansiluyangguan”. Based on Jianta’s significance in history, three projects have been designed and completed to boost villagers’ confidence in their own culture: 1) compiling a chronicle of Jianta Village; 2) building a museum of Jianta’s history; and 3) connecting places in Jianta to historical events and cultural signifiers on the village’s WeChat public account “Xiangyue Jianta”.
箭塔村曾是唐代重要军镇，陆羽亲点的茶叶产地，宋代的国家铸币厂所在地，元代马可波罗的行经地，是明清时期有着“南丝路阳关”之称的官方驿站等等。通过梳理箭塔村的历史文化资源、编写村志、修建村史馆，并在微信公众号“乡约箭塔”上挖掘箭塔村的历史，把箭塔村的地名和历史文化串联起来，增强了村民的文化自信。在此基础上，箭塔村恢复了“年猪祭”民俗、重现蒲草编织手艺等代表性传统文化，并对有价值的传统文化进行了保护和传承。文化和产业结合是传统文化得以永续发展、创造性转化的最好方式。通过把“年猪祭”、“喜闹元宵”、“丰收秋社”等乡土文化与乡村文创旅游结合起来，发展乡村文创旅游，助力箭塔村快速脱贫，实现了年游客量从几乎为零到2万人次的突破。

It is worth noting that a village hall was created, bearing the name of tea. It has become a place where many young villagers are enthusiastic about discussing issues related to their personal development as well as the development of their village. This enthusiasm, in turn, has fostered a more entrepreneurial culture among other villagers as well as leaders of Jianta. This is evidenced by the rapid increase in the number of entrepreneur projects designed by villagers from 0 to 24. Cultural tourism projects such as “Nianzhuji”, “Xinaoyuanxiao”, and “Fengshouqiushe”, in particular, have attracted more than 20,000 tourists to Jianta which was traditionally a place unknown for tourism. These projects, as can be expected, have lifted Jianta out of poverty in a relatively short period of time.
箭塔村设置了“山茶花舍”议事厅，把村里的年轻人从麻将桌上吸引过来，在议事厅谈项目、谈规划、谈未来、谈发展。通过组织传统民俗活动，建设农村文化阵地，培育乡土文化人才，壮大乡村文化队伍，在相互启发、相互激励中，村民干事创业的积极性越来越高，村民自主创业项目从零发展到了如今的24个。

An important lesson from this case is that poverty alleviation can be approached in a different way (i.e., developing villagers into self-governing subjects who are confident in their own cultural heritage). This alternative approach can yield two particular benefits. Villagers tend to become not just beneficiaries, but more importantly, owners of the process of poverty alleviation, thus procuring stronger sense of happiness, belonging, and community. Besides, cultural heritage, as the ethos of a village, tends to be the driving force behind the process of enriching villagers’ lives not merely in terms of their material life, but more importantly, their inner life. After all, villagers are at the core of village revitalization.
乡村振兴是农业、农村、农民的全面振兴，“农民富”绝不应局限在物质层面，而应在物质与精神两个层面双向发力。在乡村振兴过程中，既要富口袋，也要富脑袋。对乡村而言，文化承载了最浓的乡愁，精神富裕成为生活富裕的重要组成部分，更是生活富裕的动力源泉，推动精神富裕必须依靠文化。比起引进外来大项目，真正的以村民为主体来发展，会让本土村民更有幸福感、归属感和家园感。文化小康助力全面小康，正在箭塔村得以实现。