Exodus reversed: Spectacular results in tip-top regeneration

Sometimes when the village holds an outdoor market he can be seen in front of a camera playing his guitar. All sorts of products are available on his channel, including chili, honey, kiwi fruit and homemade rice wine, in fact anything the villagers ask him to help with.

“Live streaming gives the village a lot of exposure,” Shi says. “People outside have a place where they can buy the stuff they want, and the villagers, particularly the elderly, get a chance to sell their products.”

He has also worked with public welfare organizations and his alma mater to host online and offline marketing campaigns.

The village has precious few university graduates, but two of them, Shi’s cousin and niece, both of whom have professional experience in video making, have decided to join him in making short videos to publicize the village and its products.

He is keen to pursue a doctoral degree in order to provide a better platform for the villagers that can protect their interests.

In the days of Shibadong’s great exodus as its young people headed for big cities to find work, those left behind, in addition to elderly people, were children, most left in the care of their grand parents.

One of them was Long Jinli, 21, who recalls that when she was small their house leaked when it rained, so living in a decent house with her parents became one of her childhood wishes. In fact it was more like a pipe dream, because visits by her parents were few and far between, largely because of the poor road access to the village.

Later, Long too would leave the village for a year to work in the cities, but her exile was short.

When the village’s newly developed scenic areas needed tour guides, she answered the call, and she has worked as a guide in the village since.

On Long’s social media, her life