Why are "Village Super" and "Village BA" popular out of the circle
Research Group of the Propaganda Department of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China
In August 2022, in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, as soon as the annual "June 6" New Festival basketball game started, it quickly became popular with its fierce competition, enthusiastic audience and warm on-site atmosphere, and netizens affectionately called it "Village BA". In May 2023, in Rongjiang County, which is more than 100 kilometers away from Taipan Village, the full name is Guizhou Rongjiang (Sanbao Dong Village) and the "Village Super" of the American Rural Football Super League.
In his 2024 New Year's message, General Secretary Xi Jinping praised the vitality of the "village super", and the "village super" and "village BA" were also praised by the media as a window to observe Chinese-style modernization. Through this window, we can see the vivid practice of Chinese modernization in one place and one region, and see the huge energy behind the hot events. In order to better understand the stories of "Village Super" and "Village BA", the Propaganda Department of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee went to Rongjiang County and Taijiang County to carry out special research, and communicated face-to-face with party members, cadres and the masses who participated in witnessing the "Village Super" and "Village BA", felt the vitality, explored the password of the circle, and excavated the experience and enlightenment.
1. It's hot, not just in the arena
Walking into the scene of "Village Super" and "Village BA", it is like stepping into a lively and extraordinary world of joy. In the audience, there were crowds of people, gongs and drums, cheers and cheers one after another, wave after wave, stirring people's hearts; On the field, the players ran with all their might, sweating like rain, and every attack and defense was full of perseverance and passion for love; During the intermission, the national song and dance performances took turns to appear, which were wonderful and fascinating; At the same time, the live broadcast of the event allowed netizens across the country to feel the passion of the game with the audience through the screen, and everyone forwarded, followed, commented, and liked...... The joy and applause of the audience vividly presented the hotness, colorfulness, prosperity of the market, and purity of happiness in the "Village Super" and "Village BA" events.
Hot event. From March 25th to 27th, 2023, the "Village BA" finals were held in Taipan Village. According to local cadres, Taipan Village, with a population of less than 1,200 people, has poured in more than 20,000 people in just a few days due to the heat brought by the "village BA". Describing the scene, one media wrote: "The stands were surrounded by people, stacked endlessly, without gaps, and there were many elderly people and women holding children in the crowd. In Rongjiang, a football match in a small county town called "Village Super" often attracts nearly 50,000 spectators, and almost all the pictures taken by the media are footnotes with words such as crowded and full. A fan who drove from Guiyang said that their family of more than a dozen people love football, "this time I came here to watch the 'village super' and feel the atmosphere." Another fan from Jiangxi said: "I missed the 'Village BA' before, and this 'Village Super' can't be missed again." On the Internet, hundreds of millions of netizens poured into the live broadcast room to witness the style of the fiery event from the depths of the mountains. According to the data, the total number of hits on the "Village Super" and "Village BA" networks has exceeded 100 billion, becoming a well-known sports IP in the country. Not only in China, "Village Super" and "Village BA" have also received continuous attention from many well-known overseas media, and they have become popular abroad. European Ballon d'Or winner and England legend Michael Owen recorded a video to praise the "Village Super". World Footballer of the Year and Brazilian football legend Kaka appeared at the "Village Super" stadium to participate in the 2024 "Dream Chasing" Championship Charity Match and interact with fans, and the audience was boiling. Jimmy Butler, a player of the Miami Heat of the National Basketball League (NBA), wore a delicate Miao silver collar and walked into the "Village BA" court and greeted the audience in Hmong language.
- On March 22, 2024, in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, the "Village BA" Ball King Championship with the theme of "Energetic and Facing the 'Basket'" kicked off. The picture shows the wonderful moments of the exchange game between the Hunan Meishan God of War Team and the Gansu Snow Pioneer Team on the same day. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee Long Jun/photo
Colorful folklore. "Village Super" and "Village BA" are not only a big party of players and fans, but also a big gathering of multi-ethnic compatriots, but also a feast of national culture and spiritual civilization. Inside and outside the stadium, all you can see are simple, sincere, confident and lovely smiling faces, and there are compatriots of all ethnic groups wearing national costumes everywhere. In 2023, the 78-day "Village Super" event will bring 126 national cultural performances to 98 games. On the "Village BA" field, intangible cultural heritage displays, singing and dancing performances with local characteristics and national styles were presented in front of the audience in the form of cheerleaders and halftime shows, which aroused cheers from the audience. The beautiful Dong song, the high-pitched and loud Miao flying song, the graceful and colorful Miao reed sheng dance and the costume stepping drum took turns to appear, interacting with tens of thousands of spectators at the scene, pushing the atmosphere to a climax again and again. Local party members and cadres are guided by the situation and governed by customs, encouraging and driving the masses to widely participate in various activities of the event, innovating to carry out the work of creating civilization and changing customs, civilized viewing, volunteer service, orderly departure, and parity of hospitality have become the conscious actions of the masses, "more stadiums, fewer casinos, more ball games, less banquets, more famous corners, less quarrels" has become the consensus of the local people, showing the new rural fashion and new style of farmers in the new era of goodwill to neighbors, mutual help, honesty and trustworthiness. Passionate modern sports and colorful national culture are perfectly integrated here, mass sports activities and grassroots spiritual civilization creation complement each other, and "the most dazzling national style" and "civilized village style" blow inside and outside the stadium.
An active market. The research team visited the merchants around the "Village Super" and "Village BA" venues and learned that some restaurants sold out two cows in one day, some food stalls sold 2,000 bowls of roll noodles in one day, a hotel room was hard to find, and special agricultural products were in short supply...... With the help of the huge traffic brought by "village super" and "village BA", the local competition promotes publicity, health promotion, culture, tourism, and promotion, and the integrated development of agriculture, culture, sports, tourism and commerce, and the service industry continues to heat up. Driven by the "Village Super" series of events, Rongjiang County will receive more than 7.6 million tourists in 2023 and achieve a comprehensive tourism income of 8.4 billion yuan; There are 2,764 new business entities in the county, including 216 catering owners, 113 accommodation owners, and 23 entertainment owners; It drove 448 million yuan of night consumption, and the online and offline sales of agricultural products were 626 million yuan. Boosted by the "Village BA" series of events, Taijiang County will receive more than 6.4 million tourists in 2023, achieving a comprehensive tourism income of 8.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 70%; Cultural and creative restaurants, tea shops, hotels, etc. with the theme of "Village BA" have sprung up, and the industrial chain has been continuously extended. The popularity of the event also drove a group of farmers and returning migrant workers to become Internet celebrities through the live broadcast of the event. Tang Shengzhong, a "post-90s" guy from Bicycle Village, Sanjiang Shui Township, Rongjiang County, is a "new farmer" who was attracted by the "village super" to return to his hometown to start a business. After graduating from university, he engaged in new media work in big cities, and decided to return to his hometown to develop after the "village super" became popular, and now he has become an online goods expert with more than 2 million fans on the whole network, and also has a new identity of "Guizhou village super recommendation officer". In Rongjiang and Taijiang, mobile phones have become new agricultural tools, data has become new agricultural materials, and live broadcast has become new farm work, and the road to increasing income and getting rich has presented a new scene.
Pure joy. In the exchanges with the people in Rongjiang and Taijiang, the deepest feeling of the research team is that their love for basketball and football is engraved in their bones. Taijiang County has the practice of "basketball must be played during every festival", and the "June 6" New Festival basketball game has been held in Taipan Village for decades. Li Guangfa, an old man from Taipan Village, recalled: "In the past, there was no basketball, so everyone used homemade cotton balls to throw themselves into the basketball hoops made of bamboo to entertain themselves. "Rongjiang County, with a population of less than 400,000, has a history of more than 80 years of mass football, with a deep mass foundation and more than 1,200 registered players. Although the popularity of the event has brought unlimited commercial imagination, the local people have long formed a consensus that the event itself cannot be commercialized. For them, pure pleasure is more important. In the "Village Super" and "Village BA" arenas, we saw that the uncles and thirteen or fourteen-year-old teenagers who were not confused were trying their best to scramble; Among the cheering audience, there were five or six-year-old children, as well as sixty or seventy-year-old uncles and aunts wearing traditional national costumes, and even the elderly. In everyone's eyes, "it doesn't matter whether you know the ball or not, the most important thing is to be able to share happiness". The stands of tens of thousands of people were packed, and the games were fought from day to night, and the cheers of the spectators echoed with the waves of people, passion and laughter, which is the purest happiness that sports brings to everyone. "It's love!" From standing on the sand bar to watching his parents play football, to becoming the "village super" and "best goalkeeper" in 2023, Chen Xingyang, a player from Chejiang No. 1 Village, Guzhou Town, Rongjiang County, described his mental journey as follows: "Playing football can infect the people around you to actively participate and enjoy happiness, and you are very happy. ”
2. His surname is "Village", and his roots are also in "Village"
Ask the canal to be as clear as promised, for there is a source of living water. As a rural event organized by the people and participated by the villagers spontaneously, the surnames of "Village Super" and "Village BA" are "Village", which is worthy of their name. Judging from the research situation, their fiery out-of-the-circle is a vivid presentation of the prosperity and beauty of the vast rural areas of Guizhou in recent years, and the continuous enrichment of the spiritual and cultural life of the masses, and their roots are also in the "village". The solid material foundation laid by the comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty, the strong folk cultural atmosphere that has been inherited for thousands of years, the efficient and open channels created by the transportation network covering urban and rural areas and the Internet, and the infinite creativity hidden among the masses have created an environment and provided conditions for the "grand bloom" of "village super" and "village BA".
From the "millennium change" to see the material foundation. Guizhou used to be the main battlefield of China's poverty alleviation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the cordial care of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, Guizhou has launched a general offensive against absolute poverty, overcoming one after another the poverty of the poor and the backbone of the strong, all 66 poor counties have been lifted out of poverty, 9.23 million poor people have been lifted out of poverty, 1.92 million people have moved out of the mountains, the number of people who have been alleviated from poverty and the number of people who have been relocated for poverty alleviation and relocation are the largest in the country, completely tearing off the label of absolute poverty for thousands of years. The people of Guizhou in the new era have become more self-confident and self-reliant, and have achieved a deep-seated and fundamental "millennium change" at both the material and spiritual levels.
- "Village Super" and "Village BA" are not only a big party of players and fans, but also a big gathering of multi-ethnic compatriots, but also a feast of national culture and spiritual civilization. The picture shows the national song and dance performance at the scene of the "Village Chao" in Rongjiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, on April 27, 2024. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee Li Changhua/photo
The great historical changes brought about by the great victory of poverty alleviation have been strongly confirmed in the Rongjiang River and Taijiang River, the birthplaces of "Village Super" and "Village BA". In 2014, the per capita income of the poor population in the two counties was 3,063 yuan and 2,739 yuan respectively, and by 2023, the per capita income of the poverty alleviation population in the two counties will increase to 14,896 yuan and 15,488 yuan respectively. Behind the data is a great improvement in the material life of the local people. Gone are the days when many people, especially those in rural areas, have been threatened by poverty for generations and have not had enough to eat and wear. During the visit of the research team, many villagers sighed: "Now the days are better, every day is like the New Year!" "Their sense of well-being comes from the heart and is palpable.
The villagers, whose material life has been guaranteed and who have gradually become wealthy, have paid more and more attention to spiritual and cultural life, and have more energy and economic strength to participate in mass cultural and sports activities. The focus of the New Eating Festival held regularly every year in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, has gradually changed from "eating" to "entertainment", and the "Village BA", which has a wide range of participation and strong entertainment, has become the "finale" of the festival. Rongjiang County continues to increase investment in the construction of public cultural and sports facilities, and many villages have their own football teams. "When we were kids, we didn't have a football field, so we had to play wild football barefoot." Feeling the contrast between the past and the present in his hometown, Wu Shuiqing, a 44-year-old villager from Fengle Village, Rongjiang County, was very emotional, "Now I go to the stadium every weekend to play football. The conditions in my hometown are better, and having a real stadium has also given me the opportunity to regain my youth and fight again. ”
Look at the source of culture from the "hometown of 100 festivals". Guizhou has many mountains and deep valleys, rivers and rivers, and its unique topography has given birth to a variety of regional cultures. For thousands of years, 18 ethnic groups have lived here in "large mixed and small settlements", which have been passed down from generation to generation, forming the phenomenon of "different ethnic groups in one mountain, different winds in ten miles, and different customs in a hundred miles", which has achieved the cultural characteristics of "colorful Guizhou" and created the reputation of "cultural thousand islands".
Qiandongnan Prefecture, where "Village Super" and "Village BA" are located, enjoys many reputations such as the state of song and dance, the state of magic, the hometown of 100 festivals, the hometown of folk culture and art, the core place of cultural heritage preservation of Miao and Dong nationality, and the museum of ethnic culture and ecology, and there are nearly 400 ethnic festivals of various kinds in the state every year. Popular in Liping County, Congjiang County, Rongjiang County and other places in Qiandongnan Prefecture, the great song of the Dong nationality has been included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, from the deep mountains to the whole country, from China to the world, and has been performed in dozens of countries and regions.
Cultural heritage such as folk festivals are mass spiritual and cultural activities and achievements formed in the long course of history. Since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with the acceleration of the construction of "Hemei Village", the cultural heritage such as folk festivals scattered throughout Guizhou like pearls has become more brilliant. The "village super" and "village BA" that "grow" in this environment are naturally rich in cultural genes. Many of the audience members admitted that they were "not so much attracted by the culture as they were there to watch the game". Mr. Chen, a tourist from Guangdong, told us: "There is a strong national cultural heritage here, which gives people a new feeling. "It is the cultural treasure left by the ancestors that gives the mass sports activities a cultural charm, and also provides a steady stream of cultural sources for promoting the construction of spiritual civilization in the new era.
From the "Wanqiao Flying Frame" to see the power of openness. Guizhou is the only province in the country that does not have plains, and transportation has always been a bottleneck and a shortcoming restricting its development. Since the reform and opening up, especially in the new era, Guizhou has held high the banner of opening up, led the opening up with large transportation, opened tunnels in the mountains and built bridges in the water, and took the lead in realizing the county-to-county high-speed in the western region, high-speed rail, airports and other transportation construction strides forward, and the province's transportation pattern and opening pattern have been historically reshaped.
The "Ten Thousand Bridges and Flying Frames" spanning thousands of mountains and rivers have made Qiandongnan Prefecture leap from the original "remote corner" to an "open thoroughfare". Huangping Airport and Liping Airport have been completed and put into operation, and the Guiguang high-speed railway and Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway have passed through the border, and the local external traffic conditions have been greatly improved, and the opening pattern has taken on a new look. From Taipan Village, Taijiang County, it takes 10 minutes to get on the highway and half an hour to reach the high-speed rail station. Rongjiang County, which was once "marginalized" in terms of transportation location, has successively ushered in Xiarong, Lirong, Jianrong and other expressways and the Rongjiang Station of Guiguang High-speed Railway, which has been completed and put into use, and has gradually become the "bridgehead" of Guizhou to the Pearl River Delta.
The road leads to the prosperity of all industries. The reason why "village super" and "village BA" generate huge traffic offline and online is inseparable from the great improvement of traffic conditions and the widespread popularity of the Internet in rural areas. There are 3 modern bridges within 500 meters of the "Village Super" stadium. The rural roads leading to Taipan Village, where the "Village BA" is located, are flat and spacious, and vehicles shuttle back and forth, and the highways of "smooth, safe, comfortable and beautiful" have become beautiful scenery. With the support of the Internet, the local people's sense of openness has been further enhanced, and they have spontaneously filmed and forwarded the hot scenes, wonderful moments, and touching pictures of "Village Super" and "Village BA", which provided a boost for the two competitions to get out of the circle. According to incomplete statistics, more than 100,000 fans spontaneously promoted the "Village Super" through Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat video accounts, etc., which greatly boosted the event out of the circle.
From the "brave new road" to see the foundation of innovation. "Embarking on a new road of development that is different from the east and other provinces in the west" is General Secretary Xi Jinping's high hopes for Guizhou. As the sons and daughters of the mountains, the people of Guizhou have no lack of stubbornness in the mountains, and they also have the courage to break out of the mountains. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Guizhou has thoroughly implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, dared to think and work, and had the courage to innovate, striving to break new ground in the development of the western region in the new era, opening a new situation in the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside, seizing new opportunities in the implementation of the digital economy strategy, and making new achievements in the construction of ecological civilization, creating one development miracle after another.
Qiandongnan Prefecture has many natural and cultural treasures, which provide unique conditions for local cadres and masses to innovate and create. The research team learned that in recent years, all parts of Qiandongnan Prefecture have given full play to their resource advantages and made a lot of explorations. For example, vigorously develop the cultural and tourism industry with high added value, high innovation, high integration and other characteristics, and create a number of well-known tourist attractions such as Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, Zhaoxing Dong Village, Zhenyuan Ancient City, etc., and constantly improve the all-for-one tourism service system to provide convenience for many foreign tourists to come for sightseeing and "check in". The "village super" and "village BA" are also vivid cases of local innovation and development.
The protagonists of "Village Super" and "Village BA" are the villagers, and the initiation of the event, the schedule arrangement, the program performances, and the rewards and prizes are all spontaneously organized and implemented by the villagers, from the players to the referees are all local villagers, and the villagers have the final say on all matters, and the local government focuses on creating an environment and ensuring services to ensure the authenticity of the rural events. The process of "village super" and "village BA" out of the circle is also a process of integration and innovation of the local people to combine popular sports with unique national culture; It is a process of fully respecting the main position and initiative of the people, constantly stimulating the innovation and creativity of the people, letting the whole people participate and letting the masses be the protagonists; It is a process of consciously strengthening and using Internet thinking, promoting media integration and communication, and widely enhancing the influence of communication.
Third, small events contain big truths
The picture of the people's happy life full of vitality, steaming and joy displayed by "Village Super" and "Village BA" is the implementation of the strategic deployment to promote the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside in Guizhou, and it is the wonderful epitome of the party's unity and leadership of the people to create a better life. Grasping and summarizing the experience of "village super" and "village BA" in the circle is of enlightening significance for promoting the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside and taking the road of Chinese-style modernization.
- Driven by the "Village Super" series of events, Rongjiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province attracted a large number of tourists from all over the country to watch the games, driving the development of local tourism, catering, accommodation, cultural and creative industries, agricultural products and other industries. The picture shows villagers displaying national costumes at the cultural and creative booth next to the "Village Super" arena on June 30, 2023. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Wenbin/photo
Persist in adapting measures to local conditions and proceeding from reality in everything. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Insisting on proceeding from reality in everything is the starting point and end point for us to think about problems, make decisions, and do things. "Village Super" and "Village BA" seem to be "overnight popularity", but in fact, they are based on the local long-standing sports tradition, colorful national culture, simple folk customs and other resource endowments and profound heritage, and the fruits of promoting the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside according to local conditions and for a long time. If you go in the right direction, you won't be afraid of a long way. For a country, what kind of modernization path it chooses is determined by its historical traditions, social system, development conditions, external environment, and many other factors. For all regions, the resource endowment, customs and customs are very different, we must adhere to seeking truth from facts, adapt measures to local conditions, closely combine their own advantages and development reality, explore the development road that has a solid local foundation and can stimulate the enthusiasm of the masses to participate, and truly achieve "a key to open a lock".
We will continue to strengthen the material foundation for modernization and continuously consolidate the material conditions for the people's happy life. The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that without a solid material and technological foundation, it is impossible to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way. Only with great material abundance can we continue to meet the people's growing needs for a better life. As a large country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, we need a strong material foundation and solid material support to ensure that the young can be educated, that they can be educated, that they can be educated, that they can be earned, that they can receive medical treatment for the sick, that they can provide for the elderly, that they can live in a house, and that they can provide support for the weak. The popularity of "village super" and "village BA" occurred after the great victory in the poverty alleviation battle, and occurred in Dong Village, Miao Township, where highways extend in all directions, high-speed railways speed by, and mobile Internet is widely popularized. Practice has shown that the development of material civilization provides the necessary material conditions and material guarantees for spiritual civilization and is the foundation for the development of spiritual civilization. In the new era and new journey, we must always take adhering to high-quality development as the last word in the new era, shift from mainly solving the problem of "whether it is good" to solving the problem of "whether it is good or not", lay a material foundation for building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, and continuously meet the people's growing needs for a better life with development achievements.
We should pay more attention to the building of spiritual civilization and constantly enhance the spiritual strength of the people. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "Chinese-style modernization is the modernization of material civilization and spiritual civilization in harmony", and "it is necessary to be greatly rich in material and spiritual wealth, and to be self-confident and self-reliant in ideology and culture". Enriching the people's spiritual world is one of the essential requirements of Chinese modernization. The popularity of "village super" and "village BA" is the result of constantly meeting the people's growing spiritual and cultural needs, and the result of the coordinated development and common progress of material civilization and spiritual civilization. Material civilization and spiritual civilization are like the wings of a bird and the two wheels of a car, and they are indispensable. In the new era and new journey, to promote Chinese-style modernization, we must adhere to both material civilization and spiritual civilization, deepen the fertile soil of culture, build a strong spiritual embankment, enhance cultural self-confidence, and earnestly promote the construction of spiritual civilization, so that all the people always have the ideological foundation of unity and struggle, the initiative spirit of pioneering and enterprising, and the healthy and progressive value pursuit.
Respect the initiative of the people and fully stimulate the wisdom and strength of the masses. The people are the creators of history and the real heroes. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "As long as we always insist on serving the people and relying on the people, respect the main position and initiative of the people, and fully stimulate the wisdom and strength contained in the people, we will be able to continue to create more impressive miracles in the world!" "Upholding the dominant position of the people and respecting the people's initiative is determined by the nature and purpose of our party, and it is also the valuable experience accumulated by the party over the past century." Village Super and Village BA run through the spirit of mass initiative, let the masses sing the leading role, give full play to the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the villagers, adhere to the participation of the whole people in co-creation and co-construction, and fully respect the people's main body, people's democratic creation, and people's democratic promotion. Local party committees and governments, and the majority of party members and cadres are behind-the-scenes heroes, serving the people, and promoting the inexhaustible innovation and creativity of the masses into a driving force for development. To build China into a great modern socialist country in an all-round way, the people are the decisive force. In the new era and new journey, we must always adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, adhere to the people's dominant position, adhere to the party's mass line, fully respect the people's expressed wishes, created experiences, and played roles, encourage and guide the people to devote themselves to modernization with enthusiasm and the spirit of ownership, and gather the infinite wisdom and strength hidden in the people, so that Chinese-style modernization will have the most reliable, deepest, and most lasting source of strength.
Source: Qiushi 2024/11
Author: Research Group of the Propaganda Department of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China