"Village BA" is popular all over the Internet, why do I say it is a model of rural cultural revitalization?

Open-air courts, grassroots teams, amateur ball skills, no stars, the basketball game in Taipan Village, Taijiang County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, is "hot" again. On March 25, the 2023 "Village BA" finals began, and on March 27, the first "Beautiful Country" basketball league finals in Guizhou Province ended with the Qiandongnan State team winning the championship.

As early as last summer, this basketball game in the mountains was popular all over the Internet, and the villagers in ten miles and eight townships called for companionship, climbed the ladder and climbed the wall, attracting 26 official accounts to broadcast live simultaneously, and frequently praised by the media at home and abroad. In fact, rural sports events are held everywhere, but why is only Taijiang's "village BA" popular on the whole network? What kind of inspiration can this basketball event bring to the revitalization of our rural culture?

Some people say that "village BA" fire, fire in a "soil" word.

In the videos circulating on major platforms, the open-air "Village BA" arena was full, and spectators on horses, benches, upstairs, trees, and mountains, straightening their necks to watch the game.

At the scene, there were also spectators holding pots and mineral water bottles as drums, cheering for the supported teams, mixed with the earthy commentary shouted out from the loudspeaker, and the atmosphere of the scene was close to the professional league.

The players on the field are all local villagers, and everyone usually looks up and does not look down, and there is a very relaxed and cordial atmosphere inside and outside the field.

According to reports, the four participating teams of the first "Beautiful Country" basketball league finals in Guizhou Province were formed by the local public spontaneously signing up, and then selected in the competitions in various divisions, not professional basketball players, farmers are their unified identity.

On the evening of March 26, it rained on the field of the third-place battle, and the non-slip cloth strip on their shoes was their unique solution.

At halftime, there was no "basketball baby" hot dance of professional football games, replaced by a fast-paced, fierce and cheerful ethnic minority characteristic song and dance - Miao Di. According to the data, the creative design of its music and movements is very suitable for the life and work of the local Taijiang people.

"Please don't throw the duck at the audience!" This is the "warm reminder" of the host at the award ceremony of the "Village BA" championship competition on March 27.

Yes, the prize of this popular basketball game is the unique local agricultural products of Qiandongnan State. In addition, there are special handicrafts such as Taijiang carp kiss fragrant rice, Taijiang sturgeon, Taijiang Miao embroidery pieces, silver jewelry and so on.

In the eyes of Culture Online, it is indeed "soil", but this "soil" is the pure local taste in everyone's memory, conveying the resonance of people's pursuit of a better life.

It is understood that after the popularity of the village BA, a company took the initiative to come to the door and was willing to sponsor the village BA league on the condition that the team named by their company participate in the competition.

However, village officials and young people from the basketball association agreed that the village BA basketball game should not be used as a business, and that the basketball court should always be open in the open, without charging tickets and not doing commercial rental.

"Our village has been playing basketball for a long time, but it has only recently become popular." In an interview with Southern Weekend last year, Zhang Shoushuang, secretary of the party branch in Taipan Village, said this.

In fact, the history of holding basketball games in Taipan Village can be traced back to the forties and fifties of the last century, or even earlier. "As long as it's a new festival, there is a basketball game." Zhang Shoushuang introduced.

Taipan Village belongs to the Miao ethnic village, and has the custom of holding bullfighting and bird fighting competitions on the new festival of "June 6" in the lunar calendar every year.

Later, due to the consideration of venue and safety, the basketball game that the people liked to see was added, and it became part of the traditional custom.

The Eat New Festival is a traditional festival born in the mountain farming civilization of Guizhou. The people living here have formed a bond of mutual help and assistance in the long-term cooperation of production activities, and the New Day is a ritual to strengthen and consolidate this relationship.

According to reports, for a period of time, the young people in the village went to work in other places, only the old people left behind at home, the scale of eating the new festival is not as good as one year, and even the news of "stopping basketball games" is reported, but because of the insistence of the old people in the village, eating the new festival or "village BA" has been given the meaning of cultural inheritance.

In recent years, as young people working in other places have returned to their hometowns to work, their popularity has gradually gathered, and the difficulty of organizing events has also decreased.

In the past two years, with the help of the promotion of the Internet and short video platforms, "Village BA" has become more and more popular, and has become the hottest business card of culture, sports and tourism in Qiandongnan Prefecture and even Guizhou Province.

With the increase in the popularity of "village BA", in addition to the "Eating New Festival" known throughout the country, the performance of Miao intangible cultural heritage ancient songs, Miao dances and national musical instruments such as asparagus has also attracted enough attention.

At the same time, the admiration of the national audience not only drove the exponential growth of local consumer demand for catering, accommodation, supermarkets, etc., but also opened up the pattern of rural cultural revitalization in southeast Qiandong.

In recent years, with the development of rural economy and society, people's living standards have been continuously improved, and there is a stronger demand for excellent cultural products and services, but on the whole, the supply in this area is still small, scattered and weak.

In some places, cultural products are lacking and have a single form, which cannot meet the needs of the masses; More places, blindly copying, lack of spontaneous cultural products that can be connected with the local area.

In fact, cultural construction embodies people's spirit and values, plays a fundamental and supporting role in rural revitalization, and cannot be in a short-board, supporting role, and subordinate position for a long time. If the village's own culture cannot be developed, it will not be a real rural cultural revitalization.

Last year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other six departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Promoting Cultural Industry to Empower Rural Revitalization", which pointed out that the cultivation of traditional excellent local culture is inextricably linked with farmers' production and life, and its living inheritance and innovative development must also play the main role of farmers.

After the "village BA" in Guizhou came out of the circle, the local villagers did not understand, because it has become a regular activity to hold it every year and the atmosphere every year. It can be seen that only cultural activities integrated into people's daily lives can have the inherent vitality and motivation for sustainable development.

This also allows us to see that the local culture itself has strong vitality and strong kinetic energy, local fireworks contain the most authentic civilization genes and spiritual character, once with the help of modern science and technology elements, riding on the east wind of the Internet, rural culture can also be fired.

At the same time, the "village BA" of Guizhou that does not charge tickets, free parking fees, does not pursue professional standards, and only pursues the original and pure Guizhou "village BA" also enlightens us: there is no threshold, and ensuring that everyone can participate in order to stimulate the passion of villagers to participate in cultural construction.

The success of "Village BA" has also given many places a role model to learn from, and all localities also want to replicate through the development of various events. But learning is a good thing, replicating is not necessary. Because freezing three feet is not a day's cold, "Village BA" has been passed down for three generations, it is not easy to reproduce, and what all localities should do is to dig deep into their own characteristics.

As He Zhihua, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Democratic League, and president of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Geology, said in an interview: "If you find a unique rural story, you will find the key to the revitalization of rural culture." ”